372

A Christian Common-Place Book.

FOR the poverty which was honoured by the great painters and thinkers of the middle ages was an ostentatious, almost a presumptuous poverty; if not this, at least it was chosen and accepted -the poverty of men who had given their goods to feed the simpler poor, and who claimed in honour what they had lost in luxury; or, at the best, in claiming nothing for themselves, had still a proud understanding of their own self-denial and a confident hope of future reward. But it has been reserved for this age to perceive and tell the blessedness of another kind of poverty than this, not voluntary nor proud, but accepted and submissive; not clearsighted and triumphant, but subdued and patient; partly patient in tenderness-of God's will; partly patient in blindness-of man's oppression; too laborious to be thoughtful-too innocent to be conscious-too long experienced in sorrow to be hopeful-waiting in its peaceful darkness for the unconceived dawn, yet not without its own sweet, complete, untainted happiness, like intermittent notes of birds before the daybreak, or the first gleams of heaven's amber on the eastern grey. Such poverty as this it has been reserved for this age of ours to honour while it afflicted; it is reserved for the age to come to honour it-and to spare.-Ruskin's Notes on the Royal Academy, No. IV. 1858.

If a blind man were desirous of beholding a landscape, and had the hope at the same time of having his sight miraculously restored to him, he might, even when blind, go to the right post of observation, and turn his face to the right direction, and thus wait for the recovery of that power which was extinguished. And, in like manner, we are all at the right post, when we are giving heed to our Bibles. We are all going through a right exercise when with the strenuous application of our natural powers we are reading and pondering, and comparing and remem. bering the words of the testimony; and if asked how long we should persevere in this employment, let us persevere in

it with patience and prayer until, as Peter says, the day dawn, and the daystar arise in our hearts.-Chalmers' Lectures on the Romans.

Even at this day there are many for whom it is expedient that Jesus should go away from them, and for the selfsame reason for which it was expedient that he should go away from his disciples. Perhaps I might say that even at this day there is no one for whom this is not expedient, or at least for whom it has not been so at some period of his life. For we are all of us, even those who have been brought up with the greatest wisdom, and the most diligent culture of their religious affections, far too apt to look at Jesus Christ in the first instance in the same light in which the disciples mostly looked upon him while he was with them in the body, as a man like ourselves, a perfect man, indeed, but still a mere man, who came to teach us about God, and the things of heaven, and the way of attaining to them, and to leave us an example, that we might follow his steps. We read the story of his life in the gospels; and even our natural hearts are struck and charmed by the surpassing beauty of his character, by his purity, his meekness, his patience, his wisdom, his unweariable, self-forgetting activity in every work of love. In our better and more serious moments, when the Bible is in our hands, or when we have been stirred by some eloquent picture of the graces manifested in his life, we wish to be like him, to do as he did, to obey his commandments, at least a part of them, the part which requires the least selfsacrifice and self-denial. All the time, indeed, we may be in the habit of acknowledging with our lips that Christ is God, not merely in the public profession of the creed, but whenever our conversation turns upon religion, and whenever we bring the question distinctly before our minds. Yet we scarcely think of him as God. We little think what that acknowledgment means or implies. Our thoughts are solely fixed on the excellence of his human character; and inasmuch as we admire him,

losophy has solaced her journey through the wilderness of logical speculation,you are wont to think of the virtues exhibited in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, as of the same kind, only superior in degree, purer and more perfect. Now this fair ideal of excellent humanity may indeed be a blessing to you for a time, a light to your understandings, and a joy to your hearts,-as the contemplation of all virtue, of whatsoever is lovely and noble, will ever be to a genial and generous spirit. Were you living in a happy island, in an Elysium, where sin was not, and did not cast her shadow, death, were there no evil spirit lurking in your own hearts, and ever and anon rising and shaking himself, and shattering the brittle crust with which amiable feelings and conventional morality may have covered them over, and were there no herd of evil spirits howling and prowling on every side around you, tearing the vitals of society, mangling every soul they can seize, while others more craftily put on the mask of pleasure and gain and honour, and use every art in fawning on our self-love,-in a word, had you no immortal souls slumbering beneath the painted sepulchre of mortality, were you not made in the image of God, and fallen from that image, were you the mere insects of time, then, indeed, it might be sufficient for you to bask in the light of an earthly sun. But the light of that sun will pass away from you: the vapours of sin will hide it from your sight: the glaring lights of the world will draw you afar from it: aud ere long you will find a night of thick, impenetrable darkness spread over you and around you, unless you have a living faith in the Sun of Righteousness, whom neither light nor darkness can conceal, and who shines all the brighter upon the soul when everything else seems cheerless and hopeless.-Hare's Mission of the Com

and wish to be like him, we fancy we
may take rank among his true disciples.
Nay, we even begin to fancy that we
have something in common with him,
that our admiration renders us like him.
Thus we glorify human nature for
Christ's sake; and we glorify ourselves
as sharing the same nature with Christ.
Meanwhile we think little of his death,
except on account of the virtues which
he manifested before his judges and on
the cross. Now he who thinks of Christ
in this manner, if he happens by na-
ture to be of a kindly disposition,
may at times really try to imitate
him, even as he might try to imitate
any other good or great man in history.
At times, when brought more imme-
diately and consciously into Christ's
presence, by hearing or reading about
him, such persons may be kindled to a
longing, and even to an effort, to re-
semble him. There are many such
persons in the world; there are many
assuredly in this congregation. Among
the young, especially in the educated
classes, this, or something like it, is the
ordinary state of feeling with regard to
the Saviour. Yes, my young friends, I
feel confident that there are many, very
many amongst you, who think of our
blessed Lord after this fashion, who
admire and revere and love the peerless
graces of his character, who would re-
joice at times to enrich your own cha-
racter with a portion of those graces,
but who have no lively consciousness
that Christ is your God, that he is your
Saviour, that he died for your sins to
bring you to God,-who do not feel
that you need his help, who never seek
to enter into a living communion with
him, nay, who have no conception
what can be meant by such a commu-
nion. Accustomed as you are to con-
template the noblest and fairest examples
of humanity that history and poetry
have set up for the admiration of man-
kind, accustomed to meditate on the
brightest intuitions wherewith phi-forter.

A HYMN OF TRUE HAPPINESS.

Amidst the azure clear
Of Jordan's sacred streams,
Jordan, of Lebanon the offspring
dear,

When zephyrs flowers unclose,
And sun shines with new beams,
With grave and stately grace a nymph

arose.

Upon her head she wore
Of amaranths a crown,

Her left hand palms, her right a bran-
don bore.

Unveil❜d skin's whiteness lay,
Gold hairs in curls hang down,
Eyes sparkled joy, more bright than
star of day.

THE general subject of Christian Missions having been brought before our readers at no inconsiderable length during the past month, we follow our usual custom in giving, in place of our summary, an illustration of missionary labour amongst the sons of Adam from a source not likely to have been drawn from at any of the annual meetings. The following is an extract of a letter from the Rev. H. Wharton, of the Gold Coast, Africa, Wesleyan missionary, dated James-Town, December 30th, 1857. As a picture of heathen religious life it equals any page of Moffat or Livingstone :

'My chief object in now writing is, to furnish you with a striking instance of the gross and enslaving superstition in which the poor heathen around us are held by the "prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," and in which I was providentially instrumental in rescuing from a fearful death the lives of four innocent, unoffending men.

'On the 8th of last month, a steady Christian man, a member of the Basle Society, called on me in the morning, and expressed a desire to speak with me on a subject of importance. I desired him to be seated, and to proceed with what he had to say. He then informed me, in substance, that for some time past many people having died at the town of Teshi, where he resided (Teshi is about nine miles distant from James-Town), and there being at the same time a great scarcity of fish, the chieftains of the town had arrived at the conclusion that some evil-disposed person or persons had not only made fetish in the sea, thereby preventing the fishermen from taking their usual draught of fishes, but that such person or persons were also practising witchcraft, thereby effecting the death of the people of the town.

To arrive at a clear understanding of matters, a fetishman of great celebrity, residing in a town fifty miles off, was sent for, expressly for the purpose of discovering the guilty party or parties referred to.

'Kometey, the fetishman, quickly made his appearance in Teshi, and forthwith commenced the exercise of his pernicious craft. In a day or two he announced to the chiefs that his fetish had pointed out to him four men who were guilty of witchcraft. These men were immediately singled out, seized, and imprisoned. Being tried by Kometey himself, they were pronounced guilty. But in order to be further satisfied of the guilt of the four men, they were, by the decree of the chiefs of the town, sent, under a proper escort, three days' journey to another fetish establishment in the neighbourhood of the river Volta, where also, after due ceremony, they were pronounced guilty.

My informant then stated, that the unfortunate men in question were that day (December 8th) at the town of Poni, eighteeen miles distant from Teshi; that it was settled by the chiefs that they should be brought into Teshi on the 10th, and destroyed by fire. Akron, my informant, further assured me, that the men would most certainly be burnt alive, unless measures were taken by the local Government to prevent it.

'As I had no reason to doubt the truthfulness of the circumstances thus related to me, I felt it my duty to make them known to the Hon. E. B. Andrews, Colonial Secretary, who was then on a visit to James-Town on affairs of the Government; but as that gentleman had some hours previously gone on a short journey into the interior, nothing could be done. I therefore directed Akron to return to Teshi and watch {closely the movements of the chiefs and head-men of the town relative to the case in question, when the four prisoners were brought into the town, and, as soon as the time was fixed for burning them, to hasten back to me with the intelligence.

'Accordingly, two days afterwards, in the afternoon of the 10th, Akron made again his appearance at the Mission-house, with further information, that the four men from Poni had reached Teshi that morning; that a meeting of the chiefs and people was held on their arrival; and that they were sentenced to be burnt alive at midnight!

'I again repaired to James' Fort, taking Akron with me, and as Mr. Secretary Andrews had returned from his journey, I laid the whole matter before him. Not having at hand an armed force of sufficient strength to check so great an outrage, and to rescue the unfortunate victims of a debasing superstition, his only available course was to direct the interpreter of the police court and the chief constable of James-Town to proceed forthwith to Teshi to avert, if possible, the awful doom of the wretched men referred to. Feeling powerfully impressed that if I accompanied the deputation in my humble capacity as a Christian missionary a greater moral influence might thereby be given to the object contemplated, I resolved to go with them, taking with me my interpreter, Mr. France.

'At six P.M. we started from James Town, and arrived at Teshi at nine o'clock. On entering the town, we found it exceedingly quiet, and but very few persons moving about the streets. Directing my steps to the residence of the king, and inquiring for him, I was informed that I could not see him in the absence, of his linguist. That official was therefore sent for, who, when he came, said, with ready falsehood and evidently assumed unconcern, "The king was not in the town, and therefore I could not see him." I replied, I knew the king was in the town, and that I must see him, as I had some particular business with him. I was then