are flowing through the length and breadth of the land, and penetrating every street and alley of our crowded towns and cities? If the purity of the press is one of the chief safeguards of society, what means can be adopted to secure such a boon?-It may be proper here to note what has been done, or what is in course of being done; and this may also stimulate to more extended operations. One great institution must have precedence. It is said that Lord Teignmouth, a former President of that institution, when approaching his last hour, referred to his titles and said, "If I were to choose the inscription for my coffin, it should be-PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE Society.'" This important Society has rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well of life, and has cut channels whereby the living streams may be conveyed to the most sterile and parched deserts of Heathenism. It has been justly styled the brightest gem in the crown which decks the brow of our blessed Christianity. "On the 13th of October," (we quote the person in charge of the Bible-Stall in the Great Exhibition,) "I received a royal visiter. Her Majesty the Queen was engaged at the National School Depository Stall. An attendant asked me if I had any papers to show Her Majesty relating to the Bible. I gave a copy of the Specimens, Summaries, and Brief View. His Royal Highness Prince Albert came to the stall. I made a statement of its contents, and by whom exhibited; taking the Bibles of 1816, contrasting the prices with those published in 1851; and showing the value of the Society in bringing the Gospel within the reach of the poorest of Her Majesty's subjects. He remarked, 'It is a good work." It would be impossible to calculate the advantages to the world which have already accrued since the commencement of the Society on that bright day, March 7th, 1804. The Bible is now printed in nearly one hundred and sixty languages and dialects; being translated into languages spoken by above six hundred millions of the human race. During the first four years of the Society's operations, the average annual circulation was 20,000; now, the gratifying total is a million and a half. The first annual receipts fell below £1,000; now, they amount to £140,000. The total issues of the Society are not less than 33,983,946 copies. Still, we stand as it were but at the frontiers of the mighty territory that awaits the peaceful conquests of the Bible, which is the unsealed letter of heaven to a guilty race. To quote a striking paragraph from the Society's Report: "What though the holy Scriptures are now extant in so many languages and dialects of this Babel world, who shall count the nations already known, and that may yet be discovered, into whose native tongues no portion of Divine truth has been translated? What though thirty-two millions of copies of God's word have been dispersed by the sole agency of the Society; yet, startling as the supply may seem, does it not become positively insignificant when broken up into units and distributed amongst the countless multitudes for whose spiritual provision it is intended? What although there are so many spots where, through God's mercy, the banner of the Society has been set up, and its potent influence felt; yet how numerous are the dark parts of the earth,

civilized and uncivilized, from which its labours are wholly or partially excluded, and where the enemies of God keep sleepless watch against the approach of truth, and tremble at the faintest dawn of its illumination! What shall be said of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Russia, INDIA with its teeming population, Persia, CHINA, South America?" We distinguish in type two countries, upon which a new era, in the providence of God, now appears to be dawning. It may be said, we trust, of these vast territories, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." The Christian public is becoming deeply impressed with the conviction that more must be done, both for India and China, than has ever yet been attempted. Now that Divine Providence is going before the church, and opening wide and effectual doors among yon teeming masses of mankind, the latter must be prepared to enter forthwith. The press must be quickened in its operations; Bibles and Testaments must be multiplied a myriad-fold, and circulated to an extent hitherto unprecedented. At the present rate of progress, and with the present income, it would take six hundred years to supply a copy of the sacred Scriptures to each of the seven hundred millions in the Heathen world.* "Sixty millions of pounds sterling are spent at the shrine of Bacchus every year in Great Britain in intoxicating drinks, whilst but little more than half a million is raised by all the Missionary and Bible Societies for spreading the cause of Christ throughout the world!" If these sixty millions of money were presented to the Treasurer of the British and Foreign Bible Society, every human being might be supplied with a copy of the holy Scripture in one year. "A Russian Colonel recently met with an English Clergyman, who explained to the former the nature of the Bible Society, how it was supported by voluntary subscriptions and contributions, enabling the Society to sell very cheap, and even, often, to give away; so that the poorest might have an opportunity of possessing the invaluable treasure. He also told him that the sacred Scriptures by means of the Society are now read in upwards of one hundred and fifty languages. The amazed Colonel exclaimed, ‘O Britain, thou art rightly called Great! When will Russia be like unto thee?" Doubtless the Bible lies at the foundation of our national greatness; and never will the nations of Europe attain to permanent stability and happiness, until the social fabric of each is made to rest upon the same firm and secure basis.

The exertions of the Religious Tract Society are well worthy of any prominence which can here be given. In glancing at the last Report, we

* The number of Bibles issued by all agencies may, probably, be estimated at about fifty millions. If this number were placed in carts for transmission from one depôt to another, apportioning ten thousand copies to each load, and supposing a loaded cart to pass a given point every minute, it would require eighty-three hours and twenty minutes or three days, eleven hours, and twenty minutes-to elapse, before the whole of the train could pass. To the cursory observer this might appear to be a prodigious quantity: but let him consider how many such trains would be required to furnish Bibles to the unsupplied portion of the human race,

find that the number of tracts sent forth during the year was 10,909,820. The grants to the United Kingdom, in tracts and money, were £5,576. 4s. 3d. In France there had been distributed 1,119,057 tracts. The work had satisfactorily advanced in Belgium and other parts of the Continent. Books had been sent to India for the soldiers, and those destroyed by the Sepoys had been replaced. Receipts for the year, £88,730. 9s. 6d. ; being an increase of £6,864. 14s. Od. The total issues for the year had been 38,000,000; and for the fifty-nine years of the Society's existence, about 782,000,000. The issues of six or seven future years added to the above total would be as one copy to every individual on the face of the earth! Surely this also is a great and good work. Its influences are felt in Canton, Hong Kong, and other parts of China;-in Continental India, Australia, and other British colonies whither the tide of emigration is rapidly flowing;-the West Indies, and British North America ;-in France, Italy, Austria, Northern Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, and Denmark. In all these countries the tracts have been extensively circulated, and encouraging success has resulted. Some years ago the Society had published seventeen millions of tracts expressly to counteract the demoralizing influence of the infidel press. At that date, too, it was sending forth two thousand and sixty-six tracts every day, or fortyfour every minute. There have been instances of marked and widespreading usefulness. "The Dairyman's Daughter" has, probably, been the means of the conversion of hundreds, and the religious consolation of thousands. It has been translated into many languages, and read with deep interest by persons scattered over the face of the whole globe. An interesting volume of anecdotes shows the benefit of religious tracts in checking evil, or producing good impressions; in promoting personal religion, and happy social life. The condition required of writers is much to be admired; namely, that each silent messenger is to develop clearly the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, and by the operation of the Holy Spirit,-in a word, that it must contain saving truth enough to lead a poor sinner to Christ. "God speed," then, to an institution which is fighting an infidel press with its own weapons!

It would be an act of injustice not to remark on the publications of the Wesleyan-Methodist Book-Room. Eighty years have rolled away since this Magazine was first published by John Wesley. It is, therefore, senior among the religious periodicals. From its commencement it has uniformly advocated the grand doctrine of a general atonement, and asserted that God willeth “all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." "As a repertory of various information, let us be permitted to say, the work thus auspiciously begun has not many rivals. As the exponent of a theology which is neither Pelagian nor Calvinistic, and of a church-order which guards with equal care the privileges of the flock and the responsibilities of the shepherd, it has maintained, at least, a consistent course. As a chronicle of personal religion, it has commanded the admiration of some of the best and wisest of men, far beyond the pale of the communion

from which it emanates. Its records of holy living and dying compose, in truth, a matchless store,-of which (as a correspondent lately hinted) some future Neander will avail himself in sketching the Christianity of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. And if such a pencil shall one day describe these lights of experience and testimony, in contrast to others that glimmered like lamps in medieval crypts and sepulchres, 'not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,' not to our fathers, not to the cloud of happy witnesses, 'but unto Thy name, give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake." ." This periodical has several satellites, (shall we thus call them ?) which revolve around in beautiful light and order. Among these the "Christian Miscellany" shines with acknowledged lustre, having attained the large monthly circulation of 42,000 copies. Not long ago the writer saw a circle of old men sitting round a comfortable fire. It was the morning of the Christian Sabbath, and one who had been a little better educated than the rest was engaged in reading aloud from the WesleyanMethodist Magazine. Among the group of attentive listeners was a man who had entered upon the tenth decade of human life; and, happily for him, his soul was fast mellowing for heaven. As he listened to the excellent memoir, with his right ear inclined toward the reader, his eyes suffused with tears, he said, at length, from a very full heart, "Ay, they are worth taking in!" It is to be hoped there is not a Methodist to be found who would not willingly, and with all his heart, endorse the old man's sentiment. We have sometimes heard the expense urged as a reason for not taking the larger Magazine: but a simple plan, which we know to be adopted in some places, would obviate this. Let two or three persons unite to procure it, and let the yearly volume come to each in turn. We have no hesitation in affirming, that not to be familiar with the many valuable papers which our excellent periodicals contain, especially with their rich and rare biography, is a loss of no ordinary kind, and one not easily to be repaired. This matter is not fully realized by great numbers whom it concerns; were it otherwise, the present circulation of Methodist literature would be quickly trebled or quadrupled.+-We also hail the existence of a Wesleyan Tract Society, as an important auxiliary. The total issues since the commencement are very considerable; and additions of several new tracts continue to be made monthly. It is calculated that each

* See article entitled "The Oldest of Religious Periodicals," inserted in this Magazine, January, 1855.

Few, it may be hoped, will charge us with sounding our own trumpet too noisily. Yet we cannot be ungrateful enough to suppress these remarks of a worthy correspondent. If an apology be needed, it may suffice to allude to the very indifferent serials which are often found on the tables of Christian families, the ill-assorted, ill-revised, often worse-than-unprofitable books, (many of them put forth by unknown and irresponsible parties,) which are allowed to exclude works of long-established character. We cannot command a quadrupled circulation; but, with the blessing of God, and the aid of literary friends, we will try to deserve it. Will every subscriber contribute his efforts to attain such a result?-EDITORS.

new tract issued by the Committee is read by about seventy thousand persons. Examples of the benefit resulting might easily be enumerated; but it is obvious enough that this department is a field of usefulness of no ordinary extent.

Were we asked to point out the most remarkable modern example of individual exertion in the cause of religious literature, we should at once refer to the efforts of Mr. Peter Drummond, of Stirling. These efforts have been, and still are, of the most extraordinary and laudable character. His enterprise is but ten years old, having commenced in August, 1848; and yet he has published more than 21,000,000 of awakening and spiritstirring tracts, besides large periodical issues. The "British Messenger" had, a year ago, a monthly circulation of 130,000; while 30,000 copies were entered for free circulation at home and abroad. The "Gospel Trumpet" has now reached an issue of 100,000 copies per month. Mr. Drummond sends out monthly about five tons of printed matter, bearing directly on the Sabbath, temperance, and vital religion,-precious Gospel seed, which is scattered by the agency of his travelling Secretaries, and by other means, throughout Great Britain and Ireland, on the Continent, in Canada, India, and to the antipodes. This important work is carried on in the spirit of faith and prayer. Witness the paragraph with which the "Messenger" invariably closes :-"As the enterprise advances, the call for special prayer waxeth the stronger; and the Lord's people everywhere are thus solemnly urged to persevere in crying for the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit in reference to the work." Who will not heartily wish increased success to the Stirling enterprise? *

(To be concluded.)

THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT.+

How far has that promise of our Lord, and that prophecy of Joel, “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh," been exhausted? How much remains of it to be fulfilled? The day of Pentecost was, in the Jewish church, a feast of "first-fruits." Was it anything more in that Christian church which then laid up, before God, in His temple, so many precious souls, as the "first-fruits" of the death of Christ? When you have summed up all the ingatherings of the days of the Apostles, were they more than merely first-fruits of what Joel predicted? Has there been

* Are there not a dozen wealthy Methodists ready to emulate the zeal, though they need not encounter the extraordinary labours, of this excellent man?—ready to lend their powerful aid in scattering the tracts, serials, and other publications ready to their hands, over the country? Now is the time to proclaim everywhere, and by all means, A WHOLE SALVATION FOR THE WHOLE RACE, THROUGH CHRIST ALONE, BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST.-EDITORS.

Bishop M'Ilvaine on Revivals.