that circle so much appreciated, as is the greatest revenue and the most honourable title. Wealth and family, or servility and obsequious fawning, are steps in this ladder of promotion. What has such a system already produced? Among fifteen thousand incumbents, episcopal, rectorial, or otherwise dignified, with a large supplement of subordinate expectants, how many local clergy are merely formalist or austerely orthodox ?-how few are purely and simply evangelical ?-and what is the proportion of those who border on the absolute confines of Popery; who, having drawn deep draughts from collegiate Puseyism, have been made drunk with the wine of Babylonish fornication ? Whence comes the leaven which has so long and convulsively fermented in the would-be patristians of the Universities, and now swells the pretensions of the party of Exeter, Oxford, and London; of the Denisons, the Wilberforces, and Ridleys? Can the devout, evangelical Christian look to such sources for a champion to meet the Philistine who defies the armies of the living God? Are these thy gods, oh! Protestant England? To your tents, oh! Israel; and thence rally under the war-cry, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" Or rather let the assembling be under the banner of "the Lion of the tribe of Judah !"

In ancient times, "there were great searchings of heart for the divisions of Reuben." There is still much cause for similar exercises. The divisions among the clergy of the United Church of England and Ireland, are not merely an encouragement to the papal adversary; they are also an occasion of weakness and disquiet to the doubting multitude. While they prevent union, action, and vigour in measures designed to resist aggression and to foil assailants, they paralyse the efficacy of that portion of truth which remains in the doctrinal traditions of the Establishment: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Because the Jewish bands fought among themselves within the walls of the city, Jerusalem was taken by Vespasian, and the Temple was consumed by the Romans. The zealots of that doomed city were prototypes to the men who have been trained in the monkish seminaries where Tractarianism has disseminated its virus. While they expend their energies in teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, and professing to cope with Popish symbols and the observances of superstition, by aping the manners of a corrupt age, they strive to withstand the faithful preachers of the gospel more zealously and directly than they contend with the infidel and profane. They leap from the bulwarke and pursue an inter-necine war. What, then, is England and Ireland's hope against Popery ? Not the organizations of men, but the dispensation which Christ Jesus committed to his servant, the preaching of the gospel; the wide, constant, faithful preaching of the gospel; the increasing and intense determination of many, who run to and fro preaching, to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ, and him crucified : "For how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent ?" The object, the aim of these branches of British Missions, the Home Mi-sionary, and Irish Evangelical Societies, is clearly, faithfully, and constantly to teach sin.

ners the scriptural provision made for the salvation of guilty men.

One word remains to be offered to remind the Pastors, Deacons, and Churches, of the hopes and pecuniary resources of British Missions for another year. The Board would most respectfully and importunately urge their brethren in the churches to render the coming a fruitful and prosperous year. The equable and diffusive liberality of the churches secures a revenue more certain and deserving reliance than the casual or special donations of friends. The collection of the congregation within the month, consecrated to this object, becomes a recognised duty of the lowly, as well as of the rich, which can be discharged without any expensive or elaborate apparatus and agency. Let 200 additional congregations adopt the OCTOBER COLLECTIONS, and British Missions may advance in their generous enterprise, without dependence on extraordinary appeals and special contributions; while a more fervent spirit of prayer, widely diffused among the churches, will bring down Divine blessings to guide the administration and prosper the work at the British Mission stations.

N.B-It is respectfully requested that all remittances distinct for the Home Missionary Society, or for the Irish Evangelical Society, or for distribution among the three Societies, should be made to the Secretary, Rev. JAMES WILLIAM MASSIE, D.D.; for the Colonial Missionary Society, to the Secretary, the Rev. THOMAS JAMES, Congregational Library, Blomfield-street, Finsbury, London; and also to make all Post-office Orders payable to either of the Secretaries, at the General Post office only.

COLONIAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

REASONS FOR INCREASED EFFORTS.

1. THE rapid growth of the Colonies, occasioned especially by the vast number of emigrants annually leaving our shores.

During the past three years the average number of emigrants from the United Kingdom has been 268,619. Great as this number is, it will probably be exceeded during the current year. Nor will it stop here. The annual emi gration from Great Britain and Ireland will soon reach half-a-million. Almost every Colony of the British Empire is rising to the dimen. sions of a nation, with a rapidity unequalled by any period of the world's history. Multitudes of every class, manufacturing, mechanical, and agricultural, are daily leaving their homes, and going forth to people the distant regions of the earth, carrying with them the knowledge, religion, and liberty of their fatherland.

The district of Port Philip, now erected into the Colony of Victoria, comprises the southern coast of New South Wales. In 1836 it was unoccupied by civilised man. It now contains 60,000 inhabitants, whose wealth in their flocks and herds is estimated at three millions sterling. Melbourne, the capital, contained in 1839, but 400 inhabitants; it is supposed now to number no fewer than 25,000, Adelaide, the principal town of the Colony of South Australia, in the space of sixteen years numbers 25,000 persons. New South Wales, first settled in 1787, now contains a population of 180,000, of whom 50,000 are in Sydney. If from the Southern we turn to the Northern

hemisphere, we discover equal cause for wonder at the mighty increase of the British people, seeking and finding a resting-place amidst the eternal forests of Canada, hitherto the haunts of the antelope and the bear. In 1846, the British North American Colonies contained a population of 2,159,000; since which it has been augmented by many thousand emigrants who have left our shores. Then there are other Colonies which are increasing at the same rapid rate. New Zealand, with a superficial area nearly as great as England and Scotland; Port Natal, in South Africa, with capabilities for receiving and comfortably providing for, millions of British-born people, could so many be induced to go thither, are rising into importance, and needing and calling for the assistance of the Society. To almost every quarter of the globe is the Anglo-Saxon race penetrating, as if they were destined to possess themselves of every portion of the earth's surface which can be made to minister to their necessities and wants. If, then, our countrymen are thus

rapidly " replenishing the earth," the Committee feel it of unspeakable importance that they should carry with them the literature, the morality, the religion of their native land. Let them take with them the Bible, and be taught by it both as to the conduct they observe to their fellow men, and especially the duties they owe to the God of their fathers, and we may confidently predict that the nations, the foundations of which they are laying, will enjoy the rich blessings which the truth and freedom they will have received never fails to secure.

2. The adaptation of our principles to the habits and usages of Colonial society, is another strong argument for increased effort.

The life of a settler is, in the nature of the oase, free from the restraints which, in communities of men, are necessary for the preservation of social order. He settles down in the dense forests of Canada, or the boundless plains of Australia, at a distance from the busy haunts of men, where he acquires a freedom of thought and action on all subjects. The principles of Congregational Nonconformists are eminently suited to such a state of mind and feeling. We bow down in matters of religion to no earthly authority. We call no man master on earth. We recognise no head but Him who is Lord of all. We have no creed but the Bible; no "Articles of Faith," or "Shorter Catechism to which to subscribe. "The Bible, and the Bible alone" (as it was said by Chillingworth of Protestants), is our religion. That such principles are acceptable in Colonial society is attested by competent witnesses. A minister in one Colony writes, "Send us men of piety and zeal, of talent and enterprize, and the whole colony would be ours." A pious layman in another remarks, "It is characteristic of our history, and for. tunate for our principles, that Independents have led the van in every great movement in the Colony of late years; and their love of civil and religious liberty is happily becoming very contagious. We want many genuine men, of sound and fervent piety, of broad views, of untameable activity, and the Colonies, as to pub. lic opinion, would be ours." A similar feeling prevails in other districts, preparing the minds of the people for the faithful administration of the Gospel of Christ.

3. The efforts of Popery and High-churchism constitute another powerful argument for augmented energy by the friends of truth and freedom.

By grants of money from the Local or Imperial Government, and by large sums from the Propaganda Society of Rome, the emissaries of Popery have acquired a status in the Colonies, which gives them an influence which they exercise with untiring zeal. In the year 1822 there were but two Popish priests in the whole of Australasia. There are now two hundred, with eight Bishops and an Archbishop. They are indefatigable in their efforts, striving to insinuate themselves, and to diffuse the poison of their dogmas through all the ramifications of society. The Puseyite, or High-church party of the Protestant establishment are no less zealous, and scarcely less mischievous. Several hundred clergymen have been sent forth, who, with few exceptions, according to the testimony of churchmen themselves, know not the gospel they profess to teach. While "the poor emigrants are calling for the bread of Heaven, they get instead of it the husks of ceremonial observances and precise rituals.” Against these errors are our brethren labouring in the Colonies to contend. Had they not confidence in the power of truth and in the promises of God, they would be ready to despond. But they feel that greater is He that is for them, than all they that are against them. They therefore persevere in their efforts, cheered with the confident hope that "in due time they shall reap if they faint not."

4. Nor have these brethren laboured in vain or spent their strength for nought.

In the success with which their efforts have been crowned, the Committee would recognise an additional motive for still more extended effort. But fifteen years have elapsed since the Society was organised. More than 60 chapels have been erected in the Canadas, and as many churches gathered, comprising 4,000 members, and congregations numbering, it is thought, no fewer than 15,000 hearers. In the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, brethren are labouring at Halifax, Yarmouth, Liverpool, Cheboyne, Musquedoboit, St. John's, and Sheffield. In the Southern hemisphere more than twenty brethren are located in the different Colonies of Australasia, on whose labours a measure of success has attended which has exceeded the most sanguine hopes of the friends of the Society. In many instances large additions to the churches have been made. By letters recently received both from Canada and Australia, the Committee have been gratified to learn that "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord" have been realised, which have greatly encouraged the brethren under the many difficulties they have had to encounter.

The Committee would respectfully but very earnestly invite serious and prayerful considera. tion of these "reasons for increased efforts; " and they cannot but cherish the hope that the friends of the Society will feel their force, and with a more generous liberality sustain the labours in which they are engaged. Let the income of the Society be increased to ever so great and extent, the Committee can employ it in sending forth labourers into the field which is so manifestly white to the harvest.

MANY objects are often best seen by contrast. This holds particularly true of moral matters, a fact which seems to have, in the Divine Mind, determined the regulations of the Final Day. The righteous and the wicked might have been dealt with apart, and have been raised separately, and separately judged; but our reason tells us, that such would have been a very imperfect arrangement, and would, in many points, have failed to illustrate the character of the Divine Government. The party in the case, to which the text refers, seems to have been favourably situated for hearing sounds; music filled the air. Notes of sweetest melody reached him from every side. All lands had become vocal, and their utterances were the expressions of gladness. But these sounds were as

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songs to a heavy heart;" instead of his own soul being kindled up to join in the harmony, he cries out in an agony of distress, My leanness, my leanness! woe unto me!"

It is clear, that while the simile is taken from the flesh, it refers to the spirit; this is a very interesting mode of dealing with such a subject as the soul. In this, we deal with the seen; from that we advance to the unseen. In Psalm xcii. verses 12-14, David says, "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing." Flourishing, in these words, stands opposed to decaying-fruitfulness to barrenness-and fatness to leanness. This is the clear interpretation, and as such, it illustrates the text.

The subject, then, of the Scripture before us, is leanness. This figure, rightly understood, is well fitted to give us the most affecting and alarming notion of the evil that can well be imagined. Many of our readers have heard of the medical term, "Atrophy,”- -a disease which signifies a wasting of the body from defect of nourishment. Its first symptom is languor and inactivity, bad appetite, pale complexion, and functional derangement; the next marked stage, is great emacia

VOL. VIII.

tion, swelling of a particular part of the body, and still increased disorder of the digestive organs. To such a state of things does Job refer when he says, chapter xvi. 8., "Thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face." Job xxxiii. 17-22, presents a most affecting picture; and still more terrible, because of a still different issue, is the language of the prophet Zechariah, xiv. 12: "This shall be the plague where with the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.'

OBSERVATIONS.

I. SPIRITUAL LEANNESS IS THE MOST

AWFUL CALAMITY THAT CAN BEFALL THE

CHURCH OF GOD.

This will at once appear, if due attention be paid to the following things:

1. God is, in such a case, always angry with the people. For this anger there must be an adequate cause. There is nothing merely sovereign or arbitrary in the Divine displeasure, which can only flow from sin, Hosea v. 15: "I will go, and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in their affliction they will seek me early." And such calamity is vastly augmented when the subject of the leanness is insensible to his condition. In that case, the disease will be suffered to advance without a thought of remedy. He will go from bad to worse, till he reach a point when his case will become desperate, and eternal death will stare him in the face!

2. The Holy Spirit, in such a case, is withdrawn; he is the breath of life in the church, collectively, and in the soul of every individual believer; whatever is spiritual among men is the work of his hand; now he may be resisted, grieved, and quenched in a multitude of ways, and the awful fact will first be made manifest in the believer's experince. Need we state what is the immediate consequence of such withdraw

2 4

ment? A diminution of light, life, and power in the soul-all that constituted the kingdom of God within, now becomes the subject of decay. Peace, joy, love, hope-all pine and threaten to die. But the pestilence will not be confined to the emotions; it will reach the understanding: doctrinal errors will anon break forth in divers forms, and in various measures. Pure doctrine will never long outlive the power of the truth in the heart of individual believers, and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the most certain facts of Christian history. The wreck of morality will quickly follow. Morality as the fruit, cannot long survive the death of the tree on which it grows. The result, therefore, of what is gone before, will be the overflowing of ungodliness.

II. SPIRITUAL LEANNESS IS THE MOST AWFUL CALAMITY THAT CAN BEFALL AN UNGODLY WORLD.

When such a woe overtakes the church, what is to become of the world? The work of salvation is necessarily suspended, and the wicked are left to sport with their own deceivings, and to go down to perdition blindfolded, without even an attempt to pluck them as brands from the burning! The Ruler of the darkness of this world recovers the ground he had lost, and once more iniquity is in the ascendant. The vilest of men become exalted, and the wicked walk on every side.

Families remain unconverted to God, congregations cease to be absorbed into churches, and not only so, but they pine and diminish, while the churches become weaker and weaker till they die out. But collective is only the result of individual death; some fall into gross sin, from which they are never recovered; others die at heart; while, like a tree dead at the core, but with the bark sound, they preserve a form of doctrine, and a round of morality for a time, and, in some cases, till the grave swallow them up! Of those that remain in the field of a formal fellowship, one after another drops and as there is an end of conversion, their places are not filled up; and hence the church becomes less, year by year, till at last it is only a skeleton of the original body,- -a skeleton which soon falls to pieces by its own weight, and thus there is an end of the once living Temple of God! Thus the curse spreads, the calamity extends, - the plague-spot first appears upon churches, second upon congregations, third in the neighbourhood of the church, fourth in

our

common country, fifthly in the Heathen World.

III. SPIRITUAL LEANNESS IS A CALAMITY WHICH HAS MANY A TIME ALREADY

OCCURRED ΤΟ THE CHURCH OF GOD, AND WHICH MAY, THEREFORE, OCCUR AGAIN.

This decay began in the times of the Apostles; in most of the regions where the Gospel was first planted; its commencement might be said to be maturity. Babes to day, through the special outpouring of the Spirit, became young men to-morrow; and fathers the third day; but after the first generation, the churches in most places began to decay, and the process of death went onward till utter declension covered all. This principle has received exemplification throughout the whole world. The first fruits have always been the best, and the almost only good fruit that has appeared. The first generation of the Jews in Palestine, were incomparably better than the best that ever after succeeded. The first Christian Churches far surpassed, in point of light, and love, and heavenly mindedness, their successors. To this mournful fact, testimony has been borne in Asia, in Africa, and in Europe. So was it in later times, with the Reformation on the Continent; so was it with the Puritans themselves in New England; and so it has been with Methodism in our own land. Since all this has occurred before, it may occur again. Let him that hath ears, therefore, to hear, hear what history testifies concerning the churches. Even England herself may one day become what Greece has long been-a spiritual charnel-house with here and there a sepulchral lamp rendering the darkness visible. The same causes under the same circumstances never fail to produce the same effects. Satan and sin have undergone no change, and man is, in all points, the same infatuated, polluted creature he ever was. The tendency of individuals, of churches, of whole communities, and of all communities together, is still departure from the living God.

The spirit of the times which are passing over us, is such as to excite in our minds the most serious apprehensions. The statistics of the Christian world at the present hour may well make the ears of the stoutest amongst us to tingle! The facts of the case are such as to excite the deepest solicitude-yea, to prompt sighing and crying amongst those that subordinate everything to the interests of the kingdom of heaven!

Among the effects which ought to flow from it are the following:

FIRST.-A deep solicitude about your own individual condition.

Are you not exposed to the same influences as the multitude who have fallen?-May you not, therefore, be the subject of the same disaster? What is there in your condition that forms a ground of safety as compared with theirs? Is not security, without proper grounds, amid danger, infatuation? Is not the character of the whole, dependent on the character of the parts? If every

member be diseased, where will be the health of the body? The calamity of which we speak, begins with individuals; and only through affecting them does it affect the church collectively. Do then, we beseech you, inquire how the matter goes with your own soul! Look into your heart, and see if "grace be reigning through righteousness!" Is all there sound and healthful? Are you growing in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ, and increasingly counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of him?

SECOND.-Deep solicitude about the condition of the church of which you are a member.

Would it be an awful thing to behold the House of Prayer to which you belong deserted? to behold the House which has hitherto resounded to the voice of praise and prayer, from the lips of the faithful, filled by the silence of death? Do you not cry, "let not this ruin be under my hand?" But it will be under your hand, if in any respect you contribute to it, or if you do not what in you lies to prevent it. Only look about you, and see what has actually occurred, and is now occurring in the land. Are there not houses of prayer, which when you were young were the daily resort of worshipping multitudes, that are now all but deserted?-and are there not others, if not quite extinct, yet in the condition the most precarious? And shall it ever be thus with the edifice in which you were accustomed to worship? Do you not shudder at the thought? But whether it shall or shall not be so, may in part-in a great partdepend upon yourself. Do you ask, then, what is to be done to avert such an evil? The reply is ready. Walk in lovewatch unto prayer-pray without ceasing; and while you pray, labour systematically, skilfully, perseveringly, looking diligently not only to yourself, but your

brother, "lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness spring up among you, whereby many may be defiled."

THIRD.-Prayerful sympathy with the general affliction of the Church of Christ.

This is one of the highest graces of the Christian, and one which, in our day, is, perhaps, the least cultivated. There is too much of a disposition, when piety is low, to look every man and every church upon their own things, and not upon the things which belong to their neighbours. The doctrine of the Apostles was the perfect unity of the church; and as was the doctrine, so was the practice; as the feeling, so the conduct, 1 Cor. xii. 12-23. Let the church look to the world that she may be instructed, corrected, reproved, and shamed! How do the mere men of the world act towards each other in times of famine, pestilence, and war? So ought the children of the kingdom to walk, with more of sympathy and love towards each other.

FOURTH.-Compassion for perishing souls in what are called Christian lands.

The years which are passing over the earth, furnish sufficient cause for sadness. Men may be indifferent to it, but the angels of God are deeply concerned. The joy of heaven is generally but small over the penitence of sinners. In our Old World, for many years, there has been but little or no spiritual spring. In the New World, there is a similar barrenness. Throughout all the earth it is Winter in the Kingdom of God. Shall these things be, and the people of God remain unmoved? Their conduct will prove their diseased condition, and show how much they themselves require the revival of which we speak.

FIFTH.-Compassion for heathen nations, strictly so called.

The church is the appointed instrument of the world's conversion; the first work of the Holy Ghost was to form a church; and that done, he began forthwith, through that church, to convert the unbelieving. This is the established rule, from which there is no departure. Every fresh convert is, therefore, an addition to the means by which the heathen are to be turned to the Lord. Should the church die out, heathenism must for ever remain as it is, or till its fabric shall crumble to pieces by its own weight!

SIXTH.-Zeal for the honour and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

No intelligent observer of what is passing in the world at the present time,