as the Bible. God forbid that its dusty boards, or clean leaves, or unperused pages should ever rise up against you. .That person is happy indeed whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates in it day and night. I should like that all the members of this church here were, by way of emphasis, "Bible Christians." It is sure proof that you have "tasted that the Lord is gracious,' if you drink in the truths of the word like unmixed, pure, milk.

"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet." Read the encouragements and motives to prayer which are to be found in the CHRISTIAN WITNESS for the present month. May each of you be a prince with God in this respect. Think of a blood-sealed and an infallible promisethink of the solemn oath of the living God-think of the helping Spirit-and think of the interceding Saviour. Your heart will be cold, your countenance will be lean, and your walk will be cramped and unsteady, if you have little intercourse with Jesus. Soul prosperity consists in soul communion : Ask, and ye shall receive."

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Do not you say as the world does, "What shall we eat? what shall we drink? wherewithal shall we be clothed?" Let your table, and your furniture, and your dress, and your body be all regufated by the mind and will of God. You are not your own, but God's. All you have belongs to God. To him you must render an account of your stewardship: "Be temperate in all things." "In all things adorn the gospel of Christ."

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Take care of the devil's company: "A companion of fools shall be destroyed." And "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Where you cannot conscientiously pray, that is not the place for you. There are some professing Christians, by their unhallowed intercourse with the ungodly, impairing the usefulness of the servants of Christ, dishonouring the church of the living God, perilling the interests of immortal souls, and filling the ungodly with scorning "Be ye builders, not destroyers."

:

"And let him that heareth say come." I would like to see this church a working church. For obtaining this end, every one of you will receive a tract on this subject at the end of the service. You three do not think it is enough that you

III. The position you occupy as members of the church. This may be viewed in a vast variety of lights; but let the following receive your prayerful consideration. Paul said, "And we beseech you, brethren, to know them who labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their works' sake." This was addressed to the church of the Thessalonians, in behalf of her pastors. It applies to you in reference to your pastor. Pray for him, for he needs your prayers. Receive him into your homes, and further the object of his visits. Attend his ministrations, and prove all things by the standard of truth. Do not grieve his soul by absenting yourselves from the week-day or sabbath services. You will heap upon him the greatest contempt, and inflict upon yourselves the greatest injury, if you do not admire above everything else the exalted Master whom he serves. Christ said, "Love one another as I have loved you.”—“ If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." Inspired men have said, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."-" But whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" These declarations apply to you in reference to your brethren. See that ye faithfully fulfil them, In keeping God's commandments there is great reward. "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye."-" Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness."-"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my Spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be

saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." "Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many, so that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him." These injunctions are addressed to the churches. Feel, then, that there is a necessity laid upon you, when God does not interfere, to be present at all the church-meetings. Were all to absent themselves from churchmeetings, the most of these injunctions now enumerated could not be attended to. No one has a liberty to be absent unless there be an excuse offered which will stand the test of the judgment-seat. Remember that in this matter you are under law to Christ. This is the inspired injunction: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee." Let the prosperity of the church be the aim of all your actions. In no other way will you prosper. Consider,

IV. Your relative duties. Let me address you individually.-Brother E. As husband, love your wife, dwell with her according to knowledge, giving honour unto her as unto the weaker vessel. As a father, bring up your children in the fear of the Lord. As the head of a family, maintain the worship of God in it. As a servant, do the will of Christ from the heart. Sister T. As a wife, be in subjection. As a mother, travail as in birth until Christ be formed in the hearts of your children the hope of glory. As the wife of a mariner, confide in God, and maintain in his absence the holiness of

God in your family. As a female, be

adorned with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.-Sister D. You have been fourteen years connected with another church. You have come to us with a good report. Bring not any reproach, by inconsistency, on those with whom you so lately stood associated. May our union and communion be blessed!

I would say to you all, individually, as expressive of the desires of my breast, "The Lord bless and keep thee: the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." D.

February, 1847.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE IN THE
EAST INDIES.

To the Editor of the Christian Witness. MY DEAR SIR,—Though unknown to you, I must write to thank you, which I do most heartily, for your most valued exertions through the medium of the Press. The streams of your influence have reached even to India. You are refreshing and blessing us at the distance of 16,000 miles; it is but right that we should acknowledge our obligations.

Until you entered on your noble career, we scarcely ever thought of having monthly religious periodicals from England. Sometimes a stray Evangelical found its way even to us, but scarcely anything beyond this. Last year you tempted us to begin with a monthly parcel from England. We ordered for 1846 12 copies of the WITNESS, 4 Evangelical, 1 Biblical Review, and 1 British Quarterly. This next year (1847) we are to have 70 or 80 Juvenile Missionary Magazines, 46 PENNY MAGAZINES, 20 WITNESSES, 3 Evangelicals, 5 Biblical Reviews, 2 British Quarterly, 2 North British, 1 Quarterly, and 1 Edinburgh Review. The number may seem small; but the steam carriage just doubles the expense, and this compels us to be less liberal in our orders. We hope to increase year by year.

We have taken the liberty to reprint some of your articles in our periodicals here; this again multiplies your influence, and opens fresh ports for your intellectual merchandize. Your commerce is great; may your reward be great also! May you be long permitted and enabled to fill your enormous sphere with the light of Christian truth, and the warmth of Christian love, is the sincere wish of My dear Sir, Yours sincerely, W. PORTER, Missionary, L. M. S.

Madras, Nov. 12, 1846.

P.S. I find, in reading my hasty scrawl, some errors; pray excuse them, as the steamer waits, and my letter must close. W. PORTER.

*** We tender cordial thanks to Mr. Porter for the above communication, which has yielded us no ordinary gratification. To be permitted, even in the smallest degree, o strengthen the hands of Missionaries,-men engaged in the allimportant enterprise of setting up the kingdom of God amid heathen darkness, and filling the earth with the blessings of intelligence, liberty,

peace, and love,-is indeed a privilege, an honour, a felicity! We have now received similar communications from all the Colonies, which, while they sweeten our toil, greatly contribute to prompt our efforts.-EDITOR.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE IN CANADA.

To the Editor of the Christian Witness. DEAR SIR,-It is exceedingly important that the CHRISTIAN WITNESS be got into extensive circulation in this country; and I think I can point out a method by which this may be brought about. We have hitherto received it in parcels; but the closing of our navigation for six or seven months every year renders that course a means of alternate starvation and glut, and thus, besides generally preventing an interest in the work, renders it comparatively useless to those who receive it. The method which I would recommend is, the stamping a Colonial Edition, and then the forwarding it monthly by the Mail. The Post-office charge here would be merely a halfpenny per Number; and booksellers' profits, freightage, customs' duties, inland carriage, as well as delays and uncertainties, would be avoided. On a cheaper publication, such as your PENNY MAGAZINE, the advanced cost on account of the stamp and postage would be too large in proportion to the first price; a dearer one, such as a sixpenny or shilling Magazine, would become too dear by the addition. But the WITNESS could be, I suppose, mailed with a stamp for fourpence sterling, or fivepence currency; and the halfpenny being paid separately with every Number would hardly be noticed.

It seems to me probable, that as no other periodical has thus been introduced here, you might get a very general circulation, and most important results be promoted. If this were arranged at an early date, and well announced throughout the colony, it could go into operation next January. You might send a specimen copy to every minister in the colony (we could furnish you with names and addresses), and at a moderate expense we could, if authorized, put out simultaneously bills and advertisements throughout the country.

With much admiration for your noble exertions in the cause that is best, I remain, Dear Sir, Yours very cordially,

Toronto, July 14, 1846.

J. ROAP.

The date reminds us that twelve months have passed since we received the foregoing from our excellent friend, Mr. Roaf. During that space we have frequently revolved the matter, and also made the necessary inquiries in the proper quarter, and regret to find that from the WITNESS Containing three sheets,-not to mention the Wrapper,-the arrangements of the Post-office form an insuperable barrier. The remedy, it seems to us, is the following:-The case of Canada, from its peculiar navigation, ought to be made special in the arrangements of the Post-office. The Canadians should call upon their Local Government to deal with the subject. It is hard indeed that a community of such importance should be, to all intents, shut out from the entire Periodical Literature of England. Let them then demand from the Postmaster-General an order, on terms just and practical, for the monthly transmission of all sorts of British Periodicals.-EDITOR.

DR. ALEXANDER VINET, LAUSANNE. As the scenes of ecclesiastical reform and revolution, the two most remarkable spots on our globe, for several years, have been Scotland and Switzerland; and by far the most distinguished men in those spheres, respectively, have been Drs. Chalmers and Vinet-great lights which have both been extinguished within a brief space of each other. Vinet died on the 4th of May.

Alexander Vinet was born 17th June, 1797, in Lausanne, capital of the Canton

Vaud, Switzerland, certainly one of the most beautiful cities in the world, lying as it does upon the high and sloping bank of lake Leman, or the lake of Geneva; adorned with squares and gardens, fine edifices, and delightful promenades; in sight also of the high Alps, with their snow-clad peaks, and in the neighbourhood of Vevay, Chillon, Villeneuve, and other places of classic and romantic interest; at one time the residence of Beza, and the chosen dwelling-place of Gibbon, the historian of Rome. An Academy of

considerable celebrity has existed here since 1536, which in 1806 was elevated into an Academic Institute, with fourteen professors and a rector. It was also reorganized in 1838, and separated, we believe, from all immediate connection with the national church. From its origin Lausanne has been distinguished for its high literary culture, its refined and agreeable society. It is the residence of many foreigners.

Destined to the ministry by his father, who regarded the clerical profession as the most desirable and honourable of all, Vinet was placed at the Academy of his native city, and pursued the ordinary course of studies, occupied, however, more with literature than theology. Fortunately his mind was attracted, at an early period, to the study of moral science, for which he possessed a decided genius, and which exerted a very favourable influence, not only upon his theological inquiries, but upon his religious character.

At the age of twenty, two years before the legal termination of his studies, he accepted a place as professor of the French language and literature in the Establishment of Public Instruction, or University, at Bâle (German, Bâsle), capital of the Canton of that name, a fine old city on the banks of the Rhine, distinguished for its Cathedral and University, once the residence of colampadius, the friend of Zuinglius, and one of the most eloquent preachers of the Reformation, and also the burial-place of the celebrated Erasmus. Such an appointment is an incontestible evidence of the superiority of Vinet's talents, and the high reputation for scholarship he had acquired even at that early period of his life. He made a sojourn in Lausanne, in 1819, in order to submit to the requisite examinations, and receive ordination as a minister of the gospel. He returned to Bâle, and continued there till 1837, as professor of the French language and literature. It was during his residence in this place that he published the most of his earlier writings, and established his reputation as a preacher. In 1830 he published two discourses, the one on the "Intolerance of the Gospel," the other on the "Tolerance of the Gospel," which attracted great attention. They were prefaced in the following style, furnishing a beautiful specimen of the simplicity and modesty of his character:-" "Persons advanced in Christian knowledge will find, we fear, little nutriment in these discourses. Nor is it to them we have felt ourselves called

to speak; it would better become us to hear them. We have forbidden our words to transcend the limits of our personal emotions; an artificial heat would not be salutary. Nevertheless we hope that to many persons we have spoken a word in season; and we cast it into the world, commending it to the Divine blessing, which can make some fruits of holiness and peace to spring from it, for the edification of the Christian church."

In this brief preface a pcculiarity of all Vinet's productions, and especially of his discourses, reveals itself. They are "born, not made," originated, not manufactured. His soul has never been cast into any artificial mould. It has great clearness, elasticity, and strength. He is therefore entirely free from hackneyed phrases and stereotyped modes of thought. His discourses are drawn fresh from his own profound spirit. While perusing them, you feel as if you were listening, not to the mere preacher, but to the deep thinker and the man of God. He never transcends the limits of his own personal experience; but that being the experience at once of a great and a good man, it possesses a peculiar warmth and beauty. "One must breathe the spirit," says Pindar, "before he can speak." "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," is the testimony of Jesus Christ. Vinet, we think, understands this, and hence approaches as near as possible to the model which John Foster has in his mind, when he insists so strongly on the necessity, in evangelical writings, of naturalness and entire freedom from cant. Indeed Vinet distinctly acknowledges the great importance of this quality, and urges the same views as those of Foster's Essay "On the Aversion of Men of Taste to Evangelical Religion."

It was probably in Bâle that Vinet formed those decidedly spiritual views of religion so clearly developed in all his discourses and other writings. In this place an evangelical influence, in greater or less degree, has existed ever since the time of the Reformation. The labours of Ecolampadius, whom the good people of the city were accustomed to call their bishop, the occasional presence and preaching of the great Swiss reformer, Zuinglius, the decided piety and activity of several of their most distinguished pastors and preachers in subsequent times, and more recently the prevalence of a noble missionary spirit, have conspired to impress an evangelical charac

ter upon the place. It has of course suffered, like all other cities in Switzerland and Germany, from the prevalence of rationalism, formalism, and infidelity; still the fire of Divine love has continued to burn upon its altars, with a pure, and, we hope, brightening flame. The following extract from a historical sketch of the Bâle Missionary Society, written by one of its members, will give some idea of the kind of influence prevalent there : "Scarcely has a missionary or other religious German society been favoured with a body of directors, richer in Christian graces and spiritual gifts than those men who gave one another the righthand of fellowship for the establishment of a missionary institution at Bâsle in

1816.

"The twelve members of the committee residing at Bâsle were clergymen and laymen belonging to different German and Swiss churches; namely, to the Reformed Church of Bâsle, the Lutheran Church of Wurtemburg, and the Union of the Moravian brethren. Yet never in these twenty-four years has the bond of peace been broken on account of dogmatical differences. Loving and serving one Lord, they have been one in his Spirit. The President of the Committee for twenty-two years was one of the fathers of the Bâsle Reformed Church, the Secretary one of the most enterprising Christians of the south of Germany, the originator, or co-originator of many of the Christian institutions which have sprung up in the neighbourhood of Bâsle since the beginning of this century; the Treasurer, one of the members of the Senate of Bâsle, and head of one of the greatest mercantile houses of the city; the Principal of the college, down to the end of the year 1838, the Rev. C. G. Blumhardt. The memory of these chief men among the Lord's people in our country, and their worthy associates, will ever be dear to the hearts of all the brethren of our mission. Dear father Von Brunn, the senior of the Bâsle clergy, retired in 1838 from the chair of the president. He is still alive, a venerable octogenarian, waiting in a childlike spirit for his entrance into his eternal home. He was a man mighty in the Scriptures, and mighty in prayer, powerful in love, and skilful in comforting the troubled and heavy-laden. He was, as the head of another Swiss church called him, the high-priest of the mission. May his end be peace and his reward glory! The Rev. C. Blumhardt, who departed in

December, 1838, was a man especially prepared, as it would seem, by the Lord, for the difficult task of conducting the first German missionary institution of this century, through a generation careless of religion, opposed to vital godliness in every form, and scornful of every undertaking originating with the superstitious, bigoted, and narrow-minded pietists. When he died he left the mission and the college flourishing, gaining ground in public esteem and confidence, and prepared for more extended action, and for the contemplation of enterprises of which it would have appeared adventurous so much as to dream during an earlier period of the mission."

In 1837 his native Canton tendered Vinet an invitation to succeed the Professor of Theology in the Academy or College of Lausanne, who, in consequence of age, had resigned his place. This appointment was confirmed at the re-organization of the Academy in 1838. Two years after he resigned his title as one of the national clergy, being unwilling to adhere, even by implication, to the principles of the new ecclesiastical law, which, as Vinet himself says, places the church in the hands of the State, and makes the ministers judges of each other's doctrines, after having abolished all rule or system of theological instruction. But the people, with whom Vinet was highly popular, insisted on his retaining his professorship; and thus having, in 1838, ceased to be connected with the ecclesiastical establishment, he felt that he could conscientiously discharge its duties. He occupied this station till his death, revered and loved by all who could appreciate talent united with moral excellence.

Vinet suffered some persecution for his enthusiastic adherence to the cause of religious liberty. He was the subject, at one time, of a civil prosecution, on account of certain expressions in one of his writings, supposed, by the authorities of the Vaudois government, to be seditious, or at least dangerous in their tendency. No judgment, however, was rendered against him. It was the occasion of his publishing an Essay on "Conscience and Religious Liberty," the most of which is occupied with a personal defence. A decided movement has been made in the Cantons of Vaud and Geneva in favour of the voluntary support of religious institutions, a result to which the writings of Vinet have greatly contributed. French Switzerland has been occupied for some