creeds, with an unbridled love of pleasure and of gold, by means of which any thing may be obtained? All is bought, for all is sold; conscience, honour, religion, opinions, dignities, power, consideration, even respect; a vast shipwreck of all truths and all virtues." Indifference, total indifference to religion-the uttermost neglect and contempt of Christianity, as a thing unworthy of examination—are the characteristics of modern infidelity in France. In Germany the spirit of unbelief assumes the name of Rationalism, and pretends to respect the character of Christ; while, under the guise of Christianity, it boldly subjects the revelation of God to the judgments and criticisms of man's reason, rejects all that is incomprehensible by our limited faculties, deprives the Gospel of all its peculiar and divinely revealed doctrines, tramples in contempt on the universal belief of all Christians from the beginning, arraigns the Scriptures themselves of falsehood and folly, and leaves the mind at last without one particle of Christian faith or hope. This destructive system arose among the Protestants of Germany after the middle of the last century. It has unhappily become almost universally prevalent amongst them. Though England has, through the infinite mercy of God, been comparatively unvisited by the scourges which have so terribly afflicted the nations of the Continent, and though open infidelity has been always met, confronted, and subdued by the energy of religious zeal, it cannot but inspire alarm to behold the wide dissemination of principles which tend, by a very short descent, to the overthrow of all faith. Such appears to be the character of that most erroneous notion, that sincerity is the only test of religion, so that he who persuades himself that he is right in his faith, believes all that is necessary for his salvation; for if this be true, it cannot be necessary to believe any particular doctrine of Christianity; it cannot be necessary to prefer Christ to Mahomet, and belief in Christ cannot be (as the Gospel says it is) the condition on which men shall be saved. How true is it that the evil one clothes himself as an angel of light? In the last century infidelity appeared under the specious garb of philosophy and freedom of thought; it is now insinuating itself under the disguise of charity, kindness, and liberality. All modes of faith are treated with impartial favour, all are regarded as equally true; and the hour may be at hand when the necessary conclusion will be drawn, that they are all equally false. There is much in the spirit of the age to threaten such lamentable results;-a spirit of unsatiable inquiry, not always accompanied by modesty or patience-a thirst for novelty-a superficial information-the adoration of intellect and of knowledge-and the exclusive devotion of men to sciences which relate to merely material objects. All combine to show the dangers to which belief is exposed; and to warn the church of God, that renewed watchfulness, and humility, and zeal, are more than ever imperatively called for. HORTATORY SERIES. THE CHRISTIAN REARING TO THE LORD AN ALTAR AND A PILLAR. A SERMON, BY THE REV. W. JAY. PREACHED AT ARGYLE CHAPEL, BATH, ON SUNDAY MORNING, JAN. 5, 1840. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord."-Isaiah xix. 19. THIS is spoken even of Egypt. The We know not the precise time of the Egyptians had been the enemies of accomplishment of this prophecy, and it God, the oppressors and persecutors of is not necessary to take pains to ascerHis people; and shall these become tain it. We would only make two ge"Israelites indeed," and "Abraham's seed," and "heirs according to the promise?" "Thou hast a mighty arm, strong is Thy hand, and high is Thy right hand!" neral remarks;-First observing, that the Egyptians are here spoken of as an instance, an ensample of the extensive operations of Divine grace. For, as we read in other passages of unquestionable authority, "From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts"-(Mal. i. 11). "And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea; in summer and in winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day there shall be one Lord, and His name one" (Zech. xiv. 8, 9). Blessed period! when men shall no longer be strangers and enemies no longer "strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, but féllow citizens with the saints and of the household of God;" when, "in that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria; and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land; whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance"-(verse 23-25). a domestic altar for God—and a private altar for God. You are to have a public altar for God-a public altar-an altar in the sanctuary; so that with David you may exclaim-"Then will I go to the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy." Some tell us, they are now risen above all the formalities of religion, that they find every day a Sabbath, and every place a temple. Verily we do not believe them. We are persuaded, these men do not worship God at all, and that their design is to deceive those who do. We always find, that those who are most regardful of the Sabbath and the sanctuary, are the most attentive to all the other duties of life; and indeed one good work always prepares for another. Our nature is such, that we need seasons, and forms, and places of worship. The mind must be approached through the medium of the body; and our communion with things unseen and eternal must be maintained by means of things seen and temporal. God is to be glorified in our bodies as well as in our spirits, which are His. Wherever Abraham came, you find he immediately raised an altar to the Lord. Under the Jewish dispensation there was a tabernacle and a temple. You find that God also said to Moses, "In all places where I record My name, I will come unto thee and I will bless thee." Our Saviour attended in the synagogue and in the temple. His followers are commanded "not to forsake the assembling of themselves together." And in order to in But in considering communities andnations, we are not to overlook ourselves as individuals. What will it be to you, that there is to be "an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord," cite and encourage them, He hath said, if you do not serve Him, if you do not" Where two or three are gathered toworship and memorialize Him? And gether in My name, there am I in the therefore we come at once to our sub-midst of them." We may venture to ject. We are going to remind you of a twofold obligation under which you lie to God; first, you are to raise an altar to the Lord; and secondly, you are to rear a pillar for Him. Consider what I say, and the Lord give you understanding in all things. Your first obligation is to raise an altar to the Lord. This regards His worship. And our worship is infinitely due to Him, whether we consider the eminency of His perfections or His relation towards us. "A son (says He,) honoureth his father, and a servant his master; if then I be a Father, where is Mine honour? and if I be a Master, where is My fear? saith the Lord of Hosts." You are to have a public altar for God say, that it is impossible to maintain religion in a neighbourhood or a country without the public services of the sanctuary. By these, the various distinctions in civil life, which are lawful and now necessary, are preserved from becoming excessive. There the rich and poor meet together, in the presence of Him who is the Maker of them all. There are they reminded of their original equality-of their final equality-of their religious equality. And who has not often exclaimed "Lord how delightful 'tis to see A whole assembly worship Thee? At once they sing, at once they pray; They hear of heaven and learn the way." And how does this enliven our affection, -how much information is afforded! We see His beauty and we inquire in is in it—in the parlour, in the chamber, His temple. And oh! what consolation in the sofa, in the table," which is a is experienced there! for He is known in snare. On the other hand, "He blessHis palaces for a refuge. The widow eth the habitation of the just." As comes in and seats herself near the door, Job said "the secret of the Lord and draws to her knee her fatherless boy; was on his tabernacle," SO it is she wipes her eyes with the corner of her now. Hence, "A little that a righteous apron-let her alone, for her soul is man hath is better than the riches of vexed within her; but she there hears many wicked;" there is more relish that "God is a Father of the fatherless, with it, it goes further, it continues and a Judge of the widows in His holy longer. "Better is a dinner of herbs habitation." There she hears, "Let thy where love is," (the love of God espewidows trust in Me, and leave thy fa- cially,) "than a stalled ox and hatred therless children with Me;" and she de- therewith." "Better is a dry morsel parts rejoicing in the God of providence. and quietness therewith, than a housefull Where is the Christian, who has not of sacrifices with strife." "I will bless," saidsays God, "thy bread and thy water." God can curse your comforts, and God can bless your cares. "In every new distress, We'll think upon His wondrous grace, read of His rising a great while before day, of His going into a desert place apart, of His going up into a mountain apart to pray, and of His continuing You must have also a private altar; an altar in your closet. Can you quesYou are to have a domestic altar. tion this, after having heard Him say, Joshua had; and as the head of the na- "When thou prayest, enter into thy tion, said "Choose you this day whom closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, you will serve, but as forme and my house pray to thy Father which is in secret, we will serve the Lord." Family bless- and thy Father which seeth in secret ings demand family acknowledgements; shall reward thee openly?" You know, He family wants demand family suppli- was the example as well as the enjoiner cations; family sins require family of this. Beside His morning and evenconfessions. What does an angel ing retirements where He lived, or think, when he passes by the mansion of lodged rather, we read that "He went a man who is godless, however splen-out into the wilderness and prayed;" we did the building? I have nothing to do here, says he, but as a messenger of wrath. Here is a house where God is not adored-where God is not loved-where God is not feared-where God is not all night in prayer to God." Some of known. Good Mr. Dodd having been you complain that you have not time. hospitably entertained one evening, Daniel was the prime minister of only said, What, no family worship here? one hundred and twenty-seven provinces; then," said he, "I must withdraw, I but "Daniel," we are told, "his winnever can sleep where the door has no dows being open in his chamber towards lock, and where the house has no roof." Jerusalem, kneeled upon his knees No, my brethren; what is there to re- three times a day and prayed, and gave strain a man there? A man who per- thanks before His God, as he did aforeforms family worship feels a responsi- time." So then it was a constant prac bility arising from consistency of charac- tice with him. 'You are so full of enter. How can he swear and pray too?gagements.' Well, David had to give How can he foam and then "lift up holy audience to ambassadors, orders to gehands without wrath and doubting," be-nerals and magistrates, and presided over fore the same wife, the same children, a perturbed and divided kingdom; and and the same servants? What a restraint yet says David, "Morning, evening, and from evil does he feel! How much is there at noon will I pray, and Thou shalt hear to sanctify comforts, to soothe the mind my voice." under trials, to prepare for separation! and there must be partings; and if such friends part, it is the survivor bleeds. "The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked" says Solomon; not without it; not standing at the door ready to enter; not peeping in at the window; but We do not plead, as you well know, for an absolute abstraction from the world (unless indeed from the spirit of the world;) but a real Christian will not live a stranger to religious retirement. He will feel continually that he has much to do with God alone. There are three advantages, which ligation under which we lie to God to pertain to the private altar for worship. | rear a pillar for Him. The first results from frequency; for you This regards the remembrance, and can retire much oftener than you can go the memorial for Him. From the earliest to the courts of the Lord's house. You can ages, after any memorable achievement, easily seize a moment of leisure in the or remarkable occurence, or signal beshop; you can travel with God, if you choose,nefit, persons have shown a concern to when journeying; when engaged in perpetuate the recollection; sometimes your occupations, you may maintain an intercourse with God. As Nehemiah did, who was the king's cup bearer; who, while attending on his majesty, said prayed unto the God of heaven." The next advantage is freedom. For alone, you can make confessions that it would not be proper to make in the hearing of a fellow-creature. You can pour into the bosom of God things you do not feel at liberty to divulge to the dearest relation and friend upon earth. And you can pray for others in such strains, as, if you were socially engaged, would draw upon you the charge either of flattery or of severity. Friendship always deals much in secresy; and so does the friendship subsisting between God and the soul. 66 they gave a name for this purpose to the place where it happened; sometimes they made the name of a child a memo"Irandum. So it was with Joseph; "Joseph had two sons born unto him, and called the name of the firstborn Manasseh," (that is, Forgetfulness,) "for God," said he, "hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim," (that is, Fruitful,) " for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction." See the influence of example; Moses therefore does the same. Moses had two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom-A stranger; "for he said, "I have been a stranger in a strange lend;" and the name of the second was Eliezer-My God is my help; "for he said I have been an alin ien a strange land." Jacob, after his miraculous vision, "rose up early in the morning, and took the stone he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel ;" that is, the house of God. So when Joshua had crossed the river Jordan, "he took twelve stones and set them up in Gilgal, as a memorial of the children of Israel having passed over dryshod." So when Samuel had discomfited the Philistines, we are told, "he took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shem, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.' And the third advantage arises from sincerity. For private devotion, upon the whole, is a much better evidence of sincerity than public worship. There are many things in a public assembly calculated to excite and attract; the largeness of the place, the number present, the singing, or the eloquence of the preacher. "Thou art unto them," says God, as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear Thy words, but they do them not. But when a man retires, God must be the principal excitement and attraction. There must be something felt within of the disposition of David, who said, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth I desire beside In process of time the most splendid Thee." If you were in a large assembly, monuments were raised for these purwhere was a person you exceedingly dis-poses. It is in allusion to this custom liked, his presence would be tolerable that it is here said, there shall be " while others were present; but supposing pillar at the border thereof to the Lord;" all were withdrawn, and you were to re- at the very entrance, that all might main with this disliked person, how mise- see to whom they now belonged, and rable would you feel then! Do not judge what He had done for them, and how of yourselves by being here in this large they owned and acknowledged Him. assembly; think of being alone with God; endeavour to realize this, and then you can say, "It is good for me to draw near to God." We now shall remind you of our second obligation; and that is the ob a Let us look at the spirit and design of the action. And in the first place, I would call upon you to rear a pillar on which to record your former sorrows. 'Ah,' say some, we need no aid here; the wormwood and the gall was such an affliction to me; my soul hath it still in remem 6 composed a writing, and gave it to the leader of the psalmody in order that it might be sung in the temple; and he said, "The living, the living, he he shall praise Thee as I do this day." Paul says, "He who hath delivered, doth deliver, and we trust He will yet deliver us.' Who of you has not been in straits? You have not had manna poured down upon you from heaven, but the Lord has fed you all your life long. He may not have caused ravens to bring you bread and flesh morning and evening; but have not very unlikely characters been the means of supplying your need? There has not been so much a miracle, but there has been as much of mercy in all God's dispensations towards you down to this hour. And does it become you to forget them? Why should the wonders He hath wrought Be lost in silence and forgot?" brance, and is humbled within me.' Oh!' says one, how can I ever forget that hour when the strings were torn from my very heart, by the message, "I take away the desire of thine eyes with a stroke.' Could David ever forget the anguish of his soul, when he went up into his chamber, and as he went up he wept and said, "O my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! would God I had died for thee; O Absalom, my son, my son!" And can I forget,' says another, 'the day when my purposes were broken off, even the thoughts of my heart, and when all my worldly schemes were thrown bare upon the ground?' There are some, who, as Job says, are afraid of their sorrows, and therefore they wish to forget them. But let us remember, they are designed for our benefit, and that it is good for a man to bear the yoke; and if good to bear the yoke, it is good to remember it. The "Bless the Lord," says David, "O remembrance will sober his future pros- my soul, and forget not all His benefits." pects, and lower his earthly hopes, and Take care you keep yourselves sensible show him that though a man may be cast of your obligations to God for His interdown, he may not be destroyed; and position; and whenever you feel a tenthough he may be troubled on every dency to despond, then say with the side, he may not be distressed. And psalmist, "This is my infirmity; but I therefore, secondly, have a pillar on will remember the years of the right which to record your temporal deliver- hand of the Most High." Err not like ances. Hear David saying, “O my God, Jacob; God was obliged to pull Jacob by my soul is cast down within me; there- the ears, to remind him he had forgotten fore will I remember Thee from the land his engagement, and the Benefactor and of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from Deliverer, who had appeared to him at the hill Mizar." What this hill Mizar Bethel. He had been lounging about was, we are not informed; the word sig- from month to month and from year to nifies the little hill. I have frequently year, not far from the place where imagined whether it was not near this he had served his infamous uncle: little hill he had been saved from the paw "And God said unto Jacob, Arise, of the lion or the paw of the bear. This go up to Bethel, and dwell there: would have rendered it perpetually im- and make an altar unto God, that appressive and interesting. However this peared unto thee when thou fleddest may be, he had been delivered from the from the face of Esau thy brother;" paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, | better late, than never. "Then Jacob for these animals had approached him so near as to place their very paws upon his bosom. And you see the advantage of remembering it; for when he was going to approach Goliah, he said, “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." Perhaps there is not a person here this morning, but has had some narrow escapes in passing through life. Sometimes their life has been in hazard from accident or disease. Hezekiah was sick, nigh unto death; but when God in love to his soul delivered him from the pit of corruption, what did he? Why, he said unto his household and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went." Again; have an altar on which to record your spiritual benefits. Such as the Son of His love, the Spirit of His Son, the throne of His grace, the Word of His Truth, the exceeding great and precious promises. meeting our wants, and woes, and weaknesses, and diseases; these call for your remembrance |