: 66 Apollo, who should say, Oh! we remark in the next place." This is the interjectional idea of preaching. Another desiderates chiefly deliv ery no minister is a favourite unless his voice be musical, and his attitude smack of the boards; unless he indulge in a profusion of studied declamation, pointing to the four winds, when he names them, and laying his hand gently on the heart, when he wishes to indicate that interesting organ. This is the material or Anthropomorphic idea of preaching. Another judges of a sermon by its length, and likes it, either because it is an hour, or because it is only the half of the time. This is the arithmetical idea of preaching. One man abuses a sermon because he does not understand it; another admires it because he does understand it; and a third admires it because he does not understand it. One man constantly asks, ere giving his verdict, what do the best judges say? Another, with some favourite model in his eye, says, what is this to Hall, or Chalmers, or Thompson ? One man likes a discourse to be as full of ideas as a pudding of plums. Another prefers a sermon in which the gold, or even the brass, is beat so thin, that it trembles before the zephyr. A third likes one great general idea to pervade a sermon, and to gather round it by the force of attraction, a host of illustrations. One likes a discourse endlessly subdivided, all hedges and ditches. Another would have it limitless, free, and unenclosed, as a moor or a mountain. One wishes it to be gemmed with scripture, and with nothing else. Another likes to see the Cairngorm pebbles of earthly poetry sparingly intermixed with the inestimable jewels of celestial song. One would hem a sermon in within very strait-laced limitations. Another would allow it a wide and varied range; to draw ilJustrations from the meanest, and from the loftiest objects; from the flower and the star, from the ant and the leviathan, from the glowworm under the hedge, and from that final conflagration which shall whelm the universe in billows of fire. And so on, ad infinitum.— Gilfillan's Gallery of Literary Portraits. THE LOCAL MINISTRY. In the October number of your Magazine for 1854, appeared from the pen of an anonymous writer, some strictures on an article of mine entitled, "Signs of the Times," which found a place in the number for May of the same year. Your correspondent frowns on that part of the Signs of the Times" which adverts to the Local Ministry; and, without attempting to disprove my statements, charges me with want of sympathy for the local preachers. Several months of severe domestic affliction, and a press of pastoral labour, prevented my replying at the time; and even now I have only referred to the subject for the purpose of making a few additional remarks. Let me just say to the Brother who was not manly enough to give his name, I have only described things as I have found them during seven or eight years in the Itinerant Ministry; and not merely as they have been in the circuits where I have laboured, but as they may be found in many other circuits. And although the larger portion of my short life has been spent in Canada, which circumstance may have prevented my being personally acquainted with the order in England, yet it should be borne in mind that the bulk of our local preachers here are from England. But waiving that point just now, and also the importance of the local preacher system, which I acknowledge as truly as he, let us look candidly at the following points :- 1. The importance of elevating the standard of preaching ability above its prescnt level. No one should be allowed to enter the ranks of the Local Order, who does not possess at least a respectable knowledge of divine things, and moderate ability to impart that knowledge. We lower the sacred work in the estimation of the public by recognising as preachers, men, who either do not understand christian doctrine, or are not able to express somewhat acceptably what they do understand and believe. Aye, and multitudes of thinking persons have turned away in disgust from the sacred desk, because its occupier showed himself incapable of even common sense discourse, and afforded evidence that the subject in hand was but ill-understood by the speaker himself, who therefore strove in vain to enlighten others. For want of a proper elevation of the standard of preaching, numbers look upon themselves as quite prepared to labour as local preachers who are not even suitable for Sabbath School Teachers. Yes, some of them are so enlightened that they despise the idea of teaching in the Sabbath school. That is too mean a position for them, and that work is too small for their talents! It may be safely averred that numbers will answer to the foregoing description. It ought to be impressed on every mind that preaching the everlasting gospel is a vast work, and that all who are called to engage in it, should "study to show themselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Alas! many of us need to be ashamed of our inefficiency in the work of the Lord. It is the duty of the circuits instead of lowering the standard, to raise it higher. It will lead those who are already preachers, to aim at improvement in order to keep pace with the times, while it will convince those who are about to seek a place among that useful class, that no drone need expect to be received. 2. It is desirable that young men and others whose hearts are truly impressed with a call to preach the gospel, should be trained somewhat for their public ministrations. Let them be employed in other departments of christian labour which may, by comparatively easy gradations, enable them to surmount the timidity and hesitation on account of which numbers find their first efforts exceedingly embarrassing to themselves, and confounding to the people. My own experience supplies me with evidence on this point. And many of our best hearers will bear me witness that they have sat with, not merely pain, but actual anguish of mind, while some well-meaning brother was making his first essay at preaching the word. Why not let our churches know that some degree of training must precede an entrance into this all-important work? Should there not be required generally of candidates for this sphero of labour, besides a fair acquaintance with Theological science, a passable understanding of the mother tongue? Add to this an aptness to teach, evinced in instructing the young, and in giving exhortations in select prayer meetings, and otherwise exercising gifts and graces. Thus would they cultivate their minds and hearts, and accustom themselves to express their views with acceptance, and unfold their ideas consecutively to others, before being unceremoniously exhibited in public as preachers of the gospel. Why should not the Pastors superintend the studies and exercises of such persons, and, in Bible and Theological classes. aid them in their preparation for usefulness? By all means should candidates be expected to study, not only their Bible, but also their own language, so that in speaking of the deep things of God, they may intelligibly express themselves in English, and not in the corrupt dialect of some county or shire. A speaker's provincialisms and mongrel talk may not materially affect him in the neighbourhood where he was brought up, and where the dialect of his congre gations is similar to his own; but under other circumstances (as for instance in this country) it is of considerable importance. 3. Our Local Ministry should be regarded as a sort of Theological Institute, in which many, especially its younger members, may be acquiring a meetness for more extensive usefulness in the regular work. If it were kept constantly in view, that from this college the annual supplies for the Itinerant sphere are to be obtained, we think much greater attention would be paid to improvement and mental culture; not only for present usefulness, but also to be fitted for an enlarged sphere of action. A local brother who is striving to be prepared for the Master's use, said to me the other day, "Many of them (the local preachers) shamefully idle away their time, and neglect precious opportunities for improvement." Some of them certainly do not lay hold of the seasons of leisure with which they are favoured, and press them into service for God and man. Supineness marks the course of many, while the "fleeting moments of too short a life" are unimproved. Ir order that any preacher may exert much influence, in the church or the world, it is necessary that he be a man of thought, and close application to Bible studies; and that he labour as well for the acquisition of every branch of useful knowledge which may be within his grasp. 4. Lastly we would urge the importance of a due improvement of the Local Preachers' Meeting, for the purpose of stimulating to mental culture, increased personal holiness, and a fuller acquaintance with divine truth. Such seasons ought to result in a deeper impression of the heart with the awful verities of our holy religion, and the solemn charge committed to our trust. When I was an exhorter, my colleague and I (for my brother-in-law and myself were appointed together) often felt sadly disappointed in the Preachers' meetings. There was seldom any. thing-except the prayer and praise -calculated to benefit either head or heart. We have gone to them hungry, and come away starving. I then thought that the reason of their lack of interest and profit must lie in the inability or indolence of the Pastor-chairman; but I have since discovered that though the Pastor may be a progressive man, possessed of enlightened piety, and though he may earnestly seek to render such occasions hallowed and instructive, yet there are in most circuits some persons who are always disposed to throw im- London, Canada West, CHRISTIAN CONSISTENCY. To the Editor. I was much pleased to find by your Magazine for January, that the work of the Lord was reviving in the West. There is nothing that cheers my heart so much as to hear of sinners coming to Christ, but I am equally pained at times to see and hear of the decline of christianity in other places. How mournful to behold places where the gospel was once preached, societies and Sabbath schools formed, and where real christians lived, now forsaken. Stations once selfsupporting, but now turned into missions. Why is this? Surely there is a cause. What can that cause be? Is there deficiency in Doctrine, Practice, Experience, or Discipline? With regard to the three first I have nothing to say, I leave them; but in reference to the last, I do think there is a deficiency, in consequence of which we suffer. O how needful to take heed to the whole four, but more especially to the last. If MR. JOHN WESLEY once said, "The Methodists must take heed to their doctrine, practice, experience, and their discipline. they attend to their doctrines only, they will make the people Antinomians; if to the practical part only, they will make them Pharisees; if to the experimental part of religion only, they will make them Enthusiasts; and if they do not attend to their discipline, they will be like persons who bestow much pains in cultivating their garden, and put no fence around it to save it from the wild boar of the forest." We do not judge a farmer to be a good one by the advice which he gives a brother farmer; but by the manner in which he manages his own farm. Just so in the same way we estimate the worth of a minister; not by what he says in a neighbouring station on a special occasion, but by the manner in which he conducts the business of his own station. A wise and good man loves to keep order in his family; in like manner a wise minister will keep at home as much as possible, to keep order among his flock. I hope our pastors will take the hint. AN OBSERVER. THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES. (Abridged from Homes beyond the Sea.) Sixteen thousand miles from England, as the ship sails, is one of Great Britain's distant possessions. Like Great Britain, it is an island, but very much larger. If, by way of illustration, on a map of the world the whole of the British islands can be covered with a silver threepence, the country of which we speak will not be entirely hidden by placing upon it a silver half crown. If we compare the two regions by figures, we shall find that while Great Britain contains about eighty thousand square miles, this large possession contains upwards of three millions. To sail twice round this island would be a longer voyage than from its nearest port to England. This country is Australia. Eighty years ago Australia was almost unknown, and entirely uncultivated. Its only inhabitants were savages; few, compared with the extent of country, and debased in character and intellect. Not much longer than sixty years ago, the first ship-load of British settlers landed in Australia. They were convicts, who, having offended the laws of their coun try, were transported to this distant part of the world as a punishment. The sufferings they endured were very severe; for, in addition to the strict control in which they were held by those who had charge of them as prisoners, they were nearly perishing by famine. But this evil was surmounted, and the settlement being established, land was cultivated, buildings were raised, and the colony was, from time to time, increased, principally by more convicts; and for many years everything vile and terrible was connected, in the minds of the people of England, with Botany Bayas that part of Australia thus colonized was then called. Still, of the extensive interior of Australia little is at present known. "A strange mystery_covers that vast land, which even British activity and enterprise have not been able to solve. Though cities have been built, thousands on thousands of acres cultivated, and the flocks of emigrants have here and there roamed over pastures as extensive as Great Britain, yet we know nothing of the country beyond a mere ring round the coast."* remains for future discoverers to tell us what is within that narrow ring beyond the mountains or desert lands which bound the present settlements; and the description which can be given of Australia applies only to its borders. It New South Wales is the oldest colony in Australia. To New South Wales were sent, through more than fifty years, those convicted criminals of the mother country who were sentenced to transportation. These amounted to more than fifty thousand; and though, since 1840, this colony has ceased to be a penal settlement, the effects of that system have not ceased, and the emigrant will need to be on his guard, not so much against violence and dishonesty, as against the evil influence of ungodliness, as affecting his own character and conduct. It is said, indeed, that the society of New South Wales has a worse name than it really deserves, and that the morals of the people are decidedly improv * H. White's "History of Great Britain." ing; and many witnesses have spoken, with surprise, of the good order, quietness, and security of its towns; and the superior breeding, intelligence, and education of many of the settlers scattered throughout the colony. Notwithstanding this, however, it is remarked that though "the worst features of the convict system are removed, its effects are not easily obliterated, and New South Wales must, on this account alone, present a less tempting field of emigration than some other districts of Australia."* New South Wales is four or five times larger than the whole of Great Britain, with a population (in 1851) of less than two hundred thousand. The extent of its seacoast is thirteen hundred miles; it has many rivers, and numerous towns. Sydney, its chief town, with more than sixty thousand inhabitants, is a busy and flourishing place, and, in many respects, so much like an English city, that the newly arrived emigrant is tempted to forget that he is separated from home by so many thousands of miles;"The principal streets are spacious, with the footways paved, as in London; the shops are such as might be seen in the Strand; crowds of people are bustling along with the same business-like air as at home." Omnibuses, coaches, drays, the names of the streets, the names of the people, the language, and the customs-all are English, and make it difficult for the new comer to believe that he is in a strange land. Next in importance to New South Wales is the colony of South Australia, which was established in 1836. In one respect at least, and that an important one to the emigrant, South Australia is superior to the older colony: it has no convict population; neither is it so liable to destructive droughts. In other respects it offers, at least, equal advantages with New South Wales. Its climate is as healthy and invigorating; its seasons as "Emigrant's Manual." "The Gold Colonies of Australia." mild; and its soil in general more fertile; at least, there is a greater abundance of land suitable for tillage, and there is as great a demand for labour. Its chief town is Adelaide, and though so recently founded, it had, in 1850, nearly fifteen thousand inhabitants. The population of the entire colony is about fifty thousand. The colony of Western Austra lia was founded in 1829. The history of its first colonists is a very melancholy one, and proves how careful those who think of emigrating should be in the selection of their future homes, and how cautious in falling in with new emigration schemes. Hundreds perished miserably in this infant colony through want of foresight, experience, and judgment; thousands of pounds were wasted in the first struggles of the settlers, till desolation and ruin seemed inevitable. Those, however, who survived the wreck of their hopes, gradually struggled through the difficulties which surrounded them, and have since prospered. At present, its greatest drawback is said to be "the want of labour,-that universal want over the whole settlement of Australia." This colony is on the opposite side of Australia to New South Wales, and distant from it, by sea voyage, two or three thousand miles. It is, nominally, a very large colony; the portion of the island marked out for it on maps being ten or twelve times larger than the whole of Great Britain; but the present inhabitants occupy a very small portion of the country, a great part of which, indeed, is as yet unknown. The whole population of Western Australia is only about five thousand. Its chief town is Perth. The colony of Victoria, or Port Philip, is a comparatively small corner of Australia, cut off from New South Wales, of which it formerly was a part; it is somewhat larger than the whole of Great Britain, and is more populous, in proportion to its size, than any other of the Australian colonies. The progress of this colony is |