making them smart, then you must look out, for the devil does not believe in being made to smart for nothing. We dont care about a life that everybody is in love with. If you have every one's smile, and no one speaks evil of you, then you may speak evil of yourself. If you have no contempt thrown upon you, then fear; but if you are reviled and "persecuted for righteousness sake," then fear not, but go on to do the right, trusting in God, and your own life shall defend you. An honest blacksmith once said, when his character had been grossly defamed, and some friends advised him to seek redress by the law, "No! I will go to my forge and live it down." That is the good man's defence when things rise up against him, he can live them down; and there is no defence like that. Just as the lighthouse lives down the storm at sea, and shines through it, and over it, and after it, so our lives may shine through all opposition, and they may shine on in silent triumph when the opposition has gone.

3. Christian example is influential to rebuke and check sin. There is a good deal of boasting about this age, about its being an enlightened age, an age of science, refinement, and enterprise. No doubt it is a glorious age in many respects, but it has its dark side as well as its bright one. Its increased light and activity only seem to throw the broader and denser shadow. The present is undoubtedly an age of heaven-defying wickedness, and its wickedness is none the less wicked, because it is enlightened and refined. A dark spirit of worldliness, of carnality, of selfishness, and consequent indifference to religion seems at present to brood upon men. Every place but our churches is filled with men and women. Men are sinning in a thousand ways unknown before. Fearful is the mass of our fellow men, with souls as precious as our own, hurrying on, hourly on, into a hopeless eternity. What is to check all this? What is to tell upon the rampant and daring wickedness around us? What is to break through the indifference of men, to startle them in their sin? Is it preaching? Have we not enough preaching of the kind? Have we not as much as is cared for, as much as people will go to listen to? Is it scheming? I think not. There is a good deal of scheming and planning in the church now to catch men, but we fail to catch them. Is it praying? No doubt more earnest prayer would do good, but don't we want something else, something that will put new life into preaching and new power into praying? The great want of this age is not intelligence, nor rhetoric, nor ceremony, nor service, but life and power. We have the "form," we want it animating with the Holy Ghost. believe in the power of that spirit, but we forget how he comes and operates. Does not that spirit come through you and me? Does he not operate through our thoughts and lives? The Penticost came, but did it not come through Peter, John, and James, and

others? and did not these men carry it with them, and keep it up wherever they went? Were they not individually the representatives of the Penticost all through their lives? This is what we want-men with the Spirit. Lives that are sterling, steady, and divinely unctuous. These are the things for rousing indifference, for charging error, for counteracting sin, and for shattering hypocrisy to the ground. Such lives tell, and men cannot help them telling. By coming in contact with such a life, many a sinner has been convicted on the spot. Lord Peterborough, when he lodged with Fenelon, at Cambray, was so charmed with the piety and virtue of the Archbishop, that he exclaimed at parting, “If I stay here any longer, I shall become a Christian in spite of myself." It is life that does it. It is what we are, rather than what we teach, which is our power against sin.

4. Christian example is influential to make Christianity the supreme power among men. Jesus is not a Cæsar, yet he is a king. His kingdom is not of this world, yet it is in this world. And the true position of his kingdom here is not to be a mere tributary, but a supreme power. Christ's rule is to hold all other rulers in subjection. He is the king of truth, and truth is destined to reign. The ruling influence of the present day seems to be that of literature. The press appears to be leading the thought and moulding the character of the age. Carlyle's saying, that "literature is the one modern church," is not altogether a hyperbole. But is truth against literature? No! Superstition and Priestcraft may be against it, but not truth. Christianity is no more against literature than the machinist is against his tools, or the pilgrim against the staff which helps his steps. Literature shall yet be the instrument of religion. It is that already in a great measure. But while literature spreads truth and makes it known, it cannot enthrone it. It is not the "letter but the spirit which giveth life." The spirit of the truth is in Christian example. It is in that more largely and powerfully than in anything else. And while life is the best exponent of Christianity and its best defence, it also has the greatest power to enforce it. That which will popularise the religion of Jesus, which will bring it most into contact with the masses, and give it the greatest influence over them, is not architecture, nor organs, nor millinery, nor shaven priests, nor clapsed Bibles, but simple, Christ-like life.

The influence of example is one of the greatest powers in the world. It is that great power which has developed the world's life and character. From the beginning one man has followed in the track of another. One age has taken up the works of another, and found in them a basis and a pattern for its own operations. In Christianity the power of example is the same. In life, Christianity answers its end. In life, Christianity blossoms and flowers. And

in whatever form it may fail, it cannot fail in life. In teaching it and advocating it, one may fail; but to live it is to give it success. Example is the best advocate, the best defence for Christianity, and the influence of example is its greatest power among men. If it be so, if example and its influence be so powerful, how is it that so little is done? How is it that the Church is so feeble in the world? The reason is plain. Christian examples are not what they ought to be. There is something about Christian men and women of to-day which blights their influence. And we should all try to find out what that something is in ourselves personally. One great reason why example fails is, because it has not thought and purpose in it. We don't mean here that a man should always be conscious of what he is doing, but that he should always be sure he is doing what he ought to do, and what will have the best effect on those about him. In general, people don't think about how they ought to live. When we spend strength or skill, we make a plan, and work accordingly. But when we spend life we carelessly let it go to affect men any way. Baxter says: "We should study as hard how to live well as how to preach well," or as how to do anything else well. Again, our example as Christians is not constant and steady. It is inconsistent. Our lives are contrary to the truth. Our actions contradict our words. We are Christians in some things, but not in all things; in some places but not in all places. Perhaps our dress says to men as we pass them, "All I care for is show and admiration." Perhaps our dealings with men, while they cannot be called dishonest, are not manly and honourable. Or perhaps our foolishing jesting in conversation casts a shadow over our sincerity. Very often what may seem a little thing to us is the dead fly in the ointment. "One proud, surly look, one needless contention, one mean or selfish action," may spoil all our efforts, and blast the work of years. By our inconsistences we mar our work, injure our usefulness, retard Christ's kingdom, and damage men's souls perhaps everlastingly. If the church is to take a bolder stand in the world; if the unbelief of men is to be checked; if the religious indifference of the present day is to be broken down, and if our perishing fellows are more speedily to be saved, then one thing is certain, Christians must live better. There must be less conformity to the world and more to Christ. There must be a closer walk with God, and a holier walk before men. And Christians must not live as though they were more dead than alive, or as though the Bible were an idle tale, but as though they felt continually the force of all its truths, and their own responsibility as followers of Christ. They must live every day as though they believed in the reality of hell, the joy of heaven, the preciousness of men's souls, and the solemnity of the Judgment Day. There is everything to stir us up to live well. There is the fact that we are to be patterns

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to one another. "Be ye followers of me," saith Paul to the Corinthians. (1 Cor. iv. 16.) While we follow Christ we are to lead one another. None of us can be perfect patterns. But we can be examples to one another in some things, while Christ is our example in all things. Now, it is easy to be an example to some men, but we are to be examples to the best of men. Paul could say to his fellow Christians, "follow me." was still above them, and could still lead them on to Christ. Again, there is the result of our example. That will live when we are dead; and it is sweeping on before us into eternity. Every step we take we tread upon chords which reverberate for ever. How important, then, that our influence be good, nay, that it have the best effect which we can give it, for it will go on affecting men when we can do nothing more to counteract it. Also, our opportunity to show a good example will soon be passed. Time is flying over us like the wind. "Eternity is now cutting away the ground under our very feet, and soon we shall wake up and look around for the world we were busy in, and it will be for ever gone." Ah! a workman for God should dread to lose time. The work is so great, and time is so short. Further, example is our best means of usefulness, and it is open to all. Whether we preach, or sing, or pray, to save men, we cannot do anything better than live to save them. Our life is the best sermon; its influence will go the deepest, and last the longest. And if we cannot preach nor teach, nor fill any office in the Church, yet we can live. The humblest can take his share in living for Christ. We can all "so let our light shine before men, that they, seeing our good works, may be led to glorify our Father which is in heaven." W. JOHNSON.

ART. VIII. BAPTISMAL REGENERATION.

HE absurdity of the dogma of baptismal regeneration appears character of the priest who performs the ceremony; the efficacy is the same as if he were an angel. Without a particle of grace in his own soul, he can command the virtues of the Holy Ghost to regenerate the souls of others. Matchless wizard! A child is brought before him, heir of wrath and hell, stained with the deep taint of original sin. The magician lets off a little water out of a tap, or receives it in a jug from a pump, sprinkles a few drops on the child's brow, cries "esto!" and hands back to its parents the wailing thing, who resents the cold affusion, a child of God and an heir of the kingdom of heaven.

Undoubtedly thousands of priests have been habitual drunkards! Undoubtedly thousands have lived in open sin, who yet were almost daily employed in administering baptism. And Catholic doctrine requires us to believe that the result was not vitiated by their vice-that they were the appointed ministers of grace, the approved channels of the Holy Ghost--and that by their polluted hands the children were made clean. What a theological system is this for Europe and America, in these days of steam engines and telegraphs, to contemplate! These notions are the hootings of the owls of the middle ages, whose breed, it seems, is not yet

extinct.

Experimental evidence is the basis of modern science, and the rule laid down by Jesus Christ for testing the claims of professed prophets is, "By their fruits ye shall know them." This rule is very damaging when applied to the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. The existence of a sect called Baptists, who defer the rite of baptism to years of discretion, and of another sect called the Society of Friends, who dispense with it altogether, supplies us with important experimental evidence in this enquiry. Of course the children of Baptists, if Catholic doctrine be correct, ought to exhibit remarkable depravity as compared with Episcopalian and Roman Catholic children; of course, a Quaker ought to be monstrum horrendum. But what is the fact? Why that by far the largest number of criminals, in proportion to the size of the sect, belong to the Roman Catholic persuasion, where baptism is most rigorously maintained; and that, next in the black list, stands Episcopacy, which is so much higher in its views of baptism than Nonconformity.

A Parliamentary paper, issued concerning the number of prisoners in our gaols in England and Wales, in 1872, tabulates them according to their religious denominations. It states that there were, in all, 150,000 persons in prison. Of these, 96,697 belonged to the Church of England; 10,648 were Protestant Dissenters; 38,581 were Roman Catholics; the remainder were Jews, Greeks, and nondescripts. Unless common observation be sorely at fault, the children of Baptists are a long way superior, in point of moral conduct, to the average child sprinkled by the Episcopalian clergyman, or by the Roman Catholic priest. Unless history lies, the average Quaker is several inches taller in philanthropy and spirituality than the average Churchman or Papist. Yet it ought to have been the very reverse if the boasted virtues of baptism by water were anything more substantial than a bubble on the Jordan, bursting at the touch of the first breeze of temptation. It may be said that the superiority in the standard of Baptists and Quakers results from the comparative fewness of their numbers. But, when a thing is very efficacious, the more subjects