observe that a market-basket is supposed to contain something more substantial than pity and prayers. These are very good in their place, but will not feed the hungry and clothe the naked. It is astonishing with what small investments in practical benevolence some people manage to maintain very large pretensions to piety and sympathy for the poor. Their zeal seems to be inversely proportional to the size of their market-baskets, reminding one of the old coloured woman who always sang, "Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel," with her eyes shut when the missionary-box was passed.

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My text says, "There may be as holy and unselfish a spirit in the way a market-basket is filled as in a week of fasting; but I think the quality of a man's piety may be better determined by observing how large his basket is, and how and where it is emptied. An apostle of this old religion with a new name, was accustomed to say, My Bible reads, Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the widow and the fatherless with a marketbasket on my arm, and keep myself unspotted from the world.'” Accordingly, whenever he went to pray with and comfort certain families in his parish, he always carried them a basket well filled with "the meat that perisheth," by way of introduction to his spiritual ministrations. It is currently reported in that parish that the good minister had "great liberty in prayer" on these occasions.

"He prayeth best who loveth best

All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
Hath made and loveth all."

THOUGHTS AND HOPES FOR EVENTIDE.

"Enter into thy closet, and shut thy door."—Matt. vi. 6.

I SIT in my silent chamber,

And my spirit mounts in thought;
Dear hour of divine communion,
That oft a deep joy hath wrought.

And lo! as in holy vision,

The heavens unfold above,

And there fall bright beams of glory,
There is breathed the breath of love.

I see, through the amber portal,
The angels of God descend;

"God's Host "-they are swift of pinion,
And ever His saints attend;

I hear the celestial chorus,

Harps touched with divinest skill,
Tones sweeter than breathing zephyrs,
That on my hushed soul distil.

Ay, Lord, Thou bendest yet lower;
The voices of earth dost hear;
Dost catch each sigh of contrition,
Dost note each glistening tear;
My praise is to Thee as incense,
For prayer Thou returnest grace;
Not now may these eyes behold Thee,
But I feel Thy blest embrace.

Why-why should I envy seraphs,
That they stand so near the throne,
If here Thou dost deign to meet me,
If here dost Thyself make known?
If now in these evening shadows,
This stillness of dying day,
My soul may drink of thy fulness
Till won from her griefs away.

My God, Thy secret is with me,
A secret I ne'er can tell;

'Tis life, 'tis peace, 'tis a rapture,

When with me Thou com'st to dwell; While the twilight shades grow deeper, As spreadeth her wings the night, On me there falleth Thy splendour, And all is serenely bright.

My finite and feeble spirit

With Thine, the Infinite, blends, Till with Heav'ns own bliss o'erflowing, Her weary, vain quest she ends;

As if on Thy bosom lying,

She findeth her wished-for rest,

By Eternal Arms enfolded:

Have ye more than this, ye blest?

Ah, yes, ye spirits immortal,

Ye are not to sense confined;

No law in your faultless being,

When ye long to soar, doth bind; And I, too, at length ascending, From sense for ever set free,

Shall God-ward cleave the bright azure, As glad and as pure as ye!

Oh, then on the throne whose brightness Outshineth yon blazing sun,

The Head of the whole creation,

I shall see the Crucified One!

Where night spreads no more her sliadow, I, amidst the ineffable glow,

Shall live on His smile for ever

And ALL THAT HE IS SHALL KNOW.

NEWS OF THE CHURCHES.

THE autumnal meetings of the been recognised as the joint-pastor of the church at Boscombe and Bournemouth, in connection with the Rev. H. C. Leonard, M.A.; the Rev. L. M. Pherson, who has recently finished his studies in connection with the Baptist Union of Scotland, of the church at Dumfries; the Rev. W. Ewens, of the church at Uley, Gloucestershire; the Rev. A. F. Mills, of the church in North Frederick-street, Glasgow; the Rev. A. P. Fayers, of the church at Armley, near Leeds; the Rev. R. J. Rogers, late of Regent's-park College, of the church at the Lower Chapel, Chesham; the Rev. R. Bastable, of the church at Kilmington, Devon; the Rev. A. Knell, of the church at Ridgmount, Beds; the Rev. R. C. Roberts, late of the North Wales College, of the church at Pembroke Dock.

Baptist Union have been held this year at Birmingham. The Rev. Dr. Landels presided, and a larger number of delegates attended the meetings than on any previous occasion. The proceedings are reported at length in The Baptist and The Freeman.

A testimonial, consisting of an address and a purse containing two thousand guineas, has been presented to the Rev. Dr. Thomas, of Pontypool, on his retirement from the presidency of the college in that place after a service of forty years.

A new chapel has been opened at Idle, near Leeds, for the ministry of the Rev. J. Horn.-The chapel at Bury St. Edmunds, under the care of the Rev. M. S. Ridley, has been reopened after extensive alterations. The memorial-stone of a new chapel has been laid in Liverpool-road, Burslem, for the ministry of the Rev. H. C. Field.-The chapel at Kingston, Surrey, under the care of the Rev. H. Bayley, has been reopened after repair and renovation. The chapel at Hayhill, Bath, in which the Rev. S. Murch now ministers, has been reopened after renovation and improvement. A new chapel has been opened at Forfar, for the ministry of the Rev. R. Steel. The foundation-stone of a new chapel, for the ministry of the Rev. G. Sparks, has been laid at Cowes, in the Isle of Wight. A chapel has been opened at Southend, Essex, to be called the Baptist Tabernacle.-The chapel at Oadby, near Leicester, under the care of the Rev. C. Wilshire, has been reopened after alterations.The chapel in Whitecross-street, Lancaster, under the care of the Rev. J. Baxandall, has been reopened after alterations.

The following reports of MINIS. TERIAL CHANGES have reached us since our last issue:-The Rev. J. Harper, of Horsforth, to Rother. ham; the Rev. E. B. Shepherd, for the last four years associated with the Rev. J. H. Millard at Huntingdon, to Newark; the Rev. J. Baikie, of the Metropolitan Tabernacle College, to Irvine, Scotland; the Rev. C. J. Knight, of Lowestoft, to Chelsea, London; the Rev. H. Hughes, of Rhyddlan, Flintshire, to Tal-y-Bont, Aberystwith; the Rev. T. L. Smith, of Madely, Shropshire, to Wolsingham, Durham; the Rev. G. Needham, of New Basford, to Barton Fabis; the Rev. T. J. Malyon, of the Borough-road church, Sunderland, to Enon Chapel, in the same town. The Rev. R. L. M'Dougall has resigned the pastorate of the church at Necton, Norfolk; the Rev. S. A. Swaine, late of Wantage, of the church in Great Victoria-street, Belfast; the Rev. C. T. Johnson, of the church at The Rev. G. P. Gould, M.A., has | Coalville, Leicestershire.

DECEMBER, 1876.

ON SOME OF THE SUBORDINATE CHARACTERS

OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

BY THE REV. WILLIAM BROCK.

XII. THE SALUTATIONS IN THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

"As, in the main body of the Epistle, Paul appears to have been a very knowing man, so, in these appurtenances of it, he appears to have been a very loving man." So says good Matthew Henry, in his summary of the closing chapter of the Romans; and his remark forms our fittest introduction. For in no other Epistle have we such a display of feeling. The change from the elaborate argument and lofty appeal, which went before, to these simple and friendly greetings, has something about it singularly soothing and delightful. It is like a descent from the heart of some grand mountain scenery of towering crags and glittering snows and tremendous gorges, to the levels of a country garden, the homely occupations of daily life, and the sweet scent of familiar flowers.

"Salutations," or "greetings" (the translators have varied their rendering of the one original word), fill up, it will be observed, by far the greater part of the chapter before us. The term may be simply equivalent to our own ordinary message of Christian remembrance or regard. In one place, however, it becomes more definite. "Salute one another with an holy kiss." The kiss in those countries was in itself no more significant than is the clasp of the hand among ourselves. The Ephesian elders "fell on Paul's neck and kissed him" in token of farewell. But it early acquired a certain added meaning in the Christian fellowship, as "the holy kiss," "the kiss of charity," or "the kiss of peace. Very near to apostolic days, we find it mentioned by Justin Martyr as a recognised part of the communionservice. "When prayers are ended," he writes, we salute each other with a kiss; and, after that, bread and wine are brought to the president, who, receiving them, gives praise and glory to God." custom remained for centuries, as a symbol of reconciliation, and of forgiving all injuries whatsoever." The spirit which it breathed survives wherever" brethren dwell together in unity."

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Another mark of primitive times is observable in the phrases, "the church that is in their house," and "the brethren that are with them." They portray, as we have before observed, a state of ecclesiastical infancy, and they hint at liabilities to persecution. The Roman believers meet, not in one large hall for common worship, but in scattered groups, in different private houses, in separate small "churches" or assenblies. Our Epistle will have to travel from one such group to another,

VOL. XIX, N.S. XII,

till all have had opportunities of hearing it. One advantage of such private gatherings lay in the fact that they would be little likely to catch the eye of a jealous and tyrannical government. Another lay in the homeliness and heartiness which they imparted to the Christian service and life, and which, with our more finished organisations, we are very liable to lose. It would be well even now not to neglect the special means of grace afforded by smaller sectional meetings of Christian people. The Methodist class-meeting is based upon a true understanding of human nature. Where two or three are gathered together in Christ's name there may descend a peculiar glow of personal conviction not so readily aroused in our more numerous and formal assemblies.

Before we pass under review the various persons named, a question may be raised as to how, never having visited Rome, the apostle could possess so large a circle of personal acquaintances there. The answer

is to be found in the circumstances of the age. It was a travelling age; and Rome was the centre of the civilised world. Merchants came thither to trade; scholars for education; slaves to escape detection; litigants to obtain redress; the indolent in quest of amusement; and the ambitious in quest of fortune and of fame. We have seen instances of this fact in Aquila and Priscilla, the travelling tent-makers, in Onesimus, the fugitive, and in Phoebe, the Cenchrean lady. The bulk of the Roman believers must have been unknown by face to Paul; but there is nothing wonderful in his familiar knowledge of the twenty or thirty persons whose names he mentions, and whose character he seems able to depict.

We have no photographs of those ancient saints; yet, as we read, we see them seated in their different groups, to hear what Paul has written, and we catch the look of pleasure on each face as the name is uttered, and the greeting received. Shadows, and little more than shadows, are they to the casual reader; most of them with no other memorial than the mention of them here. Every name represents, however, a separate intelligent Christian soul, now, we trust, with the Lord; and usually a vivid phrase of description helps to stamp the name upon the memory. Here, indeed, in one verse, is a batch of bare names, all unknown. One wonders what manner of men were these Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them." Here is another list, with a certain sense of domestic life underlying it, but nothing more: Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and their associated friends." Others, again, are marked by a single term of affection or of commendation, as "Stachys my beloved," "Amplias my beloved in the Lord," "Urbane, our helper in Christ." But we have wider openings than these into the character, and hints of fuller information, which it may be interesting to pursue.

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"Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household." "Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord."