Beeman, son of the late most excellent Mr. Isaac Beeman, bas, in this volume, given to the public a large and rich variety of "Notes of Lectures on Ritualism;" which are accompanied by extracts, and remarks worthy of the most careful attention at this conflicting crisis. Mr. Beeman has read, reviewed, and collected from, nearly all the ancient and modern productions of Protestants, Romanists, and Ritualists; and consequently, has an historical, well authenticated, and extensively illustrated record of the rise and progress, the true character, and the real tendency of the Ritualistic order, no better book, for its size and price, can be found; it is a charitable, comprehensive, and honest contribution to the literature of the present time; and will be gratefully appreciated by the faithful in the land.

Two

A Plague in the House. sermons preached in Feb. 1868, by the Minister of the Congregational Church, Lewisham (Mr. George Martin), have been published under the above title, by J. Paul, Chapter House Court, St. Paul's. Mr. Martin has with great clearness entered largely upon a review of the apostasy, the immorality, and the anti-righteous character of this great nation. No Christian man, whose eyes are open, whose conscience is awake, and whose knowledge of the Divine word is correct, can possibly read these sermons without exclaiming, "Alas! this is a dreadful report, but it is, unhappily, too true."

The Rock is a new, large, weekly penny paper, whose object is to oppose Ritualistic and Romanising encroachments; and to exhibit and contend for that earnest Protestantism which has been the strength and glory of this nation for many centuries. "The Rock" is printed and published by Mr. William Hill Collingridge, of the City Press, and is, certainly, thoroughly respectable, and must be a useful family paper. We take the following lines from one of its choice corners :

"Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."-Ps. xxx. 5.

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Mr. John Dixon's third part of the Autobiography of a Minister of the Gospel," is issued. Mr. Dixon has completed the written history of his ministerial pilgrimage in three sixpenny parts, which may be had of him at his residence, 17, Buckingham road, Kingsland gate, London, N.E. This last part contains "Mementoes of Seven Years' Itinerancy," and those persons who have any sympathy with such of the Lord's servants as are called to run in all directions to supply vacant pulpits, will here find a book full of incidents strikingly illustrative of the good spirit, the simplicity, the sincerity, and the Christian urbanity of the author. We should be very glad to hear that Mr. Dixon was comfortably settled in a useful pastorate again. If brethren in the provinces could read and recommend this "Seven Years' Memento" it might lead to such a result. Mr. Dixon enjoys good health, and appears as much fitted for pastoral labour as in any part of his life.

The Kingdom of Grace. This is a quarto map of a very singular kind ; THE STUDY of it (with the Bible, and a key to explain its different sections), would be, to the thoughtful Christian, a source of much comfort and edification. We can send six copies of this map, post free, for twelve stamps; and all intelligent Christians would, we think, gladly possess a We copy of it, if they could see it.

think a key to the map will be issued. If so, we shall give our readers some further description of this remarkable production which, at first, appeared as one of three maps, illustrating

"Magdalena's Voyages." That volume can still be had of Mr. Robert Banks for thirty-four stamps.

The Martyrdom of Latimer and Ridley, before Baliol College, Oxford, October 16th, 1555." Such is the inscription at the bottom of that large and interesting plate to which we have before referred. A copy of this plate, in a substantial and good gilt frame, may be seen at our office in Crane Court, and can be had for seven shillings and sixpence; or the plate can be sent, post free, for 19 stamps. The fathers to their children should present this plate as a present.

Christ All and in All. This is a new volume just published by J. R. Dickinson, Farringdon-street, containing over fifty sermons on the character and offices, the types and metaphors in which the Redeemer is revealed and spoken of in the Bible composed by that spiritual puritan, Ralph Robinson. It is a large storehouse of experimental and Gospel truth.

The Baptist Almanack, for 1868, is found useful in all the ministerial and private circles where it is known. It is still to be had, post free, for three stamps; or of any bookseller.

Our Own Fireside. A large sixpenny monthly magazine, still holds on its way with a large variety of historical, domestic, and scriptural papers, fully sustaining its title, and is alike honourable to the zeal and perseverance of its devoted editor, the Rector of St. Nicholas, Worcester.

Will all who are friendly to the circulation of "Cheering Words," remember, each year is bound up in volumes, with neat cover, for eightpence; or, post free, for nine stamps. We have many volumes of last year, some of 1866, and a few of the earlier years. We should be glad to send them out in all directions, if our readers would send us orders and stamps.

Fatal Apostasy. Such is the title and subject of a most searching and powerful discourse upon the sixth of Hebrews, by Mr. C. Cornwell, minisof Zion chapel, Stoke Newington Green. In reading it ourselves we

were both condemned and comforted. We feel certain the churches now require such discriminating and arousing discourses.

"LET ISRAEL HOPE IN THE LORD."

[The following is by a child of God who once wrote of herself in much darkness and almost despair.]

THE words you once wrote to me I now can believe: "Being confident of this one thing, that He which hath begun the good work in you will perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ."

"The work He hath begun, He'll surely carry on.' Oh, how sweet these lines are to me now! I can believe He hath begun, and also will carry it on. A long time I thought Him a hard Master; after I was driven out of the paradise of ignorance, I found Him to be a consuming fire. When He said, "Where art thou?" oh, how I did strive to hide me; and when I was obliged to appear, I sewed fig-leaves together to hide me, but it was no

use.

He could see through all that; and the more I strove to appease an angry God, the further I was off, until it was forced from me, "Thou art an hard Master." Oh, what would have become of me if the Lord had left me then fighting against Him? Bless His dear name, I do think He has taken away the heart of stone, and given me a heart of flesh. I wish I could praise Him for it as I want. I think I could always hear these words preached from, "He that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as He is pure.' What a contradiction to those who say we can live as we list, because we believe we are saved. Oh, no! It causes a faster clinging unto Him. I wish I could feel a daily losing my life for His sake; this is all I have to complain of, that I cannot serve Him as I would. E. L.

We are apt when we look at troubles to be terrified, but we do not know how great they are with blessings, it is for want of looking to Christ more under our afflictions.

A REVIEW OF THE GOSPEL MINISTRY.

(By a Correspondent in America.)

(Continued from page 57).

It is in the contemplation of these glorious realities, that my soul can and does rejoice, and that ministry that lifts me up from the things of time and sense, that raises me up out of myself to look unto and upon Him, is where I hear with and receive comfort. I find none in the ministry of law and bondage, that ministry that consists of and dwells for the most part on law and bondage, human depravity and experience thereof. The Lord has made me acquainted with the plague of my own heart, the sink of iniquity within, and has brought me under the law and its dominion, but I found no beauty there, no comfort, support or strength, but in support of such a ministry. It is said that a prisoner loves to hear the clanking of his fellowprisoner's chains. But what pleased me best was the words of my gracious Deliverer, "Loose him and let him go," that, my poor soul found to have the ring of the Gospel; it was good news and glad tidings. Paul says the law was but the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; and if the professed minister has been brought to Christ, received pardon, experienced delivering grace, has been made experimentally acquainted with the preciousness of Jesus he will be more enraptured with His beauties than with Moses. The person, office, and work of Christ will be more excellent than the mountains of prey, and his (the minister's) thoughts will be more engrossed with the purity of His sacrifice, than the corruptions of the flesh, 66 'the promise was not through the law," the law worketh wrath" saith the apostle, as Hart has beautifully expressed it,

"Law and terrors do but harden,

All the while they work alone, But a sense of blood-bought pardon, Soon dissolves the heart of stone. But to the soundness of this I have met with some objectors, though Hart has Paul on his side, "if the law hath dominion over us then are

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we yet dead in our sins," but if we have by the body of Christ become dead to the law it hath no dominion over us, we no longer serve the law but Christ who is "the end of the law to every one that believeth." Notice the Saviour's commands to his disciples "Feed my sheep,' Feed my lambs ;" and by His apostle feed the flock of God," "feed the flock of slaughter," "take heed to feed the church of God," &c., &c. And pray what is this feeding? is it the law, is it bondage, is it the evils of our heart, is it even the experience thereof, is it doubt and fears, or frames and feelings? Verily not one of these, but they feed upon His word and truth, they feed upon Him as the way, the truth, and the life; they are fed by the Spirit, they feed upon His redemption, upon His grace and fulness, upan His providence, power and authority, this is clean provender, the other is fouled by the feet. Paul speaks of the ministry which he received of the Lord, now he explains the nature of that ministry to be repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, to testify as he declares the Gospel of the grace of God; not Moses, not of the ministration of death, not of the ministration of condemnation, and His ministers "having a good hope through grace, use great plainness of speech (I hope therefore, due allowance will be made for my plainness.) Not as Moses, (and here trust me, my brother, Í draw the likeness true of these law and bondage ministers, in the language of the apostle.) Not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly to the end of that which is abolished." Instead of feeding the flock, their attention is drawn to law, and bondage, and experience, under that state of things, insomuch as to make salvation for the most part hinge upon law and bondage, experience of corruption, and doubts and fears; is this "the feast of fat things, of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined?" I pause for a candid, not evasive, answer; is it not a miserable feast to set before

the king's children who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, who want to see Jesus? This is not feeding them with the flesh and blood of Christ, "for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed;" such ministry can only engender to bondage, to a harsh and censorious spirit, as is painful to state too often evinced towards others who desire not to be brought into or again entangled in the yoke of bondage; deep spirituality and censoriousness are incompatible; therefore we are forced to the conclusion that these ministers are not yielding implicit obedience to their Master's commands, for they feed the flock with stones, straw and husks instead of living bread, for neither of these things before mentioned form any part or portion of the constituents of living bread; may such persons be led carefully to ponder over these things for "Truth crushed to earth wile again,

The eternal years of God are hers,
While error wounded writhes in pain,
And dies amid its worshippers.”

I apprehend when the tempted, tried and afflicted family of God go to the courts of Zion, it is to see Jesus, to hear the gracious words which proceed out of his mouth, not Moses, to hear words of comfort, not the terrors of the law, "knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" by the Gospel of life and liberty as being more excellent and glorious than the law of condemnation and wrath. "Say unto Zion that her warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned, and she hath received at the Lord's hands double for all her sins," it is that those who are bowed down may be raised up, that the stumbling blocks may be removed, not increased, is it that the poor soul may be directed to Moses? Verily no, but to the Lamb of God; bebold Moses? No, no, but the man whose name is the branch. "The wise man's eyes are in his head, and the Lord's ministers

are made wise, “able ministers of the New Testament" not the old covenant "good ministers of Jesus Christ" not themselves let their experience be what it may, "For we (says Paul) preach Christ Jesus and not ourselves," they do not look into

or at themselves, or their experience even, nor Moses and his bondage, but their eyes are in their head, Christ Jesus, "For where your treasure is there will your hearts be also." Does your treasure consist in bondage, in the light of God's countenance, in the acquaintance of human depravity, or the grace of His Spirit, in doubts and fears, or the faithfulness of Jehovah ? Ye that desire to be under a law and bondage ministry, that encourages instead of removes your doubts and fears, do ye not hear the law? are ye not fleshly? Read the eighth chapter of Romans attentively. But while I thus write I trust, my brother, that we, without presumption, can say, with one of old, "Our hearts are fixed trusting in the Lord that our experience is not one-sided; in short that it is a Gospel experience that we prefer to contemplate more upon the fruit of the Spirit and less upon the works of the flesh. Who should be preached but Christ? who but the God-man Mediator should be set upon the pole of the Gospel? "He is before all things, and by Him all "He is the head things consist," stone of the corner," ," "and I, if I be lifted will draw all men unto me." up, Yet, while I make these remarks, let it be understood I do not seek to make void the law, "for the law is good if used lawfully," but not when it is made to take precedence of Immanuel, not when it is given a prominence above or beyond the Lawfulfiller; our objection is against those who profess to be the ministers of Christ, occupying so much of their time with the law and its bondage, the flesh and its corruptions, (which every one of the Lord's children are, more or less, made well acquainted with), and devote so little to Immanuel, who is the Alpha and Omega of our salvation, and this forsooth is called deep preaching; deep enough it is, in one sense, I admit, but I forbear. The depths of depravity and the depths of everlasting grace, the law of Moses and the law of Christ, the bondage of sin and the liberty of the Gospel are two very vastly different things.

(To be continued.)

ENGLAND.

TO THE CHURCH AND CONGREGATION
WORSHIPPING IN THE BAPTIST CHAPEL,
CASTLEREAGH, SYDNEY.

MY DEAR BRETHREN.-Since I wrote my last letter to you, in February EARTHEN VESSEL, I have been doing business in the deep waters of affliction. I have been brought low, very low; but the Lord helped me, and has now raised me up. Oh, 1 do feel thankful, unto my ever kind and gracious Lord, who did not lay more upon me than I was able to bear, and when I felt, and sometimes said "I can't bear it," he placed underneath the everlasting arms, and thus he sustained me; and now he has raised up the poor bowed down one. More than ever do I now desire that I may spend and be spent in his service, and particularly in Sydney, for the truth's sake, that our mouths may be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, that the heathen may see it and say, "The Lord hath done great things for them, the Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." I will copy from my diary that you may see that the Lord has not been unmindful of me, who himself gave power to the faint, and strength unto me, who had no might.

Saturday 18th,-I left London for Wellingborough, by the Great Northern train, very ill; doctor told me that I must not go, that I ought to be in bed, but our chapel debt said I must go! so off I went. arrived at Wellingborough, and proceeded by bus (for I was too ill to walk) to the house of the pastor of the Baptist church, brother Bull. Mrs. Bull is a mother in Israel, and a pastor's wife in the strict sense of the word; directly that she knew that I was ill, poor dear soul, I shall never forget her kindness and attention to me, which was indeed the means of enabling me to go through my heavy work. When Mr. Dully knew that I was ill, his carriage was sent for me before and after each service; so that I was indeed cared for, and which was a blessing for my poor aching side. I preached morning and evening in the commodious and very comfortable chapel, named the "tabernacle" which was crowded to excess. In the evening many could not get in. No one knew that I was ill (only a few friends), for I had said nothing about it from the pulpit; as an instance, Mr. and Mrs. Pool from Birmingham were present, they were very pleased to see me, and glad that I was well. Yes! I was well in my soul, and was enabled to speak of the glorious honour of his majesty, and of his wondrous works. But oh, the thorn in my side, that dreadful pain all the while that I

People.

was preaching, I could not have endured it but for enabling grace.

All day on Monday, I was nursed and cared for with all the tenderness of real Christian affection. My lecture was to come off in the evening, and that was the great object of attraction. Oh, how I did cry unto the Lord that he would be my strength, "I will strengthen thee," and bless the Lord, oh my soul, for he did indeed strengthen me. When I commenced my lecture the chapel was crowded, the people were packed together, and numbers could not get in. I commenced with my hand pressing hard against my aching side. I soon warmed up in my subject, when all at once the pain moved for the first time for eight days, and went to the left kidney; then it came back, and again it moved to another place. Directly that I found the pain had moved for the first time, I felt that I could have shouted aloud for joy; and so I did in my soul. I spoke with great liberty for two hours and a half right off, and the attention of the people was riveted throughout the lecture. The collection was made, the amount of which was £28 12s. I wept for joy and praised my ever gracious Master who had strengthened me with his own strength, and had blest my poor labours unto his people, so that their hearts were opened to help me, which they did willingly and liberally.

I will make an extract from a letter I have received, that you may see that my visit to Wellingborough was of God, although the doctor said that I must not go.

"Your visit to Wellingborough will be long remembered by some of us; the word of God came with unction and power to my soul. In the morning your text was one of several that were most precious to my soul on the last day of the past year. I had indeed felt that I had sinned to the uttermost, and at times filled with fear that I was beyond the reach of the uttermost grace, but he who is rich in mercy remembered me in my low estate, and caused his face to shine upon me once more, bless his dear name. May he in his love and goodness speedily restore you to good health again, and prosper your mission here, &c., &c. And may the Lord long spare your life, that you may be a continued blessing in his hands to the people of God. God bless you," &c.

Directly after the lecture, Mr. Dully's carriage was waiting at the chapel door, by which I was taken to my lodgings. I had a better night than I expected, and was not any worse in the morning. "Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy day so shall thy strength be." After breakfast, I went to see Mr. Drawbridge, Baptist minister of Rushden, and Zoar chapel, Welling