lament that the teaching about this question was not more direct, more decisive, more home-thrusting than ever it has been. Though I do not want to appeal to your emotions, or to make a fine speech with fine phrases to catch you through your feelings, I want to catch you if I can by your plain reason or common understanding. I must ask you in passing what do these seven men in ten, stricken down by alcohol, represent in social life? Each one of these men was perhaps a husband and a father, with a wife and family depending upon him for their daily bread. Any man of but a small experience who knows what it is to have the head of the house cast down at an early age by early disease (as almost all the diseases produced by alcohol are), any such man must know what a terrible history is the history of the family which depends upon the head, when that head is stricken down by the diseases produced by alcohol, and it is too terrible for me to enter into upon such an occasion as the present. I am not saying-because I have no means of saying-in human life, in society at large, what is the percentage of victims which alcohol seizes upon as its rightful prey. I do not know; I have no method of coming accurately to the conclusion; but I know this, that not only was a large percentage of such diseases as I have mentioned, but a great mass-certainly more than three-fourths of the disorders in which we call "fashionable life arise from the use of this very drug of which I am now speaking. Now, if you think of that, and think for one moment of the fact I have told you, that in this London Hospital seven out of ten of those whom I have seen to-day-and seen, for one reason, to present the statement to you to-night -lie there maimed for life by this agent that a great mass, perhaps the greater mass, of the disorders, as distinct from the diseases with which mankind is afflicted, arise from the abuse of this drug-surely you will agree with me, that a terrible responsibility lies upon those who, forgetful of these plain and certain teachings which the commonest experience can

yield, will stimulate people to keep themselves up with glasses of wine and glasses of beer.

There is another side as well of this question, and it is no abuse of language to say it is an awful side. It would be bad if we men who abuse alcohol were to suffer in ourselves, and to suffer in those around us, whom we love or ought to love; surely that is terrible enough to prevent men from using alcohol freely. But there is even a more terrible statement than that behind. It is not they alone who suffer; but so soon as a man begins to take one drop more than what I have called the physiological quantity, the desire of it is not only begotten in him, but the desire of it becomes a part of his very nature, and that nature, so formed by his acts, is calculated to inflict curses inexpressible upon the earth when handed down to the generations that are to follow after him, as part and parcel of their being. And I ask: What are you to think of those who are born of drunkards, who come into this world, so to speak, with a curse not only upon them but in them-the terrible desire for that which is to blast them, and to blast them speedily -a desire which no human power can save them from, and which God alone in His wisdom and mercy can protect them from. What an awful thought is this! Can there be any man here present who, if he is taking more than he ought to take, is indifferent to all this? How can he think without dread of this terrible fact for fact it is as surely as that two and two make four-that this desire is becoming part of his nature, and that he is handing it down, not for the good but for the most terrible evil that man can suffer unto generations unborn? Can I say to you any words stronger than these of the terrible effects of the abuse of alcohol? It is when I myself think of all this that I am disposed, as I have said elsewhere, to rush to the opposite extreme, to give up my profession, to give up everything, and to go forth upon a holy crusade, preaching to all men-beware of this enemy of the

race.

Literary Notices.

The World Redeemed: a Poem in Six Books. By WILLIAM TID WATSON. London Elliot Stock. Royal 8vo; stitched cover. Price 1s. 6d.

MR. WATSON has been a writer of poems for many years, for on the back of the cover we have reviews of six different works, and the reviews date back to 1858. All of these literary notices are very flattering. The Standard of Nov. 12th, 1858, says: His command over words as the medium of thought is absolute and without limit."

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What can we say after this? Most persons, if they issue a book of poems, bring it out in large type, and set it off by elegant binding. Not so Mr. Watson. He has his poems set up in small type, and arranged in the repulsive form of double column royal 8vo; plain paper cover.

The production before us contains 28 pages; each page contains 130 lines, of eleven syllables each. We will give the first paragraph of Book VI., entitled, "Redemption Achieved."

"O grave! where is thy victory?' so flung

The Christian sage his challenge forth to

but saving souls is better." We do not mean by these quotations to array the heart and the head, knowledge and goodness, against each other. But we do mean that knowledge by itself can never with power impart instruction in goodness. It is only the force of feeling that can heat the light of knowledge and make it burn into the soul.

By the heart as a power in teaching, we mean that the truth from being an abstraction shall become a conviction. The teacher must feel it in him, the greatest of all realities. Nay, beside its reality and impor tance, he must burn with the love of it; that love must be his highest and strongest passion. Along with this passionate love of truth, of divine truth, there may be of knowledge more or less, and the knowledge will furnish a place for planting the fulcrum and give skill in the work of lifting, but the passion is the lifting power.

This heart element in teaching the truth will explain many of the anomalies of success among ministers of the Gospel. Here, for example, is a fine scholar, fragrant with the bloom of the richest culture, and admirable in person and voice. The cultivated are pleased, and perhaps nothing more. But this man of mere culture has a neighbour, whose mind is of the plainest type, to whose services crowds are attracted, and at the altars of whose church multitudes bow as penitents. Culture has scarce any share in producing the awakenings; it is the heart that has done it. The plain, and, perhaps, ignorant preacher, has a firm hold on a few fundamental truths of Christianity; even these he has not mastered; they have rather mastered him; he obeys their divine touch, burns at their kindling, works at their order; and as face answers to face in water, so the hearts of those respond to the passionate pulsation of his.

We are not glorifying ignorance, but the heart; we are not underrating culture, but showing that it must work by means of the heart. Indeed, much of the work of the ignorant evangelist may go no deeper than a sensation, because he has not

based it on sufficient knowledge; it may be only the tears and sighs of sympathy; a mere inflection of weeping and shouting, which perishes as soon as it gets out of the crowd and gaslight of the meeting. But what then? Is there aught wrong in the passion? By no means, but only in the knowledge. Let not the uncultured evangelist restrain his heart, but rather harness it with culture. Let not the cultured pastor despise his learning. or set slight store by its classifying and adorning power, but let him find and interest his heart. In a word, let the evangelist who is almost all heart, and the cultured pastor who is nearly all mind, unite in one man, and passion shall give wing and edge to cultured reason. The intellect shall then move in lightning glances, and be none the less intellect, but all the clearer for the blaze and heat of its movement.

A "STRANGE" PREACHER. His name was Strange. Many will think his conduct was strange also. He was a zealous preacher, and a sweet singer. Nothing gave him so much pleasure as to go about the country preaching and singing. A gentleman well off in worldly goods, desiring to make him and his family comfortable in their declining years, generously presented him with a titledeed for three hundred and twenty acres of land. Strange accepted the donation with thankfulness, and went on his way, preaching and singing as he went. But after a few months he returned, and requested his generous friend to take the title-deed. Surprised at the request, the gentleman inquired:

"Is there any flaw in it?"
"Not the slightest."
"Is not the land good?"
"First-rate."

“Isn't it healthy ? "
"Yes."

"Why, then, do you wish me to take it back? It will be a comfortable home for you when you grow old, and something for your wife and children if you should be taken away."

'No foot of land do I possess,
No cottage in the wilderness,
A poor wayfaring man.

'I dwell awhile in tents below,
Or gladly wander to and fro,
Till I my Canaan gain.

'Yonder's my house and portion fair,
My treasure and my heart are there,
And my abiding home.'

"There!" said Strange, "I'd rather sing that hymn than own America. I'll trust the Lord to take care of my wife and children."

He continued singing and preaching, and the Lord, said the preacher, did take care of him and his children after him.-Merry's Magazine.

A PARABLE.

A CERTAIN tyrant sent for one of his subjects and said to him: "What is your employment?" He said, “I am a blacksmith." " Go home and make me a chain of such a length." He went home; it occupied him several months, and he had no wages all the time he was making it. Then he brought it to the monarch, and he said, "Go and make it twice as long." He brought it up again, and the monarch said, "Go and make it longer still." Each time he brought it, there was nothing but the command to make it longer still. And when he brought it up at last, the monarch said, "Take it, and bind him hand and foot with it, and cast him into a furnace of fire." These were the wages for making the chain. Here is a meditation for you to-night, ye servants of the devil. Your master, the devil, is telling you to make a chain. Some have been fifty years welding the links of the chain; and he says, "Go and make it still longer." Next Sabbath morn you will open that shop of yours, and put another link on; next Sabbath you will be drunk, and put on another link; next Monday you will do a dishonest action; and so you will keep

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on making fresh links to this chain; and when you have lived twenty years more the devil will say, More links on still!" And then, at last, it will be "Take him, and bind him hand and foot, and cast him into a furnace of fire." "For the wages of sin is death." There is a subject for your meditation. I do not think it will be sweet; but if God makes it profitable, it will do you good. You must have strong medicine times, when the disease is bad. God apply it to your hearts.-Spurgeon.

JOSEPH BRADFORD,

some

SOME years the travelling companion of Mr. Wesley, for whom he would have sacrificed health, and even life; but to whom his will would never bend, except in meekness.

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Joseph," said Mr. Wesley, one day, "take these letters to the post."

B. "I will take them after preaching, sir."

W.: "Take them now, Joseph." B.: "I wish to hear you preach, sir, and there will be sufficient time for the post after service."

W.: I insist upon you going now, Joseph."

B.: "I will not go at present."
W.: "You won't?"
B.: "No, sir."

W.: "Then you and I must part."
B.: "Very good, sir."

The good men slept over it. Both were early risers. At four o'clock the next morning the refractory helper was accosted with

"Joseph, have you considered what I said; that we must part?" B.: "Yes, sir."

W.: "And must we part?"
B.:"Please yourself, sir."
W.: "Will you ask my pardon,
Joseph ?"

B.: "No, sir."
W.: " You won't?"

B.: "No, sir."

W.; "Then I will ask yours, Joseph."

Poor Joseph was instantly melted, smitten as by the wand of Moses, when forth gushed the tears, like the water from the rock. He had a ten

der soul; and it was soon observed when the appeal was made to the heart instead of the head.-Wesleyan Takings, vol. 1, page 317.

BRITISH JUSTICE.

THAT is indeed a noble anecdote of British jurisprudence in the preface to De Lolme's "Essay on the British Constitution." On his first arrival in London, he attended a court of law, when the cause happened to be a question between a subject and a prince of the blood. It was decided for the subject and against the prince -a circumstance which in itself was quite enough to surprise the foreigner. But there was an accompaniment to the thing which surprised him infinitely more than the thing itself; and that is, that no surprise whatever was either felt or expressed by the spectators-not even one movement of popular satisfaction, and no mobbish or tumultuary delight because of the poor man's triumph and the rich man's overthrow. And why? because the thing just happened in the even and ordinary course of English justice; it was but an every-day incident in the administration of law; and of the whole assembled public who were present, and had looked calmly and intelligently on throughout the whole process, not one discovered the slightest astonishment, not one betrayed any indecent exultation at the verdict, because it was precisely the verdict which, from the distinct merits of the case, they had been led to anticipate. It was this which gave to this enlightened stranger his profoundest sense of the excellence of our constitution; and this is the origin of by far the soundest treatise which has appeared on the government and constitution of our highly privileged land. Now, this is a noble anecdote. It has the moral sublime in it.-Dr. Chalmers.

APPARENT MISFORTUNES. AFTER a most dangerous illness in his Majesty's service, I was invalided at Madras, and procured a passage in a line-of-battle-ship for England.

After my goods and chattels were on board, the ship was suddenly ordered to sea, while I was making a little excursion from the presidency. I got back to Madras just in time to see the vessel sail from the roads, while two of my brother officers, more prudent than myself, had wisely in all human prudence, taken up their berths on board, and were now on their voyage to Europe; while I was left destitute on a foreign shore, in sickness and in poverty! After surmounting various difficulties and repining for months on account of my misfortunes, I at length reached my native soil. The line-of-battle-ship had foundered at sea, and not a human being of the crew or passengers survived to tell the tale. From that day to this (now nearly thirty years ago), I have always hailed an apparent misfortune as the harbinger if not the actual agent of some providential benefit or escape.-Dr. James Johnson.

""Tis plain this world is not a scope for bliss,

But duty."-E. W. Ellsworth.

Life has a joy; a joy for all the good; yet these find in their cup, more than this. Change comes, and each one finds some hour of grief and pain. Yet change is good, and we are to gain at each turn in life, for naught is meant for ill. But few view life in the light they ought; most see and use it as if God gave it but to please. Such are apt to find no good or joy in it. We should not live for self. It is ours to set the end of life on high, and make it tell for good, each day and hour of it. 'Tis ours to do! To do for those who need. To go, to find and bless, and in some sort lose sight of self, in work for the poor and such as need our aid, is the wise, true way. The life that does no good, knows no bliss. They who learn the wants of men, and turn their hand to meet them, are such as find the real joy. Such God will bless,

such will He own, and to such at length will give the crown.

"True happiness (if understood),
Consists alone in doing good."

LUTHER'S FIRMNESS.

ABOUT the time the plague broke out in Wittemberg, a great part of the students and teachers left the town: Luther remained. "I don't well know," wrote he to his friend at Erfurt, "if the plague will allow me to finish the Epistle to the Galatians. Prompt and brisk, it makes great ravages, especially among the young. You advise me to flee. Whither shall I flee? I hope the world will not go to wreck though Friar Martin fall. If the plague makes progress, I will disperse the friars in all directions; but, for myself, I am stationed here, and obedience permits me not to flee till He who has called me recall me. Not that I do not fear death (for I am not the Apostle Paul-I am only his commentator), but I hope the Lord will deliver me from fear." D'Aubigné, vol. i. p. 167.

TEARS.

To human nature God has given the privilege to weep in times of affliction and distress. In His infinite kindness he has ordained that tears, which are only external evidences of our grief, shall be the outlets to our sorrows, and tend to exhaust the cause from which they flow.-Ib.

Phenomena of the Months.

OCTOBER.

THE sun rises one minute after six on the 1st, and sets at forty minutes after five. On the 31st she rises at fifty-three minutes after six, and sets at thirty-four minutes after four. The day shortens fifty-two minutes in the morning, and fifty-four minutes in the evening, or one hour and forty-six minutes during the month.

The moon is full on the 7th at fifty-nine minutes after one in the afternoon. New on the 23rd, thirty