"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God."-ROMANS v. 1.

HOWEVER valuable this Christian grace is to the believer, it cannot (any more than any other) purchase his salvation. Its real worth consists in its throwing off every attainment, and bringing the sinner to depend wholly on the finished work of Jesus.

"Take heed, and beware of covetousness." -LUKE xii. 15.

The reiterated caution here given by Jesus, was perhaps caused by the peculiarly heinous character of this sin in the sight of that God, who "seeth not as man seeth." It is called "Idolatry," (Col. iii. 5.) the greatest sin against God. But the speciousness of its nature may also account for the solemnity of the warning. Perhaps there is no sin so difficult to detect, and deprive of its disguise. It can even plead a Scriptural sanction in such texts as 1 Tim. v. 8. What need then have we to pray, "Search me, O God, and know my heart, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

"In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old."— -ISAIAH lxiii. 9.

How often does the Christian feel that the circumstantials of his trials are such, as to prevent an earthly friend from entering into them. And on this account, the helplessness of friends is the most felt; but the promise of the text just meets, by its comprehensiveness, the believer's need; whilst the next clause secures the help needed. The mode of relief is also implied. The distress being so often mental, the realization of the presence of an all-sufficient friend will remove the source of evil.

"Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him." -LUKE viii. 39.

It has often been said, that if we were allowed to make our own crosses, they would be of the lightest materials. The poor man, who had applied to Jesus, would gladly have remained with him. Gratitude might first induce this wish, but it is not unlikely that the dread of persecution might also influence his mind. Jesus requires a stronger proof of his affection, when he desires him to tell his own immediate relatives what a Saviour he had found. This is often a far greater trial of faith. We may, however, hope, that he followed the Saviour's injunction, and was also permitted to labour in a more extensive sphere as he published the glad tidings throughout the whole city.

"Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I proposed to come unto you (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.' -ROM. i. 13.

What a subject for faith and joy to the child of God is the doctrine of a particular providence. Like every other doctrine in Scripture, he does not wish to cavil at it; for he finds it indispensable to his comfort and security. The allusion which the Apostle here makes, to the various impediments in his way, at once includes an agent, and an end. Satan might prevent the Apostle from proceeding to Rome as a missionary, by the various trials through which he brought him, and by the malice of his enemies; but he did not, and could not, defeat the end which this servant of God ever had in view, namely the glory of his divine Saviour in the edification of his Church. This was accomplished by his going as a prisoner to Rome, and yet being permitted to dwell two whole years in his own hired house, and receive all that came unto him. (Acts xxviii. 30, 31.)

MARVELLOUS is the change that has been wrought since Caxton set up his first press in the Almonry at Westminster. Not only has the machinery of the press been immensely improved, but it is plied by the gigantic power of steam, so that the tens and twenties of its early publications have become enlarged to myriads and millions. The character of by far the larger part of its issues, it becomes us seriously to contemplate.

In doing so, it will be seen that the cheap press fearfully tends to the demoralizing of the people, and also to the fostering of a gross and infidel superstition. In proof of the first assertion, a quotation may be made from a daily paper. Referring to one publisher, the writer says: "He issues, we believe, more than a dozen serials weekly, at a uniform rate of one penny each. Of all these enormous numbers are sold. The greater portion of them consists of tales and romances-all turning upon scenes of robbery and seduction, both of which are delineated with an infinite amount of particular details of an exciting and most unhealthy nature. The robber or the pirate is always made a hero-daring, impassioned, with resolute will, loose character, cruel, and yet chivalric after a rude fashion. These are the elements of an idol in this school of romance. The betrayed and culpable heroine is a martyr, the disgusting anatomy of whose mind is often attempted to be given, and in whose history and adventures the sympathies of the untutored, and especially female, reader are feverishly engrossed. All the incidents of the story are in keeping with the characters of the chief personages. A succession of sickly but exciting scenes is kept up-theft, seduction, violence, adultery, and murder, stalk through their pages as if they were the most common-place and agreeable things in the world. Contact with such a literature is inevitable corruption. Nothing can prevent it. The readers of such

works are of the lowest order of intellect and education; the more perilous it therefore becomes to them. We have good reason, too, for believing that those readers are, for the greater part, females-country girls who are in service, and children whom the excitement, suffering, and evil example of crowded and busy towns have rendered prematurely conscious of the awakening instincts of womanhood. Such minds require the nicest care, and the soberest intellectual aliment to preserve them in a healthy, moral condition; instead of which, often simply from want of counsel and direction from persons of superior age and intelligence to themselves, they imbibe only such nourishment as may be afforded in this noxious literature, the intoxicating poisons of which tempt them to return to it again and again-as youths, under similar circumstances, are led on to habits of precocious inebrietyuntil all natural sentiment is stifled, true and simple womanliness of character lost, and a diseased moral feeling engendered, which is incurable in its subject, and perhaps requiring more than one generation to pass away before its effects can be finally eradicated." After giving abundant evidence of the truth of these fearful allegations, the writer adds: "We are sorry to have to say, that the great majority of these scandalous stories are written by females; and on that account are the more dangerous to the young, because the filthiness is covered with a sort of sentiment, and the production warranted by a woman's signature."

That the cheap press which thus tends to the most lamentable and awful demoralization, contributes also to the grossest superstition, is no less manifest. Never were Roman Catholics so active and energetic as now, in multiplying works for the various ages of life, many of which have hitherto been issued in a bulky form, and at a high price, while others are new, all being rendered attractive

either by their appearance or their unprecedented cheapness.

Thus, in a review of the "Life of St. Philip Neri," issued in October, 1847, and on Roman Catholic authority, it is said: "It is with exceeding satisfaction that we announce to the Catholic public the first volume of a work of such great magnitude, and so every way important, that it is not easy to calculate its consequences in the present state of religious feeling; but when we have given an outline of its design, we shall feel it almost presumption to retain the pen, for lay hands are not worthy to descant upon the actions, the maxims, the very spirit of the most glorious of the servants of God, exemplified in the most familiar and condescending, as well as the most elevated moments of their lives."

On the advantages secured by the cheap press, the writer thus expatiates:"Surely it is a sign of the times, a direct manifestation of Divine Providence, that such a work as the present should be now offered to us; for at any former period when the publication of Catholic works was a matter of expense and difficulty, a long series like the present would have been too great a speculation, and the purchase of them quite out of the reach of the generality of readers; now, however, by means of that press to which we owe so many valuable publications and reprints, we do not despair of seeing these treasures of edification and interest accessible to all."

It is highly important that the reader should be apprised of the quality of the work so warmly commended, and of this he may judge from the following specimen: “He studied philosophy at this time, and with such wonderful effect, that a question arose of how much was learned, how much inspired; but Philip could be satisfied only at the fountain head; he gave up his studies and devoted himself to spiritual exercises, until human nature almost sunk under the influx of Divine grace, and this must have been the result, but for a most wonderful and continued miracle :

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We are told that- one day, a little before the feast of Whitsuntide, he was making his accustomed prayer to the Holy Ghost, for whom he had such a devotion, that he daily poured out before him most fervent prayer, imploring his gifts and graces. When he was made priest, he always said at mass, unless the rubric forbid it, the prayer, Deus cui cor patet. Now, while he was importunately demanding of the Holy Ghost his gifts, there appeared to the saint a ball of fire, which entered into his mouth, and lodged in his breast; and therewith he was all suddenly surprised by such a flame of love, that he was unable to bear it, but threw himself on the ground, and, like one trying to cool himself, he bared his breast, to abate in some measure the flame that he felt. When he had remained so for some time, and was a little recovered, he rose up full of an unwonted joy, and immediately all his body began to shake with a vehement tremour; and putting his hand to his bosom, he felt by the side of his heart a tumour about as big as a man's fist, but neither then, nor ever afterwards was it attended by the slightest pain. Whence this swelling proceeded, and what it was, was manifested after his death; for when his body was opened, the two outer ribs were found broken, and thrust outward, and the two sides standing far apart, never having re-united in all the fifty years which Philip lived after this miraculous event. It was at the same moment that the palpitation of his heart commenced, which lasted all his life, though he was of a good constitution, a very lively temperament, and without the least tendency to melancholy. The palpitation only came on when he was performing some spiritual action, such as praying, saying mass, communicating, giving absolution, talking on heavenly things, and the like. The trembling which it caused was so vehement, that it seemed as if his heart would break out from his breast, and his chair, his bed, and sometimes the whole room, were shaken. On one occasion in particular, he was in St. Peter's, kneeling on a large table,

and he caused it to shake as if it had been of no weight at all; and sometimes when he was lying on the bed with his clothes on, his body was lifted up into the air through the vehemence of the palpitation. Whenever he pressed any of his spiritual children to his breast, they found the motion of his heart so great that their heads bounded off from him, as if they had received a smart shock from something, while at other times the motion seemed like that of a hammer. Yet, notwithstanding the shock, they always found in being pressed to him a wonderful consolation and spiritual contentment, and many found themselves, in the very act, delivered from temptation.""

We add two other extracts from the same article: "The editor and translators make no profit by this great undertaking; and consequently the work is, perhaps, the cheapest ever published-the price of an 8vo volume of 400 pages being no more than four shillings!

"The lives of one hundred and thirty-five saints are now in hand, nor is the list as yet complete; but out of this number one portion will be peculiarly interesting-eighty-five of the lives are those of holy and venerable persons, men and women, not yet beatified, or declared venerable, but who have died in the odour of sanctity, and whose names are embalmed in our affections."

With these facts before us, does it become those who have received the "truth as it is in Jesus," and who are therefore placed under the most solemn obligation zealously to diffuse it, to be satisfied while all the means they employ bear no proportion to those of the enemies of their Lord and Master? Is the cheap press to do the work of demoralization and superstition

the high road to absolute infidelity, and that within a large and everextending circle, while its agency for the present welfare and eternal salvation of men is one extremely limitedan agency which must have from year to year large accessions to supply the ravages of death, lest it should be still less, and accessions greatly increased for any progress to be made? In the field of the world is Satan to reap a large harvest, and the Redeemer to gather in only a few sheaves?

We pause for a reply. Let it be well and solemnly pondered by every one who reads this paper, and by all within his range accustomed to act with him in the cause of " pure and undefiled religion." "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved," but that of the Eternal Son of God. The press is an important adjunct to the pulpit in diffusing the truth, without receiving which men must perish. The seal of heaven has been placed on its publications in unnumbered instances. Multitudes stand before the throne of God and the Lamb, and multitudes more are preparing to join them, through its honoured instrumentality. And yet the press is pouring forth a deluge of evil, and only a rivulet of good. What a contrast would there be were the children of light as wise in their generation as the children of this world! Reader, what will you do that it may be seen? How much is in your power as a man of God, no human mind can calculate! Allow, then, no talent to be unemployed. Devote yourself afresh to the cause of truth, of righteousness, of happiness. Live and act, henceforward, so that in infinite condescension and mercy the Judge of all may say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

THE MOTIVES ARE

1. "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

2. It is against one's temporal interests not to give-"There is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty."

3. What is given by believers shall be paid back-"That which he hath given will He pay him again."

4. It shall be paid with interest"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth."

5. The example is good to others "Your zeal hath provoked very many."

6. By it the Gospel is preached to the others; for-"How shall they preach, except they be sent?"

7. It glorifies God-"The administration of this service. . . . is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God."

8. It is to the Lord-" He that

hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto

the Lord."

9. It is pleasing to God-" God loveth a cheerful giver."

10. It is like Christ-" He gave himself for us."

11. Time presses-"The Lord is at hand."

AND THE RULES AS TO THE MANNER OF GIVING ARE THESE

1. Always give something where you can. Do not let pride keep you from giving a small sum, if you have not a larger to bestow-" Give to him that asketh thee."

2. Give freely-" Freely ye have received, freely give.”

3. Cheerfully "The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand."

4. With simplicity-" Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth."

5. Bountifully-"All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king."

6. Yet more and more-" Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor."

7. Give with self-denial-"She of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had."

8. As to Christ-" Ye have done it unto me."

Abound, then, beloved, more and more in this grace. Follow the Macedonian Churches, whose deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

But what was the spring of this? They first gave their ownselves unto the Lord. Here, my friends, is the secret. If we give ourselves to Christ, then all we have will follow.