The people are therefore familiar with all the evils of our present church establishment; they see clearly enough that the life of the church is not consonant with that of her recognized Lord. Here again, "the salt has lost

its savour.

What, then, are our duties at the present crisis?

Dear brethren, let us first submit ourselves to a rigid and searching examination. What is my individual character-what the position I occupy -what the kind of influence I exert on the church and the world? The conviction must penetrate each of our hearts: I have a mission on the earth, and must be filled with the spirit of it. The spirit which is in me is helping to make up that agency in the church by which men are being influenced. Let us seek to have a Christ-like piety;

"So let our lips and lives express
The holy gospel we profess;
So let our works and virtues shine
To prove the doctrine all divine."

And let us fearlessly maintain and assiduously spread our principles as nonconformists. Every honest and conscientious man among us believes that his tenets are clearly deducible from the sacred Scriptures. Be it ours then to "contend earnestly for

the faith once delivered to the saints."

There is a species of false liberality current in these times, which scarcely admits of a free expression of opinion. Peace and unity secured by the compromise or even suppression of truth, are too dearly purchased. They are apparent only, and not real. We must discriminate between truth and error, men and their principles. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong."

Is it not our duty also, to make use of all moral and constitutional means, to rid the nominal church of its inconsistent alliances for support upon the secular arm; to induce it to put off the paltry and meretricious ornaments

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of childish pomp; to throw down the ceremonial which cramps up its spirit, and hides its power? Loyalty to King Jesus imperatively demands this at our hands. Roman Cathoicism may recognize a visible head in the occupant of St. Peter's chair. The British constitution may lodge the supremacy of the Anglican churches in the reigning monarch: but what of that? As Protestant Dissenters, we should feel that necessity is laid upon us to defend the rights and maintain the honours of the Son of God. In my view, this country, yea, the whole world, owes much to nonconformity. The deeds of her high-souled patriots, the records of their righteous struggles and bloodless triumphs, adorn the historic page. Still our work is not done. In the main the principles of dissent are synonymous with the dictates of inspiration. It is ours to fight for Christ's crown and covenant. The mission to which Providence has called us is a sublime one, and pregnant with the most magnificent results. Already the true followers of Jesus are skirting the regions of the globe. William Penn and the Pilgrim Fathers conveyed the precious seed across the Atlantic, and behold, What God

hath wrought." The modern exodus

to the auriferous mines of Australia is not say, a free church and a glorious laying the foundation for, shall we republic in the South. The Great Ruler is evidently preparing the world for a thrilling crisis. Dear christians, let us discern aright "the signs of the times." "Ye are the salt of the earth." It is yours to conquer or to Our illustrious General "expects every man to do his duty.”

die.

"Soldiers of Christ arise,

Strong in the strength which God supplies
And put your armour on;
Through his beloved Son.
From strength to strength go on;

Wrestle, and fight and pray;
Tread all the powers of darkness down,
And win the well-fought day."

THE near approach of our Annual Association, and some statements in your Missionary Observer of this month, have pressed upon my mind a subject which has often, during the last few years, been its painful burden -I mean our Foreign Mission. As every christian must feel that missionary operations are the necessary outgoings of vital godliness, therefore that as soon as religious professors cease to be missionaries they cease to be christians, who can think of the languishing condition of our China mission, and of the death of our standard bearers in Orissa, and none to supply their places; who, I say, of us can seriously consider these facts, without pain and alarm? A brother I heard a short time ago, on a missionary platform of another body, observed, "If we had not men to send out as missionaries, I should think that God had forsaken us." Has then God forsaken the General Baptists? I fear that on some account he is displeased with us, and that we are in danger of being forsaken.

May I be allowed, Mr. Editor, therefore to suggest the great importance of immediate special prayer, both private and social, throughout the Connexion, on behalf of our Foreign Mission. Suppose all our brethren and sisters that can, would devote a portion of time on Monday and Saturday at noon, for retirement to "beseech God to be gracious unto us," with respect to our mission. Might not also the committee that prepares the business of the Association make arrangements for a special prayermeeting for the same object during our sittings? Is not the object of sufficient importance to merit an earlier meeting than usual, say at six o'clock, a.m., to continue until breakfast? At such an occasion the greater part of the representatives might be present. If we

did so, all filled with the Holy Spirit, with deep humility of heart, pleading only the all-prevailing name of Jesus, who can estimate the blessed effects to ourselves, as well as the mission, that would follow? May I say further, let, as seems quite necessary, these special prayers be acts of humiliation, as well as of supplication. Let us implore God to pardon in us any want of liberality, prayer, wisdom, or selfdenial, on account of which he may have been offended, and consequently our missions have languished; and especially to pardon any of us that ought to have preached to the heathen, but through the love of ease, selfishness, carnal security, fear, &c., have remained at home; and any that may be doing so still. Let us beseech him to stir up in us zeal for his honour, the love of Christ, and of souls; anxiety for the universality of his kingdom; if it please him, to send any of us to preach to the heathen, or to raise up others for the work. Let fervent thanks ascend on behalf of our missionary brethren, and the success with which he has crowned their labours; on behalf of our friends particularly whom we expect amongst us, and fervent prayers for their health, and usefulness among the churches at home. Finally, let entreat God to bestow upon our churches "the grace bestowed on the churches of Macedonia." I merely suggest these as some suitable topics of prayer occurring to my own mind; others no doubt will occur to other brethren.

us

It has long been my painful impression, that neither in our efforts to extend the cause of the Redeemer at home or abroad, have we manifested that deep sense of our dependence on God for success, which distinguished the primitive christians, and which a proper view of the pre

[From the "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin" by H. B. Stowe, we select the following paragraphs. They shew how little the best friends of freedom have been able to effect. The Southern Associations, Conferences, and Presbyteries, have solemnly declared that slavery is "not opposed to the will of God"-is "no where condemned in his holy word,"-is "recognized by the Creator of all things,"

-and is "not a moral evil." How the North can hold communion with the South without the loss of all consistency, we leave our readers to conceive.-ED]

"AND while we are recording the protesting power, let us not forget the Scotch seceders and covenanters, who, with a pertinacity and decision worthy of the children of the old covenant, have kept themselves clear from the sin of slavery, and have uniformly protested against it. Let us remember, also, that the Quakers did pursue a course which actually freed all their body from the sin of slave-holding; thus showing to all other denominations that what has been done once can be done again. Also, in all denominations, individual ministers and christians, in hours that have tried men's souls, have stood up to bear their testimony. Albert Barnes, in Philadelphia, standing in the midst of a great, rich church, on the borders of a slave state, and with all those temptations to complicity which have silenced so many, has stood up, in calm fidelity, and declared the whole counsel of God upon this subject. Nay, more; he recorded his solemn protest that

"no influences out of the church could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it;" and in the last session of the General Assembly, which met at Washington, disregarding all suggestions of policy, he boldly held the Presbyterian church up to the strength of her past declarations, and declared it her duty to attempt the entire abolition of slavery throughout the world. So, in darkest hour, Dr. Channing bore a noble testimony in Boston, for which his name shall ever live.

So, in Illinois, E. P. Lovejoy and Edward Beecher, with their associates, formed the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society, amid mobs and at the hazard of their lives; and, a few hours after, Lovejoy was shot down in attempting to defend the twice destroyed anti-slavery press. In the Old-School Presbyterian church, William and Robert Breckenridge, President Young, and others, have preached in favour of emancipation in Kentucky. Le Roy Sunderland, in the Methodist church, kept up his newspaper under ban of his superiors, and with a bribe on his life of 50,000 dollars. Torrey, meekly patient, died in a prison, saying, "If I am a guilty man, I am a very guilty one; for I have helped four hundred slaves to freedom who but for me would have died slaves." Dr. Nelson was expelled by mobs from Missouri, for the courageous declaration of the truth on slave soil. All these were in the ministry. Nor are these all. Jesus Christ has not wholly deserted us yet.

There have been those who have learned how joyful it is to suffer shame and brave death in a good

cause.

Also there have been private christians who have counted nothing too dear for this sacred cause. Witness Richard Dillingham, and John Garret, and a host of others, who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods.

But yet, notwithstanding this, the awful truth remains, that the whole of what has been done by the church has not, as yet, perceptibly abated the evil. The great system is stronger than ever. It is confessedly the dominant power of the nation. The whole power of the government, the whole power of the wealth, the whole power of the fashion, and the practical organic workings of the large bodies of the church, are all gone one way. The church is familiarly quoted as being on the side of slavery. Statesmen on both sides of the question have laid that down as a settled fact. Infidels point to it with triumph; and America, too, is beholding another class of infidels-a class that could have grown up only under such an influence. Men whose whole life is one study and practice of benevolence, are now ranked as infidels, because the position of church organizations misrepresent christianity, and they separate themselves from the church. We would offer no excuse for any infidels who take for their religion mere anti-slavery zeal, and under this guise, gratify a malignant hatred of real christianity. But such defences of slavery from the Bible as some of the American clergy have made, are exactly fitted to make infidels of all honourable and high-minded men. The infidels of older times were not much to be dreaded, but such infidels as these are not to be despised. Woe to the church when the moral standard of the infidel is higher than the standard of the professed christian! for the only armour that ever proved invincible to infidelity is the armour of righteousness.

Let us see how the church organizations work now, practically. What do Bruin and Hill, Pulliam and Davis, Bolton, Dickens, and Co., and Matthews, Brandon, and Co., depend upon to keep their slave-factories and slave

barracoons full, and their business brisk? Is it to be supposed that they are not men like ourselves? Do they not sometimes tremble at the awful workings of fear, of despair, and of agony, which they witness when they are tearing asunder living hearts in the depths of those fearful slaveprisons? What, then, keeps down the consciences of those traders? It is the public sentiment of the community where they live; and that public sentiment is made by ministers and church members. The trader sees plainly enough a logical sequence between the declarations of the church and the practice of his trade. He sees plainly enough that, if slavery is sanctioned by God, and it is right to set it up in a new territory, it is right to take the means to do this; and as slaves do not grow on bushes in Texas, it is necessary that there should be traders to get up coffies, and carry them out there; and, as they cannot always take whole families, it is necessary that they should part them; and as slaves will not go by moral suasion, it is necessary that they should be forced; and as gentle force will not do, they must apply whip and torture. Hence come gags, thumb-screws, cow-hides, blood-all necessary measures for carrying out what christians say God sanctions.

So goes the argument one way; let us now trace it back the other. The South Carolina and Mississippi Presbyteries maintain opinions which, in their legitimate results, endorse the slave-trader. The Old School General Assembly maintains fellowship with these Presbyteries without discipline or protest. The New-School Assembly signifies its willingness to re-unite with the Old, while at the same time, it declares the system of slavery an abomination, a gross violation of its most sacred rights, and so on. Well, now the chain is as complete as need be. All parts are in; every one standing in his place, and saying just what is required, and no more. The trader does the repulsive work, the Southern church defends him, the Northern church defends the South. Every one does as much for slavery as would be at all expedient, considering the latitude they live in. This is the practical result of the thing."—pp. 431-3.

EARTHLY LIFE IMPOSSIBLE IN THE

PLANETS.

"Life, as it exists on this globe, is compatible only with certain conditions, which may not be overstepped without causing its annihilation. The whole of these need not be enumerated, as the failure of one is as fatal to existence as the absence of all. The three to which Sir John Herschell has referred, namely, difference in the quantity of heat and light reaching each globe; variation in the intensity of gravity at its surface; and in the quality of its component materials, may suffice to illustrate this. Light and heat are essential to the development and maintenance of earthly life, but their excess is as destructive to it as their deficiency. What, then, shall we say of the sun, whose heat we know by direct trial to be of such intensity, that after great degradation or reduction, it can still melt the most infusible minerals, and dissipate every metal in vapour; and whose light is so intolerably brilliant, that the most vivid flames disappear, and the most intensely ignited solids appear only as black spots on the disc of the sun, when held between it and the eye.' If the temperature of the solid sphere or body of the sun be such as those phenomena imply, it must be the abode, if inhabited at all, of beings, such as Sir Thomas Browne refers to, who can 'lie immortal in the arms of fire.' It is within possibility, however, that the body of the sun is black as midnight and cold as death, so that as the eye sees all things but itself, he illuminates every sphere but his own, and is light to other stars, but darkness to his own gaze. Or the light and heat of his blazing envelope may be so tempered by the reflective clouds of his atmosphere, which throw them off into space, that an endless summer, a nightless summer-day, reigns on his globe. Such an unbroken summer, however, though pleasant to dream of, would be no boon to terrestrial creatures, to whom night is as essential as day, and darkness and rest as light and action. The probabilities are all in favour of the temperature of the sun's solid sphere being very high, nor will any

reasonable hypothesis justify the belief that the economy of his system in relation to the distribution of light and heat can resemble ours.

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We can assert this still more distinctly of the planets. We should be blinded with the glare, and burnt up, if transported to Mercury, where the sun acts as if seven times hotter than on this earth; and we should shiver in the dark, and be frozen to death, if removed to Uranus, where the sun is 300 times colder than he is felt to be by us. To pass from Uranus to Mercury, would be to undergo, in the latter, exposure to a temperature some 2000 times higher than we had experienced in the former; whilst on this earth the range of existence lies within some 200° of the Fahrenheit ther

mometer.

"As for our satellite, Sir John Herschell says of it-The climate of the moon must be very extraordinary

the alteration being that of unmitigated and burning sunshine, fiercer than an equatorial noon, continued for a whole fortnight, and the keenest severity of frost, far exceeding that of our polar winters for an equal time.' It would seem, then, that though all else were equal, the variations in amount of light and heat would alone necessitate the manifestation of a non-terrestrial life upon the sun, and the spheres which accompany the earth in its revolutions around it. All else, however, is not equal. The intensity of gravity at the surfaces of the different heavenly bodies differs enormously. At the sun it is nearly 28 times greater than at the earth. The efficacy of muscular power to overcome weight is, therefore, proportionably nearly 28 times less on the sun than on the earth. An ordinary man, for example, would not only be unable to sustain his own weight on the sun, but would literally be crushed to atoms under the load.' Again, the intensity of gravity, or its efficacy in counteracting muscular power, and repressing animal activity on Jupiter, is nearly two and a half times that on the earth, on Mars is not more than one-half, on the moon one-sixth, and on the smaller planets probably not