Daily Bread. FRIDAY. "The ark of the covenant."-NUMB. X. 33. - Still hide me in thy secret place, Shelter me with preserving grace, Be like Noah's dove which he sent forth-see that you find no rest for the sole of your foot anywhere else; turn your back upon all other arks of men's devising they are all insufficient to save you from the flood. Make not an ark of the absolute mercy of God out of Christ; seeing he declares a crucified Jesus to be the only channel of his mercy. Make not an ark of Church privileges, as your good education, admission to sealing ordinances, &c.; for the ark did not save Shiloh, nor the altar's horns save Joab, nor the temple save Jerusalem. Make not an ark of your gifts, knowledge, prayers, duties, mora! honesty, or self-righteousness; for the flood, when it comes, will dash all these to pieces. Suppose those of the old world had but other ships as like the ark as possible, or had fed to higher towers of their own contriving, the deluge would have destroyed them all; there was no safety for them but in Noah's alone. So whatever arks you devise to save you from wrath, if a crucified Christ, the ark of God's building, be slighted, the flood will sweep away all your own arks as the refuge of lies."-Willison. SATURDAY. "The redemption of the soul is precious."- Ps. xlix. 8. The Apostle Peter speaks of three very precious things: 1. A precious Christ; 2. Precious Promises; 3. Precious Faith. Now, the preciousness of all these lies in their usefulness to the soul. Christ is precious, as being the Redeemer of precious souls; the Promises are precious, as making over this precious Christ to previous souls; Faith is precious, as bringing a precious soul to close with a precious Christ, as he is held forth in the precious promises. O take heed that thou art not found over-valuing other things, and under-valuing thy soul. Shall thy flesh, nay, thy beast, be loved, and shall thy soul be slighted? Wilt thou clothe and pamper thy body, and yet take no care of thy soul? This is as if a man should feed his dog, and starve his child. "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God will destroy both it and them." O let not a tottering, perishing carcass have all your time and care, as if the life and salvation of thy soul were not worth the while!— Mead. SABBATH. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."GAL. vi. 7. See the stars from heaven falling, While the frowning Judge draws nigh. On that judgment-day through which thou and I must pass into an everlasting state, God, the impartial judge, will require an account at our hands of all our talents and intrustments. We must then account for time, how we have spent that; for estate, how we have employed that; for strength, how we have laid out that; for afflictions and mercies, how they have been improved; for the relations we stood in here, how they have been discharged; and for seasons and means of grace, how they have been husbanded.-Ibid. MONDAY. "A good understanding have all they that do his com That wisdom, Lord, on us bestow, To stop the mouth of every foe, While, upright both in life and heart, The proofs of godly fear we give, And show them how the Christians live. He only knows God aright, who knows how to obey him, and obeys according to his knowledge of him. All knowledge without this makes a man but like Nebuchadnezzar's image-with "a head of gold, and feet of clay." Some know, but to know; some know, to be known; some know, to practise what they know. Now to know, but to know-that is curiosity; to know, to be known--that is vain glory; but to know, to practise what we know that is Gospel duty. This makes a man a complete Christian; the other, without this, makes a man almost, and yet but almost, a Christian. TUESDAY. "Unite my heart to fear thy name."-Ps. lxxxvi. 11. A heart thy joys and griefs to feel, A heart that cannot faithless prove. A heart where Christ alone may dwellAll praise, all meekness, and all love. Concerning the heart, God seems to say as Joseph of Benjamin, "If you bring not Benjanin with you, you shall not see my face." Among the Heathens, when the beast was cut up for sacrifice, the first thing the priest looked upon was the heart, and if that was unsound and naught, the sacrifice was rejected. God rejects all duties (how glorious soever in other respects) offered him without a heart.— Flard. WEDNESDAY. "He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye.”— ZECH. ii. 8. On every side God stands, And for his Israel cares: I have met with an excellent story of a religious young man, who, being at sea with many other pas sengers in a great storm, and they being half dead with fear, he only was observed to be very cheerful, as if he had been but little concerned in that danger. One of them demanding the reason of his cheerfulness, "Oh," said he, "it is because the pilot of the ship is my father." Consider Christ, first, as the King and supreme Lord over the providential kingdom; and then as your Head, Husband, and Friend, and thou wilt quickly say, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul." This truth will make you cease trembling, and cause you to sing in the midst of dangers.— Ibid. THURSDAY. "Enter in at the strait gate "-MATT. vii. 13 That leads us to the courts above; Till, on the wings of perfect love, The gate which leads to life is a straight gate, therefore we should fear; it is an open gate, therefore we should hope.-Brooks. Edinburgh: Printed by JouN JOHNSTONE, residing at 12, Windsor Street, and Published by him at 2, Hunter! Square. London: R. GROOMBRIDGE & SONS. Glas gow: J. R. M'NAIR & Co.; and to be had of any Book. seller throughout the Kingdom. THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY 613 Biographical Sketch. GEORGE ARCHIBALD LUNDIE. GEORGE ARCHIBALD LUNDIE was a son of the manse, and was born at the close of December 1819. His father was minister of Kelso--a godly man, whose name is still blessed in the district of his labours. George was trained by him "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" and, "by the good hand of God upon him," grew in grace as in years. Even when a child, he was the unwitting means of awakening a soul to seek after the great salvation. Having been sent away one day in the stage coach with his nurse to the sea-side, he suddenly remembered, when on the road, that he had come away forgetting to say his prayers; and, regardless of the presence of strangers, he immediately fell down on his knees, and supplied the omission. The conscience of a fellowtraveller, a young woman, was struck. "Here," thought she, "is a babe rebuking me. How seldom in all my life have I tried to pray?" and we are told that it pleased the Holy Spirit to employ this incident as the means of beginning a good work which he perfected. The young woman returned from the sea-shore deeply concerned for her salvation. George's parents were called to visit her during a lingering sickness, and had the inexpressible delight of seeing her, before she died, embracing with all faith and joy the Lord Jesus. George was early and suddenly deprived of his father. He had gone out to meditate one day in the garden, by which his manse was surrounded and made fragrant; and there the Lord "met him," and "took him" away. It was George who discovered the lifeless body, which for better company the soul had left, and who first carried the intelligence to his mother; and it was he, we are told, who clave to that mother by night and by day through all the pangs of early widowhood, and also at the removal from the dwelling with which were associated so many fond and touching reminis. cences. His school education having been finished, he entered as a student in Glasgow College, designing to study for the ministry. And had Providence seen meet to spare him for the prosecution of his studies, one cannot but feel, while reading his memoirs, that he had qualifications, natural and gracious, which would have fitted him eminently for his Master's work. But there were even "better things in store for him." As Robert M'Cheyne expresses it, "The Lord took him from the teaching of professors to give him a few private lessons himself;" and thus to fit him for that No. 52. society to which he was so soon to be introduced. When at college, George undertook the charge of a Sabbath class, composed chiefly of wild and regardless boys, whom it was a very difficult matter to manage with either satisfaction or advantage. It was suggested to him by friends that he might find more pleasing and pliable subjects for his instruction, and that thus much of the exhaustion and anxiety which attended his exertions might be spared. But he would not listen to the suggestion; his answer was always ready: "Shall I forsake them for my own ease, because they give proof of having more need of teaching than others?" And he continued to study and labour till it was too plain that pulmonary disease, originated, it is thought, by the transition from the crowded state and heavy atmosphere of the school-room to the damp, chill, night air, had taken hold of his constitution. So decided, indeed, and inveterate was the form in which the disease at length appeared, that not only was it declared necessary for him to remove to another clime, but the usual places of resort in such cases-) -Madeira, &c.—were pronounced unsuitable. A long voyage and a longer sojourn were required; and, accordingly, it was determined that he should proceed forthwith to Australia. This was the occasion of many a sore pang both to his own warm and affectionate nature, and to the loving friends from whom he had to part. But, as his mother remarks: "The farewell had one balsam--it was not for ever." And their anxieties were somewhat alleviated by the fact that he would have as companions on the voyage a beloved brother and his wife, who were then going to Australia. He sailed on the 26th of April, 1839, and arrived at Sydney towards the close of September. His heart had been grieved during the voyage with the ungodly conversation of the wicked. "There are more than two hundred souls on board," writes he, "and I sometimes fear, were our fate to be like Sodom's, there would not be found ten righteous to save us. There is one light in the darkness-—a good old man, named Armstrong, who conducts family worship in the steerage, and is called Jesuit, hypocrite, &c. How I long to be with you on Sabbaths! how I long for a quiet chat with any of you! how I long once more to hear a good, stirring, soul-reviving sermon!" After leaving Rio Janeiro, a mutiny occurred among the crew, "arising from the detection of misconduct in one sailor, who was joined by other turbulent and discontented spirits, and which February 20, 1846. led to midnight alarms, the use of fire-arms, and of multitudes of words of blasphemy. Such a scene, to a youth educated amid the proprie ties of a Christian home, was afflicting; and the more that his frame was not in a condition to encounter agitation and hurry without injury." However, he availed himself eagerly of various opportunities which occurred for speaking "words in season." Those of the passengers or crew who were confined by sickness he visited, speaking earnestly to them of their souls, and reading to them the "words of the Book." His kindness did not always meet with the deserved response; but he persevered, trusting to the promise. After a discouraging visit to a boatswain, who did not willingly receive his visits, he writes: "What can I do? How reach that poor man's heart? Perhaps God intends to show me more clearly that he alone can change the heart: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.' So be it, Lord; increase my faith; and O prepare that poor man for the change that seems not far distant!" His bodily weakness, and the thought of the noble work on which he had been prevented from entering, often depressed him, although they never occasioned a murmur. Thus he says: "I felt the weakness of my chest very much in reading and speaking to the boatswain to-day. I trust God is not going to silence me more still. O how I sometimes long to be able to proclaim the Word of Life! Yet my zeal continually gives way to carelessness. God grant me now to seek and find a thorough conversion, and ardent love! How pleasant a Sabbath and daily class of children would be! But I am debarred from all this-God's will be done-but O let me have a constant and ardent desire for his glory!" knees and prayed fervently for a long time, sobbing missionary work in which he hoped to be The vessel in which he sailed was the Cam den, which had just arrived from Erromanga, and was carrying to the islands the sad intelligence of the martyrdom of Williams. He left Sydney on the 10th of February, 1840, and reached Tutuila on the 14th of March. He gives a vivid account of the stunning effect produced by the news of Williams' death; and all he saw of the character and conduct of the people filled him with the most pleasing im pressions. "You may imagine my feelings," he writes, "when standing in the midst of a congregation of reclaimed savages, hearing them sing with all their might the praises of Jehovah, seeing them stooping the head, and reverentially covering the face, while there was scarcely one wandering eye during prayer; and during sermon they seemed to devour the word as it dropped from the preacher's lips. Here a At Sydney his health did not improve. He strain herself, and there a man wiped the unwoman sobbed out against all her efforts to reenjoyed greatly the ministrations of Mr Saun- bidden tear from his swarthy cheek, so lately ders, a Baptist minister there; and his soul marked by all that could express a wild and was much refreshed. But "the flesh was weak." After some time, it was proposed by and subdued." ferocious heart, but now meek, and humbled, Mr Saunders that he should join three mission-there was, a revival in Samoa. Five months There had been, or rather aries who were at Sydney on their way to their before the Church numbered only thirty indistations in the South Sea Islands, the climate | viduals, and that after five years' labour; but of which was declared to be so wonderfully there had come a day of the Spirit's power, salubrious, that there had not been an instance and now there were two hundred baptized, of a consumptive patient going there without and hundreds anxiously inquiring. Such a being restored. George did not well know state of things delighted above measure the heart of George Lundie. His own soul received a portion of the shower, while it is to be feared that the excitement which what he saw occasioned to him, and his anxieties and endeavours in various ways to aid the good work, were too much for the weakness of his body. what to think of the proposal. O (he writes) what various and jarring thoughts crowd my mind! Others have recovered, and may. Is this the hand of God opening to my view a field of usefuluess, which has been so sadly closed? Is this the scheme to make me his active servant still, after I had almost lost hope? But then, shall I set off and enter upon the labours appointed for me, without the hope of ever again returning to my country, and seeing those after whom my heart yearns day and night ? . . . . . In spite of past speculations on the possibility of never returning, I have found the reverse has been the hope on which i have fed in reality, though I knew it not. I thought my poor heart would break. I fell on my "Bread cast upon the waters" returns "after many days." Archibald Murray was the name of a youth who had been well known to the family of the Lundies in Kelso. His health, too, had failed, and he leít, as a missionary for a warmer climate. "He closed the last domestic Sabbath evening service with the be BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH-GEORGE ARCHIBALD LUNDIE. reaved family who were to quit the beloved manse of Kelso next morning; and two or three years after, when his studies were completed, and he revisited his friends ere his departure, he passed his last days with that family in Edinburgh, and took leave of George himself and his little brother on the pier of Leith." They little thought that they were to meet again on one of the islands of the Pacific. Yet so it was. Mr Murray was missionary at Tutuila; and in him George Lundie found a friend, and in his house a home. After his arrival, the revival of which mention has been made continued and increased. His letters give a most thrilling account of its progress. Not only in Tutuila, but in the other islands of the group, the Spirit wrought mightily. During the public services, especially during prayer, whole congregations were shaken. Strong men were carried out weak and insensible; women, by dozens, "convulsed and struggling, so as to drive about five or six men like trees in the wind." At evening worship, every family was a scene of weeping; and many passed sleepless nights. "I was up all night," writes George, "with a member of the family who was very ill; and, with the exception of half an hour after four o'clock, I heard prayer and weeping without intermission. At half-past four, all seemed again to leave their restless beds; and from that hour till breakfast-time, the place once more resounded with prayer and praise, and dreadful wailings." Nor was it mere excitement. The views of the awakened were singularly clear and scriptural; and they did not rest till they had found sure and abiding peace. A remarkable and healthful feature of the revival was this-that when the mere terrors of the law and the threatenings of God's wrath were proclaimed, comparatively little impression was produced. It was when the exceeding sinfulness of sin was exhibited, together with the exceeding love of God, in the cross of Christ, that the hearts of the multitudes were moved. It was not mere terror with which they were filled because of threatened punishment; but rather horror, and self-condemnation, and loathing because of iniquities which required such a sacrifice, and because of ingratitude, which, when such a sacrifice had been made, had regarded it with indifference or aversion. It was not to be expected that scenes so wonderful should fail of producing a powerful effect on a Christian so young and so susceptible of emotion as George Lundie. Accordingly, we find that the interest which he could not help, and which no child of God could help, taking in the revival, and the eagerness which he felt to do something for his Master at such a time, induced him to prosecute vigorously the acquirement of the Samoan language. In about five months he had mastered it suffici ently to be understood, and he immediately and them 615 gladly set himself to assist his brother missionaries for now he might be regarded as one of in the work of preaching and conversation. On Sabbath, the 6th of September, he preached his first sermon, and found at the Monday's examination that he had been pretty well followed and understood. The exertion, however, was followed by a spitting of blood and pain in the lungs, which compelled him to desist. But he must be about his Father's business;" and soon afterwards Mr Murray having been appointed by his brethren to occupy the place of voyaging visitor, which Mr Williams filled, George Lundie was left with the whole superintendence of the congregation at Tutuila. He was not able to preach; but he prepared weekly sermons, which he put into the hands of native teachers, who delivered the substance of them to the people. It was an onerous and responsible charge; but the Lord blessed his endeavours, and the good work prospered. The following are extracts from his journal at this time :— Sabbath, March 7.-Taito delivered the morning discourses, with great earnestness and energy, to a large and deeply interested congregation. In the afternoon I was, on the whole, much pleased with Teava's address. The feeling of the morning was wanting, but all its attention was in exercise. O how thankful should I be for such assistants in the work! Though they do not always meet one's expectations, and very often take off the edge from the ideas that have been most relied on as calculated to impress the hearers, they speak what they feel, and feel what they speak, and they often add an idea most appropriate and excellent. I myself felt exceedingly discouraged in the morning. The thought of my total unfitness for my station, the absence of this people's beloved pastor and my beloved friend, and many other things, coupled with much.bodily debility, so overcame me, that I could not refrain from much weeping in instructing Taito for his discourse, and had the utmost difficulty to keep from it during the morning worship. I seem to feel that if I had a single eye to the glory of God, I should be happy. Tuesday.-i held our monthly missionary prayermeeting last evening, having been absent the week before. The spirit displayed by those who took share in conducting it was of a most interesting and promising kind. The attendance was large. Last night, at family worship, we experienced a refreshing season; all were very solemn from the first, and became gradually more so, till I think every one was in tears. I felt it cheering; as also this evening's service. One or two of the thoughtless ones look anxious to-day. O for a mighty shower! But the work, which, besides study and mental excitement, required frequent journeys, coupled with the time and labour spent in giving medical advice to the natives among whom an epidemic had appeared, proved too much for his spent and feeble frame. He was soon completely exhausted - his short course was nearly run. Mr Slatyer, a missionary stationed at Leone, having come over to Tutuila, found him so weakly and waning, that he refused to hearken to his pleas for being left where he was, and "forced him away to share the friendly sympathies of his own domestic circle." The remainder of his affecting story will be best told in the words of Mr Slatyer and of Mrs Murray, who, with her husband, arrived before he died : When he was with us, we were in the exceedingly painful circumstances of not being able either to decide on or procure proper medicines. Our only resort was to do what we could with the assistance of medical books, and cast ourselves on the providence of our heavenly Father. On the 12th June, I wrote to Mr M'Donald of Savaii, the only doctor then among the Samoan brethren, urging him, if he dared venture to cross fifty miles of open sea in a small boat, to come to our assistance. He was absent in attendance on a member of the mission in critical circumstances. Our affliction now seemed, yea, was, heavy indeed. I longed to administer something to our dear friend which might alleviate or check the progress of disease, but in vain. He took little food. Had we been in possession of greater variety of articles of diet, and such as are adapted to invalids, he would, I think, have taken more; but this was one of our painful trials. Mrs Slatyer used all the skill she could command to prepare such things as we thought he would like. After six in the morning, I used frequently to take his cup of arrow-root to his room, and often to feed him. He would get up to breakfast as long he was able, and after it, though clothed as warmly as possible, he was regularly visited with a fit of extreme cold. Towards eleven the cold gave place to high and parching fever. As soon as this was alleviated a little, I used to read to him while he lay on his bed, and frequently engage in prayer with him. These seasons he often enjoyed. On the 14th June I administered the ordinance of the Lord's supper, which was the last time he attended the house of God. He came simply to the sacrament, not having strength to attend the previous services, but being anxious once more to commemorate his Saviour's dying love. On the 17th, the chiefs and most of the male members of the Church at Pagopago came to visit him, and to testify their affection for him. Only about a dozen of them were permitted to see him, and these proved too much for him. Many of them wept tenderly on meeting with him again. He attempted a word or two of affectionate exhortation, but was too much overcome to proceed. They reciprocated his affection by the tears they shed, and saw from his emaciated looks, as he lay on the sofa, that they should share in his affectionate labours among them no more. Their prayers for him were unremitting and earnest, and the memory of him among them is blessed. He could set forth the fulness and freeness of salvation to others, but yet would exclude himself. What he related to me one morning will give you a correct impression of what seemed to be the most frequent state of his mind. He said he had that morning, while dosing on his pillow, a peculiar view of the dispensation of God's mercy. It seemed as though the divine mercy were let down from heaven, like a vast overhanging canopy; none were excluded from taking shelter under it, and every one seemed to get under it; "but I could not. I felt that I longed to creep under it, and take refuge, but I seemed excluded. I could not get under." The following extract from my minutes is a sample of many conversations I held with him :--"July 17.— Yesterday, the time was sweet that I spent with dear brother Lundie. I read and prayed with him, and he seemed to enjoy it. I was wiping the perspiration from his forehead, when he said: "Thank you, you are very kind; that is just as my dear mother would have done it.' On visiting him in his room after meeting, I found him much exhausted. He conversed in whispers. He wished he could see sin so as to hate it, and Christ so as to love him." and with exquisitely tender feelings, of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The tears rolled down his emaciated checks, while he said: "I see how infinitely right it is that Jesus should have all the glory: but this base heart would fain rob him of his right. and appropriate part of the glory to itself." mentioned a sermon of Edwards on the greatness of sin; he very much wished me to read it to him. But I declined, fearing it too great a mental exercise for him; and he felt with me. On another occasion he spoke in very strong terms, There were times when he seemed quietly to hope in Jesus, when I used to read to him at mid-day. He seemed to drink in some sweet sermons of the late Mr Summers of Bristol. The Bible was his principal companion during his last months. Also. he read portions of "Baxter's Saints' Rest," and "Payson's Life." " Mrs Murray mentions that he was seized by final symptoms on the 15th September, while seated at table. He said: "I am very near the swellings of Jordan." Mr Baker, the young medical man, and the faithful Matthew, were unremitting in their attendance on him night and day. Next morning he said: "How thankful I ought to be that the Lord has granted me relief from pain! I never knew what | pain was till yesterday." He told Mrs Murray, that on the previous day, just before he was seized with the violent pains, he felt more comfortable in his mind than he had done for some time past, but still not as he should wish to feel. Then he told her he wanted to talk a little of worldly matters; gave directions about his property, and some little remembrances which he wished to have sent to his dear relatives. That evening he was easier in body, and expressed a wish that it might be so also with his soul. On the morning of the 17th, death seemed fast approaching. When Mrs Murray inquired about his mind, he said: "I am dreading the last conflict very much. I fear I shall not have strength to bear it." She repeated some appropriate promises, and expressed a confident hope that the Lord would be with him. He asked Mrs Murray to read him a chapter, and she selected the 11th of John's Gospel. As she read, he interrupted her, saying: "I am feeling something that I trust will do my soul good. I have been thinking of the pain I was in the other day; and if that was so great, what must the pains of hell be? I have been thinking also of what Christ suffered and endured for me. Oh," he said, "I have got quite a new view-quite a new view! I will try to think of this love." After a while Mrs Murray read a hymn relative to the sufferings of Christ. He remarked: "What a sweet hymn! Jesus is mighty-O yes! He is all mighty. O it is all of grace-rich, free grace!" Mrs Murray read a hymn relative to the glories of heaven. When done, she asked if he had not a hope that he should soon enter into these glories. He replied that he had such a hope. After this he was almost speechless till the time of his death, which took place on the following morning. He was buried at the outside of the west "Missionary Life in Samoa, as Exhibited in the Journals of the late George Archibald Lundie, during the Revival in Tutuila in 1840-41. Edited by his Mother." We need no? | say that we cordially recommend the entire work to the perusal and attention of our readers We have not, for a long time, met with a book which has interested or affected us The above is a mere outline of its more prominent more. |