"Come, Holy Ghost, our soul inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire.
Thou the Anointing Spirit art,

Who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart :
Thy blessed unction from above

Is comfort, life, and fire of love."

The testimony of these speakers was confirmed by Dr. Miller, who showed, in the happiest way, how Rationalism on the one hand, and Popery upon the other, have perished where the influence of this Society has prevailed. Others spoke to the same effect; and all seemed to be of one mind, gathered together, as on the day of Pentecost, and in one place. "My friends," said Mr. Hoare, in conclusion, "let it go forth to the world that it is your earnest wish to abide by the great principles of the Church Missionary Society. Let there be such an enthusiastic earnestness, and such a holy decision in your manner of passing this resolution, [the resolution was, "that the meeting put on record that it desires no change in the great principles of the Church Missionary Society"] that the very walls shall bear witness that evangelical principle is not yet extinct in the Church of England, and that there are thousands of true and loving hearts prepared to stand, through life and in death, by the great Protestant, Evangelical, and Scriptural principles of the Reformation."

The Evening Meeting of the Church Missionary Society was as largely attended as that in the morning, the vast hall being filled a second time, a fact which never happened before. While the enemies of evangelical truth were preparing their shout of triumph, God has rebuked our timidity and shown us, that if we open our mouth wide, "He is even now prepared to fill it:" no weapon forged against Him shall prosper.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

AN OLD SUBSCRIBER wishes to be informed "in what number of our Magazine he read an account of the earliest Sunday Schools, going back some little time beyond Mr. Raikes's day." We have no means of providing him with this information, having no general Index.

A CATHOLIC wishes to know, "why it is the custom in some churches to omit the words and oblations,' in the church militant prayer, where there is a celebration ?" Why does he not refer to Wheatley, or to some of our canon. ists, long ago in print?

HABAKKUK; A STUDY FOR THE TIMES.

THE book of Habakkuk is a whole. The first chapter leads to the second, and the third springs out of the contents of the first and the second. And throughout the book there is a commingling of the representative man, and of the prophet, in Habakkuk's own person. Having begun, as the representative of the Lord's saints, in bewailing the sins and obduracy of his nation (i. 2-4), he is inspired, as a prophet, to denounce divine awful judgments on account of them at the hands of the Chaldeans. (5-11.) Then, passing on into the time of judgment, he again, as a representative of the saints, expostulates with God against the terrible infliction; and so, again, as a prophet, is inspired to foretell destruction on the Chaldeans, for their pride and cruelties, even though they were the Lord's Scourge on Judah. (ii.) And then, finally, merging the character of prophet in the character of the representative of the saints, he gives expression, in his " prayer" of" the prophet,' to indescribable feelings of awe at the judgment which punished his nation's sins and destroyed the Chaldeans; and to the calm confidence of faith, in the prospect of the final salvation of the Lord's true people. And in all this Habakkuk is a pattern for ourselves. Of course, we are not to expect to become prophets as he was a prophet; but we are to use the prophecies which have been given us. And certainly, after his model, as a representative of the saints, we are to bewail the sins and obduracy of our times; regard the evils they entail, as divine judgments; and so, while we tremble under the display of God's righteous indignation, we shall, through the supply of the Spirit, the Comforter, rejoice in sure hope of the promised "salvation" of the faithful, which is "ready to be revealed" in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1. First, then, taking Habakkuk for our exemplar, we learn to "enter into " our "closet, and shut the door about " us, and mourn before our Father, "in secret," for the sins and obduracy of our day. And truly, here we have woeful cause to take up Habakkuk's language, "O Lord, why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance?" Social, mercantile, and fashionable life teems around us with practices, on account of which" the name of God and his doctrine" are blasphemed. In civil life and affairs of state, principle is, on all sides, with increasing boldness sacrificed to expediency and party interests; and a spirit of insubordination and presumption would prostrate legislative and executive government before popular demands; and underminings approach even the throne itself. Above all, in the churches, lukewarmness and unfaithfulness convert liberality into licentiousness; defiance of authority is met with imbecility; in doctrine, the foundations are destroyed by rationalistic and Romanising opinions and teachings; sensuous tastes and displays unspiritualize the worship of many congregations; and, while Protestantism becomes a bye-word, or is half bashfully avowed, the ceaseless intrigues of Popery are daring and fatally encroaching. All is confusion in the Church. "There are that raise up strife and contention; and therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth." And for all these "abominations in the midst of" us, it becomes us, with the saints whom Habakkuk represented, to be "men that sigh and cry."

2. And what "answer" from the Lord are we to look for, as we "stand upon" our "watch, and set" ourselves "upon the tower," in the devotions of the closet, and in meditations on the Scriptures, and so "watch to see what He will say unto" us? As we have said, we anticipate no such voice as spake to the prophet-"Write the vision!" But we may reckon on having visions which are written made plain to us, as being now realised in their general principles and broader features. They chose new gods; then was war in the gates." "Shall

I not visit for these things? saith the Lord; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" "Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" "Thou hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from thee." "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." Such general principles we shall "read," and be taught to trace, in our own troubles, with this conviction of Habakkuk as our representative," O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, Thou hast established them for correction!" And, at least, we shall be led to recognise in our troubles these broader features of unfulfilled prophecy,-" When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"

"Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." "In the last days perilous times shall come." "Behold I come as a thief! Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments; lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." Yes, we shall discern the Lord's retributive righteous judgments on the sins of our Church and nation in the calamities that vex us; and shall understand that the Lord is not doing "without cause" all that He is thus doing in us, in these "last times."

True; we shall not fall into such a morbid state as to dwell exclusively on the dark side of this picture. Rather, we shall acknowledge, that, in God's infinite mercy, our churches are a blessing to our own realms, and throughout the wide world; that the charity abounds with us, which visits "the fatherless and widows in their affliction," and considers the poor; and that many of the Lord's remembrancers have "power with God" for us and "prevail." prevail." Yet this admission only increases our dilemma; for still there is a feebleness for good which is almost inexplicable. A feeling of uneasiness, a want of sober trustworthy combination, and dissensions, paralyze the exertions of those who are in the main "like-minded;" while new alarms startle us in unexpected quarters; and, with marvellous facility, long cherished and avowed sentiments are cast to the winds; our time-honoured bulwarks are betrayed in Church and State; and the foe rushes on, and shouts already for victory. God seems "not to hear," and it begins to look as though He would "not save."

Nor shall we think to escape heavier inflictions still. "The vision is yet for an appointed time." "Till the Lord come"is "the end" of it; and only when "iniquity is come to the full," will the Lord say, "Now will I arise!" Our spirit, therefore, will be ordered by this prescribed rule,-"Though it tarry, wait for it!" "Here is the patience of the saints." "Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry."

3. And in this waiting season we, as Habakkuk did, shall feel and cherish a holy trembling. The terrible manifestations of God's hatred of sin and judgment on sinners ought to stimulate us, in the fear of God, to "watch and pray, lest" we "enter into temptation ;" and the obstinacy with which the adversaries of God notwithstanding defy his vengeance, ought to overwhelm us with alarm at the power of the devil to infatuate. And because we now witness the social, civil, and ecclesiastical convulsions, which immorality, infidelity, and religious apostacy create; and know also from the page of prophecy, that even such physical convulsions shall be added to them, in "the end of all things," as Habakkuk has compared with the terrors of the deluge, and of God's descent on Sinai (iii. 3-14);

the exhortation of St. Peter is most appropriate to us : Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless."

4. "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Yes; and so, lastly, Habakkuk is the saints' representative also, in rejoicing, even amidst tribulations and alarm, in a good hope through grace," "in hope of the glory of God." "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places." Such was Habakkuk's calm confidence of faith, before "life and immortality" were "brought to light through the Gospel." How, then, should saints lift up their heads, even though "the enemy should come in like a flood," and there be "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world," now that a risen and ascended Saviour has promised-" To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne; even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne?" "Such honour have all his saints." "At the end, the vision shall not lie." "The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High."

This is "the blessed hope" of all God's elect, at "the appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." And here, also, "the vision" is made "plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." And, therefore, as the crowning "answer" to their trembling intercessions and "patient waiting," it is given to the saints now, even "in the day of trouble," to "abound in" this "hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." The Lord God will make their "feet" also, with Habakkuk's, "like hinds' feet," in ever fresh vigour in the Lord's work and for fighting the battles of the Lord, and make them to walk upon their "high places" in foretastes and exulting assurance of final victory. (1 Chron. xii. 8; Psalm xviii. 33.)

Then let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter." As a prophet for God's Church "in troublous times" and alarms, Habakkuk inculcates this standing practical lesson: "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith." And, as a representative man, Habakkuk