6

of the good part, God will forgive the bad part, and make up—not a whole righteousness, they do not think they require that but what they lack, out of his mercies in Christ. Now there can be no greater deception or lie of the devil than this, for he who depends in part or in whole on his own righteousness will surely be damned. I write strongly. This truth is so important to be received that I can use no other word.-It is the truth of God."

THE BLOOD.

speaking of his unsaved brethren after the flesh: My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.' "Now observe; here are a people very anxious to please God. Speaking by the Holy Ghost, Paul bears them record that they have a zeal of God. Still they were an unsaved people: their zeal, their desire to please God, could not in itself save them; they could not be accepted simply for their zeal's sake. Why not? He tells us,-because their zeal was not according to knowledge.' They were seeking salvation, but "The destroyer had smitten the Egypnot in God's way; and consequently, with tians, but how is it that no Israelite is all their seeking, they had not found what smitten? Amongst the Egyptians there they wanted. What was their error? The is one dead in every house! Amongst the third and fourth verses of the chapter are Israelites there is not one dead! The simple in their explanation. For they judgment that had destroyed the one had being ignorant of God's righteousness, and not come near the other; the one had all going about to establish their own righteous- perished; the others were all unharmed. ness, have not submitted themselves unto the How was this? You will at once say, and righteousness of God. For Christ is THE rightly say, 'THE BLOOD!' It was the END OF THE LAW FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS to blood and the blood only that made the differevery one that believeth.' Here was their ence. Death had been abroad, but under error: and the fact that they were unsaved the shelter of that blood the Israelites had proves that it was A SOUL-DESTROYING ERROR: rested safely. God had made known to they were ignorant of the righteousness which them his way of salvation, and they had God in Christ has provided for his people; accepted it; and now the judgment has they knew nothing of Christ the end of the passed and they are saved, every one." law FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS, and so were seeking to please and propitiate him by establishing a righteousness of their own.

"Now the sinner, anxious about his soul, is not called on to seek to propitiate God by a righteousness of his own, or, in other words, by a series of reformations and repentances, so that for these things' sake God may be favourably disposed towards him. This is what these unsaved Israelites did in zeal, but not according to knowledge; but he is called upon, as the very first thing he does, to accept CHRIST-to begin with him; and the moment he does so, he begins not at the beginning, but at the end of the law, with all its requirements perfectly fulfilled and kept for him; and he has in Christ a righteousness for the sake of which, in God's sight, he appears unblamable, unreprovable, spotless, Christ the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth.'

"There is another thing I would observe before I leave this subject, namely, that a sinner cannot be saved half in the righteous

ness

which Christ is made unto him, and half in his own righteousness. He cannot keep what he considers the good bits of his life, and patch up the remainder with the gift of Christ.

"I believe multitudes are perishing under the delusion that this is possible; they find it harder to part with righteous self' than with 'sinful self.' They think that their life has not been altogether so bad as it might have been, and that, for the sake

SONGS IN THE NIGHT.

"I believe there is nothing that honours God more, or that God more honours, than praising him in tribulation. Few men know what a talent he commits to their charge when he gives them bitter waters. When did Paul ever honour God more than when at midnight in the inner prison, his back cut to pieces by the Roman whips, and his feet made fast in the stocks, he prayed and sang praises to God? And when did God ever honour Paul more than when, through the instrumentality of those prayers and praises, he brought the jailer to his feet with the question—'What must I do to be saved?' Paul was caught up into the third heaven, and he thanked and praised God for the honour and glory. Yet I never heard of anybody who was converted by that portion of Paul's history: but who can count the numbers that owe their soul's salvation to the answer given to the jailer's question-Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved '! And we never should have had that Scripture if Paul had murmured in the inner prison instead of singing praises.

"Job said, "The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away: blessed be the name of the Lord.' And the Lord said, 'In all this Job sinned not.' Job said, 'Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil?' And the Lord said, 'In all this did not Job sin with his lips.' Twice

obey his commandments and rest on his promises, the more we prove our love to him, and the more may we expect him to manifest his love to us. And it is not at the waters of Marah only, but because I never find these Israelites praising God

in ten verses it is recorded of Job by the Holy Ghost that he acted when tried so that God could and did say of him, 'In all this did not Job sin.' As far as I know, such a testimony was never vouchsafed to any other human being, the man Christ Jesus alone excepted. And God thus for anything they did not like, that honoured Job because Job honoured God and blessed him in his affliction. (See Job i. 22 and ii. 10.)

"God's commandment to his people is, 'Give thanks for all things.' 'Be content with such things as you have.' God's promise is, I will never leave you nor forsake you.' And the more literally we

I judge them as I do, and say that they mistook love of self for love of God. The publicans and sinners would have praised God on the shores of the Red Sea; not to have done so would have been unnatural; but the true Israelite, the man who really loved God, would have praised him also at the waters of Marah.

THE ENGLISH "RAID" ACROSS THE TWEED.

BEFORE our next issue appears, the friendly invasion of Scotland by depu ties from the English Presbyterian Church, which is expected to produce such good results, and which has been so energetically organized by our excellent Synod Clerk, Dr. G. J. C. Duncan, will have taken place. As our readers know, the Free Church has with great cordiality arranged to give us a collection in March, in aid of our Church Extension movements in England. No one can foretell the sum which this collection will add to our needy treasury, but sanguine friends here have fixed it at nothing less than £10,000. This is a large sum; yet when we consider the action that has been publicly taken in the matter by the leaders and Presbyteries of the Free Church, and the strong deputation which is ready at the appointed signal to march across the border, we are disposed to believe that it will be nearly if not fully realized. To those who know what has been done of late years, in the way of planting new churches in populous towns and districts, and the many fields that are only waiting till our well-nigh drained resources shall have been so far recruited as to enable us to occupy them, this generous offer of help on the part of the Free Church will appear extremely seasonable and gratifying. Nor will the golden spoils which we expect our representatives to bring away with them when they set their faces southward, be the only, or even the best, fruit of this new kind of "raid." Having invested something in the English Presbyterian cause, we may reasonably hope that our Scottish brethren will be led to take a more lively interest in our work and its needs than they have done in the past; that the two Churches will be drawn more closely together; and that our Synod in England, thus strengthened, will be enabled to face the difficulties and duties of her position with increasing vigour and success. Meanwhile, let all our members who have friends in Scotland prepare them for the appeal that is to be made to their liberality. Rievers in the olden time depended for success on the suddenness and unexpectedness of their attacks, but the more publicity that is given to the present intended "raid," the more likely are the spoils to be great. Tempora mutantur.

Foreign Missions.

CHINA.

THIS month we are once more invited, or rather urged, to occupy new ground in China. The important city of Chin-Chew, about sixteen miles beyond Anhai, and about fifty miles to the north of Amoy, near the coast, is open to the Gospel; and, in the absence of any of our own missionaries, the honour is being put upon the native Christians at Anhai to attempt to open a station within its walls. How sad that at home we are still so crippled for want of men and means.

Mr. Smith, of Swatow, has been urged to come home for the benefit of his health, but with generous self-sacrifice declines doing so till some one can be found to take his place.

The tidings of an unusual blessing resting on the work in and around Baypay are also well fitted to stir us up to devout thanksgiving to God, and to persevering prayer that the right men and adequate means may be provided in this emergency.

It is gratifying to learn that meetings have been held during the past month, in behalf of the Foreign Missions, in London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds, and we trust they are but the first of many similar ones to be held annually throughout the congregations of our church.

In this way an interest wide spread and full of hope cannot fail to be excited throughout the Church in the mission work.

LETTER FROM THE REV. H. L.
MACKENZIE.

Swatow, December 29, 1865. MY DEAR MR. MATHESON,-I returned from my two months' sojourn at Amoy about ten days ago. I now feel as well and strong as I used to do, and have come back with a most pleasant and grateful recollection of my visit to my dear friends in Amoy. I not only enjoyed much pleasant social intercourse with them, but had also the privilege of benefiting by their experience in mission-work, and of seeing their plan and mode of working. I was strongly impressed with the conviction, that owing to similarity in church government and discipline, modes of worship, and general church life and habits, the Fo-keen and Tie-Chew churches connected with our mission will have little or no difficulty in becoming, to a great extent, one church; nor is the difference of dialect so great as to render this union impracticable. At all

events, when the much-desired day shall come when the two churches meet between Swatow and Amoy, they will readily and gladly recognise each other as sister churches.

About a month ago I wrote to Dr. Hamilton, giving some account of what I had seen in Amoy, and at some of the stations in the region around. Since that time I again visited, in company with Messrs. Douglas and Swanson, the Baypay district: it was on the occasion of the celebration of the Lord's Supper there on the first Sabbath of December. Truly it was a visit to rejoice one's heart, to make me thank God, and take courage. About four years ago I had seen Baypay; then some twenty or thirty people met in the chapel, and there was no work of special interest going on either in the village or in the district around. Now I saw the chapel overcrowded, between 150 and 200 people coming together from Baypay itself, and from a large number of villages in the surrounding

that movement, and I trust that what has I am sure that the Committee and all already been reaped will prove to be the the friends of the Mission will feel very harbinger of still more abundant fruits. At thankful to receive this news, and we are present in and around Baypay there are very hopeful that it may stir up God's more than two hundred persons who attend people at home to more fervent prayer worship and keep the Sabbath. In that and more enlarged efforts. number I include the members who have

Mr. McKenzie was very specially enalready been received into church-fellow-couraged by all he saw at Baypay. He ship. This large company come from vil- has seen no scene like it yet in China, and lages at greater or less distances from he could not help comparing it with what Baypay, and this feature makes the move- he saw at Baypay before he left this region ment all the more promising. The Gospel for Swatow. is taking root, as it were, over a wide expanse of country, and the way of the Evangelist is opened up to a large number of places.

Some weeks ago six persons were baptized at Liong-bun-si, and three persons at In-boe-Kio. On Sabbath, the 3rd instant, we dispensed the Communion at Baypay, and on that occasion the members and candidates from all the district were gathered together. Of course all could not come, and while we were meeting at Baypay, there were regular services being conducted both at Liong-bun-si and In-boe-Kio. Mr. Douglas and I were accompanied by Mr. McKenzie on the occasion, and I can assure you we were all made very glad and very thankful by what we were allowed to see. Our chapel was not merely filled on the occasion; it was crowded in every part, and we estimate that from 150 to 200

adults were present. This number of course represents a still larger; I refer to those who at the stations mentioned above were at worship at the same time.

While these persons were being baptized at Baypay, Mr. McGregor baptized one adult at E-mung-Kang.

We have been very much delighted here by a visit made to Amoy by Dr. Mullens from Calcutta. He has been on a round of visits to the stations of the London Missionary Society in China. It was deeply interesting to hear him tell of God's work in India, and to find that its difficulties and trials, its joys and sorrows, are so precisely similar to what we meet with here.

Mr. McKenzie has been thoroughly invigorated by his visit here, and we have felt his company to be a privilege and a blessing. He purposes to return to Swatow in a few days.

With best wishes,

I am, yours ever affectionately,
W. S. SWANSON.

CHINA.

WE need offer no apology for introducing the following opening paragraphs of a pamphlet on China by the Rev. J. H. Taylor, lately published by J. Nisbet and Co. Mr. Taylor was some years ago associated with Mr. Burns in mission work at Swatow and Shanghai, which should add to our interest in this stirring appeal in behalf of that empire whose cause we, as a Church, have so much at heart.

In the forenoon I baptized eleven adults (ten men and one woman), and in the afternoon Mr. Douglas dispensed the Communion. There were upwards of seventy communicants at the Lord's Table. Thus you will see that in the Baypay region, within the last month, we have admitted twenty adults to church-fellowship. These admissions have been made after most care"BELOVED BRETHREN IN OUR LORD,ful scrutiny and examination on our part. It is a solemn but truthful thought, that Many of them would have been received at our every act in this present life-and our an earlier date, but the disturbed state of every omission too-has a direct and imthe country shut up our way to the stations portant bearing both on our own future for a time; and, thereafter, on account of welfare, and on that of others. As bemy being left alone, and a very large amount of work in consequence falling upon me, I resolved to delay till the return of my brethren.

lievers, it behoves us to do whatsoever we

do in the name of the Lord Jesus. In his name, and with earnest prayer for his blessing, this paper is penned in his name, and with earnest prayer for his blessing,