adopted by the more earnest and zealous clergymen of the Church of England, who employ a class of agents wholly in that and kindred work. A remarkable case in the foreign field of evangelistic work, may also be mentioned in support of the practice. The case was stated at the "Conference of Missions," held in Liverpool, in 1860. The field is Syria. "A poor man, named KHALIL, who, when he goes to plough, teaches the Gospel to the man who drives the oxen, and to his fellow labourers, when he returns in the evening to his village, goes to the gate of the village, takes a copy of the Bible, sits down, and gathers round him all that he can; and there he reads and interprets Bible truths. He had never seen the face of a missionary until he had been engaged more than a year. How was he brought to the knowledge of the truth? In this way:-A man, who would come to Damascus, and visit the mission book-shop, had taken a little book, published by Dr. Meshakah, and a copy of the New Testament. These fell into Khalil's hands, and led to his conversion. I believe," said the speaker, "this man, from his prayerful devotion and success, may well be called the apostle of Bashan, for that is the district where he labours. We have opened a new book shop in Damascus, in the street called 'Straight. It contains books in ten different languages, and people come from the ends of the earth' to buy books there." Shall not this man be one of those who are to "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God," when many of the "children of the kingdom will be shut out?" How will it be with the reader of these pages? Many who bear the Methodist name have lost the Methodist life. Worldliness has eaten out the soul of godliness. The polish of secular education in a worldly atmosphere has taken the place of godly simplicity and humble piety. The boarding-school daughter of the prosperous tradesman would be as much shocked-ay, horrified-at the thought of carrying a basket to market and then carrying it home well filled with the commodities she had purchased, as would the daughter of an earl attended by a livery servant. Nay, our household servants, even to the lowest drudges, are all Misses now, and can carry nothing home, only deliver orders and leave the goods to be sent. They drink into the spirit and copy the example of their superiors, whom pride and easy circumstances have paralysed. The infection is in all the churches; and it is only a few individuals, such as can dare to be singular, who live and act according to the laws of truth and grace. Pride, worldliness, and indulgence; these are the blast and blight of modern churches. The very ministry itself is languishing under the one common disease. The cry for more money, better houses, better furniture, more style and ornament in chapels and public worship, is heard everywhere. A thousand pounds a year is declared by one public writer to be little enough stipend for a highly educated minister in any of our large towns or cities. Plain comforts are no longer sufficient. There must be parity in appearances with the higher class of men in trade, therefore ampler allowances for the support of style, hospitality, almsgiving, and sub scriptions to the multitudinous institutions of the times. What is all this but disguised worldliness? And what but worldliness can it generate ? What can prevent the enervation of churches if this spirit prevail? These remarks are not intended to discourage an increase of payment to men whose pitiable allowances cannot procure the necessaries of life. Their people should make some sacrifice to meet their case, and not leave them to die by inches, as some of them do. Perhaps the body bearing the name of Primitive Methodists has really more of the true spirit of Methodism remaining in it than has any other sect. It originated in zeal and activity that outstepped the bounds fixed by the parent body, and for which expulsion was the ready penalty. It has not yet lost its actively aggressive character, but searches out the unsaved in places to which only self-denying love would venture to go. A writer in Evangelical Christendom (July, 1866, pp. 320-1), narrating a Sunday's round of evangelistic work, in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge, speaks with pleasure of the notes of praise that fell upon his ears from a congregation of this people, and says, " According to their custom in fine evenings, they had left their pews to sing the last hymn of the day as they stood round the church doors, and it was easy to gather the words from the air :— 'My Father's house on high, Home of my soul, how near The cheerful Christianity of the men, and the willing labours of many among them, have helped to overtake parts of a rapidly-increasing population, that never could have been reached, so far as we know, by the ordinary means existing in average parishes." This witness is true. But why should not all churches be as active and enterprising as the Primitive Methodists? A government commissioner, exploring a part of the Black Country, visited Hales Owen. A strike among the nailers was in existence, in consequence of a reduction of ten per cent. in their wages. "A procession of ‘nailing' men, women, and children, including boys of six years old, passed on to a meeting, singing a hymn as they walked. The nailers had then walked a few miles, from the towns where John Wesley's visit is yet bearing its fruit in many lay teachers—strong men from the mines, and especially from the furnaces, many of them most intelligent men of their class, with comfortable homes and a good collection of standard works; for South Staffordshire is the favourite district of England among book canvassers, and as their habit is, the nailers from these quarters, where 'faith' overcrops 'ignorance,' sang as they went on their way, 'Let cares like a wild deluge come, And storms of sorrow fall, My God, my Heaven, my All! 326 THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL ELEVATION OF THE OPERATIVE CLASSES. 'There shall I bathe my weary soul In seas of heavenly rest; Across my peaceful breast.”” This is valuable testimony to the good done by humble workers in the Lord's vineyard. And if the words of Wesley in reference to the first race of Methodists, "All at work, and always at work," were now applicable to the whole Methodist family, to say nothing of other denominations, would there be so little numerical progress as there is? and would the churches be so flooded by worldliness as they are? Certainly not. Great efforts have been made to raise the operative classes of this country by means of day-schools. The Church of England has exerted herself extraordinarily in this direction, and so has the Wesleyan body, and so have some other churches, and many benevolent individuals. Some good has unquestionably been done by this educational movement, but not at all commensurate with the hopes of its promoters, nor with our social need. From merely secular education, indeed, we cannot hope much. It sharpens intellect, but does not touch the heart. The moral disease of human nature remains, and is but intensified and quickened into activity by educational stimulants. Without religious principles, it is powerless to renovate either child or adult, or to work a moral and religious reformation in either individual or class. We have educated forgers, swindlers, and gamblers— expert robbers in various modes; we have scientific murderers of wives and mothers; we have educated butchers of a coloured population, and both educated and patrician sympathisers with the butchers and their butchery. What can education do for godless human nature, without the gospel of Christ, and the working of the Holy Ghost? Well, then, let our Sunday-schools be perpetuated, and every man and woman of God, that can by possibility give the time, take part in carrying them on. Let our evening-schools and day-schools be pervaded with Christian elements and a Christian atmosphere. Let the great truths of revelation be made prominent in them, and all the teaching and management be carried on with continual prayer, with self-denying love, and patient endurance. Let every teacher be willing to take the place assigned him, be it high, or low, or intermediate; seeking neither honour nor praise, but the glory of Jesus and the salvation of his pupils. Get the truth of God into the minds of the children; labour to get his grace into their hearts. Let that object be paramount. Then shall the children of our artisans and craftsmen be raised both intellectually and morally, and a foundation be laid for a better state of society, and for happier family life. Religious and moral elevation bears along with it every kind of elevation, and stamps the lowliest with true nobility. We had intended to state some particulars of the achievements of individuals among some of the operatives of manufacturing towns, and of the enterprises of earnest and godly men in different ways, as the Lord led them severally, and as they were faithful to their own convictions; but space fails. We have said enough, however, to make it clear to any one reading what has been written, and asking, "Lord, what wouldest thou have me to do?" That there is something he may do, if he will set about it, and in doing which he will be blessed and prospered if the faint not, but go on doing, until the Lord say to him, "It is enough; come up hither." SKETCHES BY ALMA. AN AFTERNOON AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE. A GENTLEMAN put into my hands two tickets of admission to the Children's Choral Meeting at the Crystal Palace. I thanked him for his kindness, but expressed a doubt whether I should be able to go. "If you cannot go yourself," he said, "you have friends who can." "Certainly, I have many." I thought over the matter, and resolved to break through my constitutional disinclination to move out of my habitual track. I gave one of the tickets to a worthy brother local. Although we could not go together, we had no doubt but that we should meet one another there. The day was gloriously fine. I closed the office early, and in due time arrived at the station. Being such a novice in the now altered circumstances of Crystal Palace transit, I was in a fever of alarm lest the carriages should be over crowded, and my precious person should be huddled or crushed. It did not strike me to insure my life against any accident in the six miles' journey. I reached the platform just in time to witness the departure of one train. I comforted myself by the thought that, as there were but few persons on the platform, I should perhaps have the opportunity of selecting my favourite place in the carriage, which I succeeded in doing without any difficulty. I was surprised that the carriages did not fill more rapidly. At last the whistle, and we were off on our perilous journey. We had not travelled far before I began to sum up the characters of my fellow-passengers. The lady in the compartment I occupied seemed rather doubtful whether she was really in the train for the palace, and to be sure, asked the porter before we started. I got a glimpse of her countenance through her veil, and as it did not impress me very favourably, as she remained in silence, I did the same. In the next compartment sat two ladies, whom I took by their dress to be sisters, but they were very quiet indeed; not a word did they speak to each other the whole of the journey, nor even turn their heads to the right or to the left. The third compartment contained, as I judged, a family group of three-a steady brother and two lively sisters; and they kept up a cheerful conversation from the first to the end of our journey. The sisters had both good-indeed handsome -countenances, such as one might be disposed to fall in love with. The four in the fourth compartment kept up a running conversation all the way; but as I noticed nothing particular in them, I pass them over. The same of the youth who, in the fifth compartment, kept his head out of the window the whole journey. So my fears of being crushed were all groundless; for in this beautiful third-class carriage, which would seat fifty passengers, there were only twelve persons. me; On the platform at last, our journey of six miles completed without accident. I got a glimpse of the handsome sisters as they passed on before but they, with the rest of my fellow-travellers, were soon lost in the crowd which had already gathered in the palace; and, as John Bunyan said of his pilgrims, "I saw them no more." Were I a writer and a moralist, as the directors say in the description attached to his statue, Samuel Johnson was, I might enlarge upon the sentiment, "Never meet again." My enthusiasm began to rise as I passed statue after statue of England's great worthies, until I was arrested before that of Sir Robert Peel. Here is a man, I thought, whose keen eye looked into the distance, and whose breadth of view was as expanded as his sight was clear; who, when taught by the indomitable action of such men as Cobden, and by the stern logic of facts, broke asunder the bonds of party, and united with his great copatriot to establish free trade. Pardon me, kind reader, I am very little moved by hereditary greatness. Lords and dukes, yea, kings and queens, don't interest me much. I can pass them by with a glance; but I could look for a long time with pleasure upon the calm face and noble forehead of Shakespeare. I felt, as I passed so many subjects of ancient mythology, I must surely study my old friend Tooke again. There appeared to me a superabundance of Venuses. One would really question, from the numerous statues of Bacchus, and the pleasant youthful countenance he wears, whether he was the dreadful old drunkard he is said to have been. If he really dealt in the pure juice of the grape, and not in the brandy-wine now passed off upon us, we might almost reckon him among us teetotallers. But I have much to see, and little time to see it in; so I must hurry on. How calmly and peacefully those water-lilies repose on the still waters of the miniature lake. How beautifully do those festoons of evergreens look above as they stretch down their delicate tendrils, as though they would call our attention upward to their elevated abode. What is this crowd surrounding? It is a large monkey; one that in his formation comes the nearest to the human being of any I have seen,— with his arms and legs, fingers and toes. But I don't like monkeys, therefore, I pass on, with this impression,-how infinitely short you come of man! Besides, you have no soul, no moral nature, no spiritual affinity with the great Creator. The little birds in their cage, and those large ones of the parrot kind, perched on their poles, can only have a passing glance. I cannot go out, |