escape to the mountain of purity and truth, the only safe refuge and congenial home of soul. (No. CCXCIV.) Subject: THE DAY OF ADVERSITY. "If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small."-Prov. xxiv. 10. Two thoughts are here suggested : I. THERE IS A DAY OF ADVERSITY FOR ALL. Man is born to trouble as sparks fly upward. First: He meets a day of adversity in every part of his life. In his body, physical diseases; in his intellect, agonising problems; in his conscience, moral convulsions. Secondly: He meets a day of adversity in every relation of his life. In his secular relations, trials, and disappointments in his business; in his social relations, abused confidence, false friendships, agonising bereavements, &c. Thirdly: He meets a day of adversity in the end of his life. the day of death awaits all, and a trying day it is. What a day is that! How cloudy, how tumultuous, how frigid, how desolate! II. THE DAY OF ADVERSITY IS A TRIAL OF MORAL STRENGTH. It is by adversity that our moral strength is tried; thus God tried Abraham, and he turned out to be strong in moral faith; thus God tried Peter, and he turned out to be weak, and fell. We want strength for the day of adversity: that strength of faith in God that shall make us resigned, patient, invincible. CONCLUSION. Brother, the day of adversity awaits thee. If thou hast not strength to bear up, it will overwhelm thee. Prepare for it, repair to the "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it! and shall not He render to every man according to his works?"-Prov. xxiv. 11, 12. THE subject of these words is the neglect of social benevolence; and we notice three things I. The neglect DESCRIBED. "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain." Two things are here implied. 66 First: The existence of men in distress. There are men "drawn to death;" men ready to be slain," now as well as in the days of Solomon; there are men around us here in England who are being slain by disease, oppression, poverty, and starvation. Secondly: The duty towards men in distress. The duty is to try and deliver them, grapple with their diseases, crush their oppressors, mitigate their poverty, stay their starvation. Every man should endeavour, in the midst of so much distress, to act as a deliverer, a redeemer. II. The neglect EXCUSED. "If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not." This is an excuse that is now often pleaded for doing nothing. Men say, We don't know that such misery exists; we are not sure that the case is a deserving one. Their ignorance in this matter is always voluntary; they don't wish to know; they shut their eyes to it; and when they are told that men have died of want, they say, "We knew it not.' First: Such ignorance is no justifiable excuse. The means of knowledge are abundant. The columns of every day's newspaper are laden with intelligence on the subject. Secondly: Such ignorance is itself a sin. Every man is bound to know the state of society in which he lives; if there is distress, he should find it out. Job said, "The cause which I knew not, I searched out," and every citizen is bound to do the same. III. The neglect PUNISHED. "Doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?" There are three facts here that the neglecter of social deliverance should ponder well. First: God knows thee. "Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it; doth not he know it?" Your excuses may do for man, but they will not do for Him; He sees their falsehood; He loathes their hypocrisy. Secondly: God preserves thee. "He that keepeth thy soul." He knows that thou art telling a lie to Him in "whose hand thy breath is, and who knoweth all thy ways." 66 Thirdly: God will recompense thee. Shall not He render to every man according to his works ?" There is a day of judgment coming, when thy hypocrisy shall be exposed, and thy covetousness visited with the retributions of eternity. On that day Christ will say to thee, "Inasmuch as ye have not done it unto the least of these my brethren," &c. En Memoriam. ALBERT BARNES, D.D., PHILADELPHIA. WO excellent men, and illustrious authors, have just joined the mighty dead. The following is a brief sketch of their history : : "ALBERT BARNES was suddenly called to his rest, in a ripe old age. He died in the city of Philadelphia, on Saturday afternoon, December 24, aged 72. On the previous Saturday he attended the funeral of an esteemed friend. He took part in the services; and in his address dwelt upon the thought that this life was preparatory to the eternal life, enlarging upon the idea that the death of one who had made preparation for the future world, had accepted Christ, and had by a consistent life given evidence of true godliness, was not to him a calamity-that however sad it might be to his friends, to him it was gain, for the true end of life had been attained. Exactly a week afterwards he, in company with his daughter, paid a visit of condolence to the family. He was as bright, as cheerful, and seemingly as well as ever he had been. Mr. Barnes' residence is at the western limit of West Philadelphia; that of the friends to be visited a mile farther west, and in the country. The day was very cold, with a keen wind from the west. In ascending a hill, Mr. Barnes stopped once or twice to take breath, yet seemed perfectly well. On entering the house, he sat down in an easychair, spoke a word to his daughter, then his head fell back, he breathed insensibly for a few moments, and was dead. Without a pain, a pang, a struggle, or a groan, the Christian passed from this world to the world of the blessed, and the presence of the Redeemer. "Mr. Barnes was a native of Rome, New York; born December 1st, 1798; graduated at Hamilton College in 1820, and at Princeton Seminary in 1824. He was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Morristown, New Jersey, in February, 1825, where he began his great life-work of preparing Scripture Commentaries for the aid of Sunday schools. In 1830 he was called to the first church of Philadelphia, where he spent the remainder of his diligent and honourable life, only giving over the responsible charge of the church to a colleague two years ago. "The first ten years of his service in Philadelphia was a time of general revival in religion, into which he entered with his whole soul. In analysing the methods of presenting Divine truth most favourable to revivals, he adopted views of theology decidedly in harmony with those prevailing in New England, which were objected to by the more rigid Presbyterians, who commenced a prosecution against him for heresy, advanced in his book on Atonement. The case was carried by appeal from the Presbytery to the Synod of Philadelphia, and thence to the General Assembly, then meeting at Pittsburg. Here the sentence of suspension was reversed, and he returned to his work, after an enforced silence of a whole year, which he had endured with great patience for the sake of Church order. This prosecution had much to do with the division of the Presbyterian Church, and it was a high satisfaction to Mr. Barnes that he lived to take part in the reunion, and to be welcomed to the fellowship of those from whom he had been causelessly separated for above thirty years, without any humiliating concessions or changes on either part. "In addition to his Commentaries, and several important religious works, he wrote much for periodicals. He tried his hand in a work on slavery, but failed to lead the public mind to any newer or more effective views. He was a laborious student, with clear and comprehensive views on many subjects, and a lucid and unpretending style, which made his preaching and his writings popular and highly useful. He has rounded out a valuable life, and died full of years and honours, mourned by the wise and good in many lands, who admired and profited by his voluminous writings." The Very Rev. HENRY ALFORD, D.D., Dean of Canterbury, died at the Deanery, on the 12th January. A profound feeling of sorrow was felt in Canterbury at the unexpected announcement. It was shared in by all sects of religion as well as political parties, for he was beloved as well as admired. The Dean preached as usual in the Cathedral on Sunday, and on Monday presided at a meeting of clergy and gentry to distribute a fund for the relief of the poor. He then complained of not being well (as, indeed, he had not been for some time), but no serious results were apprehended by any of his friends at that time. On Tuesday his medical adviser, Mr. Hallowes, a local surgeon, was sent for, but his skill was unavailing, for rapid congestion of the lungs set in, and Dr. Alford expired at a quarter before two o'clock on Thursday afternoon. At four o'clock the tolling of the "great bell" at the Cathedral communicated the sad tidings to the citizens. Whatever their school of thought and religious opinion, all our readers will learn with regret the news of Dean Alford's death. The son of respectable parents, he was born in London in 1810, and, having received the greater part of his early education at the Grammar School at Ilminster, in Somerset, was entered at Trinity College, where he gained a Scholarship and took his B.A. and M.A. degrees. We gather some few particulars about his early life from a poem addressed to him by the friend of his youth, Mr. Moultrie, of Rugby; and it is certain that his first publication, which was in verse, was issued from the press while he was still at Cambridge, we believe as early as 1831, under the title of Poems and Poetical Fragments. This was followed by The School of the Heart, and other Poems, in two volumes, which has gone through several editions both here and in America. From a Scholarship at Trinity Dr. Alford was elected in 1834 to a Fellowship, and from the following year, soon after his ordination as a priest, down to 1853, he held the College living of Wymeswold, Leicestershire, a benefice rated in the current Clergy List at £191 a year, where he eked out his narrow clerical income by taking pupils. In 1841 and the following year he preached the "Hulsean Lectures" at Cambridge, and about the same time published a work on the Poets of Ancient Greece. For many years from this date he also held the post of Examiner in Logie and Moral Philosophy in the University of London. His life at this time must have been more than ordinarily laborious, as is clear from the fact that over the next fifteen or twenty years of his life were spread the successive volumes of his Greek Testament, with a revised text and commentaries or English readers-a work on the merits of which it is superfluous to speak to either scholars or theologians. In 1853 Dr. Alford was appointed incumbent of Quebec Chapel, near Portman Square, where he gained a high reputation by the eloquence of his preaching, and the breadth of his religious views. Four years later, Lord Palmerston recommended him for the Deanery of Canterbury, vacant by the death of Dr. Lyall. Since that time his name has been constantly before the world as the author of articles upon religious and |