millions, are opened up to the Protestant Church, which can only send
driblets of two or three missionaries here and there, many of whom go
in tears to live in comfort as well-paid gentlemen, while thousands of
common soldiers pour out their life's blood for their country. "Who
will shew us any good?" Our hope, O Lord, is in Thee! "Lord, lift Thou
up the light of Thy countenance upon us!" Pour Thy Spirit upon the
thirsty ground! Our strength is gone; arise, O Lord, and revive Thy
work among us all. Come Thou and help us, for Thy great name's sake.
The cause of righteousness is Thine own. Do Thou hear and help us,
then shall death be changed to life, and truth shall banish error, and
disunion be lost in love, and out of this valley of dry bones, and
from all sects and parties, a great army will arise, strong and united
through the power of the Spirit who will dwell in each and all, and be
mighty to pull down all the strongholds of Satan, and to advance the
kingdom of our blessed Lord at home and abroad, to the joy of men and
angels!

THE CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION.

A Christian congregation professes to be a congregation of Christians,
and to represent the same kind of body which, in the apostolic
epistles, is termed a "church"--"saints and faithful brethren"--
"faithful in Christ Jesus"--"holy brethren."

It is not, therefore, a number of people meeting only to hear a
sermon, or even to unite in public worship, but without any visible
coherence, social life, or united action, but _a body_, an _organised_
whole; the Lord's Supper being the grand symbol of the unity of its
members with one another, and with the whole society of the Christian
Church on earth and in heaven.[A]

[Footnote A: The social character of the Lord's Supper, and its being
a constant witness to the oneness of the whole body of Christ and the
_communion_ of saints, has been often so perverted as to have become
in the minds of many the grand test and evidence of sectarian
division, while "hearing a sermon" is the utmost latitude which is
given to the believer who wishes to testify his love to all who love
the Lord Jesus in sincerity. "I would hear him preach, but I would not
_join_ with him," _(i.e._, I would not remember Christ with him,)
is the strange view of many a professing Christian, in Scotland at
least.]

Now, the congregation, as an organised Christian society, has a
twofold work to perform. The first is _within_ itself, and include