for to Christly men it is infallibly said, "Ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost." The Scriptural precepts for human conduct"Wedded form with artful strife,

The beauty and the strength of life."

There must be in such character, "virtue," the strength of manliness. By which is surely meant honesty, truth, courage, fidelity. But what does St. Peter teach us is to be added to virtue ? Clearly, all moral beauty. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder. Our character is to be a sanctuary with solid foundations, but adorned with finely wrought gold; our work is to be a war, but with chivalry. URIJAH R. THOMAS.

Bristol.

No. CCLXV.

Spiritual Discernment.

"THE NATURAL MAN RECEIVETH NOT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT.”— 1 Cor. ii. 14.

COMMENTATORS attempt to open the Divine Book; but it obeys not their bidding. They smite the rock; but still the soul hungers and thirsts. Each sect sets forth its manuals of doctrine, or makes out its case; but still there is a waiting and a pause. We have religious excitements, and machinery to keep them up. Those that work the machinery get out of breath, and then it stops, and there is a waiting and a pause. Some go back to Rome for rest and shelter, like a child seeking nourishment and repose on the cold bosom of its dead mother. All the while, the Book out of which light is to come lies upon our shelves, ready to yield its revelations, not to some costly apparatus of interpreters, but to the humble and seeking mind-ready to give light when restored to its ancient authority in the Church, and the usurping creeds of the logomachists are taken away. Let the inquirer forsake these, and steal an hour every day from the literature that surfeits but does not satisfy and save. And when the great problems of life and destiny come up, each in its turn, and press painfully upon him, let him not give over till the truth stands clear to the intellect, and through that pours a mellow sunshine into his soul. Then the truth lost shall emerge anew and become intuition again. E. H. SEARS.

No. CCLXVI.

Responsible for Idle Words.

"EVERY IDLE WORD THAT MEN SHALL SPEAK, THEY SHALL GIVE ACCOUNT THEREOF IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT."-Matthew xii. 36.

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THE Pharisees might have imagined that as they had but spoken, and had perpetrated no real act of enormity, no guilt was contracted. Christ disabuses them here of such an impression. "Every idle word." Not merely the profane and impious language of the scoffer and the blasphemer, but words that have little or no meaning; the most airy words of wit and humour spoken in jest, not to delude or pain, but simply to please. There are three considerations which may serve to show us the responsibility that attaches to idle words :-I. Their REACTIVE FORCE. So constituted are we, that our expressions, every one of them, must have a reflex influence. Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man." The man who indulges in frivolous and idle talk damages his own mental faculties and moral sense. In such speech there is no demand for the reflective powers, and they become impotent; no development of the sentiments of truth, benevolence, and religion,—the very stamina of our moral nature, -and they become more and more inoperative and dead. In idle talk the soul in every way is injured; its rich soil, capable of producing trees of knowledge and life, is wasted in flowery, it may be, but still noxious weeds. Whatever we do that is unworthy of our nature, damages our own natures and interests. II. Their SOCIAL INFLUENCE. Science affirms that every movement in the material creation propagates an influence to the remotest planet in the universe. Be this as it may, it seems morally certain that every word spoken on the ear will have an influence lasting as eternity. The words we address to men are written, not on parchment, marble, or brass, which time may efface, but on the indestructible pages of the soul. Everything written on the imperishable soul is imperishable. All the words that have ever been addressed to you by men long since departed, are written on the book of your memory, and will be unsealed at the "Day of Judgment," and spread out in the full beams of eternal knowledge. III. Their DIVINE RECOGNITION. The Great Judge knows every word we have spoken. Not only the "hard speeches" which ungodly men have spoken against Him will He bring into

judgment, but also "every secret thing." mouth will I judge thee."

"Out of thine own

No. CCLXVII.

Popular Idolatry.

"LITTLE CHILDREN, KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS. AMEN."-1 John v. 21. THESE words, it will be said, have no application to us. Not so hasty, my friend. Idolatry is rampant in England. It may be regal in our own hearts. Two remarks are suggested :-I. Professed Christians ARE LIABLE TO IT. To whom did the Apostle address these words? Not to heathens and not to Jews; not to the promiscuous mass of mankind, but to the Church of Ephesus, including the neighbouring Churches of Proconsular Asia. They were addressed to those who had accepted as their religion the religion of the Gospel. Though we may have no palpable idols, carved in wood, chiselled in stone, moulded in metals, or thrown on canvas, we may be idolaters notwithstanding. What is a man's idol? The object of his supreme regard. Whatever enlists his chief sympathies,-be it money, power, fashion, pleasure, friends, creed, Church, literature, science, poetry, etc., is his idol, his god. The essence of idolatry is not in the tangibility or the shape of the god, but in the spirit of the votary. The only difference between the idolatry of Pagans and the idolatry of Britons is, that the former give their idols a palpable shape and publicly avow their devotion; we keep them in idea, and hypocritically denounce the practice. In profession we are monotheists; in practice, polytheists. We have "gods many" and "lords many' in our hearts. Another remark suggested concerning idolatry is-II. Professed Christians SHOULD ESCHEW IT. 'Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Whilst all should avoid idolatry, all in pagan lands, it is especially binding on professing Christians to do so. They have more light, etc. Why should it be avoided? First: Because it is wrong. It is contrary to the dictates of reasoning, to the teachings of nature, and to the code of Holy Writ, for any soul to put its chief regard on any object but the God who made the heavens and the earth, the one true and loving God. Him we are commanded to love with all our hearts, etc. Secondly: Because it is ruinous. He who gives his supreme sympathies to any object but the Supremely Good, enfeebles his spiritual faculties, degrades his moral nature, and damns his own soul.

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No. CCLXVIII.

The Pilgrimage of a True Life.

"MY PRESENCE SHALL GO WITH THEE, AND I WILL GIVE THEE REST."Exodus xxxiii. 14.

I. THE PATH of a true life. It is a path-First: From captivity to freedom. Moral bondage is worse than Egyptian; moral freedom better than physical or political. It is a path-Secondly: From scarcity to plenty. The Jews in Egypt were most indigent and destitute. Canaan was a land flowing with milk and honey. The journey, from beginning to end, was through a wilderness, infested with enemies, beset with trials, and thick with dangers. All this is the picture of a true life here. II. The COMPANION of a true life. "My presence shall go with thee." His presence here does not mean His mere Essence or Being, for in this sense He is with all; but His guiding, succouring, and protecting superintendence, symbolized by the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. God is ever, in this sense, with the true. "The Lord is my Shepherd," etc. III. The DESTINY of a true life. “I will give thee rest." What is the rest? Not inactivity. Inaction is death, wrong action is hell, right action is bliss. Harmonious activity is the destiny of the good; activity in harmony with all our powers, with the order of the universe, and with the will of God.

My Ministry at Stockwell, and Public Life.

(Continued from vol. xxxix., page 460.)

T is said that every organism contains in itself the elements of its decay. We thought that the Dial enterprise, organized upon the principle of philanthropy, would have lived; but the following elements of selfishness and ambition somehow or other got worked into its constitution, and brought on its dissolution. Among the causes that led to its destruction, the following may be specified. First: There was the premature starting of the "Weekly Dial." In consequence of the impatience of some, and the ambition and greed of others, it was resolved at an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders, held at the London Coffee House, Nov. 14th, 1859, to start a Weekly

paper preparatory to the Daily. Although I yielded to the general desire, it did not commend itself to me as a wise policy. My wish was, not to commence publishing until the number of shareholders had considerably increased, and until at least 50,000 annual subscribers had been obtained for the Weekly. This could have been done by waiting a few months. Although the Weekly had a magnificent start, 30,000 copies being disposed of in the first issue, it soon declined. Two things damaged it considerably; one was the editorship. Unfortunately a Scotchman had been appointed to the office; and in the very first article he introduced his narrow Scotch theology, and his Calvinian spirit ran through the whole ; so that in the course of a week or two after its appearance I was inundated with letters of complaint from shareholders in all parts of the country, who had subscribed to the undertaking on the distinct understanding that the new journal was to be ethical and not theological, was to be conducted in the spirit that Dr. Arnold had propounded, viz., that all subjects should be discussed in a religious and catholic spirit.

The Editor, who would have done very well to conduct a journal representing a conventional religion, proved in every issue utterly incompetent to grasp and appreciate the sovereign idea embodied in the prospectus. The paper not only soon became a loss to the Company, but shook the faith of old shareholders, and prevented others from joining the enterprise. In connection with the editorship, the publishing must also be mentioned. It was entrusted to the hands of a man who was the proprietor of a London illustrated paper, and he farmed the advertisements. There was a person on the Board,—whose name I will not mention here,-who was exceedingly anxious to have his portrait appear in the publisher's print; and, to accomplish this object, he urged with an importunity to which the Board yielded, that this man should not only publish the Weekly Dial, but should also farm the advertisements. The consequence was, that the advertisement columns of our journal, instead of being interesting by their variety, were crowded with advertisements of this illustrated paper, and each giving prominence to the nobodies whose portraits it contained.

Another cause of failure was, Secondly: The joining of the enterprise to the Morning and Evening Star. The failure of the Weekly Dial, and the increasing indisposition of men to join the enterprise in consequence of the character of the journal; the pressure of labour and responsibility, which were becoming almost intolerable to me; the fact