the same manner, the spirit in its natural state is dead— dead in sin. It must be renewed to spiritual life; it must be born again. When it is so renewed, and has life, it requires food to support it: and this spirit, my brethren, which is the man, is kept alive by the word of God. To those that are thus alive amongst you, the opportunity of receiving the Holy Communion directs our attention to a particular means by which we may prove the truth of our Lord's application of the text he quoted to resist Satan'. There is a special word of God which makes us look to the bread to be broken to-day as food for the soul as well as the body-because Christ has said, "This is my blood of the new covenant which was shed for you: drink ye all of this." And it is written, As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." -to When temptations come around you-when you are disposed to be discontented-or to doubt of your belonging to Christ-or to indulge in some sinful coursegive way to evil passions-or any of the multitude of evil things which Satan is ever throwing before you,-what are you to do? You remember that bread is given to strengthen our bodies, and to fit them for their daily work-and so, my brethren, the Lord Jesus Christ has graciously provided a bread and a wine, for the support of our souls, and to strengthen them for their daily work of resisting these temptations of Satan;-" his body is bread indeed, and his blood is drink indeed." But it is not merely (as our Church says in her 29th Article) "the carnal and visible pressing with the teeth of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ" that gives strength against temptation; but it is the receiving of the bread and the wine in "a lively faith;" discerning the Lord's body broken and his blood shed, in the appointed means. This is the way by which the soul gains strength in the Lord's Supper; by this means spiritual life is increased. Therefore Satan constantly tries, either to make us neglect this holy sacrament altogether, by suggesting a thousand excuses for delay; or, on the other hand, his purpose is to keep us in a carnal and visible formality; 1 Matt. iv. 4. in which the bread and the wine are but bodily supports. In each case the snare is equally dangerous. My brethren! are you aware of these temptations? I have already told you that Satan, or some of his spirits, is here; and he is now trying to bewilder your minds upon this subject. Are you aware of your danger? Do you daily walk about this world with a sense of his presence around you, and of your need of more strength than your own to resist his power? If you do not realize this truth, of what awful folly are you guilty! What wonder that you are dead in trespasses and sins! May God arouse you! If you do realize this truth, and have a just sense of your danger, and are aware of your own weakness, then listen to the word of Jesus-" Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." Yes, my dear brethren, come, and be fed at his Table; partake of the food which He there offers you, in order to strengthen you, that you may be able to overcome Satan. Come, and feed by faith; doubt not his love nor his faithfulness: He will support you, and sprinkle your consciences with that blood which He shed for you. This, however, is a mercy which must be applied personally. Jesus gives Himself, his body and his blood, in this Holy Sacrament, to be food for the souls of his people who feel their weakness and who are struggling against Satan. If each one for himself does but feel sure of this, and apply it to his own soul; if, I say, you feel the danger you are in, through internal weakness and external temptation, and believe that Jesus really died to save You, you will not lose a single opportunity of gaining the strength necessary to enable you to stand against Satan.-From an Address by the Rev. A. R. C. DALLAS. EXTRACT FROM MY FAMILY BIBLE. OUR Lord in Galilee, continues to speak of that which He first mentioned to his disciples at Cæsarea Philippi, namely, his death and resurrection. His disciples are exceeding sorry at his words. They were sorry on two accounts; in the first place, they would rather have been saved by a great and powerful prince, with all the trappings of state about him; and again, they were sorry to hear that they must part with one so full of tenderness and love, and also of such dignity of character. Doubtless, it was a sorrowful subject to them, the parting with their Master, yet, observe, they had no great sorrow in separating themselves from Him through want of faith, a little while before his death. Recollect, that though we may be sorry even to tears, at the account of Jesus' cruel death for us unworthy creatures, that we crucify Him afresh, and put Him to open shame, when we fall off in faith and holiness. May God grant us grace to be exceedingly sorry to have caused the death of Jesus, to look upon Him whom we have pierced, and mourn1; and also to wound Him no more by our ingratitude! Let the example of our Lord, given in the last verses of this chapter, weigh deeply with those who are ready upon every pretence to talk about their rights, and to make causes for rebellion, or for withholding the dues to Church and State. Christ was the Son of God, not one of the children or subjects of an earthly king. He had no reason to pay the tribute-money to the temple that was raised of every Jew above twenty, for the support of the public worship of Himself, "the everlasting Father.” The worship of the temple was for his glory, not his advantage; but that no cause of offence might appear in Him, and being man, as well as a Divine Saviour, our blessed Lord works a miracle to obtain for Himself and Peter the small sum necessary for the tribute, half a shekel, or fifteen pence of our money. I beg you to observe how strictly our blessed Lord fulfilled the law in every point, for in Exodus xxx. 15, you will see that as the rich were not to give more, so the poor (and our Saviour and Peter were poor enough, for they had no money), were not to give less than the half shekel. Do not forget, my dear family, for whom our Lord became thus poor. Do not forget that it was for you; "that through his poverty you might be rich." -A Layman. 1 Zech. xii. 10. 2 Exod. xxx. 12-15. ALLOTMENT CULTURE. To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor. SIR,-If you think the enclosed letter, which I have received from one of my allotment tenants, will be useful or interesting to the readers of the "Cottager's Monthly Visitor," I beg the favour of its insertion in an early number. To the Maxims of the Rev. L. B. Wither, I would add one in common use by the labourers here. "If land won't pay for doing well, it will never pay for doing bad." I remain, sir, your humble servant, Eyden, Oct. 29th, 1846. FRANCIS CLerke. Eyden, Oct. 26th, 1846. "Rev. Sir,-Agreeably to your request, I hereby give a statement of my last year's produce in my garden allotment, and in so doing, I beg leave to make a few observations on the culture of allotments. "My land was in good heart, having been manured well before winter digging in the autumn of 1844, for potatoes and carrots. Without manuring it in October, 1845, I planted sixteen poles of ground with seven pints of red Lammas wheat, which is after the rate of one bushel and three quarts per acre, the produce of which was five bushels and three gallons, which is after the rate of six quarters five bushels and six gallons per acre. I immediately cleaned the ground, and planted half of it with cabbage-plants, which are now nice young cabbage, or cabbage-coleworts, a favourite vegetable in London, known by the name of spring greens, and I have no doubt that, as I have a large family, and only a few good potatoes, I shall find them not only a favourite, but a very serviceable vegetable as a winter green. In this garden I had not any potatoes, but where I grew them the produce was about four bushels of good, and six bushels bad, per sixteen poles of ground. Last year I kept my potatoes well till the spring, by putting a single row of potatoes about ten inches below the top of the ground, upon a layer of straw, and then covering them well, but lightly, with mould, then another layer of potatoes, and so on, bringing the heap to a point. My plan, and I believe it will answer well, is, as soon as I reap my wheat, to dig in the stubble, cleaning the ground at the same time, a little lime may also occasionally be dug in with it, and immediately plant a part with small York cabbage, transplanted from a bed which had been sown in June. A small bed of these cabbages will be sufficient to transplant to many allotments. Another part I sow with stone turnip, both of which are very useful in winter: the remainder may be sown with vetches, which can be dug in, and answer as an excellent manure. In each case the land would be ready to be prepared for a root crop in the spring, wheat to follow the part planted, with potatoes and barley to follow, swedes, carrots, or mangel wurzel. I strongly recommended that winter digging, ridging, or trenching be proceeded with as early in the autumn as possible; I recommend trenching in preference to either digging or ridging. Where swedes, carrots, or mangel wurzel, are to be sown, autumn trenching and manuring (where the manure is ready) is more likely to produce a good crop than spring trenching and manuring. It is said to be a good plan to sow second early potatoes rather deep in the ground in the autumn, middle-sized potatoes, and whole ones, thirty or thirty-six inches apart from row to row, or so far, as to put a row of carrots, parsnips, mangel wurzel, or swedes in spring, between the rows. The second earlies have but a small top and ripen early, therefore, they give the other crop a better chance; if the potatoes are planted whole, they are not so likely to perish or to be eaten by slugs. People who tried this system last season found it to answer extremely well, and highly recommend it to others. A brother tenant on the adjoining allotment to mine, has, for several years, planted cabbages in autumn, and interlined them with beans, planted early in spring, and finds the plan to answer very well indeed. The beans interlined should be the early long pod, that being a more prolific bearer, than either the mazagan or broad Windsor. In concluding my observations, I beg leave to mention a few words of the Rev. L. B. Wither's, I VOL. XXVI. B b |