to eternal life. May we not dwell on these loftier aspects of Baptism, and so dwell on them as to nourish and deepen our spiritual life. Nay: if to find this memorial and this symbolism in the Sacrament we must even discuss the form and mode of baptism, may we not discuss it with a humility and a charity, a consciousness of our own liability to error and an ungrudging acknowledgment of the conscientious fidelity of those who differ from us which, so far from making the subject offensive to them, will at once express and confirm our own spiritual life and kindle the graces of charity and humility in them?

It is in this spiritual mood, with this desire that we may all learn and do the will of Christ, that I personally address myself to as many as have not arrived at any convictions on this theme, or have not acted on them; and earnestly invite you to consider what your duty is in relation to Christian Baptism. I have shown you how we view this ordinance; that with us it expresses faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and a resolve to die to sin and live a Christian life; that it is the portal by which we find admission into the church, the act by which we "put on" Christ. We invite, we urge, you to enter, by this gate, into the communion of the saints. There are those who conceive that so long as they do not join the church, they are not bound to devote themselves to the service of Christ; that so long as they make no profession of faith, they are not bound to believe, nor to live a better life than their neighbours. Are you of these? The slightest serious consideration will show you that every man who has heard the words of Christ is bound to accept them, to live by His law, to give himself to Him; bound also to be baptized, to profess faith in Him, to unite himself with those who were in Christ before him. Instead of evading an

obligation by remaining without the pale of the church, you break a double obligation. For, if you know the grace of the Lord Jesus, you are under the most solemn obligation to take Him for your Master and Lord; and if you take Him for Master, He Himself bids you be baptized and fall into the ranks of your brethren, and you are under the most solemn obligation to do whatsoever He commands you. Every day you defer obedience, you sin against Him. Every day you defer obedience, obedience becomes more difficult, more improbable.

You may be of those who say, "Not now; by and bye, when the heat of youth is passed, when the sobering hues of time and experience have fallen on our hearts, when we are wiser and calmer, we will renounce the world and add ourselves to the church." If you are, let me ask you but one questionDo you often see men who are advanced in life break from its cares and distractions, that they may confess Christ before men? Do they not rather, as a rule, remain to the end outside the church which they ought long ago to have joined, and which they too once meant to join some day? Take the warning, then. Do not defer doing what you feel to be your duty, lest you should never attend to it; lest when the Judge demands of you, "Have you, then, done whatsoever I commanded you ?" you should have with shame to confess, "No, I did not even try what the sacraments and fellowship of the church would do to help me to a better life. I always meant to do it, but I put it off till it was too late." But now, before your habits are set and hard, while generous impulses and lofty aims are familiar and attractive to you, resolve that you will follow in His steps who disdained all the lures of the flesh and the world that, with undivided heart, He might serve God and man.

But, probably, the great reason

why you do not offer yourselves for Baptism and the Christian fellowship is, that you feel unfit, not good enough, not sufficiently devoted to spiritual interests and aims.

In

part, no doubt, you have only too good ground for adjudging yourselves unworthy of eternal life, and therefore unfit for communion with Christ; and in so far as you have good ground for that self-condemning verdict, there is but one remedy— viz., earnest prayer and earnest endeavour for a heart more spiritual and devout. But, in part, this sense of unfitness springs from an exaggerated impression of what Baptism means, and implies a false conception of the objects of Christian fellowship. As we have seen, Baptism implies simply that you believe that the Lord Jesus both died and rose again to take away sin and to reconcile men unto God; and that you resolve for yourselves to die to sin and live to righteousness. Well— you do believe that Jesus died and rose again-do you not? and if you earnestly desire to become one with Christ, you are bent on partaking the likeness of His death and of His resurrection; you are bent on renouncing all that is evil and following after all that is good. And thus you have met all the conditions of Baptism. There is nothing to hinder your entrance into the Christian fellowship. For those who are bap

tized into the death of Christ do not profess that they have already attained or are already perfect. They draw near to Christ that He may fulfil His perfect will in them, and simply pledge themselves to work together with Him. They have still much to learn, much to renounce, much to attain; but they know that He has promised to teach and strengthen as many as try to walk in His ordinances and commandments; and they rely on Him to make His promise good. For them Baptism is a prayer as well as a vow-a prayer that they may be so aided by the providence and Spirit of Christ as that they may daily die more and more to evil, and walk in the way of life with a more perfect heart. Is not that a prayer which you can present? If it be, begin where Christ began that you may end where He ended. Be baptized with Him, that you may live with Him and for Him. Follow Him in the first step He took, in the hope, and with the resolve, to follow Him whithersoever He may lead. And if you come to your baptism in this spirit, He who has called you to His service will enable you to show all good fidelity in His cause; the church will gladly welcome you to her communion; and Christ Himself, seeing of the travail of His soul, will rejoice over you with a joy unspeakable and full of glory.

is always asking "why," "whence," and "whither"-the three great interrogations of life-we had often wondered whence these bazaars came, where the first was held, and who was the originator of an agency which to our certain knowledge had relieved many a burdened church of the pressure of debt, and set their energies free, not only to contribute more largely to the sustenance and efficiency of their pastor, but also to undertake "enterprises of great pith and moment."

Such an oracular utterance from such an authoritative quarter seemed to settle the matter at once. But whether the Gordian knot was cleverly untied or only cut through remained to be seen. "Inventions of Satan!" Indeed. We had been simple enough to imagine that they were the latest offspring of that sanctified and Christian ingenuity which originated Sunday schools without waiting for an apostolic precedent; established Peace Societies, AntiSlavery Societies, Bible and Foreign Mission Societies, though not even the outlines for the constitution of such organizations appeared in the Acts of the Apostles; and which, unmindful of the absence of any express direction, preached the gospel in theatres, baths, halls, and other large buildings to which the people resort. It had seemed to us that bazaars were only another proof of the admirable spirit and wisdom with which the church of the Lord Jesus Christ appropriates to herself and employs for her own sublime ends the peculiar and specific energies of each and every age: that as she had converted the printing press into an evangelist, navigation into a messenger of glad tidings to the uttermost parts of the earth, science and art into willing handmaids of religion, so in this pre-eminently commercial age, and amongst a commercial people, she had made bazaars for the sale of useful and ornamental articles part of her plans for obtaining the necessary material for her warfare with sin and her work for the Lord. But this was altogether wrong according to the dictum quoted above. Bazaars come from beneath. They are the latest children of the devil.

Then we may well inquire a little more closely, What is a bazaar? It is in the first instance, and mainly, a free sale. A free sale of what? Of course of countless antimacassars and crowds of babies' socks, of knickerbockers for children and woollen shirts for men, of books and photographs, paintings and provender for all; that is to say, it is chiefly a sale of labour-of articles on which persons have bestowed toil of some kind or other. Now we are selling labour every day. It is God's will that we shall work, and live by the sale of the results of our efforts to one another. Some persons see that there is, as Carlyle says, a perennial

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nobleness and even sacredness in work," but many more see something to sell in it. The Cabinet minister sells his genius and industry to his country, the preacher his labours to his congregation, the author his thoughts to his readers, the artizan his skill to his employer; and at a bazaar Chris-. tian women put the results of their work together, proclaim the fact to their neighbours, invite them to inspect their stock, and buy if there is anything worth having. For example. You solicit aid from three persons for building a chapel. X has made considerable wealth as a merchant. gives you ten sovereigns. Y sets to work and sends you 100 pairs of stockings. Z and her daughters forward paintings, wool-work, etc., the result of their own toil. Where is the difference? Essentially they are the same. They are gifts of labour. But the first has the advantage of being in a very portable and exchangeable state. It is the current coin of the realm, and can be turned into bricks forthwith. The second and third require a little more labour to be spent upon them-the labour of selling to those who need, or think they need them. This is done at the bazaar, and then they pass into the walls of the new building. Where the special iniquity of this last proceeding is, it puzzles us to see. Why the prince of this world should necessarily have more to do with it than with making a sermon, or writing a book, or a hundred other acts which finally take shape in beneficent issues, is one of those things we cannot understand. Is it that the purpose is selfish and base? Confessedly not. Is it that the articles sold are injurious to the health or morals of society? Few would undertake to maintain such to be the case. Is it because this is a circuitous mode of raising money, entailing much trouble, requiring some watchfulness, and not always evoking the noblest motives? If so, then it should surely be remembered that many other methods which pass unrebuked by these Christian censors stand in the same category. Doubtless it might be preferable on some accounts to receive directly and without solicitation or scheme of any kind money enough for the effective management of all wise charitable and religious

movements. It would be much easier for the church, more palatable to the feelings of many of her servants, if it were possible to secure such systematic beneficence as would remove the necessity for secretaries, money-collectors, begging circulars, public collections, seat rents, and bazaars; but whether the church would gain in life and efficiency as she did in ease is more than open to question. Her moments of supreme and delectable ease have been her greatest bare. She has grown most when the healthy stimulus of difficulty and the strength born of struggle therewith have been her lot. At all events, we have not yet attained that sublime state of universal and spontaneous giving in which we can dispense with all imperfect methods of obtaining funds, such as "offerings," "collections," 66. "appeals," and the like. Much money is given from very mixed motives. All human work is imperfect. But as far as we can see, bazaars are not, in themselves, more faulty, and do not betray more signs of Satanic inventiveness, than any other of the manifold forms used by the Christian church in doing similar work.

There remains another test given us by the Master, "By their fruits ye shall know them. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." We will "a round unvarnished tale deliver of the whole course" of our bazaar, and honestly subject it to this test, believing that from one we may learn what the fruits of all may be. A bazaar may be said to exist in three stages, first that of preparation, then that of actual exhibition and sale, and lastly that of perfected fruit in the attainment of the ultimate object for which it was held. For weeks many fingers were busily employed in preparing goods, and these, in many instances, the fingers of those who had given as much money as they could spare a short time before. Homes were turned into work-rooms. Sewing meetings were regularly held at the chapel, at which the business of the bazaar was transacted, articles for sale received, and selections from Ingraham's "Prince of the House of David" read. A week before the bazaar entered on its second stage, a special prayer-meeting was held to invoke the Divine blessing, and an address was

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given by one of the elders on the words of Paul, "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." Another incident occurred not altogether unworthy of mention as showing the spirit in which the work was undertaken. friend put into our hands a list of the names of persons attending the chapel but not members of the church who were likely to be at the bazaar, and who might be conversed with on the subject of the public profession of Christ and union with His people. These were good blossoms. What were the fruits? We pass over the money obtained to call attention to the following results:-(1.) A deepening of interest in our common work, and in one another. (2.) An increase of Christian fellowship. (3.) Additions to the number of those who will shortly avow their belief in the Lord Jesus. (4.) Promises from others to seek the Lord. We dare not say there was no sin. We fear there was, for where is it not. But we can state that there was no known sin. Absolute honesty reigned throughout. There were no exorbitant prices. Goods were sold at similar rates to those in the nearest shops. And those that had possessions, having sold them, and "brought the prices of the things sold and laid them down" for the treasury of the church, felt that they could thank God that the bazaar had proved itself not in any way "an invention of Satan," but rather a richly freighted means of grace.

What shall we say then but this? That bazaars may be proved to be of Satanic origin in the same way and by the same logic as you may prove everything on earth, man included, to have proceeded from him; and only in that way. They have been abused. Satan has, according to report, had a place in some of them. Questionable methods of sale have been adopted. Vanity has been regaled, Justice insulted, and Truth dishonoured. But, alas! where has not the Deceiver been with his wily arts? Where are the things his foul hand has not soiled? Where is the agency he has not corrupted? Has he had nothing to do with preachers and preaching? Does he never use the pen? Has he no place in literature? Has music brought the church no trouble? Is marriage always hon

ourable? Why marriage is defiled and disgraced every day; church music and trouble are so often together that it has been asked whether they are not twins. Literature teems with poison; and of the twelve apostles "one was a devil." Yet assuredly the apostolate, literature, music, and marriage, are all as clearly of God as the great globe which we inhabit. Therefore we conclude, that though everything which

has taken place at bazaars has not been in perfect keeping with the lofty principles of the Christian life, yet they may be (and often are) conducted in a Christian spirit, and with strict regard to the laws of the New Testament, and so made to contribute to the welfare of men, and the extension of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. J. CLIFFORD.

HAVING spent our first Sunday in the States at Philadelphia, we proceeded on the following day to Baltimore. From the summit of the column erected to George Washington a fine view of the city is obtained. Immediately beneath the column is the Peabody Institute, constructed of white marble. "Druid Hill" Park afforded a pleasant suburban ramble in the afternoon. Taking an evening stroll, between nine and ten o'clock, I was attracted by the sound of somewhat loud and unmusical singing. It proceeded from a coloured church." On entering, I found that the body of the church was well filled with negro men and women. The service was a prayer meeting. Happening to enter on the side for females, with the utmost politeness I was informed, "This side for ladies, sar; the other side for gentlemen, sar.' I, of course, at once complied with this primitive regulation. The congregation were singing a sort of refrain, taken up now here, now there, in different parts of the church; as it grew languid in one place, it was suddenly revived, by a kind of spasmodic spurt, in another. I stayed about a quarter of an hour, having ascertained that there was no time fixed for closing. I could not help contrasting the warmth of feeling evinced in this service with the coldness of the services of the preceding day at Philadelphia in the "white churches" which I had attended, where, at evening worship, we had a solo from the organ gallery, whilst the congregation remained mute.

I copied the following very significant notice, placed in the vestibule of

a large Episcopal Church in Baltimore: "Gentlemen will please take notice, that no spittoons are provided for this church; they are, therefore, respectfully requested to abstain from the use of tobacco." I often wished that this notice could have been despotically enforced, out of church as well as in, upon every American. Ladies complain bitterly of the tobacco nuisance; and well they may if only for the sake of their dress, but at present they seem powerless to effect a change.

From Baltimore to Washington was our next stage. Some distance before we reached this political centre of American life, its lofty Capitol stood out in bold relief against the clear and bright horizon.

Washington is called "the City of Magnificent Distances," and might also be called "the City of Magnificent Disappointments." Its ground plan is admirable. Fine broad avenues are designed to radiate from the Capitol; but the houses do not correspond with this imposing conception. With the exception of the Capitol itself; the White House, which is the official residence of the President; the Treasury, the Patent Office, the Post Office, and one or two other buildings, the houses look both mean and neglected. "Willard's Hotel" is the great rendezous. When Congress is in session, it is usually very full. None but honest men should cross the threshold, as the following warning, conspicuously placed at the entrance door intimates"Notice to thieves. Any thief seen about the house will be shown up to all the guests by the detectives em