FRIEND OR FOE?

"Force of habit, no doubt!" laughed Rearden.

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"I had no intention of

coming here to-night. We may as well go inside, now we are here."

In the course of a little while, Joyce found himself listening to the stout, satisfied-looking landlady across the bar, who was telling him a very comical story, to judge by his frequent laughter; while his friend fell into conversation with a stranger, seated beside him.

One remark leads to another, in most cases where those who make it are at leisure. Wherefore, Rearden soon learned a good deal about the stranger; amongst other things, that his name was Blake; that he was a sailor; and that he had sailed under a certain Captain Grant, about the Pacific.

“What, Captain Grant of the Booby?” asked Rearden, at this point.

"Of the Booby!" echoed the other, with some contempt-" Of a dozen Boobies. Captain Grant, with his ships, his stores at Tahiti and San Francisco, and his pearl and tinned-meat trade, is the richest man in the Societies. He talked of selling up and coming to England when I saw him last. Did you know him?"

"Yes—when he first went out there. I was knocking about the Societies under Captain Winter ten years ago, till he fell overboard one day. Then Captain Grant, who had formerly been trading in the China seas, but had lately been carrying tripang and prints between Tahiti and the States, took command of the Booby

"Did you find him a slave-driver?" interrupted Blake.

"Slave-driver! The man worked like a slave himself, and made everybody else do so too. He very soon bought the ship he commanded, while I was with him. I don't wonder he's got on so well. He was not a bad skipper, though, by any means. He offered to finish me in navigation; but I was tired of the sea, and wanted a change."

So the two, as old sailors will, chatted together, related their experiences, drank each other's health, and became quite old shipmates before they parted.

When they did, Joyce-the landlady being called away at the same timewas quite ready to resume the previous conversation about his forthcoming domestic arrangements, but Rearden, saying, with a laugh, that he "had furniture on the brain," excused himself, pleading an engagement with a friend which he had forgotten, and went out.

He had no friend to meet, however; he wanted to be alone, so that he could think. Therefore, he entered the park, and began to stroll slowly along its now almost deserted walks, with his eyes bent, now on the darkening sky, now on the trees, now on the sinking sun, and anon upon the gravel at his feet.

But there was apparently some distracting influence abroad-perhaps in the distant voice of the keeper, calling "time"-for presently, with quite a troubled look on his face, he left the park again, and went straight home. There, walking up and down before his open window, he seemed to find himself

more at ease.

"He borrowed a thousand pounds, lost it, and so ruined his friend, Alfred Vaughan; went abroad, determined to move heaven and earth to get it back. That was the tale Grant often told me. Who was Alfred Vaughan? Who was her father? And now Captain Grant is coming to England, rich as a Rothschild."

He paused a moment, looking intently at the view of brick-walls and chimney-pots from his window.

Honour, honour! What is it?" he went on, impatiently. "A breath-a word. But Fate is a fool to tempt me, for I was not born to resist. And yet, Oliver, old fellow, he's a vagabond that would betray you. Simple as you are, I do believe you are one of those very few people who would die sooner than be untrue to a friend. What shall I do? Love and fortune, and at one stroke! Pooh! I'm an ass. Who was Alfred Vaughan? and what chance have I of winning Elsie, even if I tried? The best thing is to let affairs take their course."

And, determined to permit himself no more thought on the matter, he returned to the tavern, where, in the midst of Joyce and Drewe and one or two other choice spirits, he comfortably forgot all things unpleasant, and laughed and talked with more than his wonted fire.

Scraps from the Editor's Waste-Basket.

I. THE MAGAZINE AND OUR PASTORS. -A pastor sends a valentine with the cheering information, "I am pushing the Magazine, so that we never had so many readers here as we have this year." It is a general law-where the pastor pushes, the Magazine goes. People cannot well be expected to buy that of which they do not hear.

II. REV. GILES HESTER.-PROPOSED ANNUITY FUND.-It will be seen by our advertisement that nearly £500 have yet to be raised in order to realize the capital sum of £1000 for Mr. Hester. The effort should be fully completed before the Association meets at Bradford; hence the desirability of closing the list by May 31. It has been decided to set apart collections at the Lord's table (for one month) at Praed Street and Westbourne Park. What church will do likewise? Our friends at Woodgate, Loughborough, have done well, considering their financial responsibilities in the matter of a new chapel; but with the exceptions furnished in their case, and that of Baxter Gate, no church seems to have adopted the suggestion that, where practicable, arrangements should be made "for public collections in aid of this object." We feel sure that the omission does not arise from want of sympathy. And surely it cannot be due to a universal lack of ability?

III. MR. GLADSTONE'S GOSPEL FOR IRELAND. In the course of a conversation on the subject of decentralization with M. Clémenceau, the leader of the French Radicals, Mr. Gladstone said, with intense zest, "The curse of Ireland has been centralization. What I hope and desire, what I labour for, and have above all things at heart, is to decentralise administrative authority there. We have disestablished the Church, relieved the tenant class of many grievances; we are now trying to produce a state of things which will make the humblest Irishman realise that he is a governing agency, and that the Government is to be carried on by him and for him." It is the only true gospel of politics. Politically man is a self-governing creature; and we must be ready to apply the principle not only to Ireland, but in all our colonies and dependencies; aye, even in our vast empire of India.

repair his loss." It always seems to us, there is no witness to the ability and wisdom of a pastorate like that afforded by the action of the church speedily after his removal. Not a few seemingly prosperous ministers have been followed by an utter collapse of directive force, and a painful breakdown of patient energy. The minister's work has had no cohesive and enduring elements in it. Is it not well to shape to-day's work in view of the need that will spring up when we have left it?

V. CLEVER, BUT DISLOYAL, AND MORE!-When an Archbishop, a Bishop, and two clergy, professing intense spirituality and self-sacrificing devotion to truth, conspire to evade the fair and legitimate effect of the action of the legal tribunals of the country, what is the name their act should bear? If four tradesmen conspired in the same way we should denounce the act as a fraud, and the actors as disloyal. But, because the act is done in the interests of our State Church, forsooth, it loses its immorality! Mr. Maconochie has been declared guilty of illegal practices at St. Albans, and is on the point of being deprived of his pay. He resigns; and the late Archbishop, the Bishop of London, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, effect an exchange between Mr. Snelling and Mr. Maconochie, and so the judge is cheated, the law defied, and the pay retained in the interests of Ritualism. It is clever; but if it had occurred in commerce we should call it a huge fraud! One party will gain by it; and that is the Romanizing party in our State Protestant Church. This act is another summons to gigantic efforts to effect a speedy separation of Church and State.

VI. ELEMENTARY ETHICS.-That "toomuch protesting" sheet the Echo is guilty of teaching that "circumstances do not alter cases;" that acts do not derive their moral value from the motive of the doer; and blindly waxes into inflammatory eloquence at what it calls "the demoralizing doctrine" "that what may be wrong when done by one man, may be right when done by another." I find in this day's reading the following: Dean Stanley says of Dr. Arnold, "He shrank from pressing on the consciences of boys rules of action which he felt they were not yet able to bear, and from enforcing actions which, though right in themselves, would in boys be performed from wrong motives"* -so that an act that may be wrong when done by a boy, may be right when done by *Life of Arnold, I., p. 98.

THE LATE JOHN STARBUCK.

a man. Lady Verney, in the Dec. Contemporary, after describing "Peasant Properties in Avergne," says, "In England thrift appears to be a great virtue; one to be inculcated on every occasion upon our people. Here (in Auvergne) one hates the very mention of it. It is an end they do not work to live, they live for the sake of working to lay by; they grudge every penny they spend, even for the most important necessaries. The sordid filthy existence which is the result of all this saving and self-denial

....

is

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incredible if it is not seen and studied." Thus thrift may be wrong when in one man, and right in another. Of course it may. The most elementary

ethic teaches that the test of acts is in the motive. The familiar illustration is, Two men give a sovereign each to A; B does it out of pure desire to help him, C to induce him to bear false witness. Still the Echo-whose motto is, "Be just and fear not"-will "fear nothing," and go on protesting against such an elementary fact in morals.

The late John Starbuck, Pastor at Maltby.

JOHN STARBUCK was born at Walton, near Ipswich, on May 2nd, 1810. His relatives attended the Baptist cause of that place, and it is probable that some of them were members of the church. Whilst he was yet a youth the family removed to Leicester, and joined the congregation worshipping in Friar Lane; at which place, in 1828, he was baptized and received into the church by the then pastor, Rev. S. Wigg. He soon afterwards commenced preaching; and being ready of speech, a shrewd observer of men and things, and fairly acquainted with his bible, he proclaimed the gospel with acceptance in the surrounding villages. Such confidence had his pastor in him that he occasionally sent him as a pulpit supply to more distant places, as well as intrusted him with a commission to solicit subscriptions for certain needy objects. The business he followed caused him to have to travel through neighbouring counties, and as far north as Yorkshire. From memoranda made at the time, and preserved, it would seem that he made himself familiar with the condition of the country churches, become acquainted with many of the ministers, and made himself generally useful in speaking, preaching, and baptizing, as occasion required or opportunity presented.

Removing to Boston he united with the church in High Street, and the pastor-the universally beloved T. W. Matthews-had no more ardent admirer, faithful adherent, or appreciative hearer than our friend. Having removed to Alford, and the small church at Maltby, some four or five miles distant-the pulpit of which he had occasionally supplied-being without any pastoral oversight, the friends there, in 1873, invited him to the pastorate. He accepted the . invitation, and continued to discharge the duties of his office with industry and fidelity until enfeebled health, followed by total blindness, laid him aside from all active duties, and brought his labours to a close. His last sermon was from the text, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Being of an active temperament the loss of his sight was felt by him to be a heavy trial; but he sought to bear it in humble resignation to his heavenly Father's will. He took a keen interest to the last in all that concerned our denomination, and had no greater joy than to hear of its prosperity and progress. No periodical literature was so welcome as the General Baptist Magazine, the date when it was due being never forgotten by him. His theology was liberal, and permeated by hope in regard to the future of the human race. His sympathies were as broad as the universal church, yet he had an intense affection for the people of his choice, and desired for them pre-eminence.

Towards the close of 1882 his weakness increased, and he became conscious that his end was near. But he contemplated it with calm composure, if not, indeed, with joyful expectancy. The period of the celebration of the Incarnation having passed, he expressed himself as somewhat disappointed, having, as he said, anticipated spending his Christmas in heaven. Yet, resuming his composure, he quietly waited for the salvation of the Lord, which came to him not many days afterwards; for on Lord's-day, January 7, he entered quietly into his rest, gently murmuring not long before, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." J. R. GODFREY.

Beviews.

Information should be sent by the 16th of the month to 51, Porchester Road, Westbourne Park, London, W.