ends. The Gospel was never thought of when Cook landed at Otaheite. Yet see the change! I can only draw a general conclusion from the circumstance. But there is more in contemplation in the eye of Providence than can be drawn by the most reflecting mind from the events of the most interesting narrative. "I shall see him, but not now, I shall behold him, but not nigh; there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel'." The star travelled with the wise men from Chaldea, till it became fixed over the revealed Saviour at Jerusalem. The manifestation of Christ is still in progress; nor will it cease till the Gospel of "the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations "."

But in casting my eye over the extensive labours of a missionary life, I must not omit other duties, with which we ought to be better acquainted—the mission which presents itself to us at home. And if I add, that this is preparatory to the great and comprehensive plan for the conversion of a world, I trust that I should begin at the right point. Even under the pleasing duties of a parish minister, he cannot but feel discouraged by the carelessness of some, and the obstinate resistance of others, neither of whom he can by any means consider as converts of the Gospel. Here there is ample scope for missionary labours within a narrow

compass.

1 Numb. xxiv. 17.

2 Matt. xxiv. 14.

An eminent and eloquent divine, though not of our Church, produces this argument in favour of national establishments of religion.

"An establishment," he says, "when rightly viewed, has greatly more in it of the character and power of a missionary operation. It may be regarded as an universal home mission. It works aggressively over all the land. That was a prodigious progressive movement which it made at the outset, when it first planted its churches, and chalked out its parishes, and so caused the voice of the Gospel to be heard throughout the whole length and breadth of the territory. And, then, if rightly followed up, we shall discern in its internal workings the same character; for each minister in his own little vineyard is provided with ample scope, and is placed in the best vantage-ground for the high and holy functions of a Christian missionary. It is true that his pulpit is stationary, and there must be some predisposition for Christianity among those families of his people, who are drawn to it by a process of attraction on the Sabbath. But his power is moveable; and by a process of aggression through the week, he can go forth among all the families of his people, even among those who have as little of predisposition for Christianity as exists in the remotest wilds of Paganism. We have not to traverse oceans and continents in order to perform the essential work of a missionary, or to assail an immortal spirit which is not in quest of salvation for itself, with the

calls and overtures of Heaven's high embassy. There is a moral as well as a physical distance which must be overcome; and in the act of doing it, the parochial clergyman may have to face such difficulties, and to force his way through such barriers of dislike, or prejudice, or delicacy, that in the prosecution of his calling, he may, without half a mile of loco-motion, earn the proudest triumphs, and discharge the most arduous functions; and, in short, evince all the sound characteristics of a most deep and devoted missionary. We must not overlook the great Christian good achieved, whether in those rare and transient visitations by which they intersect our land, or in that multitude of fabrics, where they permanently emanate the lessons of the Gospel, and by which they have beautified, with frequent spots of surpassing verdure, the face of our island1."

1 The Use and Abuse of Literary and Ecclesiastical Endowments, by Thomas Chalmers, D.D. 1827.

THE

SPRING-FAST, OR LENT'.

"THE antiquity of Lent is plain by these testimonies following, Chrysos. Serm. II. Chrysos. in Heb. x. 9. Ethic. Cyril. Catech. 5. Aug. Ep. 119. That forty days should be observed before Easter, the custom oj the Church hath confirmed. Hieron. ad Marcellam. One fast in the year, of forty days, we keep at a timɩ convenient, according to the tradition of the apostles.— This forty days' fast of Lent was taken up by holy Church in imitation of Moses and Elias in the Ol Testament; but principally in imitation of our Savi our's fast in the New Testament, Aug. Ep. 119 That we might, as far as we are able, conform to Chrisť. practice, and suffer with him here, that we may reign with him hereafter?"—" As for the institution, uncertain it is from whom to derive it. Jerome (ut supra) ascends to apostolical tradition. Nor strictly so, as I conceive, but according to the latitude of the language,

The Author has varied the subjects during Lent, that they may be read, as they were written, for the contemplation of each day. 2 Sparrow's Rationale.

or conception of those times, wherein the same Jerome tells us, Every province accounts the precepts of their ancestors, as apostolical ordinances. But though its derivation possibly will not reach so far, yet considering that Origen, Tertullian, and the council of Laodicea, mention it, it must be allowed for very ancient 1."

For a further discussion of this question, see the Appendix.

1 L'Estrange, p. 140.