to Not long ago, as I have heard, one, who made it his "meat counsel and comfort the poor went to a public dinner; his feelings were all alive with fresh experience of the misery and yet the glory hidden in many a hovel, where the friendless widow by her failing fire finds a friend in heaven, a friend on earth, nearer than all others and dearer than the dearest have been. He unawares began to speak of what touched his heart to those who sat near. By and bye others bent over and listened. The great theme drew him on. He could not pause. He forgot himself, forgot the place. From a glowing heart there flowed in living streams hope for the hopeless, faith in the outcast, love for the friendless, reverence for the most darkened image of God. Before long he felt the unfitness of the theme: but when he looked around, many approving eyes blessed him with their tears, many hearts had feasted as never before at the table of Divine love; many minds, may we not hope, had received enduring, holy impressions, at an hour when no such angel-visitant was looked for, and the gates of the heart stood wide open. This surely was something-Heaven only knows how much. Cold hearts may have been kindled anew at that holy fire, worldly lives touched with spiritual inspiration. Who will not believe and rejoice that good seed was sown? : Again when Adam Clarke, the celebrated Methodist, was journeying North, a young Roman Catholic lady was entrusted to his charge. He felt pledged not to assail her faith. Once only, while her enthusiastic devotion to what he deemed idolatry was boastfully expressed, he made some slight remark like this, that there was as much danger of believing too much as too little. And so he left her, expecting never to meet her again. I cannot say that he even looked forward to meeting her in a world of spirits. But what was his amazement many years after, when a lady came forward at one of his evening lectures, reminded him of this conversation, and added, "Your remark I could not shake off; it clung to me like the poisoned garment which the old Heathen felt eating into his burning frame. I found myself weak where I had imagined most strength. I was forced at last to surrender to the truth. My old faith was but an outer garment of pride and ceremony; now I have one full of life and blessedness. I too am a Protestant." Could Adam Clarke, after this, question the worth of a word fitly spoken? An instance of casting one's bread on the waters and receiving it again after many days, an instance of a very common sort, occurred to the writer of this paper, as he entered upon his professional walks. Invited to meet a hopeless inebriate in the family circle he was desolating, from mere sense of duty I went. I was assured there was nothing to hope. In the interview very little was said directly to him, and that little was about the multiplied motives to fidelity pressed home upon him by the interesting ties God had woven about his heart. He did not seem in the least moved. The soil apparently was all stones. Judge then my astonishment at learning after some time, that that night was an era in the drunkard's history: that that night one lost star returned to its appointed orb, to kindle light and warmth and joy and life around. Surely, we are not to pass by any suffering brother as helpless and dead. God's spirit may be now preparing his spirit to kindle with the first spark. But while we cannot have too much faith in the worth of words fitly spoken, nor be too anxious to send out these good angels with ever-restless feet, let us not forget that there are times and seasons when Providence opens a way and God's voice echoes our feeble accents. Had Adam Clarke pressed home his peculiar views, had he abused his trust and rudely attacked his companion's faith, he would have had, instead of a disciple, a noisy and energetic opponent. The very tale of his illiberality would have been greedily drunk in by many ears, and might have quenched many a better longing. An anecdote illustrating the wisdom of this providence is all I can now offer. As Dr. P. one morning ascended the steps of his church, to conduct the usual service, he was arrested by the rude address of a notorious atheist. The man demanded in loud tones, how he dared to palm off old wives' fables on the deluded people. The Doctor passed him by. "Why," said his wife, "why not reply to him. and defend yourself? "I wait," said he, "God's time." Had the attack been retorted in such a spirit as it might well have provoked, the man would have rushed on to other insults, and might not have stopped till his nature was thoroughly steeled against all good impressions. But Dr. P. did not forget the man; did not lose the memory of him from his prayers. By and bye the godless one was smitten. His wife died suddenly; his fireside was desolated. At once the insulted preacher was at his side with a heart full of sympathy, telling him in simplest words how much he felt for him. He did not allude to the past. He only manifested that spirit which prompted his Master's groan at the grave of Lazarus. It was enough. The hardened nature was melted and won. When years had fled, and that devoted servant of God was himself brought very low, that man was as a ministering angel at his sick bed. When the faithful husbandman was mourning that he had done no more and that he had been such an unprofitable servant, "Ah!" cried this renewed soul,“ say not so. 'Tis enough you have saved my soul!" This anecdote appears to me to suggest our duty as the bearers of unpopular truth :-never to fail of a diligent use of every favoring opportunity, yet never to intrude ourselves uncourteously on the unwilling ear; never to miss the chance of dropping a true word, but never to make that word offensive by a spirit of contention, or boastfulness, or display. F. W. H. PENITENCE. With humbled spirit, prostrate in the dust, By Jesus' life, by Jesus' precepts led, Of living waters,―else we faint and sink. The Father, gracious, hears and answers prayer. X. NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS. THE CHRISTIAN NAME AND CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. A Sermon preached at the Church in Brattle Square, on Sunday, October 30, 1842. By Samuel K. Lothrop, Minister of that Church. Published by request. Boston: 1843. pp. 39, 8vo. THIS Sermon-or these sermons, for the pamphlet consists of two discourses delivered on successive Sundays-was preached by the author before his own people in the usual discharge of ministerial duty, in consequence of receiving a note from an "old member of Brattle Street Society," in which he was requested "to define his position and opinions as to two points;-first, as to the measure of faith that constitutes a man a Christian, that is, gives him a claim to the Christian name and privileges; secondly, as to the principles of Christian liberty, what are they? how to be applied ?" Mr. Lothrop introduces his reply to these questions by remarking on "three qualities of right action," for which the church under his care has "from its institution, near a century and a half ago, until now, been distinguished," viz., independence, liberality, and conservatism. In order to give an answer to the first of the inquiries presented to him, he finds it necessary to consider a previous question,-what is Christianity? And to this his reply is ;"Christianity is a religion of facts. It is a positive and authoritative revelation, resting upon incontrovertible facts." This defininition however, he is aware, may not satisfy all, and he therefore deems it proper for him "to glance at the main objection urged against historical Christianity, and say a word about the close and inseparable connexion existing between historical and spiritual Christianity, in illustration of the fact, that in proving the truth of the former, that is, the facts of the New Testament, the ultimate appeal is made to the same principles of our moral nature that are addressed in asserting the truth of the moral teachings of the New Testament, the spiritual realities of religion." The objection which he proceeds to consider is this,-that Christianity, if placed upon its historical foundation, is made to rest upon an argument respecting "the genuineness and authenticity of the several portions of the New Testament record," of such a nature that few persons can either examine or understand it. But, replies Mr. Lothrop, a similar remark might be made in respect to all (?) other knowledge, and it does not follow from the admission that the proof in any case is recondite or the argument not easily made intelligible, that the knowledge is of no value, or not worthy of reliance. Call this "believing on authority,"—what then? "In most cases this is simply another mode of saying, that you assent to the results of the collected wisdom and investigations of the whole world" (?) The over-statement in this passage is corrected by the more exact language in which the idea in the mind of the writer is presented afterwards. Mr. Lothrop however contends that authority, as here used, has little to do with our Christian faith; which "springs mainly from our own moral perception of the true and the genuine in the evangelical record." Here he may seem for a moment to have conceded the point on which the whole discourse is made to turn, for there are those who make this the basis of their faith, and on this ground admit the excellence-the truth and reality-of Christ's character and teachings, but say they cannot receive the supernatural portions of the New Testament. Mr. Lothrop argues that the natural and the supernatural portions must stand or fall together; that if we separate them, we have no ground left for an intelligent and consistent Christian faith. "The attempt answer to the question,-who Whoever assents to the propo to prove the ordinary events of the New Testament record true, to be received and accredited as facts, while the extraordinary are fables and incredible, is desperate; the logic of historic and critical evidence, and the logic of the moral sense alike oppose it." The way is thus prepared for the has a right to the Christian name. sition presented in the statement, that Christianity is a religion of facts, as now explained and justified. "All who stand upon this foundation, let their creed be what it may, if they go to the teachings of Christ, to the New Testament as a record of facts, for authority and proof to establish and sustain their creed, are embraced among the disciples of Christ." On the other hand, "whoever will not concede to Jesus Christ and the New Testament an au |