MAY the dear Saviour be unceasingly precious to your soul. May you be able to rejoice in his pardoning mercy; look upwards, there is still hope for you in the infinite merits of his atoning sacrifice. Hear him say to you, " I have blotted out as a cloud thy transgressions, as a thick cloud thy sins," " "only acknowledge thine iniquity," and put it "far from thee, and thou shalt be built up, yea thou shalt be established," "and the light shall (again) shine upon thy ways."

Yes, believe me, poor mourning friend, that there is hope for "that it you: you have proved is an evil thing and bitter that you have departed from the Lord; you have been wearied in the greatness of thy way," and your "own backslidings have reproved you." Therefore now, now that you are sick of sin, now that you "loathe yourself in your own sight for all the abominations you have committed," now that you feel the weight and burden of your sins, now listen to the word of the Lord, and pray that you may find comfort and encouragement from it. "If thou wilt return, saith the Lord, return unto me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then thou shalt not remove." Oh, these are cheering words to the sincere penitent backslider, for no doubt the reverse must have shut you out from the fellowship of the saints, from the privileges of the gospel; and as "your sins have separated from you and your God," and the regarding of iniquity shut out your prayer before him, you have very likely feared that his " mercy was clean gone for ever," and that he would have compassion on you no more; but there yet is hope, he still restoreth your soul; he saith, return unto me, and I will re

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turn unto you, for I am merciful and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you." Oh, let humble faith hear the invitation, and with the church of old, say, "Behold I come unto thee, for thou art the Lord my God; and with overcoming gratitude, exclaim, "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage ? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." This is a cheering, and delightful, and important portion of the word of God; the pardoning and restoring mercy of God is inseparably connected here with the forsaking of sin, with the subduing of all iniquity, and the deepest humility of soul in the returning backslider. Yes, the deepest humility will ever be the uppermost feeling before the Lord; the words of the Prophet will be fully understood by such an one- "That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God." Yes, dear friend, humility will be your every day feeling. I hope indeed, and shall fear for you, if it is not so, until you get beyond the reach of temptation, and sin, and sorrow. And this humility will have a most beneficial influence upon you in future, it will lead to prayer and watchfulness. All these must never be disunited in your experience; they must never be laid aside, for to use the powerful words of Dr. Owen, They who pray as they ought, will endeavour to live as they pray;' which includes watch

ing unto prayer, and if you sincerely pray against an easily besetting sin, you will be willing and desirous to watch against it, -do not forget this,-a truly gracious praying frame, says the same good man, is utterly inconsistent with the love of, or reserve for any known sin; and those who can live in sin, and abide in the ordinary duties of prayer, never pray as they ought;' for prayer, real heart-felt prayer, will lead to the leaving off of sinning, or as a consequence, sin will harden the heart, and make prayer become formal; so that it shall be no prayer at all. Dear friend, watch then and be sober; praise the Lord, that he hath not left you unwarned to fill up the measure of your iniquity, and to go back by a perpetual backsliding,-rejoice in the means he hath employed however painful, to the flesh, to bring you back again to himself, "abide in Christ with the deepest humility, fear and trembling, by

prayer and watchfulness, always preferring suffering to sinning, and with

"Your joy for pardoned sin,

to

Mourn that you pierced the Lord." To the dear Lord Jesus I now commend you; and may that grace, which restored and kept Peter, still keep you,—and be concerned to grow in grace, walk humbly before bim, to abide in him; and in the solemn words of Jude, keep yourself in the love of God." Look to yourself that you lose not the things you have wrought, but that you may obtain a full reward. "God is able to keep you from falling," while you walk in his ways, and avoid and pass by the ways of evil, and "remembering the wormwood and the gall," daily cry, "hold thou me up and I shall be safe," shall I be saved from my enemies."

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That the Lord may have you daily, hourly, in his holy keeping, is the sincere desire of your

AFFECTIONATE FRIEND.

THE following letter from the poet Cowper to his kinsman, the Rev. John Johnson, on the occasion of his ordination, will be read with interest:

'Weston, Aug. 2, 1793. 'I am glad that your auditors find your voice strong, and your utterance distinct; glad, too, that your doctrine has made you no enemies. You have a gracious Master, who, it seems, will not suffer you to see war in the beginning. It will be a wonder, however, if you do not, sooner or later, find out that sore place in every heart which can ill endure the touch of apostolic doctrine. Somebody will smart in his conscience, and you will hear of it. I say not this, to terrify, but to prepare you for that which is likely

to happen, and which troublesome as it may prove, is yet devoutly to be wished; for, in general, there is little good done by preachers till the world begins to abuse them. But understand me aright. I do not mean that you should give them unnecessary provocation, by scolding and railing at them, as some, more zealous than wise, are apt to do. That were to deserve their anger. No; there is no need of it. The self-abasing doctrines of the gospel will, of themselves, create you enemies; but remember this for your comfort- they will also, in due time, transform them into friends, and make them love you, as if they were your own children. God give you many such; as, if you are faithful to his cause, I trust he will!' Grimshawe's Cowper, Vol. v. p. 167.

WE cannot at the moment recollect any two volumes of equal size, which contain so little intrinsically worth notice as those before us; they have, however, acquired a considerable degree of interest from their author's and editor's connexion with the so-called Oxford Tracts, and we are therefore induced to bestow upon them some observations.

The following is the editor's outline of Mr. F.'s history:

The author of the volumes now presented to the Christian reader, was the eldest son of the Venerable Robert H. Froude, Archdeacon of Totness, and was born and died in the Parsonage House of Darlington, in the county of Devon. He was born in 1803, on the feast of the Annunciation; and he died of consumption on the 28th of February, 1836, when he was nearly thirty-three, after an illness of four years and a half. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, having previously had the great advantage, while at Ottery Free School, of living in the family of the Rev. George Coleridge. He went to Eton in 1816, and came into residence as a commoner of Oriel College, in the spring of 1821. In 1824, he took the degree of B. A. after having obtained on his examination, high, though not the highest honours both in the Literæ Humaniores, and the Disciplinæ Mathematicæ et Physicæ. At Easter 1826, he was elected Fellow of his college, and in 1827 was admitted to his M. A.'s degree. The same year he accepted the office of tutor, which he held till 1830. In December 1828, he received Deacon's orders, and the year after Priest's, from the last and present Bishops of Oxford. The disorder which terminated his life, first showed itself in the summer of 1831; the winter of 1832, and the following spring, he passed in the south of Europe, and the two next winters, and the year between them, (1834) in the West Indies. The illness which immediately preceded his death, lasted but a few weeks.

The editors then proceed to account for the extent of the present publication, which they especially ascribe to the truth and extreme importance of the views to the

developement of which, the whole is meant to be subservient,' &c. Now we are not exactly sure what this means. Do the editors intend to assert the truth and importance of Mr. Froude's own views? Or are these views meant to be subservient to some other discoveries? Or do the editors mean to recommend Mr. F's character and conduct as deserving of imitation? If so, why do they not speak out explicitly? Was there, at the time of writing this preface, any misgiving on their part, that the work in which they were engaged, would scarcely bear the light, and that it might be convenient to have some loop-hole by which they might escape, from being identified with the sentiments of their departed friend?

The first part of the work consists of a letter from the author's mother; extracts from his private journal; and occasional thoughts. The perusal of these continually excites the inquiry-what could the editors be about to publish such a farrago? Did they really mean to exhibit their friend as a thoughtless boy at home; or as a student, fellow and tutor of imbecile mind, wavering conduct, slender information, and considerable vanity? This is indeed what they have done. If they meant it, they were traitors to their friend. If they had no such intention, they must have been marvellously deficient in sound judgment and common sense. Surely these are not the men who are to re-edify our church!

These extracts are followed by a series of letters, which appear to us the only part of the work worth reading; though it is not always easy to determine what the writer really intends. Of this the editors

themselves are aware, and attempt an explanation. Mr. F., like other young men, appears to have been fond of strong, figurative, and paradoxical expressions. He hates where he does not quite approve. He admires when objects are not utterly abominable. He often threw out, both in his correspondence and his conversation, crude and hasty thoughts, though evidently without the least idea of their being recorded and published to all the world. For such publication his surviving friends are responsible, and it is impossible to acquit them of gross indiscretion.

The second volume contains Twenty Sermons, Six portions of Sermons, and several Miscellaneous Papers. The Sermons especially may be regarded as containing their author's deliberate views. They have evidently been written with care, and several of them were delivered in the College Chapel or before the University. Here then at all events we may conclude the author would state those views which he deemed important, and here therefore we may fairly expect the developement of that system which their author and his friends

desire to promote. But the more carefully these discourses are examined the stronger is our conviction-this is not the Christian system. It is not the system of our church. It is the system which an Arian, or a Socinian might promulgate; and which has no necessary connexion with any of the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel of Christ.

Two of these Sermons close with extracts from the Collects, in which divine teaching is sought through Christ; but there is not in the whole of these Twenty Sermons, as far as we can recollect, one single, allusion to the doctrine of the atonement; there is no reference to the intercession of Christ; there is scarcely an allusion to the subject of regeneration; there is no explanation of the nature of

repentance or faith; no indication of the necessity of holiness of heart as well as life; nothing to awaken the sinner; to direct the inquirer, to animate and quicken the believer. There is scarcely an expression which Cicero, Seneca, or Epictetus might not suggest; quotations from the Bible are rare; you turn over page after page without so much as seeing the name of Christ, or meeting with any the most remote allusion to the the Holy Spirit ; though the latter divine agent is in some of Mr. F.'s private papers, more distinctly recognized than the former.

Now then we ask, Is this the Christianity which the projectors and editors of the so called Oxford Tracts mean to inculcate ? Is this a style of preaching which they desire to adopt themselves, or recommend to others? if so, they may well, with our author describe the Reformation as a limb badly set, which must be broken again in order to be righted.' They may well hate the Reformers, consider Latimer as something in the Bulteel line,'' adore king Charles and Bishop Laud,' and pour contempt on Bible Christians.

And here we feel strongly disposed to close the present article ; but considering the party by whom these remains were edited, the publications by which they are recommended, and the activity of their author, in devising and promoting the modern OXFORD SCHISM, it seems desirable that we should append a few additional observations, which may perhaps lead those who are at present favourably inclined towards the Tracts for the Times, to contemplate their real tendency. And first it strikes us, that the effect which Mr. Froude's views had upon his own personal religion, deserves serious consideration. Here is a young man, who for four years and a half, is subject to complaints of a highly dangerous