longer be seen with the Bible in one hand, and the sword in the other. It has been so with them thus far, because they have refused to compare the doctrine of the Book with the doctrine of the weapon. That comparison cannot be evaded forever; it must be made. Whoever shall make it honestly, will find the sword drop out of his unclenched hand. There have been instances of this; instances are occurring frequently; military men, led to open the Book with their still bloody fingers, perceiving there the Divine disapprobation of wrath, strife, and revenge, and the Divine benedictions on love, gentleness, forbearance and peace, and overcome by the unselfish, tender-hearted, philanthropic life of Jesus, have been struck with horror at the enormous inconsistency of Christendom; and have abandoned the profession of arms which earned them bread, that they might have a claim to the bread of heaven, and be numbered among the children of God. Oh how thrillingly the voices of those emancipated men swelled up to heaven in the rejoicing chorus of the Christmas morn,-what a full meaning did they find in the glorious ascription, Glory to God! on earth, peace!

The inference from all this fairly is, that we are to look for the removal of the great evils which still infest society, to nothing else than the direct agency of Christianity, expressly applied for the purpose of removing them. Its indirect action, as experience has evinced, may be resisted, neutralised or evaded. But its direct application has always proved mighty to the pulling down of strong holds; it never yet was known to fail in the case of an individual faithful to himself, or in the case of a community actually subjected to its influence.

The duty, therefore, of all reformers, and all who desire the progress of man, is plain. They must not waste themselves in generalities, but attempt the removal of specific evils and the accomplishment of specific good. And as the preachers of the Gospel are reformers and philanthropists by their profession, the same duty applies to their labours in the pulpit; if they mean to help the purification of society and do any thing toward the complete triumph of virtue and happiness, they must give battle to all evil, personal and social, by name; they must apply their doctrine as well as utter it. H. w. jr.

LIFE BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN WAVE.

THERE is no one that has experienced the loss of even the nearest and dearest friends on earth, that for a length of time yields to despair. It is against the order of nature, and those who cherish inordinate grief combat the very principles of their nature. Every one, after the shock has passed, involuntary begins to seek consolation. This comes in forms as various as are the minds calculated to receive it. Some find it in individual sympathy, some in general society. Some are able to fill the void by substituting similar affections, and others contrive to indurate the sensibility and consign their friends to a second death. It is ordained that time shall do its gradual and silent work, and the order of Providence is more powerful than our weakness or our affections. We pass from one stage of sorrow to another, till the bleeding heart is healed and the memory of the lovely and beloved steals over us in visions of joy and peace, reversing for a short time the beautiful language of Scripture,-they come to us though we cannot go to them. The sensitiveness we first felt passes away, we no longer shrink from the gentle touch of friendship, the mind resumes its reasoning powers, and returns to its natural

state.

And is this the history of our grief? Does it end here? Is it for this, friends "languish and die ?" O no, affliction has high and holy purposes. Who does not feel in the uncertainty of life new motives to kindness and forbearance? Who can let the sun go down on his anger, when it may never rise again on the face of his friend? Who that looks around upon the casualties of life, and sees the frequent close of existence by sickness, or the scarcely less frequent death by the raging elements, can put off till tomorrow the works of amnesty or kindness? Who will not strive so to conduct, that let the mandate come to his companions when it will, he may not be left a prey to bitter self-reproach?

Under the loss of friends there is but one rational source of consolation, and that is the conviction of a future existence. Most people profess to feel this conviction; it is a part of their religious creed, they hear it constantly from the pulpit, and they are satisfied with their belief till sorrow comes; and then comes a desolation inconsis

tent with the living and active conviction. Perhaps they have never thought much on the subject, they have taken it on trust, and now is the time to make it their consolation. Now they will find one of the most convincing arguments for a future life in the shortness of this. How many wise purposes are frustrated for want of time to accomplish them. How many labour diligently while the day lasts, and then comes the night " in which no man can work." What noble projects of virtue and usefulness are interrupted, and no one left to resume them with equal efficacy. Our aspirations are vast, our sphere limited at the best. What a capacity of knowledge and improvement is given to man! and yet how much of life is taken up in providing for the mere means of existence; struggling against temptation, enduring sickness, poverty, and loss of friends.

It may be said these are the means given us for discipline, and to aid us in our progress to virtue. Undoubtedly this is true; and it is one of the strongest arguments for a future existence; for of what use are the means, if there is no end to be attained. Experience can do but little for us, and perhaps still less for others; when we would convert it to their use, it generally takes the form of admonition or reproof. We have then, by suffering and toil, gained a treasure which in some respects is more worthless than the miser's accumulated wealth, for he can, if he pleases, bequeath it, and it will have the same value to others that it had to himself.

Many in the vigour and usefulness of life are cut off by mental aberration, and condemned to linger for years as maniacs. Can this be the end and purpose of their creation? Or can we believe that God would give faculties and powers for ends which we can never attain; that he would create beings "but little lower than the angels,” full of great and glorious attributes, to perish like the canker-worm which destroys vegetable life? Have we not lately seen the "high heart and true" cut off in the moment of usefulness,-one whose countenance beamed with benevolence and kindness, who diffused peace and good-will in every circle which he entered, who with the independence and firmness of a hero united the gentleness of a child, who with a mind deep, clear and bright was pressing onward in the Christian race? Do we not find in such a life, and such a death, evidences for a future existence? We feel that he has left us to minister to immortal beings, left us for a life beyond the mountain wave!

QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE COMMUNION.

Ir is our purpose in the following article, to furnish a plain and intelligible answer to the question-When ought a person to join the church? or what are the qualifications for church-membership?

We take it for granted that all are not suitable candidates for admission. For some doubt, others reject Christianity as an authoritative communication from heaven. Others, still, look upon the whole subject of religion with indifference, or scorn, or contempt. Others, who believe, are sadly deficient in the spirit of Christ. They indulge in secret sins; they cherish malice, or envy, or some other wicked passion in their hearts. Or they may be guilty of immoral conduct. They may be unjust, fraudulent, false to their word, the slaves of appetite and lust. Or they may be implacable and unmerciful, harbouring revengeful and malicious thoughts against a neighbour, studying how they may render evil for evil, or refusing to listen to any terms of reconciliation. Or they may live a thoughtless, prayerless, godless life, wholly indifferent to their spiritual interests; making no provision for the undying soul, being wholly absorbed in the cares or the pleasures of the world.

Ought they, in this state, to come to the holy communion? Would their presence at the table be approved by the great Head of the Church? Would it not be a solemn mockery and profanation of holy things, for persons without faith, without seriousness, and without the desire or purpose to live a better life, to make a profession of religion, as it is called, and to become communicants at the Lord's table? Would they not, with these habits, feelings and views, incur guilt, be self-convicted, and justly looked upon by all who know them, as hypocrites?

But admitting that all are not suitable candidates, when, under what circumstances, ought a person to offer himself for admission into the church? Must he wait till he shall have reached some certain, welldefined mark, till he shall have formed habits of religious obedience, till he shall have attained to "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ?"

There is, we maintain, no good reason for such delay. There is nothing in the word of God, in the practice of the Apostles, or in the reason of the thing, to justify or require it. The three thousand that were converted on the day of Pentecost were at once baptized and received into the church, or became communicants. Witness the conversion and immediate admission to Christian ordinances of Lydia, and the jailor in the city of Philippi. May we not infer from these and similar examples, that it is not some definite measure of goodness that is demanded as a qualification for the communion, but simply the act of self-consecration; the desire, purpose, determination, to obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

And what more should be demanded? Let any one give satisfactory evidence that he has chosen Jesus for his Master, and we see no reason why he should exclude himself, or be excluded by others from the table of the communion.

"They that

And indeed why should he stay away? Why should the sick man wait till he is healed before he apply to the physician? are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." And "Jesus came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Why not come to him at once to be healed, so soon as the conviction is forced on our mind that we are spiritually sick, and have learned that there is "balm in Gilead, and a physician there" able to save to the uttermost all who will follow his prescriptions. Or, to adopt a different figure, why not enter at once the school of Christ, the great Teacher, so soon as we are conscious of our ignorance, and know that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life?"

There is surely nothing forbidding in the terms of the invitation. It is not, "Come unto me, all ye whose burden has been removed and who have found rest," but," All ye who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It is not the peculiar office of the good Shepherd to guard the sheep that have never strayed or that have been gathered into the fold, but to search for the lost ones and to bring them home. "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." In the passage from the prophet Isaiah, which Jesus quotes as applicable to himself, it is written: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." It was his peculiar office to instruct