St. Paul says it is, freely to forego lawful things for the sake of others, it is certainly good for us, of our own free will, to offer any little mortification we can in reparation and expiation, and intercession for others. It is on this ground, as it seems to me, that total abstinence may be affirmed to be a wise and charitable use of our Christian liberty.

66

any

And if, by laying on ourselves so slight a privation, we can in way help those who are perishing, and those who are tempted, I do not think we shall ever have cause to regret that we freely chose that slight self-denial."

FIVE GOOD REASONS FOR TOTAL ABSTINENCE.*

The late Dr. Guthrie of Edinburgh said: "I have four good reasons for being an abstainer: My head is clearer, my health is better, my heart is lighter, and my purse is heavier." And we would add, "My ear is readier to the cry of the poor, and our self-denial will edify our neighbor." "Now, we that are stronger ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." (Romans xv. 1.)

No. 11.—Lines on the Blessed Virgin by the American
Poet, Longfellow.

"PRINCE HENRY (on gaining a view of Italy after passing the Alps).

"Oh, had I faith, as in the days gone by,
That knew no doubt, and feared no mystery:

This is indeed the blessed Mary's land,

Virgin and Mother of our dear Redeemer!

All hearts are touched and softened at her name;
Alike the bandit with the blood-stained hand,
The priest, the prince, the scholar and the peasant.
The man of deeds, the visionary dreamer,

Pay homage to her as one ever present!

And even as children, who have much offended
A too indulgent father, in great shame,
Penitent, and yet not daring unattended

To go into his presence, at the gate
Speak with their sister, and confiding wait
Til she goes in before and intercedes;
So men, repenting of their evil deeds,
And yet not venturing rashly to draw near
With their requests an angry Father's ear,
Offer to her their prayers and their confession,
And she for them in Heaven makes intercession.
And, if our faith had given us nothing more

*See Temperance Lesson Book.

Than this example of all womanhood,
So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good,

So patient, peaceful, loyal, loving, pure,

This were enough to prove it higher and truer

Than all the creeds the world had known before."

No. 12.—Census of Religions in the World.

Dr. Hurst's Outline History of the Church (1875) gives the following populations to the creeds of the world:

Christianity,

Judaism,

Buddhism,

Mohammedanism,

Brahmanism,

Confucianism,

All other forms of religious belief,

Of the Christian populations of the world, 131,007,449 are assigned to Protestantism; 200,339,390 to Roman Catholicism; and 76,390,040 to the Oriental churches. In the New World, comprising North and South America, the Roman Catholics are in the majority, having about sixty millions, and the Protestants about thirty-seven millions.*

According to Hubner, in his Statistical Tables of all the Countries of the Earth, there are in the German Empire 25,600,000 Protestants, 14.900,000 Catholics, 38,000 Orthodox Greek Christians, 512,000 Jews, 6,000 of all other denominations or of none. In Austro-Hungary there are 23,900,000 Catholics, 3,600,000 Protestants, 7,220,000 Greek and other Christians, 1,375,000 Jews, 5,000 Mohammedans and others. In France there are 35,390,000 Catholics, 600,000 Protestants, 118,000 Jews, 24,000 Mohammedans and others. In Great Britain and Ireland there are 26,000,000 Protestants of various denominations, 5,600,000 Catholics, 26,000 Greeks, etc., 46,000 Jews, 6,000 Mohammedans and others. In Italy there are 26,660,000 Catholics, 96,000 Protestants, 100,000 Greeks, etc., 36,000 Jews, 25,000 Mohammedans and others. In Spain there are 16,500,000 Catholics, and 180,000 adherents of other denominations (details not given). In European Russia there are 56,100,000 Orthodox Greek Christians, etc., 2,680,000 Protestants, 7,500,000 Catholics, 2,700,000 Jews, and 2,600,000 Mohammedans and others. In Belgium there are 4,920,000 Catholics, 13,ooo Reformed Church, 2,000 Jews, and 3,000 belonging to other denominations. In the Netherlands there are 2,001,000 members of the Reformed Church, 1,235,000 Catholics, 64,000 Jews and 4,000 of other denomina

* Behm and Wagner.

tions. In Sweden and Norway there are 4,162,000 members of the National Evangelical Church, 4,000 Greeks and other Christians, and 2,000 Jews, the number of Catholics is not officially given-it is estimated at less than 1,000.

No. 13.-Census of Catholics in the World.

The Deutsche Reicheszeitung estimates the number of Catholics in the world as follows: Number of Catholics in France, 36,405,000; AustroHungary, 25,357,000; Italy, 27,942,000; Spain, 16,912,000; German Fatherland, 15,950,000; Russia (including Poland), 18,300,000; England, Ireland, Scotland, and Malta, 6,140,000; Belgium, 5,450,000; Portugal, 4,433,000; Holland, 1,652,000; Switzerland, 1,127,000; Turkey, 500,000; Roumania, 114,000; Montenegro, 25,000; Greece, 10,000; Leichtenstein, 9,000; Monaco, 7,000; Servia, 4,000; Denmark, 2,000; and Norway, 1,000-total in Europe, 153,344,000.

Brazil, 10,000, 800; Mexico, 9,389,460.

United States, 8,000,000; Colombia, 2,950,017; Peru, 2,699,945; Bolivia, 2,325,000; Chili, 2,116,718; Argentine, 1,812,490; Venezuela, 1,784,197; Guatemala, 1,190,754; Ecuador, 946,053; Hayti, 550,000; Uruguay, 440,000; Salvador, 434,520; Honduras (census of 1858), 357,700; Nicaragua, 300,000; Paraguay, 293,844; San Domingo, 250,000; Costa Rica, 185,000; British America, 2,100,000; Spanish West Indies, 2,080,652; French, 340,000; Dutch, 34,000: Danish, 26,000-total in America, 51,400,391.

Philippine Islands, 5,700,000; British India, 1,600, 600; Timor and Macao, 70,000; China, 423,887; Cochin China and Tonkin, 510,581; Japan, 20,000; Corea, 20,000; Mongolia, 5,000; Mantchooria, 9,000; Thibet, 9,300; Siam, 11,150; Cambodia, 11,000; Burmah, 11,950; Malaya, 6,000; Dutch Possessions, 31,324; Maronites, 530,000; United Jacobites, 35,000; Armenians in Syria and Asia Minor, 10,000; Chaldeans, 20,000; Melchites, 20,000; Levant (Latin Rite), 60,000; Siberia and Caucasus, 52,000-total in Asia, 9, 166, 192.

Algeria, 270,000; Reunion, 150,000; Noyotte and Nossi-be, 20,000; Tetuan, 15,000; Canary Islands, 283,000; Fernando Po, 500; Madeira, 121,753; St. Thomas, 21,441; Cape Verde, 90,604; Continent, 500,000; Cape and Natal, 30,000; Mauritius, 90,000; Madagascar, 30,000; Tunis, 26,000; and Egypt, 35,000-total in Africa, 1,686,998.

Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, 590,000; Sandwich Islands, 25,000; Wallis, 4,000; Futana, 1,000; Tonga, 2,000; Fiji, 5,000; Samoan Islands, 5,000; on French territory, 20,000-total in Australasia, 652,000. Grand total, 219,249,531 (about 220 millions).

No. 14.—Difficulties of Private Interpretation, by Father G. Bampfield, B.A., Oxon.*

"I was a young man when my inquiry into truth began. I wished to save my soul-to know the truth and do the right; I asked myself and others how I was to find the truth; the answer was ever the same, 'Search the Scriptures.'

"But here came a difficulty.

"I knew that the Scriptures were the Word of God; but I knew also that God's Writings are then only of use to us when we know what God meant by that which He wrote. God's Word, if we put to it the devil's meaning or man's meaning, is not God's Word at all. The letter killeth ;' it is the spirit' which 'quickeneth.' What we need is God's meaning of God's Word. The same Holy Ghost who wrote the Scriptures, He only can interpret them.

"Was it possible for me to miss this meaning? I read in the gospels that the Scriptures could be so misused. The devil tempted our Lord with Scripture texts, using God's Word with the devil's meaning (St. Matthew iv.); the Pharisees rejected our Lord by Scripture: Search the Scriptures, and see that out of Galilee a prophet riseth not' (St. John vii. 52), using God's Word, indeed, but perverted by man's sin of the Sadducees our Lord said that though they read the Scriptures, they knew them not (St. Mark xii. 24); and the Apostles were 'foolish and slow of heart to believe all the things which the prophets have spoken.' (St. Luke xxiv. 25.) It was not the multitude who knew not the law' who condemned our dearest Lord, but the Pharisee, the scribe, and the lawyer, whose whole study was in the Sacred Writ.

"Nay, the Scriptures themselves told me plainly, § 'that no prophecy of the Scripture is made by private interpretation.' (2 St. Peter i. 20.) And, again, that in St. Paul's epistles, at least, there are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their destruction.' (2 St. Peter iii. 16.) The Scriptures, then, can be used to our destruction, and who was I that I should think myself learned or stable? Thinkest thou,' said Philip to Queen Candace's chamberlain, that thou understandest what thou * St. Andrew's Magazine, April, 1879.

+2 Cor. iii. 6. "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (Prot. version.) "Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." (Prot. version.)

§ "No prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private interpretation." (Prot. version.)

Are some things hard to be anderstood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do

also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." (Prot. version.)

Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? (Prot. version.)

readest?' who said 'How can I, unless some one show me?' (Acts viii. 30, 31.)

"It was, then, I concluded, possible for me to miss the true meaning of God's Word; and if I missed it, I missed it to my own destruction.' The fault lay not in the Scriptures, which are holy, but in my wretchedness, who misinterpreted.

"When I stated this difficulty to others, I received always the same answer, Pray to God the Holy Ghost, and He will guide you.' But here arose two or three difficulties.

“(a) I knew that without God's help no man can understand the Scriptures; but I knew also, that God's help is given more or less in proportion to the fervency of prayer and the righteousness of him who prays. It is the continual prayer of a just man;' or, as the Protestant translation renders it, 'the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man' (St. James v. 16), not the lukewarm prayer of the unrighteous, that 'availeth much.' Dared I trust in myself that I was righteous?' (Luke xviii. 9)—my prayer 'fervent and effectual?' If conscience did not compel, humility would exhort me to think otherwise; and, if so, how could I tell that the true meaning of Scripture was given me in answer to such worthless prayers as mine? The fault lay not in God, who is ever ready to give to them that ask, but in the poverty of the asking and the asker.

(6) But I found that, on this view, not only must I trust in myself that I was righteous, but also despise others. (St. Luke xviii. 9.) For I found that others did the very same thing which I did-namely, pray to the Holy Ghost, and yet explained Scripture in a sense wholly opposite to mine. If I learned from the Scripture that baptism was necessary to salvation, another from the very same Scripture would teach that baptism was not necessary to salvation, and that my doctrine was soul-destroying and hateful to God. If I prayed to the Holy Spirit, so did he; if I was fully convinced, so was he; if to my spirit I hoped that 'the Holy Spirit gave testimony that I was a child of God' (Rom. viii. 16), * the same claim. also did he make. How could I tell that he was wrong and I right? My prayers answered and his not? Was I holier than he? I dared not think

So.

"Of one thing I was certain, that the Holy Ghost could not teach to me that a doctrine was true and to him that the same doctrine was not true. One of us was wrong, and teaching, what God hates, a lie; but by what sure sign could I say what was wrong?

"Sometimes I was told that these differences were not essential points; but I could not understand this. Men certainly differ, for example, on the question whether baptism is necessary to salvation or not. Surely a de

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." (Prot. version.)