not so far amiss." Said the father: "if they were washed ever seu how long wad they be clean? there's nea keeping sick dogs as them out o' mischief." 66 S. Called to see J. H. a week ago, I found his friends unwilling to admit me, saying, “You know the clergyman has been to see him." The man's son, however, soon settled the matter, by saying that his father wished to see me. On reaching the sick man's room I found him in a very anxious state about his soul, and quite conscious of his lost condition. I told him how Christ died for sinners. "Yes," he replied, "I know that, but it gives God me no peace." I continued: accepts the sufferings and merits of His Son as sufficient atonement for your soul." "Ah! that's just what I don't know," he said; "I cannot see that God is so well pleased with the death of Christ as to save me for His sake." I answered him by reading, "He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification." Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." After I had prayed with him, he said, “I have been thinking about what you said about God raising Him up for our justification." I resumed the subject, enlarging upon and illustrating it, and left him in a very hopeful state of mind. When I visited him to-day, he told me, in joyful tones, that since our last meeting he had experienced a great soul change; he had been 66 thinking about what I had said to him, and while he was thinking about Jesus having died for his sins, and that death being a sufficient satisfaction to Divine justice for his sins, he saw the meaning of "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," as he had never done before; he believed not only in the fact of Christ's death, but in its sufficiency also, and he added, "I know now that my sins are forgiven." While visiting at P, I met with a young man, James D-, who was suffering from the "painter's cholic." As I entered his room I could see that the hand of death was upon him. 'Do you know what I have come for?" I enquired of him. "No, sir," was his reply. I said, "The hand of death is upon you, and I am come to show you how the poor sinner can get to heaven.” "How? how?" he gasped out, oh! so earnestly. I told him of the great scheme of man's redemption, and pointed him to the Saviour. He listened very attentively while I read to him the parable of the Prodigal Son, and responded to my prayers most heartily. I saw him every day till his death, but he was too far gone to talk. His sister told me he could speak sometimes, and then he always enquired for me. I hope his soul is saved, because he appeared to be praying continually; and we have the promise on which to rely: "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." ON THE TERMS MY DEAR SIR, CONGREGATIONAL" AND FREE CHURCH.' To the Editor of the “Christian Witness." · The letter in your last from the Rev. Dr. G. Smith on the use of the name "Free Church," alludes in to define what, he argues very forcibly, must be the right limits for such a name. Your readers may be best able to judge of the nature of the proposal, if you will lay before them this passage from my "History of the Free Churches at Chard," which Dr. Smith speaks of with commendation as unexpected as it is gratifying. It is part of an address at laying the foundationstone of a new chapel or church at Chard, and is as follows: "The motto of a great statesman in Italy is the watchword of the age, and the echo of his cry is heard throughout Europe-A Free Church in a Free Country!' How can we help on this great idea of our modern time? One way is calling ourselves by our right name. As we are Free, ought we not to call ourselves Free Churches? Why should we go on contentedly bearing the terms Nonconformists or Dissenters? Were these not applied by Acts of Parliament as convenient, though not complimentary, and accepted by us as useful, more than ornamental? If we do not conform to Established parish churches, neither do they conform to us; and though we dissent from them, do they not quite as much dissent from us? What is dissenting but differing; yet when two differ, why should one be stigmatised more than the other as the differer? Is there anything preferable in the politer epithet newly devised by the poet laureate 'pious variers from the Church,' when they do not vary from the Church more than the Church varies from them. When one-half of the population dissents from the other, why should only one of the two be named the Dissenter? What is the good of such a name? Is it of any utility, or of any credit to the persons or their principles ? Does it not hide and hinder the great Evangelical or Eccle siastical truths we believe? It is high time to disown these misleading bye-words of reproach that have stuck to us long enough, and drop them quietly into oblivion as nicknames of the past, to be cast aside and used no more, like old clothes worn out and done with. ourselves. Let us choose a name for Let us have one with a meaning both just and good. Let us adopt the name Free Churchmen. It is already used by some and is well understood. As Free Churchmen we bear an honourable title. It is also honest, for it teaches a great truth. It is wise, for every time it is uttered it proclaims a great principle. Repeated on all suitable and possible occasions by one-half of the Churches of England, it will help to stimulate the other half to attain the same great right." This passage will show, I hope, that Dr. Smith's views are shared in by me, in this suggestion of adopting the title Free Churchmen instead of Nonconformists or Dissenters. Retaining the denominational distinctions as Independents, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Wesleyans, all these are Free Churchmen. Should they not glory in it? Soon all Irishmen will be Free Churchmen, and not one Dissenter will be left in Ireland. The least free will be most free. Those who have long been in the rear are destined by a sudden evolution to go to the front rank and be the vanguard of Civil and Religious Liberty. When this is an accomplished fact in Ireland, who should despair of Scotland ?. Is the "good time coming" when England, as well as all her colonies, will rejoice in having all the Churches free throughout the British Empire? Yours very faithfully, H. M. GUNN. Pages for our Young Friends. ON FAULTS I HAVE SEEN, AND HOW TO CORRECT THEM. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,-I was staying on a visit this summer with some boys and girls, and their papa and mamma. They were, on the whole, good and pleasant children, loving to each other, and affectionate and obedient towards their parents, and specially kind and tender to poor and suffering people. They were daily taught to consider the will and teaching of Jesus Christ as the great law by which all we think and do should be regulated, and in the main I believe they wished and tried to do His will. But there was one fault I noticed in some of them, which used to pain me a good deal, and as I have noticed the same thing in other young people, especially girls, it came into my mind to write a letter about it for your own page in the Christian Witness, and then perhaps some who, unwittingly and thoughtlessly, are guilty of this fault, may begin to think about it, and try to cure themselves of it. The fault I noticed was this-They were very apt to make unkind, pert, and satirical remarks on chance visitors who came to call at the house, or on people they met with when they were out visiting. I don't think they at all meant to be unkind, but they were very quick and observant children, and they seemed to catch at once at anything that was ungainly or absurd, or unpleasant, in the appearance or manners of those they saw, and then they would make a great deal of fun out of this among themselves. Perhaps you will say, "Well, there was surely very little harm in this, if they did not mean to be ill-natured," but the real harm and danger is this, that such a habit, if not checked, gradually works into the character, and then the little girl who was at first only amusing, becomes unamiable and satirical, and loses that sweet and gentle sympathy and tender 3 ness for all God's creatures, which I think is the chief grace and charm of woman's nature. After I had said good-bye to these children, I happened to read the life of a lady, one of the most gifted and most loveable women of this country, who died a few years ago. Speaking of her childhood, she tells us how, when she was about ten years of age, she was in great danger of becoming a pert and satirical girl. She had got into this habit I have been speaking of, and was very fond of making remarks on all the visitors who came to her mamma's house, criticising their looks, dress, and manners, and mimicing their defects, and she did it so very cleverly that foolish friends, instead of checking, used to applaud and encourage her, till she began to grow vain of what she should have been ashamed of; and from being naturally a most kindly and loving little girl, she was gradually becoming, without knowing it, unkind and illnatured, always on the watch for people's weaknesses and absurdities, in order that she might make game of them behind their backs. The first thing that made this little girl feel how unlovely the habit she had got into is, was hearing read to her a story which I will tell you:-There was a very kind minister who lived near her mamma, and who was fond of the little girl, and used often to come and see her. He offered to teach her the Persian language, which he knew very well, and she having a most eager desire to learn everything, at once set e to a work with great earnestness and delight. It was from her Persian lesson book that the minister read her the story, and though she never met with it again, she says she remembered it all through her life. The story is one of those traditions regarding our blessed Lord which are preserved in the East, and many of which are to be met with in what are called the Apocryphal Gospels. Jesus (says the story) arrived one evening at the gates of a certain city, and He sent His disciples forward to prepare supper while He Himself, intent on doing good, walked through the streets into the market-place. And he saw at the corner of the market some people gathered together looking at an object on the ground, and he drew near to see what it might be. It was a dead dog with a halter round his neck, by which he appeared to have been dragged through the dirt; and a viler, a more abject, a more unclean thing, never met the eyes of 46 66 How long," said another, "shall this foul beast offend our sight ?" "Look at his torn hide," said a third, one could not cut even a shoe out of it." "And his ears," said a fourth, "all draggled and bleeding!" "No doubt," said a fifth," he hath been hanged for stealing." And Jesus heard them, and looking down compassionately on the dead creature, He said: "Pearls are not equal to the whiteness of his teeth." Then the people turned towards Him with amazement, and they said among themselves, "Who is this? This must be Jesus of Nazareth, for only He could find something to pity and to approve even in a dead dog;" and being ashamed, they bowed their heads and went each on his way. The lady tells how, when she read this story, it gave her a pain in her conscience, and made her feel so ashamed and humbled, remembering the many sharp, unkind things she had often said of people. She felt how easy and vulgar a thing it is to be quick at spying out faults and defects, and how much higher and nobler it is to be ever looking for something to approve, or at least to pity, in every one we meet with. She never forgot this lesson. She ceased to mimic or to ridicule any one, and gradually acquired the blessed habit of detecting the good and the beautiful everywhere, even where at first sight there was nothing to attract and everything to repel; and so through life, wherever she went, her sweet sympathy flowed like a stream of pure refreshing water. "Where she went the smiles came forth; Perhaps you think this was a very remarkable impression to be produced by a mere fable, and so I think, too; but, then, this was a little girl, of a highly imaginative and impressible temperament. I dare say many childdren might hear such a story and receive no impression from it at all. But, my dear children, laying the story aside, I want you to remember, that the real cure for this unlovely habit, as, indeed, for all the evil and unlovely habits of our fallen nature, is to think seriously within our hearts-"How in such a case would our blessed Saviour have felt, and spoken, and acted." It is His mind, His Spirit we are to seek after, which, as St. Paul says, we are to "put on " as a garment; for "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his." Can we for a moment, imagine Jesus taking pleasure in noting the defects or the awkwardness of anyone, or ridiculing or mimicing them? We feel at once that this could never have been, that there is something wrong in even thinking of it as possible. We know that the most despicable in the eyes of men are sure of help, and sympathy, and compassion from Him. Well then, dear children, if we feel this, shall we not all try to be like Him, and in little things as well as in great things, to clothe ourselves with His most beautiful and loving Spirit ? "O life of Jesus, the Unseen, Which found such glorious show, The Revelation of Law in Scripture: considered with respect both to its own nature, and to its relative place in successive dispensations. The third series of "The Canning Lectures." By PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. THIS is one of the most important Theological works which have appeared in recent times, and should find a place at once in all College libraries. We can scarcely imagine a greater blessing to our Theological students, than that they should be well drilled in the contents of these lectures. Dr. Fairbairn is no slavish follower of that which is old, but he is too strong a man to be taken captive by that which is new. If, for the most part, he prefers the old landmarks, he is prepared to give reasons which no doubter will find it easy to gainsay. We feel as we read his pages, how puny and feeble many writers of our day are, and never more so than when they superciliously curl the lip at those who cannot appreciate the beauties of an "advanced" Theology. Dr. Fairbairn's work consists of nine lectures. I. Introductory on prevailing views in respect to the Ascendency of Law. II. The Relation of Man at Creation to Moral Law.. III. The Revelation of Law, strictly so called, viewed in respect to the Time and Occasion of its promulgation. IV. The Law in its Form and Substance. V. The Position and Calling of Israel as placed under the Covenant of Law. VI. The Economical Aspects of the Law. VII. The Relation of the Law to the Mission and Work of Christ. VIII. The Relation of Law to the Constitution, the Privileges, and the Calling of the Christian Church. IX. The Re-introduction of Law into the Church of the New Testament, |