to bring thee into the place which I have prepared" (Exod. xxiii. 20). Was Joshua commissioned to succeed Moses as the leader of Israel? the promise to him was, "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee; I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee" (Josh. i. 5). Was Elisha the prophet besieged by the Syrian army, and his life in jeopardy? who was invisibly present to protect and deliver him? "The Lord of hosts" (2 Kings, vi. 13). When the three holy children were cast into the fiery furnace for their faithfulness to God, who was present to protect and deliver them? "The king answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the son of God" (Dan. iii, 25). It was confidence in God's promises, of his presence and protecting care, that enabled the Church of God, though in the prospect of imminent dangers and distress, to sing so triumphantly in the 46th Psalm, "the Lord of hosts is with us," &c. The promise of the Divine presence is renewed in the New Testament. Take this one, made not only to Christ's ministers in their arduous duties and discouragements, but also, we opine, to all the faithful in Christ Jesus: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. xxviii. 20). When St. Paul, for having preached the Gospel at Rome, was cited before the emperor Nero, and forsaken by all his friends, who was present to support and to deliver him? It was the Lord, ever faithful to his promise: "At my first answer no man stood with me; but all men . forsook me. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." Paul and Silas found the fulfilment of the promise of God's presence to comfort and deliver them when they were thrust into the inner prison at Philippi, their feet made fast in the stocks, and their persons smarting from the stripes which had been laid on them; for at midnight they sang praises unto God, and sang so loudly as to be heard by their fellow-prisoners (Acts, xvi.). The promised Divine presence it was that sustained and consoled the noble army of martyrs for the truth as it is in Jesus. It is on the promise of God's gracious presence with his people that those two comprehensive ejaculations are grounded and reciprocated between the minister and the congregation,-" The Lord be with you;" "And with thy spirit." Now the rich and precious promises contained in the text are applicable to all God's children at this day-applicable to each one of us, if we really are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. When you pass through the deep waters of affliction and sorrow, God will support you, that you may not sink; he will bear up your heads above the waterfloods of tribulation and distress; he will even comfort you in the midst of your sorrows. "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation" (2 Cor. i. 3). When you pass through fiery trials, which are to try and improve your faith and patience, your submission to God's will, and perseverance in the path of life, the Lord will defend you, for there shall no temptation happen to you but what is common to man; and the Lord, "who is faithful, will, with the temptation, make a way for your escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (1 Cor. x. 13). When you pass through the last and deepest waters, the Jordan of death, the Lord will carry you through, and safely land you on the shores of the heavenly Canaan. NECESSITY OF ATTENDING THE SERVICES OF RELIGION.* MEN engaged in active labours for the good of their fellow-creatures often find it exceedingly difficult to understand the grounds upon which we urge them to cultivate those habits and attend to those services which are technically, perhaps not very happily, distinguished as religious. They ask whether God has not given them an important work to perform, and whether they are not likely to please him better by discharging it faithfully, than by occupying themselves in acts of devotion to him? They ask whether it is not acting more in the spirit of Christ's commands, more in imitation of his example, to be doing deeds of mercy, than to be offering sacrifices. I do not think these questions are always fairly met by those to whom they are addressed. I fear that we are sometimes guilty of confusing men's minds respecting the nature of their obligations to God, and even of converting religion, which should be the great instrument for overthrowing selfishness, into a means of encouraging it. But I think that the remarks which I made respecting the kind of blessings which it is your privilege and your duty to impart to those whom you visit may, perhaps, assist in extricating you from the difficulty. If to attend the bed-side of a patient were required of you than that you should give sound merely a mechanical act; or if nothing more were advice, I do not know that I could establish any very clear connexion between your ordinary tasks and those exercises of which I am now speaking. But it is de grading the dignity of your profession to think this. Your consciences tell you that more, much more than... this, is required of those who are brought into constant experience of the woes of humanity; you feel that the kindness, and sympathy, and sincerity, of which I was discoursing, under my last head, are as much demanded of you as scientific knowledge itself; and you feel that these qualities cannot be acquired at the moment, cannot be got up for exhibition at the bedside; you feel that the man who merely presents counterfeits of them is an impostor and hypocrite, far less to be esteemed than he who honestly shews preached in the Chapel of Guy's Hospital. By the Rev. F. Maurice, A.M., Chaplain to the Hospital." From "The Responsibility of Medical Students: a Sermon forth the indifference or unkindness that are in him. It is necessary, then, that these should form the very substance of your characters, that they should be worked into your very selves. But, now, consider how this can come to pass. Can you trust to the ordinary influences of society to do it? Do not you know perfectly that these influences are adverse to the cultivation of such a character; that they tend to form in us habits of confirmed selfishness? Can you trust to the mere sight of pain and suffering to do it? Have we not said already, that the repetition of these sights deadens the impression which they at first produced? Can you trust, then, to your belief and recognition of the principles which I have been endeavouring to assert,-to your conviction that the Spirit of God has indeed endowed you with all your gifts and powers; that the Lord of man has appointed you to administer these gifts for the good of men? But do you not feel that commerce with the world is continually corroding these convictions, changing them from practical realities into mere formal phrases; and that if they be honestly held, they must imply something more; they must imply the desire and necessity of seeking continual help from that Spirit, of holding intercourse with that Lord? Do you not feel that all gifts, all administrations, must be profitless unless there were also operations of God to renew our minds and characters, and form them into the likeness of his own? I can But you wonder that God should require of you acts of prayer and praise. My brethren, ask your own hearts if they do not require these acts. not think of a fellow-creature merely as the author of certain gifts and blessings to me; I cannot think of him merely as making certain provisions and arrangements for me. The moment I believe he is the source of these blessings, the author of these arrangements, that moment I desire to know what he is, and desire to think of him as a person in himself; I desire to commune with him, to contemplate his character, to enter into the feelings in which these kind acts to me originated. Unless I can do this, I feel that I shall never really preserve a recollection of his benefits; I shall never feel any relationship to him; I shall never connect him with others as well as myself; I shall care for him only for my own sake. This is the case with us in reference to our fellow-men; and is it not still more emphatically the case with us in reference to the most high God? If we believe him to be the source of every blessing to us, the ordainer of every scheme of life for us, we must carry our thoughts beyond these gifts, beyond that scheme of life, to intercourse with him. We must desire to think of him, and to utter our thoughts to him as a distinct Being. We must desire to adore, and wonder, and worship. Here, then, is the meaning of all the offices and ordinances of Christianity. All those ordinances are built upon the idea, that an actual communion has been established between God and man; that it is possible for man to express his sorrows and his wants to God; that it is possible for God to communicate his own life, his own character, to men. This is the meaning of prayer; this is the meaning of the teachings of the commissioned minister of Christ; this, above all, is the meaning of the sacrament of the Lord's supper. Of the deep mystery which is involved in all these ordinances, and especially in the last, I will say no more than this, that were there no mystery, every reasonable man would feel that it was not the thing he was seeking after, the thing he was wanting. He wants something which shall bring him into intercourse and fellowship with the invisible and eternal God; and the man who says that there is no mystery in such a fellowship is not worth listening to; he is mocking and deceiving us, because he has first delighted to mock and deceive himself. You cannot be staggered at mysteries in this highest region; you are encountered with them at every turn in the region of your own experience. You will only ask, "Would any other than this suffice me? Can I live without this?" Can there be any other way into the presence of Him who is perfect love, but through Him with whom he is perfectly well pleased? Will any thing less than a participation of his substance, of his life, of that love which overcame death, and sin, and selfishness, enable me to do his meanest work here on earth, enable me to behold his glory in heaven? Do not suppose that I am limiting the operations of God on the hearts and minds of men to these ordinances; I am urging you to take the privileges which they offer you, because I am sure they interpret to us all his other operations; because they enable us to feel his presence, to hear his voice in all the common events and accidents of life; in sickness and in health; in the daily pleasures and the daily crosses of life; in the wonders of nature; in the wonders of our own frame; in the sufferings of our fellow-men; in the acts which we are permitted to do for the relief of them. The persons whom I ordinarily address from this place are men who have neither science nor a profession; they have this only, they are men carrying about with them the signs of Adam's curse, the marks of suffering and death. Yet I am bound to look upon them as the objects of God's love; I am bound to tell them that all the privileges of the kingdom of Christ are theirs; I am bound to believe that they are as able to enter into the deepest mysteries as the wisest man upon earth; I am certain that they may, if they will, know God and love him, and dwell with him for ever. In these ordinances you will learn to feel yourselves one with these poor creatures; you will learn to feel that what you possess in common with them is more precious and permanent than that which separates you from them; you will learn that you, and they, and all God's creatures, have desires which nothing but God can satisfy; you will learn to love them, and to care for them, as sharers of the same glory with yourselves; you will rejoice to meet them in the last day, when all other voices shall be silent, but when this one shall be heard by every true and faithful man, "Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." A REMARKABLE INSTANCE OF A REVIVAL OF RELIGION IN THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH.• AN incident occurred in the course of Bishop Moore's ministry on Staten Island so remarkable, that it deserves to be recorded. The bishop was never at any time disposed to countenance the unnatural and feverish excitement in congregations, which, often the result of animal emotion powerfully wrought upon, perhaps by artificial machinery of man's inventions, sometimes passes current for a work of the Spirit of God. He did not, however, perceive why the same Spirit, which, by its blessed influences, operates on the heart and conscience of one sinner, bringing him to repentance towards God, and a living faith in the Redeemer, might not also operate simultaneously on many sinners with the same happy result; though, for the production of such an end, he knew of no means except such as were sanctioned in the orderly services of the Church to which he belonged. Prayer, public and private, the stated worship of the Church, her com From Dr. Hawks's Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of the United States. fortable sacraments, and the faithful preaching of the Gospel, were all the machinery of which he knew either the lawfulness or the use. He had been perseveringly engaged in the use of these for a length of time, until, at an hour when nothing unusual had seemingly occurred to produce any solemn effect, the minds of his people seemed to be simultaneously awakened to the infinite value of divine things. It was at one of his stated lectures in the church, that after the usual services had concluded, and the benediction been pronounced, he sat down in his pulpit, waiting for the people to retire. To his great surprise, he soon observed that not an individual present seemed disposed to leave the church; and after an interval of a few minutes, during which a perfect silence was maintained, one of the members of the congregation arose, and respectfully requested him to address those present a second time. After singing a hymn, the bishop delivered to them a second discourse, and once more dismissed the people with the blessing. But the same state of feeling which had before kept them in their seats, still existed, and once more did they solicit the preacher to address them. Accordingly he delivered to them a third sermon; and at its close, exhausted by the labour in which he had been engaged, he informed them of the impossibility of continuing the services on his part, once more blessed them, and affectionately entreated them to retire to their homes. It was within the space of six weeks after the scene above described, that more than sixty members of the congregation became communicants; and in the course of the year more than one hundred knelt around the chancel of St. Andrew's, who had never knelt there before as partakers of the sacrament of the Lord's supper. It is not wonderful that in the retrospect of the facts we have here related, the bishop should entertain an opinion best expressed in his own words: "That although we have the promise of Heaven to be always present with the Church, still there are particular seasons in which the Almighty displays his power in a manner so overwhelming as to command the attention of his rational creatures; to dispel that coldness which makes them indifferent to the calls of duty; to excite their gratitude to God for his mercies; to melt obdurate offenders into contrition; and to oblige them to sue for forgiveness at the throne of grace.” Nor is it matter of surprise that the good bishop should be led by this incident in his own ministerial experience often to impress, as he does, upon his younger clergy, the duty at seasons in which the Almighty manifests his presence in a more than ordinary way, gladly to avail themselves of such propitious times to put forth redoubled efforts in their Master's cause. The Cabinet. HERESY.-Many are the heresies which have sprung from a learned pride: from ignorance alone scarcely perhaps a single one; none certainly from ignorant humility. Rev. S. Wilberforce. FORGIVENESS.-He that means to communicate worthily, must so forgive his enemy, as never to upbraid his crime any more. For we must so forgive, as that we forget it; not in the sense of nature, but perfectly in the sense of charity. For to what good purpose can any man keep a record of a shrewd turn, but to become a spy upon the actions of his enemy, watchful to do him shame, and by that to aggravate every new offence? It was a malicious part of Darius, when the Athenians had plundered Sardis; he, resolving to remember the evil turn, till he had done them a mischief, commanded one of his servants, that every time he waited at supper, he should thrice call upon him, "Sir, remember the Athenians." The devil is apt enough to do this office for any man; and he that keeps in mind an injury, needs no other tempter to uncharitableness but his own memory. He that resolves to remember it, never does forgive it perfectly, but is the under-officer of his own malice. For as rivers that run under ground do infallibly fall into the sea, and mingle with the salt waters, so is the injury that is remembered: it runs under ground indeed, and the anger is hid, but it tends certainly to mischief; and though it be sometimes less deadly for want of opportunity, yet it is never less dangerous.-Bp. Taylor on Forgiveness. GOD'S FORBEARANCE.-If by the light of nature it be judged a crime worthy of a burning fiery furnace, to refuse the worship of what it esteems to be God, although it be but the work of men's hands, how shall we escape the far more dreadful punishment, if we neglect the worship of the living and only true God? On the other hand, if we compare the judgments of almighty God, in regard to this life, and the hasty and passionate sentence of this enraged king, "Ye shall be cast the same hour," &c., how infinitely more patient is the great God of heaven towards men, than man generally is to man! How forbearing is the Divine justice, though provoked every day by the most enormous crimes, nay, by repeated profanations and contempts of his holy name, as well as righteous laws; and especially by refusing honour and worship to that image, that only image of himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, which he hath set up, and commanded all people, nations, and languages to fall down and worship! Yet he still forbears, still respites the punishment, not only for hours, but for days and years! Experience, then, must needs teach us how full of compassion and mercy, how long-suffering and gracious the Lord is. And can we forbear to love the Lord our God, who so loveth us? Such men only taste not the sweetness of his mercy, who feel not their own misery. Such only are insensible of his goodness, who hate not their sins, who love not their own souls, who choose death. Did we but know thee, did we but know ourselves, we could not choose but love thee. O, may we so know and love thee here, that hereafter we may know thee as thou art, and love and enjoy thee for ever! Amen.-Wogan. he DECEITFUL RICHES.-Usually, when a worldling is dead, we ask how rich he died? "Oh," say many, died rich; he hath left a great estate." Alas, the poor man has slept his sleep, lost his dream, and now he awakes, he finds nothing in his hand. Where lies his golden heap? only the rust of that heap is gone to witness against him: his mansion fails him; only the unrighteousness of it follows him; others have the use of it, only the abuse of it he carries to judgment with him he hath made his friends (as we say), but he hath undone himself; so that I may justly write this motto upon every bag, "This is the price of blood." Shall I then treasure up the price of blood? No; Christ hath entrusted me as a steward: therefore what I have, and need not, Christ shall have in his members that need, and have not. So the transitory creatures, when they shall slide away, shall not carry me with them; but when I shall pass away, I shall carry them with me.-Lucas's Divine Breathings. OUR BLESSINGS MORE THAN OUR CROSSES.-Consider that our good days are generally more in number than our evil days, our days of prosperity (such, I mean, as is suitable to our condition and circumstances) than our days of adversity. This is most certain, though most of us are apt to cast up our accounts otherwise. How many days (of at least competent) health have we enjoyed for one day of grievous sickness! How many days of ease for one of pain! How many blessings for a few crosses! For one danger that hath surprised us, how many scores of dangers have we escaped, and some of them very narrowly! But, alas, we write our mercies in the dust, but our afflictions we engrave in marble; our memories serve us too well to remember the latter, but we are strangely forgetful of the former. And this is the greatest cause of our unthankfulness, discontent, and murmuring.Bp. Bull. SIN IN THE WILL." When the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed," says St. Paul," I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him" (Acts, xxii. 20). God chiefly inspects the heart; and if the vote be passed there, writes the man guilty, though he stir no farther. It is easy to murder another by a silent wish or a passionate desire. In all moral actions God values the will for the deed, and reckons the man a companion in the sin, who, though possibly he may never actually join in it, does yet inwardly applaud and like it.-Cave. THE CHRISTIAN CONFLICT.-The Christian has advanced but a little way in religion when he has overcome the world, for he has still more powerful and importunate enemies-self, evil tempers, pride, undue affections, a stubborn will. It is by subduing these adversaries, that we must chiefly judge of our growth in grace. Rev. R. Cecil. LET those who are instrumental in bringing one sheep into the fold of Christ on earth, remember that they add one harp to the chorus of heaven.-Rev. W. Marsh. Poetry. GOD'S PROVIDENCE. BY CHARLES BAYLY. (For the Church of England Magazine.) On, think not God is only here, To guard and bless thee on thy way; His gracious eye is every where, Alike intent by night and day. Experience bids thee firmer trust, Dear friend, wherever thou may'st be, In Him who, merciful and just, Has ever lov'd and car'd for thee. Then go content where duty calls, Firm on his love and word rely; Remember, "not a sparrow falls," But God Almighty sees it die. Think, then, if with such tender care The Lord regards the feather'd race, How dear to him his people are, Who humbly seek his pardoning grace. Nor God alone shall watch thy way; Angels with trembling hope look down, And will thy devious course survey, Prome. Till thou hast won the promis'd crown. "THY KINGDOM COME." BY ALEXANDER STAMMERS. (For the Church of England Magazine.) HASTEN, O Lord, the long-expected time When every nation at thy throne shall bend; When from each kindred, people, clime, Hosannas loud the liquid air shall rend; When gods of gold and silver, wood and stone, As once Philistine Dagon, down shall fall Before thy awful presence, Thou alone Be all-ador'd, acknowledg'd all in all ; When man no more shall yield to carnal sense The honour that alone belongs to thee: ; When vile affections shall be banish'd hence, For those they lov'd, o'erthrown in barbarous war. And hear thy praise from earth's united voice. No more shall Ephraim envy Judah's lot, Judah shall vex her sister-land no more; But Jew and Gentile then shall be forgot, And Jesus' kingdom stretch from shore to shore. Uttoxeter, Sept. 17th, 1839. LAYS OF PALESTINE.-No. IV. BY T. G. NICHOLAS. (For the Church of England Magazine.) "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my Why sink, my soul, in deep distress, His praise shall swell my raptur'd voice: A fortress, a defence for me. THE JUDGMENT. Their peace and pardon, and deliverance win; My trust shall be, when thou demandest mine, Miscellaneous. GOVERNORS AND THEIR GRAVES AT SIERRA LEONE. -Whilst at Sierra Leone I visited the grave of Denham the traveller, who after his many wanderings in Central Africa, died a Lieutenant-Colonel and Governor of Sierra Leone. He lies in the new burialground behind the barracks, under a young plumtree; and beside him lie also three other governorsSir Neil Campbell, Col. Lumley, and Major Temple. A house built by Sir Charles Macarthy, who fell in the Ashantee war, looks down from a neighbouring hill on the field of the dead." Besides the above, General Turner, who lies under the plum-tree in the old burial-ground, is to be added to the list of governors who have died since 1825. Poor Denham, after long braving the climate of Africa, said that his fate was sealed when he was appointed governor here. He then imprudently exchanged his residence from Government House to a wooden building beside the creek, the mud of which at low-water was most offensive. He also took to physicking himself, became soft and fleshy, and gradually sunk under the fever. His grave is covered almost entirely with grass and bushes, and I was obliged to remove them before I could see the simple superstructure of brick and lime raised over the mouldering remains of a traveller of first-rate enterprise. The governors of Sierra Leone have, in general, when they arrived, been men past the meridian of life, and whose constitutions were not sufficiently vigorous to struggle through either form of the seasoning fever-" the lion," the severe attack-or "the jackal," the milder variety of the disease. As I before remarked, they are harassed with excess of duty and responsibility; and also, like most Englishmen, they will not alter their previous habits, and despise the advice of old residents. Thus, Sir Neil Campbell, an officer of high reputation, said to the colonial surgeon, "Doctor, there are two things which I wish you to do: tell me when I am really in danger, but give me no calomel whatever." A few months after assuming office he was attacked with fever. The surgeon immediately gave him twenty grains of calomel (disguised), and told his honour to keep the house. Next day the surgeon saw him dressed and out walking! But the same night he was laid on his back, and was quickly transferred to the fatal plumtree. The last governor, Major Temple, said, when he arrived in the dry season, "It is all nonsense to talk of the unhealthiness of Sierra Leone. I have been in much worse in the Greek Islands. The reason why the climate here is so deadly to Englishmen, is to be found entirely in their indolent habits and dissipation." Accordingly, his honour was very temperate, though formerly he had been a free liver, was of a gross habit, and past fifty years of age. He was very attentive to his duties, was much liked and esteemed, and would have been a great benefactor to the colony if he had lived. But whether the season was foul or fair, he took exercise in the middle of the day. In the rains he has been known to ride forty or fifty miles with his daughter; and the day before he was taken ill, in the fatal month of August, contrary to all advice, he set out to ride before a tornado, and got drenched to the skin.-Captain Alexander's Narrative of Western Africa. THE ASIARCHS.-Asiarchs, the official designation of the pagan pontiffs of Asia Minor. In the Acts of the Apostles (xix. 31), the Asiarchs are particularly mentioned. In the commotion which Demetrius the silversmith excited at Ephesus, when the citizens were exclaiming, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" and the whole city was in confusion, two of St. Paul's companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, natives of Macedonia, were seized by the people, and were dragged into the theatre. St. Paul intended to proceed thither, for the purpose of making a public defence of himself and his two friends; but the Christian converts there would not permit him, while "certain of the chief of Asia," or Asiarchs, which is the literal meaning of the word in the original, "who were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre." From this circumstance, it has been supposed by some that the public games were then celebrating in the theatre; and it is not unlikely that St. Paul and his companions would have been in danger of being thrown by the populace to wild beasts. The Asiarchs united the functions of the magistracy with those of the priesthood; they were entrusted with the care of the temples and sacred edifices; they had the charge of all religious solemnities, and were obliged to celebrate at their own charges the public games in honour of the gods. The expense of the office was considerable, and consequently the Asiarchs were always persons of great wealth and reputation. The Asiarchs were selected from the principal provinces and cities of Asia at the commencement of the Asiatic year, or about the autumnal equinox. In proconsular Asia, assemblies were convened in all the towns, from each of which a deputy was sent to a general assembly of the whole; and of ten persons returned to the proconsul, one was appointed by him to the office of Asiarch. Asiarchs wore a crown of gold, and a toga ornamented with gold and purple. They were continued under the Christian emperors, although the games were abolished, and the temples supplanted by churches. "Sometimes," says Mr. Arundell, "the dignities of high-priest, and prætor, and Asiarch, were united in the same individual. When St. Polycarp was seized at Smyrna during the celebration of the public games, probably for bearing too faithful a testimony against them, the people tumultuously demanded of Philip the Asiarch that he would let loose a lion to devour the Christian. Philip excused himself, on the ground that the spectacles of the amphitheatre were at an end. This Philip was of Tralles, and united the offices of Asiarch and high-priest. The etymology of the name would lead to the belief that the Asiarch was the governor-in-chief of the province of Asia ; and perhaps in the earlier period of history he might have been so; but latterly he was only a public officer, invested with a dignity partly magisterial, and in part sacerdotal, who presided over the games of a particular province."-Edinburgh Scriptural Gazetteer. 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