"O Mary!-conceived without sin-pray for us, who have recourse to you. Any one carrying a miraculous medal, who recites with piety the above invocation, becomes placed under the especial protection of the Mother of God. This is a promise made by Mary herself.'

"The case of one victim of misplaced confidence (and I doubt not there were many similar) has been related to me on good authority. One of the landsturm was pursued, and challenged to surrender; he refused, took to flight, and was wounded successively by four shots, when he sank under his wounds. Upon being captured, he declared that, having a medal, had he thought it possible the bullets could have touched him, he would have surrendered at once. I understand he is since dead. "Upon a like principle-or want of principle-the landsturm and soldiers were invited to bring their arms to the churches to be blessed, for which fees of five or ten francs were charged. Whole piles of arms received benediction in this manner, and were then declared to be sure of hitting."

"Hamburg. A correspondent writes, I beg, in the name of our Committee, to return onr sincerest thanks for this additional expression of your kindness, just received. Our prayer is, that the Lord may employ these for winning over many souls to the careful perusing of the truths which they are calculated to illustrate and enforce.

"Our colporteur,

is at present labouring among the Roman Catholics in Rhenish Prussia. In a letter just received, he says, 6 arrived in the great popish city of I entered on my work with much anxiety, and with the more earnest prayer, because of the difficulties I had to encounter. But beyond my prayers, and beyond my best hopes, has the Lord sustained me till I am ashamed of the weakness of my faith. In addition to my own work, I found six new subscribers, all of whom have been for a long time anxious to obtain a supply of suitable books for distribution among the Roman Catholics. To their great joy, I have been able to supply them with Primitive Christianity,' 'Testimony of the Fathers,' The Mass,' The Priest and the Bible,' Andrew Dunn,' 'The True Catholic,' etc., etc. Please send me immediately some thousands additional of these numbers, and others expressly for Roman Catholics. I go on towards etc.' "Another, whose field of labour is in the midst of nominal Protestants, who are chiefly infidels, writes: "On my way to I overtook a young man, who, on receiving a tract, began to mock at Christianity. I pointed him to three or four cairns within sight, and asked, if he knew what they were! 'Oh yes,' he said, old altars.' 'Yes,' I replied, these were the altars-count how many of them!— where our fathers burned their own children to blood-thirsty gods in the days of idolatry. It was Christianity put an end to these bloody offerings; and an institution which has effected for you and me so much outward good should not be so lightly mocked. I have been where the Gospel is not known, and have seen them burning their children. If you had seen it, you would not have mocked any more.' He was silent, and listened attentively to the rest of my conversation.- -Met with an old woman, who was complaining that she could find no ease for a troubled conscience. I pointed her to the Bible. 'Ah!' she said; she had tried it, but it made matters worse. I told her not only to persevere on and on, but that she must read with prayer and faith; she must read on, and pray on, till she can take hold of the words of Scripture as coming directly and immediately from Jesus himself to her.

"The night is dark around us, and we wait for the dawning. We are sowing in hope, and it is through your kindness that we are enabled to do the little that is being done. We look for a day of greater generosity among ourselves, when we shall not be obliged to draw on the resources of your Society so frequently.” ”—Christian Spectator.

THE

PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW.

No. LXXXI.-JULY 1848.

ART. I.-Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry, edited by two of her Daughters. Vol. II. London: 1847.

May we never know that moment of time in which we are not anxious to live to the glory of God!" was the prayer of Rowland Hill all his life long; and in the spirit of this seraphic desire he spent and was spent, until he entered into rest. On her death-bed, Jerusha Edwards, Jonathan's second daughter, testified" that she had not seen one minute for several years, wherein she desired to live one minute longer, for the sake of any other good, but living to God and doing what might be for his glory." And as Elizabeth Fry was lying on the banks of Jordan, waiting till the feet of the High Priest should cause the waters to part, she too could address a beloved relative who was watching her, in these words: "My dear R, I can say one thing-since my heart was touched at seventeen years old, I believe I never have awakened from sleep, in sickness, or in health, by day or by night, without my first waking thought being, how best I might serve my Lord."

At the early period Mrs Fry alludes to, and for too long after, it cannot admit of a doubt that she knew the way of life imperfectly. Yet her eye must even then have been opened; and though her vision was so impotent, that she confounded "men with trees," holiness with pardon, the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Ghost,-nevertheless she no longer walked with the blind. The world was renounced, and "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." To be holy in the sight of God, to be useful among the sons of men, was her pure ambition.

"To him that hath shall be given." "Faithful in little," Elizabeth Fry was soon entrusted with much. The darkness was wholly scattered from her soul. As truly as she had disallowed the world, she was led to abandon her own righteousness. Christ

VOL. XXI. NO. III.

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became her "all in all," and she could gladly say, "I am nothing, I have nothing; I am poor, miserable, naked, helpless. I can do nothing, but my Saviour is every thing-all-sufficientmy light, my life, my joy, my eternal hope of glory. I know my foundation to be sure; I feel the Rock always underneath me."

Simple faith is strong faith. Elizabeth Fry believed, and believing was the immediate and prolific root of every hallowed grace. Her path was now that of all the justified, and like the morning light it waxed brighter and brighter, until she rose in meridian splendour on the firmament above. "Seeing that I can not only sing a song of praise, but testify that I have found (however He may hide His face for a season) that help is laid upon one who is Mighty, who remains an all-sufficient Saviour, may no humiliating thing, no love of the world, nor undue devotion to my natural claims and lawful callings, in any degree prevent my cleaving very closely in spirit to my God, or preferring Him and His service to my chief joy. May I never mistake my natural ease and liberty of mind for the perfect freedom of the service of Christ." (Vol. ii., p. 64.) "It is, I believe, one of the most important points in the Christian life, if we find ourselves trifling in thought, word, or deed, immediately to fly to the fountain that is set open for the unclean, that we may at once be cleansed and obtain peace with God, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. O! for a little help this day to come to the living fountain, that I may be fitted for my Master's service, and enter it with a quiet mind." (Vol. ii., p. 136.) "I very earnestly desire to feel continually that I am not my own, but bought with a price; therefore I am the Lord's servant, and must do as I am bidden, even if the service called for appear to me unreasonable." (Vol. ii., p. 249.)

These passages leave us in no doubt as to the principle that governed Elizabeth Fry. It was the love of God reconciled to her. She dwelt under the shadow of the Cross, and "her fruit was unto holiness, the end of which is everlasting life." The previous volume of her biography showed us this; and, in going over its instructive pages, we could not fail to remark that the spring had been salted, the streams were so fair. But in the volume now before us, we apprehend that the sanctifying influence of the Cross is more fully developed. Christ the foundation—tried, sure, precious, only-comes impressively and uniformly into view, whilst the superstructure it bears, is indeed the silver and gold, and rarest gems of Christian well-doing. Having given herself to the Lord, and feeling how worthy he is of the surrender, Elizabeth Fry was fain that all mankind should receive his blessed yoke. As was meet, she began at home, and

most anxiously did she weigh every expedient for leading each member of her family to the Saviour she had found. Her immediate neighbourhood was likewise an object of incessant, prayerful, and discreet solicitude. The denomination to which she belonged received a large portion of her time and service; and in nothing was she more energetic than in her desire to advance the cause of salvation within its pale. But yet Elizabeth Fry was neither a bigot to her views, nor sectarian in her exertions. Her charity embraced the world itself.

"Never allow

"As far as I can see, home has my first call of duty." the boys to be out alone in the evening, nor to attend any public place of amusement with any person, however pressing they may be. I advise thy seeing that they never talk when going to bed, but retire quietly after reading a portion of the Holy Scriptures. In the morning, that they be as quiet as possible, and learn their Scripture texts when dressing." (Vol. ii., p. 146.) "We returned home by the steam-packet. I believed it right to enter into a little conversation with most of the passengers, and to give them tracts. Also, as the way opened for it, to throw a little weight into the right scale." (Vol. ii., p. 8.) "These journeys are, I trust, not lost time. We have two Scripture readings daily in the carriage, and much instructive conversation; also abundant time for that which is so important, the private reading of the Holy Scripture." (Vol. ii., p. 279.) "After the British Society Report was read, I endeavoured to show the awful extent of existing crime, and the suffering and sorrow produced by it,-how far the conduct of the higher classes may influence that of the lower, and tend, in many ways to increase the evil, -by ladies not setting a religious example to their servants,-by not keeping the Sabbath strictly,-by very late hours, and attending public places, by vanity in dress, and by hurrying mantua-makers and milliners, and so causing them to overwork and oppress their young women, by not paying their bills themselves, or through some confidential person, but trusting them to young or untried servants, thus leading to dishonesty on their parts, or that of the tradespeople,-by allowing their maid-servants, or char-women, to begin to wash at unseasonable hours, and consequently to require ardent spirits to support them. Thus I represented how much they might do to promote good and discourage evil, by educating the poor religiously in infant and other schools,-by watching over girls after they leave schools until placed in service, and by providing for them suitable religious and instructive books. These things I had forcibly and freely to express." (Vol. ii. 145.) " One evening Guizot dined with Mrs Fry's party. Mrs Fry entreated his attention to the state of the Sandwich Islands. She had received from Kamehameha III., the king, a letter entreating her good offices to second his endeavours to prohibit the importation and use of spirituous liquors, the baneful and demoralizing effects of which he stated to be lamentable." (Vol. ii. p. 455.)

"I will speak of thy testimonies before kings, and not be

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ashamed," was at once the resolve and attainment of David. David must be the believer everywhere, and not by constraint, but in all boldness. It is something not to deny my faith, amid the glitter of a court, and its scorn. It is more, "to make mention" of the Prince to whose retinue I belong, and to declare how honourable he is. After all, however, it is the manner and the tone in which the avowal is made, that is the criterion of my loyalty and love. As much depends on the "not being ashamed," as on the speaking of God's testimonies before kings." Christ may be acknowledged with so much bashfulness, and commended with so fluttering a hesitancy, that perhaps silence would have answered a better purpose than confession. It was the overflowing delight and frank decision that imbued every word David spoke when he went in to cheer away the melancholy of Saul, and that equally characterized Daniel before Belshazzar, and Paul in the presence of Agrippa, which sealed their message;it was the cheek that blushed not, and the lip that never faltered when God was named, which made their testimony so resistless. The unreflecting may conceive that nothing is easier than to harangue a monarch, or warn a noble; and certainly if blunt impertinence might stand for wise fidelity, this would be true enough. But the marvellous tact of Knox is needed equally with his consummate boldness, when such as Mary or Morton are addressed. The insinuation of the courtier must be united to the magnanimity of the Christian; And among the few of our day, to whom this high praise can be awarded, Elizabeth Fry stands, perhaps, in the foremost rank. It matters not whether her walk lies among the rich or the great, the powerful or the titled-nobles or princes,—she realized God above them all, and never left their presence without a memorial of holiness and a lesson of duty.

"The next day we were at the humble Methodist shoe-maker's, they having procured a little fresh butter, that I might take tea under their roof." (Vol. ii. p. 132.) "At Brussels we dined at M. le Comte de

In the party was the Dean, the head of the church here. It was a critical thing to know what to say. Mrs Fry said, 'Will the Dean allow me to speak my mind candidly?" His permission being given, and that of the Count and Countess, Mrs Fry began by expressing the sincere interest she felt for the inhabitants of this city, and how much she had been desiring for them, that as a people, they might each place less confidence in men and in the forms of religion, and look to Christ with an entire and simple faith."" The priest said nothing. (Vol. ii. p. 358.) "It has been striking to me in our dinner-visits, (at Paris,) some of them splendid occasions, how curiously our way has opened without the least formality, or even difficulty in conversation to speak the truth in love, especially one day, as to how far balls and theatres were Christian and