fought with the Amalekites in the valley. Cornelius found it so when Peter was sent to show him the way of salvation more clearly. And Paul and Silas experienced its power, as they prayed at midnight in the inner prison, and "sang praises unto God," when an earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, and "all the doors were opened, and every one's hands were loosed," and when the jailer himself cried out, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" At this time, when so many prayermeetings are held, and so many answers to prayer vouchsafed to the people of God, on both sides of the Atlantic, we need not quote particular instances of success; but let it ever be borne in mind, that, of ourselves, we can do nothing; and if we desire successful, profitable, public meetings, we must look for that success and that profit to Him who has said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth;" and who has declared, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

We now turn to Deputations. The first requisite for a good deputation is to have their hearts in the work. "Send us a man,' said a New Zealand chieftain," who out of his heart will speak into our hearts." We have no faith in deputations who, without this, offer to go and plead for our societies in the Lake district, or North Wales, or in the Highlands of Scotland, just to get an agreeable holiday. Such men will not care very much whether the meetings are good or otherwise, nor whether the reasonable demands of local friends are complied with.-He has "climbed up Helvellyn," or has been "the whole morning rowing upon the lovely lake of Windermere," or he has taken a rapid journey to see the wild beauties of Wast-Water." He had "no time to prepare a speech, and is very tired," and he hopes "the meeting will excuse dulness."

This class of deputations is now, we hope, extinct-if any present themselves again, they ought not to be accepted. But it is possible for a deputation, without the excuse of the wild scenery of Wast-Water, or the fresh breezes of Helvellyn, to go through his work in an unsatisfactory, perfunctory way. He arrives at his destination by rail, steamer, or coach in good time; he calls upon the local secretary, makes his neat, wellarranged speech, and goes off by rail, steamer or coach againbut he has accomplished nothing. His call on the secretary had no heart in it, and therefore he made no impression there. He never inquired into the local organization, whether good or bad -no encouraging of active friends-no word of advice to friends in a difficulty--no reviving of a decayed and perishing associaHis business was to speak, he promised no more, and he did speak. The speech was all true,-"recent intelligence" and all. The speech was well worded, well put together, neither

too long nor too short; but when he left the meeting and went home by rail, steamer, or coach, the speech went with him,-no part of it remained with the audience, because it had no heart in it. The impression left was like that made by an unengraved seal-a polished surface, but without anything in particular for the eye to rest upon. We consider it a matter of the first importance for a deputation to have their hearts in the work.

An active, diligent, hearty deputation will occasionally make up for the want of local zeal, or even of local friends. Some years ago we were spending a few days in one of those charming retired Welsh watering places, where the good bathing, and bracing air, attract many of the upper classes in the month of September; lodgings were in request, and the two hotels were full. The foliage in the squire's well-wooded park, close by, was mellowing into the tints of autumn. The tide was gently washing the pebbly beach, and the mountains were covered with that soft, thin, gauze haze, which photographers so much dislike, but which painters love to look at. A deputation from the society happened to be there during a little break in his appointed tour. Seeing the beach crowded with loiterers, and idlers, he conceived the idea of telling them, if it could be managed, of God's wondrous works of grace in

-. He called upon the worthy vicar, an old gentleman, benevolent and kind, but whose mind was moulded in other times, when meetings were scarcely known. Permission to hold a meeting in the large room of “the Arms Hotel," was asked. The vicar, who, unquestionably, would have given a polite refusal to a written application, seemed at first perplexed; his opinion was, that meetings were not required in his parish, but his better feelings soon prevailed, and leave was granted. The deputation first hired the large room-then he found out where the printer lived, and gave orders for notices to be struck off, and ready in three hours' time; and before the night closed in, the said notices were posted in public places, and left at the hotels, lodginghouses, and principal shops in the town. The next evening the large room was quite full, and a collection was made, at least equal to the average of collections in places of the kind.

We do not mean to say that zeal like the above is always needed, nor is it desirable even, for a deputation to meddle too much in local affairs, except under peculiar circumstances; but he ought to have his heart in his work-be ready to act on an emergency and leave the impression of his visit and of his speech behind him when he goes. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest."

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We now turn to the speaking. In the first place, it is neither courteous nor wise to be too long. We are sometimes so much pleased with our own voices, that we forget to stop at the right time, and there may be other speakers to follow too. A very young man once came into a committee room where many persons were assembled previous to a meeting. "I want two hours for my speech," he said; "I have so much to say, I can't well do with less." My good fellow," said a straightforward friend, "there are seven of us to speak, including the chairman, and if we take two hours each, the meeting will not be over for fourteen hours!" The young man saw the force of the rebuke, and spoke nicely for fifteen minutes, instead of two hours, as he had intended. There must be a wise and sound discretion as to the length of a speech-a great deal will depend upon the number of speakers, and the real wishes of local friends; but a deputation ought to be able to feel the pulse of both chairman and meeting; he should never give occasion to the former to hold up his watch before him; or to pull him gently by the coat; or to give him a little bit of paper with the words, ""Tis time to close the meeting," pencilled upon it;-all of which hints to stop, we have seen given to speakers on several occasions. Again, in order that a speech should not be too long, extended prefaces, and sermons at the end, should be avoided. A sensible and well-put-together exordium, just enough to catch the attention of the audience, is desirable, but nothing more, and after that, the sooner the deputation gets in medias res the better.

There are some speakers who cannot get to their own subject without first speaking for some twenty minutes on three or four other subjects. Some always allude to the season-it is "seedtime," or "harvest,"-and they work out an illustration; others allude to "the sacred building close by "-There is an old Norman castle in the county of ; and we have heard several speakers remind the townspeople at the meetings, of "the time when Norman William landed on our shores; " and speaking well-very well, upon that particular epoch of English history; an interesting subject in itself, but it took up time and was not connected with the matter in hand: far better for the society, for which the meeting was held, to have had its claims advocated, and its operations seriously detailed.

Once more, let the tone of the speech be solemn. We do not at all object to a fair missionary anecdote, descriptive of manners,—such as the amazement of the South Sea Islander at the first message in writing which he saw responded to,-a message written with a pencil on a chip of wood-and his declaring that" the English could make even their chips to talk ;" or such as the Irish convert boy thinking for a moment, when asked the meaning of the word "plenty," and then replying

"a houseful of praties," or, a fact of interest told in some quaint provincial-peasant dialect, which may perhaps provoke a smile; but we think it is trifling with the time at disposal, and perhaps trifling with the subject too, to tell stories about "Neddy and me," a boy and his donkey, or about the farmer making a cow's horn into a missionary box, and writing poetry on it, which the speaker quotes, and gravely says "it is not from Chaucer."

"This horn once grew

on the head of an ox,
but now, tis turned

into a missionary box."

Some may think us too fastidious; but when we consider our object, the advancement of Christ's kingdom, and when we consider the subject, souls perishing for lack of knowledge, and the best means of instructing them, a holy solemnity should surely overshadow our speeches; and this we are persuaded of, that while an audience will sometimes laugh, and laugh heartily, at absurd and ridiculous stories told on platforms-and will applaud them too-it is nevertheless not the style of speaking which is calculated to attract an audience to a meeting again; and as to collection, the money part of the business, people will give much more when a speech has the effect of bringing a tear from the eye, than when a trifling manner, or ridiculous stories, cause them to laugh.

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Far better, then, for deputations to seek that "unction from the Holy One," to speak of the wants of the ignorant, and the happiness of those brought through grace to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus." Let them tell of hundreds of thousands of professing Christians, through the means of religious societies in India, in Burmah, in Africa, in America, and in the islands of the Pacific, and Austral oceans; let them tell of the sunny plains of Italy, and the valleys of the Apennines just opening to the Gospel; and let them give glory to God for all that has been done, and that shall yet be done, till "the kingdoms of this world" shall "become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ." For, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts," shall the work be done.

THE EARTH AND ITS HISTORY.

THERE are few subjects more interesting or more important, to one of the human family, than the inquiry, How the race to which he belongs first came into existence, and what is the real history of this earth, their abode? And we accordingly find,

as we might have anticipated, that in every nation which possesses any ancient writings or traditions, a prominent place is given in those traditions to some account of the origin of man.

But, amidst all these various attempts to satisfy man's natural curiosity, we shall find, at last, only two sources of information which are of any reliable value. It has been truly said that Scripture and Observation are the only sources from which we can derive any real knowledge of these matters."* We have, indeed, traditions of the Creation from every quarter of the globe, from the Chaldeans, the Goths, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Etrurians, the Hindoos, the Greeks, the Chinese, and many others; but although we have amongst us believers and unbelievers of almost every possible kind and degree, we have none who profess to give credit to any of these traditions. Hence, when we have searched through all antiquity, we are forced to return at last to this one conclusion,that to Scripture and observation we must have recourse, if we desire to gain any solid information on these subjects.

And these two sources of knowledge are clearly distinct and apart from each other. The word of God and the works of God should each be studied; but the kind of knowledge derivable from the one is quite different from that which may be obtained from the other. The word of God deals with the history of man, and with the interests of the human race; and leaves all other subjects to be investigated by the human intellect. Man can measure the distances of the stars, can explore the bowels of the earth, or the depths of the ocean, but he cannot "by searching find out God;" nor can he penetrate into the mysteries of the human soul, its origin, its history, or its destinies. Hence, with the material world around him, man is left to acquaint himself by observation; but he is helped to the knowledge of his Creator, and of himself, by a Divine revelation, penned, preserved, and disseminated among mankind, by the special care and interposition of a Divine providence.

In the matter now before us, the past history of this earth and its inhabitants,-we shall find that both these sources of information are required, and are available, to form one complete history. Scripture, limiting itself to man and his interests, furnishes us with the past history of the human race, and of the earth so far as the human race is concerned. But if we require to know the number of the planets, or the size of the moon, or the nature of the laws of the solar system, Scripture declines to furnish us with any information. Or if we ask whether this globe began to exist when the human race was produced, or whether it had a yet earlier history, Scripture is equally silent. The divine record stoops not to gratify curiosity, or to give instruction concerning merely material things. Its grand subject *Lardner's Cyclo.