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tance. Its so generally finding a place in those portions of scripture in which the whole of practical religion is exhibited in a summary view, is a signal and conclusive proof of its excellence and moment. Its being so often described as an essential and prominent character. istic of a good man; the bless ings promised to its discharge; the awful threatenings denoun. ced on its neglect; and the explicit assurance given us by our glorious Redeemer and Judge, that by our character in this respect, our everlasting state will be determined-these are circumstances which strikingly illustrate the high place it holds (so to speak) in the divine mind. How then can we regard the divine authority, unless this duty Occupy a distinguished rank in our habitual practice? Can we read, "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, shew mercy and com. passion every man to his broth. er;" can we peruse that af fecting injunction," Thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother; but thou shalt open thy hand wide unto him; thou shalt surely give him, and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou givest him ;"-and not feel ourselves constrained to every act of generous compassion to the indigent and distressed around us— all partakers of the same common nature with ourselves--all children of the same beneficent Parent? This must argue a heart awfully estranged from God: utterly uncontrolled by his authority, and unmoved by the plainest, the most pressing injunctions of duty.

Again: Kindness to our suf.

fering fellow-creatures is a natur-
al and necessary expression of
that gratitude to the Deity, in
which so much of religion con-
sists. What heart that feels
aright, does not glow with grate-
ful sensibility to Him who is
the Father of mercies, and the
overflowing fountain of good;
the Almighty Guardian, and un.
wearied Benefactor of our lives?
To him we owe all we are, all
we have, all we hope for. We
are nothing, we possess nothing,
we hope for nothing, but which
flows from his self-moved and
sovereign bounty. His blessings,
though undeserved, abused, for.
feited in ten thousand ways, still
visit us in a constant, uninter-
rupted stream. They are va

rious as our wants. They are
more numerous than our mo-
ments. They are greater even
than our sins and ill-deservings.
If our mercies even of a tempo-
ral nature, are plainly entitled
to these characters, what then
are those spiritual favors which
the gospel of the grace of God
reveals and offers? What is par-
don for the guilty? What is
peace for rebels? What is eter-
nal life for the perishing? What
are mansions of immortal bliss
for those who have merited an
endless exclusion to regions of
darkness and despair? Above
all, what is that unspeakable, as-
tonishing GIFT of God to man,
which is at once the source and
sum of all other divine blessings?
Where then are the warm returns
for favors so various, so rich, so
transcending all human thought,
as well as human description?
Where the strong sense of grati-
tude, heaving, and ready to burst
the human bosom? Alas! grat-
itude, to the eternal disgrace of

man, is but a stranger on earth. So depraved, so desperately hard are these hearts of ours, that nothing short of an influence almighty and divine, can melt them into tenderness and love. And when he who has mercifully promised, "I will take away the heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh;" is pleased to accomplish the mighty work, a revolution indeed takes place in the human breast. A new train of sensibilities, emotions and desires possesses the soul; the heart flows forth in love and gratitude to the Author of all good. "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" "What shall I render to my God?"-Such is now its language. How wel come, in such a case, is every intimation of duty! How pleased is the grateful Christian to learn, that although his goodness cannot profit his Maker, it may profit the objects of his Maker's benevolence and care!

What

delight will he find in bestowing his time, his substance, and his exertions in a way, which he knows will be acceptable to his Heavenly Father and Benefactor in relieving and comforting his poor; in befriending the fatherless and widow, to whom HE has pledged his Almighty protection and aid! What a heartfelt and sublime satisfaction must the friend of Jesus realize in administering food, and raiment, and shelter, and consolation to his suffering fellowchristians; and in the consciousness that his blessed Master regards and accepts it all, as done to himself! If we are utter strangers to employments and delights of this kind, may we not well suspect that we are

strangers to the love of Christ, and the power of his religion?

Again all will confess that religion consists much in imitation of the Deity. It commences when the divine image is instamped on the soul. Nor do we make progress in religion any farther than we grow in conformity to the moral perfections of God and the Redeemer. But God is love. And he who dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. Every one who loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. But he who loveth not, knoweth not God. Solemn, yet delight, ful truths! How loudly do they call us to place religion, where many are little apt to place it-in love! And how directly do they lead us to consider ourselves as Christians, only on the supposition of our having imbibed the spirit of divine benevolence. Nor is it possible that this benevolence, if we possess it, will be an inactive, dormant principle. If the love of God to man was an active, vigorous, expensive, generous, beneficent love, so will ours be, if genuine, to our fellow-creatures. Will it permit us to sit with folded arms, when the needy might be supplied, and the suffering relieved? Will it permit us to gaze as unconcerned spectators, at the woes of humanity, and steel our hearts against the cries of distress: No for, says the apostle just cited, that eminent proficient in the school of love: Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him,how dwelleth the love of God in him? Such a sordid, unfeeling wretch may bear the Christian name;

:

but he wants the elementary principles of the Christian temper. Indeed, how absurd, that that man should dream of being a follower of the benevolent, compassionate, sympathizing Saviour; the Saviour who spent his life in doing good to the bodies and souls of men-whose heart is a stranger to pity, whose hands are shut against the poor, and whose life, considered in reference to every generous and charitable purpose, is a mere blank? A profane and prayerless Christian, every one sees, would be a solecism. And why should a sordid, selfish, hard-hearted Christian, be esteemed less so? Farther as it is a capital de. sign and effect of real Christianity to inspire a temper of selfdenial, of mortification to the world, of indifference to its gains and gratifications; so these dispositions are eminently promotive of beneficence. It has been justly remarked, that nature requires little, and grace still less. And the man who has learned in the school of Christ, to contract his desires, and be content with little, he it is who has the best preparation to impart generously to the relief of others. The obstacles which ordinarily prevent the exercise of liberality to the distressed, are easily discovered. They are ambition, luxury and avarice. These sordid and hateful propensities, by destroying either the will or the power of doing good, rob the poor and distressed of their due. Multitudes have some superficial and transient inclinations to promote the comfort and happiness of their fellow-creatures. But their rage for splendor and ad

miration is insatiable, and triumphs over every other feeling. Multitudes would find some pleasure in relieving the distresses they behold around them. But their sordid souls find more, in the unrestrained indulgence of sensual appetites. Multitudes feel some pain, perhaps, in wit. nessing human misery. But they would feel more, in opening their unwilling hands to mitigate or remove it. Now it is the aim of christianity to dethrone and destroy those base passions, which thus subjugate the mind; and deliver it from its inglorious servitude. And wherever it comes in its power, it actually accomplishes this blessed deliverance. It has performed wonders in this way; such as no maxims of mere morality, no boasted schemes of philosophy, no strains of human eloquence, could ever perform. It has rendered the ambitious, humble and unaspiring; the voluptuary, chaste and abstemious; and (still more wonderful!) it has opened the contracted heart and hand of the miser. If we are Christians indeed, it has achieved some triumphs of this kind over us. And the more we imbibe the spirit of Christian self-denial, the better we shall be prepared to sympathize in the sufferings, to relieve the distresses of our fellow-crea tures and fellow-christians.

How great, then, is the mistake of those who place all religion in mere speculation, and who think themselves fair candidates for heaven, on the ground of their rigid adherence to a set of principles deemed orthodox; while their lives are fruitless in works of beneficence.

Alas! the religion which is des titute of the love of man, is equally destitute of the love of God. It neither comes from heaven nor leads thither. Those too, stand reproved, who plume themselves on mere sensibilities; who are evermore employed in describing the exquisitely tender feelings of their own hearts; who have neither time nor inclination for the substantial offices of benevolence; and who perhaps think that the business of actually relieving the distressed, belongs to persons of less refinement than themselves. Their sensibility is a dream; and its reward noth, ing better. They are among the most unfeeling of their species. Sad indeed would be the condition of the poor, if they lay at the mercy of such. In a word; how dangerous is the error of those who content themselves with the mere outward discharge of the social duties, while the principles and motives by which they should be sublimated into Christian obedience, and thus obtain, through grace, the re, wards of eternal life, are unfelt. They are regular in their conduct. No gross immoralities stain their lives. They are kind, perhaps generous, to the poor. This is their religion for alas! they are strangers to the love of God, and the love of man; to a humble sense of sin, and a gospel faith in the Mediator? Who does not see that such a religion is a mere form without life; a body unanimated by a soul? and who would not weep to think how many useful, and in some respects amiable persons of this description, are travelling the broad way to ruin? Z.

PIOUS MEDITATIONS. No. 1.

Psalm lxxxix. 1. I will sing of the mercies of the Lora forever.

MANY are the objects around me, which afford pleasure. I awake in the morning, refreshed and vigorous; the cheerful light of the sun and the anticipations of hope, gladden my heart. I meet my friends, and in their countenances I see that my presence gives them delight. I mingle in the world, and while I am agitated by its concerns, carefully observe each passing event, and every form of human passion. I carry my observations with me into retirement; I compare and reason; I discover the springs of human action, and derive satisfaction from the consciousness of searching deeper into the heart, than those around me. But how cold and comfortless is all the enjoyment I find, compared with that, which springs from a view of the mercy of the LORD?

I am defiled by sin: I am the slave of iniquity, the child of Satan, the enemy of a Holy God. I neither love nor praise my Friend and Benefactor. I am becoming ripe for destruction; and yet am blind to my danger, unaffected by my guilt, insensible of my wretchedness. In this condition mercy finds me; alarms my fears; awakens conscience to his work; and brings home to my soul a conviction of my sin. mourning all the day long. know that God is righteous, and that justly I merit the cup, the unmingled cup of his wrath: but I have no hope. Mercy opens my eyes to behold the blessed SAVIOUR, the chief among ten thousand; mercy dissipates my

I go

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doubts, drives away my fears, inspires me with confidence, and fills me with joy.

I perceive how God can be just and yet justify those who believe in Jesus, laying their sins and their good works at his feet. I am satisfied with goodness. Under the reception of such blessings,

unmerited and freely bestowed, I am filled with admiration, and cry out "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever." Never, O Lord, will I forget thy goodness; I will speak of it in the assemblies on earth; and in the great congre gation above it shall be my joyful everlasting theme. W.

A Narrative of the STATE OF RELIGION, within the bounds of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in the United States, for the year 1808. Read in the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, May 25th.

THE General Assembly acknowledge with ardent gratitude the distinguished benignity of God to the churches within their bounds during the year past. He hath truly done great things for us; building up the waste places of Zion, and adding unto the number of such as shall be saved. From every quarter, with but few exceptions, we hear of harmony among our ministers, order among our congregations, an increased attention to the ordinances of the gospel, and the progressing triumphs of that grace, by which alone sinners can be reconciled to God. In many places, especially within the bounds of the synod of New-York and New-Jersey, times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord are experienced. The Spirit has been poured out on considerable portions of country, and fruits of righteousness have appeared, honorable to

the kingdom of Christ, and inviting to the world, which lieth in wickedness. Unhallowed combinations have been broken up ; enemies to the cross have been confounded, and in many instances made the subjects of divine grace.

It is observable that the work, though powerful, has progressed with great silence, uncommon solemnity, and free from all appearance of extravagance.

The revivals have been preceded in every instance by a union of prayer among christians, to which they have felt constrained by the fervent desire of their hearts, that Christ might be glorified, and by deep and solemn impressions of the value of precious and immortal souls. Believing parents, more especially, have been influenced to wrestle with God in behalf of their children. We record with peculiar emotions of delight, for the encouragement of the godly, that, as in all ages past, so still, our God is a hearer of prayer. has come down from his high and holyplace,andgranted the requests of his people. The consequences have been that the assemblies of the saints were crowded with in

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