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النشر الإلكتروني

Sunbeams of Chaught.

THE INFECTIVENESS OF MERE HUMAN METHODS TO RENOVATE SOCIETY.

When some one was enlarging to Coleridge on the tendency for good of some scheme which was expected to regenerate the world, the poet flung into the air the down of a thistle which grew by the roadside, and went on to say 'The tendency of that thistle is towards China, but I know, with assured certainty, it will never get there; nay, it is more than probable that, after sundry eddyings and gyrations up and down, backwards and forwards, it will be found somewhere near the place in which it grew.'-M'COSH.

THE MAMMON MAN.

"There are no propinquities to him in his very nature, indeed, he becomes as little human as that which he adores. Where his gold is buried his affections too are buried. The figure which Salvian uses in speaking of him is scarcely too bold, that his sonl assimilates itself to his treasure, and is transmuted, as it were, into a mere earthly mass."-DR. THOMAS BROWN.

A GOOD BOOK.

A good book is the precious life blood of a master spirit, imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.-MILTON.

CLOISTERED VIRTUE.

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue unexercised, and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.—MILTON.

IMPOLICY OF PUNISHING OPINION.

The punishing of arts enhances their authority; and a forbidden writing is thought to be a certain spark of truth, that flies up in the faces of those who seek to tread it out.-VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

"Humilis" will be attended to.

Letters about the proposed discussion in Liverpool, in our next.

"Observer" writes why should not Christians support a PROPAGANDIST FUND for the defence of Christianity, and the gratuitous circulation of "The Defender." We shall open such a fund in our next, and account for it at the end of each volume. Post Office orders to be made payable to Hunter & Co., 50, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

R. H. N. C. Wait a little longer, and if no attention ispaid to you we shall give them their "due."

The real names and addresses of correspondents required, though not for publication. The Editor does not undertake to return rejected communications.

Our correspondents in different places will do us service by giving us prompt information of what goes on in their localities.

Where our friends in country places have difficulty in getting copies, if they can secure twenty-four subscribers, we shall send copies direct from the office, 50, Grainger Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, pre-paid by post.

Communications and works for review to be addressed to the Editor, 50, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, either direct, or through the publishers.

London: HOULSTON & STONEMAN, 65, Paternoster Row.

AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.

Hunter & Co., Printers, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

a Weekly Magazine,

OF CHRISTIAN EXPOSITION AND ADVOCACY.

Who knows not that truth is strong, next to the Almighty; she needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings to make her victorious, those are the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power.-MILTON.

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The clock strikes twelve. It is the knell of the departed year. Its moments are beyond recall; and yet it lives in its influence upon the future. That influence will never wholly die. This appears to me one of the most solemn and affecting of thoughts-a thought that shows life to be no trifle, and proves the folly of spending it in a trifling spirit. If I would, I cannot live unto myself. I am not a detached and insulated being-I am a part of a great whole,—a sm all link it may be, but still a link in the vast chain of universal being. The movements of that apparently insignificant link may propogate an influence to the extremity of the chain. The faintest breathings of my soul, if only embodied in action, may move chords whose vibrations will be heard for ever in the soft and holy music of gladness, or in the harsh, and horrible notes of despair.

The gentlest whisper may produce ripples on the lake of existence, which will lave the far-off shores of eternity. One cold look may freeze a soul into selfishness, which might have glowed with seraphic love. One word thoughtlessly spoken, may open fountains of bitterness in a spirit never to be healed. One heedless act may crush a heart, capable of everlasting growth in goodness and happiness. And the manifestation of that negative spirit, which boasts of its doing no one any harm, may repress sympathies that would have blessed the world. Of this wonderful fact of my nature I would not complain. For what would life be to me if I could neither be the subject nor the source of influence. Could I bear to be shut out from all sympathy with, from all participation in goodness-to stand all alone in the universe, without a sentiment of friendship, without a hope of love.

No. 4, Vol. 1.

THE DEFENDER.

It is this fact which shows the real value of life. Some would estimate that value by the amount of money a man can make. Life is important to them only as it multiplies their houses, their ships, their barns, their gold. The Christmas that comes to them with an unfavourable balance sheet brings with it the feeling of a lost year. Others value life for the opportunities it brings them of acquiring fame. To be known among their compeers as a man of vast knowledge, of profound genius, of statesmanlike ability is the ambition of their souls; and every step in life that brings them no nearer the goal of their desires is regarded as a false step. Others again value life only for the means it affords of gratifying animal appetites. In their slang, a man knows nothing of life, who has not plunged headlong into the frivolities, and dissipations of an effeminate age. The ball-room, the race-course, the theatre and the fashionable assembly are their favourite resorts. A life of seclusion and of thought would be to them a life of ineffable dulness.

Now, life is valuable, as it results in the originating of holy thought, in the cultivation of pure sentiment, in the development of noble sympathies, and in the performance of benevolent effort; as it contributes to the growth of the soul in all that is praiseworthy; as it is devoted to the glory of God and the good of man. Life is lost when devoted to selfish ends. It is a boon when it is filled with thoughts of God, and with efforts for the wellbeing of man. I must measure its value by the good I can do to others. O that I may never forget that I am spared to see a new year, in order that I may spend it in communicating blessings to my fellow-beings, and in reflecting the infinite love of the great Jehovah.

WHAT J. BARKER SAYS NOW.

Christians ought not to trouble themselves about reforms, about the advancement of natural science, the improvement of the arts, the cure of poverty, the abolition of slavery, the extirpation of disease, the prolongation of of life, the increase of national wealth, the cultivation of taste, &c., &c., if their principles are true. And they cannot do so, if they are impressed with New Testament views of the vanity of the world, the nearness of the world's destruction, and its visions of heaven and hell, as they believe they ought to be. The world in their eyes is a temptation and a snare. 1ts pleasures are danger and death. Their very bodies are foes to their souls. Even marriage itself is not safe. The desire to please a wife, even a christian wife disables a man from pleasing God as he ought Even the righteous can scarcely be saved. Many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. For every idle word; for every jest or humourous expression, they must give an account in the day of judginent. All these things are inconsistent with the Christian's calling. Even a smile may damn him for ought he knows. His God is a consuming fire. What, then, can he consistently do for the physical, the temDoral improvement of mankind? Let the dead bury their dead. Let the Gentiles seek after all these things. This is their country. Their citizenship is here, Ours is in heaven, We are strangers and sojourners; and our journey may end in an hour,

WHAT J. BARKER SAID IN 1842.

WHY WE SHOULD SPREAD THE GOSPEL.

While you labour for the spread of religion, you take the best way for reforming and blessing the whole world. Religion is "the one thing needful" for nations, as well as for individuals. Some look for happier times to new forms of

government; some talk loudly of regenerating society by the spread of earthly science, and some few are dreaming of bringing back the days of paradise, by remodelling society on principles of infidelity and licentiousness: but they are all wrong. Neither changes in forms of governments, nor the spread of earthly science can bless the nations, any farther than the people are previously leavened with the principles of the religion of Christ. And as for the schemes of infidelity, they can end in nothing but disappointment and shame.

But the Gospel is fitted to regenerate all things, and to spread through the dwellings of mankind both the blessings of earth and the foretastes of heaven. It strikes at the root of all evil. It smites down man's proud and selfish passions; it tames his unruly appetites, and turns his savage dispositions into love. It makes the warrior throw down his arms; it makes the oppressor throw down his scourge; it inspires them with love and tenderness, and transforms them into servants of their brethren. It strikes through the corrupt institutions of society like lightning, shakes them to their foundations, and makes them begin at once to moulder and pass away. It is a new element in society, transforming all things, and filling the earth with new and incorruptible forms of holiness and joy. It dissolves the chains of slavery, it fills up the grave of luxury, it grinds to dust the throne of tyranny, it rends the veil of ignorance, it chases away the phantoms of superstition, it improves the health of the body, it increases the fruitfulness of the earth, it extends man's dominion over the elements, it joins the hearts of men together in the bonds of charity, and converts all nations into one grand scene of harmony, and loveliness, and joy.

O yes, it is the Gospel that is the great reformer and benefactor of mankind. The remedies extolled by noisy and turbulent politicians, and by the dark mind ed disseminators of infidelity, have no virtue in them. The political and infidel fanatics are alike, blind leaders of the blind; and instead of conducting their followers to wealth, or happiness, or glory, they will lead them to disappointment and ruin. But the Gospel will accomplish all things. This will dry up the fountain of guilt and of tears for ever. It has done wonders already, and it is doing wonders still. It has softened the spirit of nations; it has checked the rage of war; it has broken the fetters of millions, and it has pronounced the sentence of death upon slavery throughout all lands. It has worked millions of miracles which were never held forth to the gaze of the public. It has cured sad hearts, it has healed broken spirits, and it has turned the tears and the sighs of the desponding into raptures and songs of joy. It has lightened the load of sorrow; it has softened the pangs of affliction; it has sweetened the bread of poverty: it has been a father to the fatherless, and a husband to the widow, and life and consolation to the dying. It has made dungeons into palaces, and deserts into gardens of paradise. It has taught the injured to pray for their foes; it has made the persecuted sleep on rocks, as sweetly as on downy. pillows; and it has taught martyrs to sing amidst the flames, like spirits of a better world. It can still work miracles; as it spreads through the earth, it, will work them before the eyes of all nations; nor will it cease its wonder-working operations, till it has brought down heaven to earth, or lifted up earth to heaven. Who then that loves his fellow-men, and longs to behold a happy world, will not employ his energies to help forward the spread of the Gospel through the world?

The last consideration I shall mention to induce professing Christians to labour for the conversion of their fellow-men, is, the good which is likely to result to themselves from such labours. No man can labour to benefit another, without being benefitted himself. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mere cy." "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth others shall be watered himself." In no case are these words more applicable, than when men are labouring to do good to the souls of men. The thought of blessing a followe creature is always pleasant to the truly benevolent; but when the blessing we

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are seeking to bestow is of such worth as the blessing of religion, and when we are thinking of blessing not one or two,but of contributing to the salvation of the whole human race, the thought delights and fills the whole soul. If there were nothing but this comfortable feeling which arises from the thought of helping on the blessedness of the human family, it is a reward more sweet to the soul of the benevolent, than all the pleasures of selfishness that man can enjoy.

But this is not all. We are blessed in our labours. The work of doing good is the most delightful work in which man can be engaged. The happiest days I ever pass, are the days in which I do most for the welfare of my fellow-men. The works in which I find most delight, and on which I look back with greatest satisfaction, are works of charity to the bodies and souls of my fellow-men. Other works are barren and tasteless, and they neither yield much pleasure while we are engaged in them, nor do they give much comfort in the review; but works of charity are the purest enjoyments of life. Doing good is heaven on earth. There are some professors who are frequently saying, "There is nothing worth living for here," but I caunot agree with them. There is a great deal worth living for. This is worth living for, to administer bliss and salvation to perishing souls. Those who think there is nothing worth living for, do not understand the true end of life. They have not found out the work for which they were placed in the world. They are under the old system of selfishness. They are aiming only at their own happiness, and forgetting their brethren; and this is the reason they find nothing worth living for. But let them begin to live to do good, and they will be of another mind. They will find that there is at least one spring in the desert, whose waters can gladden the soul.

While men are ever looking after their own comfort, comfort runs from them; but when they forget their own comfort, and begin to labour heartily for the happiness of others, happiness springs up in their hearts. The man that runs after his shadow, may run far enough, and never overtake it; his shadow will still be before him: but let him go about his business, and his shadow will run after him. And it is so with the man who is always hunting after something for himself; he is hunting a shadow which he will never be able to overtake : but let him begin to labour for the good of his neighbour, and he will find good to his own soul without further trouble.

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God deals with us as we do with our children. There is a father who has several children, and he makes a present to one of them of some fruit. Away the child runs, and seeks out a secret place where he may devour his fruit alone, for fear his little brothers and sisters should want a share. The father will not give his next present to that selfish child. He next bestows some fruit upon another son. No sooner has he received his father's present, than he calls his little brothers and sisters around him, and shares it with them every one. is the child that the father will love; and this is the child that he will always delight to favour. He will look on the selfish child with pity and grief; but on the generous child, that receives nothing but what it shares with its fellows, he will never think he can bestow too much. So it is with God. The Almighty gives to some of his children wealth, to others he gives learning, and to others he gives the influence and authority of higher station. Some of them apply their wealth, and learning, and influence to their own gratification, or to the aggrandizement of their families. God fixes the mark of his displeasure upon these. Others consecrate their wealth, their learning, and their influence to God, and employ them in lessening the sorrows of their brethren, and spreading through the earth the blessings of salvation. These God sets down as his fa vourites. These are the men to whom God will entrust further blessings; for in blessing these he bestows his blessings upon millions. Would you be blest? Be forward to bless. Would you be cursed? Then shut up the bowels of your compassion from your brethren, and spend your cares and resources upon yourselves alone.

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