Faith and Hope are personal qualities, Charity is relative. It is not necessarily objective; Charity may be subjective only, nevertheless it can never be limited to self; it is necessarily relative, goes out to others, breaks the bonds of self. "Hast thou faith,” it may be had "to thyself before God;" but for Charity to exist, it embraces others, minding the things of others. And this was the mind "which was also in Christ Jesus."

Thus we see, and as we have been tracing its features, the thought must have again and again occurred, that Charity is a Divine attribute. God is Love; and Christ, the manifestation and revelation of the Father, the highest and only perfect example of Charity. Whilst we are told, may we not say whilst we know, that God is Love, we know that it cannot be said that Faith or Hope can be numbered amongst the attributes of the Eternal Jehovah. We are indeed called frail and failing and unworthy as we prove, with a high and holy calling, even to be partakers of the Divine nature;" and in what respect can we better answer that calling, than for this grace to "be in us and abound?"

There is yet another point in which it is evident that Charity is the greatest of these. Faith and Hope are the children of Time, Charity of Eternity. When we lay our armour down, we have done with Faith and Hope. They are the companions of the voyage; Charity will abide with us when we reach "the desired haven," when "that which is perfect is come." Faith and Hope support us on the journey through the wilderness, Charity is the very atmosphere of the Promised Land. When we cross the

river,

"Faith and Hope are left behind;"

Hope is no longer hope, "for what a man seeth why

doth he yet hope for ?" Faith, too, gives place to sight. But Charity never faileth. Through the countless ages of eternity it shall be with us, no longer in part; and shall swell the loving notes of that new song which the redeemed sing before the Throne "for ever and ever."

"Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on Charity, which is the bond of perfectness."

JAMES BOORNE.

FOR THY NAME'S SAKE.

LUKE xxi. 17.

FOR Thy sake, Lord!

So may we bear the pain

That pierces our poor hearts as with a sword,—
And find it gain.

Lord, for Thy sake!

Since it is only then

That we can see Thee all our treasures take,

And say

"Amen!"

THE GOSPEL FOR THE POOR.

ONE of the strangest anomalies in this age of advanced civilization is the indifference or distaste of the labouring classes to the claims of Christianity. When our Lord was personally on earth, we are told in the sacred narrative, that "the common people heard Him gladly." He Himself gave this as one distinguishing feature of his divine mission:"The poor have the Gospel preached to them." "He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; " whilst the Apostle James thirty years afterwards, addressing the brethren scattered abroad, appeals as to a well-recognized fact amongst them, "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith?"

When we call to remembrance the tender compassion which our Lord displayed towards the helpless, the suffering and the indigent with whom He met; the character of His teachings, when pronouncing blessings on the poor, whilst the rich He sent empty away; the parable of Dives and Lazarus, and the many other similar narratives recorded for our edification, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the glad tidings of great joy to all people are, indeed, pre-eminently adapted for the comfort and joy of those who have but little of this world's goods, and are dependent for their daily bread upon His providing hand.

So many opposite reasons have been assigned for the negligence of the poor in attending public worship, that the idea of hearing from their own lips the main causes of this apathy was a wise one; and no one can have read the report of the Con

erence held lately under the presidency of Edward Miall, embracing the honest outspoken opinions of representative working-men on the one hand, and the kind-hearted responses of Dean Stanley, Dr. Millar, Newman Hall, and other ministers, on the other, without feeling that there is cause for very deep and prayerful reflection on this subject, on the part of every Christian professor.

I will preface the following digest of the views then expressed, by observing that the mere outward attendance at public worship by the labouring classes, affords no test by which to judge their religious state, as compared with that of the upper and middle classes. To draw any comparison, we must strike off the list of upper and middle-class attenders, all those who go to church or chapel for the sake of respectable appearance, or because they would lose in social position if they did not; all who attend that they may be seen, and all who do it to please men rather than God. Those who mix largely in the world, and hear the conversation of the middle classes around them, can best judge how vast a gap it would make in congregations, if, as with the poor, the worldly inducement were just the other way. It is notorious that, amongst the lowest classes of society, they become isolated from the mass of their companions, and break caste in the view of many of their old associates, if they profess to have become "religious;” and to stand well in the opinion of their own friends and equals, is certainly of as great importance in the eyes of the poor as it is of the rich. Then, must we not in honesty deduct also from the roll, all those who deliberately practise in the week that which they professedly pray against on the Sunday; for how can we speak of the " religious state" of those who, while accepting the commandments on one day, openly violate them on

the next? Unless soberness of life and chasteness of conversation be the fruit of religion,-"If any man seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, that man's religion is vain."

Neither do I believe that there is actually less religious feeling throughout our artizan population than in any other. Truly, we often meet with noisy, boastful infidels amongst them (and I dare not say to what extent we the educated classes are responsible for this); but underneath all, there lies in the masses of our people a sort of dull trust in God's providence greater than is displayed in the classes above them; a disposition and readiness to attribute supernatural events to His directing hand; to regard life and health, pestilence and famine as from Him; which propensity, whether we call it religious or superstitious, seems only to need the power of the Spirit of the living Gospel breathed into the torpid framework, to quicken it into the vitality of an active faith.

But my object is not to draw comparisons, but rather to accept the statements as offered; and with this view, without endorsing the opinions expressed, I will briefly summarize the principal reasons given by the working-men for the non-attendance of their fellows at public worship.

The first speaker, a cabinet-maker, asserted one main cause of the existing apathy, was the opposition between professors of science and professors of theology, the working-man standing puzzled between the two. Another reason given by him, was the clergy for the most part siding with the upper classes on all social questions, and not identifying themselves with the temporal interests of the artizan classes; also the irreligious lives and bad tempers of so many of the masters and tradesmen who do go to church. An engineer who followed, gave it as his conviction that people worked so hard, that when Sunday came they were glad to go into the parks and into the country for a little fresh air and quiet; that the ministers did not teach "a pure practical and useful Christianity like as our Lord did ;" and the selfishness and greedi