curtsey, and seems very well behaved, and the inhabitants make a respectful bow when they see us. This is all we see. But put a missionary there—a man who has to examine into the real state of the population—and I will venture to affirm that, bad as towns are, you will find a worse manifestation of crime in the agricultural population of the country than in the towns themselves. We are told in the report that has just been read, that six hundred souls have been brought to Christ through the labours of the Home Missionary Society in a single year. Oh, blessed society! that has been thus honoured of God. Its agents are not men of learning, but they are men of power. In a village where once it was my lot to spend a sabbath, I heard the preaching of a poor mechanic. He was an unlettered man, but he knew 'the truth as it is in Jesus.' If ever preaching went to my heart, his did. It melted and broke me down. In another part of the day I attended service at the parish church. The clergyman was an accomplished scholar, but he preached that baptism was regeneration. Which of these two men was it for me to esteem as a minister of the gospel? The destitution of our country is fearful. We heard this morning of a hamlet in Cambridgeshire, containing three thousand inhabitants, with no means of spiritual instruction. Upon investigation, one family in it was taken as a specimen; five of the children were unable to read; the mother could not read, nor did she know who Jesus Christ was. With such awful facts as these before us, we must labour to promote the interests of this society. One day, when my foot was on the first step of the pulpit stairs in Surrey Chapel, a gentleman came to me and said, 'You are just beginning your ministry here; you need encouragement:' and, at the same time, he put a piece of paper into my hand. The paper contained £1000; £500 were to be appropriated to the London Missionary Society, £250 to the City Mission, and £250 to the Home Missionary Society. There may be some here who could easily spare £1000. Rich men, be your own executors. And let not the poor say that they cannot give. There is a person in my congregation who has an income of £80 a year. She came once into my vestry, and said, ‘Here are £10 for the object for which you have been pleading; and at any time, when you want a sovereign for any benevolent purpose, come to me and you shall have it.' I was surprised,

·

and said, 'Your income is limited; how can you afford this?' She answered, 'I can afford it well. By care and economy, I am able to live on £35 a year, and, blessed be God, I have the luxury of giving £45 yearly to his cause.' I do not know, Sir, how it is with my brethren in the ministry, but, for my own part, I have never any trouble with the poor: the poor are ever ready to give according to their ability. A little while ago, I was in Wales, and there I heard of a poor woman-a pauperwho lived on two shillings a week. She never passed the plate, when a collection was made, without throwing in her mite. One day, the deacon of the church to which she belonged, who had long witnessed her liberality, took her aside, and said, 'Betty, I don't understand how you have always something to give, when many richer than you often give nothing ?' 'I cannot tell you, Sir, why it is,' replied Betty, but however much I may want a penny on other days, I never happen to be without one on collection days. It must be God in his goodness, who knows how it would grieve me to be unable to give to his cause, and who takes care to supply me.' 'Well,' he said, 'I am sure you want a few little comforts; take this sovereign, and get some warm things for the winter.' 'I want nothing,' answered Betty. 'Oh yes,' said the gentleman, 'I am sure you can easily think of something that you would be glad to have. Spend the money as you like.' She took the sovereign, went back to her cottage, entered her little room, put down the piece of money on one of the chairs that stood in it-and there were but two-and, kneeling down there before it, she said, 'Blessed Lord Jesus! thou hast given me clothes to wear; thou hast given me food to eat; thou hast given me this hut to dwell in, and thy presence to cheer it, which is better than all. What more can I want than I have? Take this sovereign, and use it for thy glory.' A day or two afterwards, a good man called upon her, who had been begging for a chapel case in the town, and he told Betty what success he had met with. She went to her drawer, and, to his surprise, brought out a sovereign. Here is a sovereign for your chapel,' she exclaimed. 'A sovereign, my good woman! I cannot take such a gift from you.' 'If you don't have it,' said she, 'the next beggar shall; for I have given it to Christ, and it is not my own.' Oh that the spirit of this holy woman were more universally diffused amongst us! But we must pray, as well

as gire. We stand in the valley of vision. It is full of bones, and behold, there are very many in the open valley; and lo! they are very dry. But the voice from heaven bids us prophesy on these bones, and there is a noise and a shaking. It bids us prophesy to the wind, 'Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.' And the breath shall come into them, and they shall live, and stand upon their feet an exceeding great army.'

The Rev. John Burnet made a forcible appeal on behalf of Ireland; Dr. Campbell pleaded for the colonies; and the Rev. John Alexander, in his own kindly tones, bade a kindly farewell to his brethren. We regret that our abstracts are necessarily brief and imperfect. But what we have furnished suffices to remind our young readers of the responsibility that rests upon them to help forward the cause of truth and of God. May theirs be the holy sincerity and integrity of the early nonconformists! May theirs be the Christian liberality and gentleness of spirit which ought ever to be allied with zeal for the truth! May theirs be the self-denial, and simple-hearted consecration, of which some of the brightest examples may be gathered from amongst those who, though poor in this world, are rich in faith!

DEAR MR EDITOR—Your insertion of my first letter in your valuable magazine, encourages me to address, through your tacit permission, a few lines to the young Christians of the present day on the subject of the Jews.

On this interesting topic I may be your frequent correspondent, as I have much to say to the young concerning their duty towards this people. Perhaps it would have been more correct had I said, that I have much I had intended to say; for I am forestalled by an unknown author, who during the last month has issued, by means of the British Society, &c., a most valuable tract, entitled, “An appeal to Young Christians on behalf of the Jews," which embodies almost every thing I had thought of saying, but which I could have hoped to say nothing like so well. This modest little publication was sent me by a friend who knows I love the Jews, for the sake of Him who was a

Jew; and I hail its appearance, and strongly recommend its perusal. Its cost is only three half-pence, a sum which I conclude is within the compass of all your readers.

But I have yet something left me to say. My young friends, the aged, wealthy Jews of the present period are, generally speaking, thorough worldlings. They have, on this account, been to a considerable degree inaccessible to contemporaneous Christians; the two classes of religionists having rarely, perhaps never, come in contact, but in connexion with commercial transactions. In their early days, New Testament Christianity (I use this term because there is a vast deal of a certain kind of religion called Christianity, which is anything but the Christianity of the New Testament), was under a kind of revival in our land. As in former periods, and as is the case in some respects even now, an augmented attention to serious religion, and its numerous obligations, had great difficulties to encounter; and thus many circumstances, over which we would willingly draw a veil, have prevented the Jews from reaping material benefit from the revival, and from beholding Christianity in all its beauty and simplicity; so that it is no wonder that an inveterate prejudice against it should possess their minds.

We feel for them-we mourn over them-and believe that the only way in which they can be reached effectually, is by means of their children and grandchildren. Then on you, my young brethren and sisters in the faith of the gospel, it mainly devolves to benefit the past, present, and future generations of the Jews, by your deep-felt, unwearied, prayerful attention to your contemporaries among that most interesting people, and by your strenuous exertions for their benefit.

Your encouragements are specially great in entering on this work. Those who have preceded you in it have been labouring in faith on the precious promises, and seeing but little fruit of their labours; but you may live to see the results-or, if not to see them in all their glory, yet you will have the privilege of watching the progress, of seeing the development, of the divine purposes, in the accomplishment of the prophecies; and when, by your instrumentality, not one and another, but multitudes of his ancient people are brought to believe in Jesus as their true Messiah, you will feel the labour of a thousand lives, if you had them, abundantly rewarded.

EE

But whom am I addressing? the only almost Christian, though a member of a Christian church? the worldly professor? the inconsistent professor? the lukewarm professor? the timid professor? the sincere, but fearful believer? the real Christian, who yet, strange to say, has not the joy, the faith, which the gospel is calculated to afford? No; I address none of these, though it will do them no harm to be "hewers of wood and drawers of waters " to those who would aid Israel. Mr Editor, are there any such among your readers? Allow me to stop one moment, while I beseech them, with the tenderest concern for their welfare for time and for eternity, to allow themselves no rest till they obtain such an establishment in the faith, as shall enable them to be zealous promoters of the cause of our Redeemer.

Then whom do I address ? The humble, happy believer; those who are constrained by the love of Jesus to devote their lives to his service; those who, happy in him, wish to see all around them happy in him too; those who, students of his word, see his glory concerned in the salvation of Israel (but more of this hereafter); those who, full of prayer, will give him no rest, till, like Jacob, they have obtained the blessing on Jacob's race. To such I would say-Labour, in the cause of Israel; labour, with the faith of Israel; labour, with the wrestling of Israel; and you shall enjoy the reward of IsraelYEA, YE SHALL PREVAIL.

Yours, &c.,

: mpy?

ON SOCIETY.

FINALLY, we ask, Is religious society what it ought to be? In a dry and thirsty land-in a world at enmity with its Maker, surrounded by a vast throng, whose course is contrary to the will of God-there journeys onward a pilgrim band, unknown, or, if known, contemned—who walk by faith, not by sight, and whose home is heaven. The city on high, to which their steps are turned, is to the worldly-minded a rejected inheritance; the captain, at whose bidding they march, is to the unregenerate, possessed of no comeliness why he should be desired. Weary of foot, shall rest be offered to the pilgrims under the roof of their foes? Sad of heart, shall the voice of