not labour in vain in the Lord. Let him go forth in his appointed field to "preach the gospel to every creature" within the sound of his voice, humbly expecting that God the Holy Spirit will give the increase. Another object of the ministration of the Spirit in the world will be, In due time to take the veil from off the heart of the Jews. This is undoubtedly a special work reserved for the ministra tion of the Spirit; for the failure of every attempt at "the conversion of the Jews," with their continued, if not increased obstinacy and unbelief, render it a perfectly hopeless undertaking on the part of man. But those efforts are not to be neglected or despised, nor are Christians to forget that Paul, who wrote of their callous unbelief, and understood far more of the hardness of their heart than we can ever know, yet fervently prayed "that they might be saved." (Rom. x. 1). Where he prayed, we may also pray; and where it is proper to pray, it is equally proper to labour. But the work of their recovery is plainly reserved for the Spirit. For nearly two thousand years the veil has been upon their hearts, and for that long period God has given them up to the mammon of unrighteousness. The imprecation of their fathers," His blood be upon us and upon our children" has been mysteriously fulfilled through every succeeding age, in a spirit of blindness and unbelief to which creation at large has furnished no parallel; and that unbelief, gathering increased strength and intensity from generation to generation through nearly twenty centuries of hostility to Christ, bids haughty defiance to every human effort to melt its pride or reduce its stubbornness. It is a principle of depravity that has "grown with the growth, and strengthened with the strength" of the forlorn and scattered race; and all the more weighty from the collected prejudices of rolling ages, it stands forth before the world like another Horeb, from which shall flow no living water until smitten by the rod of God. But the rod of God shall smite that desert and when, in the day of the Spirit, the veil shall be taken away" (2 Cor. iii. 16, 17), "what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?" (Rom. xi. 15).—And the special ministration of the Spirit in the world shall be

rock;

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To bring in the fulness of the Gentiles.

This fulness is an amazing and a most comprehensive one, beyond anything the world has hitherto beheld. The idols God will utterly abolish, and the beast and the false prophet he will for ever destroy.

"The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." "The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee (the church) and the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." "The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee (Christ's church) shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." The Divine Redeemer waits to see of the travail of his soul, that he may be satisfied. But what shall satisfy him? Shall it be a few or many? Shall his people be through all time "a little flock," or shall the little one become a thousand? Shall he be the Lord of a section, or shall his redeemed ones be " a multitude which no man can number?" Shall he always exclaim, “To whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?" or shall he have in "all things the pre-eminence?" Surely there is no room to doubt. Surely the "precious blood of Christ" will receive an ample recompense in the day when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." But what shall accomplish all this? Where is the guarantee for this mighty reward apart from "the ministration of the Spirit?"

Whether, consequently, we refer to the calling of God's people in the ordinary employment of the means of grace, or to the recovery of the Jews to the faith of Abraham, or to the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles, or to the united work of the total overthrow of the kingdom of darkness, of which these are but separate parts; the unparalleled greatness of the undertaking, and the obvious inadequacy of all the means at our own command, compel us to throw our sole hope of success upon the declaration of God himself:-"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts,"

Nothing remains, therefore, but that in all our conduct and undertakings, both as christians and as churches, whether for schools, colleges, or missions, we adapt our plans of action to this great system of Divine power, energy, and life" the ministration of the Spirit." And what will avail

our greatest exertion, or our most industrious activity, if it fail to harmonize with this ministration? What better will be the church or the world for all our bustle and all our zeal, if we do not interweave them with the work of the Spirit? Far rather let us sit still, than be active for mischief;-far rather do nothing, than I mislead by a false industry. If "the ministration of the Spirit" be not the recognized law of our churches, our colleges, and our missions;—if our pulpits neglect it, if our ministerial colleges practically ignore it, and if our missions be so sustained and conducted that this ministration is subordinate and inferior to a worldly machinery, then the sooner the whole of them are swept away from the earth, to be superseded by more simple, scriptural, spiritual institutions, the better will it be for all mankind.

The Baptist Evangelical Society, with its unostentatious and appropriate mode of training young men for the Christian ministry, and the Baptist Tract Society, with its invaluable issues, recognize more fully than most other public institutions of the period, the ministration of the Spirit. They resemble rills of pure water, pursuing their noiseless course through a world that admires nothing except the "great," but which afford a sweet and an exhilarating draught to many a weary traveller. In this, their "day of small things," they are overlooked by those fashionable throngs which crowd around more popular associations. The wealth of a showy, worldly religionism flows not

into their coffers, but in the midst of their poverty and comparative obscurity they are telling on Baptist opinion at home, and their quiet labours are sensibly felt in Denmark, Germany, and other Continental States. With means at their command of the very humblest proportions, they have scattered over many a sterile region sound and healthy views of Divine truth, and what is not less important, they have interposed a successful check upon the latitudinarian sentiments of a large class of the English Baptists. The very hostility which their influence has occasioned in various directions is a tacit homage to their efficiency, and nothing is required but a prayerful perseverance in their chosen course to convert that very hostility into sympathy and co-operation at no distant day. To the friends and supporters of those admirable institutions it only requires to be said, -Increase your aid in order to redouble your exertions. Maintain the same scriptural simplicity in the future that has conferred upon you so much honour in the past. Labour hard greatly to widen your field of action; but with whatever may prove to be increased encouragements and enlarged operations in time to come, let it be your fixed and unalterable determination in the strength of God, that in your pulpits, your students, your publications, and your missions, you will adhere, through evil and through good report, to "the ministration of the Spirit." S.

THE STUDY.

FROM the battle-field on which the Reformer expended so much mental and moral power, we must turn to quieter scenes, and gaze on him in the solitude of the study, where he elaborated those productions which shed so much light and truth on many minds, and struck the hoary system of superstition in many lands where his living voice was never

heard. No man can tell the power of a single tract. The man of action may fix the gaze of thousands; around his bold and daring career the imposing and exciting may gather, and public sympathy may concentrate itself for a season, but his power is limited, and his influence may be soon exhausted; but the burning thoughts which are stamped on the paper in the quiet of the cell, perhaps by the

light of the midnight lamp, go forth and touch other minds, and kindle thoughts in other circles. For a season they may appear powerless:-silently they work, like some of nature's wondrous and mighty operations, but they are gathering accumulating force, till in the living form of a Huss or a Luther, they grasp the very strongholds of error, and shake them to their centres. No one can estimate the power of thought as it is flung from the press, and left to imbue the public mind with its own deathless influence. Wickliffe's pen was very prolific.* Whether we look at the number or the variety of subjects on which he wrote, his diligence is astonishing, and the variety and extent of his information not less so. Some of his works have been printed, others still lie scattered amidst the treasures of English or Continental libraries. Some of these were elicited by the spirit of controversy, others are the result of profound thought and more careful preparation. Their range is wide, and they embrace, more or less, everything which would contribute to the elevation and moral dignity of the rising British nation. His controversial ones, though on matters of great moment at the time, are now comparatively useless, excepting as landmarks to indicate the rugged path up which men struggled for mental freedom. Others exhibit the impress of the patriot, and present him as throwing his great and cultivated powers into the conflict which raged during the reign of the third Edward, between the secular and spiritual power; or aiding the noble and rising commonwealth of England in its efforts for constitutional freedom. The mass of them are on subjects which touch man's highest interests. They fill a wide circle, and exhibit his industry as all but limitless. There is a raciness about them which is quite refreshing, whilst they abound with frequent allusions to the manners of the age, and here and there you get glimpses of the inner life of the nation of the most graphic character. The refinements of modern times had no existence. The amenities of literature and controversy were unknown. Massive grandeur, not the softness of culture, the Cyclopean, not the Grecian mould, marked mental efforts. Wickliffe *200 of these were committed to the flames at Prague.

and his contemporaries were like the men who hew out the rough block from which the genius of a Phidias will form the lifelike forms of the highest types of humanity.

It is impossible within the limits of this sketch to even glance at the multifarious productions of his pen. In rapid succession they came forth. Most, if not all, are on matters of vital interest to the community at large. Upon one it would be unpardonable not to dwell. On it, as a basis, the proud pre-eminence of England, as a commercial, political, and moral power, is firmly fixed. No event of the past has so largely contributed to our dignity, as the centre of civilization and the source of religious influence in the Old World. Around our civil code its influences have been shed, and its savageness has retired. It has widened the basis of constitutional liberties, thrown a charm and lustre around our social circle, raised woman to all the softness and chaste dignity which marks her. In danger it has nerved the weak; in sickness, its rich and unfailing influence has soothed, and amidst the hopes and fears which mark the last struggles of humanity, it has opened a pathway of brightness and glory. His translation of God's own Word into the vernacular of the country was this, and more than this. Thought is feeble, and the limits of mind are felt in their oppressive magnitude when we try to estimate the results of such a work. Onward they reach into the ages of the most distant future. Every year augments their richness and value. The past has left the present no legacy so precious. Our youth and manhood have been instructed and moulded by its teaching, and we must hand it down to our children as the palladium of British liberty, and the safeguard of their social and moral dignity. Upon this great work a sentence or two may be expended.

Probably unacquainted with the originals, as most, if not all his contemporaries were, the Reformer translated from the Vulgate; and though only a translation from a translation, it is a fine specimen of the majestic simplicity with which the English tongue was beginning to clothe itself. Before this era, many efforts had been made to give to the people the Scriptures in their own language. Every reader of Bede will be familiar with this fact. Rome had not then reached her

lofty elevation in crime. Upon the Book of God she had not trampled with the scorn and malice of modern Popery. Epitomes, poetical paraphrases of Scripture history, and translations of the Psalms, were not uncommon. Miracle plays and mysteries were based on many of the facts of Scripture history.* Many monks, more useful than others, employed their leisure in this work, and the great Alfred, whose reign sheds such redeeming light on the history of the past, aided by his influence and example this good work. Usher and others have affirmed the existence of a complete version of the whole Scriptures before Wickliffe's times, but, I believe, the very best authorities agree in awarding this distinction to our illustrious countryman. Rapidly the work spread: into the higher circles it entered. No steam press multiplied its copies, yet Anne of Bohemia, the widow of the Black Prince, royal dukes, and noble barons hailed it as an inestimable boom, whilst among the common people it was welcomed with that right-heartedness which ever marks their sense of the bestowment of valued favours. Probably, we can use no other word, as one part was finished, it was issued, and scribes were employed to multiply the copies to meet the growing demand.

The influence of Wickliffe, as a man of letters, was immense. He was a living power in the commonwealth. The genius of English liberty was rising from her repose, and he quickened her movements and aided her triumphs. Widely his opinions spread. They were popular with the people. The progress of his tenets was almost miraculous. So early as 1382, Knighton, one of his bitterest foes, says that every second man throughout England was a Lollard. Groups collected to listen to his books, as some one more competent than his fellows stood in their midst, or elevated above the eager crowd, read them aloud, and knights, with their armed retainers, encircled the multitude to protect them from the aggressions of their foes. No doubt many

* It is rather singular to what an extent the Apocryphal gospels were laid under obligation for materials to these spiritual dramas. The writers appear more familiar with the Gospel of Mary, Protevangelian than those of Matthew, &c. † Godwin's Life of Chaucer, ii. 443.

of the poor itinerant preachers of that age, raised up and employed by the Reformer, engaged in this work. The hostility of his adversaries only augmented his power, and widened the circle of his influence. From the professor's chair he inoculated the minds of British youth who flocked to his lectures with the imperishable principles of liberty and moral responsibility. His efforts were not powerless. On prepared ground the seed fell. To their homes they carried the rich treasure, and amidst their rough dwellings, or on the village green, or in the smiling valley, in the hall of the lordly baron, and the dwellings of the merchant and the artizan, the Reformer and his doctrines became the theme of frequent discussion. The mind of England was prepared. The oppression of the Vatican, and the immoralities of the priesthood had reached a climax. He saw it, and with no niggard hand he scattered the seeds of truth, and before his labour closed, a rich and ripened harvest cheered his spirit, as it lingered on the verge of both worlds. The monkish historians of that age, especially Walsingham and Knighters, who never speak of him without dipping their pen in gall, supply abundant evidences in their pages of the magnitude of his power and the extent of his influence.

Nor was it limited within the boundaries of our own little sea-girt isle. His reputation was European. Widely were his writings circulated. Italy, Austria, Bohemia, and other countries were agitated by them. Copies of them were multiplied rapidly. Mind was awakening from the influences of the past. The immortal masters of Italian song had uttered the most stirring notes, and roused the intellect of Europe. The spectacles and the scenes associated with them, of the Rival heads of the one apostolic church at Rome and Avignon had loosed the hold of the spiritual power over the thoughtful and moral. Everything in the political and ecclesiastical world was favourable to the emancipation of the nation from feudal bondage. This current of feeling was widening and deepening every year, and the broad, unmistakeable sympathies of the Reformer with all that was contributing to the spread of liberty, made him a general favourite. No one can mark the characteristic ten

to God for the measure of success which has attended the labours of the agents of the Society during the past year." He did not know whether in the success referred to in this resolution was included the financial success of the Society. If so, he did not know whether they could very heartily congratulate the Society on its financial position. It did seem to him that 4,0001. was but a very small sum indeed to represent the exertions of the Baptist denomination in its efforts to spread the gospel in the benighted districts of their native land. He was quite aware that there had been a good deal of misrepresentation upon this point, and that the enemies of Christianity often taunted them with neglecting home and devoting an undue amount of attention to foreign parts; and to justify these taunts they were accustomed to refer to the very small sums collected by the Home Missionary Institutions. Now he believed this to be a very unfair way of judging, and for this reason, that the incomes of the Home Missionary Societies represent a very small fraction indeed of what is really done for the benefit of home. At the same time, the sum collected for the Baptist Home Missionary Society was of very small amount, compared with what the denomination was capable of raising, and with what the claims of home in the particular operations in which this Society was engaged positively and solemnly demanded at their hands. However, they were to be thankful for what has been. The Society had been the means of accomplishing a large amount of good, and on this account their gratitude should be called forth. He had listened with a great deal of interest to the statements which had been read by the Secretary, and he had omitted many statements as deeply interesting as those which he had read. He referred to those statements which alluded to the number of individuals that had been baptized and added to the missionary churches during the past year. In looking over the Report he found the following facts:-In one church there had been six baptized, in another church ten, in another church sixteen, in another church twenty, during the past year. Now these instances of usefulness were exceedingly encouraging, and called, as the resolution stated, for devout gratitude to Almighty God. But the second point to which the resolution referred was, Special Efforts-Open-Air and other Special Services. He presumed that these services had aimed particularly to promote the spiritual interests of what are termed the working classes. It must be a cause of great Joy to every sincere believer in Christ that, during the past few years, there had been an unusual amount of interest felt in the humbler class of society. But in connection with this, as he sometimes thought, there had been also a great deal of what he should call cant. The churches had been taunted with having lost their hold upon the lower classes, and the pulpit had been charged with having lost its power over the very poor of the land. Now there was, no doubt, some amount of truth in this. Apparently in many cases they did not find the very poor in their congregations,

and in some other cases they really did not find them. He said apparently, because really there were often those in their congregations who were once the very poor, who were once the very lowest of society, but who, by becoming disciples of Christ, had been raised out of their low position and become respectable members of society. This was the very tendency of the gospel; when it took possession of a man's heart it was sure to transform his character in reference to his course of life in this world. On this account it was, he fancied, that in some cases they did not see the very poor in connection with their churches. But then there was another reason why they had not the very poor amongst them-there was no room for them. In many places of worship there were no seats appropriated especially for the poor, or if there were they were placed in such a position in the chapel that it was a stigma upon those who occupied them. To advert to his own chapel, he might explain that the place would hold about 800 persons. Upwards of 300 of the sittings were entirely free, and they were not placed at the end of the chapel or at the back of the gallery, but in the very centre of the chapel-the very best position. Now these seats were constantly filled, and during the past two years and a half there had been not less than fifty persons occupying those seats received into the membership of the church. Why might it not be so in other places, at all events to some extent, if not to the full? There could be no question that if better provision were made for the poor a much larger number of them would attend. The last part of the resolution spoke of their toils and discouragements; and there were no men, he believed, whose discouragements were greater, and whose toils were more arduous. If it were not that they were influenced by higher than any human motive they must fail in their work. He believed it to be one of their sorest discouragements that they had to dwell amongst a scattered and very small number of people. The character of the people themselves was another discouragement. There were other discouragements. It was the destiny of churches in small places to raise up members who, as soon as they reached the age of maturity, immediately went off to the large towns or to the colonies. Thus many of their churches had been continually plucked of their best members.

The Rev. C. STANFORD, of Camberwell, in seconding the resolution, said he felt proud to be the advocate of the Baptist Home Mission Society, but was a little sorry that with such a report it should be thought to require any platform advocacy at all, in a large influential assembly representing all the Baptists of England. It seemed to him to speak for itself. Its name was enough; and with a simple practical statement of what it is, and what it does and aims to do, it ought to kindle into high enthusiasm all the generosity of the British churches to assist it in carrying forward its noble work. They had heard from the report what it had done, and meant to do; it aims to circulate a