one, by laws of selection which no man can define, till scores grow to hundreds, and hundreds to thousands, and an army of the elect gathers at the bidding of this voiceless One-what mystery of faith could invite such incredulity as that involved in denying to such a phenomenon the Will of God? If men would but apply to the history of revivals the same laws of cause and effect which they adopt in reasoning upon the origin of the Crusades, no man with the Scriptural idea of regeneration as an hypothesis in his mind, could withstand the evidence of Almighty Power in any revival which has commanded the faith of the Church as a work of the Holy Ghost. We e may sum up the testimony of such revivals, taken in the mass with all their perversions, in the confession made by many irreligious men of the last century, who had lived through the "Great Awakening" of that period, and by many also who have recently watched the phenomena of the "Year of Grace" in Ireland, that the events of which they have been eye-witnesses were inexplicable by any psychological laws which should not recognise the presence and the direct working of God in the souls of men.

4. Still another variety of the illustrative evidence of Divine agency in regeneration is found in a class of facts which indeed are exceptional in their character; yet they are among the signal exhibitions of God in Christian experience. I allude to certain abnormal growths of Christian life which are unproductive of Christian joy. To those who are familiar, to any large extent, with unwritten Christian biography, this will suggest a distinct and most instructive class of examples of regenerate experience. They utter unconscious testimony to the working of Him whose glory it is to conceal a thing.

When certain varieties of temperament come under the sway of regenerating grace they shrink instinctively from faith, even from hope, that the life of God may have been imparted to such as they. The credibility of experience in these cases is marred by no overweening self-confidence. The most fastidious sceptic is not here repelled by the assumptions of haughty sanctity. No honest lip can curl in contempt of the inconsistency of character with profession. These Christians make no professions. They express no assurance. They enjoy little or no hope for themselves. The inner life of some of them is as the valley of the shadow of death. Yet who that knows anything of unrecorded Christian history does not recall some from this group of crushed spirits who have exhibited to all spectators an overwhelming testimony to the working within them of infinite power? They have seemed to exhale the evidence of God's indwelling. They have commanded from others a confidence which they dared not whisper to themselves. They have been as unconscious as infancy of the beauty of the Divine life they expressed. They wist not that their faces shone. Men stand in awe of such characters, and gather around them to make obeisance to them. God hath indeed chosen these weak things to confound the wise. Sceptics are dumb in their presence; rude men are mellowed; and strong men bow themselves at the glance of their meek eye. They make us weep when they speak of God's dealings with them. Their silence is more eloquent than speech. "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held." In emergencies of our mental life do we not sometimes turn to these voiceless witnesses for refuge? Does not our coarser faith lean upon them with a firmer trust than upon strong men armed, and mighty men of valour? We are not careful at such times to inquire whether the emotions which overwhelm us can be justified by this world's wisdom. We do not care whether they can be accounted for by a syllogism. Something within us assures us

that in communing with such beings we hold converse with Him whose temple they are. We bid kings and counsellors of the earth to fall back to the right and the left, and let these few choice spirits go up before us. follow those who have been chosen kings and priests unto God.

We

This unconscious testimony to the Divine indwelling occasionally exhibits itself in strange-yes, in fearful-forms; for it is contrasted with strange and fearful forms of suffering. I can never listen to the singing of some of the hymns of Cowper without a thrill of reverence for the grace of God which could work so mightily in a diseased soul. Some of Cowper's most affecting lyrics, to which millions of Christian hearts have turned lovingly, as to the most truthful expression of their own experience which they have ever found, except in the Psalms of David, were composed during those eleven years in which, as he tells us, not a solitary moment of hope of his own salvation ever cheered his soul. By those rivers of Babylon he sat down and wept; and his wailings have been heard in thousands of the sanctuaries of Zion to-day. Oh mystery of grace, that regenerating love should thus gleam out and make radiant the path of sympathizing beholders, when not a ray of it could find ingress to the bleared and swollen eye of the unconscious believer!

May we venture to probe the mystery? Can it be the object of such a phenomenon to give to the universe a monument of God's triumph over Satan, in a conflict the severity of which submerges weak human nature to depths which light cannot pierce? In the shock and struggle of that warfare, in which the supremacy over man's soul is contested by unseen belligerents, may it not be that God sometimes suspends the hiding of his power, and lays out the forces of his will in majesty which the human consciousness cannot bear to look upon ? Shall man see God in such conflicts and live? But the reflex influence of such experience upon the usefulness of the believer is more intelligible. I have heard it said by one, the fragrance of whose memory yet fills this place,* "that no man could be qualified to write a commentary on the Psalms of David, who had not known some great sorrow." So, when God regenerates a chosen one who is to become dear to the hearts of many generations, the secret method of grace sometimes is to work out the change by processes which shall disclose its reality to all minds but his. To him the volume is sealed until the time of the end. Yet his tremulous fingers have written it that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: "I will lead the blind by a way they knew not; I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me."

Even upon the insane experience of such a soul we may reasonably found our faith in the divinity of the Power which dwells in it. We turn from the testimony of such a one in his despair, to his testimony as we doubt not he rehearses it to awe-struck angels. "Poor Cowper," as thy friends used to call thee," Our guide, our teacher, our brother," rather would we name thee, what thinkest thou now of God's dealings with thy soul? Dost thou not now understand those mysterious eleven years? Was it not worth eleven years of sorrow, to be thus enabled to express some of the experiences of God's people in all coming time? Was it not worth eleven years of conflict, to be thus disciplined as the witness of God to unborn millions among whom this shall be told as a memorial of thee? Was it not worth eleven years of bondage to the powers of darkness, to be thus led to the composition of one such song of Zion as that in which thou hast taught us that " God moves in a mysterious way"? Was it not worth eleven years, of despair, thus to be moved by the throes of thine own anguish to assure all *The Chapel of Theological Seminary, Andover, United States.

other believers, as thou hast done, that "There is a fountain filled with blood"? Dost thou not now see that when thou didst say for our comfort,―

"Then, in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save,"

thou didst speak words of unconscious prophecy?

Foreign Missions.

CHINA.

Ir is as needful to report the trials and discouragements which are met with by our missionaries and their converts in the mission field as to communicate the more pleasant intelligence of successes. There is a good deal in the letters now published of the former character. We regret to learn that at Chin-chew, which was so promising a short time ago, there has been some disappointment in regard to those who had seemed interested in the truth. We trust this may prove but temporary. At Anhai there has been a painful case of apparent apostasy; but there is also reported the restoration of two who had been suspended from ordinances. Then the sudden death of the native Christian who had been engaged to teach Chinese to the class of students in preparation for the work of evangelists, has been a severe blow; and, lastly, the case of the much-tried Un-a-long, as detailed by Mr. Mackenzie. We entreat our friends to bear these matters in their hearts when they draw near to the throne of grace. The prayer of faith can transmit comfort and encouragement to the hearts of our brethren in China more speedily than any telegraphic cable, wonderful as that is.

On the other hand, there is an amount of cheering progress reported which ought to fill our hearts and mouths with thanksgiving and praise. At Anhai, Khi-boey, Baypay, and Yu-boey-kio, there are in all no fewer than nineteen adult baptisms reported, these having been selected out of a large number of inquirers; and at Baypay the missionaries had the joy of receiving fourteen members for the first time at the Lord's table, one of whom is the daughter of the old cloth merchant of Pechuia. She had been baptized in childhood, and now comes forward in riper years to dedicate herself to the Lord. What a delightful indication this is of the Church of Christ taking root in the soil of China! Another pleasant piece of intelligence is that a church of living souls has sprung up at a village called Peh-chioh, also that Liong-bun-see is sufficiently advanced to be organized into an independent congregation.

We commend to our readers a perusal of the interesting story of the evangelist Bun-ko, in Dr. Maxwell's letter. It is quite clear that no time should be lost in giving him the benefit of a brother missionary.

By the latest accounts from Formosa we have the joyful intelligence that Mr. Swanson and Dr. Maxwell had resolved to admit four of the candidates for baptism, the first fruits of our mission to that island.

LETTER FROM THE REV. C.
DOUGLAS.

Amoy, August 8th, 1866.

One, the

admitted seven new members. wife of a member at Haw-khang, had been baptized in childhood, being the daughter of the old cloth merchant at Pechuia. Of the six baptized on that occasion, three are the wives of members; two men, named Kiak and Khe-choan, are the first fruits of two villages, each of which sends several regular worshippers and candidates; the other, a very promising young man, is son of one of the women baptized at the same time. Their village, now containing six members, is called Peh-chioh, or "White Rock." It lies on the sea-or, rather, almost surrounded by the sea-about a mile-and-a-half below Phu-lam-kio.

DISCOURAGEMENTS AT CHIN-CHEW. MY DEAR DR. HAMILTON,-We have heard of Mr. Swanson's safe arrival at Takao, after a voyage of ten days. His stay there will be only three or four weeks. He had just arrived one day when he wrote, so could not speak of the state of work, but said he was much pleased with the mission-house, which is airy and cool. When Mr. Swanson sailed I was at Baypay, where I was spending a week (two Sabbaths and the intervening days) among the several congregations in that region. On returning to Amoy, I started again, after two days, for Anhai and Chin-chew. I was sorry to find that the persons who had been somewhat interested in Chinchew and the neighbourhood were now the seven whom he baptized at Yu-boeymuch fewer;—indeed, as far as I could learn (for I did not pass a Sabbath at the city), very few show any interest at present.

JOYS AND SORROWS AT ANHAI.

On returning to Anhai, we had the Communion, receiving back two members who were under suspension, and admitting one young man by baptism. His surname is Lu, and his name Kong-sey. He has long been a candidate—about six years-but the fear of losing his share in the public fields of his village had kept him back; but now he was enabled to overcome his fears, partly, we trust, through the power of grace in his heart, and partly because all his brothers with their families have now become worshippers of the true God. At the same time, on the other hand, I had the painful duty of excommunicating one of the older members for determined apostasy. He was borne with for nearly three years, till all other means had been exhausted, and we had no resort but to cut off the withered branch. May the Lord be pleased in his great mercy yet to graff him in again.

SIX BAPTIZED AT BAYPAY.

Having been one Sabbath in Amoy, taking my turn of English preaching, I was again at Baypay with Mr. M'Gregor last Sabbath, holding the Communion. We

SEVEN BAPTISMS AT YU-BOEY-KIO, AND
FIVE AT KHI-BOEY.

Mr. M'Gregor is writing in full about

kio; and, at the same time, we have to
report five baptized by Mr. Cowie at Khi-
boey. Two of these are women, the wife
and mother respectively of the two mem-
bers at Kio-lai village, who have of late
endured so much persecution, not yet re-
dressed. There is also a son of an old
member at Ka-na-na (olive grove), and the
others are two young men from villages
where no members had till now been re-
ceived. You need no commentary from
me on these facts. May the Spirit of God
lead the churches at home to ponder them,
and to act as those on whom lies the re-
sponsibility of carrying on and extending
this work!
Yours ever,

CARSTAIRS DOUGLAS.

THE CHURCH IN LIONG-BUN-SEE.

Mr. M'Gregor adds in a postscript:-I find Mr. Douglas has omitted to mention that the Liong-bun-see people were not present at the last Baypay Communion, as we have thought it better to arrange henceforth to have Communion at Liong-bun-see itself. We have been led to do so partly because now, by the blessing of God, on Communion Sabbaths at Baypay "the place is too strait for us," and partly because the distance of Liong-bun-see from Baypay, and the erection of the new chapel, render it a suitable place for organizing an independent

congregation. We hope to have the first | judge, has shown himself a true disciple of Communion there about a month hence.

'BAPTISM OF A BUDDHIST PRIEST.

One of these seven (Kee-hoey) was previously a Buddhist priest, in sole possession of a small temple, and the grounds connected with it. Having heard the Gospel, he, about the beginning of the year, left the temple, and went to reside in a neighbouring village. Since then he has been diligent in attendance upon every opportunity of instruction and spiritual profit within his reach, and altogether, so far as man can

Jesus. On Sabbath evening, in looking on
his former property, beautifully situated,
overlooking the stream that flows from
Yu-boey-kio towards Baypay, I thought
of the words of our Lord, "There is no
man that hath left house, or brethren, or
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or
children, for my sake, and the Gospel's, but
he shall receive an hundredfold now in this
time,
and in the world to come