358
tontoponitut.
OPEN AIR MEETINGS.
BY EDWARD PAYSON HAMMOND
No. XI
The open air mission has existed in
London for eleven years. During this
whole time it appears that there have
been Christian men who have been so
thoroughly impressed with the utility
of open air preaching, that they have
freely sacrificed time and money to
carry on the work—year after year
they have toiled on, confident of God's
blessing. And yet in this country, so
full of grand philanthropic movements,
nothing of the kind exists.` Thousands
every Sabbath during our summer
months wander in our parks. But few
are found to kindly tell them of the way
of salvation through a crucified Re
deemer.
Ministers of all denominations go
forth under the auspices of the blessed
Christian Commission to preach salve
tiOn to our noble soldiers, and to the
wounded and the dying. They find no
difficulty in speaking to vast audiences.
They return to their people testifying
of the conversion of scores and hun
dreds who listened to the words of
eternal life in the open air. God grant
that th'ese men who have seen the im
mediate and blessed results of "preach
ing, not with enticing word's of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power," may have grace
given them to preach Christ to the per
ishing neglecters of the gospel in their
own cities and towns.
While visiting some of the great
camps and hospitals in the
. vicinity of
Washington, it did my heart, good to see
ministers and laymen sent out by the
Christian Commission doing such a
blessed work for the. Master. For
months, I think, daily meetings were
held at " Camp Convalescent," and no
doubt many in heaven will praise God
for it. True, in the army the open air
is, generally the only place for religious
services; but it•seems to .me that open
air meetings are just as much a neces
sity in our great cities, where the
masses do not , and will come to our
expensive churches. It is startling to
see from statistics what a small percent
age• of our population attend the house
of God.
Bat I intended, with only a few
words, to introduc% an abstract of the
Eleventh Annual report of the open
air mission in London. It is from a
recent number of The Revival.
PRE OPEN AIR MISSION IN LONDON.
. This useful Mission, with the proceedings
of which many of our readers are so well ac
quainted, has recently published its eleventh
annual report, a document which is full of
interesting matter to those who desire the
spread of the gospel among the masses. An
opening
. paragraph states that the society is
unsectarran in its constitution ; its object is
to regulate, encourage, and improve open air
preaching; to bring out properly-qualified
laymen, who will take the gospel of Jesus
Christ to their fellow-creatures assembled out
of doors, at races, fairs, and executions, and
in other places where opportunity is given.
They are encouraged by conferences with
their fellow-workers and are helped by
grants of tracts, and counsel when needed.
When they are sufficiently known to• the
committee, or recommended by their,minis
ter, or by well-known Christian men, they
are. elected as members, and when they take
services at the request of the Mission their
travelling expenses are met.
After stating that there . are upWards of
300 unpaid lay open air preachers in London
besides the 600 city missionaries, Scripture
readers, lay agents, and home missionaries,
the report indicates the qualifications desira
ble for this work.
".Among the qualifications necessary for
an open air preacher may be enumerated a
good voice, naturalness of manner, self-pos
session, a good knowledge of Scripture and
of common things, an ability to adapt him
self to any congregation he may meet with,
good illustrative powers, zeal, prudence, and
common sense, a large, loving heart, a sincere
belief in all he says, entire dependence on
the Holy Spirit for success, a close walk
with God by prayer, and a consistent walk'
before men in a holy life."
The Mission has done much by its useful
conferences of preachers, held at the office
on the last Monday in each month, and by
its judicious selections of members (upwards
of 100 being thus connected with it,) to raise
the tone of open air preaching.
Of the work carried on by the society at
executions, particulars of which appear from
time to time in the Revival, the report states ;
—" One of the most encouraging depart
ments of our work is that which is carried
on at executions. Thousands hear the gos
pel at these gatherings who will not stop to
listen at an ordinary open air service. Those
only who have seen these crowds, especially
in London, can form any conception of what
they really are. Such a mass of wickedness
and misery is not gathered together at any
other time. And yet many of the people
there present will listen to the gospel for
one or two hours while waiting for an execu
tion. To show the extent of these special
efforts, it may be stated that when the five
pirates were hanged on the 22d February,
upwards of 100 Christian men and youths
were at work among the vast crowd, and
72,000 tracts distributed through the Mission
alone, beeides those brought by other per
eons. Seven executions have thus been
visited during the past year, at which four
teen criminals were hanged."
Then follows a list of eighty-five special
gatherings, races,, fairs, etc., which have been
visited during the year. The number of
tracts given on these occasions, and at the
ordinary services, amounts to 755,251.
Speaking of races and fairs,the report says :
—to Me. G. Porter, who has visited a large
number of races and fairs, says, ' From obser
vation of these races and fairs, I feel con
vinced that the race-course is the common
resort of all that is bad: Vice luxuriates in all
tumefied forms of drunkenness, blasphemy,
immorality, etc. The fairs become more de
moralizing every day. And yet among these
assemblies of blackguards, blacklegs,thieves,
drunkards, card-sharpers, gamblers, prosti
tutes, pugilists, and blasphemers, many
church and chapel-goers are to be found who
have put on the profession of Christianity.
They are not there to lift up their voices
against the sins, but to mingle in the throng,
and to gaze upon scenes that if there were
tears in heaven would make angels weep.
A strikin g,though by no means uncommon,
case of usefulness is given in connection with
services in Lincoln's-inn-fields. " A man
more than ninety years of age died recently,
who, it is believed, owes his conversion at
the age of ninety to an open-air service. He
was at one time worth £150,000, but haying
been reduced to deep poverty be determined
to destroy himself. For this purpose one
evening in 1850 he left his house to go into
Lincoln's-inn-fields and watch for an opp - or-'
tunity when only a few persons we're about,
to commit suicide ; it was about nine in the
evening when he reached the above square.
As he was passing through it-he saw a crowd
round a mart who was just commencing to
read the account of the conversion of. the
Philippian jailer. The words, '.Do thyself
no harm,' struck his attention; he stopped
to listen. The .Scripture that was read and
the truths that were spoken were blessed by
God to the old man's soul."_
AlthoUgh the report alio iather•to show
the amount of work done than to record
cases of usefulness, yet here and there we
read of suicides prevented, conversions ef
fected, and Christians stirred , up to greater
earnestness as the result of open air preach
ing. _
The funds.with which so much work has
been accomplished are cornparatiiely small,
the expenditure for the year being only
£385 7s. Bd. We trust that our readers wili
aid so , good and simple and apostolic a, work
by their contributions from time to time.
I pray that the time may come when
such, reports as these shall be common
in our land. In reading the life of the
celebrated Rev. Ralph Wardlaw, D. D.,
of Glasgow, by W. Lindsay Alexander,
D. D., you find that in his palmy days
he was not ashamed to be called " a
street preacher." " There are, few vil
lages,"says his biographer,"around Glas
gow, that have not their reminiscences
of Dr. Wardlnw, preaching at cross
roads, and in, fields. A. regular station
of his during many tuara, was the' top
of Balimannii stre4' wheie on Sabbath
evenings, mounted Chili., he pro
claimed the, unsearchable riches of
Chriit. Nor were these labors unre
warded, for a congregation as attached
as ever pastor possessed soon' gathered
around him. Those who thus flocked
around him were branded as “Wardlaw's
brigade."
One of thofie whq used to listen to the
words of this distinguished pulpit ora
tor and theologian, narrated to his pas
tor his experience in the following .
terms :
"Come awa, Doctor, I niaun just tell
ye a bit o' my experience. When I was
young a man; ,I sat and heard Dr.—,
but it was puit stuff; there wasna pick
ing fora ewe; and ane o' my neebours
advised me to gang and hear Dr. Bal
four; it was gude feeding there, a man
raicht wade up,to the belly amang rye
grass and clover. I thocht mysel real
gude then, I was weel pleased wi' my
self, and I began to mak family worship,
and a bonny hooch I made o't. Some
body spoke about you, and I thocht I
would gang and bear ye. And oh,
Doctor, naebody ever rippet up the mo
nieplies o' my heart as ye did. Ye
showed me what a puir sinfa cratur I
was, ye didna leave me a fut to stand
on ; and noo I'm lying here, doctor,
just trusting to the righteousness o'
Christ, and waiting his time to free me
frae a' my *sine?' .
Surely if an " open air mission" had
been started in Dr. Wardlaw's day, he
would have been one of the first to have
used all his influence in its favor. -It no
doubt cost this great divine a severe
struggle when first he mounted a chair
,
in the street and began .
to speak to a
few, of the truths of God's word, but is
he not now rejoicing in heaven that he
was enabled, with Paul, to hear the
Lord assure him, "My grace is suffi
cient for thee: for my strength is_made
perfeet in weakness?"
I have read of one Antigonus, who,
about to engage in a sea-fight with
Ptolemy's armada-, when the timorous
pilot cried out " Oh, how many more
are they than we?" The fearless king
answered, " It is true if you count their
numbers ; but for how many do yon
count me ?"
Oh, that the Lord would help all his
servants who are humbly striving to do
His will, to say with the Psalmist, "THE
LORD IS ON MY SIDE, I WILL NOT FEAR
WHAT MAN CAN DO UNTO ME."
"My talents, gifts, and graces, Lord,
Into thy gracious hands receive,
And let me live to preach thy word,
And let me to thy glory live,
My every sacred moment spend
In publishing the sinner's Friend.
" I would the precious time redeem,
And longer live for this alone:
To spend and to be spent for them
Who have not yet my Saviour known,
Fully on these my mission prove,
And only breathe to breathe thy love."
THE CASE HONESTLY PUT.
A subscriber to the Cincinnati Presby
ter, who takes a reasonable view of
things, writes thus—" I enclose you
$2 50 for the Presbyter another year.
It always cost me the price of five bush
els of corn to pay for it until this year
and last. This year, although your
price is raised, it only requires two
bushel's and a half peck to pay for it.
Your patrons who are farmers, ought
not to complain if you would no w ftharge
$5 a year."
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1864.
BI3.OWNING'S DEATH OF ST• JOHN.
That man must accept his true posi
tion as a spiritual being yet with limit
ed powers,—that he must not suffer
himself to be pushed into the gulf of
materialism on the one hand, or deluded
into the belief that his is the only spiri
tual being in the universe, and that he
is therefore the sole god,—these are the
positions the poet emphasizes in the
mouth of the dying Evangelist. These
accepted, a belief in the incarnation of
the Eternal Son and in the Gospel word,,
would follow of course. Unbelief springs
from a tendency to one or the other of
these extremeS. But it is the exagge
rated spiritualism—the self exaltation
of modern spoculatiOn--- - - - that the poet
more especially contemplates,and repre
sents as formidable in the anticipation
of the dying saint. Men of this turn of
mind are fixed in the flattering opinion
that their race is the repOsitory---‘if not ,
of all the power and the love in the uni
verse—yet of all the kinds of power and
love in the universe. - Rather ."do they
credit humanity with a positive supe
riority, in that they assume to them
selves all the intelligence
. and freedom
in the world, and -refuge to allow of any
thing beyond FORCE in the world around
them. Man is the creator, according to
these presumptuous anti profane think
ers, of all that,professelto be a revelation
in Christianity, quite as much as he is
of the myths of heathen antiquity. All
is but the reflection of \his own inward
experience. Man is " turned round on
himself," worships himself, and dies.
The poet aims his heaviest weapons,
therefore, at a speculative unbelief
which, in fact amounts to Atheism, or
the denial of the possibility of a revela
tion. That other class of unbelievers,
who profess to admit the fact of a reve
lation, but who assume the right to deal
with its miracles and its concrete facts
as suits their theories, while they pro
fess to retain its Ideas as its edsential
part, do not receive ho much of his at
tention. Yet he has Said enough to in
dicate his own . position as .a believer in
the Gospel miracles as facto and to be
distinguished from the spurious marvels
of mythology. . Farther light is thrown
upon the poet's views on this point,
however, in a poem belonging to a
somewhat earlier volume,* and called
" Christmas Eve." Here the poet re
presents himself,among other Christmas
Eve experiences, as listening to a Ger
man Professor, lecturing upon the
" Myth of Christ." The lecturer states
the case in the following—which may
be styled the most approved Straussian
—fashion :
Whether 'twere best opine Christ was,
Or never was at all, or whether
He was, and was not, both together—
It matters little for the name,
So the Idea be left the same.
The poet reviews the positions of the
lecturer and distinctly repudiates them.
Others, he says, poison the atmosphere
of truth,
" But the Critic leaves no air to poison,
Pumps out by a ruthless ingenuity
Atom by atom, and leaves youvacuity,
I Thus much of Christ does he reject!
- And what retain ?"
Over against this destructive critical
an
alysis and atbitiary , =selection of what
the Critic calls "ideas," the poet places
the plain declaratiOns of Christ him
self: -
What is the point where himself lays stress ?
Does the precept run "Believe in Good,
In Justice, Truth, now understood
For the first time ?"—or " Believe in ME,
Who lived and died, yet essentially
Am Lord bail-Fife ?" Whoever can take
The same to his heart, and for mere love's sake
Conceive of the love,—that man obtains
Anew truth; no conviction gains
Of an old one only, made intense
By a fresh appeal to his faded sense
These extracts show that the poet ful
ly recognizes the supreme importance of
the concrete facts of Christ's life. The
emphasis placed by him upon the wit
ness of the Apostle John himself to these
facts—referred to frequently in the
poem on his death—also shows in what
light he regards them. A true histori
cal personage, whose life, marvels,
teaching and death are recorded, not in
myths, but in historical books, written
by living and trustworthy witnesses,—
such is the Christ of Robert Browning.
And yet He is the incarnate Son, He is
God in Christ, acknowledged several
times over iia those very terms, by the
devout poet. There is no sympathy
whatever between his views and those
of Renan, Strauss and Schenkel on the
character of Jesus. On the contrary,
Browning seems to enter consciously
into the lists against these arch-carica
turists,whose opinions are so current in
Europe. He appears to have actually
taken up the cause of Evangelical Chris
tianity, and engaged in the vigorous de
fence of that conception of the Foun
der's character, which corresponds to
the views of the simplest believers in a
divine Saviour.
We close by quoting the lines which
*Sonnuto, Strafford, Christmas Eve and Easter Day,
By Robert Browning.. Boston: T.cknor & Fields.
1864. The last two pieces in this volume are well
worthy a separate treatment in, this connection, and
may possibly mceive it at our hands.
FOURTH PAPER-•-AND LAST
form the conclusion of the ( 4 Death in the
Desert." The manuscript containing the
story of the Evangelist's Death is repre
sented as falling into the hands of Cer
inthus, one of the earliest opponents of
the doctrine of the divinity of Christ ;
and to have received some additions
from another hand. It will be seen
that not only the possibility, but the
fact of the sinner's death (which Brown
ing elsewhere seems to question) is as
serted in the concluding line of the
poem. What will Unitarian admirers
of the poet think of his representing an
unbeliever in the divinity'of Christ as,
on that account, loet ? The critic in the
Atlantic Monthly, who became indignant
at certain lines in
_Browning's Legend
of Pond°, teaching the doctrbue of Orig
inal Sin, should certainly have had a
word for his condemned Tellow-unbe-
Hever, Cerinthus.
[CerinthUs read and mused ; one added this ;
".If Christ, as thou affirmest, be of men
Mere, man, the first and best, but nothing
more '
Lt.ccount Him, for, reward of what He was,
Now and forever, wretchedest, of, all.
For see ; Himself conceived of life as love,
Conceived of love as what must enteriit,
Fill:up, make one with His each soul He loved;
Thus much for man'sjoy, all men's joy for Him,
Well, He is gone, thou sayest, to fit reward.
But by; this time are many souls set free,
And very many still retained alive
Nay, should His coming be delayed awhile,
Bay ten years longer (twelve years, some cora
_
pUte)
See if, for-every finger of thy. bands,
There be not found, that day the world shall
end,
Hundreds of souls, each holding by Christ's
word.
That He, will grow incorporate with all,
With me as Pamphylax, with him as John; .
Groom for each bride! Can a mere man do
' this ?* • -
Yet Christ saith, this he lived and died to do
Call Christ, then, theillimitable God,
Or lost !"
But Twas Cerinthus that is lost.]
BEV. ALEERT BARNES' SERMON.
MR EDITOR :--Yesterday afternoon,
Decemher 4, 1864,1 went with a friend
from liditsachusetts, as I usually do with
friends, to hear Mr. Barnes. His text
was lake, chap. ix : any,i4an
Will come aftei me, let him deny'himself
and take up his cross dailY, and folloW
me.."
I never hear Mr. B. preach but I feel
just.as a Mr. S. did, in Massachusetts,
when he heard the celebrated Dr.
Griffin, the first pastor of Park Street
Church, Boston. Mr. S. was a _pastor
in one of the small towns of Massachu
setts, and went as representative to
" The Great and General Court" at
Boston. There he heard Dr. Griffin
preach. The people were all attention,
almost all in tears, every pew full, &c.
" I thought," said Rev. Mr. S., " I would
_
go home and preach just as Dr.
So I tried. I wrote my ion:non; I
thought it a real Dr G igefmon. I
began to preach it, and looked :around
to see the same effect produced that I
had seenitom Dr. G.'s. But the pews
were not fall; some of the people were
asleep, =others,,inattentive, , and none
weeping. My next thought was, why
is this ? When lo f the difficulty was
solved in a moment. was not Dr. G.
that was preachThg,but Thomas Shepherd."
So I apprehend it would result - with
those who should attempt to preach
like Mr. - Barnes. I admire that plain,
straightforward way of tal ! iing-110
effort; no straining of the throat or
lungs, no schoolboy reading, no solemn
twang, as though he would say, " Now
prepare yourselveis, for I am going to
do some great thing. lam going to
preach." '
After a few 'rief remarks on the
openness or frankness of the Saviour in
stating plainly what he expected of his
disciples, Mr. B. said, the text divided
itself in two parts. First, to be wilting
to follow Christ; and second, what they
must do who follow him. Of the first
part :he said : If any will. This is not
the auxiliary verb will, but a principal
verb, denoting willingness to come after
Christ. )t was illustrated by the pas
sage, "Ye will not come to me that ye
might have life." The idea was this :
it is not the judgment, understanding,
conscience; imagination, memory; in a
word, the faculties of the mind that are
changed, in experiencing religion, but
the will. It was admitted, however,
that sin does bias the judgment, and, in
a measure darken the -understanding,
and harden or scar the conscience,
though it was maintained that gene
rally these are correct. Some might
have said there was a little new sch ool
ism in this sermon. Bat, if ihere was,
it seemed to be sanctified by a sufficiency
of truth.
The second part, namely, what he
must do, who would. become Christ's
disciple : it was said this needed three
things : 1. To deny himset; 2. Take up
his Cross daily ; ; and 3. Follow Christ.
1. The Christian must deny himself
in sensual pleasure; 2. Worldliness; 3.
He must deny himself as to his manner
of living; and 4. He must deny himself
pride of opinion. Under these heads,
the duty of the Christian was clearly
shout, and it was stated that even the
immoral are more apt to come into the
kingilom,..than those who are wise in
their own eyes, or who cannot bring
their own ideas down to simple truth.
2. He must take up his Cross—the
Cross was a term implying a burden,
shame and reproach. The Cross to be
taken up was not one which we make
ourselves, like wearing hair-cloth next
the akin, doing penance, &c., but such a
Cross as the New Testameurpoints out
—not some great thing, but constant
little things--a daily Cross, "daily,"
till the end of life.
3. He must follow Christ. Follow
him. in what F (1) In his
example,
works, &c., doing good as He did. (2)
Follow his precepts. (3.) Follow his
Spirit, his teaching. (4.) Follow his
Providential loadings.
I do-not pretend-to lave given the
words, but the general ideas. My
maxim has ever belign that any one who
will attend can repeat all,the heads of a
sermon, and I think- all should make
the trial These divisions were per
fectly natural, and yet I should scarcely
have thought of them, in the same
Order. - .The sermon seemed to have
been preaChed for thoie especially who
wereabout to make a profession of
religion, and as such was very appro
priate: Bat, what is most to be ad
mired in Mr. B. is the plain, simple,
easy way of his talking sermons. It
does seem as though any one could talk
just so . ; and yet, as Horace said of
making poetry, so I would say of those
who would preach like Mr. B," let them
try."
Now, Mx. Editor, yon remember I
some time since advocated expository
preaching. I consider this of Mr. B.'s
a fine specimen of such preaching, and I
wish we could have much more of it.
I I still believe this to be the oldest and
the best method of preaching; though
one of your correspondents seemed at
the time to have some doubts.dpon this
subject. W. M C.
THE SAT.OIIO ORIGIN
OF pp .DISITMEii ::591T11 WHOM; -:MARY OF THE
- ORELDREN OF GOD ARE AFFLICTED.
The afflictions-of the people of God
have well nigh staggered the faith of
many. To contrast their own suffering's
and trials with the health, the pros
perity, and the many enjoyments of the
enemies of God, has been too much for
them. Good old Asaph felt it, and no
marvel if many a weaker saint has been
more staggered. Ho says, "Behold,
these are the ungodly, who prosper in
the -worhi i ...;they increase in riches.
Verily, I have cleans;id my heart in
vain, and washed my hands in inno
cency. For all the day long have I been
plagued and chastened every morning."
Because of his dreadful disease and
other sore trials, Job's friends judged
him to be a very wicked man, but God
pronounced him to be a perfect and
an upright man, one who feared God
arid eschewed evil."
But it may be asked, why are the
best the most frequently lying on beds
of suffering and pain ? It is not be
cause they more frequently than others
violate the laws of nature. So far
otherwise, those who are most con
scientious in the observance of all God's
laws, physical and moral, are the most
frequently afflicted.* The man who
tramples on the laws of God, moral and
physical, often seems to do it with
impunity. While he does live, he lives
almost without pain and suffering. It
was Lazarus that was covered with
sores. The rich man "received his
good things in this life!' God chastens
his own children but he uses the devil as
the rod. The devil, contrary to his own
intention, is often the means of edu
cating and disciplining saints for glory.
But is it true that God permits Satan
to afflict his own children ? Yes. See
the case of Job, chapter i: 2. The
arch enemy was permitted to afflict
him with a most painful and loathsome
disease. It was Satan, and not any
imprudence or violation of- law, which
"smote Job with sore boils, from the
sole of his feet onto his crown" Did
he smite Job ? he only wants the Dftine
permit and he "will smite us.
The Saviour could say of a woman
whom he had healed, " Ought not this
woman, being a daughter of Abraham,
whOm Satan lutth bound, 10, these
eighteen years, to be loosed on the
Sabbath day ?" An affliction was di
rectly charged to Satan. He was the
cause of her pains. It was not her own
imprudence, her violation of physical
laws, nor anything of that kind. Satan
was the author of her. disease, just as
he was of Job's, but none except the
Saviour knew it.
So Paul had " a thorn in the flesh, an
angel of Satan to afflict him." 2 Cor.
ii :Y. See the original, which may be
rendered "an angel Satan," or "an
angel of Satan." The buffeting of the
angel Satan, or the angel of Satan, was
to him the thorn in the flesh. What,
or how his flesh suffered, we are not
told.' Paul sAvised that one of the
•
*noribtrui.--[ED.
Corinthian brethren should be "
ered to Satan for the destruction of the
flesh." 1 Cor. v: 5. Hymeneus and
Alexander were " delivered to Satan
that they may learn not to blaspheme."
1 Tim. i : 20. The fearful thing in
Egypt's plagues was the sending of evil
angels among them. Ps. lxxviii : 49.
All these things are " written for our
adrr °niacin, upon whom the ends of the
world have 000ae." Did not men need
the admouitions which these truths con
vey, they would not have been written.
In this way the power of death may
often be given to Satan.
TAM:sii KERR.
BRINGING JOSS TO TERMS.
Henry B. Auchineloss, in the Conti
nodal, relates the manner in which the
people of Shanghai manage a stubborn
god:
The idol, he says, was a little gilt
figure, about six inches high, with the
body of a beast and the head of a man.
His peculiarity was the possession of a
•supplementary eye, which, as his natu
ral pair squinted horribly, no doubt was
very useful. His position was on at=
tle table surrounded by tall candles;
whether they were borrowed from. thh
Roman Catholics or the Catholics ,bot r
rowed the custom from them, is a quesi
tion for the student of church history.
Before the idisl was placed another ta
ble with ten elegant bowls, scarcelj ,
larger than our teacups, filled with the
choicest fruits and grains that the mar
ket afforded. Each article was perfect
of its kind. Rice, tea, the nelumbium,
and agaric, a species of fr us. 'ere
_ age a spet.l. _Angus, w
among them. Just then the 'country
being in great want of rain, the priests
were trying the coaxing process, and
tempting the god with the best chow
chow to be had; but the next day they
got out of patience, and were to be met
wading him through the dusty streets;
exposed to a fierce sun, for the purpose
of giving him to understand that the
heat was, quite as disagreeable as they
had. represented it.
Their arguments for this proceeding
are extremely logical :'they say. that
Joss, in his cool temple, laughs at them,
and is disposed to think that they are
humbuggifig him; therefore, if they
give him two or three hours of good
skin-roasting in the sun, he will be
much more likely to come to terms, to
avoid a repetition of the process. As
they do this every day until rain comes,
it is of course seen in% short time, if
they are patient, that it never fails in
the end.
Indeed, it is quite common to meet in
all the large cities processions of priests,
followed by the rabble, who are giving
"Joss an airing." The eminently prac
tical object of P these mummeries argues
very little genuine respect for the deity,
an inference that has often been drawn
by missionaries from other points in
their treatmeht of their idols.
PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HEAVER
In speaking of the glories of the eter
nal world, the rapture of the apostle cjid
not escape him as a sally of the imagi
nation, as a thought awakened by a
sudden glance of the object; he does
not express himself at random, from
the sober impulse of the moment, hitt
in a sober tone of calculation. " I
reckon," he'says, like a man skilled in
this spiritual arithmetic, "I reckon,"
_after a due estimate of their compara
tive value, " that the sufferings of the
present time are nothing to be compar
ed with thesiory that shall be revealed."
No: man was ever so well qualified to
make this estimate. Of the suffering of
the present world he had shared more
largely than any man. Of the glory
that shall be-revealed he had a glimpse
granted to no other man. He had been
caught up into paradise. He had beard
the word of God, and seen the vision of
the Almighty; and the result of this
privileged experience was, that he " de
sired to depart and be with. Christ ;"
that he desired to escape from this val
ley of tears; that he was impatient to
recover the celestial vision, eager to
perpetuate the momentary foretaste of
the glories of immortality.—Hannah
Afore.
SOCIAL INTERCOURSE IN CHURCHES.
A SUGGESTION.
The following is the close of an arti
cle in The Congregationalist on ßrotherly
Love :
" We heard it suggested in one of the
church meetings of the city last Friday
evening, that the church shOuld not
hurry out and rash home, when• the
benediction had been pronounced; but
should remain a few minutes for social
conference—to shake hands together,
and get a little better acquainted. The
suggestion struck us as a delightful one,
and we judge, from the way in - which
it was carried out, that it was felt to be
by all a most fit and happy one. We
commend it to all. Let the people of
God, love one pother! To do this,
they must know one another better.
They live too far apart. The world
jostles them quite too wide asunder in
their daily toil. Let the meeting for
prayer be also
manifested
as a meeting for
fellowship, and love, and it
will be more beloved by all; more will
gather to it; and the Spirit of God
cannot long be absent 1"
Two MEN were speaking together of
the evidences of their hope. The first
said he should be saved for he had - hold
of Christ. "Ah ! but what will you
do," said the second, "if the devil cuts
your hands off ?" " What then," asked
the first, "is your hope ?" "My hope,"
said he, " is that Cl 'st has hold of me:"