in discovery-powerful in national deliberations-among the first of European powers, and behold how they have sunk in the scale of nations-how they are distracted and impoverished at home and despised abroad; who can thus contrast the present with the past, and not long to re-kindle "The Light of other days?"

As we feel concerning the nation, so we feel in relation to the individual man. I never look on a man of ruined fortune without sorrow. There are many such. I heard a day or two ago of a man who had been worth upwards of £90,000 losing every fraction of that vast sum, and passing from the home in which he had lived in splendour to a parish workhouse. The Western Bank of Scotland and other similar establishments which have failed during the late commercial panic have doubtless produced many such cases as that. Now, when I look on the seedy coat and indented hat, and broken boots, of a man reduced from affluence to poverty—when I gaze on his haggard looks, and see in his appearance and demeanour, and hear in the tones of his voice and the character of his conversation the gentleman of bygone years—when I think of the wealth he once possessed, the means of comfort he had at command, his large and costly furnished mansion, his extensive and well-laid-out grounds, the society in which he moved, and the influence he swayed-when I see and remember all this I cannot but feel a tender sorrow for his condition and desire that once more he might enjoy "The Light of other days.”

But as a Christian, and a Christian Minister, there is one case of lost glory which more deeply moves my heart than all others. It is that of a man living in the guilt and degradation and misery of sin, who once enjoyed the blessedness of true religion. My acquaintance with Christian churches supplies many sad and awful illustrations of a backsliding state. The dificulty, I grieve to say, is not

*

*

*

*

to find the cases, but to select the most appropriate. It occurred to me when preparing these remarks that the following facts, for the truthfulness of which I can vouch, might by the blessing of God be mentioned to profit. They show from what heights and to what depths religious professors may fall.

I remember hearing when a boy, on a missionary platform, one of the most eloquent and powerful advocates of the mission cause. He filled a high position in the religious world, and preached to a large and an influential congregation. I shall never forget how I felt when a few years after I was told that the accomplished preacher and orator, whose eloquent descriptions and appeals were still fresh in my recollection, had fallen from his standing in the ministry-disgraced his character and profession and dishonoured his Saviour. All means were tried to save him. But he sank deeper and deeper. He spent his wife's fortune (no inconsiderable one) to gratify his animal passions. He was expatriated, so to speak, by his vice. And only a year or two back he died a drunkard's death, and was buried in a drunkard's grave.

One more case I must name, as in some respects it surpasses all I have read of or known. I knew a man nineteen years ago, who at a time when a great revival of religion took place in one of the churches in the town in which he lived, was awakened from his sinful state-led to seek pardonunited to God through faith in Jesus Christ—and afterwards received into the church. He was about forty years of age-had been a notorious

drunkard, and fighter, and sabbath-breaker-and in addition to being a plague to his family was a pest to the surrounding locality. His change was most decided and striking. He attended all the prayer-meetings held either in the chapel or cottage houses (and at that time these prayermeetings were very numerous there). He soon began to pray publicly himself; and though quite an illiterate man, he prayed with great propriety and acceptance. At the time of his conversion he was ignorant even of his alphabet; but so resolved was he to learn to read the Word of God that he took his seat in the lowest class in the Sabbath School. I often saw him learning with children his letters, and spelling the simplest words in the language. His progress was very rapid; and he was soon able to make out, with a little help, the easier parts of the Holy Scriptures. He was a sawyer by trade, and used to carry his New Testament to his work, so that he might steal a few minutes occasionally through the day to perfect himself in his new studies. He thus, by being humble enough to begin at the beginning, and by an unflinching resolve to overcome all difficulties, learnt to read well. He was a man of shrewd sensemuch knowledge of human nature-and great acquaintance with Divine things. He was a wonder to all who knew him-a marvel to the world and to the church. In his experience and history the lion was changed into a lamb-the vulture into a dove. His home was altered. His wife and children had a different look. The neighbourbood in its increased peacefulness, felt the advantage of his religion. Old things had passed away, and all things had become new. For a few years this delightful state of things continued. At length it was whispered that he had fallen into his old sin of drunkenness. The report was scarcely believed at first. It was considered a slander of the enemy, or a mistake. The most unwilling, however, were compelled ultimately to give it credence. It was too true. He was taken gently by the hand-kindly reproved-encouraged to return to the arms of Christ-and to seek forgiveness where it had been before obtained. For a time he seemed to repent bitterly. But he fell again, and again, and again; and became as confirmed a drunkard as ever. He was separated from the church, and once more identified himself with the world. The last time I saw him, I spoke to him of the long-lost joys of his religious experience and sought to revive some holy emotions and desires in his heart; but found him harder than ever; and could not help fearing that his last state was worse than the first. From the Halifax Lectures, by Rev. W. Walters.

OUR NONCOMFORMITY AND VITAL RELIGION.

The noncomformity of your fathers which you believe in its integrity, began in Puritanism, and the old puritanic doctrine is still its very life, glory, and power. We dearly value the liberty for which our fathers fought; we greatly prefer their simplicity of worship to liturgical services; their parity of ministers to a prelatical hierarchy; their voluntary church to an ecclesiastical establishment; their purity of discipline to unrestricted admission to the Lord's table. But very precious and sacred as are these things to us, far more precious and sacred are the old Protestant, Puritan, Evangelical doctrines which our fathers loved, and for which they were

ever ready to suffer the loss of all things. I need not tell you what they are; you know where to find them, how to preach them, and how to live upon them, as the proper and only sustenance of the spiritual life. You will find them in the preaching of our greatest reformers-Latimer, Bradford, and others of that goodly company of martyrs in the books of the best Puritans, in Butler, Gibbs, and Reynolds-in the shorter catechism which your fathers carefully taught their children—in the works of the ejected ministers, Warton, Howe, Flavel, and many more, and their contempory Congregationalists Owen and Goodwin-in the writings of their successors Matthew Henry, Wright, Watts, Clark, and many others—in the proceedings of those holy and venerable men, the founders of our modern missionary and evangelical institutions, who gave to some of us at our ordination their solemn charge to be faithful to the ministry we had received-and, finally, may I not add, in the articles of faith adopted at its foundation by this Congregational Union? Need I say these old Puritan doctrines are still the power of our preachers and the life of our churches? Need I tell you that by these, I mean the true and proper Deity of the Son of God and of the Holy Ghost, the incarnation of the Son, and the propitiatory sacrifice which He offered in His body for the sins of men-justification by faith in His perfect righteousness imputed to the sinner and accepted by Him-regeneration by the Holy Spirit acting directly upon the heart of the sinner, and producing a life of holy and loving obedience to God-with other correlative doctrines implied in the well-understood term "Evangelical." Without these your noncomformity would be a polity, not a faith; a churchism, not a religion; a formality, not a power; a profession without a life; a liberty not worth fighting for; a truth not worth dying for; a body from which the spirit is departed, and which all your good machinery of Unions and anniversaries, meetings and missions, talkings and preachings, can never revive.-DrHalley, at Congregational Union.

Review.

WILD FLOWERS: how to see, and how to gather them. By SPENCER THOMPSON, London : Routledge and Co.

gardens, and as a medicine, is comparatively found wild. The flowers of all the species we are now alluding to have, like the daisy, a yellow disk, surrounded by a ray of white flowrets, and their stem leaves are much cut and divided, with the exception of those of the common feverfew, or Matricaria Parthenium, which, though much divided, are so in considerably broader segments, with flower somewhat similar to the last, but with disk and ray both white, the green work, or Achillde ptarmica, has acute lanceshaped leaves, sharply serrated, or sawtoothed at the edges. It is not an uncommon plant; but another species of the genus, the common yarrow, or milfoil, (Achilldo millefolium) is more frequent, indeed is common everywhere. Its clustered umbels,

THE HALIFAX LECTURES, 1858:-No. I. to X., by the Rev. W. Walters. Do., Second Series, I & II. London and Leeds: Heaton & Son.

of Liverpool; A. Mursell, of Manchester; | is "not the whole of a man's life. That Chown, of Bradford; and W. Walters, of it cannot remain for ever-that it cannot Halifax, stand preeminent in this kind of useful labour; and we doubt not that the thankful greeting of thousands, and their earnest attention to sacred truths, earnestly delivered are felt by those ministers to be a reward and an encouragement which will more than countervail any opposition or harsh criticism to which their proceedings may have exposed them. Not that any of them are above regarding suggestions from less gifted or adventurous brethren. They will easily avoid the adoption of titles and subjects which shock the sensibilities of well-meaning christians, while they continue, as God may give them strength, their labours of love.

Next to the delivering of these lectures in the way of doing good, comes the printing of them. When this practice began we do not know. Mr. Spurgeon printed the sermons that delighted thousands, at a penny each. Mr. A. Mursell has done the same thing with his lectures in Manchester; and, we are gratified to add, so has Mr. Walters, this year, with his "Halifax Lectures." Thus thousands and tens of thousands are distributed; and let us hope, are of permanent benefit. The volume before us consists of ten lectures delivered at the Odd Fellows' Hall, on the earlier Sabbath afternoons of this year. We have read them with unmingled satisfaction; and though the titles of some sound rather strange, as prefixes to christian discourses, we can assure our readers that there is not one which is not full of good, sound, and usetul truth. Take them as they occur, the title of the first is "Pounds, Shillings and Pence." In this, after an interesting statement of the value of money, in the estimation of men, the lecturer refers to "two ways of getting money—a wrong way and a right," These are well disposed of, and the right use of money is urged on the people. They are then reminded at some length, and with effect, that money

66

bless with happiness-that it cannot give a good character-and that it cannot purchase salvation." The next title is "The Charter," and the substance of the lecture goes to exhibit "the Bible as the charter given by God—whose authority is supreme-given to the world-that it secures liberty, political, social, and religious; knowledge, general and spiritual, and salvation. We have in succession as titles: "General Havelock," Dreams," "Spirit-rapping," "Give the Devil his due," "A Night in Babylon," "Birds of a feather flock together," "Books," "Joseph Shepperd, the Murderer," Perhaps the title here most likely to be challenged is that of No. 6, Give the Devil his due." This was one of the first we read; and what is it? It is a grave and useful discourse on the personality and power of the wicked one, and a strong exhortation to "beware of his devices," and "resist " him.

66

We have already given in an earlier part of this number an extract from one of the autumnal lectures; and to this we refer our readers for a fair specimen of the power and spirit of their estimable author.

While writing these lines we have been repeatedly reminded of a discussion on this kind of irregular labour, to which we listened at the autumnal meeting of the Congregational union in Halifax; and of the terms of strong condemnation in which some of the strange titles adopted (not by Mr. Walters) were referred to. The reply which one minister gave, in substance, shall conclude this notice. "I grant that some of these titles sound strange to polished ears, and I make no apology for any that violate the sanctities of religion; but if by going out of my way a little, and meeting the people on their own ground, and turning their own words to good account, I can interest, instruct, and save them, I shall be most happy to do so."

SOMETHING IS WANTING IN THE CHURCH OF GREAT BRITAIN. What? The Question answered. By A. D. Heaton & Co.

SERIOUS but small. The chief part of | be the first of a series, is an extract from this sixteen-paged pamphlet, intended to "Winslows's Morning Thoughts."

ELIZABETH GUTHRIE: Successively a Sunday scholar, a servant and an invalid. Her Life and Correspondence. Dedicated to the Operatives of the borough of Leeds. Heaton & Son.

Intelligent, interesting and useful.