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before me under the specious guise of a way of access. A way of access! Jesus himself is the way, the one way, the only way to the presence of God the Father; and neither man, living or dead, neither angels, nor ordinances, nor works of any kind, nor any power whatever but that of the Holy Spirit alone, can lead me and keep me in that way. Were there even no sin, no gross dishonour put upon the Lord, by building up such vain obstructions between him and the souls that he has redeemed, the folly of the thing is sufficiently glaring to deter any rational being from doing it. That same Jesus who ascended from earth to heaven is there now, and shall come again to earth. In the days of his sojourn here, he was very loving, compassionate, and ready to help the meanest, the poorest, who drew nigh to him in faith. Does my correspondent believe that he is less so now? that in order to engage his regards we must call upon the favoured woman, who was made the mother of his human nature, and the disciples who followed him, and the angels who ministered unto him, and the intervening ceremonies of pageants that certainly were not dreamed of by the gifted church of old,-that we must call upon these and such like interventions, in order to realize communion with the Redeemer of our souls? Let her but read the Gospel of John, or even the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth chapters of it, and she will wonder at the force of her own delusion.

"Chris

In deep bumility, I can yet dare to say, loved me, and gave himself for me"-what more do I need? "By faith I am saved, through grace,' what else do I require? Sanctification, conformity to the mind, and will, and example of my Lord, I do

need; and that, blessed be the word of His good promise! I am assured of receiving, through the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. God did not work an imperfect work, for man to mend, to patch up, to adorn with his own fripperies; "He is the Rock; his way is perfect;" and in the perfection of that way, the completeness of that glorious work, I rest. I will not wrong the love and truth of Jesus by suspecting his willingness to fulfil his own word; "He that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." I will not insult his Majesty by supposing that he needs the co-operation of any created thing in carrying out his sovereign designs. I will not give to the highest angel in heaven one iota of the glory due to him who is the alone propitiation for my sins: much less will I scrape together a bundle of the filthy rags of my own or other people's supposed righteousness, as a make-weight in the price of my ransom from hell, paid to the justice of the Almighty Father, whose tender mercy both provided and accepts it, in the costly sacrifice of His Son. Oh, my friend, kindly desirous of winning me from the contemplation of these unclouded glories, turn, yourself, and look upon them. The heart of Jesus yearns towards you; his hand is outstretched to welcome and to bless you. Your teachers belie him when they tell you that mediators, and ceremonies, and penances, and viatica, and purgatorial fires intervene between you and the Lord who bought you. It was no half price that he paid; it was no unfinished work that he engaged in he purchased you wholly, with all your sins, which his blood will wash away, and all your sorrows, which his tender compassion will soothe. He is willing to be wholly yours, as a husband, taking

on himself your debts, and endowing you with all his vast possessions, his peace, his righteousness, his throne. Ought you not to be wholly his? Why do you defraud him? What mean those prayers addressed to Mary, to Peter, to Paul? Whence that wrongful plea, including the merits of fellow-sinners, who themselves were only saved by free, unpurchased grace? What has that sculptured crucifix, graven by art and man's device, to do with Him who reigns eternal in the heavens?

If my prayer is heard, dear sister, a ray of light will break upon you, dispelling at once the darkness into which you erroneously but in sincere kindness invite me to enter; and in that hope I subscribe with my whole heart, and without reserve, my whole

name.

CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH TONNA.

FROM Jonah's dark dwelling in the lowest deep, to the unearthly light that awakened the three upon the mount; from the almost hell of the contrite and broken-hearted penitent, to the almost heaven of assured faith and love;-who that has ever eaten of the “meat indeed," and drunk of the “drink indeed," or hungered and thirsted for it when he could not, can be a stranger to the strong emotion of desire, of almost prayer, that would ask, if it might,— "Lord, why not now?"-Sunday Afternoons at Home.

Review of Books.

SUNDAY AFTERNOONS AT HOME. By the Author of "Christ our Example," &c.-Seeleys.

To say that a great desideratum is here well supplied, would be saying far too little it is a book of extraordinary merit and beauty. The style, precisely that by which the young are most surely attracted : short, pithy sentences, full of meaning; animated though serious; and frequently deepening into a pathos really touching. The first of these essays would tempt any reader of ordinary feeling to go on; and though a very brilliant, it is still a fair sample of the whole book. We have read all that has been written by this accomplished authoress; and much both of instruction and gratification have we found in her pages: but in our estimation this volume, both in its design and in its execution, is the flower of the whole bouquet. No family can

Jack the most pleasing, most profitable employment for the "Sunday afternoon" reading hours of their young people, while they have this volume on their table.

THE CONVICT SHIP; a narrative of the results of scriptural instruction and moral discipline as these appeared on board the "Earl Grey," during the voyage to Tasmania: with brief notices of individual prisoners. By Colin Arnott Browning, M.D., Surgeon, R. N. Author of "England's Exiles," &c.— Smith, Elder and Co.

IT is overpowering to think on the nature, the extent, and the brilliancy of the "crown of rejoicing" that awaits the author of these books in the great day, if, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he shall enabled so to persevere as he has begun. Of all the missionary works ever undertaken by uninspired men we do regard this as the most distinguished; and the teacher is one whom God hath raised up, and set apart, and sent forth, without the intervening hand of man. He goes to a far distant land, through all the perils of the stormy deep, -and who are they whom he goes to instruct? Even his countrymen, his neighbours, those who have lived under the same government and laws, and have, nominally, enjoyed the same privileges with himself, but who, for their crimes are cast forth from society, "fast bound in misery and iron," and looked on as the rejected scum of the earth. We take up a newspaper, glance at the trial of some foul criminal, and shuddering at

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