its that is heavy but his people are still too far from him-sin separates the mind-the heart of the Lord cannot enter his people. How, then, can we plead for him mightily? Earth, earth! the heart is too full of the cares, the riches, the joys of earth. Let us cast away cords, and break its bands asunder; then shall the freed spirit sympathize with that which is spiritual. As "one" people in the Father and the Son, speak his words no longer in the pride of the power of the flesh, but of the Spirit. And will they not then break like a hammer? will they not burn like a fire? Let us not cease to serve the beloved with words and songs of faith and love, and yield the melody of those Godglorifying works of which he so solemnly spake. Let us, though it cost us much, become living illustrations of the true gospel's efficiency verify the dignity we laud, by reflecting the image of the Father, thus gaining a favorable hearing for His testimony; and if, with all our conscious imperfections of character and services--(and, alas! how much must there be of which we are not conscious)-the work of the Lord still progresses, how much more, then, (see Phil. ii. 14-15) it would be realized generally? Would it be enthusiasm, then, confidently to anticipate the joyful exclamation ringing through all quarters, Lo! who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows ?" Your brother in hope and service for that day, W. MCDOUGALL. HUDDERSFIELD, 16TH FEBRUARY.-Dear Brother: I have much pleasure in informing you that the state of things in the congregation here indicates considerable improvement. Since the meeting held at Glasgow, we have immersed into Christ twelve persons, upon a confession of their faith in him: they are worthy young and interesting persons, who bid fair for being very useful in the vineyard of the Lord. We are truly grateful to God, our Father, for his great mercy thus manifested to us; and our confidence is, that by his blessing many more I will be added to our number in a short time. Brother Greenwell is much encouraged in his labors, and is likely to become increasingly useful. Our meetings assume a very cheerful appearance; the brethren assemble in good numbers; and of friends and strangers we have a good attendance to hear the word of life, and observe the public ordinances. Yours, LETTER OF CONDOLENCE. (FROM THE MILLENNIAL HARBINGER.) [Amongst the kind letters of sympathy and condolence received during our late afflictions, we give to our readers the following, because of its likelihood to be a comfort to others in similar circumstances. It was written by my eldest sister, and without the slightest idea that it should ever be in print.-A. C.] DEARLY BELOVED BROTHER AND SISTER. Many thanks to you and your son Alexander for your exceeding promptness in communicating to us the peaceful release of your lovely Margaret from her long protracted sorrows and suffering-"Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord," and blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour-the Father of tender mercies, for all the resignation and patient submission to His holy will He has given you. "The parting struggle all was yours, The anthems in the skies." The living demand our sympathy the dead in Jesus require it not. Methinks there is more consolation imparted to us through two words in the memoirs of Jesus of Nazareth, at the tomb of Lazarus, (Jesus wept) than in all the kindred tears that earth affords. His was divine_sympathy, and endures for ever. Though there are no tears in the paradise of God, our merciful and faithful High Priest still sympathises with our weaknesses. Glory to God and to the Lamb, for the rich provi visions of love and mercy to our ruined race; and that through the divine compassion we are most abundantly made partakers of them. Let us not, then, beloved, like the ungrateful of this world, when one favor is withdrawn, cease to rejoice in the munificence of the great Benefactor, for His countless blessings still continued. Remember the Master saith, "Your daughter is not dead, but fallen asleep." "Whosoever liveth and believeth on me, shall never die.” nestness and sincerity. Kind and Earth has no sorrows that heaven cannot heal. I know by experience the mingled emotions of sorrow and of joy accompanying such bereavement. When we reflect on the character of the departed, and without the most distant idea to flatter, I do think the dear depart-your health-it is the best temporal ed one was as amiable and interesting duties to perform for the few precious gift of heaven. You have many a person of her years as I ever was ones who are still yours, besides those acquainted with. I believe I never heard any one speak evil of her: she you have assumed for others, for the church of Christ, and for the world. was beloved by her sisters and by all who knew her. Very few, indeed, May your lives and your health be in her circumstances, have spent a precious in the sight of the Lord, and short life better, or been less devoted may He support and sustain you, to the follies and vanities which ocgranting you the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ, is the earnest prayer of your ever affection ate, and sympathizing sister, cupy the minds and time of the youth of the present generation in favored circumstances. Devoted to the Saviour in her childhood, she read and memorized the Living Oracles with interest and delight, and was peculiarly fond of singing sacred songs with her companions in the holy faith, some of whom have joined the everlasting song before her. Most of her youth was spent in acquiring useful knowledge, which enlarged her capacity for enjoyment. 66 They that seek me early shall find me," is not a vain promise. I have long thought that there is a peculiar blessedness in giving our hearts to the Lord before they are contaminated with the love of the world, its follies and its vices, which those who grow up in them do not experience, unless their conversion be very signal and impressive. This peculiar blessing I have no doubt she experienced, as she gave good evidence of her ear DOROTHEA C. BRYANT. FAMILY CIRCLE. 1. CEASE TO DO EVIL-2. LEARN TO DO WELL.-The nearest approach that a man can make to the performance of good is to cease to do evil. The discipline of restraint is the first morality. We pray God therefore, reader, that you do no evil. Let vice of every kind be recorded in your diary among extinct practices. Avoid the very appearance of evil. To the negative of every bad thought, word and way, place the authority of your signature. Mortify your lusts, and sanctify them not. Nail the old man with his deeds to the cross. He that is dead is freed from sin. Be dead then, reader, to sin. Arm yourself to suffer in the flesh. Say, thank God, I am freed from this deadly body through Jesus Christ my Lord. Confide not in attentions merely dramatic, and the words of such as praise you for effect. Thus dead to sin you will be alive to God-the servant of righteousness and the inheriter of everlasting life. Meditation is the source of voluntary character. If you would know yourself, you must meditate upon yourself. Self-examination will put you in possession of self-knowledge; self-knowledge of self-control, and self-control of all virtue. In the discipline of doing good, with peace in your soul and heaven in your eye, go and visit the widow; cheer her loneliness, and cause her desolate heart to sing for joy. Go see the fatherless, and to the cause both of the widow 66 and the fatherless. Having adorned your profession of the faith by good deeds and happy benefactions, come now and offer your gift at the altarlay thereon the sacrifice of prayer and praise the fruit of your lips. Say my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips." He shall come down upon you as the rain upon the tender grass, as the small rain upon the herb of the field, and you shall be refreshed, reconciled, reformed, and dwell with Christ for ever. Remember your Redeemer is the Son of God. AN EXCELLENT SAYING.--" It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect." It would be well for those who aim at Christian per fection to remember this. Surrounded by those who constantly exhibit defects of character and conduct, if we yield to a complaining and impatient spirit, we shall mar our own peace, without having the satisfaction of benefitting others. When the mind of a man is in a right position, absorbed in God, and truly dead to the world, it will not be troubled by these things; or, if it be otherwise, and we are in fact afflicted, it will not be for for ourselves, but others, whom we shall pity rather than complain. THY BROTHER. Though poor, ragged and degraded, the outcast is thy brother still! Why shun and despise him? In years past a kind admonition, a pleasant word, might have saved him ! Yet you refused to counsel him, and passed by scornfully. Now he is but a wreck of his former self! His ambition is destroyed in vice. There was a time, it may be, when his eye was placed on virtue, and his feet were turned from destruction. That moment, a look from you decided his fate. The lip of scorn was curled; contempt was expressed, and away he urged his steps to ruin ! Is it a pleasant reflection-"I might have saved a soul from vice and infamy, but I refused!" THE ELDEST DAUGHTER. The deportment of the elder children of the family, is of great importance to the younger. Their obedience and insubordination operates throughout the whole circle. Especially is the station of the eldest daughter, one of eminence. She drank the first draught of the mother's love. She usually enjoys much of her counsel and comthe natural viceroy. Let the mother panionship. In her absence she is take double pains to form her on the correct model; to make her amiable, diligent, domestic, pious; trusting that the image of all her virtues may leave impressions on the soft, waxen, hearts of the younger ones, to whom she may in the Providence of God be called to fill the place of a maternal guide. The TIMES, a few days ago, stated, the total number of persons emigrating from all the British ports, for the first eleven months of the year 1847, was 244,251; and for the first eleven months of 1848, 220,053. But these figures do not represent the whole truth of the case, some thousands of the better classes of emigrants not being included in the number. In two years, more than half a million natives have fled from these islands. CULTIVATION OF THE MIND. Cultivate the power to fix the mind on any subject you please. Fix in the mind the elementary principles of all that pertains to life, such as the principles of science, of business, of politics, of government, of laws, and religion. Obtain the power of using language, and defining what you mean by such terms as are in common use when we speak or think. Fill the mind with the materials of thought, such as the facts which we read, observe, and hear. Teach the mind where to go for information; that is, from what source to draw. Teach the mind how to take up a subject, investigate it, and draw conclusions on which you may rely. Cultivate the judgment as to what facts are worth preserving, and what are applicable in proving or illustrating a particular subject. Cultivate the memory, so that the materials which you gather may not be disseminated and lost as fast as gathered. You will think, perhaps, that I have laid out the work of a life here, and so I have intended to do; but if you will read these objects over again, I believe you will say that no one of these can be omitted in cultivating the mind in a proper manner. You will not, of course, have all these objects specially before the mind whenever you exer your boyhood, or going to college in your youth; but it means the power to take your mind and make it an instrument of conveying knowledge and good impressions upon other minds, as well as being itself made happy. To cultivate the mind, then, does not mean to read much or little, to converse and to observe; but to discipline it in all ways in your power. You must not have narrow views on this subject, or else I lose my labor. I do not expect that every one will discipline his mind so that he can observe and think as well as Franklin ; but what then? Is this a reason why you should not do what you can? Neither could Franklin reason like Sir Isaac Newton, and bring the universe at his feet. What then? Was this a reason why he should not do all he could ?—Todd. CIRCULATION OF THE BIBLE.—In 1804, there was not one society in existence whose only object was the distribution of the Bible throughout the world. In 1847 there were about 900. In 1804, according to the best estimates that can be obtained, there were in existence only about four million copies of the Bible; now there are more than thirty millions. In 1804 it was accessible in languages in 1847 it exists in tongues spoken spoken by about 200,000,000 of men by 600,000,000. During the last year 1,412,283 copies were issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society, being 400,000 more than any previous year, except 1845. The amount received was larger than any previous year, being £117,440 9s. 3d. cise it; but they are to be the points to which you are to bring the mind in all its wanderings, and in a cultivated mind these several points will unconsciously receive attention. Perhaps this is not the place, but it cannot be greatly out of place, to say that, in my estimation, all this only looks to a In Mr. H. Seymour's work, "Pilfar higher and nobler object-which grimage to Rome," he says:-I soon is to prepare that mind to be the re- ascertained the address of every bookceptacle of light and knowledge, the selling establishment in Rome, and image of God, and the unseen glories commenced my tour of search. I of an eternal state. In all contempla- visited in person every shop, and in tions of the mind, I look upon it as an every shop was informed that they immortal existence, and that it is for had not a copy of the Holy Scriptures that state of immortality, it is now to in the language of the people. I askbe disciplined and prepared. Educa-ed why they did not possess one, and tion does not mean going to school in the reply was, "It is not permitted." WONDERS OF SCIENCE.-The late Dr. Chalmers, remarks—" While the telescope enables us to see a system in every star, the microscope unfolds to us the world in every atom. The one shows us the insignificance-presenting us a universe in the compass of a point where the Almighty Ruler of all things finds room for the exercise of its attributes. Recent discoveries in Geology have brought to view a great multitude of facts, truly wonderful-especially respecting the state of animate creation many centuries past. While on the one hand it is found, by the remains of some ancient animals, that they were larger than any now living upon the earth, on the other hand, microscopic animals, almost inconceivably small, yet possessing mouths, teeth, stomach, muscles, wings, glands, eyes, and other organs, are not only found in a fossil state, but forming rocks and soil for miles in extent. Chalk, and even flint, and some of the gems, are found to a great extent, to be composed of animalculæ. A cubit inch of iron ore is said to contain the remains of one billion of living reproducing beings. The silicious marl found under peat swamps in New England, appears to be made up almost entirely of the skeletons of animals. It is also said that a thousand millions of these animals would, together, form a mass no larger than a grain of sand. WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR? Thy neighbour? 'Tis that weary man, Bent low with sickness, cares, and pain- Thy neighbour? "Tis the heart bereft Widow and orphan, helpless left Go thou and shelter them. Whene'er thou meet'st a human form Oh, pass not, pass not heedless by, SPEAK GENTLY. A GEM OF PUREST RAY SERENE." [WE think it will do no one any harm to read the following verses until they are embodied in the heart. A good man wrote them, and self-government must be possessed by all who put them into practice.] SPEAK gently--it is better far To rule by love than fear. Speak gently to the little child, Its love be sure to gain; Speak gently to the young, for they Speak gently to the aged one, Grieve not the care worn heart; Speak gently to the erring-know Speak gently! He who gave his life Speak gently 'tis a litte thing |