'Give it up? never. I'll give up the Magazine first. What! when our grand outpost is stormed, are we to overlook the affair, because it is only an outpost; remaining unconcerned until the enemy's artillery shall thunder within our gates! When an integral part of our holy church is assailed, and our brethren persecuted almost unto the death, are we to affect indifference because the sword has not yet reached our dwellings? Nay: though you are a good and effective ally, even your desertion would not silence me there.'

'I am not going to desert you, my dear child. I fully understand the difficulties of your situation; and have marked the perplexity consequent on an influx of contending opinions. You wish to do right; but human infirmity renders it no easy matter to discern in what path duty lies. You wish to avoid displeasing any but a hope more chimerical than that can scarcely be entertained by mortal man. I thought you had fully made up your mind last month on this subject.'

'So I did, uncle; and it is not materially altered: but I am inclined just to relinquish the word politics, without binding myself to any abstinence from the thing which it signifies.'

'Be it so what phrase will you substitute?'

'I have thought of one, the signification of which is little understood, and much undervalued ;—a word, in its proper extent embracing all that you or I would deem worth noticing within the range of sublunary things; and including all that the eye of faith can scan of those invisible. I would individualize that word, uncle: and entitle this portion of our Magazine, 'THE PROTESTANT.'

'Bravo!' exclaimed my uncle, in high delight, You could not have thought of a better exchange. Yes, girl, there is more in that word than one out of one thousand, who bear the name, ever dreamed of connecting with it. It is the fashion, you know, to call the Church of Rome a Christian Church; and to number it among the branches of the true Vine. Conceding for argument's sake what in no other way will I ever concede, then we behold the socalled Christian world divided into two great bodies -Papal and Protestant. The general error grants the latter distinction to all who do not acknowledge the Romish bishop as supreme over God's heritage: who do not go to mass, nor seek at the confessional of a fellow-man the forgiveness of sin, which God alone can dispense. In short, whosoever does not outwardly conform to the peculiar dogmas of popery, is considered a Protestant. How vain, how false the assumption of a name, which, in its true signification, bespeaks a fervent protest against doctrines subversive of Christ's glorious office in and to His church! He, and he alone, is the Protestant, who, casting far from him whatsoever derogates from the might and majesty of the only Saviour, acknowledges in Christ Jesus all that he requires from God: all that God requires in him-wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.'

'It is a spiritual distinction then.'

'Yes, and a visible one also. It includes not only the reception of what is true, but an utter rejection of what is false. It not only receives the faith once delivered to the saints, but earnestly contends for that faith. It aspires to that commendation, "I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience,

and how thou canst not bear them which are evil; and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars; and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my hast laboured, and hast not fainted."

name's sake

Do the bulk

of our professing Protestants, think you, attain to any thing like this?'

Alas, no. But, uncle, this has nothing to do, they tell us, with politics.'

"I did not say that it had; though I fear not to assert that it has as much to do with politics as the soul has to do with the body. However, let that pass. We are still under the old heading, and may take a farewell view of what is more commonly considered the political aspect of nations, at the close of our year. A most eventful twelvemonth it will prove to have been!"

Do you think the general appearance pacific, uncle?'

'As far from it as may well be, considering that no actual blow has yet been struck, except by the unhappy civil warfare of Spain.'

'What has been the event of that mighty meeting at Toplitz?'

'A striking debût, on the part of one who, if his life be prolonged, will yet appear as prime actor in many a tragedy.'

'I shall not quarrel with Nicholas, uncle, if, as I expect, he delivers Palestine from the Turks.'

My uncle looked very grave. 'Remember, that predicted events, fraught with purposes of rich mercy, have been accomplished by wicked hands, under circumstances the most appalling, and followed by immediate results so fearful that the mind

shrinks from the contemplation. The glorious deliverance from Egypt furnishes a striking illustration: the awful scene of man's redemption one infinitely more terrible: and what you now speak so cheerfully of will probably be attended by calamities, of which the Lord has told us that such tribulation has not been, from the foundation of the world. The great river Euphrates is, indeed, to be dried up, beneath the pouring out of the vial; and we may evidently behold the commencement of that judgment on the Ottoman Empire; but closely connected with this is the going forth of those three unclean spirits whose office it is to deceive the kings of the earth, and to gather the whole army of antichrist unto the great battle of the Lord God Almighty. We are permitted, yea commanded to rejoice; but it must be with trembling.'

'It is true, dear uncle. I think that we are too ready to forget the terrible judgments which will usher in the period that we long for.'

Then, as to Nicholas,' resumed my uncle, the trait of character manifested by his arbitrary and insulting treatment of the unhappy Poles on the very ground where they had gallantly fought for national freedom, holds out but a poor promise to Europe, in the event of his attaining the pre-eminence to which he evidently aspires, and from which I see nothing likely to withhold him. The close of this year finds Russia taking up a position from whence I strongly incline to think she will rapidly advance, as a principal agent in the mighty revolutions nigh at hand.' 'What of France, uncle?'

'A vast deal of excellent leaven is there at work, as in Ireland; little observed as yet, but affecting

the great mass to a depth and a width that few suspect. I have good authority for saying it, and reason to hope that the word of the Lord will have free course and be glorified in no small measure, even in the heart of popish, infidel France.'

'So far as to affect her political relations?'

'My dear child, when God raises up a praying people in the midst of a nation notorious for gross irreligion, we cannot doubt that he has there some mighty work in hand. How far a partial revival might affect the temporal well-being of such a country as France, it is not for us to determine. At home, we have witnessed the progress of political declension outrunning that of spiritual elevation. England has little to boast of in the events of the last seven years and a glance at Ireland will suffice to shew how readily a responsible government can conclude an amicable league with the off-scourings of a rebellious populace, at the expense of Christ's militant Church: even while upon that Church such beams of heavenly light are resting as might make her a glory and a praise in all lands. Conversionis, as yet, an individual work only: while our sins are both personal and national. Under such circumstances I look for public judgments, softened by the intercession of those whom the Lord stirs up to pray and to plead.' "A mutilated bible, and a persecuted Church,' I remarked, must needs cry with no common voice

for natural visitations.'

'Even as a proscribed bible, and an extinguished Church do in some other countries.'

'And what, uncle, do you consider to have been the tendency of our progress, in England, during the past year ??