nigh the close, with inattention; but by the singular overruling of divine grace, the last words in the discourse were these-" Do not lose your soul!" It seemed to her as though the voice of her departed father had uttered them; but it was more-it was the voice of God. She repented; she was converted; she confessed Christ, as a member of the christian community over which it is my happiness to preside, and some time since I was summoned to her death-bed, when, amidst much anguish and pain of body, she gave testimony to the power of divine grace upon her heart, and departed with the blessed confidence, that she had not lost her soul. Dear reader, one word, and I have done. If you lose your soul, you will have murdered it! May God prevent you from being the murderer of your own soul !-James Parsons.

HOLINESS. Holiness is a very comprehensive word, and expresses a state of mind and conduct that includes many things. It is the work of the Spirit in our sanctification; the fruit of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and the operation of the new nature, which we receive in regeneration. Holiness may be viewed in various aspects, according to the different objects to which it relates. Towards God, it is supreme love; delight in his moral character; submission to his will; obedience to his commands; zeal for his cause; observance of his institutes; and seeking his glory. Towards Christ, it is a conformity to his example, and imbibing his spirit. Towards man, it is charity, integrity, truth, mercy. Towards sin, it is a hatred of all iniquity, a tender conscience, easily wounded by little sins, and scrupulously avoiding them; together with a laborious, painful, self-denying, progressive mortification of all the known corruptions of our heart, and a diligent seeking for such as are unknown. Towards self, it is the control of our fleshly appetites; the eradication of our pride; the mortification of our selfihness. Towards divine things in general, it is spirituality of mind, or habitual current of pious thought, and devout affections flowing through the soul. And towards the objects of the unseen world, it is heavenly mindedness, a turning away from things seen and temporal, to things unseen and eternal.-J. A. James.

A WORD FITLY SPOKEN. One day as Felix Neff was walking in a street in the city of Lausanne, he saw, at a distance, a man whom he took for one of his friends. He ran up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder before looking in his face, and asked him, "What is the state of your soul, my friend ?" The stranger turned; Neff perceived his error, apologized, and went his way. About three or four years afterwards, a person came to Neff, and accosted him, saying he was indebted to him for his inestimable kindness. Neff did not recognize the man, and begged he would explain. The stranger replied, "Have you forgotten an unknown person, whose shoulder you touched in a street in Lausanne, asking

him, 'How do you find your soul?' It was I; your question led me to serious reflection, and now I find it is well with my soul." This proves what apparently small means may be blessed of God for the conversion of sinners, and how many opportunities for doing good we are continually letting slip, and which thus pass irrecoverably beyond our reach. One of the questions which every christian should propose to himself on setting out upon a journey, is "What opportunities shall I have to do good?" And one of the points on which he should examine himself on his return, is, "What opportunities have I lost?"-James.

JUSTIFICATION BY WORKS.-The idea of justification by works, in any way, when we look at our own depravity, must appear to every sound mind as irrational as it is unscriptural. The best works, performed by the best man, are imperfect and mingled with sin, and therefore need to be forgiven; so that to say a man is justified by his works, is no better than saying a man is justified by his sins; and how great an absurdity this is, there is no man who will not acknowledge. Every true christian deeply feels that the best duties he ever performed, the best services he ever offered to God, the most unmingled spiritual sacrifices he ever laid upon the altar of a Saviour's love, need be sprinkled with a Saviour's blood, and can not otherwise be accepted of God. How then can he, in any sense whatever, be justified by his works, seeing that his works themselves need to be forgiven? The utmost that his best works can do, is to prove the existence in manifesting the fruit of that saving faith, through which the soul is united to Christ, and by his blood justfied; but if our works all partake of sin, then, so far from being in any sense justified by works, we are condemned by them, and without other justification, must perish everlastingly.-Dr. Cheever.

THE ROBE AND THE BLANKET; or, The WAY TO PEACE.-An Indian and a white man were both struck under conviction by the same sermon. The Indian was shortly after brought to rejoice in pardoning mercy. The white man was for a long time under distress of mind, and at times almost ready to despair; but at length he also was brought to a comfortable experience of forgiving love. Some time afterwards meeting his red brother, he thus addressed him: "How is it that I should be so long under conviction, when you found comfort so soon ?” "O brother," replied the Indian, "me tell you. There came along a rich prince; he promised to give you a new coat; you look at your coat and say, 'I don't know, my coat. pretty good, I believe it will do a little longer.' He then give me a new coat. I look on my old blanket; I say 'this good for nothing.' I fling it right away and take my new coat. Just so, brother, you try to make your old righteousness do for some time, you loath to give it up; but I poor Indian had none, therefore, I glad to receive at once the righteousness of the Lord Jesus

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BAPTIST FOREIGN MISSIONS.

Our enlarged magazine allows us room to notice more fully the proceedings of our societies. We hope they will avail themselves of services we shall be happy to render. Through us they may "take care of the pence of the many-through our sixpenny contemporaries of the pounds of the few." What pence may amount to all societies pretty well know. The Juvenile Missionary Magazine will gather many from children, we should be glad to be missionary collectors amongst those who are too old for a child's magazine, and too poor to take a sixpenny one.

It is plain, that for this purpose we shall need aid from head quarters; we know it will be willingly rendered, if possible. The Herald is not much read by the body of our members; parts of it are, however, frequently read by the minister, at our monthly missionary prayer-meetings. Now, just as our subscribers of half guineas and upwards, can peruse the Missionary Intelligence at their leisure, whether able to attend the prayer-meetings or not; so should our subscribers of pence, who equally love the mission, have their fireside portion. Every means should be employed to obtain "cheerful givers" from every class of christians. We know of none more important, when the object is so truly good, as keeping its excellence before them.

It is well known, or ought to be, that our mission is, at this time, struggling under the fact of a diminished annual income, and the fear lest that diminution be permanent. We may be permitted to say, we think there is no need that it should be so. Some of the old ways of raising money are, indeed, beginning to lose their power. We cannot say we are sorry for it. Fuller, Carey, and all the early friends of our mission, had little faith in the paraphernalia of public meetings. It is clear the public is getting tired of them. The novelty, too, of the missionary enterprize is gone. Grotesque heathen gods have ceased to be marvels. We have seen engravings of almost every missionary station. The monstrosities of heathen mythology are no longer strange. Marvellous conversions do not occur abroad more frequently than at home. There is now before us only the plain work for God, of preaching the gospel to hearts slow to believe it. Is there or is there not the power amongst us to sustain the work? We deliberately answer, yes. It must now be brought before our churches by appeals, directed more to steady christian principle than to the fancy or the feelings. It must become a subject for church effort, rather than of auxiliary societies, with their staff of officers, &c. A solemn, cool determination must be sustained in all our churches,

to maintain, by the help of the Lord, the ground we have taken in his name against the prince of darkness, and to extend too, in the same strength, the Redeemer's blessed conquests. The argument must be less what has been done, than what is to do. The command of Christ, and our duty, must be more urged than the "bright side of a year's operations." In a word, we must rely, in this warfare, on "the patience of the saints."

Intelligence, however, from our missionary stations, will always be acceptable to the lovers of missions, in a condensed form, and very often in detail. We have sent copies of our magazine to all our missionaries, and hope, as soon as the distance allows, to receive from them some materials for missionary articles; though we must rely more upon what can be furnished through the regular channels. We shall also be glad of extracts, which any of their friends or relatives in England, may be so kind as to send us. We have just received the following from Mr. Merrick of Bimbia, through Mr. Adey:

"This is the fourth anniversary of my arrival in Africa, and the 10th April next, will be four years since I settled here; but no fruit yet appears. All is barren-a dark and dreary wilderness. Much of our want of success is, I fear, owing to ourselves, and my earnest prayer is, that the 'great God of missions would impart his Spirit to all his servants who go forth to proclaim his truth in heathen lands.' I am thankful to be able to inform you, that I speak with fluency and ease in the Isubu tongue, and never speak by an interpreter, unless on account of weariness. I have translated and printed the Gospel by Matthew in the Isubu tongue, a hymn-book of forty-eight pages, and several other things; and am now busily engaged with my Isubu dictionary, the A's and B's of which are now in print. Brother Saker, who labours at Cameroons, has published a school-book in the Duvala tongue, and we are now printing another school-book for him. Our little Zion at Clarence is, I think, in a prosperous state, and brother Prince happy in his work. Our little English church here is also getting on well; but we cannot rest till the dark heathen are gathered unto the fold.' Pray for us, dear brother; and at your monthly prayer-meeting, remember the Isubu and Duvala Tribes, and the poor natives of Fernando-Po, who have been deprived of the Word of Life by the intolerance of Rome."

Should such statements as these discourage us, or lessen our contributions? or should they quicken our prayers, and call forth the offerings of faith, and of acquiescence in the divine will? What if we even do not live to see the fruit of our sacrifices

and prayers? It is no new thing in God's

kingdom, that "one should sow, and another should reap." Let our faith grasp firmly, however, the joyful truth, that those who sow and those who reap shall "rejoice together." We may have to wait longcenturies may roll over us in heaven itself; but Africa is to be Christ's; and every contributor to sending forth brother Merrick, "taking nothing of the Gentiles," will assuredly rejoice doubly in the joy of those who are favoured to be the reapers.

DISSENTING NEWSPAPERS.

The British Banner.

We have pleasure in inviting the attention of our readers to The Banner newspaper. The name of Dr. Campbell is a guarantee that it will be conducted with the utmost vigour. It is to have a circulation of not less than 100,000, and will be, therefore, by far the most important organ for uniting and guiding the energies of Dissent, or rather Voluntaryism, at this all-important national crisis. To avoid all danger of recommending to our numerous readers a paper which might clash with their distinctive opinions, we sent the following questions in a letter to Dr. Campbell, the hearty and explicit answers to which we subjoin:

Q. Will The Banner admit discussions of the Baptismal, or any other sectarian controversy?

A. The Banner will not admit discussions of the Baptismal, or any other sectarian controversy, nor a word that could prompt them.

Q. So far as Religious Intelligence is admitted, will the Baptists stand on the same footing as the Predobaptists?

A. Not only will the Religious Intelligence of the Baptists be admitted, but that of all other communities;-ouly, by the term Intelligence must be uuderstood matters really important to the kingdom of Christ; for there is much that ranks under the head of Intelligence, which appears, and, to some extent, properly appears, in the Denominational Journals, consisting of local trifles and religious gossip, which can have no place in the columns of The Banner, which, as much as may be, must be charged only with matters interesting to all.

Q. Will the Strict Baptists be exposed to any censures on account of their peculiar views?

A. Here I somewhat boggle. I may say, however, that our brethren will not be exposed to "censures," though it is not wholly impossible that they may, once in twelve months, come in for a friendly hint, or a fraternal remonstrance, on the ground of their exclusiveness. I have, however, no doubt that they and I will, as heretofore, go on very well together.

The Banner does not interfere with the two former Dissenting papers, the Patriot and the Nonconformist. It is started by the Patriot committee, and is published on the Friday, to avoid collision with the Nonconformist; for which the editor professes, and we are sure it is with sincerity, the most cordial good feeling.

TAXING EDUCATION, OR TAXING FOR EDUCATION WHICH?

The following paragraph shows how all who aim to educate the poor through the press, are taxed to pay Government schoolmasters; also, how our readers get less to read, under colour of being taught to read:

An example of the effect of the Excise Laws, in checking the efforts of those who

desire to supply the humbler classes with cheap and wholesome literature, is furnished by the Messrs. Chambers in a late No. of their Edinburgh Journal. The cheapest of their publications has just been completed, and they affirm, that of £25,766 spent in paper, £5431 was paid to Government for duty. This sum exceeds, they say, their own profit. On this the Messrs. Chambers proceed to remark: "We leave the candid part of the public to judge whether, even taking the work in its lowest aspect as a mercantile enterprise, it be quite right and proper that the Government for such is the factshould reap a greater share of profit [that the revenue should be benefitted in a greater degree] than those who have undergone the whole of the risk and toil."

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ON THE CONTINENT. We extract the following from the Bremen Gazette, a German paper :-Baden, Nov. 2, 1847. A petition of the Baptists, or rebaptizers, to be allowed to dispense with Infant Baptism, and to baptize their adults instead, has been rejected by the Ministers of State, in connexion with the Superior council of the evangelical (?) church!!

SHAKSPEARE'S WALK Chapel, SHADWELL,

LONDON.

[We feel it a duty to insert the following matters of fact, which Mr. Moore urges as his appeal for aid in building a chapel in the neighbourhood. We know, from personal experience, how utterly unfit both the present chapel and its situation are for christian worship. The names of Messrs. Thos. Pewtress, J.H. Hinton, C. Stovel, Josh. Fletcher, J. M. Peto, W. B. Gurney, and others, as large contributors or recommenders of the object, are sufficient guarantees to any who may wish to aid, but are not personally acquainted with, Mr. Moore.-EDs.] "The ground is paid for, and trust-deed enrolled. The total cost of the ground was £300. Besides which, we have £340 in hand or promised. We do not propose to begin till we have £500. The following is the state of the neighbourhood around, derived from personal enquiry and visitation by a friend :-350 houses were visited, and found to contain 516 families; of these, 164 families were without the Scriptures; 139 adults could not read; there are 58 houses of ill fame; 152 females living by prostitution; 54 shops are open a part, or the whole, of Lord's-day; and there are 15 public houses and gin shops. Many of the wretched inhabitants will boast of possessing a bible, and will put it into your hand, and say they obtained it at a Sunday-school, or of some christian friend."

ANOTHER CHURCH-RATE VICTIM.

We stop the working of our Magazine, at the last moment, to announce to our readers the fact, that another Church-rate victim-John Simonds, of Mursley, Bucks, an honest and industrious man-has just been incarcerated in Aylesbury jail, for the non-payment of a rate amounting to FIVEPENCE! "How long, O Lord, how long?"