a traitor who purposed to deliver the crew into the enemy's hands. All their diligence and skill in working the ship and steering by this perverted compass, served only to further them on the wrong course.

Without presuming to pronounce judgment on the general moral character of others, I cannot forbear saying, for myself, that if I could believe Jesus to have been guilty of such subterfuges as I have been speaking of, I not only could not acknowledge him as sent from God, but should reject him with the deepest moral indignation. How far this indignant disgust may have been excited in the breasts of some who have taken for granted, on the authority of learned and zealous divines, that the interpretation I have been reprobating is to be received, and who may in consequence have rejected christianity with abhorrence, it is for those who maintain such an interpretation carefully to consider. Whately.

THE EVILS OF CHURCH PATRONAGE.

I was looking at the orient, listening to the blackbird, and inspiring the hawthorn, when the morning whistle of a mortal caught my attention. My eyes soon discovered him. I went up to him, and observed, that he rose soon. He rose always as soon, he replied, in summer. He rented a garden, consisting of three acres; and laboured and watched it chiefly himself. I commended him, while he invited me through his garden, for for his early rising and industry, and neatness in gardening ; and I promised to visit him in the time of fruit, just because he rose so soon. He pointed out to me some cabbages which a travelling gentleman had assured him were the earliest in the kingdom. Because the gentleman had said it, and because the gardener wished to believe it, he did believe that his cabbages were the best, at the time, in the nation. Perhaps the good gardener was deceiving himself; but let none laugh. Noblemen have become poets, students have become prize-gainers, and ladies have become beautiful, just because there was a saying and a believing. This man had the good countenance of virtue, industry, health, competence, and contentment. He walked out

of his garden with me; and as we went, I could not help contrasting him with the sons of drunkenness and riot whom I had so lately seen; and I repeated loudly to the man, "Virtue is its own reward."

"Carry

I now wished the gardener a good day, and walked along the margin of a field of wheat, which he had told me was the minister's glebe. The minister, too, he had told me, had a great stipend, but was 'terribly lazy.' For him who has the care of souls to be full fed and lazy I thought was a thing which ' 'ought not to be.' I reflected on the establishing of religion by civil law, and the establishing of priests by patrons, and I saw that it was an evil under the sun, and common among men. I remembered that it was said in the New Testament, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." neither purse nor scrip; eat such things as are set before you!" But I could not recollect a single passage in that holy book-to walk according to which all the clergymen swear—that establishes a priest in a church with £400 a year, with the privilege of doing as little for the good of souls as he pleased. Patronage, and not the bible, does this. To become an able minister of patronage, then, you must have these requisites, which God grant, my dear friend, you and I may never have. You must glorify your patron in all things; you must hate what he condemns, and approve what he loves. You must have an accommodating conscience, and an accommodating tongue. You must be wicked when he is wicked; and serious when he is serious. You must not pray against the sin which he loves, should it be oppression, drunkenness, or adultery. Nor must you pray for a virtue which he never means to possess. You must flatter him when you address your Maker; and "lie for him against your own soul." You must not see him when he comes from the theatre or the gaming table; and you must stop your ears when he blasphemes his God. You tell must your Maker to prosper every endeavour of the great men, should it be to "grind the faces of the poor." You must be able to bow the knee low to man, flatter without meditation, and condemn or acquit without any attention to evidence. You must renounce the upright form of man, and walk before the great on your belly like a serpent. In short, you must be able to say to every magistrate and patron, with Balaam's ass, "Am not I thine ass, upon which

thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day ?" Now to be able to do all this, and to swear cheerfully, at the same time, to the Confession of Faith, written at Westminster, is the broad way to a fat living in the church.

And after you have got your kirk, you may preach what you please, and as seldom as you please. You have no occasion "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, or to keep yourself unspotted from the world." You may never be seen in the dwellings of poverty, nor among those who mourn, nor at the sick-bed of any one less than a thane. And you may eat and drink, and grow fat on the best of the land. You may be a glutton and a wine-bibber. You may spend all the week in the arms of sense, and leave the table of your patron at twelve on Saturday night, and it will be nothing to your discredit that your trusty servant John have to keep you in proper balance as you go to your carriage. And all this you may enjoy, with a good conscience, to the end of your days, provided you continue in all things written in the book of your patron to do them."

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These, my friends, are some of the effects of patronage; but there are more. Its influence extends to dissenting ministers. When a great man leaves the Establishment, for some motive I do not inquire after, so fond about him, generally speaking, is the dissenting pastor, and so keen to keep him from returning to the church of his fat neighbour Levite, that the great man is permitted to walk in his own way, aud in the sight of his own eyes. The great man, too, considers his dissenting a favour to the dissenting society, and a little disgraceful to himself, and he, therefore, claims this licence, in return, of walking in his own way, to the great grief of many of the godly. The great man, too, has good wines, good mutton, and good jovial conversation; you will, therefore, see the dissenting minister going oftener to his dwelling than to the house of the poor and needy. So you see, my friend, that patronage compels the established elergymen from obedience to the New Testament, and allures many a dissenting minister from the service of his Master.

Communing thus, I looked again on the wheat of the priest. It was healthy and luxuriant; but my soul despised it. For I remembered that thus saith the Lord, "Son of Man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say unto them,

G

thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed; but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have bound up ye that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scatered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand. I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already. . . . . . Ye are departed out of the way, ye have caused many to stumble. . . . . Therefore have I also made you contemptible, and base before all the people."

I now went away from the field of wheat, saying to myself, "If these are the curses of the unfaithful shepherds, 'O, my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united.'" The Lord hasten the destruction of patronage in his time! Thank God that all the clergymen have not bowed the knee to Baal.—The Life of Robert Pollok.

MORNING AND AFTERNOON LESSONS FOR EVERY SUNDAY IN THE MONTH.

VERSE 24.

MARCH 10.

Morning Reading, 1 Kings vi. 31-38; vii. 1-12.

Morning Lesson, Matt. xvii. 24-27.

NOTES ON THE LESSON.

Where was Capernaum situated? On the sea of Tiberias. What was the tribute money? A sum paid for the use of the temple-service-it was devoted to the purchase of animals for the daily sacrifice, and for wood, incense, &c. What was the

sum required?

About two drachmas: a drachma was worth

sevenpence-halfpenny of our money. Where was this tax instituted? Exod. xxx. 11-16. What did these collectors of the tribute wish to know from Peter? Whether Christ was in the habit of paying taxes for the support of the temple.-VERSE 25. What was Peter's answer ? Yes,' that it was his custom to pay all the usual taxes of the nation. What does 'prevented' here mean? That Jesus spoke before Peter had finished. What was the meaning of Christ's question? That, as it was not the custom of kings to tax their own sons, so he, being the Son of God, for whose service the tribute-money was taken, could not be required to pay it.-VERSE 27. Why did Christ pay it? Lest they should think that he despised the temple and its services, and thus provoke needless opposition. Is it our duty to pay taxes? Yes, when they are for the good of the nation, and not in direct opposition to scripture. How much was this piece' of money? About the value of four drachmas, and sufficient to pay for himself and Peter. What proof did Jesus give here of his divinity? Of his omniscience-by knowing that in the first fish that came up, there would be such a coin. Was this a miraculous occurrence? Christ's knowledge was miraculous, but it was not miraculous that a fish should swallow a silver coin.

IMPROVEMENT. Show how important it is to avoid giving offence to others and dwell upon the necessity of our giving up our hearts as an offering to the service of God.

Afternoon Reading, Gen. xlii.

Afternoon Lesson, Matt. xviii. 1-6.

NOTES ON THE LESSON.

What does Mark tell us of the conduct of the disciples before they came to Jesus? Mark ix. 34.—VERSE 1. Why did they ask this question? Because they supposed that Jesus was going to set up a temporal kingdom of great splendour, and they wished to know who should have the principal posts of honour and office.-VERSE 2. Why did Jesus place a little child before them? To teach them that they were wrong in their expectations; that as little children were naturally humble and teachable, so they must lay aside their ambitious views and pride, and be willing to occupy their proper station.-VERSE 3. What is the meaning of 'converted?' Changed or turned from one course of life to another. It may imply here that their opinions about Christ's kingdom must be changed.-VERSE 4. Whom did Christ consider as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?' He who was the most humble and