them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

God, therefore, ordained that there should be only one true church, and that his Holy Spirit should always direct that church and keep it from teaching false doctrines. In accordance with this merciful design, the Apostles always declared all teachings, in any degree different from those of the one faith which was preached to all men ("beginning at Jerusalem," Luke xxiv. 47), to be displeasing to God. Eph. iv 11, 14-" And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors, and teachers. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." Heb. xiii. 9, 17→ "Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you." 1 John iv. 6-"We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."

You may be answered that these passages do not convey the same meaning to the mind of the person who questions you. What then? Do

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we admit his right to interpret scripture according to his own private judgment? No: for St. Peter complains (in 2 Peter iii, 15, 16, 17) that even in his time the "unlearned and unstable" wrest some things in the epistles of St. Paul, as they do also the other scriptures to their own destruction. You, therefore, brethren," he continues, "knowing these things beforehand, take heed, lest, being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own stedfastness."

No. Let all read scripture, an they will; and we wish them to do so: but the church alone has a right to interpret scripture authoritatively. The commission given to the apostles and their silccessors was to "TEACH all nations," (Matt. xxviii. 19) not to write certain books only, for the nations to understand or to misunderstand as they best might. Why the art of printing has not been invented 400 years before that time, the scriptures were written out by hand; and were, necessarily, so expensive that not one private person in a parish could afford to purchase them. And even if they had been more plentiful, not one private person in a parish knew how to read. Could not any of these people be saved during the 1400 years that intervened between the preaching of Christ and the discovery of the art of printing? Even now, can one person in fifty of the christian world read? and are the forty-nine others, who cannot read,

debarred from salvation? No. As our blessed Lord said of the brethren of the rich man," they have Moses and the prophets," so he now says they have the church to teach them their faith: "He that heareth you, heareth me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me;" Luke x. 16. Finally, St. Matthew declares (xviii. 17.) "if he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican."

Should the person who enquires of you be really and seriously anxious to discover the truth, you will, of course, follow the precept of the 1st of St. Peter iii. 15, and "be ready always to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you:" and we would recommend you moreover to introduce him forthwith to one of our exemplary pastors. But should the enquirer question you as is too often the case in this country-merely to satisfy his own idle curiosity and the doubts and fears which necessarily accompany the self-conceit of upstart private judgment, we would conclude the argument with the following startling suggestion, taken from that excellent sermon on "Faith, Hope, and Charity," preached by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Baines. "Were you, my protestant brethren," he says, "to behold upon a stormy sea a fleet of many sail, bound to some distant shore whither you were obliged to

go;

if

all these vessels, save one, were of small dimensions; if you beheld all, save that one, labouring with the winds and waves, and successively dashed upon some rock or shoal, and wrecked while others thronged to succeed them and to share by turns the same hapless fate; if the one vessel I have mentioned was of infinitely greater magnitude; if it pursued its steady course unaffected by the winds that blew, and the waves that broke against it; if it had been long known to convey to the wished-for shore myriads of happy passengers; if a heaven-directed pilot was known to sail upon some one of these vessels,-on which of them would you hope to find him? and as you were obliged to embark on one or other of these vessels, which would you select? Oh! there would be no difference of choice amongst you. You would all embark on the same goodly ship; and, should you behold any passenger of that ship quitting it to risk his life on one of its frail attendants, you would all equally conclude that he had lost his senses."

THE MANNER IN WHICH ANY PERSON MAY BAPTISE AN INFANT IN DANGER OF Death.

Take common water, pour it on the head or face of the child, and, while you are pouring it, say the following words:

"I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

I. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no strange Gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth: Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them.

II. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

III. Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

IV. Honour thy father and thy mother.

V. Thou shalt not kill.

VI. Thou shalt not commit adultery.