Next, the rule informs us how much we are to give. The matter of quantity is often a trouble in our churches. Various plans have been devised to ascertain how much each one should contribute. Some method of finding out how much each one ought to give is surely desirable. Now, Paul's direction to the Corinthian brethren was to give "as God hath prospered him." What better rule could be established? "To whom much is given, of him shall much be required." It is not the amount given that is well-pleasing in the sight of God, but the compliance with duty that He owns and blesses. If we give a single penny, and it is "according as God hath prospered us," it is more acceptable than if we should give a hundred pennies and yet fall below the measure of our prosperity. No man or body of men have a right to say how much a Christian shall give, but, with a mind enlightened by prayer for spiritual guidance and a heart searching for the path of duty, each one should decide, in the fear of God, "how much owest thou my lord." Through a feeling of shame, or to be held in high esteem among men, some may at times give more than they ought, or, what is worse, promise and not fulfil the promise; and often, through fear of being despised for the smallness of the contribution, some refrain from giving the small amount which they are able to give, because they cannot give a large one. Let each one measure his duty by his ability, and obey in the fear of God.

We have seen that every one should give, that they should give every week, and should give according to their ability. When we adopt and practise this Bible plan of giving we shall be troubled no longer with financial difficulties in our churches.

TAKE YOUR BIBLES WITH YOU.

I was taking a two days' trip in a steamer, and, being rather out of health, I felt a little lonesome after my boys had been put to bed, and took my Bible into the saloon to read, knowing that it would cheer

LET me give a little experience | cabin" was more generally used to of my own, that showed me how, sleep in, I can remember slipping by quietly reading our Bibles into my berth, pulling the curtains, when travelling, we can "be living and then crouching on my knees to epistles read of all men." pray. Later I used to try to read by the light of the lamp in the state room, and I even own to slipping a copy of the Psalms into another book to read on deck. Now perhaps this sounds very shocking. It does not sound any meaner than it was, and if I can encourage and strengthen some weak Christian by acknowledging my own failures, I care not how it sounds. I sat thinking of these things, and wondering how it was that now I felt no temptation to hide my Bible. I had not travelled for more than

me.

After reading awhile, my thoughts went back to the different times I had been on board a boat at night. How often I had travelled, and yet this was the first time that I had brought out my Bible and read in a public saloon. As a little girl, in the days when the "ladies'

NEWS OF THE CHURCHES.

W. Pope, of the church at Thorpe-
le-Soke, Essex; the Rev. T.
Williams, B.A., formerly of Merthyr
Tydvil, of the church at Coleford,

THE 109th Annual Conference of of Pontypool College, of the church the General Baptist Association at Caersalem, Dowlais; the Rev. G. was held in Westbourne - park Chapel, London, of which the Rev. J. Clifford, LL.B., is minister, commencing on Monday, June 24th. The Rev. J. Ciifford pre- Gloucestershire; the Rev. E. P. sided. All the reports, especially that of the Foreign Mission, were eminently satisfactory. A full account of the proceedings at the Conference is given in the Baptist and the Freeman.

Barrett, late of Hereford, of the church at South Wingfield, Alfreton; the Rev. D. Evans, late of Pontypool College, of the united churches at Caerphilly and Grangetown; the Rev. R. Evans, late of the same College, of the church at Hengoed, Glamorganshire; the Rev. C. A. Fellowes, late of the Metropolitan Tabernacle College, of the church at Keynsham.

THE chapel at Cullompton, Devon, under the care of the Rev. J. Miller, has been re-opened after alteration and repair. The chapel at Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire, under the care of the Rev. E. T. THE following reports of MINISDavies, has been re-opened after TERIAL CHANGES have reached us alteration. The chapel at Saint since the preparation of our last Hill, Kentisbear, Devon, under the issue :--The Rev. E. P. Barrett, of care of the Rev. A. Pidgeon, has Hereford, to South Wingfield, been re-opened after renovation Alfreton, Derby; the Rev. J. and repair. A new chapel has Hollinshead, late of the Metrobeen opened in King-street, Peter-politan Tabernacle College, to head, for the ministry of the Rev. Rattlesden, Suffolk; the Rev. J. D. Bruce.—The memorial-stones of W. Edwards, of Haverfordwest a new chapel have been laid in College, to Neyland, Pembroke ; Octavius-street, Deptford, South the Rev. W. Mackintosh, of Rawdon London, for the ministry of the College, to Anstruther, Fifeshire; Rev. D Honour.-The memorial- the Rev. J. Compston, of Leeds, to stones of a new chapel have been Fivehead and Isle Abbots, near laid at Erdington, near Birming- Taunton, Somerset; the Rev. A. F. ham, for the ministry of the Rev. Cotton, of the Metropolitan TaberW. Donald. The memorial-stones nacle, to Ponder's End, near Lonof a new chapel have been laid at don; the Rev. R. F. Jeffrey, of Blackley, Yorkshire, for the minis- Southsea, to Kingsgate - street, try of the Rev. R. Briggs.-A new London; the Rev. J. Bigwood, to chapel has been opened in Bow- Trinity-road, Upper Tooting, Lonmont-street, Kelso, for the ministry don; the Rev. T. Baker, to Llanof the Rev. J. Work.-A new trissant, Glamorganshire; the Rev. chapel has been opened at Leyton- J. T. Felce, of Sulgrave, to Attlestone, under the auspices of the borough, Nuneaton; the Rev. W. London Baptist Association. J. Mathams, of Regent's-park College, to Pole-street, Preston. THE Rev. T. Davies, late of The Rev. W. B. Bliss has resigned Bristol College, has been publicly the pastorate of the church at recognised as the pastor of the Belgrave, Leicester. The Rev. W. church in Mount Stuart-square, Evans has resigned his pastorate at Cardiff; the Rev. T. Morgan, late Langley, Bishops Stortford, Essex.

SEPTEMBER, 1878.

THE BLESSING OF THE TRIBES; OR, HOW MOSES, THE MAN OF GOD, BLESSED THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL BEFORE HE DIED.

BY THE REV. T. G. ROOKE, B.A., PRESIDENT OF RAWDON COLLEGE.

No. VII.-ZEBULUN AND ISSACHAR.

Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19.

"And of Zebulun he said,

Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out;

And, Issachar, in thy tents.

They shall call peoples unto the mountain!
There they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness:
For they shall suck of the abundance of the seas,
And of treasures hidden in the sand."

Two tribes are joined together in this common blessing and predic. tion; and there was a long-established reason for the close community of interest which, in this typical instance, we see subsisting between Zebulun and Issachar. The ancestors of these tribes were sons of the same mother, Leah, and were born, in close succession of time, under circumstances which made it almost inevitable that, as they grew up, they should form a little group by themselves, parted off from all the other groups into which the strangely inharmonious household of Jacob in Mesopotamia and in Canaan was divided, Leah had four other sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; but these were so very much older than Zebulun and Issachar, that there could hardly have been much intimate companionship or sympathy between them. The children of the slave women Bilhah and Zilpah would be doubly shy of brotherly intercourse with these lads, who were both younger in age and freer in birth than themselves. And when Joseph and Benjamin were added to the family, although their age would tend to throw them into fellowship with Leah's latest born, yet the bitter rivalry between the two mothers of the children would make that fellowship well-nigh impossible. Thus, by a sort of necessity, Zebulun and Issachar would grow up a pair apart from all their brethren, thrown upon one another in all things, from infancy upwards, and tending daily more and more to recognise the comfort and the advantage of a bond which merged their several individualities into one absolute community of pleasures, enterprises, needs, possessions, purposes.

Yet the two brothers were far from being alike. Both in character and in personal appearance they presented contrasts that were strongly

VOL. XXI, N.S. IX.