lowed incense to the Lord. Often have I witnessed at such meetings, the big tear rolling down my fellow's cheek, and as it dropped unheeded on the ground, have seen it strike conviction to another's breast, or penetrate my own soul: and I have experienced the power of the hearty amen, as it resounded in our little meeting, and the earnestness of others made me earnest, and their zeal influenced my own. While the feelings excited, and the contributions promoted by other means, are very generally transient and momentary, those excited here are like the widow's cruse of oil and meal, they never fail!

May I then, Mr. Editor, solicit your kind co-operation in my endeavour to call the attention of the Christian public, to the expediency of establishing those monthly meetings generally throughout the country, in the manner that they are at present partially established in, by giving this letter a place in your respectable and useful Miscellany, with any observations on the subject, which will come with greater force of illustration and power of argument, from your experienced pen. Such meetings generally are held the first Monday of every month, in the afternoon; they are opened and concluded with a prayer, and hymns, and generally devoted to the reading of missionary intelligence; this, accompanied by casual observations, and sometimes by an exposition of a portion of Scripture hearing on the subject of missions.

The formularies of our Church furnish prayers adapted to such occasions! O how joyful a sight would be presented to the benevolent Christian's mind, how powerful an effort would be produced, did every place throughout the land in which there is a missionary association, join from month to month in simultaneous prayermeetings such as these! did all unite to send up their petitions to the throne of Grace, for Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics; to supplicate Jehovah in the language of the Psalmist, "Let the people praise thee O God: yea, let all the people praise thee;" and by contributions at the same time, prove their sincerity by their actions! Then might we expect a special blessing from on High upon our country:-Then assuredly should the earth bring forth her encrease; and God, even our own God, should give us his blessing; yea, God should bless us, and all the ends of the world should fear him. C. D.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

THE PICTURESQUE.

"Yes! I must declare, that I can say my prayers no where so well as in Monckton Church, it is such a sweet and sacred spot; I should be cold as monumental marble, did I not feel some touch of fervour under that antique roof-but I see, Sophia, you are laughing at me. Well, I do not ever expect to make a convert of you."

has not served his vesture either in the process. Why should Christian worship be a thing of cold abstraction, as though man were pure spirit only, and not body too ?"

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Well, Lady Mary, you are a good advocate of a bad cause," "that is all I shall say," exclaimed Sophia, "but will you not drink your tea, it has been lying before you this quarter of an hour, and must by this be quite cold.'

"To tell the truth, I have been so engaged in admiring the beauty of the old Dresden china teacup, that I had not time to think of drinking the tea."

"What a malapropos observation," said Sophia laughing, "for how powerfully it makes for papa against yourself."

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Poh, poh," said her Ladyship rising hastily, "I will not take my tea from pure spite-but come Sophia, you know you promised to come down and look at the site which I have chosen for my schoolhouse, the poney-phaton holds three extremely well, and your papa can drive us over, and Wilmot can follow on foot in time to resume his station of charioteer."

This arrangement was speedily entered on-but while the Rector is putting on his outside coat, and his daughter is shawling herself, let us hasten to explain to our readers, who the parties are whose conversation has just been rehearsed. Lady Mary Delmour was the only child of the Earl of Monckton, whose demesne immediately adjoined the glebe of the clergyman already mentioned. The earl was a Church of England man of that school, now happily fast declining, whose godliness consisted in a regular mustering of the family in the cloth-lined pew on Sunday mornings, when the weather was fair; the punctual summoning of the same to hear a sermon of Blair's on Sunday evening-the slaughtering of an ox at Christmas for the benefit of the neighbouring mendicants, and the distributing at Easter a certain proportion of flannel petticoats, shoes and shillings to some twenty or thirty old women who grumbled and squabbled the whole way home to their respective cottages upon the shocking unfairness with which the good things were distributed. Mr. Seymour was what some of his parishioners termed, a New Light, others an Evangelical, others a sound Christian-in reality, he was of that happy number who are entitled to that highest appellation, a man of God." Still the families were intimate, for Mr. Seymour was the son of a Baroness in her own right, and the Earl though a high church-man of the first water, was not alarmed at the religious principles of a man, whose blood was purely from the aristocracy. And Lady Mary ardent in every thing, constant in nothing, admired the devotedness of her fair friend Sophia, and wished to emulate it, but could not, for the principle which gave life to it was wanting.

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The party while we are telling this, have proceeded down the avenue. But such an avenue-not an elm, not a rook-and then the house they had just quitted, a square mass of roman cement, standing in vulgar compactness in the middle of a plain field. Some roses it is true beginning to grow against the walls, and some young

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"Ay, lady Mary," said the Rector, shaking his head gently, Sophia is a most shocking matter-of-fact personage, but after all, I fear every day life is a much more vulgar concern than you should at present be willing to allow, and 'tis better to have our feelings attuned as much as possible with the reality of things."

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My dear Mr. Seymour," replied the young lady, "I am sure reason is with you, and indeed you never lecture me after one of my flights that I do not feel soberly inclined for a season; but sooth to say, the season of my amendment seldom continues long, and I am terribly subject to relapses. Let me ask of you, however, would you exclude the influences of the imagination altogether, and may they not sometimes minister with advantage to the interests of true religion ?"

"I am no precisian, Lady Mary, you know, and I even contributed towards the repairing of that painted window in the church, though the purchasing an entirely new one of common glass would have cost somewhat less. But as I am satisfied that there is a spurious feeling which many mistake for the fervors of true piety, I am always alarmed when I hear a young friend dwelling with so much interest upon those outward ministerings to the sense which an old gothic church presents. That such an house of prayer is calculated to produce effect, I believe, nor do I quarrel therefore with my ancestors who built it; but I do quarrel with those who, going into the sanctuary are, looking for effect."

"But, my dear Sir, you do not think that I am so profane a creature as to spend the hours of my Sabbath worshippings in searching for the picturesque, when I should be joining in the prayers, or listening to the sermon."

"I am satisfied you have no such deliberate purpose. But look at facts. You expressed yourself to Sophia, not very long ago in my hearing, as being enchanted at the manner in which a sun-beam from one of the windows fell directly upon the pulpit where I was preaching, the rest of the church being in shade, and you assured her that your enthusiasm was wrapt up to the highest pitch, my text being the words of John, "That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Now, confess honestly, were not your feelings rather hindrances than helps on that occasion, and if your piety was awakened by a ray darting through the mullions of a gothic window, is it not liable to be as suddenly damped, where no external agencies are in operation to afford the necessary stimulus ?"

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Really, my dear Sir, I cannot plead guilty, when I do not find myself to be so. And you, who are such an advocate for sincerity, would, I am sure, be the last person to bid me call myself worse than I thought myself to be. Though I protest, with all my heart, against the Romish doctrines, I am by no means clear, that they have not shown wisdom in addressing men so much through the medium of the senses; and while I rejoice in the reformation, I not only think with the Dean, that brother John has injured his coat in stripping off the lace from it; but I think too, that brother Martin

has not served his vesture either in the process. Why should Christian worship be a thing of cold abstraction, as though man were pure spirit only, and not body too ?"

"Well, Lady Mary, you are a good advocate of a bad cause,' "that is all I shall say," exclaimed Sophia, "but will you not drink your tea, it has been lying before you this quarter of an hour, and must by this be quite cold."

"To tell the truth, I have been so engaged in admiring the beauty of the old Dresden china teacup, that I had not time to think of drinking the tea.”

"What a malapropos observation," said Sophia laughing, “for how powerfully it makes for papa against yourself."

"Poh, poh," said her Ladyship rising hastily, "I will not take my tea from pure spite-but come Sophia, you know you promised to come down and look at the site which I have chosen for my schoolhouse, the poney-phaton holds three extremely well, and your papa can drive us over, and Wilmot can follow on foot in time to resume his station of charioteer."

This arrangement was speedily entered on-but while the Rector is putting on his outside coat, and his daughter is shawling herself, let us hasten to explain to our readers, who the parties are whose conversation has just been rehearsed. Lady Mary Delmour was the only child of the Earl of Monckton, whose demesne immediately adjoined the glebe of the clergyman already mentioned. The earl was a Church of England man of that school, now happily fast declining, whose godliness consisted in a regular mustering of the family in the cloth-lined pew on Sunday mornings, when the weather was fair; the punctual summoning of the same to hear a sermon of Blair's on Sunday evening-the slaughtering of an ox at Christmas for the benefit of the neighbouring mendicants, and the distributing at Easter a certain proportion of flannel petticoats, shoes and shillings to some twenty or thirty old women who grumbled and squabbled the whole way home to their respective cottages upon the shocking unfairness with which the good things were distributed. Mr. Seymour was what some of his parishioners termed, a New Light, others an Evangelical, others a sound Christian-in reality, he was of that happy number who are entitled to that highest appellation, a man of God." Still the families were intimate, for Mr. Seymour was the son of a Baroness in her own right, and the Earl though a high church-man of the first water, was not alarmed at the religious principles of a man, whose blood was purely from the aristocracy. And Lady Mary ardent in every thing, constant in nothing, admired the devotedness of her fair friend Sophia, and wished to emulate it, but could not, for the principle which gave life to it was wanting.

The party while we are telling this, have proceeded down the avenue. But such an avenue-not an elm, not a rook-and then the house they had just quitted, a square mass of roman cement, standing in vulgar compactness in the middle of a plain field. Some roses it is true beginning to grow against the walls, and some young