Oxfordshire, Rutlandshire, Suffolk, Sussex, Westmoreland, and Wiltshire. Thus, in more than half of the counties of England, there is not a chapel society, circuit preacher, local preacher, or member belonging to the Methodist New Connexion. Are our members and seat-holders content that this vast extent of ground in our beloved land should remain any longer unoccupied by us? Surely it is high time that as a Connexion we should awake and bestir ourselves. Oh, if the fire of true Christian patriotism burns within our breasts, we shall never rest satisfied until we have chapels, preachers, and members in every town, in every county, in our beloved land. And then, in addition to these twenty-one counties where we have neither name nor place, in most of the counties in which we are found we have no interest in any of the large towns there. In Cheshire we have no name nor place in Birkenhead, Crewe, Northwich, Nantwich, Middlewich, Knutsford, Lamback, and Runcorn. In Cornwall we are absent from St. Austell, Bodmin, Liskeard, Launceston, Falmouth, Penzance, and Redruth. In Derbyshire we are not found in Ashbourne, Belper, Buxton, Chesterfield, Matlock, and Wirksworth. In Gloucestershire we are absent from Cheltenham, Clifton, and Stroud. In Leicestershire we have no interest at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Market Harborough, and Melton Mowbray. In Lancashire, though we are found in most of the large towns, still there are some important ones from which we are absent. We have no interest in Accrington, Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, Clitheroe, Colne, Chorley, Lancaster, Preston, Todmorden, St. Helens, Warrington, and Wigan. In Lincolnshire we are absent from Crowle, Gainsborough, Grimsby, Grantham, Horncastle, Lincoln, Spalding, and Stamford. In Middlesex we are not found at Brentford and Uxbridge. In Nottinghamshire we are absent from Retford and Worksop; while our interest is very feeble in Newark and Mansfield. In the county of Northumberland we are absent from Berwick, Morpeth, and Tynemouth. In Norfolk we are not found in Norwich and Thetford; while our cause at Yarmouth is but feeble. In Staffordshire we are unknown at Burton-on-Trent, Lichfield, Uttoxeter, Rugely, and Tamworth; while our hold on such towns as Bilston, Walsall, Wednesbury, and Wolverhampton, is not strong. In Somersetshire we are absent from Frome, Bridgewater, Taunton, and Wells. In Shropshire we have no interest in Bridgenorth, Newport, Ludlow, and Wellington. In Warwickshire we have no place in Warwick, Coventry, Leamington, Rugby, and Stratford. In Worcestershire we are absent from Kidderminster and Worcester. And in Yorkshire, though we are found in the largest towns, still there are some important ones where we have not yet gone; such as Beverley, Bingley, Doncaster, Howden, Heckmondwike. Harrogate, Knaresborough, Market Weighton, Pontefract, Richmond, Skipton, Scarborough, and Whitby. These are facts, which are confessedly dry and hard, but they reveal a painful state of things which no eloquence can portray. What true Christian patriot's heart in our Denomination does not bleed as he contemplates the ground that is partially occupied, and that is wholly unoccupied by us as a Connexion? His language surely is, with the prophet, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people." For are not our countrymen in the counties we have named, in the towns we have enumerated, being daily slain, slain morally; and yet, as a Connexion, we are not doing anything to save them? It may be said that other religious bodies have gone into these counties and towns, and are seeking to evangelize our countrymen with "the truth as it is in Jesus." But this does not exempt us as a Connexion from doing our duty. If we believe that God has commanded us as individuals, as churches, and as a Connexion to preach the Gospel to our fellow-creatures; if we believe it is our duty to begin with our own nation as did the apostles; if we have greater facilities to feed our starving countrymen with the bread of life, than we have of sending it to the dwellers in Ireland, Canada, Australia, and China-oh! is it not our duty to pray, and give, and work, until we have chapel societies and preachers, not only in every county, but in every city, town, and village in our land? God calls us to this duty; the example of Christ and of his apostles requires it; the needs of the age demand it, and the sad condition of millions of our countrymen calls aloud for it. Let us as a Connexion from henceforth demonstrate our Christian patriotism by praying more fervently for the prosperity of our home missions; working more arduously for their success, and giving more liberally towards their support, Let us each (to use the words of Henry Martyn) "look at our country and be a patriot, look at the nations of the earth and be a philanthropist." A. HALLAM. Tipton, March 13, 1866. PERSONAL RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. BY REV. R. DONKERSLEY. There smiles the mother we have wept there bloom Again the buds that slept within the tomb! There o'er the bright gates, inscribed, no more to part, Soul springs to soul, and heart unites to heart." THE Scriptures teach us that it will be part of the happiness of heaven to meet there the good and the excellent of former times-the patriarchs, and prophets, and apostles, and other benefactors of mankind. But this happiness would be wholly lost, were men in heaven to lose their peculiar character, were all to be cast into one mould, were all in becoming perfect to become perfectly alike. No, heaven will not present this dull and unvaried uniformity. The strong lines of character which marked men on earth, we may sup pose, will distinguish them hereafter. Paul will retain his ardour, John his kindness, Isaiah his imagination. In heaven we shall witness every form of intellectual and moral excellence. Some of its inhabitants will exhibit to us the milder, and others the sublime virtues. Some will be distinguished by glow of feeling, others by profoundness of thought; some by activity and energy of will. There will be different degrees of the same excellence, and different employments corresponding to the character. "When I was a boy," says the Rev. H. W. Beecher, "I thought of heaven as a great shining city, with vast walls and domes and spires, and nobody in it except white, tenuous angels, who were strangers to me. By-and-by my little brother died, and I thought of a great city with walls and domes and spires, and a flock of cold, unknown angels, and one little fellow that I was acquainted with. He was the only one I knew in heaven at that time. Then another brother died, and there were two that I knew. Then my acquaintances began to die, and the little crowd continually grew. But it was not till I sent one of my little children to his grandparentGod-that I began to think that I had got a little in myself. A second went, a third went, a fourth went, and by that time I had so many acquaintances in heaven that I did not see any walls, and domes, and spires. I began to think of the residents of the celestial city. And now there have so many of my acquaintances gone there, that it sometimes seems to me that I know more that are in heaven than I do that are on earth." Good Richard Baxter says:-"I must confess, as the experience of my own soul, that the expectation of loving my friends in heaven principally kindles my love to them while on earth. If I thought I should never know them, and consequently never love them after this life is ended, I should number them as temporal things, and love them as such. But I now delightfully converse with my pious friends in a firm persuasion that I shall converse with them in heaven; and I take comfort in those who are dead or absent, believing that I shall shortly meet them in heaven, and love them with a heavenly love." It is pleasant, amid the jars and discords of this lower world, to meet and mingle with the great and good and noble spirits that are to be found among us, and to refresh the weary, world-worn mind by associations with the pure and holy-hearted; after the busy cares and trials of this work-day world are over, to sit quietly down by the fire-side, and converse of that home to which each closing day is bringing us nearer, and towards which our united hearts and hopes are tending. And if the communion of saints on earth is so sweet; if the society of the good and lovely is to be desired, what must it be to mingle in the assemblage above? Heaven has been gathering to itself through countless ages whatever is congenial to its nature, and enriching itself with the spoils of earth. Whatever we look upon as holy and excellent, elevated and worthy to be loved in the character of man, is found gathered and still gathering in that multitude which no man can number in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. From every century, every generation, out of every people, and nation, and kindred, and tongue, since the world began, a long procession has ascended, and still passes onward, comprising all that is holy, all that is true, all that makes earth safe and pleasant to dwell in, and joining itself to that Church of the first-born which is written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. There are those whom we have known and loved. The hoary head walking among us for so many years in the ways of wisdom; the soldier of the cross, who had learned to live not unto himself, but unto Him who died for him; the gentle, purehearted, loving ones the tender infant-all taking their place in the ranks of those who are "without fault" before the throne. Once safe within those portals, how glorious their communion, how pure their intercourse! While all heaven's inhabitants will be perfectly happy, and perfectly holy, yet there will be among that multitude stars of the first magnitude and stars of lesser brilliancy. "One star differeth from another star in glory," Frequently, while contemplating the society of heaven, while gazing "by faith" upon that "innumerable company," we have singled out prominent characters from the countless throng. Conspicuous among these we beheld the father of the faithful," the "friend of God." But Abraham was not seen in the painful act of laying his only and beloved son upon the rudely constructed altar, reared by the sacrificial priestly father upon Moriah's mount. Oh, no; he was now in the presence of Him of whom Isaac was but a faint and an imperfect type. Near to him who "feared God" was one who, also being moved by fear, refused to be called the son of a proud and powerful princess; one, who voluntarily renouncing the blandishments of courtly life, and "the pleasures of sin," and "choosing the reproach of Christ," is now in the full enjoyment of that blissful recompense" to which "he had respect." There also we saw one from "the land of Uz," but we did not see him afflicted with "boils and blains," tempted by the devil and an inconsiderate wife, and sorely accused by false or mistaken friends. Oh, no; the "patient man" had now indeed become the "perfect man." In the foremost ranks of the heavenly choir we espied the sweet singer of Israel. But David was now discoursing in loftier, sweeter strains than ever warbled forth among the admiring throng of Judean courtiers. Near, very near the Son of God, we espied the evangelical prophet; that grand mind, which had in such glowing imagery, such thrilling language, such graphic strains, foretold the coming of, the spotless character, the mission, useful life, shameful and painful, but vicarious death of the world's Redeemer. But oh! the rapturous strains in which he was now lauding that risen Saviour, that exalted King, far, far surpassed the most lofty and stirring description which had been given of the coming Messiah. And there also were seen the translated one and the ascended one, clad in those immortal bodies which had never been clasped by the clay hand of the " last enemy;"" never been tainted with the corruption of the grave. In very close proximity to the " High and Lofty One," we beheld that truly courageous man who, despite the severe threatening of a misguided monarch, dared "three times a day" open those "windows looking toward Jerusalem," and make earnest supplication to "the God of heaven." But we did not see him the companion of ravenous beasts. Oh, no. Daniel was in the presence of "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." Near to the Babylonian seer were ranged the not less magnanimous "three Hebrew worthies." But these heroic men were not now the captives of a guile-victimed king, surrounded by crackling, intensely heated flames. Oh, no; they were now basking in the sunlight of heaven's resplendent day, surrounded by the glowing pleasure of celestial glory. Ranking high in that glorious abode of pure light were seen the noble band of the apostles of our Lord; men who "counted not their lives dear unto themselves." to them were seen the large company of those who first believingly received the things concerning Jesus, and not distant were behel "the glorious army of martyrs." The "reformers" ranked conspicuously-the lionhearted Luther, the learned Melancthon, the fiery and impulsive Zwingle, with others of lesser fame, shone brightly. Not the least attractive of that countless, glorified throng will be the millions upon millions of such as have died in infancy. What a glorious sight to gaze upon this "cherubic host," clustering round the throne of the 66 King immortal!" But the glory of heaven will be the exalted Redeemer, who, having finished his mediatorial work, will now be seen in all the overwhelming efful Near gence of his eternal, essential glory. "There we shall see Jesus!" Thus we now sing, but then we shall behold. Oh, what a sight that will be! But pen may not attempt to portray the transcendent glory of that vision. Pen, tongue, imagination, yea, even faith, or all these combined, must here confess their impotency; they dare not attempt to draw the veil. All must patiently await the revelations of that day, when faith shall be lost in sight, when hope shall die in full fruition. "For ever with the Lord, Amen, so let it be; Life from the dead is in that word, 'Tis immortality." The Religious Monthly. THE TREES AND FRUITS BY BISHOP KINGSLEY. THE trees far surpass any the world elsewhere produces. One of the California cedars exceeds anything that ever grew on Lebanon. The sweet alder grows as large as a man's body. The alder is large enough for saw-logs, and in Oregon is made into boards. In Oregon, I saw hundreds of laurels large enough for saw-logs, being two and three feet in diameter. The mustard becomes a tree in whose branches "the fowls of the air" may find a convenient lodgment. I saw mustard one and a-half inches in diameter, and was informed that two inches was not an uncommon size. there a large variety of trees, whose species are not found east of the mountains, but on examining trees and shrubs which are common to the tree-countries there will be found a difference. The pines are different, the balsam of fir is different, the spruce is different; and the same is true of the birds, the land animals, and the fish. Not only is But the most remarkable feature in California productions is the extent and variety of its fruits. In this respect it surpassed all my conceptions. I arrived in San Francisco on the 11th of August, and found the markets groaning with almost every kind of the most luscious fruits, and was told they had been so for a month. Apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, figs, strawberries, and grapes, exceeding anything of the kind ever seen in the East, met me at every turn. I measured an apple at Placerville, a town just at the Foot Hills, that was fifteen and a-half inches in circumference. I measured a peach, at the same time and place, which was twelve and a-quarter inches. The peaches were not so large as usual this year. At the same place I saw a bunch of grapes, of the white Muscat variety, weighing 33 lbs. The bunch had been cut off in order to bring it to the barn, and it instantly reminded me of the bunch carried between two spies in olden times. This specimen would need to be carried in the same way. There are more than a hundred varieties of grapes grown here, and the yield is prodigious, while the flavour is the finest imaginable. I saw single clasters-that is, clusters growing on single stems-weighing from six to eight pounds. This is four times as large as any I have seen in this country. There is a variety whose name I do not remember, but which in colour resemble the peach blossom. These are exceedingly beautiful as well as delicious. The black Hamburg is a noble grape, and flourishes finely on this soil. The variety known as native California grape will bear well without any irrigation, a treatment which is required by the other varieties in order to a good yield. This grape grows without the aid of trellis or stake. It is cut back each year until it looks like the stump of a tree in a new country, and with this treatment yields abundantly. The plums of California and Oregon are the finest by far of anything of the kind I ever saw. Some of them grow as large as a turkey's eggs. Pears grow to quite twice the size of any in the East, and are fully equal, if not superior, in flavour. Figs flourish from June to December, with a short interval after the first crop. This is the perfection of fruit; when fully ripe, nothing can exceed it in flavour and nutritive properties. The fig pro duces no blossom, but a bud appears, and keeps right on growing until the perfect fruit appears. On the same tree are the buds just forming, the half-grown fig and the ripe fruit. While spending a day or two with my old friend, M. C. Briggs, D.D., in Sacramento, I enjoyed the shade and the fruit of his fig-trees to wonderful advantage. Pea-nuts are cultivated in the Valley of Sacramento. They grow in the form of vines, and are covered over with earth, and the fruit grows like potatoes; and speaking of potatoes reminds me that this root, as well as the beet and carrot, grow to an enormous size, and of the very best quality. Squashes also flourish in California to a wonderful extent. In the Sacramento Valley you may see large fields of them, where their rich yellow trunks nearly cover the ground. I saw one, at Marysville, that weighed two hundred and nineteen pounds. As a fruit-growing country, California is rich almost beyond computation. THE MOST PROFITABLE USURY. Of the late Samuel Fletcher, Esq., of Manchester, a Christian merchant, as eminently distinguished for his large and active benevolence as for his commercial prosperity, it is said: Had he allowed the sums given to religion and humanity to accumulate, he might easily have died a millionaire. But he not only put his money to a more profitable usury, he reaped at the very time a greater as well as a purer gratification than he could have done by seeing the "glittering heap" grow larger. He was happy in having it to give, still happier in being willing to give it; and not least happy in this, that he left not one member of his family who wished that he had given less to the exchequer of the poor, or to the treasury of God; or that he had died richer by any diminution of his alms to the poor, the halt, the blind, the orphan, or the widow. |