This was the Matthew who wrote the Gospel which bears his

name.

29. Publicans. His former friends and companions, whom he now desired to bring to the Saviour. They generally belonged to the lowest class of Jews, and were accused, (probably with too much truth) of being wicked and dishonest: hence the complaints of the Scribes and Pharisees.

31. Whole-well.-Just as the physician goes to none but the sick to heal them, so Jesus only addresses himself to sinners; and in both cases, the worse they are, the more they need assistance.

33. Disciples of John.-John's teaching was only preparatory to the Gospel, and especially consisted in the preaching of repentance. Hence he insisted upon fasting and mortification of the body, as the Pharisees did, whose religion consisted chiefly in outward ob

servances.

34. While the bridegroom is with them.-Then it was their time of joy. John himself had called Jesus the bridgegroom. (John iii. 29.) 35. Then shall they fast.-Our Lord himself gave directions about fasting, which showed that he did not mean to do away with the practice, but only to prevent its being observed merely as an outward form. (Matt. vi. 16-18.) We find also that the Apostles and early Christians did fast. (See Acts xiii. 3. 2 Cor. xi. 27.) 36. Agreeth not.-It was not suitable to their circumstances, while their Lord was with them. He may also have intended to intimate that it was of no use to attempt to unite Judaism, as the Pharisees held it, with Christianity, and to patch up their forms and ceremonies with the vital doctrines of the Gospel.

37. Old bottles.-Their bottles were made of skins; so that those which were old and beginning to wear out, would be liable to burst if new wine were put into them, while still in a state of fermentation.

SUMMARY.

While Matthew was occupied in receiving the taxes, our Lord told him to follow him. He immediately obeyed the call, and shortly afterwards invited many of his friends to meet Jesus. The Pharisees complained at finding Jesus in such company; and afterwards about his disciples not being accustomed to practise fastings, to both of which objections our Lord gives suitable answers.

LESSONS.

I. In what respect are we called, like Matthew, to follow Christ? V. 27. (2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.)

II. Happy those who, by God's grace, are made willing immediately to obey the call! V. 28. (Ps. lxxxix. 15.)

III. Such will be anxious to bring their friends and acquaintances to the knowledge of the Saviour. V. 29. (Ps. xxxiv. 8.)

IV. It was on purpose to save sinners that Jesus Christ appeared. V. 31, 32. (1 Tim. i. 15.)

V. There are suitable times and seasons for all things. V. 34-36. (Eccles. iii. 1.)

VI. We must not attempt to unite a trust in outward forms with that faith which leans only on the all-sufficient merits of Christ. V. 36-38. (Gal. ii. 16. v. 1—4.)

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE.

THE WHITE STONE.

"To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it."— REV. ii. 17.

In primitive times, when travelling was rendered difficult by the want of places of public entertainment, hospitality was exercised by private individuals to a very great extent. Persons who had partaken of this hospitality, and those who practised it, frequently contracted habits of regard and friendship for each other; and it became a well-established custom, both among the Greeks and Romans, to provide their guests with some particular mark, which was handed down from father to son, and insured hospitality and kind treatment wherever it was presented. This mark was usually a small stone, or pebble, cut in half, and upon the halves of which the host and the guest mutually inscribed their names, and then interchanged them with each other. The production of this stone was quite sufficient to insure friendship for themselves or their descendants, whenever they travelled again in the same direction. While it is evident that these stones required to be privately kept, and the name written on them carefully concealed, lest others should obtain the privileges, instead of him for whom they were intended: how natural, then, is the allusion to this custom in the words—“ I will give him to eat of the hidden manna;” and having done so, having recognised him as my guest, my friend, I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it; a pledge of my friendship, sacred, and inviolable, known only to himself."-Rev. H. Blunt.

"THEY SHALL BE A PORTION FOR FOXES." PSALM lxiii. 10.

THIS passage appears obscure: but give it the probable rendering, "They shall be a portion for jackals," and then the anathema or threat becomes plain and striking to a Hindoo, in whose country the disgusting sight of jackals, devouring human bodies, may be seen every day. So ravenous are these animals, that they frequently steal infants as they lie by the breast of the mother; and sick persons who lie friendless in the street, or by the side of the Ganges, are sometimes devoured alive by these animals in the night. Persons in a state of intoxication have been thus devoured as they lay in the streets of Calcutta.-Juvenile Missionary Herald.

CHURCH SERVICE.

ANTIQUITY OF THE LITURGY.

THE originals of our Church Services may be traced back, with more or less clearness, fulness, and particularity, (diminishing, of course, as we ascend higher, and possess more scanty materials,) for fourteen or fifteen hundred years. They generally consisted of two portions, the latter of which, the Communion Office, was anciently called the Liturgy. They were handed down "memoriter," till the end of the third century, after which they were committed to writing. The principal Liturgies are

1. The Oriental, ascribed to St. James, used at Jerusalem and Antioch; older than the Council of Chalcedon, (A.D.451.) The order and substance was the same in Justin Martyr's time. Other branches were that of Cæsarea, compiled by Basil, and that of Constantinople, by Chrysostom.

2. The Alexandrian, ascribed to St. Mark, quoted by Origen, (A. D, 220,) completed by Cyril of Alexandria, (a. d. 412.)

3. The Roman, completed by Gregory the Great, (A. D. 590,) but derived from ancient sources, probably as far back as the second century with its branches, as the Ambrosian and African.

4. The Gallican, used at Lyons in Gaul, and referred, through Irenæus, to St. John. This is supposed to have had offsets in the Mosarabic, and Ancient British.-See Palmer's Orig. Liturg. Vol. I. Walker's Element. Liturg.*

*The Liturgies which have come down to us contain many manifest corruptions, and the authenticity of the present text cannot be implicitly depended upon.-Palmer, Vol. i. 9-12.

It may be interesting to some of our readers to know, that the Scotch Kirk originally possessed a Liturgy, which continued in use till the year 1636, when Archbishop Laud's unhappy attempts to enforce his New Service Book threw all forms into disrepute.-See M'Crie's "Sketches of Scottish Church History," pp. 203, 204. This is probably the book alluded to by Hooker, (Ecc. Pol. v. 27,) mentioned by Strype, as first printed in Latin, 1556, by the exiles at Geneva, with Calvin's approbation, and afterwards translated into English, and "approved and received by the Church of Scotland."

TESTIMONIES TO THE LITURGY.

BUCER thus speaks of the English Liturgy. "In the order of the Communion and Daily Prayers, I see nothing appointed in the book which is not taken out of the Sacred Scriptures, if not in express words, as the Psalms and Lessons, yet in sense, as are the Collects. Also the manner of these Lessons and Prayers, and the times when they are to be used, are constituted very agreeably both with the word of God and the observation of the ancient churches." —Censura. c. i. in his Scrip. Anglic. p. 456.

John Wesley thus expresses his opinion of it, in the preface to his "Sunday Service." "I believe there is no Liturgy in the world, either in ancient or modern languages, which breathes morè of solid, Scriptural, rational piety, than the Common Prayer of the Church of England. And though the main of it was compiled more than two hundred years ago, yet is the language of it not only pure, but strong and elegant in the highest degree."

The eloquent Baptist Minister, Robert Hall, says of it, "The evangelical purity of its sentiments, the chastised fervour of its devotion, and the majestic simplicity of its language, have combined to place it in the very first rank of uninspired compositions."Whytehead's Key to the Prayer-Book.

MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

FINANCIAL POSITION OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

THE following account of the society's finances is taken from the Annual Report of the Committee, which was read at the late meeting: The income of the society for the last year, from all sources, has fallen below the income of the preceding year by £15,534 2s. 8d. The amount raised in this country, including the contributions to the various special funds, is £91,980 13s. 7d.; and the sums raised

and expended in the several missions of the society have amounted to £9,313 2s. 8d.; making a total of £101,293 16s. 3d.

The decrease is chiefly owing to a falling-off in the sum received on account of legacies during the year; the receipts in the former year being £14,263 1s. 10d., and in the past year £5097 6s. 9d. Deducting the amount of legacies-which must always be an uncertain and fluctuating source of income, and which was last year swelled by the extraordinary legacy of the late Mr. Scott-the deficiency, in what may be termed the permanent income of the society, amounts to £3788 14s. 3d. Considering the commercial difficulties of the last year, and the large demands of the famine upon the charity of the nation, it may appear that this diminution of income is not greater than might have been reasonably expected, and that it argues no diminution in the zeal or confidence of the supporters of the society.

HINDRANCES TO THE SPREAD OF THE
GOSPEL IN INDIA.

CASTE.

THERE were originally but four castes, or classes-the Brahmans (priests), Kshatriyas (soldiers), Vaisyaz (merchants), Sudras (labourers). With the exception of the first, or Brahmans, these have been subdivided into about forty castes; so that there are now as many as there are professions, or trades, among the people. These castes have no social intercourse with each other.

They cannot intermarry, nor eat together, nor live in the same house, and sometimes not in the same village. They are almost as much estranged from each other as from foreigners. They have but little sympathy for one another become anti-social, and the ties which bind society in Christian lands are there severed.

This system is also a great obstacle to the missionary of the cross. He cannot enter the houses of the Hindu, nor find access to the family circle, and there, in a friendly manner, preach Christ. He is deemed unclean, because without caste; and his footsteps cannot cross the threshold of the poorest Hindu without polluting his house. The missionary has, however, access to thousands in the bazaars, by the wayside, in the gates, and at the festivals held in honour of the gods, and may thus preach the Gospel to multitudes. The consequences of losing caste have hitherto been fearful. The breach of it has been followed by banishment from the paternal roof; a total estrangement of the nearest friends; of father and mother, brothers and sisters, and even wife and children; a confiscation of property, and the severest persecutions. But caste is beginning to lose its hold on the minds of the people. Its spell is broken. Many of the most enlightened and influential Hindus in Calcutta have formed themselves into a society, for the very purpose of abolishing this system. They have themselves eaten the abomination of the Hindus, beef, and drunk wine, which with them is being a Christian. Their example is beginning to influence hundreds of their countrymen in various parts of India; and they are waiting to throw off the trammels, which, for ages, caste has imposed upon them.-Foreign Missionary Chronicle.