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ber, that the word of salvation is addressed to YOURSELVES. This is a consideration never to be overlooked or forgotten; and yet how fatally is it both overlooked and forgotten by multitudes around us and in the midst of us, notwithstanding all that is done, or attempted to be done, to arouse them to its consideration and importance! They have the Scriptures within their reach, but they seek not to possess them. They have the Scriptures in their house and in their hands, but they seldom open up or use them. They sit under the ministry of the gospel from sabbath to sabbath, and its sound of salvation enters their ears, but makes no impression on their hearts. Tell such persons that they are not Christians, and they say that we are libelling them. Testify against their worldly-mindedness, and they shut their ears from the condemnation. We call to their recollection the claims of religion and their past conduct, and they still continue proof against conviction. O! let me ask you, why has the gospel been preached to you? Was it that you might say it was undeserving of your reception, and that you would neither receive its doctrines into your hearts, nor practise its precepts in your lives? Was it that you might partially submit to some parts of it, while you totally neglected others? Your crime will be ten-fold more aggravated, and visited with punishment ten-fold more dreadful, than if the gospel had never been preached to you at all. And certainly this will be its awful effect in the experience of every one of you, if you do not with your whole hearts believe on the Son of God unto righteousness, and make confession with your mouths unto salvation. It is the conviction of this truth alone that can prepare us for the appeal which I would now make on behalf of the heathen.

Yes if you do not feel the necessity of the gospel for yourselves, it is not to be expected that you will appreciate its importance and necessity for others of your fellow-beings. But, O! if it is in your esteem a possession for which you would most willingly offer everything most dear to you on earth, rather than be deprived of it, you will not turn a deaf ear to the voice, from whatever country it may address you, which entreats from you a knowledge of this most inestimable gift. Oh, no! on the contrary, your very hearts will thrill with delight, and if the means of answering the request be in your power,

your hearts will be elevated with grati. tude and joy at the prospect of being able to communicate it. Whether the request comes to you from the east or the west; from the north or the south; from the poor and the destitue of your own native land; or from the equally poor the destitute of other countries, you will rejoice to answer the claim. You will never resist the claims which those who advocate the cause of the Bible, Missionary, Jews', Tract, and Sunday-school Societies, and other similar institutions, bring forward in your hearing, but will give what you can according as the Lord hath prospered you, for their support. You will be ready to curtail every unnecessary expenditure into which you may have been led for any other purpose; and you will often heave a sigh of regret that your means are disproportionate to your wishes. And when this is done, it will be well watered by your prayers for divine grace, to rest upon the substance you have given. You will always be desirous to engage in a labour which has for its object the relief of the temporal wants and distresses of your fellow men; but at the same time, you will be much more anxious for the everlasting salvation of their never dying soul. Yes, my friends, it is the consideration that in every human being there exists a spirit destined for immortality; a spirit ruined by sin, which if not renewed on this side the grave, from its guilt and depravity will have its immortal perpetuity in a state of inconceivable anguish and misery. It is this consideration that gives interest and value to societies for the diffusions of the gospel, whether at home or abroad; the importance and magnitude of which no language can describe, nor even the imagination conceive: for "what will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul." Lose the soul, and heaven and all is lost! Save the soul, and heaven and all is gained!

Here there are two facts to which I would particularly call the attention of those, (if there be any such present,) who are only disposed to go a certain length with us in labouring for the religious interests of our brethren, who either spend all they give in charities for the temporal relief of their fellow-men, or give their money for the education of the poor, and turn away with disdain when we solicit them to contribute to the cause of missions throughout the world,

The first fact is :-The most cordial contributers to, and generous friends and benefactors of, a great number of charitable institutions, whose almost exclusive object, is the relief of present misery, are GENERALLY to be found amongst those who are foremost in that Christian career which sets the highest value upon the human soul. Yes; when we ask the former class of persons to help us in carrying the glad tidings of salvation to the perishing millions of the earth, they answer us with coldness, or it may be with somewhat of derision, that they have something else to do with their money. When they ask us to become co-adjutors with them in clothing the naked or heading the sick or feeding the hungry do we shut up our bowels of compassion, and bid them labour in their sphere as we are doing in ours? I appeal to yourselves, brethren, I appeal to facts which are notorious, (at least in that part of the country to which I belong, I cannot speak for England, you must judge for yourselves in the matter.) I appeal to facts that are notorious in every place that I am acquainted with, and they testify that even the bodies of men are more valued by those that care most for the soul, than they are by those who care only for their temporal condition.

The second fact is this, and it is equally incontestible with the former :-That much as Bible and Missionary Societies have been and still are derided by multitudes, who say that there is enough to do at home, or that the poor require all the means that can be employed by them; yet it is to the existence of these societies, that we owe almost all that has been done, either for the relief of distress, or the diffusion of education: and notwithstanding all that has been given to these societies the desire to do good instead of being diminished, has in general increased.

What does this prove? What, but that christian principle is the most fertile and permanent source of benevolence and compassion, whether for the body or the soul of man? That the heart which beats most strongly at the thought of the immortality of man is that which thrills with the most tenderness at the woes of mortality. O! there is an abundance of of resources in this country still, which instead of being exhausted by the benevolence that has been drawn from them, only require to be applied to for a still wider diffusion. And certainly we ought

to receive the gratitude of the humane, for having thus added to their opportunities and means of shewing benevolence; and if we have their gratitude, as we certainly ought, we will not despair of having them as our fellow-labourers in the great work in which we are now engaged, which unites humanity to the body, with compassion to the soul.

Brethren, if these things are so, if you admit the truth of the statement that has just been submitted to you, I fear not in as far as you are concerned for the interests of the noble institution, whose cause I am honoured in being permitted to plead. As far as you are concerned, did I say; I should be ashamed of you, as brethren, as Scotchmen, but above all, I should tremble for you, as called by the name of the divine Redeemer, were I to conceive that your hearts were so destitute of christian love, as to require more than to be reminded of your duty, If you experimentally know the value of the gospel, if you feel it to be greater than thousands of silver and of gold, you will with gratitude contribute towards its diffusion you will consider yourselves stewards of the manifold grace of God. You will pour out of your worldly substance, to supply the streams which are falling into the treasury of God, as into a capacious reservoir prepared by heaven itself. If you, brethren, have ever tasted of the waters ofthe sanctuary which make glad in time, and throughout eternity you will be desirous to extend their influence to those who are thirsting for salvation. Come, then, let us consider what more you can do. We do not ask you to leave your native land, to separate yourselves from the companions of your youth, or from your children or friends of riper years, and go to the inhospitable regions of heathen superstition or Mohammedan delusion. This you may leave without danger to those heroic men, who, with the spirit of apostles have embarked, or are about to embark, or shall hereafter embark in the god-like enterprize; but we ask you to support these men by your contributions. How are our missionaries to obtain means for visiting those countries unless you, aid them by your subscriptions? As the gold of the East has been poured into the lands of the West, shall we withhold our silver that ought to be expended in conveying to the population of its crowded cities and teeming population spiritual

blessings in return? Have we taken from their native land many a sable son of long-injured, but now partially redressed Africa, dooming them to oppression and slavery; and shall we not hasten to impart to their descendants the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free. It is true, we do not ask for your pound if you have only mites to give; but it is equally true that we do not expect mites only if you have pounds to bestow. Our Lord once stood by the treasury, and he will stand by it again; he then saw, and he now sees what is cast into it. And if, whilst a poor widow, or a poor mechanic throw in their penny to night or a penny a-week they who have ten times the means do not now or statedly contribute ten times the sum, think you that the blessing pronounced upon the poor widow in the temple, will belong to you? But while we render of our earthly substance, oh! let our prayers ascend to the Divine MAJESTY, that he may prosper abundantly the cause that is his own —the cause of his dear Son-giving him no rest until he make, by the power of his Spirit, through missionary labours, the sure word of prophecy, on which he has caused us to hope, "HE SHALL

COME DOWN LIKE RAIN UPON THE MOWN GRASS AS SHOWERS THAT WATER THE EARTH. HIS NAME SHALL ENDURE FOR EVER HIS NAME SHALL BE CONTINUED AS LONG AS THE SUN: AND MEN SHALL BE BLESSED IN HIM: ALL NATIONS SHALL CALL HIM BLESSED. AMEN."

NEW ARGUMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE MoSAIC CHRONOLOGY.-The valley of the Nile, it is well known, is covered with a bed or stratum of alluvial mud deposited by the river during its periodical overflowings; and this bed or stratum is superimposed on sand in all respects resembling the sand of the adjoining desert. The quantity of deposit in any given time is, however, much less than one would be apt at first to imagine, considering that the great fertility of Lower Egypt is solely to be ascribed to it. During the period of the French expedition, a great variety of experiments were made, by the savans who accompanied it, upon the thickness of this alluvial bed; and some curious and interesting results were obtained. In

the transverse section of the valley of Syout, and other places, where the deposits could be made without obstacle, and without being in any material degree, augmented or diminished by local causes, about two hundred pits were dug, and the depth of the whole alluvial stratum carefully measured; care being taken to make allowance for what seemed partial or accidental inequalities. The mean of all these measurements gave for the average thickness of the mud stratum nearly six and a half metres or rather more than twenty feet. We take it, however, at twenty. Having ascertained this point, M. Girard next applied himself to determine the quantity by which the soil is raised or thickened in the course of a century, from the depositions of the river; and the pits of the nilometers furnished him with the basis of an approximate calculation, which gave the centenary elevation of the soil, from the cause already mentioned, at less than four and a half inches, Dividing, then, the whole thickness or depth of the stratum, by the quantity added to it in the course of a century, the quotient is 5,650; from which it follows that the origin of this superimposed soil, must have preceded the 1809, the date of the experiments, by 5,650 years, being only 154 less than the Mosaic chronology gives as the age of the world at that time ;a difference which, considering the peculiar nature of the data upon which the calculation is founded, and how much the smallest error either in the measurements, or in the centenary" evaluation," would affect the ultimate result, must be thought quite immaterial. Making all due allowance for these circumstances, however, the coincidence between the sacred chronologist and the deduction of science, strikes us as very remarkable nay, as affording one more proof how nature and revelation harmonise, when the truth is sought in the love of it. We may add, that the French savant has carefully avoided drawing the inference to which his own premises necessarily lead; an avoidance which is only the more absurb from the obvious nature of the conclusion obtruded upon the mind of the reader.

DISCOVERY OF A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. -M. Bürger, of Heidelberg, well known by his mathematical works, has announced a system of universal language, by which a correspondence may be kept up, on easy and certain principles, by individuals of all nations, although totally unacquainted with each other's native language. The acquisition of the system will scarcely require two days. Foreign Review.

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66

THE

A RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY JOURNAL.

AS EVERY MAN HATH RECEIVED THE GIFT, SO MINISTER THE SAME ONE TO ANOTHER."

No. 20.]

THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1829.

[PRICE 3d.

ANNIVERSARY SERMON FOR THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETY.

PREACHED AT ST. SAVIOUR'S, SOUTHWARK, ON MONDAY, MAY 4TH, 1829. BY THE REV. HUGH M'NEILE, A.M.

"But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."-Matt. xxiv. 13.

I HAVE been again invited by the Committee of the Continental Society to preach one of its annual sermons, to which I consented with all readiness of mind, impressed, as I ever have been, with the importance of its objects, and the urgent necessity which exists for its operations. Another reason why I am willing to give my aid and support to this institution is, that it interferes with no other. Magnify the importance of all the other institutions which present themselves to your notice, and claim your support, as much as you please, and extend the operations of this as widely as you please, still it interferes with none-it supersedes the functions of none; while itself remains unimpaired in its original magnitude, for this simple reason, it occupies a field untrodden by any other. It is a solitary missionary society for the Lord Jesus, throughout the length and breadth of papal Europe. The constitution and plan of this society are well known to the persons present, or may be known; and I cannot, therefore, look upon them as suitable themes for my discourse upon the present occasion; neither could I, were it otherwise, suffer my message, as a minister of God's word, to be superseded by them. Such a course would, indeed, have saved me all trouble of thinking and writing, and you of thinking, now or afterwards; and you, therefore, might have been better pleased had I so occupied the time; but I desire not to trifle with the truth of God, or to speak as pleasing men, but God, who trieth the heart. Therefore, I have given diligent heed to a difficult and important portion of scripture, which I shall first endeavour to elucidate, and then to follow up with such an application as is suggested by the context itself.

VOL. I.

I. Our Lord's discourse, in the evangelist Matthew, must be compared with the parallel statements contained in the thirteenth chapter of Mark, and the twenty-first of Luke, and then it will be seen, that the most important point of all, the grand climax of the whole, is contained in the words of the text.

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As many of you as read the word of God without those prejudices which are so easily imbibed from the writings of men, will not be likely to pass by this as a matter of curiosity, not necessary to your salvation. If you know the importance of truth, you will not dare to say what portion of God's truth is necessary to salvation, or to decline an investigation which involves the meaning of any passage of scripture. Knowing and feeling that "all holy scripture is given for our learning,"-"is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished to every good work,”—you will not take upon yourselves to make a selection of some few topics for your meditation, and pass all the rest over, unheeded and neglected.

Our Lord had been riding into Jerusalem on an ass, and thus confirming the prophecy of Zechariah relative to the king of Israel; he had also stirred up the children to sing Hosannas, from the hundred-and-eighteenth Psalm, which was sung at the feast of tabernacles; and in connection with that, had quoted the eightieth Psalm,. which contains a prediction of the universal reign of the Messiah. Thus he had given to the Jews every opportunity of hailing him as the Messiah. There was a combination of

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circumstances gathered out of their own Scriptures, and grouped by the providential management of our Lord, and pressed upon their attention with all the moral force that was compatible with their moral freedom. Their understandings

were blinded, however, and they discerned not their king Messiah. He predicted their overthrow, in the parable of the vineyard; they were enraged, and he repeated the warning in the parable of the marriage supper. After this, the Pharisees and the Herodians came to him, for the purpose of entangling him in a difficulty, which they knew would be fatal to him could they succeed, relative to the tribute money. He avoided the snare, however, and silenced his enemies. After this he withstood the Sadducees and Pharisees, convicting them of ignorance of their own Scriptures, in not. knowing in what sense the Messiah was to be the son of David. He then pronounced some awful woes against the Scribes and Pharisees, wept over the city, and denounced the like woe upon that, and then ascended the mount of Olives. While sitting there, four of his disciples, Peter and John, James and Andrew,came to him, and enquired (referring to what he had just said about the destruction of the temple): "Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world [or dispensation]?" The prophecy to be considered was delivered in answer to these questions.

Upon the questions themselves, I shall offer the following general remarks. The disciples well knew the character of the person to whom they were speaking. They were present with the rest when Jesus asked, "Whom say ye that I am?" and when Peter made his noble confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God;" and they had heard the unqualified approbation which that confession had obtained. There could have been no doubt upon their minds, then, relative to the individual to whom they were addressing themselves. They must have known him to be the Messiah, and yet they asked him what would be the sign of his coming. It is clear, therefore, that they expected some other coming than that which had.taken place. The person whose "coming" they enquired after, was the same to whom they addressed themselves: "What shall be the aign of thy coming?" And, indeed, it

was only that person concerning whom the language coming and going could apply at all; for what is meant by a providential coming or going? going? God is always present; Jesus is always present; and therefore, in this sense, there can be no such thing as coming or going. It may be said, that by coming is meant his putting forth an exertion of his power, at a particular time and place; but the expression is inapplicable to any such thing, and can only refer to the human nature of Christ, in union with the Godhead, which human nature can only be in one place at a time. It has gone, and it shall return again. It is remarkable, also, that three out of the four disciples who put the question, had seen our Lord's glory on mount Tabor, when he was transfigured before them, "when his countenance did shine as the sun, and his raiment became white as the light;" and it seems manifest, that when they asked what should be the sign of his appearing, they expected some such an one as he had assumed at his transfiguration. Now, our Lord, by going on to give the intermediate events between the sign of his appearing, and the end of the world, shewed that they were right in what they expected; that is, such an appearing as they had a specimen of on the mount of transfiguration. Again, the disciples, ignorant of Jehovah's purpose concerning the Gentiles, during the dispensation of the Jews, and not then at all able to bear the truth to which they afterwards gave so reluctant a consent, would be induced to expect that the coming of Christ would take place upon the termination of the present Jewish establishments, which were so wound up with the temple, that to predict the destruction of this was the same as to predict the termination of the Jewish dispensation. They therefore thought that they were making an enquiry after two things which would be synchronical. Now, to tell the whole truth, without plainly telling them of the Gentile dispensation, which they were not then able to bear, was the difficulty that our Lord had to meet in giving his reply, and gives rise to that we have to meet in expounding that reply.

I will now read the prophecy itself.

"Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many," ver. 4, 5. As if he had said, "Your expec

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