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evil;-their confidence in each other is shaken --their affection for each other weakened and separated;-cordiality destroyed;-divine ordinances neglected; and uncontroverted duties in the church are abandoned ! These are some of the dangerous consequences to which party spirit and divisions lead. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" But, "where no wood is, then the fire goeth out; so where there is no tale-bearer the strife ceaseth."

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It cannot altogether have escaped observation, that two grave charges are sometimes made against ministers, viz., the delivery of personal discourses, and their detaining the hearers too long. As in the days of our fathers, so now, the same complaint is preferred. I remember them when a boy. But these charges depend in a great measure on individual states of mind. With regard to the first. When certain evil principles and propensities of the mind are described by the minister, as to their heinousness and pernicious tendency, and such description and illustration correspond (though unknown to the preacher) to the evils still lurking unsubdued in the mind of some hearer or hearers, who are like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass ;"-then, instead of such persons feeling offended with themselves, and deploring their own state of mind, as well as purposing amendment of life, and resolving in the strengh of the Lord to subdue the evil, it not unfrequently happens that they take offence at the minister; and such portions of the discourse as may have applied to their state are termed personal attacks, and considered to be as truly so as if he had announced their name, with the additional clause, "Thou art the man." But how much better and beneficial it would be, if such persons would consider that any evil, in order to be removed, must be seen; and that for this end it is described by the preacher; also that the whole Word of God is personal, properly understood; that every sermon is addressed to every individual without exception; and that it is intended that each one should make the subject a personal consideration, otherwise it will be of no more spiritual benefit than if it had been addressed to stocks or stones, or than it would be if the preacher had spoken in an unknown tongue. Having spoken of divisions, I may remark, that the objectors just described are the opposite of another class of hearers, who are so very charitable, that on retiring from their place of worship they commence dividing the discourse among others, until not a single fragment is left for themselves, except it be of a laudatory nature. All the promises, and the commendations, and blessings, and rewards, and felicities, belong to them; but the warnings, the reproofs and corrections, belong to others; and to these they liberally apply them.

With regard to the second objection. The lengthiness or brevity of discourses is often a mere matter of opinion, since the same discourse, which in the estimation of one person appeared to be tediously long, is considered by another to be somewhat short. The complaint as to length of time during divine worship is by no means new, since it almost universally pervades every Christian assembly,—the Quakers probably excepted. And most probably there will always be found some persons to whom every sermon will appear to be too long (the mere formalist for instance), and the best discourse will, in their opinion, be the shortest. Time-keepers are to be found in almost every Christian assembly. Clock-dials were formerly placed on the outside of places of worship, to induce the worshippers to attend at the commencement of the service; but now they are placed in the interior, and frequently in full front of the minister, as if to admonish him not to exceed a certain time in concluding the service, and to notify the same to the congregation, if he does. Hence, in most religious assemblies an uneasiness is observable in some portions of the congregation, if, after taking a side glance at the clock, the hand points but a minute beyond the expected time of dismissal; and this runs like electricity through the greater part of the congregation, except those who are very attentive and devout. And while thus busily engaged, and anxious as to the time of liberation, it is impossible that their thoughts can be wholly absorbed in the subject. The pious Bishop Jewel, after preaching a long sermon in his old age, made a pause; and looking at the hour-glass, he thus addressed his listening and untired audience:- -" Time admonishes me to close ;-but eternity commands me to proceed." And he obeyed the command. The good Bishop was impressed with the subject with which the minds of the people were impressed, viz., the vast importance of the subject which then occupied their consideration, when compared with the swiftly flying moments of this mortal life. Here was unity of mind and purpose between the minister and his people :-and how desirable, how profitable is that union! It is true that no experienced minister would load the minds of his hearers with burdens too grievous to be borne, and at the same time exhaust his own physical strength in so doing:—but time is sometimes forgotten in the amplitude of the subject, the magnitude of its importance, and the momentousness of the theme; so that mundane considerations give place to the importance of super-mundane realities; and the cool and deliberate calculations of time are lost in the all-absorbing interests of the soul, even in "the things that are unseen, and which are eternal.”

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SCENES AT THE CROSS.

"Woman, behold thy Son."-John xix. 26, 27.

THE facts relating to the Lord's crucifixion are all extremely important and instructive. They were all literal facts which occurred as narrated; but differing from all other events recorded in history, they bear in their bosom a 66 spirit and a life" which have a universal application to man. These facts are representative as well as literal; they depict what the Lord's temptations, sufferings, combats, triumphs, victories were from the manger to the cross. The last temptations in Gethsemane and on the cross, together with the attendant trying circumstances, are exponents, in external form, of the entire process from beginning to end,from the cruel persecutions of Herod to the death on the cross. The ultimate is not only the complement but also the corresponding exponent of all the interior things which are involved in the complement, or which rest upon the ultimate. This is one of the principles of the philosophy of order. And as the regeneration of man is an image of the Lord's glorification, it follows that the temptations, combats, and triumphs, of the Lord are patterns and exemplars of the spiritual temptations, combats, and victories of man, when combating through the power of Him who is the "Captain of our salvation," and "without whom we can do nothing." Viewed in this light, the record of the Lord's temptations and crucifixion has a living and a constant power.

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That the regeneration of man is an image of the Lord's glorification, or that there is a parallelism between the Lord's temptations, combats, victories, and resurrection, and man's, is evident from the declarations of the apostle, who says-"Those who are baptized unto Jesus are baptized unto his death." (Rom. vi. 3; Col. ii. 12.) If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things that be above." (Col. iii. 1.) And the Lord himself says, "Ye which have continued with me in my temptations," &c. (Luke xxii. 28; Mat. xix. 28.) "To him that overcometh, even as I also overcame, will I grant to sit with me," &c. (Rev. iii. 21.) It is of great importance, if we desire to obey the frequent injunctions of the Lord," Follow me," that this parallelism should be seen, for this injunction must involve the whole of Christian duty, and indicate the only way to heaven; because the Lord is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

The scene at the cross, which we are now contemplating, is most striking and affecting. It is said "Now, there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas,

and Mary Magdalene; when Jesus, therefore, saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, 'Woman, behold thy son!' Then, saith he to the disciple, 'Behold thy mother!' and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home." Here we have a group of the most loving souls, faithful and true even unto death;-three women, and the disciple whom Jesus loved, all standing by the cross, and, with intense agony of spirit, beholding the final and most bitter temptation and suffering. This scene exhibits to us a most instructive lesson of true discipleship. It involves more than is generally thought, being representative, like all other facts in the history of the final temptation,-it shews what the church is, and who are its genuine members, or the true and faithful disciples of the Lord.

The Lord nowhere recognizes his mother as such, nor does He ever call her by that appellation; but when he directly addresses her, He calls her woman, as in the present case, and also in others. (See John ii. 4.) The reason of this was to teach us that the Divine Humanity from which He spoke and acted was not derived from the mother, and that in that character he had no affinity with her;-in order to shew to us that what He said and did was from a divine origin, and not from what was merely human, which would have been representatively the case if He had, after He began to preach and to perform his mighty works, called her mother, instead of woman. When, however, she is mentioned as His mother, as in the scene before us, she signifies the church, according to what the Lord says in Mat. xii. 47-50; Luke viii. 21. That a woman, when mentioned in the Word, signifies the church, is evident from many passages which might be quoted, especially from Rev. xii., where the 'woman clothed with the sun" is described. Mary, the mother of Jesus, represents the church in an eminent sense, for it is through the church, as founded on the Word, that every thing heavenly and spiritual is born in the soul. Thus the apostle represents the heavenly Jerusalem as being the "mother of us all." (Gal. iv. 26.)

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The church is represented by a woman in the various characters she assumes, as a daughter, a virgin, a bride, a wife, a mother. In these characters she denotes the affection of truth which constitutes the church in its various development. Hence the church is so often called the virgin, daughter of Zion; the bride, the Lamb's wife; and the "mother of us all," as quoted above from the apostle. The sister of Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene, denote the affections of Truth purified and exalted, because it is said in another place that out of Mary Magdalene had gone seven devils, (Luke viii. 2.) denoting a full state of purification. Thus shewing us that the church arises and becomes esta

blished in proportion as the affection of Truth is purified and exalted. It is this affection which bears man through every trial and difficulty; which makes him faithful even unto death, and which, in the darkest hour of tribulation and anguish, kindles a cheering ray of hope in the soul. It is this affection which enables the disciple not only to behold the cross, but to bear and endure it, for every day brings its cross which must be borne. (Luke ix. 28.)

John, the disciple "whom Jesus loved," was also standing by at the time the Lord was crucified. All the twelve disciples, like the twelve tribes of Israel, signified the great universal principles of the church; each disciple denoting some one universal principle and state of heaven and the church. But John denoted the most essential, without which the church could not exist. This principle is the realization of Love and Faith in act; thus John represents all interior principles realized in acts and deeds, and consequently established in the life of man This is the true disciple, this is the disciple whom Jesus loves; this is the disciple who reclines on the bosom of Jesus. (John xxi. 20.) This disciple is the last at the cross, and the first to recognize his risen Lord. Whoever realizes, in heart and life, the great principles of the Word and the Church, the Commandments of love to God and man, is the disciple "whom Jesus loves," and who "leans upon his breast," and, like John, is with the Lord on every occasion,-on the mount of transfiguration; at the raising of the daughter of Jairus; at the temptations of Gethsemane; and at the sufferings on the cross. Peter and James were the other two disciples, who, together with John, accompanied him whithersoever he went; and on one occasion (Luke viii. 51) "He suffered no man to accompany him but Peter, James, and John;" to teach us that these three disciples signified the three universal principles of the Church,its Faith, its Love, and its Good Works; or Faith and Love realized in acts and words. This is the true member, the son of the church; hence the Lord said, "Woman, behold thy son!" John was not literally the son of Mary; he was the son of Zebedee, but according to correspondences, or in a representative sense, he was eminently her son.

"And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.” Where is the true home of the church? Evidently where John the be loved disciple dwells; for he dwells in the love and practice of the great principles of the church, and the church is consequently at home with him. Every man seeks for a home,—it is there where he enjoys his life, and where his affections are in the exercise of their inmost delights; where the greatest mental freedom prevails. The idea of a "sweet home" has more charms than any other idea the mind can entertain.