have been persecuted for my religion these forty years, and I never knew till now what true religion was.' The feeling manifested led Mr. Angel to ask them if they would like to have a preacher. They accepted the proposal with eagerness, and Mr. W. Mahy was sent into this station. He was consecrated the year after, in September, 1791, by Dr. Coke. He travelled and laboured indefatigably; and there are still in the neighbourhood of Caen, after an interval of forty-eight years, fruits of his ministry remaining.

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A still more interesting reminiscence, in some respects, is that we are found in the line of succession, as to place and work, of the Waldenses and Albigenses of the middle ages. One of their writers says that their Barbs, their missionary pastors, could go from the Waldensian valleys to the neighbourhood of Toulouse, and lodge every night in a cottage or a castle with friends and brethren in the faith. It will be easy for you to trace the route which they must have followed,-preferring, as they did, the high hills, which have often been " refuge" for others than the "conies," even for the persecuted people of God, through the Upper Alps, the Drome, the Gard, the Haute Garonne, and the Tarn to Albi. The wholesale murders of them at Carcassone and Beziers is well known; and the saying of the Romish legate, when the instruments of his cruelty, the brutal soldiery, inquired-as if they, even they, had some relentings of heart at the prospect of such an effusion of blood-"Shall we not spare the Catholics?" "Kill them all; God will take care of his own. Send the heretics to hell, and the Catholics to heaven!"

Now it is remarkable that the Reformation in its progress followed the line which the Waldensian pastor-missionaries had traced out, and Protestants are to be found only on that line in general. They are not to be found everywhere on that line. The present inhabitants of Carcassone and Beziers are the descendants, in a great measure, of those who butchered all their former inhabitants. These, then, are exceptions to the rule; but it remains true that there is a zone of Protestantism, with one or two exceptions, which follows the track of those devoted, self-denying itinerants of the middle ages.

We are on the highway of this track, at nearly an equal distance from Spain and Italy, and are entrusted, as we believe, with that Gospel which, if the means of extension are afforded us, will enlighten and save the inhabitants of both countries.

Our work in this country has been, and is, a truly spiritual work. I do not believe there are Methodist societies in the world that surpass them in the power and depth

of their piety. I met the classes in one of our villages yesterday, and my soul was abundantly refreshed by the clear Scriptural testimony of our sisters. There are no men in this society. One of our classleaders, the first who spoke-a consistent professor of Christian perfection, a deeplytried and faithful Christian-said, in speaking of the peace she enjoyed in and over all, that her mind was, under them, like a lake of which the surface was ruffled by a tempest, but which in its depths was unmoved and tranquil. Oh! while hearing these testimonies in several classes, in which not one person was found who did not possess a consciousness, at least, of reconciliation with God-when I heard one of the poorest and most afflicted of our dear sisters say, "I am poor, I am old, I am nearly blind and deaf, but I am happy; God loves me, and I love God"-could I help exclaiming, inwardly at least,

"'Tis worth living for this,

To administer bliss,

And salvation in Jesus' name."

Of these, seven millions and a half are in slavery in the United States, Brazil, and the Spanish and Dutch Colonies; one quarter of a million in process of emancipation in the South American Republics; and the remainder, four millions, six hundred and twenty thousand, are free. In the United States, the coloured population is increasing at the rate of one hundred thousand a year. In the Spanish Colonies and Brazil, the number is kept up by constant importations of slaves from the coast of Africa, otherwise there would be a considerable annual decrease in the coloured population of those countries till the sexes became equalized. Here, then, we have the important fact that there are, at the present time, upward of twelve millions of Africans and their descendants in the New World, united together in suffering, in sympathy, in hope, or in despair.-Colonization Herald.

Is it possible to make the best of both worlds? A book for Young Men. By T. BINNEY. London: Nisbet and Co.

THERE is at the outset of this volume a circumstance which strikes us as note-worthy: we allude to the evident respect which the author feels for his readers. The germ or nucleus from which the work has grown, was originally delivered as a lecture a little more than twelve months ago, before the Young Men's Christian Association, and it was designed by the committee of that body for publication in the volume containing their series of lectures. Mr. Binney, however, does not on principle "talk like a book," and possessed an insuperable objection to the publication of his lecture, as taken down by the short-hand writer, in the loose style that always, more or less, pertains to a spoken address. Serious indisposition prevented him from revising it at the time, and the delay, thus rendered imperative, has afforded an opportunity, which no one will regret, for expanding the lecture into a volume. Mr. Binney does not hesitate to state, that in order to make his work at once easy, acceptable, and useful reading, he has bestowed both time, study, and labour on its writing. We think this note-worthy because it furnishes a favourable contrast to the practice becoming too common in the present day, of publishing the crude, hastily studied productions of popular preachers in the loose undress style of the speaker. We are reminded especially of this practice in the case of a certain metropolitan doctor of divinity, one of the pulpit lions of the day, whose cursory and slight expositions of the Scripture lessons before his sermon, taken down by a short-hand writer, are duly heralded forth from time to time by the doctor's publisher as "new works." If these works really contained new or profound thoughts but half thought out, it might be endurable; but when they at best but "plentifully declare the thing as it is," and but too frequently declare the thing as it is not, we think it is the duty of every one concerned for the character of evangelical literature, to protest against the practice.

The publication of this volume at the present juncture is, we think, peculiarly seasonable. At a time when infidelity, under the plausible aspect of secularism, rather ignoring than attacking religion, is presenting its claims with such publicity, the question Is it possible to make the best

of both worlds?" possesses especial interest and importance. Secularism declares that this world should be man's only concern, and to make the best of it his chief good. Mr. Binney asserts, and by the most cogent arguments and the most striking illustrations makes good his assertion, that the best cannot be made of this world without at the same time making the best of the world to come; that that which is best for man as we find him in this world, is also best for him as revelation proclaims he will be in the next. The question to be considered Mr. Binney thus puts :-" Whether the life that now is might not be taken hold of in its raw material, and worked up and woven in such a manner as to become a resplendent and beautiful thing, simply as a present temporary possession, the man feeling it a joy to have been born, though there should be no second birth for him into a higher state; whether, moreover, this might not be accomplished on such a principle, that, supposing there should be a second state, the advantages and happiness of that state should be secured and cared for too?" and having thus put the question, he proceeds to answer it in the affirmative, and to show that such is the constitution of things in this world, and such is man's nature in relation to them, that even if there were no second world, it is worth a great deal to be born into this; and that if, as he believes, there is a second life, it is quite possible that on the same principles, and by pursuing the same course, its chief good shall be secured also. In either view he endeavours to show that virtue is "the great instrument for making the besteither of this world, of the other, or of both.'

Before entering into the argument at large, he disposes of two objections which might be raised, in limine, by Folly on the one hand, and Philosophy on the other. Folly comes forward and catches at the assumption that there may be no future life, and he at once decides for a short life and a merry one :

If there is any likelihood of there being no world but this, no God, and no eternity; if there is no immortal soul in man,-nothing, therefore, to be afraid of in any coming hereafter; if that's the case, and I have to shape my life on that supposition; or if I am asked what I should do on the hypothesis of its being the case-no devil! no hell! death the limit of all life, the world full of its pleasures and delights, and the grave at the end of it as a quiet resting-place, never to be disturbed by dream or awaking-if that's it, my answer is ready :-Let us gather and crush the grape

of enjoyment; let us scize on the means of immediate satisfaction; let us eat, and drink, and withhold not our senses from any joy; garlands and wine, women and songs, wreaths and caressesthat's the way: there can be nothing better or wiser than this. To-day is ours-to-morrow we die. A deep hole, six feet by two, is all that will remain to us in a little time. There is nothing beneath, nothing beyond it. On the further side is an infinite vacuity, within it, an eternal sleep; but here, at present, is the breathing earth, the bright world, and health, and youth, and cups, and coronals. Let us live, then, while we live there is nothing to be afraid of. Crime, even, is a trifle, if undiscovered; sin is impossible; and pleasure is pleasant. That's my creed. To enjoy, is my maxim. If this life were all, I should make my practice correspond with my belief.

Such is the creed of folly. To this Mr. Binney replies: "Supposing the future to be a dream, this life is real enough, it is no dream." We are here with existing facts, such as our moral and mental nature, moral laws which bind actions with their results, and connect sowing and reaping; we are here with all the phenomena of life around us actual facts. "Why not use things according to their respective properties and our own power over them, working up the potentialities of life into something great, something which we know, from facts under our eye, can be noble in itself, and pregnant with happy issues, while the very toil of producing it may to the honest worker be a satisfaction and a joy? Why not do this, instead of plunging into the pursuit of mere physical indulgence, which will probably bring upon you premature decay, and finish you off in a few years? It is not to make the best of life' to do this." Having disposed of the fool, the philosopher is allowed to speak. He is indignant at the idea of self-interest being admitted for one moment as an incentive to virtue :

What do you seriously intend to reduce conduct, character, and morals, patriotism and philanthropy, truth and righteousness, all that is solid or ornamental in man-do you intend to reduce them to a miserable calculation of what they will bring, either in this world or in the next? Are we never to be anything but huxters and chapmen? Is Goodness itself to be offered for sale! Are we always to have an eye to the main chance,-ever revolving the sublime subject of profit and loss? Are sentiment and affection, great deeds and loving thoughts-the very love of your country, your wife, and your mother-are these things, and all like them, to be continually treated as a good investment, something that may possibly bear tolerable interest? . . . Is virtue to be a bargain?heaven itself a thing to be bought? Have you really nothing to appeal to but self-interest?nothing to set before us but "the naughty corner," or the slice of gingerbread? Is that all? we a set of children? Is there nothing noble, nothing disinterested, in human life?-nothing heroic, high-minded, self-sacrificing? Is all greatness to be repressed-all its poetry ignored-all its sublimity and beauty to evaporate-nothing to be left to us but the poor, despicable, drivelling prose of the counter and shop-the principle of doing the best we can for ourselves? I scorn, sir, to reduce virtue to expediency; the true and the right to the safe and the profitable.

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In reply to this philosophic rhodomontade, Mr. Binney exposes its fallacy by showing, that as the true and the right are as a rule the safe and the profitable,--that in the world, as it is constituted, good and happy results do generally attend on virtue, and as mankind are so formed as to desire happiness, it cannot be far wrong to take such facts into account. That as virtue cannot well be conceived to require the giving up of our well-being in both worlds, it must be supposed to secure the happiness of one; and it is not unbecoming therefore to inquire, "whether it may not be pursued on such a principle, or exist under such conditions, as to become conducive to the happiness of two?"

Having thus cleared the way, the author proceeds to the main object of the inquiry. And here he remarks that it is not necessary to his purpose to prove that all that is desirable in this life may become accumulated by one single person, but simply such an amount as might fairly be realized by the generality of mankind. As the elements desirable for making the best of this life, he enumerates, "Bodily health, mental cheerfulness, competent income, advance in life, established reputation, the solace of the affections in wife and children, the culture of the understanding, imagination and taste, internal resources adequate to the occasions of inevitable evil,-all possessed and carried forward for years, and crowned at last with a green, bright, happy old age; " and he thinks that if these can all be found really in any one man, such a fact would seem to prove that it is possible to make something unquestionably good, happy, and desirable out of the raw material of the present life. Having established the position that the possession of these things is really calculated to enable a man to make the best of this world, the author proceeds to show how possible and probable they are as the results of virtue; not a virtue practised for the purpose of securing them, but arising from the principle of a religious faith. To illustrate this, he supposes a young man commencing under fair conditions; that is, with good health, average amount of ability, common sense, and education. He is under the influence of Christian principle, pursuing the right not for what he can get by it here, but as shaping his course to another world, as "seeing him that is invisible," and "having respect to the recompense of reward." Tracing him in his career, it is seen how inevitably, under the ordinary circumstances of life, the practice of Christian virtues leads to the possession of the elements which had been adduced as constituting the best of this world. The case is thus summed:

Looking with something, as we think, like clear insight at the great reality of human life; calculating the vast capabilities of the world we live in; noticing the texture of the raw material-within and without us-with which we have to work during our threescore years and ten; and observing what may be done by virtue in relation to health, cheerfulness, success, society, and so on, not forgetting possible misfortune, and ordinary seasons of darkness and tears; setting all this before us, we have come to a certain conclusion, and we have announced it. That conclusion is, that the apprehension of the unseen, the infinite, and the future, as revealed in the Christian revelation-in other words, that religious faith-with its supernatural motives and unworldly aims, will best furnish you with that virtue which most certainly secures the advantages of living, and that it will best enable you to meet the evils incident to your lot. We thus think that you may be aided in two ways by the principle we inculcate. It may promote your actually making the best of life, by aiding you in working it into something uniformly beautiful; and, in addition to this, it may teach you to weave into graceful forms even its darkest and most ravelled threads.

The objection here may arise that all this is in opposition to the teaching, of the New Testament, which makes self-denial one of the main Christian virtues, and declares that it is "through much tribulation, we must enter the kingdom of heaven." In answer to this, the author re-affirms his position, "in spite of what may be thought to be against it, on the ground of certain apparently opposing texts of Scripture, and of some seeming contradictory facts in life;" and proceeds at some length to argue the general question involved in the objection, which he most successfully controverts. In like manner also he meets and disposes of the objection derived from the mournful actualities of life, its blighted hopes, sore bereavements, ruined fortunes, penury, wretchedness, and the thousand inevitable ills of life.

Having established the position that the practice of virtue, springing from religious principle, is the best means of securing the best things in this life, the author proceeds to a consideration of the life to come. On the supposition that the Bible is true this is a short and easy task; but Mr. Binney is not content with this: he consents to meet the infidel on his own ground; and admitting to the atheist, for the sake of argument, that there is not, or may not be, a God, he proceeds to show that it does not follow as a legitimate conclusion that there will be no future state for man. This is a new and somewhat confounding way of meeting the atheist, who having satisfactorily to his own mind banished God from his universe, imagines it must follow as a logical sequence that there is no future state for man. Mr. Binney shows that there is not only no logical connection between the ideas, but that on the atheist's own theory of the

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universe, there is the highest degree of probability, on the principle of analogy, that man will live again, and that the grave is not the ultimatum of intelligent existence. This he proves by arguments the most logical and convincing. ting that man may be the progeny of chance, necessity, the eternal system of things, or what not, that power, whatever its name, which has been sufficient to produce and sustain his existence must be admitted to be equal to perpetuating his being in new forms, under other circumstances, and in another world. This possibility established, let it be remembered that with Nature, according to all its known laws, there is no such thing as waste, no particle of matter is ever annihilated, that there is, moreover, no such thing as unnecessary expenditure of power, no effort made for mere caprice. If then matter is never annihilated, and if there is no process without a specific end, it is surely probable that mind will be perpetuated, and it is surely improbable that a mind which has been progressing in intelligence for threescore years and ten has done this merely for the purpose of going out of existence altogether. Is it probable, is it possible, even if there be no God, that the wonderful entities we call minds-and about their existence there is no doubt-minds so real and powerful that for them it would appear all things have been made, all matter seems to them so subservient, is it probable or even possible that these should have been made to be annihilated, destroyed? That Nature, with whom there is no waste, made these simply to be wasted? That Nature, whose very essence is thrift, who uses up every bit and fragment, every shred or patch of matter, should destroy her intelligent children, extinguish them for ever? Verily error is inconsistent, the credulity of the atheist is great! But here, "deep down at the very lowest extremity of anything like belief," the author shows it possible even from thence "to descry over head a faint streak of light that, for anything the sceptic can tell, may be golden coma of another world!" This possibility established, the author shows that it is at least wise and prudent to give it some consideration, and that the doctrines and precepts of Christianity are the best possible for shaping the life with a view to a future world, even if the belief in that world rested on no surer foundation than the analogies of Nature; whilst on the possibility of the religion of the Bible being true, these doctrines and precepts are the only possible preparation for the future. Taking this view of the question he urges the folly of trusting to happy accidents

either for this life or the next, for it is as true of the one as it is of the other, that

The chapter of accidents is the Bible of the fool."

We have given but a very imperfect sketch of the general scope of this little volume. We can simply add that we have read it through with the most intense interest. Old truths are stated with such freshness, or are placed in such new light, as to give them all the charm of novelty, whilst the work abounds with vigorous original thoughts; and the whole is characterised by that strong, robust, manly eloquence which distinguishes the writer. There is no tinsel, nothing that is merely pretty, but the whole is clear, nervous, and pointed. It is one of the best books for young men we have seen; it ought to beas from its price it is evidently intended it should be-in the hands of every young man in the kingdom.

An Essay upon Life Assurance; especially illustrative of the original, important, and universal Advantages secured to the Assurers themselves whilst living, as well as to their respective Representatives, by the Means adopted and developed in the Waterloo Assurance Company. London. Ir has often struck us as a somewhat inexplicable fact, that whilst it is a rare thing to meet with an individual who will question the prudence of Life Assurance, so very few should avail themselves of that same prudential precaution; and we have been reminded of the illustration furnished to the words of Portia, "I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching." We must confess, however, to some feeling of surprise on reading the essay before us, to find that in a population of nearly eighteen millions, the total number of Life Policies now existing in England, scarcely exceeds two hundred thousand. That whilst the total amount paid in the shape of premiums on these policies does not exceed some three or four millions annually, the amount of duty paid to Government on tobacco, an article at least altogether unnecessary, not to say injurious, amounts to upwards of four millions and a half annually. We can suggest no other solution of this anomaly than that furnished by the consideration of the very questionable and uncertain advantages held out to the assurer by the old offices up to a very recent period,-persons being unwilling to incur a certain annual payment for benefits they could not by possibility reap themselves, and which were at best but problematical as regarded their representatives. The object of the present

essay is not simply to elucidate the general principles on which Life Assurance is based, but to develop certain new features whereby the objection to which we have just referred is entirely removed. The office to which especial reference is made, is the "Waterloo Life, Education, Casualty, and Self-relief Assurance Company." By its provisions the assurer may himself become a recipient of the various advantages, if, in the dispensations of Providence, he ever be placed in circumstances to need them. In addition to the ordinary benefits resulting from Life Assurance,--the recep tion of a certain sum by the representatives of an assurer at his death,-arrangements are made whereby the profits instead of being entirely divided among a proprietary, shall be devoted to certain specific purposes for the advantage of the whole body of the assurers. Thus, a given portion of the profits will be set aside to form a fund for the purpose of providing annuities for assurers, their widows, or orphans, in case of distress or destitution; and a similar portion for the foundation and endowment of homes and asylums for persons in a like condition. Another portion is devoted to a fund from which assurers needing such assistance may receive temporary loans at a nominal interest; and no less than twenty per cent. of the profits is devoted to the education of the children of those holding policies in this office. These, with indisputable policies, and some other advantages, are the peculiarities set forth in the little brochure under notice. We have been highly gratified by the recent development which the principles of assurance have received, and the various important purposes to which they are here applied. It is the principle of association for mutual assistance judiciously carried out. The aid here rendered, possesses nothing of that eleemosynary character which renders the recipient a pauper in spirit, and destroys his self-respect. We therefore strongly commend the project to the attention of our readers as a mode of providing against the contingencies of life, simple and legitimate; and of avoiding the stigma of the man who neglects to provide for those of his own household, whom St. Paul characterises as " 'denying the faith" and being "worse than an infidel."

The Unclaimed Daughter; a Mystery of our own day. Edited by C. G. H., author of The Curate of Linwood," "Amy Harrington," &c. Bath: Binns and Goodwin. London: Whittaker and Co. BUT for the testimonies appended to the volume, we should have been induced to

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