ATURE'S PURIFIER.-Finely prepared VEGETABLE CHAR

NATURE'S weten sad bowel is found

to afford speedy relief in cases of impure breath, acidity, gout, indigestion, dyspepsia, heartburn, worms, &c. Bragg's celebrated Charcoal, sold in bottles, 2s., 4., and 68. each, through all chemists, and by the maker, J. L. BRAGG, 2, Wigmore-street, Cavendish-square, London.

DR. HASSALL'S REPORT ON BRAGG'S CARBON OR CHARCOAL BISCUITS.-"I have, on more than one occasion, subjected to analysis Bragg's Charcoal Biscuits, and I have always found them to be most carefully prepared, the charcoal and other materials used in their manufacture being of the purest and best description. These biscuits are both pleasant to the taste and nourishing, and they form the most agreeable medium hitherto devised for the administration of that most valuable remedial substance, vegetable char. coal."-Signed, Arthur Hill Hassall, M.D., Author of "Food and its Adulterations," "Adulteration Detected," and other Works.

HOLLOWAY'S PILLS.-MA-TERY OVER DISEASES.-There is a constant tendency in the human body to pass from strength to weakness, unless some means be adopted to counteract the "wear and tear" and other deteriorating influences. Holloway's Pills effect this admirably; they accomplish all the most exacting invalid can require. As Alteratives, they regulate the stomach and rouse the liver; as Purifiers, they improve the blood's quality; as Aperients, they promote peristaltic action; and as Tonics, they invigorate the nervous system. They have blessed with health thousands previously blasted by disease. In all cases of indigestion, palpitation, headaches, heartburn, and functional obstructions, sufferers have Holloway's Pills as a resource to fall back upon, which never disappoints their most sanguine hopes.

CHOLERA.

IN FORMER VISITATIONS OF THE CHOLERA

MORISON'S

WERE FOUND TO BE

PILLS

THE MOST EFFECTUAL REMEDY.

"270 Patients have been admitted within the last 16 days to the London ospital, 130 have died in the meantime."-Daily Telegraph, August 1, 1866.

MORISON'S UNIVERSAL

MEDICINES

MAY BE HAD OF ALL MEDICINE VENDORS.

"CHOLERA."

From several cases which came under my treatment, I will briefly notice a few; and these I do not for a moment hesitate to declare would have defied the skill of the most reputed "M.D."

Two of my children-one a boy of seventeen, and the other a girl of eight -were both attacked with vomiting and purging. Conceiving their cases to be ordinary, I administered to each a dose of No. 2. About a couple of hours after, very distressing symptoms appeared; eyes sunk, spasms, involuntary motions, very copious, and of a whitish colour; skin very cold, clammy perspiration; in fact, all the symptoms of "Cholera," in its most virulent form. My fears were great, but I am thankful to say that my confidence was not shaken, though from all appearances we were soon to part with two dear children. Relatives and friends all declared their cases to be hopeless. Hoping against hope, I persevered, and the result only afforded another proof of the truth of Hygeianism, and the efficacy of the Universal

Medicine.

Another case I will notice, and that is a poor native woman—a Caste woman. Her case also was an extreme one; the symptoms were those of what is termed "Cholera ;" but the remedies brought to light something else which was the immediate cause of her sickness, for she discharged from her stomach a number of worms. I must here observe that, in my experience, one-fourth of the cases I have treated for " Cholera" have resulted in this way. Be the cause what it may, the poor woman soon became as helpless as a child. Speechless, she beckoned to her relatives to take care of her two children. The little room in which she was placed was crowded with weeping relatives, and it was with some difficulty that I dispersed them. The woman happened to live not far from me, so that I was constantly with her. In a week she came to my wife to express her gratitude for what I had done for her; and as a token thereof, offered her a cow, which was all she possessed. It is, of course, needless for me to add that the kind offer was not accepted.

Kilpauk, Madras, 27th April, 1866.1

ARTHUR WALTER.

THE CHURCH.

"Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."

DECEMBER, 1867.

"I HAD FAINTED."

A THOUGHT FOR THE END OF THE YEAR.

BY THE REV. C. WILLIAMS.

"I had fainted, unless I had believed."—Psalm xxvii. 13.

THE words, "I had fainted," are in italics, being supplied by the translators to complete the sentence, which is left unfinished in the Hebrew. The psalmist seems to have halted on the very brink of an imaginary precipice to have turned away from the danger supposed-with a shudder; to have passed from what might have been, had he not believed, to "the goodness of the Lord," which had been manifested to him. "I had fainted," is not the only alternative of faith. Jewish interpreters give a much more terrible ending to unbelief. One of them makes the writer say, "False witnesses would have consumed me, if I had not believed." Another thus supplies the omission: "Mine enemies would have got the dominion over me, unless I had believed." A third fills up the meaning with the phrase, "If I had not believed, they would have destroyed me." In any case, it was faith or ruin to the psalmist.

David probably was the author of this psalm. It was written before the building of the temple. The tabernacle was sometimes called the temple, but the temple was never called the tabernacle. You will notice that the writer speaks of "the secret of God's tabernacle," and, moreover, adds, "Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy." This proves the psalm to have been written not later than the age of David, and there is little doubt but that it is the work of the royal psalmist himself. But, I am inclined to think, this psalm was composed before David was a king. It fits in with his flight from the court of Saul, He was then pursued by enemies-a host encamped against

A A

him-false witnesses, and such as breathed out cruelty, sought his overthrow. "The sweet singer" was an exile. In the cave of Adullam, and not in the tabernacle, he spent his Sabbaths. Everything apparently was adverse to him. What could he do? He thought of Him that had saved him from the lion and the bear-of Him who had given him the victory over the giant from Gath-of Him who had averted the javelin from him in the court of Saul-of Him who had never failed him in a time of need. God was his only helper. Had he not believed in God, he would have been utterly cast down; had he not trusted in the Lord, he would have abandoned hope, and given way to despair; "unless he had believed to see the goodness of the Lord," he would have fallen before the evil of man. And so he cried, "I had fainted" "I had perished in mine affliction "-" unless I had believed." And this is the experience of us all. The alternative of faith is ruin. Take the sinner, realizing the evil of his sin, groaning under the burden of guilt, with a sense of condemnation, and an expectation of panishment. Without faith in God, the merciful and gracious-without faith in "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world"without faith in the promise, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," the sinner would faint and perish. Judas, self-convicted, had no faith in God, "and he went out and hanged himself." Every contrite and trembling soul must confess, "I had fainted, unless I had believed."

66

It is the same with the tempted. The good man finds himself engaged in a warfare. Temptations abound. We meet them everywhere. In the house of God, we are tempted to formality, to lip-service, to profess more than we possess or practise; in the world, we are tempted to forget God, to live only to get gain or enjoyment. Now, we are tempted to doubt, and again, to deny the Word of God. At one time, we are tempted to leave undone that which we should do; at another, to do the thing which ought not to be done. Many of us, looking back on the temptations of life, can say, "I had fainted "-I had been overcome of evil-"unless I had believed." Faith in God, who with the temptation makes a way of escape, is our only shield. With that we have been able during the past year to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one.

A like remark holds good of the toiler. Every workman sympathizes with the apostle Paul in his exclamation, "Who is sufficient for these things?" A great enterprise is before us. We have to learn the lessons of divine wisdom till neither ignorance nor folly is found in us; w have to climb the heights of holiness till we are far beyond the reach af worldlyism and in other than a terrestrial atmosphere; we have to lay up treasures in heaven, while attending to our business on the earth, and to set our affections on things above, while loving our neigh bour as ourself. Besides this, we are the ministers and the missionaries of Christ. Each of us has a post to occupy, a work to do. I think of the duties devolved on me-of the consequences that may follow the words I speak of the immortality of souls-of the happiness of the

saved, and the misery of the lost; and, were it not for faith in God, I should "utterly faint, and be weary." It is only the assurance, “Our sufficiency is of God," which prevents us from throwing up a commission fraught with such solemn issues, and, therefore, associated with such fearful responsibilities. "I had fainted, unless I had believed.”

Not less true-but yet more emphatically true-is our text when spoken by the afflicted. Not Moses only on the shore of the Red Sea-not David only standing face to face with Goliath, but every tried and troubled one has reason to say, "I had fainted, unless I had believed." If the three Hebrew youths had not believed, they would have fainted, is strong men bound them, and cast them into the furnace. Had not Daniel believed, he would have perished in the lions' den. The loss of wealth is frequently the loss of all that is valued, unless a man believes n the goodness of the Lord. Many a parent, whose child has sickened ind died, who has bent over the cradle or the cot while the little one as been hopelessly battling with some terrible disease, or who has ooked down into the grave where lies the form of the departed, has ound religion to be the only consolation, and might have said, “I had fainted, unless I had believed." And when we come to close with he last enemy, and feel his clammy hand upon our shoulder, and to ear his hollow voice calling us away from the things seen, nothing but aith in God can give us a cheerful courage and a well-founded hope. Brethren and friends, in that last struggle, when we stand in the immediate presence of death and eternity, we shall faint, nay, we shall perish everlastingly, unless we believe.

man.

This fact in human consciousness is accounted for by the inadequacy of the things seen, and the necessity for the invisible, to satisfy the soul of We do not depreciate the world in which we live. No one is more thankful than we are for the brave house which God has built for us, and for the overflowing bounty with which He has furnished it. He has been prodigal in his gifts. At the first, He placed man in a paradise, where was everything pleasant to the eye or good for food; and even when man could no longer live in Nature's palace, king of this lower world, because he had become a rebel against the King of kings, the earth remained beautiful and fertile, and capable of greater beauty and more fertility. But when conscience is awakened, when the understanding begins to see "that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear," when the truth breaks in upon the mind that God exists, our heart and our flesh cry out for the living God. Useless are the ordinary pleasures of life to one who prays for pardon and seeks salvation. Music loses its charms, and songs cannot please, when conscience is aroused, and the heart pleads for rest and peace. We want more than the promise of pardon, which you cannot get from the ministries of nature: we want the key to unlock the mystery of life, the solution of the problem of existence, a knowledge of the outcome of all our thinkings, and hopes, and loves. This religion alone affords. Apart from the religion of the Bible all is hopelessly