Christ's Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies concerning the last Time, occasioned by a late Memorial published by a Number of Ministers in Scotland, and sent over to America, giving an Account of a certain Concert for Prayer, which has already been come into by many Ministers and others in Great Britain, and some other Parts, and in which they desire the general Coucurrence of their Christian Brethren every where." The work is divided into three parts. In the first, the passage in Zechariah viii. 20, 21, 22, is explained, and an account is given of the plan proposed in the Memorial from Scotland. The second points out various motives for complying with the proposal, and dwells upon the following ideas: 1. That the glory of the latter day is not yet accomplished; 2. That it will be unspeakably great; 3. That our Lord prayed, and laboured, and suffered in order to its accomplishment; and 4. That the whole creation waits with earnest expectation for that blessed period. The remaining heads relate to the precepts and encouragements, examples and motives to union among Christians; and the beauty and beneficial tendency of such a spirit. In the third part, the author replies to the following objections: 1. That such an agreement is superstitious; 2. That it is whimsical and pharisaical; 3. That it is premature; and 4. That the fall of Antichrist is yet at a great distance. He concludes with desiring every serious Christian to consider whether he can excuse himself from complying with the proposal. He thus writes: "The members of one church in one country, are coming to others in distant countries, saying, Let us go speedily and constantly to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts.' Will it not be come us readily to say, I will go also? What these servants of Christ ask of us is not silver or gold, or any of our outward substance; or that we should put ourselves to any cost, or do any thing that will be likely to expose us to any remarkable trouble, difficulty, or suffering in our outward interest, but only that we would help together with them by our prayers to God for the greatest mercy in the world- -a mercy which as much concerns us as them, for the glory of their Lord and ours, for the great advancement of our common interest and happiness, and the happiness of our fellowcreatures through all nations;—a mercy of which, at this day especially, there is great need; a mercy which we in this land do stand in particular need of; a mercy which the word of God requires us to make the subject-matter of our prayers above all other mercies, and gives us more encouragement to pray earnestly and unitedly to Him for than any other mercy; and a mercy which the providence of God towards the world of mankind at this day loudly calls the people of God to pray for. I think we cannot reasonably doubt but, that these ministers have acted a part becoming the disciples of the great Messiah, and ministers of His kingdom, and have done the will of God according to His word, in setting forward such an affair at this day, and in proposing it to us; and therefore I desire it may be considered whether we shall not really sin against God in refusing to comply with their proposal and request, or in neglecting it, or turning it bye with but little notice and attention therein, disregarding that which is truly a call of God to us." M. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE paper of your correspondent H., though highly useful and seasonable, is not, I think, sufficiently explicit on several points of great importance in connexion with his subject. I will allude to two only, The first is, that though God is the Sovereign Disposer of all things, and though without Him "nothing is strong, nothing is holy," yet that he ordinarily works by human instruments; and that hence it would be most unscriptural to expect the effusion of his Holy Spirit, except so far as we are diligently employ ing the means which he has placed in our hands. Your correspondent, I am sure, from the general tenour of his paper, did not intend to convey any idea contrary to this great principle in theology; indeed his whole argument, when rightly view ed, is only an exhortation to the use of one of the means placed in our power, namely, earnest prayer for the Holy Spirit's influence; but I think the impression left by his suggestions upon the mind of a cursory reader may be of a somewhat enthusiastic nature, as if we were to look for an effusion of the Holy Spirit in a manner resembling the day of Pentecost, and were to build our hopes rather upon the expectation of miraculous agency than of bumble and diligent exertion: Your correspondent does not, I am aware, intend to intimate that we may safely remit our efforts, but only to teach us to look far above and beyond them for their success; but still I think that the tone of his paper is somewhat unguarded, and I could have wished that he had particularly urged us to pray not only abstractedly for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but also for such an outpouring of it as has especial reference to increased exertion, faith, humility, and perseverance on the part of Christians, and to the disposing the hearts of the heathen, like that of Lydia, for the reception of the Gospel. The second point on which the paper seems defective is in not more distinctly specifying the nature of the union among Christians, which the writer wishes to effect. I say, more distinctly specifying," be cause though H. speaks of it only as "an union of hearts," and as not intended to interfere with the pri vate opinions of different classes of Christians, yet I believe many persons have construed his paper in a very different light, and have supposed him to wish for such an union as could not at present take place without large sacrifices and many inconveniences. I greatly approve of his exhortation to Christians generally to pray in private and in their families for the abundant effusion of the influences of the Holy Spirit; and to ministers to make the same subject a duly prominent topic in their public addresses; but any thing like a systematic cooperation among different denominations of Christians is, I fear, quite unattainable. No clergyman, for example, could feel authorized, in consistency with his principles of ecclesiastical discipline, in meeting a society of Dissenters on this footing. Nor would it, I think, be either feasible or expedient to institute public courses of lectures on the subject, and much less to organize a society for promoting the general purpose. We have already lectures and societies in abundance; and I trust that the necessity of the Holy Spirit's influences has not been lost sight of by Christians, to the extent your correspondent seems to suppose. At the same time, the greater our reverence for that Divine Agent, and the more humbly and implicitly we look to his gracious influences to sanctify and bless our feeble and unworthy endeavours, the more hopefully may we anticipate the manifestation of His power. It is highly important, therefore, to keep the subject prominently in mind, and though we are not either to look for Pentecostal miracles, or to expect, in the present state of the Christian church, such a general union among Christians as involves a sacrifice of their individual opinions and prepossessions, yet all may pray pri In the passage of which these words form a part, the kingdom of heaven, or the Gospel-dispensation, is represented as a marriage made by a king for his son; and the graces and blessings of that dispensation are described as an entertainment, of which mankind are invited to partake. When all things are ready, messengers are sent to call the guests; but instead of complying with the invitation, they refuse to come. The invitation is repeated; messengers are again sent to describe the richness of the feast, and to urge their compliance. But those whom they address are said to slight the invitation: they make light of it: one goes away to his farm, another to his merchandize; and the rest take his servants and use them despitefully, and even slay them. Now, this account of the recep. tion which Christ's Gospel would meet with in the world is strictly accurate. Every circumstance of it has been exactly fulfilled. Men have made light of its invitations in every age. They have heard, and gone away careless or disgusted. They have preferred the care of their estates to the care of their souls, the business of their trade to the concerns of their salvation, the pleasure of heaping up riches on earth to that of sitting down at the marriage-supper of the Lamb. In some ages they have gone so far as to persecute the messengers of God's grace; to treat them as outcasts of the world, as the "offscouring of all things;" nay, they have condemned them and put them to death. Such excesses as these, are now, thank God, no more. But though the messengers be not slain, the message is still slighted. Many openly avow their dislike to it; more turn away from it in silent disregard, and drive away all thought of it in other to which the text directs our atemployments. This is the point tention. And my purpose is to enquire first into the reasons why the offers of salvation are thus undervalued, and next to shew the folly and danger of such conduct. 1. Now, one very obvious reason of it is this, that men are unduly attached to the world and its enjoyments. One goes, like the persons referred to in the parable, to his farm, and another to his merchandize; or, as St. Luke relates the matter, they make a variety of excuses: one has bought a piece of ground, and must see it; another five yoke of oxen, and must prove them; a third has married a wife, and therefore he cannot come. Thus do the pleasures of the world, on the one hand, and the profits of it on the other, divert us from our most important interests; and we continue to live as if the end for which we were made was no higher than that of the brutes, and as if like them we were to perish. Look at the conduct of the great mass of mankind. Would any one infer from it that they were to live hereafter, or that their happiness or misery in a future state depended on the preparation they now make for it? Without holiness," says the Bible, “no man shall see the Lord." But with whom is holiness the object of pursuit? If decent behaviour, and a little outward respect to the ceremonies of religion, be holiness, many there are who aim at that qualification. But if holiness imply that our tempers and dispositions must be changed; that our duty to God must be the first duty, and the interests of our souls the first interest, all things else being in subserviency to this; that our affections must be set on things above, and the world be in a manner crucified to us by the cross of Christ; and that the life we now live in the flesh must be a life of faith on the Son of God; then are there few who can be regarded as qualified for heaven. The outward observance of religion may agree very well with a prevailing love of the world; but true religion in the heart implies the suppression of that love; and none will ever come to the spiritual feast, while his appetite is set on the husks of worldly profit or carnal pleasure. anxiety. If tears could purchase 2. Another reason why so many slight the offers of the Gospel is their ignorance of the excellence of its blessings, and of their peculiar value to themselves, as suited to their circumstances as perishing sinners. Men of the world do not see this. They have no high conception of the value of pardon, because they feel but little of the burden of sin. As for peace of conscience, theirs has never been disturbed. Tell them of sanctification, of being born again of the Spirit, of being renewed in holiness after the image of their Creator; they have no wish to be more holy than they are. Urge the hope of happiness in heaven, they do not love even to think of leaving the world: therefore this hope is treated with indifference. But did they know the real nature of those things, and their need of them, it would not be so. Some times by the grace of God one of of these infatuated worldlings is brought to a sense of his condition. He becomes convinced that he is a sinner, that he lies under the guilt of sin, and is exposed to condemnation on account of it. Then the case is altered. That pardon of which he thought so little once is now the object of his most earnest 3. Another reason for slighting the Gospel is a dislike of the selfdenial which it requires. We should be willing enough to have some of these blessings, if we might have them as we are. But when we find that we must renounce our lusts, then we hesitate. Perhaps it is but one sin we would keep; one little sin, as we esteem it, in which we think we may be pardoned. Let us but retain this, and we will give up every thing else, and comply with the invitation. But every sin must be given up, without reserve and without delay, These are only the devices of Satan. Christ will have all the heart, or none. Consider the case of the rich young Hebrew in the Gospel. His character was such that Jesus loved him. "Yet," said our Saviour to him, 'lackest, thou one thing: go sell all that thou, bast and give to the poor, and come and follow Me, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." He went away sorrowful, it is said; but yet he went away. Our Lord had detected the lurking corruption of his heart; and he demanded the sacrifice of it. And he will thus demand of us the sacrifice of every feeling which is in any respect opposed to Him. 4. The manner in which these blessings are to be received, is another objection. Men in their fallen state are proud: they dream of worth and merit. To owe all their salvation to another, to acknowledge themselves unworthy of the least favour from Heaven; this is not agreeable to their feelings. It does not by any means comport with the notions they entertain of themselves. Yet this is required by the Gospel. Our acceptance with God is there placed, not on the ground of our merits, either wholly or in part, but on that of God's mercy through Jesus Christ, Pardon, sanctification, and eterual blessedness, as their value is far beyond any price which we could pay, so they are not to be purchased. If obtained at all, they must be taken freely, without money and without price. They must be received with an acknowledgment, and with a conviction too, that we do not and never can deserve them. And this is so contrary to the views and wishes of natural men, that light and grace from Heaven are necessary to make them feel it; and without these, if we think of heaven and its happiness at all, we wish for them upon other terms. Such are some of the reasons which may be given for men making light of the Gospel. Some of them love the things of the world too much; some do not understand the value of what they refuse; some dislike the self-denial it requires; and some are not humbled enough to accept of it as it is offered. But, whatever be the motive, the neglect itself is foolish and dangerous in the extreme. 1. In the first place, if there be any truth in the Bible, it is putting a direct affront upon God. He, no doubt, esteems his message as a matter of high importance to us. The scheme of salvation, as reveal-' ed to us, is a contrivance of infinite wisdom. The dispensations of Providence in every age, have been made subservient to it. The Prophets of old time were employed to make way for the accomplishment of the great design, the advent of Christ, to complete our redemption. For this indeed the world itself has been continued. For this the Scriptures have been preserved in their purity, notwithstanding the lapse of ages, and the efforts of all their enemies. And is. it not an affront to make light of that for which God has employed so much of his wisdom and power? What can such despisers expect? How shall they escape, if they neglect this salvation? Are we of this number? Do we make light of Him who could crush us in a moment? Do we make light of Him who has spared us when we deserved punishment, and kept us alive to this day, notwithstanding our provocations, to hear once more the invitation which we have so often declined? Do we make light of Him whose love for us has been stronger than death? Shall we continue to do so, and feel neither dread nor remorse? 2. Again: To make light of this message is trifling with our own happiness. Shall we shew no regard to ourselves? Shall we live as if we cared not what became of |