that there is a considerable section of depraved and abandoned men who, although generally confounded with the rest, are not recognized members of the corps. These are known as "bucks," and amount probably to not fewer than 1,000 persons. Having been discarded and deprived of their licences for their excesses, they spend their time loitering about the cab-stands, looking out for casualĺ employment by the regular drivers, either to clean harness or to drive their cab. When the latter takes place, the fare is usually shared; and this circumstance, together with their irresponsibility, will account for their being the most extortionate of all cab-drivers. These tabooed men are notoriously of intemperate habits; most of them make no scruple to plunder when they have the chance, even from their own comrades; and the great majority have often been the inmates of a prison. Very few of them are married; indeed, they ordinarily live with profligate women, who by the wages of their shame assist in their support. It is unfair to regard the flagrant vices of these disowned hangers-on as attaching to the entire body, which embraces within its range many honourable characters. Including the "bucks" and the licensed watermen, the cab-driving fraternity numbers nearly 7,000 individuals; and with their wives and children, constitute a community probably of not less than 25,000 persons. If to this group we add the still larger force of 10,500 drivers, conductors, ostlers, stable-keepers, and time-keepers employed in the omnibus department, or, reckoning their families, amounting to about 40,000 souls, we have actually an aggregate equal to the population of a third-rate town.

The general every-day labour of these men is unremitting and exhaustive in the extreme. We are informed-what cannot, indeed, but be apparent to any one given to observation-that the average period of daily toil is above fifteen hours, while those who attend upon railway omnibuses are actually engaged nearly twenty hours out of the twenty-four. The time allowed for meals fluctuates between seven and ten minutes, which are often taken in the wet and cold. Indeed, domestic social intercourse and enjoyment are utterly unknown to these city nomades. Their home is emphatically in the streets. "In fact," says one of the drudges of this degrading and dehumanising system, "the treatment the poor creatures receive is shocking, and a disgrace to a Christian land. I have known men's wives to be dying, their children to be dying, or relatives dying, and time refused them to visit the afflicted, or to pay the last tribute of respect to a departed friend or relative." The testimony of a worthy conductor is to the same effect: "I never get to a public place, whether it is a chapel or a playhouseunless, indeed, I get a holiday, and that is not once in two years. I've asked for a day's holiday, and been refused. I was told I might take a week's holiday, if I liked, or as long as I liked.... In winter I never see my three children, except as they're in bed." A time-keeper affirmed that he "couldn't be said to have any home-just a bed to sleep in-as he was never ten minutes awake in the house in which he lodged." What a touching and terrible picture have we here, of the social amputation of 16,000 members from the body politic! What an arid waste must their life be, thus severed from all participation in the refreshing amenities of friendship and the endearments of home! Self-improvement, while borne down and crushed by such ruthless bondage, we might almost pronounce impossible; and yet, such are the desires and aspirations of many of these men for mental and moral culture, that an association has been formed for that worthy purpose, the meetings of which-to the shame of London be it spoken-are obliged to be held after midnight. Talk of the "pursuit of knowledge under difficulties" -where can a more remarkable or creditable example of the thing be found than is here presented? Let our Christian citizens lay it to heart.

But there is a yet deeper and gloomier tint to be added to the picture of the condition of the cab and omnibus-men, before it can be said to be a faithful representation. As if it were not enough to abstract from them every moment of leisure and opportunity for recreation or self-improvement during the week, they are also robbed of the Sabbath—that natural heritage of rest chartered to all men. Nothing else probably tends so much to dispirit, indurate, and demoralise these religious outcasts as the habitual deprivation of that blessed interval

of repose enjoyed by the bulk of their fellow-men. Viewed in one aspect, they are treated by their employers worse than the horses which they drive, for they always enjoy a day or two of rest every week, while he is denied it. But the matter has hitherto only been looked at commercially; and, regarded in this light, horses are property and cost money, while men-brutes are to be had at any time, and a slavish amount of work is to be had out of them beyond what it would be for the interest of the proprietors that their four-legged animals should render-and, indeed, beyond what they would be able to perform. We are certainly surprised to learn, that so far from there being a diminution of omnibus travelling on the Sunday, there is, if any difference, an increase; so that the toil of the men on that which ought to be a day of respite, is more severe and oppressive than that on other days. A competent witness on this part of the subject says: "There is no proprietor in London who discontinues any portion of his business on the Sabbath in order to give his servants rest for physical or religious improvement: when any portion of their business is discontinued, it is owing to the weather or the scarcity of passengers. I think, since the first introduction of omnibuses, there never was known fifty omnibuses quiet on any Sabbath-day. I have known some men sleep in the stable upon the hay for months together, never caring for home, body, or soul, through the labour that has been imposed upon them. In brief, the proprietors care nothing for their servants; but their horses are generally taken great care of, not working more than about three hours out of twenty-four, while the men work fifteen or sixteen. The masters say, The horses come from the pocket—the men cost nothing.”

The "Early Closing Association "—that excellent Institution to which we owe so much-has collected a large number of testimonies from the lips or pens of our injured brethren of the whip, from which we select two or three affecting samples. One man said, "I have driven for seven years on the Paddington line, and never have more than one Sunday to myself in the course of twelve months. I would gladly go to a place of worship, if I could." Another remarks: "I am on the Islington line. I have one Sunday in every five, but am generally so worn out that I am glad to spend most of that day in bed. I should rejoice to have every Sunday to myself, and would willingly sacrifice my day's wages for this purpose.' Again, listen to another voice: "I have been a driver for fourteen years; but can seldom get to a place of worship. I have sometimes asked master for a day's rest on a Sunday, but his reply has always been, 'Rest when you are dead!"" Yet one more declares: "If I were to ask leave to go to church, and then go to work again, I know what the answer would be: 'You can go to church as often as you like, and we can get a man who doesn't want to go.'

While such is the bitter and unmitigated bondage of these victims of proprietary cupidity and public convenience; and while they groan for deliverance from the galling yoke, as is clear from one cheering fact, among others, that nearly 3,000 London cabmen recently signed a petition against the opening of the Crystal Palace on the Lord's-day; we may well be surprised that nothing at all commensurate with the claims of the case has been attempted by the Christian public on their behalf. But (alas, that it should be so!) many Christian people are themselves deeply implicated in the maintenance of this cruel system; a circumstance that serves greatly to embitter and exasperate their feelings against religion and its professors. Persons," says Mr. Garwood, who has every opportunity of being well informed on this sad topic, "who have not mixed intimately with the drivers of cabs, can scarcely imagine the stumbling-block which this presents to their favourable regard of the claims of the Gospel. They entertain the idea that, if it were not for religious people, they would have their Sundays, as they believe that it would not otherwise be worth their masters' while to send them out on that day, except under special circumstances. So strongly does this circumstance produce an antipathy to religious persons on the part of cabmen, that some will even try to avoid taking fares to churches and chapels, simply because of their disgust at the practice of persons professing to be religious employing them for such purposes. Sometimes, when religious people hire cabs to take them to church, they will say to the driver as they get out, probably

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to relieve their consciences for the act, We hope you attend some place of public worship. It is related in a recent pamphlet, entitled, 'The Omnibus Men of London,' that a cab-driver not long since answered a lady who thus addressed him, 'No, ma'am ; we drives about such as you.' When cabmen are expostulated with by consistent Christians on the evil of their violation of the Sabbath, their common reply is, that there can be no more harm in their driving their cabs than in religious people riding in them. On this account, they may often be heard to say that the sound of the church bells makes them unhappy. It operates prejudicially on their minds also that harder bargains are also generally made with them by religious persons who ride in cabs on Sundays than by pleasure-takers. Indeed, cabmen in general lay it down as a truism, that parsons are their worst customers, whether on Sundays or on other days."

Some of the discreditable facts here recorded are provocative of lengthened exposition and animadversion, but exhausted space warns us to refrain. Our views quite coincide with those expressed by Mr. Garwood, as to the inexpediency of the practice. "There are occasions," he admits, "on which it is possible much may be said for as well as against the use of cabs on Sundays, to convey Christian people to the house of God, and especially those who have to conduct the services, and whose residences are unavoidably at a distance. But in the great mass of cases, it admits of no defence; and the writer believes that if the fact were known, of the extreme injury which is actually done (whether rightly, or not, it matters not to inquire,) to the mind of the cab-driver by the practice, Christian persons would feel they could no longer conscientiously be parties to it, but would submit to even a large amount of personal inconvenience to avoid it.” As soon as our Christian readers are made cognizant of these painful facts, we trust they will, in the noble spirit of the great Paul, come to the magnanimous resolve: "If cab and 'bus riding on the Sabbath make my weak brother to offend, I will henceforth ride in no 'bus or cab on the Lord's day, while the world standeth." A determination of this kind, consentaneously carried out by all Christians, would soon lead to the downfall of the inhuman system.

It is gratifying to learn that an interest in these neglected beings is being at length quickened in the public mind. The London City Mission has, for some time, had one of its agents labouring exclusively among them, whose reports of usefulness are highly encouraging. But what is one among so many? We much fear that no adequate amelioration of their lot will take place, until some powerful and stirring writer shall undertake to do for these slaves of the English capital, what Mrs. Stowe has so nobly done for the darker bondsmen of the American States. Human genius could hardly consecrate itself to a worthier task!

THE TRUE BOND OF UNION AMONG CHRISTIANS.

No. VII.

Ir neither the badge of a sect-nor a creed however orthodox-nor a ceremony however significant and obligatory-nor inward feelings however elevated and intense, can be accepted as the test of Christian character-as the "true bond of union among Christians "-what is that test ?-what is that simple, obvious, allimportant thing, after which we inquire?

It must be evident to every unprejudiced mind,-it will be unhesitatingly acknowledged by every enlightened Christian, that no one can belong to the real family of God, but he who is born into it. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," is the solemn affirmation of Messiah; and a rule essential, inflexible in that code by which the universe is governed. In our views, the great change implied in being born again is a spiritual change, affecting the inmost principles and dispositions of the soul. And, contrary to the views of some, we without hesitation avow our persuasion that this change is wrought by the Holy Spirit: and that too by a direct action or influence, and not as some have supposed, mediately,—that is, many causes and effects intervening, though the first cause is admitted to be God. Why not? When Jehovah created the

soul of man, it was by an action direct and immediate; why should media be deemed necessary when He proceeds to recreate it? Yet we are not among those who attempt descriptions of this operation of God, minute and circumstantial; for in this, beyond perhaps any other thing, His ways are past finding out. What a caution against descriptions of the process of the new birth, over minute and particular, is contained in those words of our blessed Lord: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit!"

The work of God in the regeneration and sanctification of the human soul, in one respect, strictly resembles his other works; the modus operandi is inscrutable, the result shows what wisdom and power have been employed. In what way the solar system was constructed, from whence its materials were brought, and how made to come and to move, are matters beyond the reach of our philosophy; but we cannot look on the heavens and on the earth without an instinctive conviction, that power and wisdom infinite have made them all. The most prying physiologist attempts in vain to reach the spring of life, and to solve its wondrous phenomena; Nature derides the effort to extort her secrets. But when we behold the bright eye, the blooming countenance, the restless activity, the loud hilarity of the child, we make no doubt that a birth has taken place, that life is there; and there too in full efficiency and vigour. By a parity of reason, when we witness actions and dispositions proper to, and emanating from, the spiritual life, such as sobriety, integrity, gentleness, meekness, benevolence, devotion,in the judgment of reason, in the judgment of charity, it should be concluded, that the new birth has been effected, and that the life of God in the soul of man is there.

It may freely be admitted, that no one can belong to the true family of God that does not bear His image. It is also true that the image of God is impressed on his people internally, in ways and in degrees beyond our thought. No family likeness is so surely transmitted as the image of God on the souls of his saints; though the perfection and beauty of that internal image are doubtless reserved for his own eye. But there is an outward image of the Holy One obvious to all, as saith St. Paul, Eph. iv. 22-24: "That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and that ye put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness." Man is what he does ; and he who acts like God, gives the proper sign that he belongs unto Him.

One of the similitudes employed by St. Paul to represent the nature of virtue, and its dependency upon the divine Spirit, is the power and process of vegetation: "The fruit of the Spirit," says he, Gal. v. 22, 23, " is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against which there is no law." Surely where fruit so excellent is produced, it ought to be presumed that the tree which bears it is good,-fit for any garden which claims to belong to the Lord Jesus!

To bring this important inquiry, now approaching its termination, to a practical and happy result, it must be somewhat narrowed. It should, for example, be kept in mind that it is not an inquiry concerning that judgment of human character which is formed by the Almighty Judge himself; he never mistakes, and is never deceived. It is his prerogative to search the heart. This Great Shepherd has said: "I know my sheep, and am known of mine."-"The foundation of God standeth sure," says St. Paul; "having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his." We must also put out of the inquiry (pleasant as it would be to linger upon it) that inward Witness-that conscious peace-that well-spring of love-that abounding hope, which assures to the individual believer his part and place in the family of God. Our inquiry is strictly limited to those criteria by which as Christians we are to judge one of another; and our object is, to find that true test by which we may discriminate-so far as such discrimination belongs to man-between the disciples of Jesus and men of the world.

However much our doctrine-had it at the outset been put forth in a naked

and propositional form-might have startled, or even repulsed, we sincerely hope that the reasonings and illustrations adduced in these seven papers, have gone a great way to prepare for it a candid and even favourable reception. It is this: The true TEST of membership in Christ's Church is strictly and absolutely MORAL. The satisfactory evidence of a right to admission into, and a permanent standing in any society or church professing to be Christian, is a blameless and benevolent life. Where the life and conversation are such as become the Gospel of Christ, it ought to be presumed that there the faith of the Gospel is real and operative. He who has every other sign of Christianity, but lacks that of a holy life, should be rejected as having no claim to the privileges and honours of the church of God. And on the other hand, he who lacks every other sign of Christianity, but exhibits this, should be received as belonging to that universal family, of which Messiah is the head, and heaven is the home." But lest this doctrine clashing as it needs must with preconceived views, with party prejudices, and with sectarian feelings and habits-should be looked upon as a mere latitudinarian, unguarded speculation, we fortify it by a reference to the following passages of Holy Writ:

1. Matt. vii. 16, 17: "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." Our blessed Lord spake these words in reference to the false prophets; and the principle they so forcibly affirm is applicable to the end of the world, and to the end of time.

2. Matt. vii. 21: Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." We doubtless should put the stress where the Judge of all has put it -on practice, on manners, on the performance of the will of God.

3. 1 John iii. 10: "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." Implying, of course, that he who does righteousness, and loveth his brother, is of God: that is, of His family. The test is moral, practical; a thing that may be used by all enlightened and upright Christians.

4. James ii. 18: (6 Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works." Happy for those who, when interrogated respecting their creed, their party, their ritual, can answer, "I will show thee my faith by my works."

So convinced are we of the Christian catholicity of the doctrine sought to be reasoned out in these papers, so satisfied are we that the "true bond of union among Christians" is a blameless and benevolent life, that we are impatient to see it as a principle practically applied. Why not throw open the ordinances, privileges, and honours of a particular church to every one that desires it, and that sustains the desire by a Christian life ?-why not call upon all such to bear their part in such church duties and burdens? It is well Eternal mercy does not regulate its proceedings by the systems and enactments of men-systems narrow, selfish, and bigoted, like themselves. To what a fraction of the human race would some reduce the family of God upon the earth! But the Christian religion, as delivered by its great Author, is the most comprehensive and liberal of things; generous, and full of "good-will towards men.' It disdains the walls of separation which sectarian prejudice has reared-it disregards the distinctions of name, and opinion, and ceremony,-it listens not to the censures and anathemas which pride and passion fulminate; but owns as a member of God's family every one, in every land, and in every age, who, according to the light which he hath, "feareth God, and worketh righteousness." Surely it is possible to construct a Christian society upon this model; the attempt, were it even to fail, would be honourable, as an expression of the evangelical catholicity of the parties who made it.

Nothing more broad and comprehensive can be imagined than the condition originally fixed by Wesley, as the term of admission into his Society,-it was "a desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from sin." But his preachers his lay preachers (for the ordination they have assumed would be a farce in Wesley's eyes) have narrowed the basis he laid down-have multiplied