more. Slavery deprives men of their souls with the freedom of their bodies. When slave-dealers try to prove that negroes are not of the one human species, but something beneath it, they are trying to cast upon nature the degradation which is their own work. A community of slaves is a community of men, but souls are wanting there.

The

Agitation for the abolition of slavery is merely supporting the plea of men to be men. Gloomy as the present aspect of slavery and the slave-trade undoubtedly is, it is but a phase; and the history of humanity, like the history of every man, is chequered with black and white aspects. English-speaking nation in America can preserve slavery permanently only by annihilating among them the knowledge of the language of Milton and Clarkson. The Dred-Scott decision may say every territory has a right to maintain iniquity if it pleases, and Presidents may be elected to stand by the Dred-Scott decision, but nothing will be decided by all that, whilst words of righteousness have the power of disturbing the consciences of men.

come, and how diligent in the use of the means of grace; how humble would the sight of his excellencies make us; and how would we long to become like him! It may be that such a heavenly messenger is even now the appointed companion, though unseen, of every one of God's people. But whether it be so or not, we do assuredly know that the Lord of angels Himself is ever beholding us. He compasseth our path and our lying look upon us in mercy, through the atonement and down, and is acquainted with all our ways. O may He merits of His own dear Son, "forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask," but for His sake.

AUGUST 2.

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."MATT. vii. 12.

Let me take these words of Jesus as a standard and

rule of morality in all my dealings with others. I may not lower this standard by reference to the ways of the world, nor to the claims of self-interest, nor by reading these words (as so many seem to do), "whatsoever ye expect that men should do to you, do ye to them." Jesus illustrated it by His own example. In transactions of has given His followers a very different rule, and has business, let me take the spirit of His precept for my guide; for why should the business life of a Christian be so severed from his spiritual life that he cannot in the one as well as in the other listen to the voice which says, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus?" In buying and selling, in dealing with servants, in judging of the conduct of those around me, in words, thoughts, and deeds, let me seek to maintain a strict watch over myself lest I transgress this truly "Golden Rule;" and may God give me grace to keep it in spite of all temptations which selfishness may suggest.

"Who is the honest man?

"King Cotton," again, is said to be the mainstay of slavery and the slave-trade, and this industrial monarch may destroy the institution he upholds. Hitherto we have been told that Cotton is King, and must have slaves. But there is a whisper gone over the whole geographical area of the cotton plant, saying, Cultivate cotton, for the British cotton-spinners cannot obtain enough of it. At present, the slave-owning planters can produce a quantity of cotton for threepence which they can sell for tenpence, and the labour of their slaves is very profitable to them. However, India, Australia, and Africa can all grow cotton, and King Cotton is summoning free labour to compete with slave labour in supplying his wants. The very fury of the slave-owners is a sign of weakness. Three thousand slaves escaped last year from the slave states to Mexico. The slave-owners could not afford to be magnanimous to poor Captain Brown. Why, a book-hawker was burned in Texas the other day for selling anti-slavery books! Magnetic wires and steam-engines, the discoveries of travellers, and the enterprise of industrials, the economical law which produces competition for profits, is working at the bases and undermining the foundations of the institutions of slavery and Here we have a whole chapter devoted to the law of the slave trade. King Cotton, after having bol-sin-offerings for sins of ignorance; the priest's offering; stered them up, seems destined to crumble them down.

GOOD WORDS FOR EVERY DAY IN
THE YEAR

AUGUST 1.

"Thou God seest me."-GEN. xvi. 13. This is a truth owned by many, felt by few; owned at the very beginning of the Christian course, as it startles the awakened sinner; but, alas! not felt as he would wish it to be by even the most advanced saint. If in our journey of life we had always at our side a bright angel walking with us, a native of heaven whose white raiment and holy looks, words, and ways continually reminded us of the holy place from whence he came, how would the presence of such a monitor check us in every trifling pursuit, and hush every vain, foolish, angry, or unkind word; how watchful would we be

66

He that doth still and strongly good pursue,
To God, his neighbour, and himself most true;
Whom neither force nor fawning can
Unpinne, or wrench from giving all their due."

AUGUST 3.

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord."-LEV. iv, 2.

the offering for "the whole congregation of Israel;" the offering when a ruler hath sinned; and even the offering for the poorest, "when any one of the common people sin through ignorance." None were excused on account of ignorance if they sinned against any of the commandments of the Lord; for in chosen Israel, they were guilty if they were ignorant: the Lord had shown them His statutes and His judgments; He had "not dealt so with any nation ;" and it was a crime in even the poorest person among them so to neglect acquainting themselves with His will as to be found transgressing it through ignorance. And is not ignorance a great sin among us also? God has made known His holy Word and will to us in these latter times, so that we are left without excuse. O Lord, enlighten my eyes in the full knowledge of thy will! Keep back thy servant from sins of ignorance! "Thy commandment is exceeding broad," and "who can tell how oft he offendeth?" "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin," but thanks be unto God for the One perfect Sacrifice that cleanseth from all iniquitythrough Him we may come and ask thee" to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances l"

by those of the "royal priesthood," of whom he was a "A certain woman, named Martha, received him type. If the Lord has indeed chosen us to be His, let into her house."-LUKE x. 38.

penances had so little power to deter, and that these private acts of mercy did not give me nearly so much pleasure as those for which I was praised by others." At the age of fourteen, Amelia, or Malchen, as her German friends called her, lost her father, her home, and the companionship of her brothers; and being left totally unprovided for,

acquaintances, pupil and fellow-workers, are waiting for it; the unsightly boards are soon covered with wreaths and spring-flowers, and eight brothers of the Rauhe Haus carry it to the family vault. Hymns are sung, and solemn words spoken; the coffin lowered, all eagerly press round for one last look more, aged eyes drop tears, and little hands fling flowers into the grave, and then all dis-had to adopt plans formed by her relatives, to give perse with faces sorrowful indeed, and yet rejoicing too. Again we imagine the question put: Who then was this Amelia Sieveking that Hamburgh mourns to-day? Was she the centre of a happy home, distinguished by position, wealth, genius? No, she was an unmarried woman of the middle class; of small means and fair average intellect, nothing more. And yet her influence was not only a power in her native town, but it has radiated far beyond it. In Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, many have arisen who call her blessed, not only among the poor, who reap the benefits of a more considerate and comprehensive charity, but still more amongst women of her own class, who have been stirred up by her example to such a career of systematic and successful beneficence as would scarce have been practicable but for the charitable organization of which she in Hamburgh was the founder.

We feel that the life of such a woman, however poor in outward incident, cannot fail especially to interest the earnest-minded of her own sex; and therefore we purpose, in the present article, to indicate its quiet course from her thoughtful childhood upwards, not pausing to comment upon the deepening religious convictions, in the happy strength of which she lived and laboured, but merely endeavouring to give a faithful sketch of the striking portrait drawn by a female friend in the German volume now before us.

Born in Hamburgh, in 1794, of a family loved and honoured there for many generations, Amelia Sieveking appears to have been from childhood singularly conscientious and persevering in her endeavours after self-culture. Her own impression of her early days was not a happy one. She could but indistinctly remember her mother, who died when she was only five years old, and she seems to have missed a mother's tenderness; but perhaps this very experience had something to do with her own sweet indulgence to the children under her care; perhaps the desultory nature of the education she received, and her freedom from all external restraint, aided the development of her energies better than any other training could have done. Here is a passage of one of her latest works, in which she describes herself at the very time when her brothers found the wild little girl a capital playfellow in their out-door sports, and her young spirit was secretly vexed with rationalistic doubts and difficulties; yet even then, "When I was quite a child," wrote the earnest Christian woman; "before I knew Christ as the Son of God and my Redeemer, the wish to be good and virtuous had already arisen within me. I carried about a moral diary, I devised small penalties (e.g., little pebbles put into my shoes) by way of expiation for certain faults. I was also anxious to do good, and secretly gave some of my pocket-money to the poor; but I was surprised to find that the prospect of these

up the French, English, and other lessons in which
her active mind had taken such delight, and to
practise many small economies and self-denials,
trying at the time, but all calculated to bring out
her native strength of character. We have a
glimpse given us of a dreary season-not uncom
mon among the young, for whose encouragement
we record it here when all occupations within
reach appeared so insignificant and so distasteful,
that she would lie upon her bed for hours and
hours, idly dreaming of great things to be done in
the future. But this did not last long with our
brave and thoughtful Malchen. "I felt," she
writes at a later period, "that in order not to de-
teriorate morally, I needed a stronger incentive to
systematic activity than I found in my own circle.
I looked around me for some pursuit that would
satisfy both heart and mind, and the Lord permitted
me to find it in the instruction of the young."
Accordingly, at the age of nineteen, Malchen opened
her first little school. She had an especial love for
children, and an instinctive love for teaching, which
had from time to time broken out before; but, un-
decided as her own opinions were, it was rather a
perplexing matter to her to know what religious
teaching to give them. "I resolved," she said,
'that at least I would not profess to them more
certainly than I possessed. Before their confirma-
tion I explained to them the orthodox views of the
atonement, adding that I myself did not hold them,
but that I considered my opinions on that head
immature as yet, and begged that their minds
might not be prejudiced by them." Meanwhile,
Malchen's lot was a busy if not a happy one.
other girls, she had her preferences and illusions,
but she had, as early as eighteen, aspirations after
higher than mere personal good, and schemes for
making an "untenanted life" useful to others.

Like

Her first great sorrow was the death of her favourite brother Gustavus, a young theological student of great promise, with whom she had been used freely to correspond upon the religious subjects on which they still differed; though, as might be expected in one whose office it was to teach children, she was steadily becoming more and more positive in her creed. Her brother's peaceful, hopeful end, and the blank he left in her affections, all tended to deepen her piety, and to give earnest ness to her prayers. Then came the disappointment of a cherished hope; and we find her writing in her diary: "After all, could any earthly good satisfy the longings of the immortal spirit? Father, if thy purpose be, by the denial of my dearest hopes, to educate me for eternal life,-Father, thy will be done! Only let me be thy obedient child; free and strong in spirit, and filled with thy love: it is for this I long; lead thou me to it." It was about this time that Thomas à Kempis fell into her hands, and its holy, self-abnegating tone was pecu liarly congenial to her subdued and humble mood.

Her naturally ambitious and independent nature had yearned for guidance and direction, and she would have gladly resorted to a confession if such could be in a Protestant Church. Here are some of her utterances at this period, showing the same habit of introspection and desire for improvement we remarked in the little girl twelve years before, united to a far firmer faith, though not as yet to full "joy in believing."

"How poor and barren my virtue, if indeed I dare to speak of any virtue of mine! Well do I know my two chief hindrances, if only I knew how to overcome them. They are excessive desire for enjoyment and anxiety for praise... I contradict too often and too positively. The most different views may yet converge to some point of union. Why, instead of seeking for this, do I always fix upon the points of extremest divergence, and rend them still wider apart? . . . Alas! shall I ever attain the art of self-forgetting? My nature is too deficient in love. I am cold and proud; but I throw myself upon God's guidance. He who is Love itself will draw me to himself."

and

this, in one long accustomed to write down her
own experiences, Malchen's present happiness over-
flowed the limits of billets and diaries.
She pub.
lished her first book, Meditations on certain Pas-
sages of Holy Writ, which excited a good deal of
attention. Many accused it of mysticism, and
some parents removed their elder children from her
Still worse, a spirit of controversy crept
into her school-classes; but there was the compen-
sation of sympathy and appreciation, and having
once taken up the pen, Malchen, to the end of her
busy career, did not lay it down.

care.

In 1823, a fresh impetus was given to her early wish of founding a Sisterhood of Mercy, by her meeting with Professor Hartmann, a fervent-hearted and superior man, who strongly advocated such institutions, and at once discovered Malchen's fitness to be at the head of one. When we remember that from the age of eighteen this had been her favourite dream; that in later years, when the "setting of a great hope" left life for a while blank and dreary, her cry had been, "If not a happy wife and mother, then a Sister of Charity;" that her constitutional love of authority, her desire for distinction, her yearning wish to elevate the tone and enlarge the usefulness of unmarried women, as well as her desire to spend and be spent in her Master's service, were all in favour of such a scheme, -we think it an instructive instance of soberminded self-conquest, that she did not throw herself headlong into it, but steadily balanced all conflicting claims, and having determined that she was free to follow her own bent, still further resolved to wait till her own character was more in harmony with her ideal. "As yet," she writes to her brother, "I feel myself an unworthy instrument for so high an undertaking. How much is still lacking! How much hardness there still is in me! how much pride!—ready to govern without knowing how to obey ;-how much more or less latent self-love! Sometimes I fancy that I might do better once admitted into the holy community; but I soon see the fallacy of such a hope. As long as I am not a Sister of Mercy out of a community, I am not fitted to be the founder of one."

Never

And now comes what Malchen herself always looked upon as the most important era of her life. She shall relate it in her own words:"29th August 1819.-0 what a foretaste of heaven's bliss fills my heart! A glorious light has dawned on me, which will, I feel, glorify my whole existence. I was undecided in my belief. I felt the necessity of getting at the truth respecting the doctrine of the Atonement, so long foolishness in my estimate, came to the blessed resolve of referring all my difficulties to R-* He has just been with me; I have laid bare my heart to him, and his replies have, as it were, awakened a new sense within, and brought me much nearer to God and Christ, whom I now recognise to be God indeed. Be my future ever so dark, I have a light within, that, faithfully kept up, will guide me through the gloom. And will not this light glorify a single life as well as any other? . . . Yes, it is sweet, it is holy to believe. Where Reason can only reveal the darkness and the chill of death, Faith sheds light and warmth on our heart." From this time forth Malchen's life became in-theless, the prospect still continued to be a favourcreasingly busy and increasingly cheerful. All her ite one with her,-a cherished hope, disciplining, energies, absolved now from the task of doubtfully supporting, cheering; never indeed destined to be inquiring after truth, went forth in communicating itself realized, but fitting her for other work to it, and thus her intercourse with the children under which she was appointed. Her love and pity for her care became to her a source of unmixed satisfac- the empty lives of many lonely sister women tion. Her own strenuous endeavours after per- around her, and her desire to raise the unmarried sonal holiness were both more humble and more lot into more of dignity and contentment, had hopeful than before, when her self-reliance was her been, as we have seen, a main element in the whole support. Now we find her writing: "The sisterhood scheme: pending the fulfilment of that, sense of my own powerlessness but brings me they must work out some other way to their end. nearer to Him whose strength is made perfect in In addition to her various school-classes, Malchen weakness. I give myself up to His guidance, in now began to organize female societies for the care cheerful trust that He will finish the work He has of the sick and poor. When the cholera broke out begun, and help the poor stumbling child again in 1830, she at once offered her services at the and again to rise, ay, should it stumble a hundred hospital, and nursed the female patients with an times a day. Sometimes I feel as though I must intelligent devotedness which awoke the medical lay bare to others the whole accumulated amount men to the value of feminine co-operation, and of my guilt, that they may with me admire the much increased her moral influence. In 1833, the riches of divine long-suffering.” society was in full and successful operation. Here is a sketch of one of Malchen's busy days at this period "I must confess," she writes, "that I have some difficulty in overtaking all I have to do.

As might be expected from such a feeling as

* A theological friend of her late brother.