and in heaven, not amidst the conflicts and discipline and sinfulness of the earth. The reward of rest is the property of hope, the promise of the life that is to come. The reward of the present is the joy and satisfaction of progress, and the kindling hopes that brighten and strengthen at every step, but are not consummated till our day of life is closed in, till our labor is over and we are taken from our pilgrimage to our home.

This is the spirit of the doctrine that the religious character must be progressive. It is not that we are to do less at any particular time, but that we are never to cease doing. It is not that religion ought never to be revived, but that it should never slumber nor slacken, should begin where it has not begun, be quickened where it is tardy, and go on, 'go on with the goings on of all things around it, blending with life,' blending more and more with feeling and action, keeping up with the days and years, fainting not with fatigue, sleep ing not in indifference, forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth unto the things that are before, and ever holding the communion of holy joy or patient trial with all the mercies and all the discipline of heaven.'

This may seem a hard and strict doctrine, and so it is. But then it is the true doctrine, stated in its broad meaning and requirements and consistently carried out. It is the true doctrine. It is the doctrine of the rational mind and of rational Christianity. It is the only scriptural system we possess, either in theory or practice, to oppose to the plausibility of the revival system. -We must live up to this doctrine, or else we have nothing to show why these excitements with all their

evils and inadequacy are not, after all, the only hope and stay of Christianity in the world.

If then we would be Christians according to our own interpretation of Christianity, if we would be consistent with our faith, we must make this progress, begin it and continue it, as calmly, silently, unpretendingly as we will, but we must make it, or else our boasted progressive religion is nothing but a theory, a word. We must begin where we find ourselves, advance and grow better day by day, and year by year, or our religion is not in us-is but a name to dispute about, or a flimsy garb of outward observances, fit to flaunt in before the world, but is not the wedding garment of the accepted guests of our Lord. We must grow better day by day or we are false to our creed. If we have done one good deed to day, we must do another and a better tomorrow. If we have forsaken a sin or added aught to our good principles or piety to day, be it ever so much, yet our work is not done, we must enter the same field tomorrow, and again, working with equal diligence till the Lord of the harvest shall come to reckon with us.

The sinful and thoughtless may conclude that because a great excitement and the processes of a revival are not generally desirable, they have therefore nothing to do, no particular effort to make, or at least none to make at any particular time. They may take refuge under the perverted doctrine of a progressive religion, and imagine that because it requires no tumult, no violence, it requires nothing. Let us have no sudden changes', say such, they will not last.' Let us have no great excitements-they are unwholesome.' Every

thing must be calm, leisurely, gradual, and nothing must be hurried,'-which amounts in fact to the conclusion, that nothing need be done and nothing begun. But they err fatally, and most fatally according to their own doctrine. Everything is to be done, and instantly begun. The revival system is not best for such because it is not enough for them. A revival will not do, because it may not come soon enough. It is a periodical thing, and another may not come round till they have gone to judgment, and the true doctrine does not allow them to wait a moment. A revival is not enough for them because it will leave their work unfinished; but the true doctrine never releases them from effort and progress till they go to their reward. To throw one's self into the vortex of a great revival and to be carried along through its several stages, and then be proclaimed regenerate and safe, is comparatively an easy thing, a light matter. But to begin with calm resolves and unyielding efforts, and go on with a watchful, patient and untiring diligence, without the aid of superstition and delirium, this is a harder way, but it is the way of christianity, the way of life.

G. P.

REFLECTIONS ON SOME OF THE EVILS OF ORTHODOXY. A FRAGMENT.

It was a year since I had visited this place before--the place of my first ministry, the scenes of my first labor, anxiety, and experience of that mixed hope and fear,

discouragement and satisfaction, seen and unseen trials, which belong to the life, and especially the new life of a minister of the gospel. Here I had once expected to pass all my days. But Providence had differently ordained, and appointed for me other scenes. I came to visit the place with mingled feelings, as I always must, but with no feeling so strong as an interest in the religious condition of those with whom I had once labored.

It was gratifying to find that they remained firm in their faith, faith in the simple unity and paternal character of God, and the frailty, dependance, freedom, peril, and accountableness of all God's rational creatures. From this faith they had not wavered. They had been sorely tried, but had stood fast. They had met with discouragements many and great, losses by death, losses by removal, losses by pecuniary reverses, losses in every way except by defection from the faith. They were few, among many who watched, reviled, scoffed, avoided, and used all means of weakening and scattering this little band of heretics. Nothing that could be done by man or woman had been left undone by these opponents. They had involved not only their religious but their social rights. They had interfered with their domestic arrangements, and attempted, sometimes successfully, to prejudice and alienate servants and laborers, telling them the sin and danger of living under the roof, in the employment, or in any connexion with these unitarians, unbelievers, people of the world. Women, taking upon themselves the character to which an apostle has given the apt though wild name of 'busy-bodies', had visited poor parents, and by

strong representations alarmed them for the safety of their children whom they had placed in liberal families, and thus exposed to infection and soul destroying error. Men, wishing not to be outdone in this dignified and christian duty, had informed those mechanics and workmen who had been bold enough to approach the unitarian church, or discovered any such leaning, that they would forfeit all patronage of the great majority, if they did not join their ranks. Thus had the very lowest and basest motives been addressed, by those who profess to be governed by the highest considerations only. Thus had everything been done, that our laws and customs permit, to visit upon the poor heretics social

and civil disabilities.

And all had been done in vain. No, not wholly in vain. They had prevented great accession to the feeble, unfashionable, uninviting minority. They had drawn the line of separation so broad and deep, that few had the courage, if they had the disposition, to cross it. They had made it for the interest of all to remain with them, and thus secured the many who act in religion, as in everything else, with a view to their interest alone. They had succeeded too in getting up repeated religious excitements, and through these had operated upon the tender hearts and quick imaginations of children, and boasted to have snatched two or three of them as brands from the burning. But not an individual of mature years and reflecting mind had they drawn away from my former people. I went among them all, and rejoiced that I could say to them-'ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terri