sion. Others have only the shadow of union and firmness, while, in reality, they are without strength, and continually liable to be thrown into distraction by any unfavourable circumstance that may occur. Private members of churches have not that assistance for their improvement and comfort which Christ hath appointed. Faithful officers often find insurmountable difficulties in the way of their duty. And the rising generation grows up unacquainted with the nature and order of the kingdom of Christ, and destitute of those helps, which he hath ordained for the seed of his church."-pp. 5-8.

Probably our readers will not think the following question and answer, taken from the body of the work, unseasonable at the present time.

“Q. 27.—Is it right for any man, or body of men, to enjoin additions to the ordinances of Christ, even under the idea of assisting devotion, or of rendering the worship more comely?-A. By no means; for all true and acceptable devotion is the fruit of faith, which hath respect to the word of God alone; and all the beauty of christian worship consists in its exact agreement with the appointments of Christ, who is the head over all things to his body the church. All human additions, therefore, are not only needless, but presumptuous, because they derogate from the wisdom and authority of Christ; and are expressly forbidden in his word."-Heb. xi. 4-6. Eph. ii. 19-22. Matt. xv. 9. Col. ii. 18-23. p. 22.

In 1791, Mr. B. published three funeral sermons, two of which appeared at the request of the friends and relations of John and Sophia Vowell, an amiable and truly religious brother and sister, who both died young, in December 1790.

sons.

In few instances have the characters of true conversion been more distinctly marked than in the experience of these young perThe first, a youth of great moral worth, was brought to a right estimate of his eternal interests during his last lingering illness. His sister had long exhibited the evidences of genuine piety; her death was the effect of rapid and unexpected disease. Mr. Bennet's improvement of the affecting circumstances of these striking providences was marked by sound judgment and strong feeling. The third sermon was delivered on occasion of the death of Dr. Savage.

Among other events of importance to Mr. B. during his ministry in London, it may be mentioned, that he married, in November 1784, Esther, daughter of Thomas Shrimpton, Esq. of High Wycomb. But the happiness which he enjoyed in the society of this respectable and excellent lady, was interrupted by domestic calamity, and was, in its duration, lamentably short. Two children, which were the fruit of their marriage, both died in infancy, and were soon followed to the grave by their mother, who departed this life, at Canonbury, in February 1787. In September of the following year, Mr. B. entered again into the marriage state, with Mary, daughter of Samuel Ewer, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn Fields, and of Ipswich. This lady was his " valuable, or rather invaluable partner," (as he himself has been known to express it,) for more than thirty-three years. Such an animated expression of real attachment and satisfaction, it is certain she would at no time have been indisposed to apply to himself.

(To be continued.)

No. XXXVII.

FOR THE NEW YEAR.
CHRISTIAN ANTICIPATIONS.

I will go in the strength of the Lord God.-Psalm lxxi. 16.

Ar the present season, when we are, as it were, leaving behind us the cares and the enjoyments, the calm and the turbulence, the vicissitudes and the tranquillity which may have chequered our course through the departed year, it must be profitable for us to pause at the starting-point of our new career, that we may commune with our own hearts, prove our principles, and ascertain the feelings and anticipations with which we enter on the uncertainties of the future. God has been pleased to divide the lapse of time into appointed seasons; he has set up barriers and waymarks to admonish us of the length of our progress, and of our nearer approach to its inevitable termination. The succession of day and night, the changes of the moon, the revolutions of the sun, are all graciously designed to warn, to reprove, and to animate; they call upon us to consider our origin, our condition, and our prospects. That man is well-judging who makes these the subjects of his habitual meditation; but he who enters on this investigation, relying on his own acuteness, though he may be wise after the manner of the schools, his trusted strength is weakness, and his boasted wisdom folly. Nor is that man's resolution of a firmer or more prudent cast, who rushes into the warfare of life in all the hardihood of self-dependence; and in the madness of its strife, the despondency of its failures, or the intoxication of its victories, calls upon no stronger arm to aid him, no higher power

to raise him, no heavenly grace to disengage his heart from this world's delusions, and to fix his affections on realities above. True wisdom dictates a far different course; it reveals to us the secret, both of our weakness and our force; giving to us the consciousness of our depravity and blindness, it impels us to take up our cross, and to follow Christ; directing us to the great source of power and perseverance, it enables us to adopt the language of the royal Psalmist, and to say, I will go the strength of the Lord God.

in

I. We shall take these words in their general import, as expressive of determination.

II. We shall analyse the general resolution, and endeavour to ascertain the particulars of which it is made up.

In the first place, then, we may consider the text generally as the language of determination. After recapitulating various important considerations, David, on a deliberate view of all the circumstances of his case, comes to this resolved conclusion, that others might trust in chariots and in horses, in wisdom or in knowledge, in health or bodily vigour, but that he would trust in the Lord his God. With this part of our subject, the following particulars seem to be naturally connected.

1. Indecision is the mark of a feeble character. On this point all mankind are agreed; the timid, uncertain, wavering man, betrays the infirmity of his mental and moral habits, at every step he takes in the intersecting paths of life. Doubts, difficulties, and dangers, appal him at every turn; he hesitates alike amid the clearest evidence, and in circumstances of real obscurity. And if in common life these feelings be contemptible

in their display, and mischievous in their effect, how much more injurious must they be in their influence on our Christian course. He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed; let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. There is not a single point of our religious experience where we may safely give way to hesitancy and halting. In our choice between good and evil, God and the world-in our estimate of our own character, and that of the Almighty-in the great question, what think ye of Christ ?-in our approaches to a Throne of Grace; in our daily and hourly trust and dependence on divine illumination and aid; in all or any of these particulars, can we safely indulge a double or a doubting mind? No! my friends, here there must be no wavering ;-onward and upward must be the Christian's motto, while he presses forward for the prize of his high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In human affairs there may be a pretext for indecision, since all that depends on man is frail and deceptive; but in eternal concerns there is no room for uncertainty, since all that depends on God is settled and stablished.

2. We may, for a moment, direct our attention to the necessity for determination, in order to the attainment of excellence. The inseparable connection between the moral quality and its desirable result, was emphatically stated by the dying patriarch, when he addressed to his first-born son the prophetic malediction,-unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. A large class of mankind seem disposed to indulge themselves in an indolent and inactive habit, betraying no marked or disgraceful symptom of a wavering character, but wrapping themselves up in satisfied mediocrity, and drifting down the stream of time, without CONG. MAG. No. 61.

one dignified attempt to make themselves masters of their course. For such there is no excellence; they live, without an effort to fulfil the great end of their being; they take for their motto, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. They perish, and leave society without a blank. And as every valuable principle that belongs to the world, pertains in a far higher sense to the children of the kingdom, this feeling too should be always present with us, that we maintain a steady and habitual resolution to go forward in the divine life; to make all our pursuits subservient to our growth in grace; to bring our thoughts, our conversation, our reading, to bear upon our progress Zionward. And as there is corruption mingled with our best services, let us give heed to it, that nothing of this be on our own foundation; but that we preserve a constant and humble regard to the presence and the aid of Him, who alone is able to keep us from falling. Let us not be as though we had already attained, either were already perfect; but by the help of God, let us aim at all excellence; let us aspire to a finished victory, through Him who loved us.

3. We may infer the expediency of forming specific resolutions. Men are too fond of dwelling in generals, without exposing themselves to the inconvenience of applying particulars to their own characters and circumstances. The merchant who is aware that his concerns are in a dubious state, too often shrinks from the investigation of his affairs, until disaster becomes disgrace. The man who is conscious of a weak and vicious mind, is reluctant to submit to those minute and painful searchings which would leave him without the unsubstantial excuses by which he contrives to bribe and mitigate the verdict of his conscience. And thus, with ourselves, there is a C

pacitate them for the rapid movements, continual exertion, and intense excitement, which at once gratify and exhaust the visitant of distant realms. And are indolence and sensuality qualifications for that journey which, through all the trials and the perils of the wilderness, leads to glory, honour, and immortality? While all nature is active in its appointed course, shall not the follower of Christ be alert and persevering in his path of holiness? Let us be awake and stirring, and, while duties are pressing round us, let us count it our high privilege to be actively employed in the work of God. Another quality is indispensable to the traveller, watchfulness against danger, imposition, or error. The Christian traveller, too, must watch, and against the same casualties. Dangers surround him, the enemies of his soul are raging for his destruction, fear, and the snare, and the pit," are prepared to overwhelm him. Error and delusion are spread as nets for the unwary; the path is sometimes intricate, and though the directory is plain, yet we are not always willing to submit to its guidance. Let us then watch against Satan, against the world, against ourselves. Nor is perseverance less requisite to the traveller Zionward. How many have fainted by the way, how many halted in their advance, how many wandered from the path! And we. too, unless we receive from God persevering grace, shall faint, and fail, and err.

2. The Psalmist, after thus intimating the objects of his resolution, gives himself up implicitly to that Being who alone can inspire and confirm holy resolutions. I will go in the strength of the Lord God. In the performance of this self-renouncing act, he expresses conscious weakness. He knew his infirmity, and, like David, every child of God feels and confesses his inability and indispo

sition to all that is good. No man ever attempted the heavenly journey, in his own strength, and succeeded. We are unequal to a single enemy; we must fail before the smallest difficulty; we shall give way before the slightest intimidation. Nothing in nature can be so weak, because nothing can be so guilty, as man; and were we to accumulate all the forms and semblances of debility, we should yet fall short of the helplessness of man as man, because his is a moral imbecility-the infirmity of the will. It is the Christian's privilege to feel his weakness, and under a deep consciousness of its ruinous effects, to seek strength from a higher source. This too was the secret of David's confidence reliance upon God, distinctly expressed in the language of the text, while the consciousness of his own helplessness is obviously implied. No man ever

attempted the heavenly journey in the strength of Jehovah, and failed. What a high and holy incentive to action is this! How glorious are the powers and privileges with which the Christian is invested! Well may he move fearlessly onward, whose energy and whose armour are given him from the Almighty. Well may he, who has God for his helper, set at nought the impotent contradiction of his fellow-worms, and the malignant opposition of the powers of darkness. Be it remembered, that this is a principle to be taken in its entireness; it is not to be parcelled out and adopted as caprice or depraved inclination may suggest; it must be our constant and sole dependance, to be used in the prescribed way, and for sanctified purposes. When we travel out of the Scripture record, we have no warrant to expect security against false doctrine; when we quit "the great highway of holiness," it is absurd and impious to call on di vine assistance while persisting in