filthy rags." These must be laid aside before we can receive the garment of salvation, and be covered with the robe of righteousness. The 1st verse of the 40th Psalm beautifully describes this progressive work: "I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God." A new song indeed it is for the poor mourner who was in heaviness, by reason of manifold transgressions; his feet had well nigh slipped in the mire; but when he was placed on the rock, when in Jesus his soul found salvation; then he stood on firm ground, and he had nothing to do but to sing. His soul could magnify the Lord, and his spirit rejoice in God his Saviour.

The first grace wrought in the soul is patience, which is called a perfect work, being truly the Lord's work, and he worketh not in vain. That which he begins he will carry on. The work of God alone is a perfect work: imperfection stains every work of ours. The blood of Jesus must cleanse away the pollution of whatsoever we put our hand to; and through that blood we are pure, spotless, undefiled, perfect even as he is perfect. Christ sees no spot in his church. Her spots he took upon himself, and laid upon her his own fair beauty. He adorned her as a bride, with the glorious attire of his righteousness, and thus she ever stands before him in the beauty of holiness.

"The beauty of the Lord our God is upon us." This is no mere fancy, which comes and goes; it is a firmly-fixed reality. The unchangeable word of God has affirmed, that he has purchased his church JUNE, 1839.

2 M

with his own blood, and that he sees no spot in her. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He expiated her guilt at a tremendous price, and can now say, "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee."

We should at all times be in a rejoicing spirit, if our faith were lively and operative; but through the infirmity of the flesh it languishes and fails.

We are prone to look inward at the dark picture of our corruptions, until we are ready to sink in the slough of despond, instead of looking out of ourselves to what God has wrought.

By keeping Jesus in view, we insensibly glide as it were into him; we feel that we are in him, and he in us; that we are one with him, and he with us of a truth; and then all our turbulent, dissatisfied fears and doubts sink into a calm. We feel that Jesus is near, and that he has said, "Peace, be still." Yet the warfare is not over: the flesh and the Spirit will carry on the strife until the mortal puts on immortality. We can find no abiding city, no place of permanent rest amid continual fluctuations. We must be made to feel our own helplessness, and that our sufficiency is of God. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Cor. v. 21.

S. M.

FRENCH PROTESTANTS.

DEAR MADAM,

AMONG your many readers in the Christian social circle, there may be some who have paused with sorrow and sympathy over the records which contain the history of the sufferings of the French Protestants. I am aware that your heart is interested in another cause, and that Ireland, dear Ireland, is the object of all your solicitude: nevertheless, as the * many-sidedness' so confidently laid claim to, by the followers of the vain and delusive philosophy of Goethe, is the peculiar characteristic of the Christian, in his efforts to do good amongst all classes and conditions of men, and "to be made all things to all men, that he may by all means save some; I will believe that your interest may yet be laid claim to, in behalf of the Protestants of France.

The course of Neff, like a shining light, has illuminated the dark alpine valleys of Dauphiné; and the heart of many a Christian has followed his path along the formidable pass of the Guil, and the vale of the Durance, and dwelt with admiration and delight on his hours of indefatigable and self-denying toil amongst the peasants of the Alps, in his winter school; where he passed long months, imprisoned as it were behind a barrier of ice and snow, cut off from all intercourse with the rest of the habitable world,

and shut up within the desolate precincts of black Dormilleuse. The people for whom he laboured, though long forgotten, have been again brought before the notice of the Christian world; and scattered here and there, amongst the middling classes of English society, there yet remain some who remember their descent from the persecuted French Protestants, and keep the remembrance with pleasure; yet in general no extensive interest prevails, with regard to the state of the Protestants in France, nor has much effort been made to assist the missions which have been sent forth amongst them. Yet it is a field of great and important extent. France is, if I may be permitted to use the expression, the copartner of our political empire; and her influence spreads widely over every part of civilized society. So far then, as we are allowed to look to human means, as an instrument in the hand of God, for promoting the extension of his kingdom in the world, the revival of the French Protestant church might raise us up a powerful auxiliary, in every attempt that is being made to fulfil our Saviour's parting command, and preach the gospel amongst all nations. A kindred torch of zeal and love might be raised up beside our own; and mingling their flames together, cast a stronger and a further light over the whole of the heathen world.

Apostacy or death, is the choice, which, from the almost earliest ages of the Christian church, has been constantly presented before this persecuted race. Happy those by whom the martyr's crown was gladly received, rather than the life or temporal prosperity which was purchased by the denial of the Lord who bought them. Happy the few, the very few, who

found refuge in exile from the terrors of exterminating persecution: happy the remnant who lodged their scattered band among the gloomy and inaccessible heights of the gigantic Alps, where the torch of faith, though it drooped, and burnt low in the lapse of successive ages, was not, though often shaken, entirely extinguished by the blast of the destroyer: but shall we not also sympathize with the one or two, who, here and there, are scattered among the remote villages of France, surrounded on all sides by papal darkness and superstition? And shall we not also join in prayer with the evangelists who say to those who have apostatized from their father's faith, Return unto your God?'

In the hope that some of those to whom your pages are familiar may be induced to give their prayers and exertions towards the prosperity of the Protestant churches in France, I propose, if permitted, to lay before them such very slight and imperfect sketches of the present state of those churches as my abilities and opportunities will afford; and believe me to remain, Madam,

Your most obliged,

A DESCENDANT OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS.