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ed on his throne in wrath, clouded with darkness, and beset with judgments. They had no certain access to him, no acceptable worship to pay to him, no assurance that their prayers would be answered, or their sins forgiven them. They saw not the issue of things, nor could they take any lengthened view of futurity. They knew not therefore how to cherish any great hopes, to form any bigh and extensive plans; they were confined to the present moment, and all beyond it was covered in confusion and horror. You will not think this description overwrought if you read the first chapter of Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

Herein, then, appears the supreme excellence of the Christian dispensation. In the midst of this darkness it rises like the sun in its strength, and all these gloomy shades melt away and are lost in the brightness of it. It no longer leaves us to the conjectures of reason, which has always erred, nor to the fluctuating opinions of men; but all it declares it confirms by the authority of God. The truths it discovers were proclaimed by the Son of God himself, who lay on the bosom of his Father from eternity, who was acquainted with all his councils, and created all his works. It raises no hopes within but what are built upon the oath and promise of him who cannot lie. In the mystery of Christ's Incarnation, who was God as well as man, in the humiliation of his life, and in his death upon the cross, we behold the most stupendous instance of compassion, whilst at the same moment the law of God received more honour than it could have done by the obedience of any, or of all his creatures. "Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." In this dispensation of his grace he has reached so far beyond our highest hopes that, if we love him, we may be assured that he will with it freely give us all things. Access to God is now opened at all times, and from all places; and to such as sincerely ask it, he has promised his Spirit, to teach them to pray and to help their infirmities. The sacrifice of Christ has rendered it just for him to forgive sin, and whenever we are led to repent of and forsake it, even the righteousness of God is declared in the pardon of it. Whilst we contemplate the Gospel, consolation pours itself in on every side, and refreshes our inmost souls. It gives us the prospect of our sins being pardoned, our prayers accepted, our very afflictions turned into blessings, and our existence prolonged to an endless duration. We see Christianity, indeed, as yet but in its infancy. It has not already reached the great ends it is intended to answer; and to which it is constantly advancing. At present it is but as a grain of mustard seed, and seems to bring forth a tender and weakly crop, but be assured it is of God's own right hand planting, and he will never suffer it to perish. It will soon stretch its branches to the river, and its shade to the ends of the earth. The weary will repose themselves under it, the hungry will partake of its fruits, and its leaves will be for the healing of the nations.

If you profess the name of Jesus, you will delight in contemplating the increase and grandeur of his kingdom, and your ex

164 The Excellence of the Christian Dispensation,

pectations will not deceive you. He must reign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet. The religion of Jesus is not the religion of one age or of one nation. It is a train of light first put in motion by God, and which will continue to move and to spread, till it has filled the whole earth with its glory. Its blessings will descend, and its influence will be felt, to the latest generations. Uninterrupted in its course, and boundless in its extent, it will not be limited by time or space. The Earth is too narrow for the display of its effects and the accomplishment of its purposes. It points forward to an Eternity. The great Redeemer will again appear on Earth, as the Judge and Ruler of it; will send forth his Angels and gather his Elect from the four winds; will abolish sin, and death, and hell, and will place the righteous for ever in the presence of his God and their God, of his Father and their Father.

If our religion be such as we have attempted briefly to describe," what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?' You are conscious that a mere belief of the Christian Revelation will not purify the heart, nor regulate the conduct. We may calmly assent to the most solemn and interesting truths of Christianity, and afterwards suffer them to slide out of our minds, without leaving any impression behind them. If we look back upon the usual course of our feelings, we shall find that we are more influenced by the frequent recurrence of objects, than by their weight and importance, and that habit has more force in forming our characters than opinions have. The mind naturally takes its tone from what it habitually contemplates. Hence it is that the world, by continually pressing upon our senses, and being ever open to our view, takes so wide a sway in the heart. How, think you, must we correct this influence, and by faith overcome the world, unless we habitually turn our attention to religion and eternity? Let us beseech you then to make them familiar with your minds, and mingle them with the ordinary stream of your thoughts; retiring often from the world and conversing with God and your own souls. In these solemn moments, nature and the shifting scenes of it will retire from your view, and you will be left alone with God. You will walk as in his sight, you will stand, as it were, at his tribunal Illusions will then vanish apace, and every thing will appear in its due proportion and proper coJour. You will estimate human life and the worth of it, not by fleeting and momentary sensations. but by the light of serious reflection and steady faith; you will see little in the past to please, or in the future to flatter; its feverish dreams will subside, and its enchantments be dissolved It is much, however, if faith do not upon such occasions draw aside the veil which rests upon futurity, and cut short the interval of expectation. How often has she borne aloft the spirits of good men and given them a vision of better days and of brighter hopes? They have entered already the rest which remained for them; they have come to an innumerable company of angels, to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to God the Judge

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of all. From these seasons of retirement and religious meditation, you will return to the active scenes of life with greater advantage. From the presence of God you will come forth with passions more composed, your thoughts better regulated, and your hearts more steady and pure. Do not imagine that the benefit of such exercises is confined to the moments that are spent in them; for as the air retains the smell, and is filled with the fragrance of leaves which have been long shed; so will these meditations leave a sweet and refreshing influence behind them.

If your religion be genuine, it will be often the source of the warmest and most interesting feelings. It will be a spring of consolation within, which will often be full and pour itself forth. If the Gospel has not taken a share in the feelings of our heart; if it has not moved the great springs of our hopes and fears, we may be assured we have never experienced its force. It is filled with such views as cannot fail to interest and transport us. Besides, if we do. not feel the Gospel as well as believe it, how can it support against the overwhelming influence of what we do feel? The world steals upon us and engages our affections on all sides. Its prospects enrapture and its pleasures are seducing us. Will a religion which rests only upon opinion and a conviction at times extorted from us, keep us firm against those assaults, and stem the force of a torrent which never ceases to flow? This can be done only by opposing hope to hope, feeling to feeling, and pleasure to pleasure.

Perhaps one of the chief reasons why Christianity does no more purify our hearts is, that we are apt to confine it to seasons of worship, and to shut it out from the ordinary concerns of life. It is a great and fatal mistake to imagine them so separate, that we can innocently and usefully engage in the one, without any regard to the other. Our temporal affairs should never indeed be suffered to mingle with the exercises of Religion, but Religion should always regulate the conduct of our temporal affairs. And the reason of this is obvious. The world and the fashion of it are passing away, and our union with it will soon be dissolved, whilst the relation which we bear to God and to eternity is ever the same, and extends to all times and all places. The character which as Christians we sustain, is our highest character; and the hopes which, as such, we indulge are our highest hopes. It is but reasonable, it is but just, therefore, that a desire of discharging the one, and attaining the other, should sway the whole of our conduct. Perhaps you will be ready to think that this advice is impracticable; you will urge the necessity of attending to your worldly callings, which you will say cannot be carried on, unless you give them the greater part of your time and attention. Be it so. Remember we do not advise you to spend more of your time in Religion than in ordinary concerns. This would extinguish all human industry. But if you be sincere in your profession of religion, you will regulate your pursuits by it, and engage no further in any of them than is consistent with the spirit of it. In the

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Selections fron the Appendix to the

midst of all your other concerns, you will still make Religion the centre of your hopes, and the consummation of your wishes. An ordinary mechanic devotes more of his time to the labour of his hands than to any other employ; but it is not his laborious employment that interests his heart it is his desire of procuring subsistence and of warding off the inconveniences of poverty and

want.

Finally, let each of us examine ourselves whether we be in the faith or not; let us prove our own selves; let us not shrink from the severest test to which Conscience and the wORD OF GOD can put us. If we be indeed found sincere after thus searching our hearts, our faith will grow more firm and our consolations more steady. Or if it appear that we have been hitherto deceiving ourselves and be ing deceived (awful idea!) we shall at least have an opportunity of once more lifting up our eyes for mercy, and of reading our danger in our sin, and not in our punishment But if you have fled from the wrath to come, and have laid hold on eternal life, we shall rejoice in the prospect of meeting you, at the great day, when you shall have washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Then brought out of much tribulation, and redeemed from every nation and tongue and people, his elect shall be gathered, he shall give up the kingdom to the Father, and God shall be all in all. Alas! the voice of individual praise is weak and feeble; but how will our hearts swell with adoration and delight, when, while we are praising him, he shall receive. from millions of beings and millions of worlds the same incense!

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. Having concluded, in the last Number, our extracts from the 13th REPORT, we now commence our selections from the Appendix to that document, containing many interesting details of the correspondence of the British and Foreign B. S. during the year ending in May last.

From a Capuchin Monk in the North of Germany.

May 13, 1816.

THE day before yesterday I was agreeably surprised, in my monastic retirement, by the unexpected appearance of our friend N., who entered my cell, full of joy, exclaiming, A letter from London! I seized it, and received from its contents the pleasing information, that the revered Bible Society in London had granted us a generous donation of 50l., for which I beg leave to return the sincerest thanks of all pious Christians. Indeed, I was so affected by this gift, that I felt constrained publicly to announce it in our church; and fervently implored our Divine Saviour to shower down his richest blessings on these our benefactors, and to reward them, both in time and eternity, for the good they have done to us. It affords me real satisfaction to tell you, that the Bi

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ble, this truly divine book, is now read by hundreds and thousands, with devout attention and cordial joy. I may even go further; and assert, that many, with whose spiritual state I am intimately acquainted, are deeply penetrated with its sacred truths, and faithfully endeavour to regulate their life accordingly. I met lately with a remarkable instance of conversion. A man of learning, who, by the constant perusal of the works of Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert, &c. had been almost entirely corrupted, both in mind and body, and lived for these 36 years past in this world, without God, without Christ, without any sense of religion, has been completely transformed into another man, by the powerfully operat ing grace of our Divine Saviour, and has given, in the course of the last year, the most satisfactory evidences of a genuine conversion. 66 By their fruits ye shall know them." He now diligently reads the Bible, to which I most earnestly called his attention; and you can scarcely conceive the joy and delight with which he accepted the Sacred Volume at my hands. This morning, another gentleman met me on horseback, and, in the public road, expressed to me the great joy which he felt in a diligent and devout perusal of the Holy Writings. I might mention many similar instances, if time did permit: let me therefore only add, that by the grace of God, I have induced many parish ministers and schoolmasters, both in town and the country, to introduce the New Testament into their congregations and schools. The consequences are not to be calculated. We shall soon be enabled to supply most of our parishes with copies of the same. Thus, you see, my respected friend, how extensively the eternal God, the kindest Father of the children of men, is spreading anong us the blessings of the Gospel of his Son.

In conclusion, I request you to express, on my part, to all ge nuine friends of Christianity, who cleave to their God and Saviour with unshaken fidelity, and, more especially, to all the Members of the Bible Society, my Christian affection, and my best wishes for their prosperity; and earnestly recommend both myself and my people to an interest in their prayers; as I also, with my friends, daily, and affectionately, remember you all.

From the Rev. J. Gossner, of Munich. October 20, 1816.

It is impossible to describe the benefits that have resulted from the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, the words of eternal life. Of my first edition of the New Testament of 10,000 copies, there is not one remaining; and, of the second, which left the press last July, the greater part has already been disposed of, not only in all parts of this kingdom, but also in countries beyond it. I receive numerous letters from every quarter, giving me the most gratifying accounts of the joy which the appearance of this Holy Book has produced. Old men, who had never learned to read, are now desirous to learn, that they, in their advanced age, may find consolation in the perusal of the Holy Writings. There are men of different religious persuasions and countries, who have left