Further Contributions, belonging to the year 1850-51, unavoidably postponed.

5 0 0

Contributions in aid of the Society will be thankfully received by Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, Bart., Treasurer, and Rev. Ebenezer Prout, at the Mission House, Blomfield-street, Finsbury, London; by Mr. W. F. Watson, 52, Princes-street, Edinburgh: J. Risk, Esq., 108, Fife-place, Glasgow; and by Rev. John Hands, Society House, 32, Lower Abbey-street, Dublin. Post-Office Orders should be in favour of Rev. Ebenezer Prout, and payable at the General Post Office.

LONDON: REED AND PARDON, PRINTERS, PATERNOSTER ROW.

EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE,

AND

MISSIONARY CHRONICLE.

FOR JUNE, 1851.

THE ELEVATION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER.

"'Tis Religion that ennobles man.

His mind unfolds its highest beauty;
His heart its warmest, tenderest sympa-
thies;

Its purest, loftiest feelings; when brought
Beneath its mild and soul-subduing power.
It invests with all that's fair, and imparts
A love to all that's good."

SACRED MUSINGS.

To every person of correct and discriminating thought, and of enlightened piety, the development of character is always an interesting and important study; one associated with the most valuable results. It is most instructive and beneficial to contemplate the formation of mind, its gradual and beautiful unfolding, the awakening of the affections, the implantation and growth of sentiments which give a bias, a continual regulation to the manners, the conversation, the deportment, and a prevailing tone to the life.

one pregnant with great principles and inestimable results.

It is unquestionable that, wherever there is the possession of Divine grace, there must be character, and there must be the exemplification of the Christian character: the principles which form that character, the varied and lovely graces which compose and adorn that character, must be brought out,-clearly and unequivocally presented.

Still, what we want more decisively and generally to witness, on the part of the followers of the Redeemer, is the more commanding, the more elevating exhibition of the holiness and power of Christianity; in other words, the clearer and nobler manifestation of the Christian character.

How many Christians are like children-weak, fitful, capricious, deficient in energy! We want them to resemble

muscle, animation, and vigour of the one class, and the wisdom, sageness, constancy, and profound experience of the other.

The exhibition of the Christian cha-"young men and fathers;" having the racter is peculiarly interesting and animating to the individual who values the religion of the New Testament, and who is influenced and habitually controlled by the Spirit of Jesus Christ:the unfolding of Christian sentiment, the development of Christian feeling, the formation and discovery of Christian habits, and the steady and undeviating manifestation of Christian conduct, must be regarded as a truly beautiful study;

VOL. XXIX.

How many Christians resemble the dwarfed and stunted shrub! There is life; but there is little beauty, little growth, little elevation. We want them to bear some similarity to the majestic oak of the forest, or the graceful and lofty cedar in Lebanon.