tions. Then there is a good deal doing in the way of teaching the people to read the scriptures. Amongst the women especially, the desire to learn is rapidly spreading. We have old women borrowing or begging spectacles of Mr. Sale, to learn to read with. Mrs. Sale's girls' school is also getting on very nicely. There are several of them very well acquainted with the main facts of the gospel history. Then we have some hundred young women whom the Hindoo laws had doomed to perpetual widowhood, which means to a life of crime, but who have happily, by God's blessing on the efforts of our dear brother Page, been rescued from that horrid fate, and are now wives, and many of them mothers. With scarcely an exception, they are behaving well. We have our difficulties; one of the great ones is the wickedness of the landholders, and their hatred to christianity. They will perpetrate any act of meanness, treachery, or oppression, in order to vex the poor "ryot," i.e. tenant, who gives up caste. I wish some young men of enterprise, spirit, piety, and some capital-very much would not be required-would come out for the purpose of taking estates here. I have no doubt it would be at once a good speculation and an incalculable blessing to the district, politically and religiously. Another leading difficulty is want of money. Not to multiply particulars under this head, I will only say we now want very much, but cannot get, a chapel which would be large enough for our Bengali congregation in Barisal, and which would be fit for the English services, of which there is great need here. Such a place would cost about £200. I know how glad you will be to induce any friend to give us something for this. It may be sent to Moorgate-Street as a special contribution for Barisal chapel." FERNANDO-PO, AFRICA. "Most of our readers will have heard already of the safe arrival at Fernando-Po of Mr. and Mrs. Saker. The following is from a letter from Mr. Saker, dated Bimbia, January 20th: Truly "We were mercifully preserved through a long passage of nine weeks. It was in most respects a very pleasant passage. We touched at Cape Palmas, and Akran, and landed at Clarence on Sabbath-day, the 29th of Dec., about two o'clock. it was a day of joy to me and our people. "The condition of the church is generally much better than my fears had predicted. A few bad cases we have had to do with, together with a few who are cold; but the fervent piety of the many really rejoices my heart. "Here at Bimbia I have had two days over the books, and am in a labyrinth. I cannot see my way through it. "The buildings are much decayed, and (have been too much neglected. Some are in ruins, and must come down; I have no use for them: some must be repaired. I I have already begun to repair and re-thatch the printing office. The falling buildings may supply me with sufficient material to repair such as must stand. "One thing deeply grieves me here. My sainted brother Merrick laboured and toiled here, even to giving up his life, to translate and to print the word of life for the Isuba. Judge of my feelings on walking into the printing office to find it decayed for the want of a few mats; and the sheets already, and at such a sacrifice, printed, now left a prey to insects and dust. Then in the binding room, sheets of scripture, cuttings of paper and dirt, the collection of months, all heaped together or scattered over the room in wild confusion. I sat down and wept! but not long. I soon resolved on the following: to collect as many sound copies of each book as possible, sheet by sheet, and send home to you all that we do not want now, and shall then beg of the committee to bind them for us; we cannot do it here now. We will bind only for our present wants. Already I have selected 200 of John's Gospel, 200 Matthew's Gospel, and 130 Genesis. Fuller, I hope, will do the rest before I return. To-morrow I go to Cameroons, and return here afterwards." SHOTLEY-BRIDGE, DURHAM. This locality presents more than an ordinary field of labour and christian sympathy. Its population is growing, and consists of many thousands, who are sunken into depths of sin too revolting to mention, and living in an entire disregard of all religion; and while many hundreds are under the dominion of Roman Catholicism, other facilities are energetically and insidiously employed to bring the masses into the obedience of Puseyism. The friends of the Redeemer here are deeply afflicted with this state of abounding iniquity, and, after much anxiety and prayer, have resolved to build a suitable house for Divine worship, and to contend the ground with the "Prince of darkness." Our number is comparatively few, and our means are very contracted; but having obtained the presentation of a site for building of Messrs. Annandale of Shotley-Grove, we wish to afford an opportunity to the wealthy and other sympathizing friends to assist us in this very important and desirable undertaking. Any donation will be gratefully received by Mr. Joseph Robley, treasurer, or Mr. E. Le Fevre, pastor, Shotley-Bridge, Durham. LINCOLN. The Rev. W. Goodman, B.A., Andover, has accepted a cordial and unanimous invitation from the Baptist church meeting in Mint-Lane, Lincoln, and entered upon his pastoral labours on the first Lord's-day in July. ACCRINGTON. Mr. Charles Williams, of Hallaton, Leicestershire, has accepted an invitation from the Baptist church, Accrington, to become their pastor, and entered on his labours on the first Lord's-day in July. CANTERBURY. The Rev. C. Kirtland, of Sabden, has accepted a warm and unanimous invitation from the church at Canterbury, to become its pastor. THE CHURCH. "Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."-Eph.ii.20. SEPTEMBER, 1851. THE DANGERS AND TEMPTATIONS OF TRAVELING. BY THE REV. DR. CHEEVER. It is now a time when all the world are in an unusual process of locomotion. Many are pilgrims for a season, from lake to lake, from city to city, from mountain to mountain, and from one fashionable watering place to another, who think little of the pilgrimage of life, or its ten thousand snares and allurements. It is well to consider some of the dangers and duties involved in the experience of traveling; some of the temptations, not only that are always waiting on our course as pilgrims" to a better world, as those who have here no continuing city, no abiding home, but that are incident especially to the daily experience of christians on the wing, or sojourning for a season in unaccustomed places of abode." Whether for business or recreation, duty or enjoyment, such changes bring dangers, and dangers bring not new duties, but a necessity of increased diligence and watchfulness in all the duties of our mortal pilgrimage. First, then, as to the habit of secret prayer. There is great danger of its being interrupted, and for a season broken up. But it need not be so, it ought not to be so, but the very contrary. Yet it will require great watchfulness. If you are on a journey of some length, up early in the morning, hurried for your breakfast, anxious to be in season for the railway or the steamer, all day in the company of others, all your ordinary habits of meditation broken up, fatigued in the evening, looking after your lodging, with time only to take a rapid survey of places and things around you, and the certainty of a renewal of the same crowd and pressure of men and things the next day; if with all this you are not extraordinarily careful, if you do not, at particular seasons, take hold of your mind and heart by main force as it were, and bring them to converse with God, if you do not take time definitely for this, you will be defrauded of all communion with heaven. If you do not watch unto prayer, you will not pray at all. You may take your hurried meals for the body in the presence of others, but your soul will be cheated of its spiritual nourishment; and if this should continue, then what you gain in health by bodily exercise and recreation, will be more than lost in the decay of inward strength and prosperity. Indeed, on a journey you will have to take the kingdom of heaven by violence, if you keep in it at all. It is the experience of all travelers, that a life of such restless change and wandering is unfavourable VOL. V. K to communion with God, unless you keep your fixtures of prayer as a mould of adamant or iron, and have everything reduced within their forms. Whatever compression or inconvenience it may cost you, hold on. If those fixtures be broken away, or laid aside, or left at home, everything in your spiritual life will be at loose ends. You will not only not grow in grace, but grace itself in you will become dry, shriveled, stunted. These heavenly flowers in the garden of your soul require watering and care, and they ask for still more of such diligence and tenderness while you are by the wayside, than in your own quiet habitation. Without such care, it is as impossible to make them flourish, as it would be to keep a border of daisies fresh and green beneath the thunder and dust of a great railroad. And a single day's neglect upon a journey may produce great evil. As you begin, so probably you will go on. One day passed by your heart, mind, and soul outside the fixtures of prayer, will leave you with less of the spirit of prayer the next day, less disposition to compress your thoughts at any one time within those fixtures, and still less the next; so that, positively, a journey of a few days in this manner may break up the best formed habits that ever existed. Then, again, the influences you meet with, the circumstances by which you are surrounded, the company, the scenes, of the place of recreation where you stay, are not particularly adapted to reconstruct the habits thus broken through, or to renew the divine influences from which you have been running, or to awaken you to a more earnest diligence. And if, on returning to your accustomed sphere of duty in Christ's kingdom and service, your homeward progress be like the outward, the result will be, in all probability, a sad experience of departure from God. If you could return to your heavenly home as easily and speedily as you can to your earthly, the evil might be small indeed. But it takes a long time to recover from the disastrous influence of such spiritual neglects. The few weeks of absence from your home, if you neglect your spiritual affairs, if you are not exceedingly watchful unto prayer, may cost you as many months' hard work after your return, before you can even recover the position of your heart with God which you enjoyed when you started on your journeying. "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." We dare say that in very many cases, when a christian returns to the city from the country, and is welcomed by the cordial greetings of friends and brethren, with the exclamation, How well you look, how fat and hearty you have grown; your trip seems to have done you great good,-in many cases, after the first grateful acknowledgment, there is a groan from the very bottom of the heart, answering to the ruddy presentments of the countenance, Oh, my leanness, my leanness! "From the uttermost parts of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, Oh, my leanness, my leanness! woe unto me; the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously." It is a sad and melancholy thing; but this must always be the case, if while the body is waxing fat, the soul neglects prayer. And, therefore, journeying or resting, but especially journeying, for then there is the greatest danger, a christian must hold on, with inflexible tenacity and perseverance, to his seasons of prayer, his fixtures of prayer. Let him keep his habits of prayer, and his habits of prayer will keep him; but if he lets them go, it is like the parting of the best cable in a storm; everything goes with them, and away the ship is driven before the tempest. Therefore, pray without ceasing; no matter where you are, or what your circumstances, prayer is your first duty. And for a help in this, hold on also to the word of God. Every day let it be consulted. It is a mighty help to prayer. If you feel ever so much indisposed to prayer, open your bible, and read with earnestness and solemnity the 51st Psalm, and it will quicken you; or even a few verses in the 119th, or the last eight verses in the third chapter of the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians; send your heart with them, throw yourself into the chariot that thus by the Spirit of God stands waiting for you, let these wings of devotion enfold you and bear you up. Do you want a prayer-book? All the saints ever upon earth, or hierarchies, or councils, could never construct one half so appropriate, so life-giving, as God's word. Use it, and you will find the glory of it. Sometimes the heart, in regard to the duty of prayer, is heavy with sleep, and cannot be started; it is like a train or a car, which it would be easy to push on and keep in motion, if it were once moved; but there is no strength to move it. The word of God, in such a case, may start it, when nothing else would. Begin with that, and you may beguile your heart with prayer, may get it praying, almost before you know it. Read a passage and turn it into prayer, and with that push, go forward. The Spirit of God, when there is such a disposition to help yourself, will certainly help your infirmities. Remember, at all events, that the word of God must be the christian traveler's constant companion. Every day it must be consulted. "These words which I command thee shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." The daily course of life, and all God's blessings, and all our trials, are sanctified by the word of God and prayer. The word of God is the Pilgrim's daily food, which he should endeavour to receive with prayer, by the ministration of the Holy Spirit. A traveler must find time for this, or his soul will wander from the way, and will not be prospered. But if he feeds daily upon God's word, and feels the power of it in his own soul, then he will have a blessed light and influence shed by it over his whole deportment and conversation. And wherever a christian goes, he ought to remember that the vows of his God and Saviour are upon him, and that he is bound to be everywhere, as he has opportu nity, holding forth the word of life, endeavouring to bless others. He may, if he will, do great good by the presentation of a tract here and there, and a conversation naturally ensuing upon it. And every such effort will react most happily upon his own soul, will help him wonderfully in prayer, will quicken and inspire his communion with God. Even one such blossom of christian duty in a day, may shed its fragrance and its blessing over a whole journey. And who knows, that puts forth such efforts, though they may seem fruitless now, who knows, that in the morning sows his seed, and in the evening withholds not his hand, how much good may be done, and whether it may not please God to make them all prosperous? At any rate, the promise holds good, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Now these two things, prayer and the word of God, will be sure to keep a christian, and make him useful; for the Spirit of God works by these things, and works with them in the soul. It is an excellent proverb, that prayer and provender never hindered a journey. If a man did not stop to give his beast corn and quiet, he would soon break down, and revenge this neglect upon his owner by a rest for ever. Prayer and the word of God are more essential to the strength and well-keeping of the soul than corn for the beast upon a journey. No time is lost that is seized and held for such spiritual nourishment; no journey is hindered, but forwarded, even by costly delays for such provender. Moreover, these things, and the blessing of God with them, which always attends them, will preserve the christian from a thousand carelessnesses and temptations by the way, and will keep him in a serene, enjoying, happy frame, all the day long. The soul that is thus walking closely with God, and at peace with him, enjoys both nature and grace, and sees and loves God in everything. Moreover, the impress produced by such a christian, the influence exerted, will everywhere, and as a matter of quiet ease, be hallowed and delightful. Such a christian will be always cheerful, but never frivolous; always a delightful companion, but not heedless or trifling. Such a christian's conversation will have an elevated tone, even when the subject of religion is not directly named; and it is by no means necessary, in order to do good in conversation, that a christian be always preaching, or else reserved and silent. Let him be always kind, courteous, affable, taking a heartfelt interest in the happiness of others, and in every innocent thing that interests others around him, and so let him watch and take his opportunities, always loving to say a word for his Saviour, when the opportunity comes. How beautiful is Cowper's description of such a christian! "When one that holds communion with the skies, Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise, Now if all christians were of this stamp, if the conversation of chris. tians were thus habitually and delightfully redolent of heaven, how much happier and better the world would become daily! Let your conversation, says Paul, be always with grace, seasoned with salt. For this, also, much prayer will be necessary. THE TRIED SAINT. BY THE REV. JAMES SMITH. "I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long." Psalm xxxviii. 5. To be troubled, is to be agitated, distressed, and burdened in mind; and such is often the case with the believer. His faith is weak; his trials are numerous; therefore he is often agitated and cast down. Sometimes the cause of trouble is in the domestic circle. When minds are not well matched, when natural dispositions do not agree, except there be much grace, there will be great trouble. Many christians do not like the place assigned to them by Providence; they do not relish the self-denying precepts given to them in the gospel; and, therefore, they do not endeavour to reduce them to practice, and this always causes trouble. If the husband does not endeavour to love his wife, even as Christ loves his church; and if the wife refuses to submit to the authority of the husband, making his will her law, there must be frequent jars, conflicts, and disagreements, and these trouble the spirit. If children are not trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, or if they are headstrong, unruly, |