was carried by some of his hearers, and the relatives were followed by the members of the church, who "made great lamentation

over

him." Hymns were given out by Messrs. Roaf and Allott, the Scriptures were read by Mr. Hudson, the devotional parts of the service were conducted by Messrs. Dawson and Hammond, and the address on the solemn occasion was delivered by Mr. East. On the Sabbath after his death, the providence was improved by a neighbouring minister, from "Moses, my servant, is dead," that being the very day on which the deceased was pledged to preach Sabbathschool sermons in that place of worship. Mr. East improved the event to his own people in Birmingham on Lord's-day evening, Dec. 18th, from Col. i. 28, 29; and Mr. Percy, of Warwick, at the same time, by particular re

quest, addressed the bereaved church and congregation at Gornal, from Heb. xiii. 7, 8. The place was crowded by attentive hearers from most places in the vicinity, as well as by the regular attendants.

May this solemn providence be overruled to the benefit of many precious souls; and may that gracious God, who raised up a Joshua to succeed Moses, in his own time, heal the breach thus made, by sending to this bereaved Christian society a man after his own heart, that shall feed them with knowledge and understanding; and may other ministers be found, like the departed, in the midst of their labours, when God shall call them to their death-bed and to his presence! May they be faithful unto death, and receive a crown of life, and leave the church militant to enter into the joy of their Lord!

J. W. P.

To give odious epithets to religion and virtue, and names of palliation and indulgence to error and vice, is an artifice which has been too successfully employed to bring the latter into favour and the former into discredit. Advantage is taken of some agreeable quality in the temper and conduct of the vicious to screen their misconduct from censure; while the foibles of the pious are not only aggravated, but are ascribed to the influence of their principles. That aversion from true wisdom and holiness which is so powerful in the carnal mind, and the eager desire which men feel to be delivered from every restraint on the gratification of their evil propensities, makes them listen eagerly to such sophistry. It shall be my object in this essay to expose this perversion of language in various instances, and thus to put the simple on their guard, and to give just impressions of his own conduct to him who is flattering himself in his own conceit.

It has been long the practice of the enemies of religion to represent it as hy

pocrisy and superstition. That some professors of religion have shown themselves to be hypocrites is admitted, but nothing can be more absurd than to impute insincerity to others whose attachment to piety has withstood every trial, and has been evinced by a life of consistent and active virtue. That, in some countries, Christianity is disfigured by superstition, and that its worship is encumbered by its idle ceremonies, its spirit lost in its forms, and its sanctions made void by its gross delusions, is certain; but a candid mind will judge of the gospel from the records in which its tenets are delineated and its service prescribed, and will honour as its genuine disciples those who adhere to it in its simplicity and purity.

There has been also much perversion of language with respect to war. Though war may be in some cases unavoidable, yet in the most of instances it has been commenced and prosecuted in the spirit of rapacity and ambition, to perpetuate oppressive abuses, and to gratify the passions of rulers, or the prejudices of the

people. To wars such as these the epithets of just and necessary have been applied; battles, in which thousands have perished fighting for their rights and their homes, have been celebrated as triumphs, and the leader in such scenes is honoured as the boast of his country. Christianity looks with utter abhorrence on such scenes, and will never regard her spirit as prevalent, or her power as established, on earth, till the nations are influenced by the great law of benevolence and united in the bond of peace, and till, throughout all their borders, there is nothing to hurt or to destroy.

The plausible names which are given to bigotry and its operations, present a striking instance of this misapplication. Bigotry is a principle which reflects so little credit on the head or heart, indicates so little information in the one, and such a want of meekness and gentleness in the other, that few are willing to have it imputed to them; and those influenced by it are eager to persuade themselves that they are actuated by a very different spirit. They style their bigotry steadfastness of principle; their superstitious veneration for what is antiquated, a going forth by the footsteps of the flock; their rage against their opponents, zeal for the Lord; and the violence with which they contend for rules and forms, a defence of the walls and bulwarks of Zion. But true steadfastness of principle arises from a discernment of the truth and excellence of religion, while bigotry has no better reason for its hope than prejudice and habit; the regard claimed in Scripture for departed saints is that which follows them only as they followed Christ; and zeal for God proportions its efforts to the importance of the object for which it contends, and mingles all its fervours with the meekness and benignity of the Lamb of God.

The

false zeal of the bigot is like the flash of the lightning, which blinds and consumes; but the other is like the mild lustre of the morning star.

We have another instance of this misapplication in the representation of laxity and error in principle by the names of light and liberality. To scoff at the religious creed of the nation is called superiority to vulgar prejudices; to suggest the most impious conceits is said to be a proof of originality of mind; wresting the Scriptures to support daring speculations is enlightened criticism; and the open denial of human depravity, and of the punitive justice of God, is praised as the

dictate of candour and benevolence. But what they call vulgar prejudices is the system of belief in which the wise and the good can alone find rest to the soul; what they deem discoveries made by their own ingenuity may be easily found among the rubbish of former heresies; to handle the word of God deceitfully is to act an immoral as well as an irreligious part; and they who try to make men believe that they are better by nature than the Bible represents them, and in less danger than it states them to be, are the worst enemies of their kind-they shut their eyes to their true character and to their greatest peril.

How common is it, also, to exhibit the vices and the spirit of the world under the names of virtue! Some have an aversion, owing to various causes, from particular vices, and they imagine that, in showing their abhorrence of these, they are acting a laudable part, while they may be indulging in practices as criminal as the other, but which, from their accordance with their peculiar dispositions, they consider as no way objectionable. Thus the miser thanks God that he is no spendthrift, and calls his avarice frugality, industry, and foresight; but foresight does not limit itself to the acquisition of riches, but looks also to the use to be made of them. Does that deserve the name of industry which employs the meanest arts to accumulate stores useless to himself as well as to all around? Is that worthy of the name of frugality which allows garments to be moth-eaten lest they should be wasted in wearing, and stores to be devoured by insects from eagerness to obtain an advanced price? The covetous man may be praised by beings as selfish as himself; but his state is like that of the prisoner, and no jailer was ever so vigilant and iron-hearted as avarice, and the bread and water of affliction are more nourishing and sweet than the bread of carefulness.

Profusion is often styled generosity by the children of this world. The man who refuses to pay his debts, who shines in the equipage with which the industrious have entrusted him, and suffers the family of his creditor to labour under privations, from which his fulfilling their just demands might save them, while he squanders vast sums on objects of folly and amusement, and in enriching the minions of fashionable dissipation, is extolled as possessing a noble and liberal heart. But such a man acts a part as base as it is

thoughtless. Generosity touches not what justice claims as its due; and when it gives what it can call its own, it selects its objects with wisdom, and bestows relief in a manner adapted to be most permanently useful.

There is no word which is more abused than honour. In the fashionable acceptation of it, how limited is its code! The only debts of which it requires payment are those contracted at the gaming table; and to avenge an affront in the blood of him that gave it, is a requirement so indispensable that infamy is attached to him that demands not this satisfaction. By its law the seduction of innocence, and the ruin of the domestic happiness of a friend, are no crime. Innocence is the beauty, justice the credit, and mercy the glory of

man.

Often too is intemperance called hospitality and good neighbourhood. But that cannot be true hospitality which urges a visitor to injure his health, or expose himself to ridicule, by excess in drinking; nor can that be good neighbourhood which lies in persons meeting to make not merely fools but brutes of each other. That intercourse alone is worthy of the name in which moderate festivity is conjoined with improving conversation, and sweetened by undissembled courtesy.

Crooked policy is often called prudence. The man who induces another to disclose a secret, the knowledge of which may be of service to him-who takes advantage of the ignorance of a dealer to impose on him an inferior article-who sides with the most opposite parties to maintain favour with them all-who will not contradict those whom he fears to disoblige, while using language contrary to truth and offensive to modesty-is deemed a very wise personage by many, but in the sight of Heaven he is a fool. His hollowness is soon detected, he is trusted by none, and despised by all.

The most shocking instance of the abuse of language will be found in the odious epithets which are given to religious excellencies. Few have the audacity to reprobate the graces and the virtues of Christianity in direct terms, but their enemies exhibit them in forms adapted to excite laughter or disgust. Faith they call credulity; the believers of the gospel are described as persons who will swallow any thing, however gross. But the charge of credulity comes with a bad grace from those who can receive and

abet such direct contradictions to the best historical and moral evidence, and who can retail the often refuted cavils of infidels with as much confidence as if they were unanswered and unanswerable. Christianity has never yet been assailed by any in the form of fair argument, nor can a mind open to conviction examine it without being struck with its truth. Religious fervour is styled enthusiasm, as if there was no distinction betwixt the workings of a heated fancy and the animation that is kindled by piety, abounding in all knowledge and in all judgment. They will kindle into rapture at the pictures which romance draws of ideal, or history of real, characters, and yet ridicule those as enthusiasts whose hearts glow in the contemplation of that character of our Lord which is full of grace and truth, which is delineated with such simplicity and power in the gospels, and which will be contemplated in heaven with everlasting admiration.

Self-denial, too, is called monkish austerity, and the sarcasms which have been pointed at the rigours of monastic life have been applied to the sober and the grave-as if there was any resemblance betwixt the scourge, the hair-cloth, and the vigils of superstition, and the moral restraint which is required by wisdom, and exercised by sobriety and holy fear. The forgiving spirit of the gospel is reprobated as a base and cowardly temper, while it shows a greatness and strength of mind which can control the most impetuous of the passions. The good man's exact attendance on religious ordinances is called a being righteous over much-a phrase which is often grossly misapplied. Its meaning is, "Be not rigorous in insisting to the utmost on your lawful claims, but show, when you can, mercy and indulgence." When death comes, how few of the modes of spending time will bear the review of that hour, and how many have then wished that the seasons which they occupied in the pageantry and the dissipations of the world, had been spent in religious exercises!

It would be easy to specify various perversions of terms in the language which is employed by different sects and parties in speaking of the tenets and practices of each other. Thus justification by faith, and salvation by grace, are represented by some as Antinomianism, while they suggest the most powerful motives to holiness; and, on the other hand, inculcating Christian morality has

been branded as legal doctrine, while it is the necessary fruit, the only certain evidence, and the brightest glory of evangelical principles. Separation from church fellowship, when rendered necessary by its tyranny and corruption, has been branded as schism; the most valuable improvements in tenets and forms has been styled apostacy; and the wanton excesses of caprice, insolence, and folly, have been dignified with the goodly epithet of Christian liberty.

I shall conclude this long detail by adverting shortly to the perversion of terms so common in political discussions. Servility and sycophancy are epithets which have been lavished on all supporters of the political institutions of their country; while every attempt to improve them has been stigmatised by others as sedition and disaffection. It cannot be forgotten what abuses have been contended for as essential arrangements of social order, and that the rights of man were considered as sanctioning the pillage of the wealthy, and the murder of all who stood in the way of innovation. Liberty has been the watchword of rebellion; the maintenance of public peace the pretext for perpetrating abuses and oppression; while reformation has been in some cases the cover for movements which lead to the utter destruction of what it pretended to purify.

Since this misapplication of language tends to subvert all moral distinctions, and since it must have the most fatal effects on the principles and the virtue of man, we ought to oppose it in every form. Let us not give it our sanction on any occasion. To guard us against it, let us study the word and the law of God, and regulate our opinions and con

duct by them; let us implore the illumination of the Holy Ghost, and beseechi him to make us know what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God, and to give us firmness to adhere to it. Let us remember that our safest guides in morality are those whom the scoffer ridicules as antiquated and puritanical in their views and habits, because their principles are strict and their spirits are tender. If at any time we feel a favourable impression of principles and conduct which we once abhorred-if any grace and service of religion seem less amiable to us than it once did, we must consider this decay of moral susceptibility as a dangerous symptom, and by penitence and prayer we must turn again to the wisdom of the just. Let us not be influenced by the number nor the power of corrupt men to judge favourably of their maxims, nor let the elegance and beauty of its language charm us into an approbation of any improper sentiment. Let us labour to instil into the minds of the young just ideas of right and wrong, good and evil. By establishing in them correct notions on these points we shall guard them from the sophistry which would palliate vice and degrade religion. Books of such a cast should not be admitted into our dwellings, nor should such conversation be tolerated at the table. And let us anticipate the righteous and final judgment of God, in which every act and principle will appear in its true colours-when the deceitfulness of sin shall operate no longer, and when the vengeance of Heaven shall fall on those who called evil good, and good evil. Were such a scene ever in our view, what manner of persons should we not be in all holy conversation and godliness!

H. B.

Ir has now become very common, when the growing information and independence of the lower orders of society are mentioned, to remark that "the schoolmaster is abroad," and that to the increase and comparative cheapness of the means of instruction the progressive intelligence of the labouring classes is to be ascribed. The observation is a just one; for at no period of the history of any nation was so much done, as is now doing in Great Britain, to advance the

knowledge and promote the intellectual culture of the people. The establishment of schools, in almost every corner of the island, for the gratuitous, or nearly gratuitous, education of the children of the poor-the dissemination of literary and scientific intelligence in a cheap and familiar form-and the opening of village libraries, and reading-rooms, and lectureships, for the benefit of the tradesman and the artisan-constitute altogether an aggregate of moral power which, when

brought fully to bear on the minds of the inhabitants of this country, must produce an important influence on the national character, and form a new era in the annals of the British empire.

It is to be regretted, however, that in promoting the intellectual improvement of the labouring classes their religious interests are not uniformly and steadily kept in view. It is to be regretted, that the information so cheaply and indefatigably circulated amongst them is so exclusively secular in its nature. It is to

be regretted, that when Christianity is at all alluded to, in the publications intended for the mechanic and the labourer, it is not in a manner calculated to arrest the attention or to benefit the heart. It is to be regretted, in short, that the schoolmaster, who is abroad amongst our countrymen, is not a schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ."

It may, perhaps, be said, that a man cannot be always thinking about religion, and that an undivided attention to the concerns of his soul would unfit him for converse with, and usefulness in, the world. There is some truth in this observation; but it is not true to the extent that is generally supposed. It is true that the concerns of the flesh will occasionally intrude themselves and engross the attention even of the most enlightened Christian. In our present imperfect state of being, a total abstraction from the things of the world is not to be attained; although the greater our growth in grace the nearer will be our approach to it. But it is not true, on the other hand, that a man is incapacitated for intercourse with, or usefulness in, the world, by making the eternal interests of his soul his first and chief concern; on the contrary, his fitness for the one, and the probability of his eminence in the other, will be increased tenfold. If this life be, in very deed, but the infancy of our being, and the school in which we are to be trained for eternity-if, after the lapse of a very few years at most, we are to pass into another and an interminable state of existence-if, in that other and yet untried state, we are to be unceasingly happy or unceasingly miserable, according as we have, or have not, sought and obtained while here an interest in the Redeemer's blood-and if in that eternity of bliss, to which the ransomed of the Lord look forward with hope and confidence, our employment is to consist in the contemplation of the Divine perfec

tions, and the ascription of glory, and honour, and dominion, and praise, to our exalted Emmanuel-then, what is, or what can be, the fittest preparation for our entrance into the unseen world, but the habitual sense of the Divine presence, and the habitual desire to promote the Divine glory in this?

Let not our meaning be misunderstood. It is not necessary that the name of God be always on our lips; but it is necessary that the law of God be continually written upon our hearts. It is not necessary that the love of the Redeemer be the unvaried theme of our conversation; but it is necessary that it be steadily and prominently kept before the mental eye, in order that it may impress the understanding and influence the life. It is not necessary that, in striving to enlighten the minds of our countrymen, we should instruct them in spiritual things to the exclusion of temporal; but it is necessary, whether we regard them as immortal or as accountable beings, that we teach them to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." The eternal interests of man are precisely those which he is the most apt to neglect, the medium through which they solicit his attention being a spiritual one. Independently, therefore, of their paramount importance, it is requisite that they be early and impressively placed before him, in order that they may give a tone and a colouring to all his other pursuits.

But while it is to be lamented that the "schoolmaster," who is abroad amongst our tradesmen and mechanics, is not a schoolmaster to bring them to the Saviour, it is also to be regretted that much, indeed most, of the literature, which circulates amongst the higher classes of of society, is equally worldly in its character. The taste for what is called light reading is strikingly prevalent in the circles referred to; and hence the one pervading characteristic of the publications, intended for their perusal, is flippant nothingness. The good breeding of the age has, in a great measure, banished profaneness and obscenity from the fashionable world; and hence they are also banished from the novel and the magazine: yet both continue as trifling as ever. Profaneness has only been exchanged for punning, and obscenity for doggerel; the taste and the sentiment have undergone no elevation. Nor is the case materially different with the annuals, the gaudy and flimsy offspring of modern taste. In