wather into it; and if you get my Bible, you may serve me that same. No, no, I will keep my cow, and milk it myself, when I shall get the sincere milk, and not as I should from you-mixed with wather.' The priest, finding himself thus defeated, and desirous that the mischief should spread no farther, said in a conciliatory tone- Well, Pat, I see you are a little wiser than I thought you; but, as you are not quite a babe, you may keep your Bible, but don't lend it or read it to your neighbours.' Pat, eyeing his admonitor very cunningly, but seriously, replied- Sure enough, your riverence, while I have a cow, and can give a little milk to my poor neighbours who have none, it is my duty to do so, as a Christian; and saving your riverence, I will. The priest, abashed, walked off immediately, doubtless convinced, to a considerable extent, that the circulation of the pure word of God must ultimately overthrow the superstition and soul-enslaving fabric of Popery.

NO PURGATORY FOR CHRISTIANS.

If God be our God, he is ours for ever, not only through all the ages of time, but to eternity; for it is the everlasting blessedness of glorified saints, that God himself will be with them, and will be their God. (Rev. xxi. 3). If he be our God, he will be our faithful, constant Guide, to show us our way, and to lead us in it; he will be so even unto death, which will be the end of our way, and will bring us to our rest. He will lead and keep us even to the last. He will be our Guide above death. He will so guide us, as to set us above the reach of death, so that it shall not be able to do us any real hurt. He will be our Guide beyond death. He will conduct us to happiness on the other side of death, to a life in which there shall be no more death. If we take the Lord for our God, he will conduct and convey us safe to death, through and beyond death; down to death, and up to glory.-M. H.

PROUD ENGLAND.

England is an exceedingly proud nation, and it would be the greatest anomaly in the history of the world if she were not— for never had any nation so much to be proud of. She is proud of her little isles, and the more so because they are so little, and yet so mighty. She is proud of her London, her Liverpool, and her Manchester, and all her great manufacturing towns and districts. She is proud of her princely merchants, of her immense commerce, of her enormous wealth, and even of her national debt-for what other nation on the globe, she exultingly demands, could pay the interest of such a debt, without any perceptible check to her prosperity? She is proud of her navy, of her dock-yards, of her arsenals, of her Greenwich and Chelsea palaces for invalid warriors, of her hospitals, her asylums, her alms-houses, which stud her islands like strings

of sparkling diamonds. She is proud of her vast foreign possessions and dependencies. She is proud of her Gibraltar, of her tributary princes and emancipated islands. She is proud of her poets-of her Shakspeare, her Milton, her Pope, her Dryden, and hundreds of other inspired souls. She is proud of her philanthropists-of her Howard, her Reynolds, her Coram, and her Gresham. She is proud of her mechanics-of her Smeaton, her Watt, her Telford, her Davy. She is proud of her Westminster Abbey and Westminster Hall, of her cathedrals, of her churches. She is proud of her Drakes, and Nelsons, and Marlboroughs, and Wellingtons-of her divines, her statesmen, and orators-of her Coke, her Littleton, her Bacon, her Newton, her Butler, her Locke. She is proud of what she has been, proud of what she is, proud of the anticipated verdict of posterity in her favour.-The Mirror.

CHILLINGWORTH'S PLAIN ARGUMENT FOR EPISCOPACY.

Episcopal government is acknowledged to have been universally received in the Church presently after the apostles' times; between the apostles' times and that presently after, there was not time enough for, nor possibility of, so great an alteration; and therefore there was no such alteration as is pretended; and therefore Episcopacy, being confessed to be so ancient and catholic, must be granted also to be apostolic.

Treasury.

Lord, what a transcendant, what an infinite love is this! What an object was this for thee to love!—a world of sinners! impotent, wretched creatures, that had despited thee that had no motive for thy favour, but deformity, misery, professed enmity! It had been mercy enough in thee that thou didst not damn the world; but that thou shouldest love it is more than mercy. It was thy great goodness to forbear the acts of just vengeance to the sinful world of man; but to give unto it tokens of thy love is a favour beyond all expression. The least gift from thee had been more than the world could hope for; but that thou shouldest give thine only-begotten Son, the Son of thy love, the Son of thine essence, thy co-equal, co-eternal Son, who was more than ten thousand worlds, to redeem this once forlorn world of sinners, is love above all comprehension of men and angels. What diminution had it been to thee and thine essential glory, O thou great God of heaven, that the souls that sinned should have died and perished everlastingly? Yet so infinite was thy loving mercy, that thou wouldest rather give thine only Son out of thy bosom, than that there should not be a redemption for believers.-Bishop Hall.

What is comfort? Not the intoxicating song of the drunkard!—not the foolish talk of the trifler!-not the nonsense of the man who, for amusement, displays his wit, or rather his folly! What is comfort? It is a satisfaction; something sedative; something well grounded; something that will administer consolation on a death-bed; that will bear up a man, and enable him to cry, O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory ?"-Cecil.

I am aware that it is one of the devices of Satan, after having drawn a soul from God, and entangled him in the net of his own corruptions, to persuade him that the prayer of faith in his circumstances would be presumption; and that it is much more modest and becoming for him to stand aloof both from God and his people. And if by faith were meant, what some would seem to understand by it, a working up ourselves into a persuasion, that, owing to the immutability of God, all is safe and right, whatever be our spirit or conduct, it would be presumptuous enough; but genuine faith in Christ is never out of season. The greater our sin has been, the greater reason there is for us to confess it upon the head of the Gospel Sacri

fice, and to plead for mercy in his name. We may not be able to go, considering ourselves as Christians; but this affords no reason why we should not go as sinners.-Fuller on Religious Declension.

Where holiness is wanting, there cannot be true faith. That man, therefore, has great reason to enquire whether he has ever yet with the heart believed in the Son of God, and in the promise of the Father, who, on comparing his present state with what he was before he professed to believe, finds nothing new, as it regards heavenly things, in the desires and affections of his soul; and whose habits of life are exactly the same, with this slight difference, that he can more adroitly conceal or dissemble his real character in the eyes of those by whom it would be condemned. The same self-esteem, the same love of ease, and the praise and flattery of others; the same self-will, illhumour, discontent, impatience of contradiction...The same unconcern for others; no forbearance, patient endurance, longsuffering, or readiness to forgive...The same want of confidence in God, the same deep-rooted unbelief in the soul, and consequently the same anxious care for the future; the same enquiry, "What shall we eat, what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed ?"...The same forgetfulness of God-of his presence, of his sovereignty-the same indifference to his mercies, the same carnal indolence, the same want of interest in the advancement of the Gospel-of delight in prayer, in praise, and in the study of the Scriptures, and in anticipation of future glory; and, above all, the same terror and alarm when life appears drawing to a close-the same fear of death-the same

horror and dismay when these words are heard, "Set thy house in order, for this very night thy soul shall be required of thee." Undoubtedly, such a character is still exactly in the same position with every unregenerate child of Adam-he is a sinner yet dead in trespasses and sins, alienated from the life of God. Oh, let such an one beware how he says that he has faiththat he believes the testimony of God-that he is a partaker of Christ's salvation. No! the Holy Spirit is not there. The salvation which that Holy Spirit reveals and seals to a soul is not in unison with the world and its lusts; and when God bestows it on a sinner, he delivers him at the same time from the bondage and love of sin.—Dr. Malan's Gospel Seeds.

Church Notices

FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY.

THE LORD'S DAy, or Sunday.—The first day of the week is called the Lord's Day, because our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead on that day. This is the day out of the seven which has always been kept holy by Christians.

Jan. 1. THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST.-" When eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS," a name which signifies Saviour: "for he shall save his people from their sins." (Matt. i. 21). Circumcision was a rite first enjoined to Abraham, by which the Jews, his descendants, were received into covenant with God.

Jan. 6. THE EPIPHANY falls on the twelfth day after Christmas. The word Epiphany means manifestation, or showing of Christ to the Gentiles; which first came to pass when wise men, dwelling in the East, having followed the leading of a star to Bethlehem, found "the young child, with Mary his mother." The manifestation of a Saviour to the Gentiles was, in fact, a manifestation of Him to us. Our land was a habitation of heathens; but our temples are now raised to the true God, and we know Jesus Christ, whom the Father hath sent. Well may we rejoice, and give thanks to God.

Jan. 25. THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.-Saul was a Jew, of the sect of the Pharisees, who took the Roman name, Paul, some time after his conversion to Christianity. He was born at Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, whose inhabitants enjoyed the privileges of Roman citizens; and hence he speaks of himself as a "freeborn" Roman. He was an apostle-" a chosen vessel to bear Christ's name to the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel." Apostle means one sent to preach the Gospel. St. Paul was beheaded in the year 67, in the reign of the emperor Nero.

W. E. Painter, 342, Strand, London, Printer.

The

THE Cathedral of Christ Church, Oxford, is part both of an ancient monastic foundation, and of a modern Protestant establishment. Cardinal College, Henry the Eighth's College, and Christ Church-the several names which this church has held-grew out of two dissolved monasteries of black canons; the abbey of Oseney and the priory of St. Frideswide. date of the dedication to St. Frideswide is uncertain: in some charters of the reign of Henry I. it is styled the "Church of the Holy Trinity, in Oxford;" but we find that in 1081, as Wood states, or 1188, according to others, the relics of the saints were removed from an obscure part of the church to one more suitable to their importance.

Tanner informs us, that about the year 730, Didanus, a petty prince, is said to have opened a nunnery here to the honour of the Virgin Mary and All Saints, which consisted of twelve religious virgins of noble birth, under the government

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