sive, and less tied down to rule, -the elasticity, and the heartiness of a voluntary union among such as are like-minded, free from jealousies, and in earnest "If a plan could be devised for accomplishing this object, I am sure that it would meet with support in many quarters; and that, with God's blessing, it might lead to great results. For myself, I would be thankful to avail myself of its benefits." II.-From a Minister in Lanarkshire. "It was after reading Unionist's' second article in the Christian Magazine of last month, that I thought it became me to express my ap. proval of so desirable an object as the one to which he refers. I am but a young minister in the Church of Scotland, but young as I am I have seen and heard enough to lead me often to lament the want of unity that seemed to exist amongst us. Again and again have I said in the hearing of clerical friends, that our church had more to fear from the conduct of those within her pale, than from anything else beside. Our church has noble vantage ground; she possesses advantages peculiarly her own- advantages above every other church, and if this be the case, Why does she not do more than she is doing? If the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church have done so much and are doing, verily we are in a far better position to do more. Is it not a fact that with all our strength we are yet weak, and why is this? Why was such a jealous, cross-grained spirit displayed inthe last General Assembly meeting as was? When it was declared that two well qualified men could be found who would go and visit Turkey, and furnish the Church with most desirable and useful information, and all this, too, without costing the Church one farthing; why was it not accepted? Why, too, is such a hostile and bitter feeling displayed at our Presbyteries and Synods as is often the case? Why is it, when some zealous minister, or worthy one, stands forth to propound some good scheme, or seek for aid to carry out some good plan, that he meets with so much opposition, and that in quarters the very last he would have expected it? Why don't our ministers change pulpits oftener? Why don't the people enjoy an opportunity of hearing the different ministers of which our Church is composed? To these and many other questions which might be put, we would ask, Why? "Good it would be for us if we had a little more of the worldly wisdom which other churches (whose names we shall leave here nameless) exhibit-if we could throw aside the narrow-mindedness and self-interest with which, I have reason to fear, many of us are infected-if we would meet more together, act more together, and combine more together. In short, if we would wish to see our Church maintain her dignified position, then it is becoming every day more and more apparent that something requires to be done in order to inspire into her that life, and unity, and zeal, which she needs. And if Unionist' can point out a way, or be the means of maturing a plan by which it shall be accomplished, he will merit well the praise of every well-wisher of our National Church." III. From a Minister in Dumfries-shire. To" UNIONIST." "I have been greatly delighted with your two articles in the Edinburgh Christian Magazine, and with the letters which they have called forth, and I am not without hope that you have begun a movement which will put the Church in a right position, and do much for the extension of Christ's kingdom. "I fully agree with one of your correspondents, that there is much excellent material both among the laity and the clergy of our Church; but there is little sympathy or co-operation, so that what work is done, is done under the greatest discouragements. If these scattered forces were united, and the great power which we have in reserve called into action, the face of the country would soon be changed. "We have, as a church, for years been cultivating so much the virtue of inertia, that one is often afraid to speak on church matters freely and strongly, even in a company where all are churchmen, as if somehow there is a secret consciousness and understanding that the Church has not been putting forth her strength and acting on the aggressive, and is not to do so. The let alone spirit has been triumphant, quenching life and restraining zeal. "I believe that such a meeting as you propose would do much to unite the little flames which are now burning almost unnoticed in different parts of the country into one general blaze, which would by and by enlighten and warm the whole Church. Its great object should be, and I have no doubt will be, to foster vital Christianity, to increase the number of God-fearing earnest Christian men and women among us, and to combine and direct our energies into appropriate channels; at the same time, as you hint, I believe it will generally be agreed that it should take the initiative in several great movements which are waiting to be taken up, and which have been waiting for years past. Hundreds of our ministers are not content with things as they are, but from day to day ponder over questions which should be taken up and solved in a different way from what they are at present, before our Church can take her proper position as an efficient National Church. It may do very well for a sect to be imperfect and onesided. because it only contemplates supplying the religious wants of a portion of the commun ity; but a National Church should be fully equipped, prepared to meet the wants and, as far as possible, the tastes of all. "I believe that there are many points affecting the full equipment and well-being of the Church which are thought of in many manses throughout the land, but which our clergymen shrink, for many reasons, from bringing into the arena of Church courts. If the Church would shake itself free of some of its historical fetters, and do the best for the present time, it would be an unspeakable blessing. Permit me to mention a few things that have occurred to me as hostile to her efficiency and progress. And first of all with regard to our Missions, the position of which is now and has ever been discreditable to us, let General Assemblies say what they please. I am confident that it will never be much better -that we will never have a thoroughly missionary church-till two or three clergymen are separated from their charges, and set apart to attend to this work alone. The old machinery must be laid aside, and clergymen of ability and zeal appointed, who will manage matters in Edinburgh-conduct a Record-look out for suitable missionaries-and visit the principal towns to hold missionary meetings; men who will look round the world-north, south, east, and west-to discover what the Scotch Church ought to do, and where she ought to be repre sented, and who, when they have found out this, will go to work and have it done. Apart from the colonial and heathen mission fields, there are twenty places where we ought to have Scotch churches to-morrow, and where we might have them at very little expense and with a great return of strength and influence to the Church. There are the great military stations at home and abroad; there is Paris, with its four English churches, which are often so crowded that the British residents and visitors are only very partially accommodated; there is Brussels, with its fifteen thousand British, and no Scotch church, as a matter of course. I observed, a short time ago, in a Free Church newspaper, that the Scotch merchants in Singapore, belonging to this church and other Presbyterian bodies, agreed to write Dr. Guthrie, to send them out a clergyman whom he might think suitable, from any of the denominations of this country. They might nave known that the Dr. would make the selection from his own body; but if they had been aware that a Scotch Church clergyman would have had the advantage of Government pay and recognition, they would probably have applied to a different quarter. And since I have alluded to the Government, I may say that another matter in which we should move is, the insulting treatment which in certain quarters we receive from the powers that be, without either complaint or remonstrance from our Church courts. Look, for example, at the regulations for the payment of clergymen offici. ating to the troops. By a circular from the War Office, signed by Sydney Herbert, dated September 1854:--for 25 men to 0 men, clergy. men of the Church of England are paid 10s a head, a.year; Presbyterian clergymen are paid 7s 6d., do.; and Roman Catholic clergymen, 58 For 100 to 300 men he who reads the Episcopalian prayer book is paid 38. a-head, a-year; the Presbyterian receives only 2s. do., do; and the Romanist, 1s. 6d. do From 300 men upwards the favoured individual gets 2s; the Presby. terian, Is. 4d.; and the other, 1s. Also, if there is no room in the church, and a separate service has to be given to the troops, in addition to the above, for each separate service the Episcopalian gets lcs., the Presbyterian only 7s 6d, and the Romanist, 5s. There has not been any circular issued since the above, so that it is the one now acted on. "If the constituted authorities and leaders of this Church will not speak out on these topics, it is high time that somebody else, however ob. scure, should. Even on our own ground we do not retain our nationality. I happen to know, that not many weeks ago, a Scotch Episcopal minister, who considered himself aggrieved that a detachment of a Highland regiment, quartered in his neighbourhood, did not salute him when they crossed his path-wrote to the General and got relief-and this though the highlanders never went near his meeting-house. It would be an important matter, if somebody would give an account of the treatment which that denomi. nation receives from the country. It complains most bitterly of its wrongs and grievances, while, all the time, there is an impression on many minds that it receives an attention and a consideration, which no other dissenting sect in the kingdom gets, and that the government try to give it a prominence which they never think of giving to our Church in England. "Another matter which, it appears to me, the proposed union might advantageously take up, is the state of Presbyterianism in the British Colonies. "East and west the schisms of our country are perpetuated abroad for no reason under the sun, except that we are divided here. The fruits of this in the colonies are most disastrous, and painful in the extreme to one who looks upon them with the feelings of a Scottish Christian and a Scottish patriot. It is sad to see brothers and sisters, who grew up together under the same roof-tree,-who crossed the sea in the same emigrant ship,-who settled in the same forest, and endured together the hard. ships of the wilderness, not speaking to each other now because of the accursed, for I can call them nothing else, the accursed schisms of this country. Scottish society is disrupted abroad. The deadly leaven manifests itself at North British Societies,-at Burns' festivals. and St. Andrew's day commemorations,-and wherever Scotchmen meet together. A Canadian clergyman was once telling me of the delightful gathering they used to have on St. Andrew's day, when the Scotchmen, after perambulating the town with flags and banners, met in the church. where he preached them a sermon, urging them to remember the land and the church of their forefathers, and to hand down to posterity, that devout character, and that pure and spiri. tual worship, which they had inherited from such worthy sires. I asked him if this was still continued. He shook his head, and said with a sigh,-that 1843 had put an end to it all. Since that date many of the more quiet and peace. loving, belonging to the better class, have gone to other communions, thus renouncing their church and their nationality for ever, for a Scotchman is no longer a Scotchman, when he ceases to be a Presbyterian. If I were an Episcopalian, as I am a Presbyterian, I would believe that God had shattered Presbyterianism into fragments, to prepare the way for the triumph of Episcopacy throughout the colonial world. The great reason why this state of things is continued in the colonies, is because each party holds it a sacred duty to be loyal to their party at home, and cherishes a resolution never to do anything that might seem to savour of treason and apostacy. But let the desirableness of union in the colonies be favoured in this country.-let a few of the leading men of the different denominations at home, meet together, apart altogether from church courts, and recom mend their different branches to unite on honourable terms, that would be quite enough, and before many years Presbyterianism would be united and triumphant in every colony of the empire. Might not this proposed convention have the honour, for honour I think it would be, of starting such a movement? "There is another topic that suggests itself to my mind, as demanding serious attention,--the intense rigidity of our whole church system. I think rigidity, or red-tapism, or putting the letter above the spirit, or whatever you may call it, is one of the greatest curses of the Church of Scotland. "For example, humdrums, and worse than humdrums, pass Presbyteries every day, but let a man, converted, say, in middle life, with the genius and zeal of the apostle Paul and a far riper scholarship than most men in the Church, present himself as a candidate for the ministry, and he will be told, that he must enrol in the 'Junior Latin,' and poke through eight years at one of the Universities before he can get his mouth open.' Many who would have been orna. ments to the church of their country, and most faithful ministers of Christ, have thus been driven to other denominations, or repelled from a profession on which their hearts were set. I believe that, a few years ago, two graduates of an English University, who were ready to take orders in their own church, but who were unwil ling to do so on account of its popish tendencies, made overtures to some of the leaders of our Church, asking what would be necessary to qualify them for reception into her ministry. They were told that they must attend the di. vinity hall for four years, and this. as might have been expected, prevented them from troubling the Church of Scotland any further. I have myself known several professional men, of very high qualifications, in every point of view, who have been repelled by a course of study which is not to be thought of after a man is thirty, and which does not after all produce scholars to be named in the same day with the clergy of the Church of England, whose course is not half so long. The rigidity of our Church is such that we would not even employ as missionaries to the heathen, the most pious and accomplished men, unless they were up to the mark in point of formal quali fications. There are other home questions of which I would willingly say something,--such as the necessity of having some theological fellowships to encourage higher learning,-the paucity of clerical agency in the large towns, and the plan of increasing this by each city parish minister having three or four assistants, as is the case in England, the devotional equipment of the church, &c., but I fear I have already written at too great length. Trusting that having put your hand to the plough you will not look back.I am, yours, Sermon. By the Rev. ARCHIBALD NISBET, Minister of St. Stephen's, Glasgow. "Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss."-JAMES iv. 3. PRAYER is an essential part of religious | ings that we need. Equally in this worship, and an essential element of a religious life. Without prayer we do not serve God, and without prayer the spiritual life of a soul cannot exist. In the exercise of it, we at once perform a duty towards God, giving to His name the glory that is due to it, and we enter into the enjoyment of a privilege, the greatest to which a creature and a sinner can be called. There are two points of view in which we may consider this holy exercise, and beholding it in either of which it stands out as the greatest instrument whereby we can acknowledge God to be the great, and blessed, and merciful God, that he is; while, in the same view, it is the most blessed and precious instrument of our salvation. First, Prayer is communion with God, and in the time spent in prayer the moments of heaven on earth are gathered into one. In this view, it is a glorifying of God; for whilst we engage in this exercise we acknowledge God's presence as a most glorious and blessed presence in itself, to which we gladly flee from the darkness and misery of the world, by which we seek to be delivered from these, and in which we profess it to be our desire to dwell for ever. We acknowledge that except here, there is nowhere that the soul finds what its nature seeks after, viz., righteousness, and peace and joy; but that here these are found in infinite abundance. In the same view, prayer is a great instrument of salvation. For if there be sanctification any where, it must be in the vision of God's righteousness, and peace, and joy, which we, beholding as in a glass, are changed into the likeness of. The other view of prayer, is that of petition, whereby we receive the bless 9.-VIII. view is prayer a glorifying of God. For in asking Him to bless us, we acknowledge that the power to do so is in His hand alone, and that His heart is satisfied in answering the petitions which we offer. And is it not a privilege that we are permitted to offer our petitions? Could there be a greater privilege than that a man in his sorrows can tell God of them, and ask Him for comfort-in his weakness make it known to God, and ask Him for strength, or tell Him of his want in the sure hope of having it supplied? In every age, however, the question has been asked: what profit shall we have if we pray unto Him? The world has doubted and denied the reflex influence of prayer to sanctify the heart, but chiefly the world has denied that prayer is answered. The world cannot see the answer nor recognize the blessings given in answer to their supplications to many who pray, and hence they are continually asking: what profit shall we have if we pray unto Him? More than this: if we go to many who pray, and ask what profit their prayers have been to them, whether they have been consciously answered, and whether themselves are consciously enjoying needed blessings, granted in answer to their supplications, too many, if they answer truly, must reply that nothing of the kind has been the case in their experience: and thus there seems reason for the world's doubt and scoff. Look at the matter nearer however. Now God has not promised to answer all prayer, or to give men the very blessings they ask. In the very nature of things it could not be otherwise. There is a limitation to His promise and our I petitions, within which His faithfulness and with which they come to God? still remains true, and our prayers are fully answered. The master cannot give the servant all that he asks. The parent cannot give the child all that he asks, conveniently either with his own dignity or the child's profit. The deeper his love, the greater his wisdom, the more watchful will the parent be over the petitions which his child offers. He will restrain him often in his desires, and refuse him often in his sorest urged requests; much more is it needful, in the very nature of things, that God should not grant every desire and request of his creatures, but should set a bound within which we may pray, and He may answer us. This is just what God has done. The prayer was never unheard or unanswered, which was uttered within that bound. We do ask and receive not; but the reason is, that we ask amiss. With few is it thus. Few pause to feel the troubled beat of the heart, under the load of sin, before they utter the words, "God be merciful." Few stop an instant to look inward upon the polluted heart, and then, under a sense of their vileness, say to God: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow;" words the answer to which is always heard, when they are sincerely uttered, "I will, be thou clean." Nor is it because they look back upon the past day, and are conscious of their feebleness and frailty throughout every hour and action of it, that many say, "Lord make thy grace sufficient for us, and perfect thy strength in our weakness." Nothing of this is the case at all. On the contrary, the words are uttered thoughtlessly, and many seem hardly to know the meaning of them, My subject is the right spirit and even whilst they are using them. manner of prayer. I. One hindrance to our prayers being heard and answered is frequently the insincerity of them. Insincerity pervades often the whole exercise of prayer, as well as each single petition which we utter. Hollow words proceed from our lips, but the spirit is silent before God; or if it have a voice in His presence at all, it is that the things may not be granted for which request has been made in words. Do you think that there is no such prayer as this? Consider the careless manner in which men come forward to the exercise, and the carelessness which they manifest whilst engaged in it! I appeal to your own experience; -Do men think seriously for even the shortest space of time, on each occasion, before they begin to pray, what the wants of their souls are; and seek to feel that these exist deeply and truly, and realize them anew in something of the power in which they were felt when most pressing? Or is there even present to their consciousness a strong general sense of want? Have they the deep conviction that there is a great void in their souls, felt but not compassed, known but not comprehended, which they cannot themselves fill, but which must be filled up, If it be true that men are thus careless in regard to the petitions which they utter, it is as true that they are equally so in regard to the nature of the Being to whom these are presented. Few say to themselves, before they go to engage in prayer: "I go to stand before God, to speak face to face to Him, to make requests to Him." Few come into the house of prayer with a heart full of the thought that God is sufficient for all our wants, that we can ask nothing which He cannot give, and which He will not give, in so far as may be convenient for His own glory and the good of the suppliants themselves. Few realize God's presence even in His own temple. The presence of man fills our eyes too much, and the thoughts of our hearts do not go far above or beyond the wanderings of our senses. How can there be sincerity in such prayers as these? What are words, uttered so lightly, worth before God or man? When any one truly desires some good thing from another, he has always a clear conception of what that good thing is; and when he comes with the words of petition to him from whom he expects it, he has always the blessing vividly before him in all its power to do him good, and time to consider that they have not received an answer. All this goes on day after day, until men do not look for an answer; but through the mere force of habit, or to keep their consciences quiet within them, they continue to utter with their lips words which sound like a prayer, and to bow in an attitude before God which seems like worship. II. A second hindrance to our prayers being answered, is the carnality of them. I mean by this, that we chiefly desire and pray for, not so much spiritual as temporal blessings; that we are too solicitous for the one, and too heedless in regard to the other. The great blessing which we should be found praying for, both to ourselves and others, is sanctification. We are not at liberty to pray for any blessing either to ourselves or others, except such as shall us; and the measure of earnestness to be used in asking God to grant the blessing ought just to be according to the measure in which it would accomplish this end. We are taught the spirituality of all right prayer by the deep and pervading spirituality of that form which has been delivered by Jesus; and equally by every prayer of God's saints which we find recorded in Scripture. his own estate deeply felt at the moment in all the misery of being without the blessing. And yet it is not so when we pray to God, and when we ask for the spiritual blessings without which our eternal lives perish. Do you call it prayer, then, when mere words of petition are uttered with the lips? Will you say that God has forgotten to be faithful because such words of petition are not answered? Are the blessings of heaven to be had without one sincere desire after them, whilst earthly blessings are pursued with the whole heart and life? Are they so trifling and worthless in themselves that we need not pant after them, or that they are dearly enough gotten at the expense of a few idle, careless words? Was it thus that they were purchased for you? or are the idle, careless words of a man more than the broken body of Jesus? the prayer of the hypo-have for its immediate effect to sanctify crite more than the tears, and blood, and sweat of the Son of God? Does the same Jesus need still to plead our cause in heaven, interceding for each blessing by the presence of His past sorrow and suffering, and will you ask thus carelessly and love thus coldly the purchase of His death, and the blessing of his pleadings? Or do you imagine that God is deceived by your words, or that he takes them for prayer? You do not see him, but do you Such is not the character, however, of think he does not look upon you, yea, men's prayers in general. And this is and search you through and through? true, not merely of those who make How can you adore and worship a prayer a form but of many who are God of whom you have such low thoughts? praying in sincerity. Even these too Plainly you are either mocking your own often desire blessings which are only or hearts or your God; nay, you are mocking in a great measure carnal in themselves; both. Do you not tremble lest an or desire the blessings without seeking answer should be uttered in the voice of above all that sanctification which is the the thunder, and come to your hearts in the will of God concerning us. It is the stroke of the lightning? Are you not blessing itself, and for the sake of its reastonished at His long-suffering forbear- sults upon the present life, which they ance which has never yet given you this desire and pray for, not because thereby reply? No wonder men receive not when a heart shall be taught more of God, led they ask, if this be the manner of their more unto Him, and made more like him. asking. And yet this is all the prayer of When we use that petition at the close too many. In offering such, I believe of the Lord's Prayer, "deliver us from that men often do not know the insincerity evil," what is the sense most generally of their hearts, and the mockery which they put upon it? Is it not this chiefly, that put upon God. They feel a certain we may be saved from all outward danquieting of conscience after the perform-ger and all evil of this world that could ance of the bodily service, and take no come upon us, if the hand of God were |