tively look up as qualified for the arduous work of reconstructing the Christian Church on a model of perfect symmetry. We must, then, wait the appointed season of renovation;-time, the great innovator, must also discharge the function of reformer.

Meanwhile, all right-minded men, well aware as they are of the imperfections that attach to the present condition of Christianity, and earnestly looking forward to a brighter era, take care on all occasions, and to the utmost extent which consistency permits, to lean to the side of a true Catholicism; and both in spirit and in practice, step, as far as they may, over lines of demarcation, and seize, by anticipation, the blessings and advantages of that better state of things which they hope for. Those auspicious inconsistencies into which the spirit of charity continually leads good men, of all parties, have especially abounded on the field of Missionary labour; for while each party thinks itself obliged, in conscience, to despatch shipments of its peculiarities to the ends of the earth, and to take all the care it can that Hindoos, Hottentots, and savage islanders, shall worship after the right manner: yet, at the very same time, each, with unquestionable cordiality and joy, hails the successes of the others, and with prompt sympathy lends aid on peculiar occasions.

At the present moment there exists, among the suppporters of Missions, almost as perfect a union of heart as can be wished for. Nothing of disunion remains among us but its immense practical disadvantage, and its opprobrium in the eye of the world. If at this time it might be suspected that a concealed sentiment of hostility towards each other lurks in the hearts of Christians-if there were reason to think that they are not only divided, but inimical, in that case, the idea of effecting a combination must be deemed chimerical. But the reverse is the fact: the forms of warfare only are kept up, while the spirit of aggression has long since fled. Yet it is supposed, that though dissociation be a great evil, it can in no way be avoided. The contrary, I think, may be demonstrated. The real difficulty has already been overpassed by us, and nothing but an imaginary obstacle stands in the way of the undisturbed co-operation of all parties in the Missionary cause. I hope to make good this assertion.

If the opinion of Christians on the subject of Missions may be fairly inferred from their practice, it might be expressed in some such terms as the following::- “We do, indeed, think ourselves obliged to send to heathen nations our particular shade of doctrine, and our model of discipline and worship, which we believe to be, of all others, the one most nearly conformed to the canon of truth. Nevertheless, far from supposing these peculiarities to be essential to Christianity, or from deeming it unlawful to aid the propagation of our common faith under other Evangelical forms, we hail with delight every occasion on which we can express our large sympathies by directing the superfluity of our resources into other

channels than our own. We are most glad to diffuse the blessings of the Gospel by all means, even though it should go forth clad in a costume not to our taste, or encumbered by excrescences which we condemn. So long as salvation by Christ is preached in simplicity and sincerity, we rejoice, and we more than rejoice; for we give the hand of assistance, whenever they need it, to the brethren from whom we dissent."

Such-putting out of the account a few singularly-contracted spirits-is, I think, a fair interpretation of the conduct of serious Christians at the present time; and we may read in it a very distinct recognition of the doctrine-and a most important doctrine it is that no culpable compromise of principle is implied in aiding the spread of Christianity abroad under other forms than the one which, as individuals, we most approve. This capital rule of conduct has been unconsciously framed, rather under the dictation of sound feelings, than by the logic of reason.

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It may be affirmed generally, that whoever has contributed a mite to the support of a Mission, not conducted by his own party, or has given his presence and approving smile at the convocation of any such Society, or has occupied a place on its hustings, or bestowed upon it an effort of his eloquence ;-whoever has uttered a sentiment of pleasure in hearing of the successes of other Societies, or has breathed a prayer for the spread of the Gospel-a prayer not restricted to the exertions of his own party-that man has already trespassed as far over the bounds of religious scrupulosity as he would have occasion to do in falling in with the proposed plan of union. He has virtually declared, that he thinks it lawful, and even becoming to a Christian, to give his aid in promulgating what he deems a defective or encumbered system of doctrine and discipline.

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The supposed duty of promulgating our personal opinions is even to a still greater extent conditional; as for instance-If the measures of a particular Society were obviously so ill directed at home, or its sphere of foreign operations so unpropitiously circumstanced, as that all rational hope of success were excluded; while, at the same time, some other Society, by superior discretion, by greater zeal, and by enjoying in a larger degree the blessing of heaven, were seen to be rapidly advancing on the course of prosperous exertion, so that every shilling contributed to its funds might be calculated to possess an infinite value, then, and in such a case, the dictate of a genuine zeal for our common faith, and of a sincere benevolence towards our fellow-men, would lead a Christian to divert his alms from the channel of unproductive expenditure, and to direct them towards the field of copious fruitfulness. He would do so, even though the opinions propagated by the one society were, to a tittle, his own, while the forms or the discipline sent out by the other contained much that he thought decidedly reprehensible. Whoever would not thus decide in the circum

stances supposed, while he professes to believe that, without the Gospel the people perish, and admits that its saving efficacy inheres in other forms of Christianity than his own, has surely never conceived a thought more capacious than might pass through a needle's eye: his reptile conceptions, surely, are capable of nothing more excursive than to crawl in and out of his church or chapel, through a crevice. Surely such a man has never solemnly meditated on the vast futurity that stretches before the human family! Surely he has no knowledge of the sad ruin in which human nature is lying-no idea of the hope set before us in the Gospel! Certainly the word-Eternity, has never dwelt on the hearing of such a man. Nay, he must be destitute of common benevolence :-nay, he must be devoid of common sense; for he holds the egregious absurdity that some of the parts of Christianity are of more importance than the whole. We need not, however, arrest the course of our argument by attempting to vanquish the obdurate bigotry of any such persons, if such there be, since the sense of the great body of Christians is decidedly opposed to a conduct and temper of this kind.-Extracts from "New Model of Christian Missions." By Isaac Taylor, Esq.

THE STATE OF WESTMINSTER, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE OPERATIONS OF THE LONDON CITY MISSION.

PAPER II.

BY MR. GEORGE WILSON.

All

ADJOINING to Westminster Abbey District, described in the former paper, is the Pie-street District, in the parish of St. John; bounded on the east by Smith-street, the west by Strutton-ground, the south by Orchard-street, and the north by Pie-street. that has been said of the vice and ignorance of the inhabitants of the adjoining district, may be said of this also. When the agent commenced here, he found 352 visitable families, of whom 339 neglected public worship; thirty-five shops were opened on the Sabbath; forty houses were notoriously houses of ill fame; and nearly all the families were without the Scriptures.

Various Missionaries have now been employed on this district. The first was Mr. Pearce, who laboured long and successfully: he had the happiness to see his visits crowned with the Divine blessing in many cases, and the room he opened was well attended.

The following, amongst many, are examples of the way in which the Mission operates on the poor:-He had visited in St. Ann'slane, at a shop always opened on the Sunday, and kept by a widow; all his remonstrances with her were in vain. After several

months, she went out one Sunday to see a relative, leaving her shop in charge of a friend. As she returned at night, she passed the room where the meeting was held; she saw the lights and heard the singing; she went to the door and heard the Missionary read a psalm and explain it. It made a great impression on her mind. In the course of his visitations in the week, he called at this poor woman's shop; he was welcomed by her with joy; she told him she had attended the means of grace in early life, and had for years stifled conscience and hardened her heart, but it was broken that night, and she had sought for mercy. He directed her to the Saviour who said, "him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." She became a constant attendant at the room, and never from that day has her shop been opened on the Sabbath.

In another case, at a room in Orchard-street, he found a poor boy ill in bed. He talked with him on his state and prospects as a dying sinner, directed him to the Saviour, and prayed with him. The whole family were wretched in the extreme, owing to the drunkenness of the father, a very profligate man. The boy became so interested and anxious for the instruction of the Missionary, that he intreated to be taken to the room (which was within a house or two) where the Missionary held his meetings. His mother took him several times. In his weak state, it was truly affecting to see the hectic flush on his cheek, and his sunken eye often filled with tears, fixed most intensely on the Missionary, literally hearing as a dying creature on the brink of eternity. He sunk rapidly; and his great regret was that his friends would not take him to the room, when it appeared to them it would have been death to move him. He remonstrated with his father when he came home intoxicated, which was daily. The Missionary was with him at death, and had reason to hope that he died happy in the Lord. Just after he died the father came into the room intoxicated and insensible to the awful scene. The Missionary did not speak to him then, but went early the following morning. He led him to the corpse of his child—told him of his depravity-held out to him the hopes of the Gospel-the man wept the Missionary prayed for him, and this drunkard shortly afterwards took the pledge of total abstinence and kept it while he remained in the neighbourhood. In this, and in similar cases, the Missionary paid a daily visit; and it is needed, for a drunkard like this, cut off from his old associates and indulgences, and left to his own resources, would find it impossible to exist in his new course, if he had not the counsel and countenance of such a friend as the Missionary, and was not directed to new sources of employ and enjoyment-such as reading (and here the tracts and books are most useful), the meeting for prayer, and the new associates, who at the room take his hand, invite his visits, and encourage him by their advice and example to pursue his new

course.

I remember seeing at the room a man and his wife who sold

water-cresses.

The Missionary found the man lying on the stairs of the house where he lived, intoxicated and insensible. Fearing the man might be suffocated, he obtained the assistance of the neighbours to get him up stairs, which they rendered very unwillingly, because his intoxication was a matter of constant occurrence. When they had got him up they found the wife in the room as insensible as the husband: in attempting to reach the bed, if so it might be called, she had fallen on the floor, and there lay motionless and senseless. This man and woman were, by the Missionary's instrumentality, led to join the Teetotallers, and some months afterwards it was truly delightful to see the altered appearance of the man and his wife, and hear his simple tale. Their earnings, by the sale of water-cresses, were large, as much as thirty shillings per week, which carefully husbanded and expended, had, in a few months, placed them in comparative comfort, respectability, and affluence. I was much struck with one remark of the man, when speaking as to the altered state of his mind, he said, “When I left off drinking then I took to thinking."

In two back courts in this district, live several blind people, to whom the agent's visits were particularly acceptable; from that peculiar sense of hearing which they possess, they were able to tell by his steps his approach. I have been with him when they have said, before he has spoken, "Come in, Mr. Pearce. I am glad you are come; I was expecting you ;" and their poor blind faces have been lighted up with a joyful smile, while they have told him all their little wants and woes, and described to him the state of their minds. One of these poor women, blind as she was, remonstrated with her neighbours on their swearing profligate habits, and often brought some one in her hand to the room. Mr. Pearce was very useful to the poor wretched females: many was he the means of restoring to their friends or placing in asylums. I remember going with him to a house in Pie-street, where he had some days before met with two of those wretched girls, who appeared anxious to leave their course of vice. It was one o'clock in the day, but they were not out of bed. We sent up the landlady to rouse them, and tell them to come to her room to see us. We told them of their wretched state as sinners against God, to which they gave a woeful assent. They said that their course was one of unmitigated misery: their consciences were awakened to the guilt and danger of their condition, but how could they escape? What other way could they obtain subsistence? Every door was shut to them; and when their present shilling was expended, where was the next to come from, but by resorting again to this means? They said that they were exposed to the brutal treatment of the drunken persons with whom they associated, and that they could not pursue their course until they had drowned reflection and braced their nerves by intoxicating liquor; and that when they shrunk home at daylight to their beds, they felt their degradation and their