habitants whither to rush first, in order to extinguish the devouring element. If we look at London, its spiritual aspects are terrific! Such, too, although in a diminished ratio, is the case of all the great towns and cities of Britain. Ireland cries aloud for help to its perishing millions; the British Colonies are in a fair way to double their population at an early day, and while digging up gold by tons' weight, they are in danger of dying for lack of the bread of life. Casting the eye abroad to the general field of Foreign Missions, that field is everywhere "white to the harvest;" but while that harvest is most plentiful, the labourers are few. The whole world is now open to the Christian evangelist. Madagascar, so long closed, has, at length, opened its gates to the commerce of England, and the Missionary will speedily follow in the wake of the merchant. Under these circumstances, the cause of Gospel diffusion has now attained to a magnitude of importance never reached before. It is our duty, then, as we occupy the watch-tower, to sound the trumpet, and to take good heed that the sound shall be certain. On the present occa sion, therefore, we shall introduce a gentleman of the first respectability, and the most thorough competency, to give his views of the immediate position of the great question of Missions. At the recent meetings of the Evangelical Alliance, among the many most important Papers that were introduced, was one by Dr. Angus, whose summary is as follows: 1. The income of all our Missionary Societies does not equal a hundredth part of the sum raised in Great Britain in taxation, nor does it amount to a tenth of the sum annually spent on tobacco, or to a hundredth part of the cost to the country of intoxicating drinks. 2. The income of individuals in England and Scotland who have upwards of £150 a year amounts to more than £250,000,000. Were they each to give one-fifth per cent., 4s. for every £100 of income, one-twelfth of the present Income-tax, the amount of their contributions would exceed all that is now raised for the support of Our Missions. 3. Estimating the number of professing Christians at only 3,000,000, a penny a week from each, for the conversion of the world, would raise nearly a half more than is now raised. And on examining the statistics of particular Societies, this estimate is confirmed: the income of the Baptist Missionary £6,000 of what would be obtained if Society, for example, falling short by each of the members of the Baptist churches in this country gave a penny a week to this cause; and, estimated on the same principle, the income of the United Presbyterian Missions, in several respects among the most prosperous, would be augmented from £16,000 to upwards of £30,000 a year. Will any one affirm, with these facts in view, that British Christians are doing all they can? 4. Or look at the wants of the world. In fifty years the British and Foreign Bible Society has issued 25,000,000 copies of the Scriptures in various languages. Of these 25,000,000, 15,000,000 lated chiefly at home; in all Europe were in English, and have been circuthe issues of the Bible Society, and of fifty-four European Bible Societies, have not exceeded this number. All Europe, therefore, has not had more in fifty years than we deem necessary for ourselves. In British India there is a population the British and Foreign Bible Society, of about 150,000,000. The issues of and of six East Indian Societies, including, in fact, all that has been done in fifty years, amount to barely 3,000,000 copies of Scripture, or of parts of Scripture. The vast empire of China has not received in all 130,000 copies of any part of the Bible. Africa, with its 150,000,000, has not had more than 50,000 copies. 5. Or to look at our Missions. There is in Bengal a population of upwards of 20,000,000, and, including its depen. dencies, of 70,000,000. That province contains some of the principal seats of British influence, and several central Missionary stations-as Calcutta, Benares, Orissa, Krishnaghur, and Mirzapore. The number of Missionaries connected with all evangelical Societies (both European and American) is about 100 (99); of native preachers and teachers, 120 (118). This proportion gives to each Missionary a population of 200,000: a similar proportion would give to London 10 evangelists, and to Great Britain 125. In fact, whole zillahs, containing each a population of 1,000,000 and upwards, have no Missionary; and others, as Jessore, Midnapore, Birbhum, Berhampore, and Dinajpore, have but one. Here we have an open field, a comparatively healthy climate (for the average deaths out of the 100 Missionaries have not of late exceeded two a year), every facility for prosecuting our work, and some of the most important Missionary districts in the world; and yet the number of agents is so small as to risk the success which, with greater faith and earnestness, we might certainly gain. 6. Grouping our facts more largely, it may be noticed that the number of Missionaries supported by all English Missionary Societies does not reach 1,100,-a number not larger than the number of Christian ministers labouring in London alone. In all Europe the amount expended by English Missionary Societies is under £12,000, though it is certain that openings for usefulness in that field may be found on every hand, and there the Man of Sin is to be overcome. India, with its millions, has fewer labourers than the county of Lancaster; while in China, in South America, in Hayti, and in Africa, our work has only begun. In truth, the great lesson of the past is as much humility as thankfulness, humility, that we should ever have faltered in our toils, and that those toils should have been at best so inadequate and unworthy; and thankfulness, that God has been pleased so signally to own and bless them. One question more remains-What prospect is there of enlarged effort and greater success in coming years? It is confessed that while much has been done, incomparably more remains to be done. During the time the churches of Christ have been bringing into work the machinery which is now employed in instructing less than 1,000,000 persons, nearly two generations have twice passed to their account. It is confessed, too, that for some time the resources of some of our Missionary Societies have not been increasing. In particular instances there is even a diminution of income, and a consequent diminution of agency. Is this diminution to continue? or is Christian effort to be enlarged? Without affirming that the efforts of the churches of Christ will all be continued in their present form, it may be safely affirmed that there will be a large increase both of effort and success, on two conditions-first, that we place greater reliance for contributions on principle and habit; and secondly, for success on the promised blessing of the Spirit. 1. The first of these conditions is intended to deny that we are doing all we can, and that novelty or excitement is essential to our vigour; and the second, to affirm that the great want of the Church is a profounder, more healthy, habitual conviction of our dependence. At the outset much was done in connection with Missions from excitement; nor can we condemn this spring of action. It means, in relation to our work, strong earnest feeling either of pity for the heathen, or of discontent with the world and ourselves as they are, combined with an ill-defined desire to do something to improve them. It is impulsive rather than thoughtfulnatural, perhaps, rather than gracious; it is common to the commencement of every great enterprise-it is common to the young of every age. Its defect is, that it grows feebler by repetition, and is certainly not the noblest motive of action. Let its place, then, be supplied in the Christian Church by principle; let the conviction grow and spread that we are the salt of the earth, preserving or recovering it from decay; that a stewardship of the Gospel has been committed unto us; that our great example is the self-denying life of our Lord, and that we are to be conformed even to his death. Let all classes, moreover, young and old, be trained to act in accordance with these convictions, and we have no fear: excitement will prove feebler than rooted self-sacrificing love, and impulse than habit; present contributions will be but as drops before the shower; agents will be multiplied-we shall count them by thousands, and the income of our Missions by millions; while the spirit of consecration which those gifts will betoken will secure a band of self-supporting agents, who, in the discharge of their daily callings, will go everywhere," as of old, "preaching the word." Let any one think over the donations of those who give under the influence of these motives, and who give habitually, and the moral force of these springs of action will at once appear. Let such examples become the rule, instead of being, as now, the exception, and the Church will have enough to meet the wants of the world. 2. But we need to combine with these habits a more devout spirit of dependence. The theoretic truth of our dependence-for gifts, for grace, for success of both-we all allow; it is part of our creed: but we need (if one may speak for the rest) to have it wrought into the very substance of our minds. The activity of the times, the appeals of all sections of the Church for increased effort, make this dependence the more difficult. To be active and humble, to labour and pray, to identify ourselves with the noblest cause and yet feel our nothingness, is one of the hardest lessons of the Divine life. Let it be learnt and practised, showing its power in the increase of the Church's humility, and love, and prayer, and this truly Pentecostal spirit will be accompanied with Pentecostal success; God will give the increase, multitudes will be added to the Church; not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord, a temple will be reared above the tops of the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it. The Counsel Chamber. DANIEL WEBSTER, AN EXAMPLE TO YOUNG MEN. FRIENDS,-Mr. Charles Lanman, Mr. | in flames!" He was also an intense Webster's Private Secretary, has just published the "Private Life" of the great Orator and Statesman, in which there are many things calculated to prove beneficial to you. First, he was an early riser, and he often stated that he owed the bulk of his acquirements to this habit. His Secretary lodged in his house, and as his bed-room looked out upon the rising sun, he has frequently, at dawn, in his night-dress, stepped into the apartment, to enjoy the sight of the sky; and on many occasions he aroused Mr. Lanman with some such language as "Awake! sluggard, and look upon this glorious scene, for the sky and the ocean are enveloped labourer, and never failed to inculcate upon his young friends, whatever might be their genius or native power, the necessity of exertion. He ever held that, other things being equal, he that works the hardest would succeed the best. But while he wrought hard, he was not negligent of the laws of nature and the conditions of health; he was fond of out-door recreations, and made time for them on all occasions. Again, | he never played a game of chess, or billiards, or ten-pins, in his life. He was equally ignorant of cards, save the game of whist, with which, in the winter evenings, he sometimes amused himself. The great fact on which we are anxious to fix the mind of the Young Men of England, is, that Daniel Webster, one of the mightiest spirits of either the New World or the Old, was a most devoted student of the Sacred Scriptures. Mr. Lanman has done excellent service by the fidelity with which he has recorded this fact, which a man of another spirit would, perhaps, have concealed, deeming it derogatory to the glory of his hero. Let us hear our Author: widely from most of his contemporaries in public life; as he read and admired the Bible for its eloquence, so did he venerate it for its sacredness. The writer cannot refrain from quoting the following passage from the pen of one, though anonymous, who seems to have fully appreciated the correctness of Mr. Webster's religious views and tastes: "It was our fortune," says he, "to pass several days at his home in Marshfield, some six or eight years ago; and well we remember one beautiful night, when the heavens seemed to be studded with countless myriads of stars, that, about nine o'clock in the evening, we walked out and stood beneath the beautiful weeping elm which raises its majestic form within a few paces of his dwelling, and, looking up through the leafy branches, he appeared for several minutes to be wrapped in deep thought, and at length, as if the scene, so soft and beautiful, had suggested the lines, he quoted certain verses of the eighth Psalm, beginning with the words, When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour,' &c. Mr. Webster's attachment to the Bible has already been mentioned; índeed, he loved and he read that priceless volume as it ought to be loved and read; and he once told the writer that he could not remember the time when he was unable to read a chapter therein. He read it aloud to his family on every Sunday morning. and often delivered extempore sermons of great power and eloquence. He never made a journey without carrying a copy with him; and the story of the Saviour, or the prophecies of Isaiah, never sounded so eloquent to the writer as when coming from his lips. Those admitted to the intimacy of his conversation alone can tell of the eloquent fervour with which "The deep, low tone in which he rehe habitually spoke of the inspired writ-peated these inspired words, and the ings; how much light he could throw on a difficult text; how much beauty lend to expressions that would escape all but the eye of genius; what new vigour he could give to the most earnest thought; and what elevation even to sublimity. It would be impossible, as C.W. March has said, for any one to listen half an hour to one of his dissertations on the Scriptures, and not believe either in their inspiration, or in his. And yet, while his private conversations and public productions attest how deeply he was imbued with the spirit of the Scriptures, neither the one nor the other ever contained the slightest irreverent allusion to any passage in them, anything in the way of illustration, analogy, or quotation, which would seem to question their sanctity. He was scrupulously delicate in this respect; and therein differed deep, rapt attention with which he gazed up through the branches of the elm, struck us with a feeling of greater awe and solemnity than we ever felt when, in a year or two later, we visited some of the most magnificent cathedrals of the old world, venerable with the ivy of centuries, and mellowed with the glories of a daily church service for a thousand years. He was thinking then of that far distant world, wherein it is promised that the good of this life shall live for ever and ever. We remained out beneath the tree for over an hour, and all the time he conversed about the Scriptures, which no man has studied with greater attention, and of which no man whom we ever saw knew so much, or appeared to understand or appreciate so well. "He talked of the books of the Old Testament especially, and dwelt with unaffected pleasure upon Isaiah, the Psalms, and especially the Book of Job. The Book of Job, he said, taken as a mere work of literary genius, was one of the most wonderful productions of any age or any language. As an epic | poem he deemed it far superior to either the Iliad or the Odyssey. The two last, he said, received much of their attraction from the mere narration of warlike deeds, and from the perilous escapes of the chief personage from slaughter; but the Book of Job was a purely intellectual narrative. Its power was shown in the dialogues of the characters introduced. The story was simple in its construction, and there was little in it to excite the imagination or arouse the sympathy. It was purely an intellectual production, and depended upon the power of the dialogue, and not upon the interest of the story, to produce its effects. This was considering it merely as an intellectual work. He read it through very often, and always with renewed delight. In his judgment, it was the greatest epic ever written. "We well remember his quotation of some of the verses in the thirty-eighth chapter: Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding,' &c. Mr. Webster was a fine reader, and his recitation of particular passages which he admired was never surpassed, and was capable of giving the most exquisite delight to those who could appreciate them." In further illustration of this feeling, the following, from the pen of Francis Hall, Esq., of the New York Commercial Advertiser, is deeply interesting: "Some years ago," says he, "we had the pleasure of spending several days in company with Mr. Webster, at the residence of a mutual friend, Harvey Ely, Esq., at Rochester. During that intercourse we had more than one opportunity of conversing on religious subjects, sometimes on doctrinal points, but more generally on the importance of the Holy Scriptures, as containing the plan of man's salvation through the atonement of Christ. So far as our knowledge of the subject extends, Mr. Webster was as orthodox as any man we ever conversed with. "On one occasion, when seated in the drawing-room with Mr. and Mrs. Ely, Mr. Webster laid his hand on a copy of the Scriptures, saying, with great emphasis, 'This is the book!' This led to a conversation on the importance of the Scriptures, and the too frequent neglect of the study of the Bible by gentlemen of the legal profession, their pursuits in life leading them to the almost exclusive study of works having reference to their profession. Mr. Webster said, 'I have read through the entire Bible many times. I now make a practice to go through it once a year. It is the book of all others for lawyers as well as for divines; and I pity the man that cannot find in it a rich supply of thought, and of rules for his conduct. It fits man for life-it prepares him for death!' "The conversation then turned upon sudden deaths; and Mr. Webster adverted to the then recent death of his brother, who expired suddenly at Concord, N. H. My brother,' he continued, knew the importance of Bible truths. The Bible led him to prayer, and prayer was his communion with God. On the day on which he died, he was engaged in an important cause in the court then in Session. But this cause, important as it was, did not keep him from his duty to his God. He found time for prayer; for on the desk which he had just left was found a prayer written by him on that day, which, for fervent piety, a devotedness to his Heavenly Master, and for expressions of humility, I think was never excelled.'" Mr. Webster had a curious mode of correcting juvenile offenders, which may be useful to parents, and especially to teachers, both of Day and of Sunday-schools: It is well known that Mr. Webster was quite original in all his "little ways," as well as his great ones; but in none was he more so than in his habit of punishing his children. Whenever he wished to punish one of his |