and it acquitted me; it shewed me I was a sinner, and it led me to the Saviour; it has given me comfort through life, and I trust it will give me hope in death.” In the days of Robert Rogers, who died in 1775, Bibles were not so easily got as now. This boy of only eight years old, who found great spoil in God's Word, said, "If I should live to be a man, I would give everybody in my house a Bible." "How I love my father for teaching me to read the Bible!" was one of his sayings. He did not live to be a man, but died at the age of eight years and three months. His last words were, "My God! my God! my God!" and fell asleep in Jesus. Observe the words of a converted heathen, who was enthusiastic about the Book :-"I believe the Bible to be the Word of God. The men on the other side of the great sea used their skill and their bodies to make ships and to print Bibles. They came in ships, and brought iron hoops, knives, nails, hatchets, cloth, and needles, which are very good. They also brought rum and whisky, which are very evil. They moved the hinges of their jaws, and told lies and curses, which are abominable. At last some came and brought the Bible. They used the hinges of their bodies to turn over its leaves, and to explain God's blessed Word. That was better than iron ware and stuff for clothing. They were the servants of the living God, and my heart opened to their word, as if it had hinges too, like as my mouth opens to take food when I am hungry. And my heart feels satisfied now. It was hungry-God nourished it; it was thirsty-God has refreshed it. Blessed be God who gave His Word, and sent it across the sea to bring me light and salvation." We wonder not at the Bible having such friends; we wonder not at its friends increasing; our only wonder is that all who have the Bible and read it do not at once become its friends. Strange that the Bible should have enemies!

Then, again, there are philanthropic friends of the Bible. All real friends, whether learned or unlearned, are interested in the dissemination of the Scriptures. They wish others to possess them, but are not manifestly philanthropic. They are poor or so circumstanced that they do not actively engage in Bible-work for the good of others. The Bible philanthropists are those that translate the Scriptures for the benefit of others are those that give Bibles to the poor, the degraded, and ignorant are those that support Bible and missionary institutions-are those that make sacrifices to teach the truths of God's Word. In all ages there have been such choice and noble spirits. Lost to self, and lost to ease, and lost to sacrifice, they have generously considered, and heroically laboured, for the good of men. What philanthropists the prophets and apostles and martyrs and reformers! What philanthropists are many of our ministers and missionaries and Sabbath school teachers and Christian instruction agents! Think on those noble men who have given years of mental toil to the study of languages—who have reduced the rude speech of the barbarian to form-giving it a grammar-for the purpose of giving the inestimable life-treasure to the heathen. Think on those noble men who cast gracious shadows in dark alleys, and that go into the criminal's cell with the words of salvation.

At a

All hail to these men! Long live their memories! May their spirit possess us! time when there was no Bible Society, and when the precious volume was

not so common and cheap, how nobly the Honourable R. Boyle acts ! That pre-eminently good man, who never mentioned the Divine Name without a solemn pause, gave £300 to aid the propagation of the Gospel, and for translating, printing, and circulating the Scriptures among the American Indians in their vernacular dialects. He founded a Lecture at St. Paul's for the Defence of the Christian Religion against Infidels, and was at the expense of the translation and printing of 500 copies of the four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles into the Malayan language. He caused a font of type to be cast, and the Irish New Testament to be reprinted at his own expense; and afterwards contributed £700 to print an edition of the whole Bible in the same language, besides £100 towards an edition for the Highlands of Scotland. He also contributed £60 towards an edition of the Turkish New Testament, and liberally aided the printing of the Scriptures in the Welsh language. This good man went to his reward in 1691. In the Honourable R. Boyle we have a manifestation of the large spirit of the Gospel; but this is not an exceptive case. There have been, and there are, numerous such cases. In every benevolent and religious society, in every reformative institute, in every action to raise fallen humanity and make men holy and happy, we read Christian philanthropy. Greece with all its acquirements, Rome with all its letters, never furnished such instances of generosity. They were an exclusive and a selfish people, and left their needy to perish. Christianity alone-the Bible alone-has a tear for human misery, a sunny word for the downcast, a beatitude for the world!

What is a standing certain sign of friendship to the Bible? It is searching it-digging deep into its mines, casting up its truths, and gathering its precious pearls and making them ours. It is so using this Wonderful Book as to make its words shine in the understanding, shine in the heart, shine in the life—making the whole man divine by its gifts and graces. The true friends of the Bible are themselves living Bibles. They speak while the printed Bible lies silent in the closet-" they speak through that work of the Holy Spirit in them-a living Gospel, which is more convincing and of longer continuance with men; for the written Bible is for the moment, their's is for life."

How Bible friends have searched the Scriptures! Dr. Gouge used to read fifteen chapters every day-five in the morning, five after dinner, and five in the evening before going to bed; and those that know his works must see that his reading was with prayer and meditation. Joshua Barnes is said to have read a small pocket Bible, which he usually carried about with him, one hundred and twenty times. Mr. Robert Cotton read the whole Bible through twelve times in a year. Bishop Ridley says, "The walls and trees of my orchard, could they speak, would bear witness that there I learned by heart almost all the Epistles; of which study, although in time the greater part of it was lost, yet the sweet savour thereof, I trust, I shall carry with me to heaven." A poor prisoner being confined in a dark dungeon and no light, except for a few moments when his food was brought him; he used to take his Bible and read a chapter, saying he could find his mouth in the dark, when he could not read." Other cases might be given, but these are sufficient. The question is, Are we the friends of the Bible? Do we read it with

prayer and interest? Do we live on the Word and grow thereby? And are we truly anxious that others should know its truths and feel their power? Oh! had we the power of an angel, could we write with all the pathos of Gabriel, we would urge upon all to make the Bible their one chief book. Read it, study it, pray over it, believe it, live it; and may you experience all its glad transfigurations!

Parental Influence.

THE following is from a sermon by the Rev. William Hanna, D.D., on Romans xiv. 7, 8: "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." It is published by Messrs. Lorimer & Gillies, Edinburgh, and merits an extensive circulation :

"Trace a single parent's influence downward along the track of time. He impresses more or less, for good or for evil, half-a-dozen, let us say, of his own offspring. These six beings are, in many material respects, quite different to what they should have been-in intelligence, principle, temper, conduct-had it not been for him. But let these six, each of them in his turn, affect as many more; propagate, it may be in a mixed and diluted or intensified degree, the same species of influence by which his individual form of character was moulded; trace that course of things a little farther, and you will find that, in the sixth generation following, that single parent will be found exerting a living and formative power over nearly 50,000 of the human family. And this may happen within two hundred years. Two hundred years hence there may be 50,000 human beings upon whom, not by the general influence which one man exerts over others with whom he is casually thrown into contact, but by that strong controlling influence which every parent exerts upon his child, what you now as a parent are, shall then distinctly and definitely be telling. But the influence of parent over child is but one of the multitudinous influences to which we are subject, and which we in our turn exert. We spend a day or two with a friend, we spend an hour or two with a stranger. Those days, those hours that glide so quickly by and leave so little, it may be, for memory to take hold of, nevertheless form part of the warp and the woof out of which the web of our destiny has been a-weaving. Remote and untraceable in their pedigree, vast and uncountable in their multitudinous ramifications, are all the currents and streams of those influences for good and for evil which begin playing upon us so soon as ever our spirit is open to their access;-and as far reaching in their results, and as wide-spreading, those of which we on our part become the fountain head.

"It is easier to calculate the path of a planet in the heavens than that of a single drop of water borne down along the current of a rapid stream. The mechanical forces which act upon the planet, determining its course,

are few and simple, and can be brought within the reach of that fine instrument of calculation which science puts into our hands; but the forces which act upon the drop of water as it moves along, beset on every side, above, beneath, around, sometimes gently gliding on as part of a smooth-flowing volume, anon flung about and whirled and tossed in the eddying pool or the thundering cataract, these forces are so numerous, so changeful, they come in from such various quarters, they enter along such different and frequently opposing lines, as to baffle every effort of the calculator to follow and to estimate. But easier far it were to follow and to forecast that drop's pathway in the waters, than to follow and forecast the pathway of one human spirit dropped amid that vortex of agencies to which here on earth it is subjected, pressed in upon, on this side and on that, impelled now hitherward now thitherward; borne along on that great tide which is setting on towards the shoreless sea. But let each unit of that mighty mass but realize the compass and immense extent of that moulding power and pressure which it individually exerts, and shall continue throughout all time to exert, upon every other unit with which it comes even temporarily into contact, with what solemnity does this invest the simple fact of our existence! None of us liveth to himself, no man dieth unto himself. To live such a life as ours, to die such a death as ours, how sacred a thing it is whether we realize it or not —whether we live designedly or not for others!"

Early Training.

By REV. SAMUEL FINDLEY.

HUGH LATIMER was one of the most famous and effective preachers of the Gospel in the reign of Henry VIII. He was distinguished, even in his early youth, for the earnestness with which he prosecuted his studies. His mental efforts were marked with an ardour which raised him in rank far above his fellow-students. When he entered the ministry his great moral earnestness gave a boldness and a directness to his denunciations of sin that were by no means characteristic of his age. The same strength of character and true moral courage distinguished him when, in company with Ridley, he was led out of Bocardo prison to be burned at the stake. Being strong himself, he encouraged and strengthened his companion in suffering with these remarkable words: "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as Í trust shall never be put out."

If we seek for the secret of his earnestness and his success as a minister of the Gospel, and his unflinching adherence to the truth in the face of imprisonment and the stake, we will find it in his early training. This training is best described in his own words: "My father delighted to teach me to shoot with the bow. He taught me how to draw, how to lay my body to the bow; not to draw with strength of arm, as other nations do, but with the strength of the body." This soldierly training directed all his energies, inspired all his efforts as a student, and taught him to

put all the strength of his soul into his religion and the service of his God.

Every Christian is a soldier, and needs just such training. His life is a continuous conflict with the powers of darkness. He must draw his bow "not with strength of arm, but with the strength of the body," else it will never pierce the foe "between the joints of the harness." He who trembles in the presence of his enemy, or is only half in earnest in his Christian profession, will make but little progress in grace, and will defend but feebly the citadel of truth. Taking advantage of his weakness and his lack of courage, the tempter will readily ensnare him by his wiles, and rob him of his confidence and hopes.

This training must be accomplished early in life. The training master is the father, the school is the family circle. To be a successful trainer, the father must be qualified to train well. He must be able to shew his son how "to draw the bow with the strength of the body." Example in family training must accompany and enforce the father's words of wisdom, else they will utterly fail. When a young man can say, "My father taught me how to live, how to give my soul to Jesus, and how to go to Him for strength; how to give my whole self to the service of God-not to love Him as some do, feebly and indifferently—but with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and exemplified his teaching by his life," then we may expect of him that he will be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might." Such a one is "able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Do you wonder why he is growing in spiritual stature while many professors are becoming weak and faint by the way? It is because the impress of his early training remains in his heart as a continual inspiration.

Who is not familiar with the adage, “As the twig is bent the tree is inclined?" We see its truth illustrated every day in the results of early training. Parents who neglect the proper training of their children seem to forget that as they grow up to manhood they will carry with them all the defects of character that distinguish their boyhood-that in this respect "the boy is the father of the man." More never penned a truer sentiment than that found in his Utopia: "If you allow your people to be badly taught, their morals to be corrupted from childhood, and then, when they are men, punish them for the very crimes to which they have been trained in childhood-what is it but to make thieves and then punish them?" It would be well if the punishment, in such cases, could be made to reach with tenfold intensity to the parent who is the archoffender. We owe it to our children, to society, to God, to be faithful to the young committed to our training, to teach them how to put forth all their strength in well-doing, to love God with all their heart, and to be earnest in Christian work. Those who are taught how to work for Christ in early youth will be distinguished for moral courage in manhood, and, like Latimer, will stand up firmly for the right and for humanity in the face of all opposition. Our country and the Church need such men today, men who "draw the bow with the strength of the body;" and they will need them still more as the conflict with_iniquity deepens, and the crisis that must decide for God approaches. Let every parent see that his son is a young Latimer.