look at the verse which stands at the head of this article. There is not a long word in it. It is to be found in the book of Psalms. It came from the pen of one of the best men of olden times, and he wrote it just as God told him. Many more like it may be found in the bible. Even a child may learn a great deal by thought. So let us think awhile, and see if we cannot find out something of what our text means. What does the sun do? It makes things grow; it casts light and joy on all things; it gives warmth and comfort; it gives beauty and life. Of the sun come all earth's pleasant things. Should the sun set to rise no more, a dreary waste would our world soon become. "The Lord God is a sun." "From Him cometh every good and perfect gift." He made the sun, and it is his holy will that the sun performs. But it is those who have God's love in their hearts who best can tell you how, by the story of a flower-root. In the beginning of winter I put a root deep in the ground. Through all the long cold days it lay there. Those who did not know might have thought it was dead. But spring came. The rays of the warm sun struck through the earth to the root. Then came up the green shoots. The sun smiled on them, and caused the gentle flowers with their lovely colours to come forth. Just so roots or seed are planted by friends in the heart of some dear child. The sun of God's love comes in course of time, and warms them till they bud and grow and bloom. O, Man! these blossoms of early love from a young heart are lovelier far than the fairest of earth's flowers. Pray, my young friends, that God may be a sun to your hearts. If you are not tired, I will tell a story of a bird. This, too, may show you the power of the sun, and help to show what the text means. A friend was walking out one cool day. She saw a bird that seemed to be dead. It lay in the shade close to the wall of the house. She picked it up and placed it where the full light of the sun could fall on it. She watched it, and soon saw its foot move, then its eyelids, and it was not long before it was on it wings high up in the air. The next day we heard it sing a bluebird's song. So does the power of God warm a dead soul to life, and songs of praise must break forth from the lips of a new made child of God. THE BLESSED GIFT. "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." JESUS, when upon earth, had a few very dear friends; and before he died he told them he was going back to his Father's house, meaning heaven, and there he would prepare a place for them. They were very sad when he told them he must suffer and die; but he said, "I will not leave you comfortless. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." Soon after this he died, as he had told them; but after he rose again, he promised that they should be endowed with power and gifts from on high. Ten days after he ascended to heaven, they were all in an upper room, when suddenly there was a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, which filled all the place; and there were sent tongues of fire resting upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. This was the promised gift from on high. We know we cannot see a spirit, and it is hard for us to understand much about the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ himself, in talking of the work of the Spirit, said it was like the wind, which we can hear blow, but we cannot tell whence it comes or where it goes. Look out in the early sunshine, and find a drop of dew glistening in the heart of a rose. Can you tell how in the silent night the dewdrop was formed, or how it came in the flower? You only see that the rose, which the evening before was dusty and drooping, is refreshed by the pure, gentle influence that quietly came into its bosom. Thus it is with the Holy Spirit, which ever since he came to that company of Jesus' followers, has, quietly and unseen, worked upon the hearts of men. When children remember the blessed words of Jesus, when they think of all they are taught in the Sunday school, when they try to be good and obedient, is the Spirit who is quietly acting upon their hearts. A poor little boy was once out in the streets when they were covered with snow. His shoes had holes in them, and through the rags in his coat you could see his poor thin arms. He stood looking in at a shop where he saw plenty of warm stockings and stout shoes, and as he looked he had to keep striking his numbed feet against each other to keep them from freezing. Just then he saw an old lady get into a carriage, MONTHLY RECORD OF PASSING EVENTS. and something fell down in the snow in the gutter. He picked it up-it was a purse, full of money! In an instant he seemed to see the shoes and stockings he could buy, and his poor sick mother comfortable with food and fire. For an instant he was filled with joy, then looking carefully around to see if any one was watching, he slipped it into his pocket. But while he looked, it seemed as if a voice whispered, "Thou, God, seest me.' He heard that verse the Sunday before at the Sunday school, and his cheek burned with shame as he ran after the carriage 263 till he overtook it, and returned the purse to the lady. She saw how poor he looked, and her kind heart was touched. She stepped out of her carriage and bought him warm shoes and stockings, and then went with him to see his sick mother, and became a true friend to them both. May we not believe that it was the Holy Spirit who whispered the truth into the little boy's heart, and the same good Spirit which prompted the lady's deeds of kindness? Monthly Record of Passing Events. CONGRESSES, RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL.— Congresses are evidently the order of the day. During the past month five such gatherings have been held. First, the Social Science Congress at Manchester, under the presidency of the excellent Earl of Shaftesbury. Second, the great Church Congress at York, presided over by Dr. Thompson, the talented Archbishop of that Province. Third, the so-called "Moral Science Association," which is rather a congress in embryo-got up by the indefatigable Dr. Cather, in the Mayor's Parlour at Manchester, and designed to be a sort of Evangelical Alliance on a new principle. Fourth, the Congregational Union Autumnal Meeting at Sheffield; and Fifth (for the Baptists must not be behind other bodies), the Baptist Union Autumnal Meeting at Liverpool. We observe that the two latter bodies are becoming more and more assimilated in their proceedings to the more secular gatherings; papers being prepared and read on various subjects important to the welfare of the Churches, and discussion taken thereupon. This is doubtless a sensible plan, since there is nothing like the free interchange of opinions to elicit truth in principle, and wisdom in plans of action, if conducted honestly and devoutly. At the Congregational Union Meeting an incident occurred which appears (like a cloud much " 'bigger than a man's hand") to indicate a source of danger to all such Unions. The name of an Independent Minister, greatly esteemed by many, was omitted this year from the Congregational year book," which professes to give a complete list of the 66 ministers of the body. The omission was intentional, and served to brand the minister in question as a sort of outcast from the body. Whether rightly or wrongly omitted, it serves to show the dangerous amount of power lodged in the hands of the Editors of the recognized official manual of the Union, and, by consequence, in the hands of the leading officers of the Union itself. The occurrence deserved all the attention that the Rev. Brewin Grant called to it.-At the meeting of the Baptist Union two excellent papers were read which we should be glad to see printed and widely distributed. One by the Rev. John Aldis on "Family worship," in which the importance and valuable results of the duty were cogently and persuasively given; and another by Mr. Benham of London, on the "Financial duties of the Deacon's office," which contained a lucid and comprehensive survey of the entire subject of the finances of a church, and the best modes of their collection and expenditure. Dr. Underhill gave an address on the present condition of Jamaica since the recent disturbances, and was able to report that Sir Henry Storks, the head of the Commissioners appointed to report on the case, had not only requested the Baptist Missionaries in the Island to occupy the disturbed district as a mission station, but had personally visited the officers of the Baptist Missionary Society in London, to call their attention to the same subject. A more decisive vindication of the Baptist Missionaries, and of Dr. Underhill, from the charge of fomenting disaffection in the Island, could hardly have been given. A 264 MONTHLY RECORD OF PASSING EVENTS. vote of thanks to Dr. Underhill for his address was carried by acclamation. THE SUNDAY LEAGUE.-Legal proceedings have been commenced against the Directors of the Crystal Palace Company by a prominent member of the Lord's day Rest Society, for a violation of their charter, on the 2nd and 9th of September, when the Palace was opened to "other than the shareholders "-viz., bodies of working people. The question so long debated will thus be legally tested. Sabbath observance also formed a subject of discussion at the Church Congress at York. The Dean of Ripon spoke strongly against any relaxation of the present enactments on the Sunday observance, while several High Church clergymen appeared to lean in a contrary direction, the Rev. A. B. Denison even giving his sanction to cricket in the intervals of worship in the rural districts. Pastors and Deacons. They are rigidly strict in their communion. Their organ is called the "British Harbinger." WALES.- The "Liberation Society has lately made a series of visits in various parts of Wales. The deputation consisted of Mr. Edward Miall, Mr. Carvell Williams, and Mr. Henry Richards. One of the resolutions passed will show the need that exists for the principality to bestir itself :"That this conference views with the utmost dissatisfaction the mode in which Wales is represented in Parliament-a nation of Nonconformists being without a single Nonconformist representative, and many of the constituents being represented by members who are altogether wanting in sympathy with, if not actually opposed to, the religious and political convictions of an overwhelming majority of the Welsh people." We should hope that action will be taken in this matter, since the majority of voters being Nonconformists, have mainly themselves to blame for their present position. Not long ag Dr. Price was put in nomination for a seat in Parliament, but though that energetic, noble-hearted Welsh minister was well-suited for such a post, we rejoice that he has decided to remain in the sphere of active religious service to which he has so long devoted himself. SIGNS OF ALARM.-It has been the fashion of the "Times" and other leading journals to treat the Romanizing doings of the Ritualists as ecclesiastical vagaries, which might be safely treated with indifference or passed over with ridicule. But the oracle of Printing-house Square has at length found out that it must take another tack to keep right with public opinion.. In its issue of Oct. 19th, appeared a stirring article of great ability, the object of which was to show the avowed Popery of which these same "ecclesiatical vagaries" were the external signs, and contending that if the authorities of the church could not or would not take action in the matter, the laymen of England would find out a way for them-hearty and avowed enemy of the Estab selves. "What is the use of Bishops and Articles," says the " Times," at last, "if not to prevent such things in the Church of England as we are now seeing." We are far from attributing that importance to the utterances of the "Times which many see in them, but as indicating the preponderance of the opinion of the governing classes in any one direction, its articles are often valuable. THE CAMPBELLITES.-Some may not be aware that there is among us a body of Baptists called Campbellites, from a Mr. Campbell their founder. From the report issued at their annual meeting at Nottingham, in August last, it appears that they have in the United Kingdom 107 churches with a membership numbering 3,594 persons. They have a great variety of church officers Bishops, Presidents, Evangelists, Elders, and Helps, besides PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH, late Professor at Oxford, and a churchman, at a public meeting, lately used these remarkable words, "The English Church and the Establishment are two different things; and it was because he was a faithful son of the English Church, that he was a lishment. The English Church could not really live till the Establishment died. No christian church, as such, could properly live when it was identified as an Established Church-which was a patent injustice." Deaths. COOPER.-Departed this life, on October 3rd, aged 21 years, Willey, third son of Mr. George Cooper, of Stanstead Hall, Buttenhem, Suffolk. A lingering consumption thus terminated in the peaceful hope of eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. WALLIS.-Mr. J. Wallis, late pastor of the Church at Bexley Heath, has been called home. He died in a good old age and full of peace. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.-And they went forth and preached everywhere."-MARK xvi. 15-20. "I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."-ACTs xx. 27. "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom."-COLOSSIANS i. 28. In a work so solemn and momentous as that of the gospel ministry, it is of the first possible importance to determine the character of the message which that ministry is appointed to communicate to mankind. Upon this message depends all that is sacred and valuable in the ministry itself, and only in proportion as the message is understood in its full magnitude and comprehensiveness, can there be a true gospel ministry at all. If presented in parts only, or in dislocated sections, how true soever those separate parts or sections may be, the message is impaired, and so far the ministry fails to accomplish the noble purpose of its mission upon earth. It speaks but a part of the truth of Godnot the whole-and to keep back any portion of that which it exists to proclaim, is to dishonour the message and to rob the people of their most sacred rights. The passages quoted at the head of this article describe, in a condensed form, the message itself, and the mode of its communication by the first teachers of the church, and those too the appointed and inspired apostles of the Lord. Plainly, the message is the gospel and nothing else; and the apostles went forth everywhere preaching that gospel,"warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom." In prosecuting their mission they declared "all the counsel of God," and not merely a part of it; for there must have been about them a solemn consciousness that all parts of that counsel were essential to the completeness of the message with whose proclamation they had been entrusted. It was not for them to present it piecemeal, or to detach one portion of it from the rest; but to declare it in all its perfect majesty as the message of the infinitely wise and holy God to a rebellious world. The apostolic preaching and teaching constitute, therefore, the true model of the gospel ministry, and on a careful examination of this model we discover the message of that ministry to consist in the following particulars : 1st. It is a message of Infinite Love and Mercy. It was declared at the very outset by the Saviour himself, that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." That glorious truth stands on the foreground of the message, and occupies the foremost place in the gospel ministry. It assumes that man is lost, worthless, and utterly ruined; that there is no help for him in law, or human merit, or religious performances; and that the blessed God out of pure pity gave his only begotten Son as the one object of faith, and the sole medium of escape from the wrath to come. The gospel ministry is appointed to proclaim this great truth, and to publish it to "every creature," that awakened sinners may know that God is not mere Justice, or Omnipotent power and authority, but that He is Love, full of compassion towards the penitent and believing, and that He "delighteth in mercy." It is, consequently, a ministry of reconciliation, and its most prominent announcement must evermore be, that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." And such is the gospel ministry in every age-and such it remains now-a declaration of infinite love and divine compassion towards a guilty and ruined race, but from whose very ruins God intends by this ministry to choose out a special people for himself. He, therefore, who assumes to be appointed to this ministry, should distinctly understand that his entire mission is based upon the sublime, the everlasting truth that "GoD IS LOVE." From this great truth spring forth all the promises, with the entire ministration of comfort, of teaching, and of sanctification by the Eternal Spirit, with the adoption of sons, the "full assurance of faith," the present security and future glory of all who believe. These, with a noble array of other prerogatives which constitute the property DECEMBER, 1866. 12 266 THE ULTIMATE GLORY OF FILIAL SERVICE. of the saints, the "spiritual blessings in heavenly places by Christ Jesus," all proceed from the one source of grace and glory in the infinite and unmerited love of God. Such is the foremost part of the gospel ministry. 2nd. It is a message declaratory of Infinite Wisdom. (The remaining portion of No. 2 in the next Herald.) THE ULTIMATE GLORY OF FILIAL SERVICE. WHAT a voice to echo through all worlds Behold my servant!" It must have been a blessed voice when heard in heaven. When the obedient angels saw him whom they worshipped "taking upon him the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, humbling himself and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," they were well prepared to worship him anew. When "God highly exalted him and gave him a name above every name," all their tongues were ready to "confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." For now to these bright "morning stars," the mystery of that service of God which is perfect freedom is unveiled in the person of this Son and Servant, and in his gracious services. Nor is it as onlookers merely that they get an insight into this mystery. He carries them with him, and associates them with himself in his subjection to his Father as Servant and Son. They partake with him in the full glory of that double relationship. Service is now to them what it has ever been to him. Divested of every element of precariousness, it is deprived for ever of the element of grievousness. It is their joy and crown. as sons of God "in the first begotten" that these heavenly servants of God now serve him. It is But to the followers of Christ on earth that voice comes home with peculiar power "Behold my servant!" First let us make sure that we do enter into that service of the Son, as undertaken and accomplished for us. It stands for us instead of any service that might be supposed to be required of us as the condition of our peace with God. Let us ever regard his service in that light. As the bankrupt and beggared servants of a righteous God, laden with the burden of long accumulated failures, unable either to cancel the past or satisfy the claims of the present or the future, let us take as our substitute this Servant whom our father has chosen for us. Let us thankfully accept his service as ours; and then, whatever service is now imposed on us, it is as occupying the position in which his service for us has placed us that we meet it. Then, too, it may be expected that the spirit which pervaded all his service shall pervade us also. If our standing be now identical with his; if we "receive the adoption of sons" in and with the Son of God, should not the service of God be to us what it was to him? It may extort from us groans;-it extorted them from him. Its toil may weary us;it wearied him. Its pain may make our our souls, as it made his, "exceeding sorrowful even unto death." But the loyalty to God his Father which marked all his service, should, in its measure, mark that of all his brethren. Not only in the fervid apostle, whom the zeal of God's house is eating up, and the love of souls is urging to an untimely tomb;-not only in the martyr, whose service is to praise God amid the flames;-but in this hewer of wood and that drawer of water, making conscience of serving God in their lowly callings; in yonder poor, bedridden, widowed, or childless soul, content that her service should be solitary, suffering, and waiting for the Lord,-the same mind may be found which was in Christ Jesus. Angels, as they look on, rejoice to perceive how, even in this sin-burdened earth, God has servants who really serve him; and when their earthly service, with all its trials, is o'er, rejoice to carry them to "Abraham's bosom." "His servants shall 'serve him." V. But it is not in the present state of things that the object on which God's heart is set is altogether obtained. Even for the angels, and still more for the saints, a change for the better is in reserve. The things which the angels desire to look into, they cannot so look into as to be satisfied, until the end is. Saints on earth, compassed about with many infirmities and exposed to manifold assaults of the devil, find it no easy matter always to feel |