O believe, and take the gracious hint here | given! Believe and pray, "Lord, make us willing to come unto thee, that our souls may have light and life in the knowledge and enjoyment of thyself, and in thy service, as our redeeming Lord." If sinners were of this mind and heart, what reading of the holy scriptures-what crowding to hear of Christ their Saviour what inquiring into spiritual matters-what groups of sinners talking together, not in wantonness and vanity, not of schemes of iniquity, mischief, and murder, but for the good of their souls; and what an attendance of them we should witness at the Lord's table, to taste and commemorate his dying love; and while they taste to admire "How condescending and how kind "This was compassion like a God, Permit us, brethren, truly and faithfully to tell you, that the only cause of the prevailing sins among you is the deadness of your souls, and your consequent indifference about Christ in the power of his death and resurrection. May the Lord, the Spirit, powerfully awaken you to a sense of your sin and danger, while a Saviour is yet near and graciously declared to you by the preaching of the gospel. 64 shortly he shall have it in its perfection, when he is "absent from the body and present with the Lord;" but more especially in the glorious resurrection, when the body and its appropriate soul shall be again united into the perfect man, and shall be glorified together, that, as they together shared in the redemption, the service, and the sufferings of Jesus on earth, so shall they together share in the happiness and glory of Jesus in heaven. But, on the contrary, behold also the awful wretchedness of the unbeliever-" He shall not see life." He shall share in none of the bliss and glories of heaven-nay, "the wrath of God abideth on him;" it hangs over him; it follows him everywhere, as long as he is an unbeliever and rejects Christ, who bore that wrath for sinners-" who bore our sins in his own body on the tree;" and when he dies it will then fall on him, and sink him into "the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for ever!" Surely the whole nation of unbelievers" are void of divine counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end" (Deut. xxxii. 28, 29) ! Let us also observe what is written in Rom. vi. 23-"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Let sinners here behold what their wages will be, if they do the work of sin-death will be their wages. Sin is therefore a murderous work; it stupifies and deadens the heart to Christ, to holiness, and to heaven in the present state; and in the world to come will for ever separate body and soul from him and heaven, and thus will reward them with eternal death-not annihilation, but the most awful privation, together with the most tormenting sensation" the fire that never shall be quenched!" In particular, let those sinners who persecute the saints, see and fear the tremendous retaliation that awaits them-torment for torment, fire for fire, death for death! "When the great day of the wrath of the Lamb shall come, who shall be able to stand" (Rev. vi. 16)? Such are the wages of sin. "But the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord" -a gift, not a debt-a gift freely bestowed, through the mediation of Jesus Christ, upon the penitent and believing sinner who comes unto God through him. One more remark remains that Christ is the author of eternal life-that life in heaven of perfect holiness and pure happiness, in the more immediate presence of the glorious Jehovah, and in the society of the blessed angels and the glorified saints-a life of perfect glory and bliss-a life not occasional, but continual -not for a limited space of some millions of years, but without end! What a glorious and abundant life!-nay, a life of perfect security in holiness, beyond the possibility of sinning, beyond the possibility of dying! One of the richest privileges of the everlasting covenant that is ordered in all things and sure" of this crowning mercy-Jesus Christ is the author and giver; for observe what is written (John iii. 36), "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Behold here One more scripture is remarkable (1 John one of the most interesting and solemn con- v. 11, 20)" This is the record, that God hath trasts for here is declared, on the one hand, given to us eternal life, and this life is in his the peculiar, the distinguished happiness of Son. And we know that the Son of God is come, the true believer in Jesus-" He hath ever- and hath given us an understanding, that we lasting life;" he hath it now in his present may know him that is true; and we are in state, in the commencement of it, by his spi-him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. ritual union and fellowship with Christ; and This is the true God and eternal life." And here we conclude with a plain and express puts the sinner upon his feet, that he might go and seek mercy, that he might "flee from the wrath to come," and that when he has obtained mercy, he might then go, gratefully and cheerfully, to do the work of the Lord. And we add, not one is there in all the religious societies of the day-such as bible and missionary, and religious tract societies, to enlighten and bless this and.other nations with the knowledge of Christ; but he is the first, the continual, and the last moving cause. To him, brethren, to him be all the glory for any thing in the religious world that has any life and worth in it. Let your souls be animated by him who is thus, spiritually, the re be still, be dull, be fettered in your powers respecting these vast concerns. Impossible! for, spiritually animated by him, you would be wretched not to be employed for him in some way. Your money, your influence, your time, and even your life, would be no longer so dear to you as the honour of his name, and the furtherance of his cause in the salvation of sinners to earth's remotest bounds. To him-not to his virgin mother—but to him address your prayer, that his soul-animating Spirit, ever acting officially in subordination to him, may graciously descend; that our land, and that all lands, may exhibit the grandest evidence that has ever yet been given of Christ being the resurrection and the life in the spiritual world. 1st. Is Christ the resurrection and the life in nature? Then all that is lovely in spring is the effect of the power of his goodness. What animation, then, appears in the earth, as beautifully described in Canticles ii. 11, &c., "For, lo, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the trees put forth their leaves with their fruit." At this season of the year, we may rise to wit-surrection and the life; and then, if you can, ness the serene and gentle entrance of day; and, looking eastward, we may behold, in the appointed time, the majestic sun appearing as the grand instrumental cause of all this animation. But Jesus is the great original; for it is "he," says the devout Hervey, "that actuates all which otherwise would be lifeless and insignificant. Pensioners they areconstant pensioners on his bounty, and borrow this all from his fulness. He only has life; and whatever operates, operates by an emanation from his all-sufficiency. Does the grape refresh you with its enlivening juices? It is by a warrant received, and a virtue derived, from the Redeemer. Does bread strengthen your heart, and prove the staff of your life? Remember that is by the Saviour's appointment-the efficacy of his operation. You are charmed with his melody, when the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the nightingale is heard in our land. You taste his goodness in the various fruits, and smell his sweetness in the various flowers. Give these creatures a voice, and at once they say, 'We are servants of him who died for you, to serve both him and you: crop our choicest beauties, rifle our treasures, accommodate yourselves with our most valuable qualities-only let us provoke your gratitude, and move you to be obedient to our common Lord." Thus the devout Hervey confesses Christ in nature, in his beautiful "Reflections on the Flower-garden." But, 2ndly. Is he the resurrection and the life in the spiritual world? He is therefore the life in all religious concerns. There is not a minister that has a soul to understand and preach the gospel with animation, but Christ is the cause the enlightening, the life-inspiring cause. There is not a sermon that is preached with energy and effect, but the power belongeth to him. There is not, therefore, a sinner that is moved to think and act for the salvation of his soul, but Jesus is the moving cause; for it is he that animates the dead soul, and awakes the sleeping soul, and And now, finally. Is he the resurrection and the life into the world to come, especially that world of glory whither he himself ascended after he arose from the dead? Every one, therefore, who is quickened by him to spiritual life, and now follows him in the narrow way of holiness, shall follow him to heaven, and nothing shall hinder it; for all "the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to the heavenly Zion with songs, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads" (Isaiah xxxv. 10)-as those who return from the field of battle to enjoy the fruits of a complete and glorious and final conquest; or as those who have returned from a long and painful absence to enjoy the comforts of their heavenly and eternal home, especially in the presence of him who so graciously became their captain, their guide, and their Lord. "There shall they see his face, SATAN'S DEVICES TO WIN MEN'S SOULS FROM CHRIST*. To draw away the minds and hearts of men from the living, the indwelling Christ, must be, at all times and in all cases, Satan's chief aim; but the means which he takes to effect that object are infinitely various, adapted to the spiritual condition of those upon whom his assaults are directed. With the baser and weaker kind of souls he easily effects his purpose. Among the various forms of evil which this world presents, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life, or the treasures of mammon, he readily discovers that which will cause each individual to become his slave first, and afterwards his prey; the motley multitude of the worldly minded he eats up as it were bread—they melt in his mouth. But there are souls of a higher order-souls so far imbued with the taste of things eternal, that the temptations of this lower world, if brought directly to bear upon them, would altogether fail of their effect; and there are times when a generally higher tone of feeling, engendered by a more careful training of the young in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, by a more general attention to God's holy purposes, and by a more frequent and extensive use of the means of grace, places a vast number of men upon that vantage ground of religious impressions of mind and habits of life, on which any of the grosser temptations of the arch-tempter would repel instead of alluring their intended victim. In dealing with souls in this higher and ennobled condition, and with the church in such her better and holier times, Satan must have recourse to deeper schemes to remove the great obstacle to his success-the living Christ in the Christian man, the living Christ in the Christian church. Of these schemes there are two, which in our days of more general profession of godliness, and of greater earnestness in that profession, Satan has most extensively set on foot; one at the first, and, now that the first begins to be exploded, a second, of an opposite character, which is to answer the twofold purpose of luring those who shall be caught by its novelty, and of frightening back into the meshes of his former device, from which they were on the point of extricating themselves, those whom his more recent inventions fill with just suspicion. The principle of the deception is in both cases the same, viz., to substitute for the living Christ in the minds and hearts of men something which, being identified with Christ himself, is above suspicion; to make men cleave to something which is of Christ, instead of cleaving, as Christians should do, to Christ himself. There are two precious gifts of Christ which Satan dares to handle for this purpose-which he dares to set up as idols for men to worship-if by any means he may seduce them unawares to withdraw their worship and their affections from the giver: these two precious gifts are the word of God and the ordinances of divine grace. He makes men worshippers of the bible, instead of worshippers of that Christ of whom the bible testifies. Upon the ground of that precious verity, that the bible-the bible in its integrity, and the bible alone, is the fountain and standard of God's revealed truth, he causes a cry to be raised, "The bible, the whole bible, and nothing but the bible," and makes it to signify in the dull hearts of the multitude, that if a man has the bible, he needs no more to make him a Christian; if he loves the bible, his affections are be From "Our Day of Sifting;" a plain sermon for these perplexing times. Preached on New Year's day, 1842, at St. Andrew's, Ham. By the rev. C. E. Biber, L.L.D. London: Rivington. Parker, 1842, pp. 22. stowed where they ought to be. There is just so much of truth in this, that the knowledge, the study, the love of the bible are indeed essential, indispensable to the Christian life; and, mixed up with this undeniable truth, just this subtle falsehood, that to know and to love the bible which testifies of Christ, and to know and to love Christ himself, are one and the same thing. Thus, for the bread of Christ's life within the soul, which is the Christian man's heavenly sustenance, Satan contrives to substitute the empty husks of doctrinal statements, valuable indeed as long as they enclose the precious grain which is life's staff, bat utterly valueless when that grain is taken out, wholly barren and unfit to sustain the Christian life. Hence that sad contagion which has for a long time past infected the Christian church-that unsoundness of mind in which doctrine is accounted the great foundation and the sole test of a Christian state in churches and in individuals; as if life were nothing, obedience nothing, but doctrine all in all; as if there were no other purity than purity of doctrine, no other strength than strength of doctrine, no other fellowship than fellowship of doctrine; as if doctrine were in itself the power of salvation. And how deplorable have been the effects of this fundamental unsoundness; how has the Christian character been deteriorated by it, how robbed of its highest and sweetest graces, humility, charity, childlike obedience, and fervent devotion; what a cold and heartless, what a proud and stubborn, what a selfish and uncharitable race are the children of a merely doctrinal faith! How many a man's soul among them is kept at an immeasurable distance from that God, whose nature, attributes, and counsels he knows how to set forth and to dispute about with the utmost doctrinal precision and correctness! How many have, after the heart had become deadened by this unholy idolatry of the letter which killeth, fallen back into "the corruption which is in the world through lust;" and how many have lodged in that heart which doctrine had so neatly swept and garnished, seven other spirits more wicked than the first. This danger, however, fearful as it is, seemed latterly to be passing away from us and little need might there have been to have warned you against it on the present occasion, but for the rise of another idolatry in the church, the apprehension of which bids fair to drive many back into the error from which there seemed reason to hope that they had almost clean escaped. That other idolatry is the idolatry of the ordinances of divine grace. Here again the deception practised by Satan is founded upon a broad and solid basis of truth. For it is indeed very true, that Christ has instituted the holy sacraments not only as tests of our love and obedience" If ye love me, keep my commandments "— but as "effectual signs" of "inward spiritual grace," and as means whereby that grace is given unto us, God "working invisibly in us" by those means of his own appointment. Again it is true that the apostles of our Lord, acting under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, did establish certain ordinances for the government and edification of Christ's church committed to their charge, and for the exercise and the transmission to others of those spiritual powers which were entrusted to them as unto "stewards of the mysteries of God." And, therefore, because divine is undoubtedly the origin both of the sacraments instituted by Christ himself, and of the ordinances established by his holy apostles, and because no man has to this day received credentials from heaven, such as the apostles themselves had to produce, for the purpose of abrogating or superseding those sacraments and other ordinances of divine grace, it is most undoubtedly true, that he who wilfully neglects Christ's holy sacraments-he who deliberately sets aside the apostolic ordinances, leaves himself but a slender title to the name of a disciple of Christ, and to the hope of participation, either here or hereafter, in those spiritual benefits and blessings which he proudly spurns to receive upon the terms and through the means appointed by God for that purpose. But upon this great and deep truth, so simple and so important, see what an edifice of superstition Satan is at this time endeavouring to rear amongst us; causing men vainly to confound the means with the substance of spiritual grace, and to trust to the opus operatum of a sacrament ministered, or of an ordinance kept! The truth mixed up in the delusion is, that these, the sacraments and ordinances, are the appointed means through which we are to draw near to Christ, in which Christ has pledged himself that he will meet us if in them we seek him; and the subtle falsehood mixed up with that truth is, that in the sacrament and the ordinance Christ is so contained, that to receive the sacrament is to receive Christ, and to approach the ordinance is to meet with Christ. But as the bible which sets forth Christ, is not Christ the truth, so the sacrament which veils Christ, is not Christ the life, nor the ordinance that leads to Christ, Christ the way. He who rests in the sacrament, he who dwells upon the ordinance, stops short of Christ, even as he that sits down in the palace-gate stops short of the presence of the king. To enter into the king's presence, we must indeed come to the gate of his palace; but not only mest we come to it, we must pass through it; which if we omit to do, even though the king's own bust should stand in the porch, and we neglect to enter, only because we love to look upon that bust, and so stand still before it, yet it will be no less certain that we have not seen the king's countenance. The Cabinet. INHERENT INDEPENDENCE.-No constitutional temperament seems less disposed to the reception of the gospel, or to coalesce with its pure unworldly character, than that which gives a man a kind of inherent independence and self-support. While buoyed up with this temporary prop (for all will fail him when this earthly tabernacle is dissolved), he wants no arm to lean on, no bosom where to recline his fainting head. "Come unto me, all ye that laboar and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ;" this voice holds out consolations, and speaks of comforts, which correspond with no breathings of his heart, no hungerings and thirstings of his soul. Much admired as that man often is, who, without the succours of God's grace, has firmness to suffer unmoved "the stings and arrows of outrage, us fortune," as if a match for all the storms and waves that go over him; such, nevertheless, appears to me to be the unhappiest mould in which the human character can be cast. For, as long as this life lasts, one thus fortified by his own insensibility or pride (and what else can support him), is better able to dispense with religion and to live without a sense of God, than those of any other moral or physical construction which it is possible to imagine. And thus, while what the world would call a weaker character, first bends to the storm, and then flies from it to the only refuge; while the prodigal, pining with hunger, and envying the swine, nevertheless is not too proud to own his misery, and to cast himself in self-abasement in the dust-while he arises and goes to his father, and enjoys the fulness of his house; as to the self-supported hero of this world, who wants no help from above, if it be inquired, "And what shall this man do?" I answer, God forbid that I should judge him so as to apportion the awful retribution that awaits him. This, however, I will say, that if men were, in the strictest sense, the artificers of their own fortunes, and the carvers of their own destinies in eternity, he would be rewarded for all his firmness and all his fortitude, by becoming, like Lot's wife, "a pillar of salt."-Rev. H. Woodward. DEATH OF FRIENDS.-Perhaps the sorest of earthly trials is allotted to us; the desire of our eyes, the delight of our heart has been taken from us. The grave has closed over the objects that were the loved companions and comforters of our earthly pilgrimage; that used so gladly to rejoice with us when we did rejoice-so tenderly to weep with us when we wept; and we feel a sickening sense of desolation come over us; and are too prone, like the disconsolate mourner of old, to refuse to be comforted. And why is all this? We allow ourselves to be absorbed in excessive sorrow for our withered gourds, because we dwell too deeply on the harrowing remembrance how we used to delight to rest under their shadow, and how as we rested there our fond heart seemed full of happiness, even to overflowing: and when these recollections rush over our spirits, we are ready to repine and complain, and even to feel angry, that our gourd is withered; and we forget that we do not well to be angry for the gourd, because it was God who prepared the worm that withered it; and surely we do not well to be angry with our God. I speak not merely of the impiety but the ingratitude of such anger (and all immoderate and repining sorrow is such), since God sent the worm to wither our gourd, not in wrath, but in love; not to leave our defenceless heads unsheltered from the scorching sun or blighting storm, but to lead us to abide in safer and sweeter confidence, under the everlasting shadow of his wings, who is to all his afflicted people amidst all their sorrows, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. I know not of any habit of mind that would have a stronger or more salutary influence to keep us quietly submissive and cheerfully resigned under our heaviest afflictions, than to habituate ourselves thus to view the hand of our covenant God arranging them all for our eternal good. Then, even if our heavenly Father saw it needful for our eternal welfare to strip us, like Job, of every earthly comfort, and make us, like that man of unparalleled woes, a spectacle of mingled astonishment and pity to men and angels; still we could look up to heaven with a cheerful smile, and say "Even so, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight:" and O, in thy merey forbid, and by thy grace prevent, that what seemeth good in thy sight should ever seem evil in mine.Hugh White. TRUE REST.-In our Christian journey there are many spots where we make an attempt to rest; sometimes it is in some favoured manifestation of the divine love and presence, at which seasons we are ready to say-" My mountain stands so strong I shall never be moved; my enemies are slain and will annoy me no more; my feet are delivered from the snare of the fowler, and I shall never more be thus entangled." Sometimes we are peculiarly blessed with the ordinances both public and private, and sometimes the heart is cheered by the cordial of Christian friendship. Many other spots might be enumerated, on which we alight and begin to plume our wings, but made to feel our mistake; and in e ment we are reminded of the Lord ye hall have peace," not in an favoured moments, not in any helps, further than as the had said) simply to Me, th rest. Now, when we are off every branch and spr from good self and bad s for rest, then have we r let the cost of such teach Hawkes' Memoirs. Poetry. (For the Church of England Magazine.) FOR Zion's sake-chastised of God- Of Judah are they not his own? Yes, when his church is stirred to pray, As orient light of breaking day, Thy righteousness shall shine. As lamp that cheers the gloomy night, And kings thy glory see. And men shall own thee blest. For ever in his sight. And Hephzi-bah be thine. Thy scattered sons, from many a shore, Widowed and desolate no more- In thee, as bridegroom o'er his bride, For evermore thou shalt abide, The people of his choice. Mourner, who sittest in the church-yard lone, Fading one, with the hectic streak In thy veins of fire, and thy wasted cheek- EASTER*. United States Gazette: "THE Lord is risen!" Wake, nature, wake thy lyre- MR. W. W. DUNCAN. "JESUS OF NAZARETH PASSETH BY." ST. LUKE xviii. 39. WATCHER, who wak'st by the bed of pain, While the stars sweep on with their midnight train, Stranger, afar from thy native land, IMPROVEMENT OF IMPRISONMENT. THEREOF be therefore heedful; Them favour not the less; When I to them must never Speak more with tongue or pen, To see my face again, Let not this world bewitch them And whilst we live together, From "Recollections of the Lakes, &c." and Bogue, 1841. London: Tilt |