CONCERNING MAN AFTER DEATH.

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divine impulses, into a momentary experience, by which a man was taken from his brothers and sisters" here, to the greater gathering of the "fathers" in the vast "under-world."

A gigantic task faced the Leader of Israel. A horde of men and women remained to be civilized, moulded into a "people," organized into a theocracy. But yesterday they leapt out of the boiling caldron of oppression; and though they had gained freedom they carried with them the evil results of long associations with an over-civilized, emasculate, and corrupt people. They could only be formed into a pure and strong nation by the severest discipline, the most resolute exclusion of the old leaven of irreligious error, the concentration of human interest not in the "Lake of the Dead," but in the great and living present; and Moses had the courage to do this: and his silence on man after death is one of the most eloquent witnesses to his sagacity as a leader, tact as a teacher, and calling as a prophet of God. As a wise teacher does not tell all he knows to his pupil, but administers it as the pupil is able to bear it, so Moses fixed attention on present duty, and on temporal rewards and punishments; not because there were no other; but because that present duty supplied the best vocation, and that temporal retribution the most powerful motive to engage their hearts.

This vindicates the legislator and the prophet and teacher at the same time. But if we have not articulate and audible speech, have we no whispers concerning life and immortality? We think we have hints that the patriarchal light was still burning on the other side of the grave, and though it was dim indeed, yet it was really there, not quenched by the smoke and dust of Egypt's errors. (1) There is a witness to the strength of the Hebrew persuasion of the continuousness of man's being after death in the direction contained in Deut. xviii. 11 against necromancy, and the consultation of familiar spirits. Moses acknowledges the persistence of the belief, and denounces the wrong uses to which it is put. (2) His use of the language "gathered to his fathers;" "Sheol," or under-world, are intimations of his own faith in man's survival after death.* (3) But finally, and mainly, Moses evidently was animated with the conviction that fellowship with the Eternal God is the foundation for the hope of human immortality.t God's eternity secures that of His people: His favour, it is life; and His loving-kindness it is better than life. "Because He lives we shall live also."

Mosaism is not utterly bereft of the light which shines out in its fulness only in Him who "has abolished death and brought LIFE and IMMORTALITY to light by His Gospel." JOHN CLIFFORD.

MR. GLADSTONE.-In spite of occasional differences of opinion, he regarded him (Mr. Gladstone), to the end of his life, with undiminished esteem, as the foremost statesman of his age, the fearless champion of liberty and justice, the firm defender of the true interests and real honour of his country through evil report and good report. So wrote Dean Hook.

* General Baptist Magazine, 1879, pp. 124, 125.

+ Oehler's Old Testament Theology, i. 289.

A Fragment on Wills.

BY R. FOULKES GRIFFITHS, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

THE making of a Will is surely a religious duty to those who have seen what trouble and family bickerings, and even destitution, have been occasioned by negligence in this respect. A short time since a neighbour who owned many acres of farm land died, leaving several children, a widow, and little else but his land, worth about three hundred a year. His eldest son had died, after a runaway wedding, leaving one boy. There was no will. The property all went to the grandson, and the aged widow was left to depend on charity!

It would appear that married ladies, under our present men-made laws, have scarcely any right of will-making, though recent laws have given greater power to them. As it is a duty the wife cannot share in-though she may have made or saved most of the money-willmaking has become an unnameable subject in domestic circles. Then will-making has the odour of the "six and eight" about it-which is mostly disagreeable. So the husband keeps his will-like his tobacco pouch or his hotel-bills—all to himself. These things ought not so to be.

Some people delay writing their wills because of a vague notion that it will bring them nearer death, and refuse to make a will with the same awe as they would repel the idea of buying a shroud or coffin. Others associate wills with big legacies to charities and nephews and servants, and as they cannot indulge in this-they make no wills-to the regret of their surviving relatives, who are puzzled as to the wise administration between widow and sons and daughters.

The frequency of legacies of over £20 is strangely in contrast with the utter absence of small legacies of one or two sovereigns,-seeing there are so many more who could afford the latter. Surely pride ought not to keep these small amounts from wills! If the fashion were begun, the presence of such bequests would, like sweet scent, take away the charnel house odour from wills. Some few years ago no will was considered a la mode unless it contained some reflections on the frailty of human life and the excellence of heaven. These prefaces are now out of fashion-the entry of stipulations concerning Church subscriptions-Building Fund-or Home Missions-would be a further reformation, even if only adopted for the same purpose as a verse upon a tombstone. But many of our pious though poor readers would have a deeper pleasure than this in putting some such instructions in their wills, that they might not only give tithes of what they use when living, but also of what they leave unused when dying.

"But a will is such a formidable document, requiring large sheets of paper and red-tape and a good deal of mystery "nay, this is scarcely correct. The only will (except one I wrote for myself) in whose folds my name ever appeared, was written under the following circumstances. One of our deacons asked me to accompany him from the Saturday night prayer meeting to see a sick person who was likely soon to die. We found her in a little house up an alley. She had requested the

A FRAGMENT ON WILLS.

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"deacon" to get a will for her-so he had bought a common will form. It was not, however, to be found in his pocket. The sick woman was very perplexed, as since her husband's death she had maintained her youngest boy-but now she was dying her daughters-in-law were about the house saying how they would divide the furniture-scanty though it was. She thought these women had obtained their share, and wished the surplus from her burial club and the furniture to go to her boy. The thought agitated her very much. The only bit of paper was a sheet out of a penny rent book. There was a little something that was dark in an old medicine bottle. That would do for ink. We dare not go down for a pen, or the women would denounce the old widow-so a pen was cut out of a toothpick. I wrote the will, and the deacon's and my own name appeared as witnesses to the widow's mark. Great was the relief of the old woman, and with a light heart did she listen to a little religious counsel and prayer. I do not say this as an incentive to sick visitors to write wills, but only to show that a will may be a very simple piece of writing, which may yet allay the greedy talk of thoughtless rather than vicious relatives, by appointing a respectable man as executor, even though giving no legacies.

But care should be taken to be accurate. I recollect a fellow student who, when a pastor, wrote a will and left out the "noughts" in the £100 making it only £1. The matter came before the Judge, who very sharply rebuked the amateur will writer. It would be much more sensible for people to ask their neighbours to make a coat for them than to make a will-for the latter requires most skill.

If ever unskilled persons write a will, they ought to do it in simple, plain language-avoiding technical terms, such as "estate" and "heirs." Indeed, if a man has an heir-that is if he has an interest in land-he ought to be careful as to who writes his will. As there is no heirship in any property except land-a will of such property is simpler. There are, however, many dangers, even if simple language is adopted. For instance, a man writes a will leaving his property between four married children in these words, "To be divided between my children John, James, Mary, and Margaret." He shortly afterwards writes another will with the same intention, the verbiage being "to be divided between my children." Before the testator dies, his son John is deceased, leaving issue. Now under the former will these grandchildren would take their father's share, but they would take nothing under the latter, though the intention is evidently the same. Let amateur will-writers beware of this dangerous and grim Equity!

So much, then, about documents whose name is given to the sacred oracles of the old and new "Wills" or "Testaments." Let us, in recognizing the practical utility of a will, avoid the superstitious dread of making one which the nineteenth century paganism so often produces, and so arrange our temporary affairs that death may not come with more disturbing influences than simple nightly sleep.

Hearken to reason, or she will be heard.-George Herbert.

A stubborn man gets into trouble; a peaceable man is imposed on.African Proverb.

This is what it is to be happy, to believe that our thought is shared before it can be spared.-Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

The True Power of Baptist Nonconformity."

BY REV. B. WOOD.

A NONCONFORMIST is one who refuses to submit to the worship, rites, and teachings of a State Church. Hence Nonconformity is "the neglect or refusal to unite with an Established Church," in communion, worship, and labour. The name was first given to those ministers of the gospel who at the Restoration refused to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity, and who were, as the result, ejected from their livings. This was in 1662. Some two thousand ministers, who were among the best men in the country, were deprived of the means of living and of labouring in the Church of England. This was the origin of Nonconformity, as we now understand it.

But Nonconformists are not all Baptists. The majority of them are Pædo-baptists; or, Pædo-rantists-infant-sprinklers. Sprinkling water upon a person is not, as we believe, baptism at all. But on this point let us hear what the Greek Church has to say, "Of late years,' says Dr. Angus, "proposals have been made to bring about a kind of union between the Church of England and the Greek Church; and, I happen to know, on the highest authority that the Greek Church says, in answer, 'If there were no other difficulty in the way of the union of the two churches, there is this difficulty, that we do not believe any of you to be baptized, excepting the Baptists, for you have not been immersed, and the Greek Church maintains that that is the only meaning of the word."" This is the statement of a church of over 100,000,000 members, many of whom are Greeks, who must understand their own language better than foreigners, and who have always immersed ever since they embraced Christianity, and they received it from the apostles of our Lord. This evidence is conclusive.

We believe that baptism is neither more nor less than the immersion in water of a believer in Jesus in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Such being our faith, we must make it known. "For," said Mr. Gladstone, when proposing the memory of the Rev. A. Duff, D.D., at a complimentary dinner at the Westminster Hotel, "in viewing the present state of the Christian world, he thought it best that we should adhere candidly and boldly to that which we believe, not exaggerating things, but, on the other hand, not being ashamed of the colours of the particular regiment in which we serve, nor indisposed in any manner to disavow our convictions." We stand to our "colours," and proclaim our "convictions," while, at the same time, we say, "Grace, mercy, and peace, be with all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."

What, then, is the true power of Baptist Nonconformity ?

I. IT CERTAINLY INCLUDES THE BELIEF OF GOD'S TRUTH. Literally the word truth means conformity to fact or reality. It is "exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be." It includes truth, uprightness, fidelity. We speak of the truth of history,

Substance of the Address given at the Yorkshire Conference held at Heptonstall Slack, June 4th, 1879, by the Chairman, and published by its request.

BAPTIST NONCONFORMITY.

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But more

philosophy, miracles, and the events of every day life. particularly we refer to the leading truths of the Bible, such as the character of God, the person and atonement of Christ, the existence and operations of the Holy Spirit, the sinfulness of man, the justification of believers in Jesus, regeneration, the witness of the Holy Spirit, adoption, sanctification, baptism, the Lord's Supper, death, the resurrection, the day of judgment, everlasting punishment for the finally impenitent, and endless glory for the righteous; in short, the fundamental truths of the word of God. These doctrines lie at the foundation of the Christian system, being to it what roots are to a tree, a foundation to a building, and the sea to the clouds. These truths we are to believe with our whole heart; and then they will so enlighten, purify, fortify, and constrain us, that, like Peter and John, we shall say to all opposing powers, "We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard." Observe

II. IT INCLUDES THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD'S TRUTH.

Truth believed enlightens the mind, subdues the will, purges the conscience, sanctifies the affections, and beautifies the life. It enters the temple of the soul, overturns the tables of the money-changers, turns out all buyers and sellers, and extends its glorious sway over the whole man, bringing every thought, view, motive, purpose and act, into harmony with itself. It puts the soul into possession of peace with God, joy in the Holy Ghost, and a good hope of immortality.

III. IT INCLUDES THE EXEMPLIFICATION OF GOD'S TRUTH.

Those who believe the truth and enjoy its blessings, are to let their light so shine before men, that others, seeing their good works, may glorify their Father who is in heaven. Nay, those who have received the truth are said to be the lights of the world, a city upon a hill, and the salt of the earth. Hence the truth is to be lived out in their lives. They are to be pure in heart, edifying in speech, and helpful in act. They are to be meek, humble, loving, and Christ-like; to be full of "the wisdom that comes from above, that is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated; full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." The leaven of truth within them is so to operate and develop itself in domestic, social, commercial, political, and church life, that ere long the whole lump of humanity shall be permeated with its life-giving influence. If those who name the name of Jesus were only what they profess to be-men and women of Godfull of faith and of the Holy Ghost, living out the great truths of the Bible, indifferentism would soon die, infidelity would hide her head ashamed, and atheism would cease to degrade rational man to a level with the beasts that perish. Holiness is power. However men may object, argue, and despise, with respect to the Christian religion, they cannot withstand the power of a holy life. Hence "the living core and strength of our nonconformity lies in practical godliness, in estrangement from the world, in habitual communion with our divine Redeemer." IV. IT INCLUDES THE PROMULGATION OF GOD'S TRUTH.

The truth has no power to propagate itself. It cannot go into all the world and preach itself. Those who receive, enjoy, and love it, are