the world, like the demons, will be awed by the presence, and show a trembling submission to the authority of the Redeemer. The magnetic poles are not more repellant than are the spirit of mammon and the spirit of devotion. The heart cannot be governed at the same time by two antagonist passions; and these are opposed as light and darkness. Where the worldly spirit has a supreme control, piety will be a selfish egotistical character; feeble in its higher principles; unconscious of the calm depths of spiritual feeling; timid and doubtful where faith shows her brightest evidence, and a stranger to that Divine felicity with which it can bless the heart. It would be visionary to expect a devout spirit, rich in the graces of Christ, in minds thus enslaved by the beautiful, the brilliant, but deceptive hopes and pleasures of the world. (To be concluded in our next.) THE RETROSPECT. We must guard against a fanciful mode of interpretation in reading the Old Testament. Its allegories were written for our learning, its types were exhibited for our instruction, and its historical characters are recorded as ensamples to the church in all ages. But in explaining and applying all these, we should take care to follow the teaching of the apostles, and not the dazzling and bewildering light of a vain imagination. There are, however, many plain and obvious analogies between the ancient Israel and the Christian church, in tracing which for our own improvement, we are supported by the authority of the New Testament. Among these the journeying of forty years in the wilderness, closely represents the trials of the Christian during this earthly pilgrimage. As we are now arrived at a new stage in our progress, you will suffer me, reader, to offer you a word of exhortation to be pondered in your closet as you enter the year 1844. Here Providence turns a page in your history-Who knows what shall be written on it? Who knows what this new year may bring forth? We should hear its first hour strike with trembling, and devote its first week to a careful retrospect of the past. To aid you in these needful and profitable meditations, you should read the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy. As time flies on in its eternal progress, as "the world passeth away and the lusts thereof," as its "fashion changeth," and the varying year symbolises our fleeting life, how solemn is the call to remember all the way in which God hath led us! There is a voice in the falling leaf rustling in the autumnal blast, which speaks to us affectingly of our mortality: "Like leaves on trees, the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground." Remember, then, to WHOм you belong, your Creator-"the Lord thy God." Is he thine? Are you not only the work of his hands, but the sheep of his pasture? Are you redeemed from the hand of the enemy? Have you come out from Egypt, cast off the yoke of Satan, and determined at every cost to follow the leading of the Lord? Then consider what you owe Him! Calculate, if you can, the amount of your obligations! Remember WHO it is that has condescended to be your guide, and has faithfully led you through all your devious and dangerous way in the wilderness. Read Deut. xxxii. 8-11, and see in what tender and endearing language this guardian care is spoken of: "For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about; he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him." It has been even so with you, my friend :-God alone has kept you hitherto, and saved you from a thousand dangers, the effects of your own follies and sins. Perhaps you have not always thought so. You relied on your own skill and prudence, and "sacrificed to your own net and drag." But how vain were such supports! There was really no God with you but JEHOVAH. Remember the source of all your sufferings, your disappointments and vexation, in passing on through this wilderness. Have they not sprung from your sins—your proud discontent-your ungrateful murmurings? These have made the desert to you more dreary and desolate; they have perplexed your path, and rendered your way tangled and thorny. Do not fretfully cast the blame of your troubles upon a gracious Providence. God does not willingly afflict. No; "thou shalt consider in thine heart that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." Deut. ii. 5. He has done it, first, "to humble thee." Ah, how hard is it to humble the heart of man! How many rebuffs, mortifications, and crosses are required to beat down our pride! But what hope can a father have of his son till this is subdued? He led thee in different ways, secondly, "to prove thee, to show what was in thine heart." We can never know what is in us till we are tried. A prophet of old told a man what wickedness he would commit when elevated to power: he exclaimed, "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" Nothing is more corrupting than power. Hence the necessity of restraining it by every available check. Wealth has a similar tendency. They that will be rich fall into temptation, and yield to many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. Therefore Moses, whom the Holy Spirit taught to sound the depths of human nature, writes as follows: "Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied; and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." Deut. viii. 12-14. Would that the rich laid this to heart, and considered each one how far it is applicable to himself. Such alas, is our natural depravity, that wealth and power would prove the eternal ruin of many! Let us not repine, then, if He who knows us best, has seen fit to refuse the fatal gifts; or if he has withheld them, till by various and painful discipline our hearts should be prepared to use them aright. Let the design of God in these exercises, be ever kept in view. This is expressed by Moses, in the chapter which has suggested these remarks, v. 16, "To do thee good in thy latter end." How wisely and graciously does our heavenly Father work to make the most of poor human nature in his children! Some children, we know, will bear no indulgence-petting would be their ruin. Let us humble ourselves at the thought that we are among the number; and let us be meekly resigned to the will of Him who knows what is best for us. "Our light afflictions which are but for a moment, will work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Let nothing, in our spirit or conduct, tend to prevent this blessed issue! "All things shall work together for good to them that love God, that are the called according to his purpose." Are you called of God? The answer to this will be found in your reply to another question-Do you love God? If not, a fearful doom awaits you at the coming of Christ, unless you immediately implore Him to grant you repentance unto life, and the remission of sins, through faith in his Son. Remember, therefore, with gratitude and love, all the way the Lord hath led you, from your youth up, in every variety of situation "Through all the changing scenes of life, In trouble and in joy." Remember how he has redeemed your life from destruction, how he has healed your diseases, raising you up from the bed of pain and languishing, restoring you to strength and felicity, crowning your life with loving-kindness and tender mercies. Oh! if we pondered these things as we should, would not our eyes fill with tears of grateful joy; and should we not call upon our souls and all that is within us to praise the Lord? Now is the time to sacrifice body, soul, and spirit anew to Him! Seize the happy moment of sacred sensibility, of solemn and sanctified emotion, to abhor that which is evil, and cleave with the whole soul to that which is good. The time is short. The night is coming, the night of bereavement, calamity, or death, when no man can work. But that you may work for God, not only zealously but wisely-that you may add to your virtue, knowledge,— I. Remember all the way which God has led the human race. Consider his varied dispensations to man, the state of the nations, and the claims, temporal and spiritual, of your fellow-beings throughout the world; that while you adore the wisdom of God in his wonderful works towards the children of men, you may put forth your utmost efforts for the accomplishment of his purposes of mercy. II. Remember all the way in which Jehovah has led the church universal. Consider his dispensations to his own peculiar people,-the simple arrangements under the patriarchs, the ceremonial and symbolical system under Moses, the connexion between the two economies, the history of the church during the present era, its rapid and mysterious corruption according to prophecy; its reformation, -the progress of great principles since then, the revival of heresy in our own day, and all the signs of these times so pregnant with portentous events. Remember that a great crisis is upon us! and ask yourself on your knees before God, as you begin the year 1844, What should I do at such a time as this? Have I no mission to fulfil-no work to finish? Is it for nought that the church, the Lamb's wife, has been saved from the dragon, and been led safe through the waste and howling wilderness of the dark ages, fed on manna, and supplied with living water from "the Rock that followed her?" The day of her triumph and glory is coming. Will you remain among her enemies, when she comes up from the scenes of her depression and persecution, leaning on the Beloved? III. Remember all the way in which God has led the denomination to which you belong. Why did he raise it up? Has it answered its purpose? Does it need improvement? Are there evils that may be corrected, and cannot you do something to accomplish these objects? Are you not in duty bound to do what you can ? IV. Remember all the way God has led the particular society or congregation to which you belong. Have you fulfilled your duties there? Have you been diligent to diffuse religious knowledge among the people? Have you set a holy example, or the reverse? Have you encouraged the ministry of the Gospel, and given your influence in support of scriptural discipline and unity among the family of God? If not, begin now. Have you sought to combine spirituality and public spirit in your conduct as a church member? Let new year's day leave you a new man; and let it bear a better report to heaven than all that have gone before! V. Remember, finally, all the way a gracious God has led your family. Oh, how often might he have pierced your heart through them! And yet he has spared them, and you also. Consider this; and let the thought of unnumbered mercies vouchsafed, where judgments would have been most keenly felt,-confirm all your holy purposes; and, come weal or woe to the church or the world, be it yours to stand firm and vigilant at the post of duty in 1844! Your affectionate MONITOR. THE ASCENSION. PAST this moon-haunted sky, Past every watch-fire high That far along heaven's battlement flames out, Our Saviour hath gone up All drained his anguish-cup, His way with happy clouds thronged dimly round about. On that lone head forlorn The storms within thee born, No more on Him, outcast, Thy demon-driven wrath canst thou down-sweeping pour. Faint-footed drops of dew! Now 'tis no grief to you If ye do die 'neath sun-light's cruel glare; Since ne'er on Him again Can fall your gentle rain, As once when ye came down to hear his midnight prayer. From maniacs' eyes may ye Ye soul-inhabiting fiends-and safely house; For now ye need not haste Back to your desert waste, At one rebuking frown from His celestial brows. Wake up-dark brotherhood! Feigning His service, widely shall ye reign- The weltering wrecks of worth And o'er the nations drive the waves of wrath and pain. No-die!-dark brotherhood Sink with your fury-flood, The Spirit is sent down-the promise given, All men of Christ shall sing, One saintly gathering, And this marred earth be new, and new this rolling heaven. V. |