ing; but then a poor girl ought not to set herself up to talk to God like a parson. "And now you say, ma'am, that you had a little Lizzie once, that lives in heaven now, and that you love all sick Lizzies, for her sake? And that you are going to give me some of her books, and all the nourishing food she would eat, if she lived down here! Then father won't have to go two miles for my beef-tea, and I shall grow stronger; and maybe the bones in my two legs will come back again (though the doctor does say it's not my legs), and I can get so as to help mother once more. "But I hope there won't anything else happen to me, for my head is quite turned now, and I can't think what makes me have such good times, when there are so many other people lying sick and sorrowful, and wishing the days and the nights wasn't so long. I'm sorry I've made you cry, ma'am, off and on; and I suppose it's because my name it is Lizzie, and I'll be more careful next time. And please, ma'am, don't give me all the things you said you would, but find some other poor girl, that hasn't got any 'Pilgrim's Progress,' nor any pictures, and that never saw two folks a-crying over her marigold, and giving It to her, and that never heard any singing, and praying, and preaching, and that nobody ever told she might dare to tell things to God. Father says there's plenty of them, up and down, lonesome, and tired, and hungry, and maybe it will keep you so busy looking after them, and speaking such sweet words as you've spoke to me, that the next thing you'll know, | the time will all be slipped away, and you'll see the shining ones coming to take you where your little Lizzie is. Being a poor girl, and ignorant, I can't quite make it out how some folks gets to heaven one way, and some another. The way it tells, in my 'Pilgrim's Progress,' is to go on a great long journey, till you come to a river; and when you've got across that, you're right at the door of the city, and all your troubles is over. But cripples like me can't go on a pilgrimage, and I spoke to God about that. Says I,-'Please, how is a girl like me to get there?' And it came into my mind,-"Why, Lizzie, little babies, as die when they're babies, don't go on a pilgrimage, but they get to heaven all the same. Angels comes down and fetches them maybe.' "And maybe they fetches up the lame girls, or helps them along. I should like to have one show me the way, if he didn't mind; and another go behind me, and cover my back with his wings; and I'd go in on tiptoe, and sit away up against the wall, where nobody could see me and I'd sing, softly, with the rest. "You say you think they'll come for me, before long? Thank you, ma'am. But don't tell father. And if you ever come here and find I've gone, tell him, please, that I'll be sitting near the door, watching for him; he'll know me from all the rest, because they'll be walking about. "And now I humbly ask your pardon for talking so much, ma'am, and won't speak another word." The Lessons of Grace in the Language of Nature. BY THE EDITOR. IV. CHRISTIANS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. "Ye are the light of the world.....Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."-MATT. v. 14, 16. world. HE first section of the Sermon on the Mount (verses 1-10) represents God and his saints; and the second (11-16) represents believers and the Redeemed men in the body are exhibited first in their relation to God on high, and next in their relation to the world around. In the first picture, you behold believers in contact with their Friend; in the second, you behold them in contact with their foe. In the first, you learn what good they receive; in the second, what evil they suffer. From the Father of lights, every good and perfect gift comes down; from the world, lying in wickedness, every kind of danger springs up. Between these two opposite poles the Christian life is suspended and balanced. The fountain opened in heaven supplies all a believer's need ; and the pressure of temptation in the world sends him the oftener and the closer to his supplies. The Father's love draws, and the world's enmity drives; but though these forces spring on opposite sides, they act in the same direction. Thus all. things work together for good to them that love God. A Christian need no more fear to plunge into the current of life, than a planet to launch forth on its course. Opposite forces sun most of it reaches us at second hand, reflected from surrounding objects. Thus, in the spiritual sphere, the glory of the Lord arises and shines on Israel; then and therefore Israel is expected to arise and reflect the light around to attract the Gentiles. The Philippian converts, walking in the light of God, are expected to shine among the heathen as lights. They are not rays, but reflectors; they give out, with more or less of truth and fulness, the light which they receive from the Sun of Righteousness after he has risen upon them. In the first section, you learn from the double line of the seven beatitudes what God is to his people, and what his people are to God. He blesses them, and they trust in him. In the second section, you learn what the world is to the disciples of Christ, and what they are to the world. It is to them a persecutor; they are to it a salt and a light. The conception of Christians being lights, not as Source, but reflectors, might, perhaps, be profitably examined somewhat more minutely. Re Omitting in the meantime the first of these analogies, we fix our regards on the second. Let us fairly look in the face this grand function assigned by the Lord to his followers-to be "the light of the world." In verse 14th, the function is defined; and in verse 16th, a particular in-flectors are ordinarily either metallic or vitreous. struction is given regarding its exercise. The first tells disciples that they are a light in the world; and the second exhorts them to keep it blazing. We shall explain shortly the nature of this office, and then more fully enforce the command to exercise it well. In either case, two preparatory processes are necessary: there must be a melting first, and a polishing afterwards. Ah! search and see that those Christians who have really been eminently useful as attractive lights-winning many from the world by the beauty of their character-have been in the furnace, and have there had the dross taken away; have been under the pressure of providential trials that have rubbed their inequalities off. There is no royal-that is, no soft and easy-road to eminence in the Christian calling. The good soldier of Jesus Christ has suffered some privations, and seen some service. Men who have never seen any other than parade service are not reckoned good soldiers in either army. I. It is the function of a living Church to be a light in a dark world. In order that we may determine in what sense the disciples of Christ are lights, let us read two cognate scriptures, one in the Old Testament, and the other in the New: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee" (Isa. lx. 1, 2). "That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the operator. This huge, heavy casting, cooled with world; holding forth the word of life" (Phil. ii. 15, 16). From these texts we learn clearly that renewed men are first receivers of light; then and therefore givers. They are not the source whence the light springs, but channels through which it is distributed. The Lord alone is the light of the world; but he has been pleased to arrange his covenant so that those who receive his beams also spread them. It is so arranged also in the material world. Not much of the light which guides us in life comes in direct lines from the If a stranger, ignorant alike of means and end, had been permitted to see Lord Rosse engaged in preparing the speculum of his great telescope, he would have formed a false judgment regarding the usefulness of the work and the wisdom of the so much care,—when it is at last removed from its bed, it seems a coarse, black, shapeless, useless mass. What is the use of it? the observer inquires. To reveal the stars that have hitherto lain hid in heaven. That lump of black, irregular metal! How can it reveal the stars? But the operator knows what he is about. This uncouth mass will yet receive on its bosom the light from burning orbs, so many and so distant, that hitherto they have seemed to be little white clouds, sailing without a compass in the sea of infinitude. The Day only will reveal the wisdom and the pains displayed by the Omniscient Worker in preparing the hearts and lives of his witnesses for receiving from himself the light of life, and spreading it around. II. Leaving now the fundamental fact that Christians are lights, to rest on the Word of the Lord-we proceed to examine more particularly the specific exhortation addressed to them in that capacity to let their light so shine before men, &c. In the verse immediately preceding this injunction there is an interesting reference to the elevation of the light as a necessary condition of its usefulness. A lofty position, breadth, and brightness, must be combined in order to produce the greatest effect. In the trigonometrical survey of the kingdom which is now in progress, it is necessary often to obtain an exact view of an object placed at a great distance; and some ingenuity is displayed in overcoming the obstacles. Goatfell, a mountain in Arran, is visible from the summit of the Ochills, east of Stirling, a distance of about seventy miles in a straight line. But at such a distance you can scarcely distinguish between a mountain and a cloud no object can be seen with sufficient exactness for the purpose of measurement. But they bring a looking-glass to the top of Goatfell, scour its surface well, watch for a sun-blink, and turn it then in the required direction. On the summit of the Ochills they observe the flash, as a single point of glory, like a star in the broad blue sky. They measure their angle with security now A great elevation does not belong to every Christian. This is a matter that does not lie in his own hands. It is not like the climbing of the mountain by a man: it is like the uplifting of the mountain from the plain, which is the prerogative of the Creator. Some he both elevates and kindles, that their light may stream afar; but he has use for most of his lights on moderate elevations, and close to the benighted world. The great business of Christians is to keep their light bright, and make it broad, that all who are within reach may be compelled to see it. A mirror besmeared with mud, although it is set in the sun light on a mountain-top, will not be seen; whereas a bright burnished glass will reflect the light truly over a greater or a smaller sphere, according to the height which it may have attained. Thus, Christians should take care that their light should be large and pure, leaving it to God in his providence to determine the height of their elevation and consequent radius of their influence. All who have let their light shine, like all who have used the intrusted talents, will be welcomed with the same words, Well done! whether their position has enabled them to spread the truth among many or only among a few. me. Among a crowd of placards, varying much in size and subject, which jostled and overlapped each other on a piece of neglected wall at the entrance of a large city, one particularly arrested At the distance at which I stood, it exhibited only these words-"Large Type Christians." Doubtless intermediate lines in smaller letters, invisible where I stood, informed the nearer reader that some publisher had prepared a series of tracts in large type for the special use of aged Christians. From my view-point at the time only the larger letters were visible. I passed on with what I had got, not desiring to exchange it for the meaning that a closer inspection would have revealed. Large type Christians! That is not the conception which the writer of the handbill intended to convey, but is the conception which in the circumstances it conveyed to me, and I determined to retain it. This shadow, which the publisher's circular projected on the wall, was to me a tenfold greater thing than the circular itself would have been. Large type tracts may be good for the conversion of the careless and the edification of believers: large type tracts may be good, but large type Christians are better. Tracts, large and legible, may win their thousands of captives in the battle of the kingdom; but Christians large and legible, if we had them, would win their tens of thousands. As young and struggling colonies advertise amid the teeming population of the mother country for able-bodied farm-labourers, and skilled artizans, covertly hinting, by their silence, that certain other classes would only be in the way; so the Church, charged to colonize and cultivate the world for Christ, should distinctly own and loudly proclaim her need of large type Christians. We have many who are really Christians more, perhaps, than either a scoffing world or a desponding Church would acknowledge; but not so many who are clearly, largely, unmistakably Christ-like, whatever they may be doing, and whoever may be looking on. If the graces of the Spirit, though real, are small and stunted, and especially if they are overshadowed by a rank growth of vanity, worldliness, and self-pleasing, they will not be seen by those who most need their evidence. The careless passenger will class you according to the earthliness which is large in your life, and not according to the heavenliness which is small. If conformity to every vain show make up the bulk of your history, while your compliance with Christ's will can only be detected by the microscope, your influence will, in point of fact, tell on the side of the world. Christians, although the Light of life be within, yet, if it is choked and hidden by an abounding worldliness of spirit and conduct, you are in point of fact hindering the kingdom of Christ. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Observe here, how closely the lines of a true disciple's life approach at certain points to those of a hypocrite's course. The Pharisees gave their alms and repeated their prayers that they might be seen of men; and therein they are condemned by the Lord but when his disciples let their good works be seen by men they are commended. Paul was frequently in a strait betwixt two here. He abhorred the Pharisees' ostentation,—I am less than the least of all saints; and yet, when he saw that he could promote the kingdom by boldly taking the place which belonged to him, he flashed forth in the face of the world the lofty claim, that he was not a whit behind the chiefest of the apostles. The hypocrite performs what are accounted good works in order that he may be seen of men, and get glory to himself: the true disciple, doing necessarily the things that please God, in conformity with his new nature, endeavours carefully to do them in such a way as will best commend the gospel to his neighbours, and so extend the kingdom of Christ. The redeemed should consider well the end of the Lord in redemption. To save the perishing, is not by itself the aim and the hope which directed and animated the Redeemer in his work. As a husbandman makes an evil tree good by engrafting, in order that he may enjoy its good fruit, so our Father in heaven saves us from condemnation, that he may delight in the new obedience of his children, and employ them in his work. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever. What is contained in yonder vessel? I inquire of a stranger who, like myself, is passing by the door of the threshing-floor where it stands. Chaff, he replies, turning a momentary glance towards the object, and so passes on. His answer is all that I could expect him to give ; and yet it is not true. It was not true, for the vessel was mainly filled with wheat; but it was what seemed true, for it was chaff mainly that met the traveller's eye. The measure standing on the floor, while the process of threshing proceeded, was gradually filled with what fell from the sheaves-with wheat and chaff commingled; but as it has been shaken somewhat roughly from side to side, the wheat grains have for the most part sunk to the bottom, and the chaff for the most part risen to the top. In some such way many real but defective disciples are set down as hypocrites in the books of a careless world, because the things of the Spirit gravitate downwards, and lie hidden in the secret parts of their life; while the vanities of time usurp and occupy almost all the visible space on the surface of their history. I do not know any means by which the gospel of Christ is more effectually hindered. Alas! the Lord knows, we have all too little of the true Christian life in the visible Church; but if even that which exists were well employed, it would soon change the face of the world. Christians have in them more of Christianity than they have the wit to employ well in the cause of the kingdom. Oh, if the talents that belong to our Master were as wisely and vigorously laid out, as those which we count our own, the kingdoms of this world would be won over! That which is the fruit of the Spirit in Christians should not be small, but large and full-grown -should not be jostled out of its place by the urgency and impudence of mere worldly fashion. | In particular, he calls for lights. In us there is not That which is Christ-like in Christians should a light which can give life to any; but from the not be hidden under a thick shade of cares and Lord the light of life is streaming down like the pleasures. If you would let your light shine be- rays of the sun: if we receive it, and reflect it, the fore men, you must labour to cut down and kill light of life may through our means reach the off the covetousness, the pride, the evil-speaking, perishing. the equivocation, the falsehood, the dishonestyall the bitter roots, whose branches weave themselves together into a thick veil, so as to turn your light into darkness. You have asked the question, What must we do to be saved? and through the blood of sprinkling you have obtained an answer of peace. Another question demands now all the energy of a saved soul-the question, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? There are many wandering in the darkness, and stumbling even to a final fall. To enlighten, and win and save them, the Lord hath need of you. Yield yourselves instruments of righteousness unto God. Occasions turn up daily in every one's experience, when he must make a choice between faithfulness to Christ and conformity to the world's ways. Take no hesitating, double-minded course. Be on the Lord's side; and be on his side out and out. Let your Christianity be written in large characters for the sake both of friends and foes. A halting walk is a painful walk: plant your foot firm on the path of righteousness, and a new joy will be infused into your life. A life devoted because it is redeemed is not a wearisome, but a joyful thing. It is not like a stagnant pool, but like a sparkling river: bright is its course over time; blessed its issue in eternity. THE LATEST BREACH IN THE ROMAN WALL. AN ACCOUNT OF THE ULTRAMONTANE STRUGGLE IN SWITZERLAND. BY THOMAS T. GRAY, M.A. course of recent events, both at Basle and Geneva. For suspending a priest who had attacked the doctrine of infallibility, Dr. Lachat, Bishop of Basle, has, after full warning from the civil authorities, been deprived of his see, and interdicted from the discharge of his episcopal functions. In Geneva, Monsignor Mermillod has worked out for himself, on a somewhat different line, a substantially similar issue, and, by a course of ambitious scheming and perfectly illegal procedure, effected a wide breach in the relations of the Church of Rome with the governments both of the Canton of Geneva and of the Swiss Republic. The history of this latter transaction is pregnant with so many important lessons bearing on great public questions, which the politicians and churchmen of this country may be called upon to face sooner perhaps than they expect, that we propose to reproduce it in detail. We are indebted to Professor Pronier of Geneva for the principal portion of the following brief statement of the facts of the case. HE Papacy has certainly fallen on evil times. | stamped with extraordinary vividness on the whole Within a few short years she has beheld the thrones of her most devoted champions hurled in rapid succession to the dust; her own temporal dominions ruthlessly torn from her grasp; and her spiritual supremacy flouted and trampled upon by the civil powers of foreign nations. Those of her friends who fondly imagined that the recent dead-lock in the ecclesiastical relations of Rome and Germany was mainly due to the absolutism of the Prussian government, and that no such crisis could arise in a country governed by free institutions, must have found themselves strangely undeceived by the latest phase of Ultramontane aggression. The additional example of Switzerland was all that was wanted to complete the proofs we possess, that under every form of government, be it the most rigid despotism or the most liberal democracy, the claims of the Papacy are totally incompatible with the co-ordinate and independent jurisdiction of the State. The diametrically opposite forms of government prevailing in Germany and Switzerland sufficiently attest the fact that, whenever a conflict of jurisdiction arises between Rome and the civil power, the partisans of the former who remain loyal to their spiritual head cannot at the same time maintain their allegiance to the laws of their native country. "No man can serve two masters," is an adage which seems The history of the present struggle carries us back to the beginning of the present century, when the bishopric of Geneva was finally and definitively suppressed. For all practical purposes, indeed, it had ceased to exist at the Reformation; but, for the sake of the handful of Catholics who still clung to the Church of their fathers even after the sweeping changes of that eventful time, it was per |