1834.]

WE'RE ALL LIABLE.

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of your useful publication. By doing so, you will oblige an occasional contributor,-A Friend of the Poor.

Not long since, I was travelling in a coach from Exeter, the outside of which was occupied by several convicts, (or, as they are called in these parts, "transports,") who were on their way to Woolwich, from whence they were to embark for their place of banishment.

As we passed through the towns and villages, and particularly at the usual places where the coach stops to change horses, a crowd was soon brought together, few of whom, I fear, looked upon these unhappy convicts in the same point of view as myself-namely, in connexion with sin. At the same time, I could not but remark, that, although there was not any outward expression, or probably any inward feeling of abhorrence for those crimes for which they were suffering the just penalty of the law, there was very little levity, or what is called joking. Indeed it was no subject, nor sight for joking. On the contrary, in several instances, there was a degree of sympathy shown for them, which one could not altogether approve, nor yet altogether condemn. This sympathy, however, is very often a mistaken and misplaced feeling. For instance, when any crime is committed, the whole neighbourhood is generally soon roused; search is made for the criminal-all voices are loud in condemnation of him—all hands are raised against him-but no sooner is he in the hands of justice, than a wonderful change takes place with too many-and they begin to pity him, and to take an interest about him, as if he were a martyr about to suffer unjustly in a good cause, instead of a felon, justly, in a bad one!

I was particularly struck with what took place at Shaftesbury. Among the crowd who stood gazing around the coach, a fine light-haired, and apparently light-hearted young man, stepped forward, and took a small quantity of tobacco out of his pocket, and handed it up to one of the convicts. Whilst I was thinking on this act of kindness, my attention was directed to two young women, who, from their tawdry dress, and boldness of countenance and manner, were evidently loose and wicked characters. One of them came up, and gave a halfpenny to another

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of the convicts, and accompanied the gift with these remarkable words, "We're all liable." Ah! thought I, though dead to shame and thine own sin, thou art not utterly dead to feeling!" No doubt, when she spake those words, "we're all liable," she wished to impart some sort of consolation, although she felt, perhaps, but little, if at all, the force of the truth which she was uttering! Yes, frail daughter of a frail parent! You are indeed liable-liable to what? Liable, not only to be set up as a public mark for every eye to gaze at, and for every finger to be pointed at-liable, not only to be exposed to shame and suffering-liable, not only to be banished from your native country, but liable, unless it please God, in His mercy, to open your eyes, and turn you from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God;" liable, I say, to be banished for ever from His favour here, and from His mercy hereafter, and to be "cast into outer darkness, where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

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As the coach proceeded on its journey, those words, "we're all liable," continued to sound in my ears; and I felt the force of them in my own heart. Yes, thought I, we are all liable-liable to fall into sin, if God have us not in His holy keeping; for we are all exposed to many and strong temptations, which, of ourselves, we are unable to resist; we are all liable to run into many and great dangers, if the Most High guide us not by His protecting care; and, more than all, we are all liable to be sentenced to that dreadful and dreary, and hopeless, because endless banishment," depart from me, ye wicked, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," unless Christ, who came to "proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound," through the pitifulness of His great mercy, loose us from the chains of our sins, wherewith we are tied and bound!

QUESTIONS FROM A RELIGIOUS PRIMER, IN VERSE, BY THE REV. J. HODGSON.

Question X.

What do God's commandments require you to do?
To worship God; to leave off play,
When Sunday comes, God's holy day.
To mind my father and my mother,
And love each person as my brother.

Question XI. What do God's commandments require you not to do?

Never to lie; or cheat; or steal;
Not to be cross, or angry feel;
Not to speak ill, or malice bear,

Never to fight, or curse, or swear.

Question XII. Now tell me, where will they go, and what will be done to those wicked persons, when they die, who do not love God and obey His commandments?

In hell, where fiery wrath is found,
And sighs, and endless groans abound;
There shall the wicked, when they die,
Be punish'd in great misery.

Question XIII. Answer me then, my dear child, have you always obeyed God's commandments, and not done as the wicked do?

Alas! a little voice within

Tells me of many acts of sin.
To please myself I feel inclined;
God I forget, though God is kind.

Question XIV. If then God has always been kind to you and you have not obeyed His commandments, how can you hope to be pardoned and saved from punishment, when you die?

My hope in Jesus Christ I place,

That God will pardon me through grace.

No claim for favour can I make,

Except I ask for Jesus' sake.

Question XV. My dear child, of whom do you speak? Who is Jesus Christ?

The Lord of all; the Holy One,
Greater than Angels, God's own Son;
He, Jesus Christ, from heaven was sent
To save mankind from punishment.

NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST.

(Continued from page 44.)

REFINER-PURIFIER OF SILVER, Malachi iii. 3. He refines his people, as a purifier of silver separates the nobler metals from the dross with which they are blended in the ore, that he may render them zealous of good works, and make them a spiritual priesthood, to offer up sacrifices acceptable and well pleasing to the Father through him. Yet the faithful Christian needs not fear the fiery trial of afflictions and temptations in which the Saviour refines his gold, for he will take care that it shall not be more intense or durable than is needful for his good.

RANSOM, 1 Tim. ii. 6. The price of redemption paid to the Almighty, under whose heavy curse we lay, and whose just vengeance would not be appeased towards us, for our grievous presumption, without a satisfaction. To him there was a price paid, the greatest that ever was paid for any purchase since the world began, even Him in whom are amassed and hidden all the treasures of the wisdom of God, and even the whole riches of his grace; treasures enough to redeem a whole world of sinners.

LAMB, John i. 29. St. John the Baptist points out Jesus as the expiatory sacrifice, as the grand atonement for the sin of mankind, foretold by the prophet Isaiah. "Behold, (he says,) the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world." Behold that blessed person prefigured in the law, and foretold by the prophets,—one that is all meekness and innocence, patience and resignation-without offence in His mouth, without guile or malice in His heart, without spot or blemish in soul or body, the lamb which Abraham told his son Isaac that God would, in time, provide,―the Lamb, by the sprinkling of whose blood, true Israelites are preserved from the destroyer, the sacrifice on which is laid the iniquity of us all, the Saviour, who, by expiating, taketh away the sin of the world, and conferreth righteousness on them that will believe in Him, and accept it from Him, being conformed to his example of lowliness and meekness.

WORD OF GOD, Rev. xix. 13. He was known in His Church by this name, as declaring the mysterious perfections and holy truth and will of God to fallen man. The plainest reason why he is so styled seems to be this, that as our words are the interpretation of our minds to others, so was this Son of God sent to reveal his Father's mind to the world.

THE POWER OF GOD AND THE WISDOM OF GOD, 1 Cor. i. 24. Believers not only saw the power of God, in the miracles by which the Gospel was confirmed, in the resurrection of Christ, and in the accomplishment of ancient prophecies, and his wisdom in the glorious plan of redemption, but they experienced Christ to be the power of God and the wisdom of God, to deliver them from the bondage of sin, and to make them wise unto salvation.

O. T.K.

MORE than forty years ago, at the beginning of the French revolution, we used to hear a good deal about equality. Few people now are found to talk so foolishly; but yet the notions of many, even now, point to the same thing. A very little consideration would show them the folly of such a scheme.

If a set of men were left on an uninhabited island, where all had an equal right to the animals and the fruits which they found, there would (at first) be something like equality; but this would not last long, for he who was the strongest, or the wisest, or the soberest, would soon be the richest. Everybody knows, that if all the people in England were to be made equal to-morrow, there would not be a week over their heads, before the greater number of them would be worth nothing, and their share of property would have gone into the hands of others. But nobody knows the misery that would be endured before property became so settled as to enable any one to afford to employ others, and thus to find them bread. Thousands would be starved to death. There would be nobody to set trade a-going, and therefore no wages coming in for a man who could work. His own share of property would not maintain him for a month;-but it is idle to talk about such a state of things; it never was, and never can be, among any civilized people. It is having capital (money) that enables a man to employ others; and then, more money is made by the work; and thus a whole country is kept busy; and thousands are maintained. We observe, now, that some of those who work, spend their money as fast as they get it: others save a part, and so, in a little while, get property. Be it little or much, the law protects them in it, and secures to them what they have saved; no one has a right to touch it: this money, perhaps, is employed, and makes more; and so fortunes are raised. What a father has earned he may leave to his son, and that son may earn more. The law allows no one to take it from him. The same law which protected this property when it was small, protects it now it is large.