and forewarnings, its projects and calculations, are of momentous account, and regarded with profoundest interest in every department of social life. (Rom. v. 3—5) to mention only one of the happy fruits of the experience of the tried Christians of the early days of the Gospel, -namely, Hope; but, taking a larger view of the subject, we may properly bring a few others within the range of our consideration. One of these will form the subject of our present paper. 1.-CHRISTIAN HUMILITY. And surely, in proportion to the infinitely greater importance of the concerns of the soul, and of the spiritual and eternal world, is experience of moment in regard to them. This world is a tempestuous sea, and, wanting experience, we are liable to be driven at the mercy of the winds-dashed, it may be, on some unseen, unapprehended rock, or engulfed in the foaming billows. If we ask those who are farthest advanced in Humility is an important part of the the spiritual course, they will tell us ein- Christian's conformity to his incarnate phatically of what use, in this scene of Lord. We do not mean by this term perils, the experience of their spiritual his- merely condescension, affability, kindness, tory has been to them: "We have had," to those who may be our inferiors in they say, "some happy seasons of light, worldly circumstance and state. That is, and gladness, and triumphant joy; and, but no doubt, a noble and lovely moral virtue. for the Word, and the Spirit, and the re- The man of wealth and rank, stooping down tarding providence of our God, we would in large-hearted kindness to the poor— have said, 'Our mountain stands strong, casting the shelter of his care over the and we shall never be moved. ' We have fatherless and the widow-lending his aid suffered much," they say, too, "in our pil- to impart knowledge and comfort to the grimage course, but our sufferings have not ignorant and forlorn,-this is an amiable been without profit to our souls. We have and estimable character. The condescenfound that tribulation worketh patience;' sion of such a man to those of humble rank this has wrought 'EXPERIENCE;' and now, adds dignity to his station, and sheds an as the blessed fruit of this hard-earned attractive and endearing influence over his experience, we have 'hope'-a hope that history and his name. But we must never 'maketh not ashamed,'-shedding light forget that this amiable, condescending over all our future course-onward to a disposition may exist where there is no glorious immortality beyond the grave." true scriptural religion in the heart-no Of our incarnate Lord himself it is testi-"repentance toward God," and no "faith fied, that he was "made perfect through toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Alas, that suffering "-completed in fitness for his compassionate, sympathising, sacerdotal function-by his experience of the pains and sorrows of the "children" whom he engaged his heart in eternal covenant to redeem. He, it is true, knew not personal sin-could know no personal abasement as a sinner-had no experience of a depraved, sinful, worldly heart. But he had experience of most of his people's trials, and sufferings, and griefs; indeed, this was one of the leading purposes for which he assumed, not the nature of angels, but our poor humanity, namely, that he might be "a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God;" and that, he himself having suffered, being tempted, he might be able to succour them that are tempted." He, our adorable Lord, was pre-eminent in experience; and never did his Mediatorial dignity appear greater, never did his Mediatorial glory shine forth more illustriously, than amid sufferings, sorrow, conflict, and death. Above all these he is now eternally exalted; but he has left his footsteps-his example behind, that through them his followers may pass to the "many mansions" of their "Father's house." It suits the argument of the apostle it should be so! A considerate Christian cannot but be moved to tears of compassionate regret in contemplating such a scene :-so much that is lovely, and worthy of admiration; while, nevertheless, the pos sessor of all these estimable qualities is living "without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world." O, if these men of so many noble and amiable dispositions would but come, with the docility of little children, to the Gospel, and learn there that, with all their fellow-men, they are sinners before God, and must obtain forgiveness through the only Saviour-the Lord Jesus Christ; and learn, too, that their hearts are naturally alienated from God, and in enmity to him, and that they need to be "born again"-made " new creatures "-regenerated by the Almighty Spirit of God, ere ever they can serve him acceptably, or have part in his kingdom, what a blessed thing it would be! If, under the solemn impression of these divine and precious lessons, they would but be constrained to come, and at the throne of heavenly mercy seek part in this Saviour, and implore the grace and power of this Holy Spirit, they would be heard: Jesus would receive them under the canopy of his atoue ment, and put on them the robe of his everlasting righteousness; and the Divine Spirit would come into their hearts, and shed over them his blessed influence, and make them "new creatures in Christ Jesus." And then, from the time of this great and happy change of state and character, consecrated to God and his Christ, their amiable dispositions would be transformed into Christian graces, and their mere worldly condescensions would be imbued and pervaded by a nobleness, a sanctity, a divine blissfulness of motive, purpose, and feeling, which heretofore they had never known, and which it had not entered into their hearts even to conceive. Christian humility is a grace of the Holy Spirit wrought in the soul in the day of its happy regeneration; a grace, however, to the formation and strengthening of which, various parts of the Christian's experience are rendered subservient. A deepening sense of his guiltiness before God; a growing perception of the depravity and deceitfulness of his heart; a painful feeling of his proneness to depart from God, and yield to the temptations of sin and Satan and the world; an overpowering conviction of the sin that taints his most sacred services; a cherished remembrance of the infinite obligations he is under to his God for all his saving and providential mercy, and a deep feeling of how faint and defective his gratitude has been in referenence to them all: these are the springs of Christian humility-the elements out of which is formed that lovely garment with which the Christian is exhorted to be clothed (1 Pet. v. 5), and arrayed in which, God has condescended to declare that he will look down on him with complacency, and dwell with him: "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." (Is. lvii. 15.) And undone; because I am a man of unclean Thus is it evident that true Christian humility is one of the happy fruits of Christian experience; and, moreover, that the longer the believer in the Lord Jesus lives on earth,-the more he progressively knows of God and of himself, the purity and grace of his blessed Lord, and his own manifold imperfections, shortcomings, and sins-the more deeply will this lovely Christian grace be impressed on his soulthe more profoundly will he be abased It is, we say, the fruit of spiritual experi- before his God, and the more lowliness of ence; and we find it illustrated by many mind will he feel constrained to manifest interesting and affecting examples in Holy toward and before his fellow-men. And, if Writ. Listen to the afflicted patriarch of we were to pursue the illustration of our Uz, when the holy majesty and glory of the subject down through the history of the Most High had been vividly brought before church in modern times, we should inthe view of his mind: "I have heard of variably find, that those Christians who thee by the hearing of the ear; but now have been most eminent for exalted piety, mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor most distinguished for ardent love to the myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Lord Jesus, and zeal for his glory, and the Listen to the words of the deeply humbled advancement of his cause, have been most prophet, feeling his own unworthiness and remarkable, too, for their deniedness to sinfulness, in the light of the infinite purity themselves, the depth of their humility, and majesty of Jehovah-Jesus, which he and the condescending lowliness of their had beheld in vision in the temple, and minds and conduct. Well has our Christian which he had heard the burning seraphim poet embodied this fact, of which, for so adoringly proclaim: "Woe is me! for I am many years, he was himself an amiable example, in these simple but beautiful He waled him out the partin' sang, his voice lines: HUMILITY. The bird that soars on highest wing, When Mary chose the better part, Was made for God's own temple meet : rose firm and clear, And read the 14th o' St. John, nor did he shed a tear. Sae is it wi' the man of God, when life's day's darg is dune, Nae future fears disturb his min', nae ruefu' look behin'. SCOTCH WORDS. THE Scotch language is perhaps destined to perish. There are many Scotch words and Scotch expressions which ought to be saved from the wreck. By their adoption, the English language would be immensely The saint that wears heav'n's brightest crown enriched. The Scotch language has no "What tho' we ken o' better things, a fairer warld abune, Where lost frien's are awaitin' us, and a' maun follow sune, This rendin' o' the siller strings, that tether heart to heart, It tries puir human nature sair, and makes us laith to part. Gae rax me doon the Bible, wife, while yet I'm fit to see, Ere death creep o'er my cauldrife brow, and flap my failin' e'e, And let us sing a partin' sang, the last we'll sing the gither, For noo ye canna hae me lang, the bairns maun lose their faither. "There, pit the pillow to my back, an' ease me up a wee, An' bring them a' to the bed-side, to see their faither dee; Noo raise the Bible up a thocht, it's ower laigh on my knee, An' shift the light a kennin back, it's ower strong for my e'e." Roman majesty, but it lends itself most opulently to pathos and humour. It has been kept free from those pedantic Johnsonianisms which have been so fatal to the English language. In its homeliness there is a power after which the English lan guage often strives in vain. What in effect is homeliness, but that which, coming from the home, goes back thither with natural impulse and irresistible force? A language loses its moral empire, when it deserts entirely, as the English language has deserted, the common speech of the people; and that moral empire gone, what avails a learned air and rhetorical embellishment ?Critic. OUR FOREMOTHERS. WE hear enough about our forefathers. They were nice old fellows, no doubt. Perfect bricks in their way. Good to work, eat, or fight. Very well. But where are their companions-their "chums "—who, as their helpmates, urged them along? Who worked and delved for our forefathers, brushed up their old clothes, and patched their breeches? Who unpetticoated themselves for the cause of liberty? Who nursed our forefathers when sick-sang Yankee Doodle to their babies-who trained up their boys? Our foremothers. Who landed at James River, and came over in the Mayflower, and established the other early settlements ? Were there any women among them? One would think not. Our Yankee neighbours, especially, make a wonderful talk about the Pilgrim 80 Fathers who squatted on Plymouth Rock, and there is a great ado made over it every time they wish to get up a little enthusiasm on liberty, and refresh themselves by crowing over freedom; and the chivalry of Virginia are not a whit behind them, when they take a notion to vaunt themselves upon the glory and greatness of the Old Dominion; and our staid Pennsylvania Quakers, too, like to plume themselves slyly upon the merits and doings of William Penn and his associates; but, with all the "blarney plentifully distributed on all sides, what do we hear or gather about the foremothers? Didn't they land on a rock, too? Didn't they encounter perils and hardships? And, after all, didn't they, with their kind hearts and warm arms, sustain the flagging spirit of their male companions, and keep the stalwart but chilly old forefathers from freezing to death, during those horrible cold winters which some of them had to shiver through? We have our monuments commemorating, and our speeches, our songs, our toasts, and our public dinners, celebrating, the wonderful deeds of our forefathers; but where are those in honour of our foremothers? We had better be getting them ready. We talk ourselves hoarse, and write ourselves round-shouldered, while boiling over with enthusiasm about the nice things our forefathers did; and yet nothing is said about our foremothers, to whom many a virtuous act and brave deed may be ascribed, such as any hero would be proud to own. Besides, we forget to remember, that if it had not been for our foremothers, we ourselves would not be here to know, and be proud of what our forefathers did. We wish not to detract. All hail to the noble old boys, our forefathers, say we. May the glory of their deeds never be less; but the good Book tells us to "render unto Cesar," etc., and we wish to speak a word in season for women generally, and especially for our noble and self-sacrificing foremothers, lest time and the one-sided page of history shall blot them for ever from our memories. Canadian Paper. WORDS OF THE WISE. can THERE is no manner of inconvenience in having a pattern propounded to us, of so great perfection as is above our reach to attain to; and there may be great advantages in it. The way to excel in any kind is to propose the brightest and most perfect examples to our imitation. No man write after too perfect and good a copy; and, though he can never reach the perfection of it, yet he is likely to learn more than by one less perfect. He that aims at short of, is like to shoot higher than he the heavens, which yet he is sure to come that aims at a mark within his reach.— Tillotson. Happy is he who is engaged in controversy with his own passions, and comes off superior: who makes it his endeavour that his follies and weaknesses may die before him, and who daily meditates on mortality and immortality.-Jortin. We all complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we Our lives are know what to do with. doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing either spent in doing nothing at all, or in nothing that we ought to do. always complaining that our days are few, and acting as if there would be no end of them.-Seneca. We are Missions. CHINA. THE REV. ALEXANDER GRANT TO THE TREASURER. Amoy, October 8th, 1859. without fear. In addition to the usual complaints against foreigners there was at one time much excitement in consequence of the Coolie trade. A large Spanish ship lay at Amoy for several months seeking a cargo of Coolies; for which men were seized or decoyed in a shameful way, to such an extent that in some places the people threatened to arouse their magistrates to serious action in the matter, by taking some foreigner's life. I may give an instance of how this iniquitous business was MY DEAR MR. MATHESON,-For nearly a year the churches here have had the privilege of Mr. Burns's presence and special interest. He is now on the point of leaving us for a new field, after having in vain sought an opening in Changchew, and the region hereabout. The special work for which Mr. Douglas urgently requested a visit from himnamely, setting in order what was in confusion in these country churches, and strengthening the weak-has been in a great measure accomplished. Dur- managed only a specimen of the way ing these months a singular blessing in which hundreds, it is to be feared, has rested on efforts made to remove were deceived. This man, along with the evils that were pressing on us, in four others, was released through Mr. which the hand of God, more than the Morrison's kind efforts to check this agency of man, has been apparent, traffic; and from him we learned the even as it was evident in the infliction facts, after much examination and of these evils. Fact after fact has, in cross-examination. The way he was enprovidence, come to light, manifesting trapped was this: He had an acquaintthose who were not approved; and ance, who was now, unknown of course most unexpected light has been thrown to the poor man, engaged as a Coolio on what, if undiscovered, would have agent. This agent induced him to enter continued to infest the church, and into a trading agreement with himself, ainder the work among us. Three or in prosecution of which they visited tofour persons have been suspended, or gether a place called Kang-Boey. deprived altogether of church-member- their arrival there the agent invited ship; while those who remain have his victim to enter what he called a passed through an ordeal more or less "friend's" house, and there they sat severe, from which some have come down to supper together. A messenger forth as gold. The efforts of Mr. soon called out the agent, who reBarns have included several improve- quested his victim to be seated, and ments in the external affairs of the finish his meal-till his return. churches-particularly the improve. waited accordingly till late, and then ments in the Bay Pay (Maping) chapel, rose to leave; but was told by the peoia consequence of which it has been ple of the house that he was a prisoner, made easy for a foreign missionary to-in fact was sold, and the money for reside there as I have done, even in him paid to the other man, who was the heat of summer. The only thing gone. This man, when released, was that might prove an obstacle to such of service, seemingly, in showing the residence is in the case of bad feeling people of the district to which he bebeing excited against foreigners in the longed (near Maping), that the misminds of the natives. That it has not sionaries have nothing to do with the been so to any great extent, is surely trade; and to this is, I think, partly to matter of thanksgiving, and calculated be attributed the subsiding to a large to encourage us to enter where God extent of the former threats and bad seems to open the way. During the feeling. The village of Kang-Boey, past summer, events have occurred mentioned before, is near the coast, which render it matter of wonder that south of Amoy, a sort of depôt for we are enabled to be among the people Coolies, and appears to be a resort of On He |