trolled." It did not occur to this writer, what God was doing with the seedsman; and how the farmer, when he goes forth in the morning to his field to prepare for his harvest, might be saluted by the way, and congratulated that he was going forth to feed God's creatures liberally, though it is not in his heart to do it; but God causes it to be in his hand to do it. There is a noble overflowing largeness in the works and ways of God. What man calls waste abounds on every side. For example, amongst the millions of blossoms which are, at this very moment, at this season of the year, opening their beauteous bosoms, and emitting their fragrant odours in the thousand and ten thousand fields, and gardens, and orchards, how few will bear food for the use of man? But shall they all be wasted therefore? Shall they turn to no other use? O, yes; even the very blight which ruins them for man's use, does itself produce unnumbered myriads of the creatures of God, who feed, and fatten, and enjoy their fleeting existence. The Cabinet. VALUE OF THE HUMAN SOUL.-There is perhaps no consideration which more beautifully illustrates the benevolent character of the angels of God, than their rejoicing over the repentance of one sinner, or which more powerfully sets forth the incalculable value of a human soul; except, indeed, the amazing condescension of the Lord of glory, in descending from the throne of his sanctuary "to seek and to save that which was lost."-Rev. T. Bissland. PATIENCE COMMENDED BY GOD'S EXAMPLE. Long-suffering is God's darling attribute; and what is dear in his sight ought not to be less precious in ours. And how marvellous is his patience, who daily pours his blessings on those men, who as daily offend, affront, and dishonour him; making his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, sending rain on the unjust as well as the just, and not excluding the worst from those blessings, to the least of which the best of us have no title! And although God be provoked every day, yet he holds his hand; and waits patiently, till the last minute of man's trial and the world's duration be past. Although he have the power in his own hands, and the weapons of his indignation are all ready, he defers to strike, if, perhaps, men may at length be led by his long-suffering to repentance, because he wills not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live: and, while judgment sleeps, mercy calls night and day, to sinners, Why will ye die? Repent and ye shall be forgiven. Turn ye, and ye shall live.-Yet God's blessings are abused to the purposes of luxury and lasciviousness; his truth is denied; his commandments are broken; his Church is persecuted; his ministers are insulted; his Son is crucified afresh; and his own long-suffering is made an argument against his existence; and he is still patient. What is man, then, that he should complain?-Bp. Horne. GROWTH IN GRACE. Growth in grace is a very important feature in the Christian life. The body never ceases to grow till it has arrived at perfect maturity. Plants and trees grow without intermission till they have reached their proper height and breadth. The growth of a Christian in faith and holiness is equally necessary, and it is analogous to these. What is it that characterises the growth of animals and of plants? That growth may be very small. It may be slow. It may be scarcely perceptible. But, whatever it be, if it be a healthy growth, it extends to every part of the plant or animal. Every limb, every leaf, every fibre, receives its proportionate increase, ROMISH PROHIBITION OF THE SCRIPTURES.-Many an alarming accusation may doubtless be urged against Romish apostacy. But, perhaps, the most dark and deadly of all its deeds is the prohibition of the study of God's word; since it seals and perpetuates every other error, and excludes, as much as possible, all hope of amendment and reformation. If it had been in the power of some mortal to intercept the light of the sun in its progress from heaven to earth; to arrest, in mid course, the rains which were on their way to fertilise the ground; and if he had exerted a power so mighty for a purpose so disastrous, turning a fruitful world into barrenness, and destroying its entire population, to gratify some sordid interest,-would not such a crime as this be too vast to be expressed in human language? What, then, shall we say of a system which attempts to check the free course of that truth, which is the light and life of the immortal spirit; and hence is as much superior to the light of the sun as eternity is to time? God has spoken from heaven ; the Romish clergy attempt to overpower the sound of his voice. God has given the Scriptures as an epistle from himself to mankind; Romanism places a seal upon the volume. God has commanded us to read; Romanism gives orders, "Read not." Thus does Romanism barricade, as it were, the very gates of Paradise. It says to God, "Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further." It would exclude the Deity from his own empire, and despoil man of his salvation.Booker's Ter-centenary Sermon at Killurin. Poetry. UNION WITH CHRIST DESIRED.* My Saviour! cast me not away My soul in anguish thou hast known, Hast marked each sigh, hast heard each groan; And, weak and worthless though I be, To thee I look, on thee I wait, • From Christian Lady's Magazine. M. A. S. BISHOP MORTON was consecrated Bishop of Chester in 1615, translated to Lichfield in 1618, and to Durham in 1632. He was committed to prison during the Long Parliament, and deprived of his bishopric. He suffered much from the insults of the common people. Under these his troubles, it is related, that he retired first to his patron the Earl of Rutland; after that to one Captain Saunders, in Herefordshire; thence to Mr. Rotherham's, in Bedfordshire; and, at last, going to London, with about 601. (which, it seems, was then his all), he was overtaken on the road by Sir Christopher Yelverton, who, being known to the bishop, though the bishop was unknown to him, and, in discourse, asking the old gentleman what he was, the good bishop replied, I am that old man, the Bishop of Durham, notwithstanding all your votes; for Sir Christopher was not free from the stain of the times. Whereupon Sir Christopher demanded whither he was going? "To London," replied the old gentleman, "to live a little while, and then die." On this, Sir Christopher entered into further discourse with him, took him home with him to Northamptonshire, where he became tutor to that son of his, which was afterwards the incomparably learned Sir Henry Yelverton, and prefaced this most excellent bishop's little piece "of Episcopacy." After some time Sir Christopher died; and then Sir Henry (whom the good old bishop had made a true son of the Church of England, and endeared to himself with the affection of a most tender child) gratefully continued to support him, till God was pleased to call him to a greater reward. This bishop was a person of such exalted devotion, that he seldom answered at the end of any prayer, with a single Amen; would never kneel on a cushion, nor in his last sickness ever prayed with his cap on his head. He professed, at his very last, the highest esteem for the doctrine, discipline, government, and worship of the Church of England; and exhorted those about him to continue stedfast in it. He had a mighty value for the Liturgy, gave express orders to be buried by it, and took great consolation in the Church's preparatives for death, viz. profession of faith, charity, and repentance; absolution, and receiving of the blessed eucharist. The learned Spanhemius, Rivet, Willius, and other great men in the foreign churches, were his acquaintance and correspondents. He died in 1659, in the 95th year of his age.-Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy. MILTON'S RESIGNATION." I do not regard my lot either with weariness or compunction," says Milton, referring to the loss of his sight; "I continue in the same sentiment fixed and immovable; I do not think my God displeased with me, neither is he displeased; on the contrary, I experience and thankfully acknowledge his paternal clemency and benignity towards me in every thing that is of the greatest moment; specially in this, that, he himself consoling and encouraging my spirits, I acquiesce, without a murmur, in his sacred dispensations. It is through his grace that I find my friends, even more than before, kind and officious towards me; that they are my consolers, honourers, visitors, assistants. Those who are of the highest consideration in the republic, finding that the light of my eyes departed from me, not being slothful and inactive, but while I was with constancy and resolution placing myself in the foremost post of danger for the defence of sacred liberty, do not on their parts desert me. Nor is it an occasion of anguish to me, though you count it miserable, that I am fallen in vulgar estimation into the class of the blind, the unfortunate, the wretched, and the helpless; since my hope is, that I am thus brought nearer to the mercy and protection of the Universal Father. There is a path, as the apostle teaches me, through weakness to a more consummate strength: let me, therefore, be helpless, so that in my debility the better and immortal vigour of our human nature may be more effectually displayed; so that, amidst my darkness, the light of the Divine countenance may shine forth more bright: then shall I be at once helpless, and yet of giant strength; blind, yet of vision most penetrating: thus may I be in this helplessness carried on to fulness of joy, and in this darkness surrounded with the light of eternal day." LONDON:-Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE. SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS. BY THE REV. JOHN AYRE, M.A. Minister of St. John's Chapel, Hampstead. sure on the Lord's holy day. PRICE 1d. avowed purpose of providing amusement for the people on their leisure-day; and so anxiously is this object pursued, that, as you see in some of their advertisements, means If it be allowed that the Sabbath was instiare adopted for issuing them, not merely in tuted for a religious purpose, it must be ad- the metropolis, but also in places within 150 mitted, also, that the employments which are or 200 miles of it on the same day. It is on that day lawful ought to have a religious true, by this arrangement, that the printers tendency. This, though an obvious truth, are not occupied on the Sabbath; and this, I seems to be sometimes lost sight of by per- believe, is urged as one argument in favour sons who, while they confess that the Sabbath of such publications: but, as I shall prove, was divinely consecrated for the especial wor- multitudes of other persons are hence enship of God, would yet have it, at least par-couraged both to work and to take their pleatially, occupied in mere worldly amusements. But it is clear from Scripture, that if it is to be sanctified at all, it must be sanctified by an entire rest from both secular business and secular pleasure. I need only refer for evidence in these two particulars to the fourth commandment, "In it thou shalt not do any work;" and to the declaration of the Lord by Isaiah (chap. lviii. 13, 14), "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day,... then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." No austerity is here enjoined; for the service of God is not a hard service, yea, "in his presence there is fulness of joy:" but it is required that our Sabbath occupations be of such a nature as may best promote a religious temper, and aid us in worshipping the Lord "in the beauty of holiness." On these grounds I propose to consider the lawfulness of Sunday newspapers; and I earnestly hope that all those persons who will read the observations I make, may act upon what I shall endeavour to shew are the plain principles of the word of God. Sunday newspapers are published with an VOL. I.-NO. XXIII. For, as papers do not circulate themselves, a great number of newsmen are necessarily employed in delivering them to their respective purchasers. Any one who traverses the streets of London, or its suburbs, on a Sunday morning, will see multitudes of those individuals, with large bundles beneath their arms, busily engaged in knocking at almost every door to leave the newspaper. So painful a labour do they find this, that very many have given public expression to their anxious wish to be delivered from it. It will be, I know, replied, that no newsman is obliged to work against his will, and that those who disapprove of being so employed are at liberty to cease. This is, abstractedly, very true; but there are, it must be remembered, many kinds of compulsion besides physical force. The newsman, if he does not choose to supply you with your Sunday newspaper, will lose your custom, and hence expose himself to worldly loss; and it is not fair, or liberal, or Christian, to place such a temptation in your brother's way. He may not be innocent in yielding to it; but a part, at least, of his fault 2 A belongs to you, who supplied him with such an inducement to commit it. Persons who plead for the lawfulness of pleasure on the Sabbath, ought to consider, that for their recreation, they, as it were, compel others to work. I may also observe, that the temptation is hence increased for the poor to frequent public-houses on the Sunday. A poor man cannot have a paper entirely to himself, at his own home: in order to read it, he has generally to resort to some public place. And for this, among other reasons, we find those places crowded at times when every lover of good order would most desire to see them empty. From all this arises a great neglect of public worship. Some persons are occupied in distributing, others in perusing the Sunday newspapers; and therefore the house of God is forsaken. The paper supplies more immediate amusement than a sermon, and man is naturally disposed to attach himself to those pursuits which appear to furnish the most present pleasure. He is thus induced to forget the service of him who, as his Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, equitably demands the first reverence and first affections of his heart. To say that that is not evil and injurious which generates or fosters an inattention to public worship, is to deny the principles, and overthrow the sanctions, of all religion. The great duty of the Lord's day is the assembling of ourselves in his house of prayer; and to nullify this duty, is to proclaim that man owes his Maker no gratitude, no service. 'overthrown: it ceases to be the religious rest it was intended; nor can it perform its office of renovating the mind for the recurrence of labour. For recreation is best attained by a change, not a cessation of employment; and that rest is most wholesome for both body and mind, which consists in a release from one occupation, in order to a leisure for another. Let the body, freed from grinding toil, partake of gentle exercise; let the mind, turned away from things temporal, survey the glories of those which are eternal, and both will be invigorated. But if the thoughts employed for six days upon the world, are on the seventh also to be fed with similar, only more stimulating food, its appetite will at length be palled, its powers weakened it is wearied instead of being refreshed. : It would be well if those who conduct Sunday newspapers would seriously reflect on these things. They may not themselves labour on the Sabbath, but they are the instruments of imposing labour upon others, and they are spreading temptations in the way of multitudes to turn the Lord's holy day into a day of worldly amusement. If St. Paul, rather than make his brother to offend, resolved to eat no meat while the world stood, thus abstaining from what was in itself indifferent, surely those persons who, as they bear the Christian name, profess to follow Paul as he followed Christ, ought, even if it were to their temporal loss, to abstain from a practice which really violates one of God's commandments. Why will not those newspapers which appear but once a-week choose some other day of publication than Sunday? Much injury arises, also, even where there And why will not Christian men unite in occurs from this source no actual forsaking endeavouring, by kind and temperate methods, of public worship. It is hard, in the midst to prevail on them to cease from that which of worldly occupations, to lift the thoughts must draw down God's displeasure on our to heavenly things. And this is one reason nation? I am no advocate for harshness: why one whole day in seven is to be appro- but I must say, that the voice of the compriated peculiarly to God, in order that, un-munity ought on this point to be lifted up; disturbed by earthly cares, we might render to him a pure offering. But if the news of the week is to be our Sabbath reading, this end is defeated. A man who reads the newspaper just before he goes to church, will not have his mind in a very solemn or appropriate frame for the prayer and praise he is there to join in; and he that betakes himself to the newspaper just after he has listened to a sermon, will be little disposed to " mark, learn, and inwardly digest," the sacred word. Even supposing that the character of the paper he reads is moral and decorous, still it will necessarily waken thoughts and associations which ought on that day to have continued lulled to rest it will necessarily mingle the leaven of the world with his holy things. The object of the Sabbath is in this way and if that voice were to proceed from the mass of religious individuals among us, directed, as surely it would be, by all the ministers of Christ, I cannot doubt that, under God's blessing, it would make itself effectually heard. One thing is very clear. No man who pretends to serve the Lord should, in any way, in his own practice, countenance the evil of Sunday newspapers. He should never admit one into his house; he should resolve no where to peruse one. Else he lends a helping hand to evil, and encourages the spread of irreligion. It is a fearful thing to be partakers in other men's sins. And he who takes a Sunday newspaper is a sharer in that guilt of Sabbath labour, Sabbath amusement, neglect of public worship, and misimprovement he shall come at the end of the world to judge both of it, which I have mentioned. It is no pallia- | him as humble suppliants for mercy, and from whence tion for him to say, that he does not intend such wide-spread evils to follow; he must see that he is, besides his own personal offence, contributing to uphold a system, the results of which are fearfully injurious. And if he be the head of a family, or in any station of influence or authority, how can he think his exertions will be useful in maintaining one of God's commandments, when his example shews how lightly he esteems another? It is manifest that his obedience in other respects is secured not by principle, but by some less worthy motive. He who, for his interest or his pleasure, breaks the fourth commandment, would, did interest or pleasure equally induce him, as readily break all the rest. I am sensible that I might dwell upon a vast number of other particulars connected with this subject; but I have already filled the space allotted me. I can, therefore, only add my earnest prayer, that the few lines which I have traced, I trust with a humble desire for God's glory, may, by his Spirit, be rendered of effectual benefit to those who read them. ASIATIC CHURCHES.-(III.) Smyrna. "And unto the angel of the Church in Smyrna write; These things saith the First and the Last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich,) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death."-Rev. ii. 8-11. THE epistle to this Church materially differs in its tone and character from that addressed to the Church of Ephesus; for while that epistle contained the merited accusation of declension in religion, and a relinquishment of their "first love" on the part of its members, this bears testimony to the firm adherence of the Christians of Smyrna to the cause of truth. Smyrna was a city of Ionia, founded 3000 years ago, a place of great importance, and supposed to have been inhabited by colonists from Ephesus. The Gospel appears to have taken deep root in the hearts of many of its inhabitants, and its fruits were visibly apparent in their characters and conduct. The Lord Jesus Christ, in addressing the angel of this Church, does so in the character of "the First and the Last," the Eternal Jehovah, "without beginning of days or end of years," "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;" as "He who was dead, and is alive," who, though for a season he became subject to the death of the cross, on behalf of ruined man, and lay in the sepulchre, yet arose triumphant on the third day, ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high, where he ever liveth a willing advocate to make intercession for those who draw near to The Church of Smyrna is addressed first in the language of commendation. It is assured by the glorious Saviour, that he is perfectly acquainted with its works, or its whole deportment in the zealous discharge of the several duties of the Christian calling; with the tribulation through which it had been compelled to pass; with the poverty of its members in a temporal point of view-for in spiritual attainments it was pronounced to be rich; and with the blasphemous conduct of those who, under the mask of true religion, were vehemently opposed at heart to all that was good and holy. "Some think," says Scott, "that these men possessed Christianity; but, in their zeal for the Mosaic law, they spoke such things of the person and righteousness of Christ, as amounted to constructive blasphemy: but it is more obvious to conclude, that they were virulent opposers and persecutors, who contradicted and blasphemed,' as the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia had done, at the time when Paul preached among them (Acts, xiii. 45). They professed to be Jews, and the people and worshippers of God; but they were not what they professed to be. Whether they were of the Jewish nation or not, God did not allow of them as his congregation. The rites for which they contended were no longer of any validity; their worship was carnal and hypocritical; they violently opposed the truth and cause of God; and, they were, in fact, of the synagogue of Satan;' a company of people bearing the image, copying the example, doing the works, and combining together to support the kingdom of the devil." All these circumstances were perfectly well known to Him whose eyes run to and fro throughout the world; who is intimately acquainted with all the sufferings and trials of his believing people; and who marks with his decided approbation those who remain stedfast to his cause. The language of warning is also held forth to this Church,-of warning as to the further persecutions it might expect. The Lord Jesus Christ assures them that the great adversary of the human race, whose works He was manifested to destroy, would be permitted to gain a victory over them; for he is still suffered to assail the saints of God, and his enmity would be allowed for a season to prevail. They should be cast into prison for the further trial of their faith, but it would be only for a limited period; for the expression, ten days, may either mean ten years, which is recorded to have been the duration of Domitian's persecution, or a considerable but limited time. The Saviour speaks, however, at the same time, with the voice of encouragement: "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer;" and he concludes with |