evident trust in Christ as the only Saviour, most satisfactory. She attended, regularly a weekly Bible-class I had commenced with the two or three native Christian women in our Mission. One of these had been for some time in an orphan school, and was consequently much readier with her answers when Scripture narrative or fact was

Where Christian experience or matters requiring spiritual perception were involved the difference was all

the other way. This was all the more remarkable as in other respects Girriza was a person of small capacity and feeble character. Though it is upwards of sixteen years since she died, I cannot forget the appearance of this simple woman as she sat listening to the words of Jesus with an intensity of interest I have seldom seen equalled. She never learned to read herself, though she often attempted it, but it was her habit to go and listen to the reading of God's word whenever she had an opportunity. This was often the case, as it is the custom of native Christians in India to read aloud outside their houses, and generally under the shade of some spreading tree. She continued to live a life of humble faith in Christ, her conduct, so far as I remember, having only on one occasion been such as to call for serious rebuke. had been involved in a quarrel with some others of our native Christians, and was guilty of something, so like lying, that it was judged necessary to suspend her as well as the others from Church fellowship. She showed such a truly repentant and Christian spirit that she was restored almost immediately. After a few years she was seized with a long and painful

She

illness, which after eighteen or twenty months terminated in death. The Saviour whom she had found did not forsake her in her affliction. During most of this period I saw her several times every week, often daily, and was not a little cheered by her simple faith and trust in Jesus. I remember her once saying, with much emotion, "I was being carried down by sin into the gulph of misery and pit of destruction; He let down His arm and drew me up, and saved me.' One Sabbath morning shortly before her death I found her very weak, and supposed her end at hand. At the afternoon service I was amazed to see her sitting on the floor in a corner of the chapel. When it was over I remonstrated with her on the impropriety of venturing to come out when she was so ill. She looked me full in the face and said, with extraordinary energy, "My soul has been made fresh; I am strengthened;" using many similar expressions, which made me feel she was more my teacher than I hers. On the morning of her death I found her weak in body, but strong in spirit. She repeated some of those beautiful verses in Revelation, such as, They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." When speech failed I asked her to move her hand if she still felt Jesus to be a sufficient foundation for her soul to rest on. She did so with all her remaining energy, and soon after passed into His glorious presence. Often has the case of this simple woman made me think of the Saviour's words, "Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."

66

M. S. K.

THIS is, emphatically and preeminently, baptism. It is the "one baptism" of which the Apostle Paul speaks. Under the Gospel, there is but one baptism, as there is but one Lord. Others are but emblems and shadows and figures of this. And Christ is the only Baptizer. He did not baptize with water. He instituted and administered the Lord's Supper; but He did not baptize with water. That was committed to the disciples. About this one baptism, among all sections of the Church, as to the subjects and the mode of bestowing it, there is not a thought of disputation. Christ baptizes whom He will; how He will: and when He will. There are diversities of operations; but it is the same spirit, in all the subjects of grace. There are very various modes in which people are brought under the saving influences of the Spirit, as at different periods of life, though the young are much more frequently and numerously visited with His gracious influences than the aged; and as the Gospel spreads and triumphs, as it will do in the latter day of glory, probably nearly all, in the morning of life, will be baptized with the Holy Ghost. But, while the Holy Spirit is represented as being given in various ways; and a variety of figures is employed to denote the imparting of His gifts and grace, He is always described as coming down upon the partakers of this blessing; poured out upon them, descending from heaven upon them, as the rain from heaven and as the

showers that water the earth. And all the delightful effects are produced of purity, vitality, beauty, fertility, and a constant growth and increase in these and in all the fruits of the Spirit, in the life and love and likeness of the Son of God.

is

Though the element of water

employed more frequently and variously to denote the Spirit and His work upon the soul and life of men, yet other elements of nature are, often, referred to with the same object, in the Word of God.

The air, or wind, is among the principal and primary elements employed, to denote the character and work of the Spirit. How suggestive and impressive is that passage, as to the state of human nature, prior to the Spirit's quickening influences; and, as to the glorious effects produced by His operations!" Come from the four winds, O breath! and breathe upon these slain that they may live." So, as to the necessity of His influences upon the living as well as upon the dead; upon the Church as much as upon the world. "Awake, O north wind! and come thou south. Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits." That is instructive, as to the state and the wants of the Church of Christ. What is wanted above all things and before all things is the Spirit of the living God. Where it is wanted, more than in other places, and in the first place, is in the Lord's garden. Why it is wanted there especially is tha

its piety may be more manifest, its gifts and graces in more active and profitable exercise, and that the presence and the power of the Lord and Owner may be more sensibly apparent. There is nothing so unspeakably needful, to give life to the world and fruitfulness and beauty to the Church, as the blessings and benefits indicated in those two portions of the Word of God. And, as it is there pointed out, prayer-universal, persevering prayer-is the one present, pressing duty of the Church, for itself and for the world. That will be the happy, certain precursor of the regeneration of our whole nature, when the whole Church, as one man, is united in invoking the Spirit, as the breath of life, on the drooping Church and on a dying

world.

The element of fire is, often, employed to represent the Spirit and His work. So, on the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit came and sat on the disciples as cloven tongues of fire. Not angry tongues, as James says, set on fire of hell; not drawn swords, to destroy men's lives; but, indeed, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The disciples were filled with light, and life, and love; the light of wisdom, and the fire and life of love. These were the great representatives of what all the ministers of the Cross should be. "He maketh his ministers a flame of fire."

But the water is the most frequently employed, of all the elements of nature, and in the greatest variety of emblems, to show the various modes of the Spirit's operations. "I will be as the dew unto Israel;" "He shall come down as rain upon the mown grass, and as showers that

water the earth." "I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground." "He shall be in you as a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

It might be asked, "If the baptism of water is nothing, as to any vital properties, or saving effects, what is the design of its institution ?" It is, evidently, only an ordinance of instruction, and belongs to the School, rather than to the Church of Christ. It is for the discipline and instruction of those, that are taught the way of salvation, by the Cross of Jesus Christ. And, important lessons are conveyed by it as by the preaching of the Word of Life, such as the defilement, total and radical, of our whole state and nature, on account of sin. "Behold,

I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." What mighty moral purification and cleansing is needful, to restore us to the image of God, and to prepare us for the service of God and His worship on earth; and to fit us for His presence in glory. There shall enter there nothing that defileth. "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."

Connected with this view of our original defilement, there is indicated in the water of baptism, the purification of our nature by the blood of Christ. This, like the element of water, has a cleansing property and power. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses from all sin." "How much more shall the blood of Jesus purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God?" "These are they that have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." So

also, there is a direct allusion, in the water. of baptism, to the Spirit and His quickening, purifying, reviving influences. "We are saved by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly." "Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified, in the name of Jesus, and by the good Spirit of our God." This appears to

be the great work of the Spirit,-certainly in the first place, to give life' to the dead; and then, which is only secondary to this, to remove the pollution of our nature by sin; and thus being set free from sin, that we should become servants unto God, having our fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. Scarborough.

W. TILER.

IT may be supposed that an Inquirer wishing to inform himself would, in the first instance, pay a visit to the Society's head-quarters-THE SAILORS' INSTITUTE AT SHADWELL.

There he would find a large and noble building, erected expressly for the sailor's use, and in its various departments well adapted to promote his welfare. The visitor would probably first enter the READING ROOм, where he would find an extensive library, the tables covered with various magazines and other periodicals, and sundry newspapers spread upon the readingstands. He would observe a handsome set of maps and charts, a case of specimens of the Bible in different languages and styles of binding for the option of purchasers, and a set of pigeon-holes, arranged alphabetically, for the reception of letters addressed to seamen and awaiting their application. He would hear with pleasure that this room is open daily for the use of seamen, and without charge;

and that the number of visits during the year 1864 amounted to 35,344; while as many as 3,337 seamen's letters received and delivered during the same period, evince the high position held by the Institute in their confidence and esteem. He would, moreover, be gratified to find that many an incidental benefit is also here conferred. That the sailor's widow may often be seen asking intelligence of her son's arrival at some foreign port, or a captain inquiring for pious hands he wants to ship for his next voyage; or an honest tar waiting till the Librarian can spare him a few moments to pen a letter to the wife he has left anxious for his safety in a distant town.

Our Guest would next be conducted into the adjoining REFRESHMENT ROOM, where provisions of a simple description are supplied to sailors at a moderate charge; and thence into the SAVINGS BANK, in which he would find as much as £1,721 has been de