description,-by adversity; to have him brought into circumstances, such as should afford scope for injecting doubts of the divine faithfulness and kindness, and stirring him up to fretful impatience and rebellious murmuring, or for sinking his spirit to unbelieving despair.Therefore,

3. He more than insinuates against him,-his words amount, indeed, to a flat and positive charge,―hypocritical selfishness as the real principle of all his religion. He alleges, that it was solely because God had thus been kind to Job that Job persisted in serving God. He found the service worth his while. He got more than be gave. No marvel he was attached to it. He had no temptation to leave it. He had no temptation to aught but satisfaction with God's dealings; no temptation to violate, unjustly, or oppressively, the rights and property of others; for he had already more than heart could wish. "But put forth thine hand now, (verse 11.) and touch all that he hath; and will he then bless thee to thy face?"-Thus the words are rendered by Mr. Goode; and, on grounds already adverted to, we prefer the rendering to that of our received version.

The words, thus translated, imply two things:-First, that Job's blessing God, now and heretofore, was blessing him only to his face; that it was not sincere, but dictated by considerations of self-interest, and the experience of the comfort and prosperity which the service of God brought him :-and, secondly, that in a reverse of circumstances, if those temporal favours and indulgences, which were the only bond that attached him to the service of God, were withdrawn, even this hypocritical homage would cease; he would not then bless him, even to his face.

Upon this, Satan obtained permission to put the justice of his charge against the patriarch to the proof;-to subject him to trial, by any description of suffering that did not affect his person.-Then commence the trials of Job. But we can go no farther at present. If too much of your room has not already been occupied, you will allow me to subjoin one or two practical reflections.

There is not a little here, that calls for imitation. The general character of Job, given by God himself, is a character which all should strive to attain;-in his fear of God; in his integrity of principle; in his abhorrence of evil. The abhorrence of evil must be practical, else there is no fear of God:-" Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." That man, whatever be his professions, has not the fear of God before his eyes, who is not "striving against sin," and following after "whatsoever things are true, just, pure, honest, lovely, and of good report;" who is not cultivating the holiness of heart and life, “ without which no man shall see the Lord."

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Let the rich imitate Job. He was eminent for wealth and station; and, strong as the temptations are, with which these are associated, to forgetfulness of God, yet He, with whom "all things are possible," has had, and still has, his own people among the highest as well as the lowest. The wealth and the rank of the patriarch might be coveted by men; in the eyes of God, his piety was his prime excellence. Let the rich be assured, that true religion

is the true ornament of the most exalted station,-the brightest jewel, the diamond of the purest water, even in the royal crown. Beware of feeling and acting, as if wealth made you independent of God. It only lays you under the deeper obligations to him; and the responsibility is awful that attaches to the abundant possession of his gifts. And O remember, that "not gold nor all the forces of strength" can ransom the soul :-no, nor even the temporal life of the possessor himself, or of any whom he might wish to redeem from seeing corruption. Psalm xlix. 6, 20.

Let parents imitate Job ;-in his solicitude for the best interests of his children; his jealous and vigilant apprehensiveness, and prayerful anxiety to keep them from sin; his earnestness to have their minds impressed with a sense of their danger, even from those things which, in themselves, might be harmless, and to lead them to God, wherein soever they might have offended, for forgiveness through the blood of the atonement. Let your heart's desire and prayer" for your children be, "that they may be saved." Teach them; pray for them; watch over them; restrain affectionately and firmly from evil; inculcate, and consistently exemplify good. Seek the blessing of God on all your endeavours to "sanctify" them, that they may acceptably serve him in the exercises of his worship, and the homage of their lives.-There is not a sight on earth more lovely, than that of a pious family, surrounding, in the exercises of devotion, the domestic altar;-united, not in the tender ties of nature alone, but in the bonds of grace, the only bonds that shall never be broken;-and, as members together of God's redeemed family, looking forward to their Father's house above, the house of many mansions, as their everlasting home!

If this be supremely desirable,-then, in order to its attainment, let the young be admonished, and especially "young men," to be "sober-minded." Like the sons of Job, you are surrounded with temptations; and those temptations may be not the least dangerous to you, that do not wear much of the decided aspect of evil,-that appear in the garb of harmless enjoyment. Beware. Be jealous of yourselves. Be decided for God. Set out in life, with him for your chosen Guide. Let scoffers, old or young, say what they will, if I could persuade you to "fear God from your youth," I should persuade you to your true honour and your true happiness.

There is a character here brought before us, of whom, alas! by far the majority of mankind are the imitators. Good men are children of God; wicked men are children of the devil. They each resemble, and obey, and follow their father. "Be ye followers of God, as dear children." "Ye are of your father the devil; and the lusts of your father ye will do."-In the history before us, Satan appears in the character of a slanderer,— -a false accuser. Let all note it, then, who are his children. They are not merely such as invent and utter what they know to be false, "laying to the charge" of God's people things that they know not.' They are those also-and the number of them is not small-who, from dislike to the doctrines of the Bible, and to the sanctity of character by which they feel themselves condemned, are for ever

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ready with the charge of hypocrisy and of selfish and interested motives against the professors of religion,-ever prone to lend a credulous ear to reports of evil, and to lend a willing and active tongue to their circulation. This disposition and practice are the very counterpart and fac simile of the character of him who is, by way of special distinction, denominated "the accuser of the brethren." -Here, then, is one of the tests of parentage. Let it be impartially and faithfully applied.

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Last of all,-let believers rejoice, that the grand enemy of souls can have no power at all against them, except it be given him from above." Ah! we little know what machinations may be forming against us in the world of invisible spirits, amongst the legions of the prince of the power of the air." Let it be our prayer, that we may ever be environed with the protecting care of the Most High. This alone is safety. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Against Him, there is no power and no malignity that can possibly prevail.

ANSWER TO SOME STRICTURES OF J. J. C. UPON A PAPER ON MISSIONS.

(To the Editor.)

SIR,-Your correspondent, J. J. C., has taken several exceptions against sentiments I some months back expressed in my paper on "Missions." He thinks I have rather hastily and unadvisedly given utterance to certain positions, which are untenable upon sound doetrine, and which are not calculated to advance the cause I advocate. He likewise thinks that I have been too lenient and too partial towards an order of men, whom all history unites in holding forth as ambitious, worldly, and dissimulating, and certainly not possessing the spirit of humility and of self-devotion which characterize missionaries in the present day.

Now, Sir, I certainly do not feel myself called upon to reply to every animadversion on sentiments which cannot be shown to have any tendency disparaging to that pure Christianity which we, in common, maintain. But as there are one or two points upon which I am anxious not to be misunderstood, (and I trust, and believe, that your correspondent would shrink from any wish of misrepresenting me,) I shall here deliver a few farther observations on this subject:-and, imprimis, your correspondent asks, "What can E. P.' mean by the firm and extensive footing which once seemed permanently established in these soils, and which is now lost?" That a firm and extensive establishment of Christianity (nominal at least, for it is not material for me to prove that it was vital and genuine, it may have been as lax as your correspondent imagines) was at the period alluded to, is matter of history, and is fully as well authenticated as any other historical facts. I certainly do not mean to maintain that Christianity is a loser by the depression of the order of the Jesuits, or that their career in China and Japan was marked by

that zeal for the glory of God,-that single eye to his service, which generally characterize our modern missionaries:-far from it. If "J. J. C." looks attentively through my observations on these points, he will see that I advance nothing of the kind. I never dreamed of asserting that the Missionary Jesuits were actuated, mainly, by an eye to God's glory, or the spiritual and future interests of those to whom they preached. I have no wish to bestow a single eulogy in that quarter which shall be found to militate against historical truth.

If your correspondent will take the trouble to read attentively what I have written on this subject, he will see that I praise not the temporizing policy, or the culpable compromises, of these Jesuits, but their zeal, prudence, activity, and intelligence, and the untiring perseverance with which they applied their minds to the study of the character of the people among whom they laboured. Surely, Sir, these qualities are not in the slightest degree incompatible with the missionary character! But your correspondent appears to have a horror at my citing any examples drawn from the Romish Church. "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" seems, with him, as with the unbelieving Jews of old, the general and undeviating motto. I quite agree with him, that the purer and more elevated examples, which occur in modern ministerial biography, furnish a more unexceptionable manual, as it regards individuality of view and ENTIRENESS of object than any which the narrative of Jesuitical operations, in China, presents. But have there not been some good and estimable qualities in individuals professing the Romish faith? Was not Pascal, a Roman Catholic,-did not the excellent Fenelon profess the errors which disfigure that creed?-and yet it is impossible to look into the "Pensées Diversés" of the first, or the "Euvres Spirituelles" of the second, without being convinced that the piety and selfrenunciation of both these eminent men stood on very high ground. Pascal, as every body knows, was a Jansenist, and opposed to the Jesuits, but he maintained many things which, as Protestants, we reject. Both himself and Fenelon, indeed, held doctrines clogged with monstrous errors; yet no man acquainted with their character, as history depicts it, would say that the religion of these men was vain, or insincere. Just so may it be said of many of the Jesuits who preached Christ in China,-("J. J. C." will hardly assert that they preached any other name,)-the temporizing policy, and worldly ambition, which stimulated the majority does not preclude there being some excellent men among them, whose views were higher and nobler: nor does it by any means prove that, because the intrepidity, zeal, intelligence, and sagacity of this body of men are not unworthy of being held forth to posterity, the worldly and selfish views which have likewise fastened a stigma on the greatest part, should make a necessary ingredient in the picture.

But your correspondent has brought another, and what he deems a more serious charge against me,-that I spoke of instilling into the minds of barbarians some principles of humanity before the truths of religion were preached to them.

N. S. VOL. IV.

4 I

Upon this point, Sir, I shall not dwell, because it is not my intention to insist.

"J. J. C." and the present writer may not understand the words used exactly in the same sense. But I am willing, withont troubling him or myself further on the point, to concede the position he is desirous to establish. I may have mistaken Mr. Shaw; if I did, I have only to regret that I gave publicity to a sentiment which he did not

SIR, I am desirons of obtaining information on a subject, which, interested as I am in common with the great body of your readers for the well-being of Christ's church in the world, I am persuaded would be practically valuable for the religious public as well as myself thoroughly to understand. This subject is ENDOWMENTS, and their actual EFFECTS on the churches to which they belong. I should have no objection to know how they have operated, in the long run, in other corporations; but my enquiry especially respects dissenting churches, of our own or other denominations. Our pious forefathers, no doubt, in those instances, where they made endowments, large or small, did so, under the conviction or supposition that they would subserve the cause of Christ: and looking at it, à priori, one should think they would. But nonconformity is old enough to answer the question, not with uncertain à priori arguments only, but with the clear light of à posteriori evidence; I mean, we could tell, if facts were only gathered together, bow endowments have actually worked in the churches for the last sixty, one hundred, or one hundred and fifty years. And it greatly concerns all men, especially all dissenters, to know these facts, or at least the grand inference and instruction to be derived from them. Allow me, therefore, to draw the attention of your readers to this matter, and to request the answer from time to time of such persons as are in possession of the history and condition of endowed churches. I suggest, that in cases where it might be too delicate to mention names, either of places or persons, still the facts could be given; and truth and experience are so much the common property of mankind at large, and especially of the christian church, that I do not see what right any one has to keep them to himself.

To assist your correspondents in giving the valuable information in their power, I would request specific answers to the following queries:

1. Is it frequent, now-a-days, to endow chapels, or the churches