priest to give us tickets, which he did with much politeness, and we gained admittance through a private entrance into the cloisters, where we joined a procession entering the cathedral in that direction. Such, however, was the throng there assembled, so slow the progress and admittance into the cathedral, which was by only three or four at a time, that we relinquished the attempt, foreseeing that our turn would not come till a late hour. In the course of the evening my son made another attempt, and succeeded in gaining an entrance, and saw the famous relic; which was enclosed in a glass case, and appeared to be a kind of coat or cloak of dark brown colour. All pilgrims and strangers were permitted to behold the relic, but we were told that those only on whom miraculous cures were to be worked were allowed to touch and handle it; and all the pilgrims made a pecuniary offering to the priests. And another writes that "Holy garment, I have come to thee"-" holy garment, adore thee"-"holy garment, pray for me" -were words with which the cathedral resounded. Such is Popery-the religion of moth-eaten garments and of dead men's bones; and such the fearful influence which, to this day, she exercises over her votaries-able by a word to lead them to the worship of an old coat, and, by the exhibition of it, raising money more than sufficient to replenish an exhausted treasury! But although many were deceived, it was not so with all. There were numbers among the more intelligent German Romanists, who, like their brethren in this country, entirely disapproved of the exhibition. And one man-John Ronge-a Romish priest, fired with indignation at the delusion practised on his countrymen, and grieved by the readiness with which they fell into the snare, published a letter to the bishop, denouncing the whole exhibition, and demanding that it should cease. Arnold, [he, with all the fire of an honest man, exclaimed], Arnold, Bishop of Treves! I turn to you, and I conjure you, by the authority of my profession and calling as a priest, as an instructor of the German people-in the name of Germany, and in the name of its rulers, I conjure you to put an end to the heathen spectacle of the exhibition of the holy tunic, -to remove this garment from the public eye, and not to permit the evil to become greater than it already is. Do you not know-being a bishop, you ought to know that the founder of the Christian religion left his disciples and his successors, not his coat, but his Spirit? His coat, Arnold, bishop of Treves, belongs to his executioners. Do you not know-being a bishop, you ought to know-that Christ said, "God is a Spirit, and he who worships him must worship him in spirit and in truth?" And he may be worshipped everywhere, and not in the temple at Jerusalem only, on Mount Gerizzim, or at Treves, in the presence of the holy tunic. The effect of the letter was electric. Circulated through the whole kingdom, it raised a flame which the bishop and his clergy found they could not, with all their influence, extinguish. Ronge was immediately excommunicated; but that only served to increase the excitement. And the flame still spreads. For, not content with denouncing the exhibition of the fictitious garment, Renge has now issued a creed, in which renouncing the authority of the Pope, he abjures many of the errors of Rome - proclaiming liberty of conscience, free inquiry, and the Bible as the only rule of faith, and discarding the five spurious sacraments, along with images, processions, and indulgences. To this creed thousands of Romanists have adhered, and whole congregations are rapidly joining his standard. In one place alone (Schneidemühle) we learn, from a private letter, that there is a congregation of two thousand individuals, headed by a priest, who, in the way of carrying out his reforming views, has already freed himself from the servitude of celibacy. The spirit of inquiry is so awakened that the conduct and creed of Ronge form the chief subject of conversation and discussion in all circlesin all parts of the kingdom. And before free discussion Rome cannot stand. She has been caught in her own net, and is likely to pay dear for her attempted imposition. Ronge has yet much to learn. He does not appear to possess any clear or heart-influencing view of the necessity and nature of the Gospel scheme, and has, in consequence, made no avowal of his belief in the great fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone. That was the point on which Luther ever kept his eye, and which gave strength and sta bility to the Reformation. And Ronge, if he would be Luther's successor, as by many he has already been designated, or would look for Luther's blessing, must take his stand on the same great truth on which Luther stood, and from which he was not moved by either the subtleties of Romish sophistry or the terrors of Papal power. Without this, the movement, so far as spiritual effects are concerned, must fail. But as even Luther could not all at once bring himself to the denial of the Pope's supremacy, and yet, as light advanced, and as Providence hedged up his way, was brought to it; so may we not hope that Ronge, although at present giving no very certain sound on this grand truth, will, ere long, be led by the Spirit's light to see and to speak clearly regarding it. The following account of his earlier history is taken from a letter which appeared some time ago in the Frankfort Gazette, signed "A Friend of Ronge":— He John Ronge studied in Breslau, and was educated for the priesthood in the seminary there. distinguished himself by diligence and assiduity in his studies, and moral purity; so that his superiors said that they had rarely met with a young man who sought with such deep and holy seriousness for the truths of the Catholic religion. When he left the seminary, he was made chaplain in Grottkau, a place about seven German miles from Breslau. Here he undertook also the training of the children; and, by his seriousness, mildness, and educational eminence, so gained their affections, that they looked upon him as a father; their parents also revering him, notwithstanding the envy and jealousy of the parson, who tried to culumniate him. At this time the bishopric of Breslau became vacant, by the abdication of Mr Sedlinitzky. Canonicus Ritter assuming, without authority, the office, used such liberties in it as to call down a severe reproof from the royal cabinet; but was supported by the Jesuits. At this time Ronge came forward, and anonamously, through the press, attacked the Jesuitic intrigues of the Capitulary, which, even after the nomination of the new bishop, Knauer, was wholly under the influence of Ritter. MISCELLANEOUS. Ronge being asked, on his word as a priest, whether he was the author of this attack, at once admitted that he was, rather than equivocate, and being prepared to sacrifice his all to truth. He was ordered to be confined in the seminary of Breslau; but being fully aware of the degrading nature of the treatment to which the mind was subjected under the regimen employed in that place, he refused to obey; and, in consequence, was suspended immediately from his office. With what feelings the Catholic congregation of Grottkau viewed his departure from them may be judged of from the fact, that the whole towncouncil petitioned the Capitulary for his restoration; although, as might have been expected, in vain. Ronge then went to Laurahutte, a colony near Beuhten, in Upper Silesia, and employed himself in teaching the children of the superintendents there. And there also his excellent qualities secured for him the affectionate regards of all. It was here that he wrote his famous letter on the " Holy Tunic." THE IMPORTANCE OF LITTLE THINGS. WHAT if the little rain should plead, "So small a drop as I Can ne'er refresh the thirsty mead, Does not each rain-drop help to form WHY DO WE SOMETIMES HEAR UNFAVOURABLE ACCOUNTS OF THE EFFECTS OF MISSIONS? THERE have been men who, on returning from visits to the scenes of missionary operation, such as the South Sea Islands, have published fierce attacks on the plan of the missions and the conduct of the missionaries attacks which the enemies of our faith are always glad to meet with, and of which they contrive to make the most. The following extract from the letter of a correspondent of the New York Evangelist, may serve to throw some light on the reason of these attacks, and show what value should be attached to them: I once asked a very intelligent sea captain, how we were to account for the fact, that when the improvement in the South Sea Islands is so glaring and undeniable, persons occasionally return from them with very unfavourable reports. His answer was, that some men are enraged because they find that the intellectual improvement and moral elevation of the natives interfere with their gains and their lusts. And if they can no longer purchase pigs and poultry with a rusty nail, or convert the cabin of their ship into a harem, they fill Christendom with the outcry that the missionaries are ruining the islands. Again, he stated that on many of the islands there are low grog-shops, kept by abandoned foreigners, who hate the missionaries, and fabricate all imaginable slanders against them. And that many sea captains do not go near the mission houses, which are generally a little in the interior, but derive ail their information respecting the measures of the missionaries from stories they hear circulated in these grog-shops. And again, there have, of course, been individual cases in which a missionary has not acted wisely, or has even, as with some ministers in our own land, fallen before the power of temptation, and dishonoured the cause 47 of Christ. But in conversing, I think, with at least a hundred captains and mates of whale-ships, I never yet have met with one who has not borne cheerful and decisive testimony to the beneficial results of Christian missions in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. THE MOTHER'S REWARD. I SAW a little cloud rising in the western horizon. In a few moments it spread over the expanse of heaven, and watered the earth with a genial shower. I saw a little rivulet start from a mountain, winding its way through the valley and the meadow, receiving each tributary rill which it met in its course, till it became a mighty stream, bearing on its bosom the merchandise of many nations, and the various productions of the adjacent country. I saw a little seed dropped into the earth. The dews descended, and the sun rose upon it; it started into life. In a little time it spread its branches and became a shelter from the heat, "and the fowls of heaven lodged in its branches." Long I saw a little smiling boy stand by the side of his mother, and heard him repeat from her lips one of the sweet songs of Zion. I saw him kneel at her feet, and pray that Jesus would bless his dear parents -the world of mankind, and keep him from temptation. In a little time I saw him with the books of the classics under his arm, walking alone, busied in deep thought. I went into a Sabbath school, and heard him saying to a little group that surrounded him, "Suffer little children to come unto me." after, I went into the sanctuary, and heard him reasoning of "righteousness, and temperance, and judgment to come." I looked, and saw that same mother, at whose feet he had knelt, and from whose lips he had learned to lisp the name Immanuel. Her hair was whitened with the frosts of winter, and on her cheek was many a furrow; but meekness sat on her brow, and heaven beamed in her dim eye glistening with a tear; and I thought I saw in that tear the moving of a mother's heart, while she reverted to days gone by, when this Boanerges was first dawning into life, hanging on her lips, listening to the voice of instruction, and inquiring, in childlike simplicity, the way to be good; and I said-This is the rich harvest of a mother's toil; these are the goodly sheaves of tnat precious seed which probably was sown in weeping; and your grey hairs shall not be "brought down with sorrow to the grave," but in the bower of rest you shall look down on him who "will arise and call you blessed," and finally greet you where hope is swallowed up in fruition, and prayer in praise. Miscellaneous. THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSIDERATION.-Consideration is the first step towards conversion. The prodigal son came to himself first, and then to his father. Matthew Henry. THE REASON OF AFFLICTION.-The Rev. John Newton used to say "If a man will make his nest below, God will put a thorn in it; and if that will not do, he will set it on fire." "Life is sweet," said Sir Anthony Kingston to Bishop Hooper at the stake, trying to persuade him to recant, "and death bitter." "True, friend," he replied; "but consider that the death to come is more bitter, and the life to come is more sweet." ANGELS. All that we know of angels is, that they serve on earth and sing in heaven.-Luther. Baily Bread. FRIDAY. "What think ye of Christ."-MATT. xxii. 42, (If he graciously give me the power), My life, and my strength, and my store. My portion, my God, and my all. Have you seen Christ, who is the truth? Has he been revealed to you, not by flesh and blood, but by the Spirit of our God? Then you know how true it is that in him "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge "-that he is the "Alpha and Omega,' the beginning and the ending of all knowledge. But if you have not seen Christ, then you know nothing yet as you ought to know; all your knowledge is like a bridge without a keystone-like a system without a sun. What good will it do you in hell that you knew all the sciences in the world, all the events of history, and all the busy politics of your little day? -M'Cheyne. SATURDAY. "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."-2 TIM. ii. 19. O crucify this self, that I No more, but Christ in me, may live; Bid all my vile affections die, Nor let one hateful lust survive; In all things nothing may I see, Either take Christ in your lives, or cast him out of your lips; either obey his commandments more, else call him Lord no more; either get oil in your lamps, or cast away your lamps. To be a professing Christian and a practiser of iniquity, is an abomination unto the Lord. Some would not seem evil, and yet would be so; others would be good, and yet would not seem so; either be what thou seemest, or else be what thou art. Oh! Christians, bring your lights to the light. -Dyer. SABBATH. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock."-REV. iii. 20. The worst need keep him out no more, Come quickly in, thou heavenly guest, But sup with us, and let the feast Some persons, when Christ begins to knock at the door of their heart, put him off from time to time. They trifle with their convictions. They say, I am too young yet, let me taste a little more pleasure of the world; youth is the time for mirth; another time I will open the door. Some say, I am too busy; I have to provide for my family; when I have a more convenient season I will call for thee. Some say, I am strong and healthy; I hope I have many years to live; when sickness comes, then I will open the door. Consider that Christ may not come again. He is knocking let him in. Another day he may pass by your door.-M'Cheyne. now; MONDAY. "This is not your rest."-MIC. ii. 10. I pity those who seek no more Than such a world can give; Wretched they are, and blind and poor, And dying while they live. O Christian! follow thy work, look to thy dangers, hold on to the end, win the field, and come off the ground before thou thinkest of a settled rest. When ever thou talkest of a rest on earth, it is like Peter on the mount "thou knowest not what thou sayest." If, instead of telling the converted thief, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise," Christ had said he should rest there upon the cross, would he not have taken it for a derision? Methinks it would be ill resting in the midst of sickness and pains, persecutions, and distresses. But if nothing else will convince us, yet sure the remainders of sin, which do so easily beset us, should quickly satisfy a believer that here is not his rest. I say, therefore, to every one that thinketh of rest on earth, "Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest, because it is polluted.”— Baxter. TUESDAY. "The Lord is my portion."-LAM. iii. 24. And search in vain for bliss; For him I count as gain each loss- While he prepares my crown! The poorest Christian may vie estates with all the world; let the world drop down millions of gold and silver, boundless revenues, and crowns and sceptres; a poor contemptible Christian comes and lays down one God against all these, and beggars them.-Hop kins. WEDNESDAY. "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the But, lo! the hour draws near apace, However gloomy our prospect may at any time be. let us wait patiently, as the husbandman doth all the winter, in expectation of a future crop from the seed which lieth buried in the earth. "Light and gladness are sown for the righteous and true-hearted,” though they may not yet appear; the seed-time is in this world; the harvest will be in that to come. due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Gal. vi. 9. -Horne. THURSDAY. "O, Grave, where is thy victory?"-1 Coв. xv. 55. God our Redeemer lives, He knows his people's dust; He'll raise it up a purer frameHis promise is our trust. "In Christ's lying in the grave before us hath quite changed and altered the nature of the grave; so that it is not what it was; it was once a part of the curse. The grave had the nature and use of a prison, to keep the bodies of sinners against the great assizes; but now it is a bed of rest, yea, and a perfumed bed, where Christ lay before us. O then let not believers fear. He that hath one foot in heaven need not fear to put the other into the grave.-Flavel. Edinburgh: Printed and Published by JOHN JOHNSTONE, Hunter Square. London: R. GROOMBRIDGE & Sons. Glasgow: J. R. M⭑NAIR & Co.; and to be had by order of all Booksellers throughout the Kingdom. THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY. 49 ON THE MUTUAL DUTIES OF MASTERS AND SERVANTS IN RELATION TO THE SABBATH. BY THE REV. DAVID KING, LL. D., GLASGOW. HUMAN Society presents all varieties of condition. Wealth, station, and power are all distributed in very unequal proportions; and while some have a measure of each, multitudes may be said to have nothing. That this diversity so far belongs to the constitution of the world, as planned by its Maker, cannot be reasonably doubted; and they who would level all such distinctions, might as well think of reducing to a uniform depth the channel of the ocean, or transforming our Alpine chains into smooth and velvety meadows. It does not follow, however, that God instituted these dissimilarities of lot to dissociate men, and sow dissension among them, and bring them into collision with each other. Strange as it appears at first view, this apparent incongruity, while it furnishes a stimulus to individual competition, is designed and fitted to enhance the intimacy and the felicity of the social compact. The rich and the poor are not, for being such, to separate or to strive, but to "dwell together;" and their inequality of circumstances, if rightly applied, will promote the interchange of the kindest sympathies. In a particular manner, out of this circumstantial disparity arises the relation of master and servant; and the very word relation speaks to us, not of disseverance, but of associating ties. Nor is there anything in this particular relationship to render it, in itself, obnoxious and undesirable; but very much to commend it, as signally advantageous. It is odious only in its perverted and reprehensible forms. In one view, all are servants, and it is a high honour for any man to be enabled to serve society; and that master knows little of true dignity, who is not gratified by having it in his power to serve a servant by genuine kindness. On the other hand, all have, in one view, a mastery; for if the servant depends upon the master, so does the master upon the servant, and every section is necessary to every other section of the commonwealth. But, without attempting to explain away or unduly to qualify gradation of class, it is enough, meanwhile, to insist that happiness is its intended and appropriate end. If every one were his own master and servant, there could be no organization; society would be broken up, and nothing great could possibly be accomplished. But when society is classified, and superintendence is lodged here, and service is performed there, then as stones individually small form collectively, and in their due subordination, a spacious edifice; so the members of the human family, though individually weak, become strong No. 5. in their union, and the achievements of men assume a God-like magnificence. Nor is it only the interests of commerce which may be thence promoted. The relation has its religious as well as its secular bearings. Masters and servants owe much to each other of spiritual good; and if the connection were improved as it ought to be, we would have the joyous spectacle presented to us of a present inequality ministering to the certainty and the happiness of an eternal identification. But I need not point out the lamentable distance between what is and what should be. The relation has been corrupted and degraded. Nothing is sought from it, in many cases, but pecuniary advantage; and, on the one side and on the other, "every one looks for gain from his quarter." A master talks of the "number of hands," as he would of the number of wheels, and scarcely distinguishes in his thoughts between the men and the machinery. Of course, the compliment is returned, and the men estimate their employer solely by the wages which he gives them. Thus the relation is denuded of all its finer and more elevated attributes, and becomes like a once beautiful landscape, which has been stripped of all its garniture-its flowers and shrubbery-its steeps and cascades its bounding stags and singing birds—and trampled into a thoroughfare of roads and traffic. Not only is the highest good thus forfeited, but the worst of evils are incurred. The connection of master and servant can never cease to be influential; it must be beneficially or mischievously powerful; and when morals and piety are not, promoted by it, it becomes the inevitable source of immorality and irreligion. Temporal profiting itself is, in consequence, impaired. In being alone sought, it is not the more secured, but is jeopardied and lost. Much doing becomes overdoing-labour degenerates into oppression-health and substance suffer from headlong rivalry, and the land is filled with grievances and heart-burnings. At present, I am to speak of a remedy only in so far as it may be found in a right observance of the Sabbath. But this one department of the subject has diversified phases. For example, there are various kinds of service, and the nature of the service of course affects very essentially the resulting obligations. Let me view the relation As it is exemplified, first, In private dwellings; and, second, In public works. I. I am to speak of the relation of master and servant as exemplified in private dwellings. March 28, 1845. Here the connection is very close, as the parties are encompassed by the same walls, sheltered by the same roof, and largely intermingle participation in the same gladsome or adverse vicissitudes. This closeness of the connection invests it with the more solemn accountability, and must always render it more effective for evil or benefit. 1. Looking first at the duties of those who rule, it is primarily incumbent on them to spare their domestics all superfluous toil on the Lord'sday. "Thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant." Here the master is addressed on behalf of the servant; because if the master do not impose, the servant has no temptation to perform, desecrating labours. Thou shalt not do, or cause to be done, any work; that is, any unsuitable workany servile work which may be dispensed with, or done the day before, or left undone until the day following. Here I cannot but remark, in passing, how sadly the Sabbath is misconceived, when it is thought of as severe in its character. It mitigates toil-it is a gift from Heaven to the labouring and heavy laden. What God has given, then, let not man take away. You would not keep back their wages from your servants-you would think that unjust and base; but if you withhold a Sabbatical rest, you are robbing them of what is more precious-what is theirs by a higher title than any human covenant, and what menaces with destruction every invasion of its blessings. bath only, but for every day of the week. It I observe, further, that the heads of families should endeavour to benefit servants by a system of religious instruction on the Lord's-day. We do not expect a field that is never cultiIt is nearly a repetition of the last idea, that vated to become a garden; nor does a parent domestic servants should have all possible faci- look for proficiency in a child, irrespectively lities for attending religious ordinances on the of tuition; but, somehow, a demand is made Lord's-day. They are to be allowed the rest, on servants to be in all views qualified and not that it may be spent in idleness and ennui, faultless, while no pains are bestowed on their but that God may be worshipped, and the soul mental and moral culture. Are offspring comas well as the body find its appropriate repose mitted to the trust of parents?-so are servants in trusting to his fidelity and leaning upon his to love. What are those claims of yours which you set up in competition with the sanctuary? Are you to be served seven days, and God not one? The servant is needed at home. But is that need more urgent, more sacred than com. pliance with the proclamation: "Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing: enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise?" Or, have you so few personal shortcomings, to account for, that you will also answer for the guilty inattention of dependants, to the mandate: “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is?" I do not say that servants can be always free for church attendance; but the restraint should be the exception, and can be vindicated only by the clearest of necessities. Still further, the servant should not only have liberty of attendance on public worship, but should be invited to encircle with master and mistress, parents and offspring, the family altar. This, however, is not a usage for Sab masters; and a double injury is done them when they are first neglected in their spiritual interests, and then harshly reprimanded, perhaps summarily dismissed, for the natural results of such deficient oversight. They should be invited to read the Word of God, by one or other member of the family, and to hear explanations of its important truths; and when can this be so seasonably, so leisurely done, and every way to so much advantage, as on the evening of the day of God? No doubt, they who teach others must, in the first instance, teach themselves. But that is just one of the principal benefits of the measure recommended-its reactive influence on those giving it effect. It would diffuse illumination on all sides, and bless all sections of society, from the least to the greatest. 2. Let us now consider the obligations of servants in private families. I have been stating what your superiors should be and do. But I would caution you against supposing that your responsibility is suspended on their faithfulness. Whatever be |