to reconcile what God declares cannot be reconciled? Still trying to discover how far the course of this world may be followed, without involving the eternal ruin of your soul? Not that you are aware of any such compact with the powers of darkness. But have you not, from neglecting secret communion with God, and diligent searching of his word, been gradually and almost insensibly led into a careless, unfaithful course of life ?

There

are many, I fear, who through the false teaching of an unsound ministry, and the deadening influence of worldly companions, are not alive to their true condition. They believe that they are anxious to avoid what is clearly inconsistent with their Christian profession. Oh! do remember, that "the heart is deceitful above all things," and that if you truly desire

your life to be conformed to God's will, you must yield an unreserved submission to the Holy Scriptures as the sole standard of faith and practice, and resolve to follow its counsels at all costs. The Bible is a book of principles, which are applicable to every possible circumstance of life. These principles can indeed be only understood by the children of God, for they must be "spiritually discerned." "The love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost," is the mainspring which applies Scripture principles to all the varied details of life. Life is made up of little things. A spiritual mind will strive to view every passing event with "the mind of Christ," (1 Cor. ii. 16.) and will find no difficulty in applying the precept, "whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." It will at once perceive the bearing of any circumstance upon the glory of God, and will not be perplexed by the carnal reasonings of those who fear nothing in religion so much, as going too far. By reason of use our senses will be exercised to discern both good and evil." (Heb. v. 14.) Any obscurity which appears to envelop a precept of Scripture, generally arises from our self-will; which shuts out spiritual light from our minds. "The meek will He teach his way," (Ps. xxv. 9.) and a MARCH-1847.

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single eye is needed, to make the path of duty plain.

Christian females sometimes "give occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully," (1 Tim. v. 14.) by neglecting the lesser duties of life. This should be carefully avoided. He who said, "gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost," has shown us by precept, and by his own blessed example, that spiritual mindedness does not consist in abstraction from the concerns of life, or in finding the duties of our calling burdensome; but it enables us to do earthly things in a heavenly frame, and to perform every duty (however humble) as unto the Lord."

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The power of religion in the soul, is all derived from believers being partakers of the divine nature;" (2 Pet. i. 4.) and if we would live to the glory of God, we must apprehend and realize that "the life which we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God." How many are walking in doubt and sorrow, who ought to be full of joy and peace, rejoicing in the blessed assurance that Christ is our life. Few Christians, comparatively, are living in a happy realization of their completeness in Christ, and of their high privileges as believers in Jesus, and witnesses for their absent Lord. Archbishop Leighton observes, that "the grace of God in the heart of man, is a tender plant, in a strange unkindly soil." It is impossible that a plant so heavenly, and transplanted into a soil so arid and ungenial, should flourish and extend its branches, unless it is cherished by the atmosphere of heaven. A perpetual stream must be flowing into our souls, from the "fountain of living waters." Empty and powerless in ourselves, mere worthless "earthen vessels ;" heavenly mindedness can only be maintained in habitual close fellowship with God.

Oh! let us not be willing to lose any portion of that blessing which the Lord Jesus will bestow, at his coming, on his faithful servants. Let us not think with composure of suffering loss; or being saved as by fire." We know not at present the full im

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port of these striking words, but the day will declare their meaning. We do know that they are written for our instruction and warning; and as an additional motive to "press toward the mark," and to seek for an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour.

It is probable that much of the doctrinal error and worldliness which is now overshadowing the Church, has arisen from a partial and superficial knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and an almost entire neglect of the prophetic portions. Believers have turned away from that "light which shineth in a dark place," (2 Pet. i. 10.) and consequently they are left in ignorance of the present prospects of the Church, and of their own true position in a world "that lieth in the wicked one." They are dreaming of a future day of glory, without preparing for a previous time of unexampled conflict, persecution, and wide-spreading corruption. How many of the members of the Established Church are looking forward to the general conversion of Jews and Gentiles, through the instrumentality of her bishops, and ecclesiastical establishments. They believe, that the Church of England will become "the light of the world." On the other hand, different bodies of dissenting Christians consider that the chief hindrance to the accomplishment of a spiritual millennium, is to be looked for in the existence of a corrupt Church establishment, which must be uprooted from the face of the earth, before "the word of God can have free course and be glorified." Such unscriptural notions arise, from ignorance of the prophetic Scriptures, with a carnal and unauthorized hope, that the spiritual millennium they anticipate will be consummated through the extended and exclusive influence of their own section of the Church; and that it will issue in their own exaltation and pre-eminence in glory. They perceive not the character of the present dispensation. It is nowhere promised that the world is to be converted by the preaching of the Word. The Gospel is indeed to be preached 66 as a witness," to all nations before the end of the age, but this is in

order that a remnant may be taken out of the world, from "all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues." (Rev. vii. 9.) God is now "visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. (Acts xv. 14.) As regards the world, this is the period of God's longsuffering, "until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled," and the measure of their iniquity is full. Would to God, that instead of each of the divisions of the disjointed Church exclaiming, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we," (Jer. vii. 4.) they might severally perceive that every branch of the visible Church is grievously fallen from the simple faith and holy practice of the primitive Christians."

Surely the great masses of Church and dissenting congregations, are equally characterized by the Apostle in that fearful summary of the "sins of the last days;" "having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof!" And what must the end of these things be? When men shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh, and they shall not escape. (1 Thes. v. 3.) The day is, I believe, at hand, when apostate Christendom shall "be cast into the winepress of the wrath of God.” (Rev. xiv. 19.) May the spirit of light and truth be abundantly vouchsafed to every true member of the body of Christ; and may we all thus be led to search without prejudice or partiality every portion of the Scriptures, that we may be enabled to realize the vast importance of the days in which we live.

The Lord is still tarrying for a short season, that more souls may "be plucked as brands from the burning." This, then, is the period above all others, when the servants of Christ should be "instant in season and out of season" in seeking the salvation of sinners. "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint;" but believers have now peculiar need of patience, that they may not be weary in well-doing. The great adversary, knowing that "his time is short," will multiply every subtle device by which he can beguile the people of God into lukewarmness. It will be doubtless

his grand aim to deprive believers of those special motives to prayer and watchfulness, which are so frequently presented to us in the Word, in connection with the promise of the Lord's second coming. When Satan transforms himself into "an angel of light," and deceives us with new and unheard of temptations, it is important that our souls should be strengthened and kept in simple dependence on those blessed promises which are given as a shield and rock of defence to the people of God, "to keep them in that hour of temptation, which is coming upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." (Rev. iii. 10.)

The spiritual condition of our country at this time must fill every thoughtful Christian with the deepest grief and solicitude. The floodgates of iniquity, infidelity, Popery, and semi-Popery, (no less dangerous than undiluted Romanism,) are deluging our land. The physical condition of millions of our labouring population is quite appalling, when we consider the almost inevitable connexion between mental degradation and spiritual death. But the most alarming sign of the times is this:a spirit of slumber has overspread the Church of Christ; increased worldliness too plainly characterizes many who "did run well;" and a withdrawal of spiritual blessing is perceptible in congregations where the Gospel was formerly preached "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." These facts are equally admitted by pious Churchmen and Dissenters. We should indeed acknowledge, with the deepest thankful

ness to the Father of all mercies, that the hearts of some devoted Christians have lately been stirred up to zealous exertions in behalf of those who are "perishing for lack of knowledge.” But many more faithful men are needed, as pastors, as missionaries, schoolmasters, district visitors, and Scripture readers. May, therefore, the lesson which God is now teaching us, be laid deeply to heart. May we acknowledge how inadequate, and powerless every effort of man will prove, unless "the Lord of the harvest" pours out his Spirit upon his languishing Church, and "prepares labourers for the harvest." Though "God" alone "giveth the increase,' "He will yet be enquired of" for these things. The prayers of those good men "who cry and sigh for the abominations that are done in the midst" of our land, (Ezek. ix. 4.) "will surely enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." The number of earnest Christians, "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," may be far greater than we have any idea of. On them, under God, we rest our hopes for our Church and country. May a spirit of grace and supplication, and deep humiliation, be poured out on the universal Church in answer to their prayers, and may the Lord "raise up His power, and come among us, and with great might succour us, that when His last awful judgments are beginning to descend upon the earth, and the hearts of other men

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are failing them for fear," His waiting people may be found of him in peace, and "lift up their heads with joy, knowing that their Redemption draweth nigh." (Luke xxi. 28.) S.

I WANDERED lately into a large churchyard, situated in a suburb of one of our great towns. I sat down on one of the grave-stones, and looking around me, began to meditate. Close to where I sat, the sexton was digging a grave. On all sides were graves, and grave-stones of every

size, form, and age. The churchyard had long been used for its solemn purpose. Underneath its soil lay the mouldering dust of the parishioners for 250 years. I thought how many generations sleep quietly here. Ministers and people, rival functionaries, who distracted the town

with their disputes, doctors who saved others for a season from the power of the grave, and then became its victims themselves, rich men, who condescendingly relieved the wants of the poor and wretched Lazaruses who sat at their gates-all sleep calmly here. The wind sweeps over the grass that grows on their last resting-places, and the rain and the atmosphere are fast obliterating the inscriptions, which the anxiety of friends has placed upon their tombstones, to save for a season their memories from oblivion.

And, then, I began to think of the time when all that sleep will be changed. For "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality," or, as the patriarch Job more dimly saw the same truth, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another."

What strange meetings will there be then on that dread day, when the Lord shall come to punish his foes, and everlastingly reward his people! Then shall no distinctions be known, save those which are known to God. Christ will own as his, none who have not his "Father's name written in their foreheads." The tenderest earthly relations will then afford no security for the perpetuity of ties which have not been sanctioned by Christ. Husband and wife, parents and children, masters and servants will then, if separated before the Judge, be separated for ever. All souls will find their eternal abodes either in heaven or hell.

Oh, what a day will that be! The Lord himself descending from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God the great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth

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and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them! The dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books opened! The sea giving up the dead which are in it, and death and hell giving up the dead which are in them! As Christ himself has described the awful pageantry of his own advent: Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet; and they shall gather together his elect, from one end of heaven to another."

If the awful solemnities of the judgment day have not sufficient power to wean the imagination from earthly things, what means more potent could God employ? Philosophers say, that the centre of the earth must be many times hotter than red hot iron, so that in any one moment, were the restraining power of God withdrawn, the combustion of the earth, described by St. Peter, would be realized. An appalling thought this in itself, to him who attentively considers it! But how much more terrible the thought, that we cannot tell how soon the solemnities of the judgment day, and the realities of the eternal world, may flash forth like lightning before our eyes. Lightning is the metaphor which our Lord himself employs to denote the suddenness of His coming. And there is no reason why we, the present generation, may not see the consummation of all things. God incarnate coming with all his angels to judge mankind-the world stopped in its movements like a watch that has run down-time confronted, face to face, with eternity!

As I was proceeding home through the crowded streets, I could not help pursuing a similar line of meditation. Here, I thought, I am surrounded with the living. Life is on all sides

of me. I have exchanged stillness for incessant noise, rest for bustling activity, the communion of solemn thoughts for the constant attrition of this busy world. And, yet, measuring men and things by the standard of yonder ancient churchyard-have I really exchanged the dead for the living? There I saw what real life is -not that which flickers but a few seconds, measured on the dial of eternity, and then disappears-but that life which is only purified by death, and awaits its perfection at the great day, when the soul shall be restored to the body. True life is hid with Christ in God. Because its shelter is the Rock of ages, it can never be disturbed. The stream of divine life which flows through the true Christian's heart, has its fountain springs in the Eternal Trinity. No defilements can reach its source. Not all the malice of Satan can dry up one drop of that blessed fountain. "Labitur et labetur, in omne volubilis aevum."

But nothing else is worthy the name of life. Nothing else is a possession that can be depended on, a Κτήμα ες αει, as the ancient historian wished to make his work; all other life is but the appearance of life, not its reality. The life of nature is but the snow speck on the swift streamlet, which appears for a moment, and then is swept away for ever.

If all this be true, as it undoubtedly is, how little real life is there in this world! The saints of God are walking among a race of corpses exercising the functions of life, and appearing to possess it, and yet not having it at all. And measuring by the glass of faith, and thus penetrating the eternal world, how correct a description is this of what is taking place in this world! Men are devoid of true life, and therefore make no plans to run parallel with its course. Corpses as regards eternity, they plan and desire only for the short span of time which they call life, but which is, in truth, but death.

What is time isolated from eternity, man living without God, but a state of real death?

How many tears may each child of God shed over the acts of the rest of mankind, as their dear Lord wept over Jerusalem-the living over the dead! But they must not stop here. They must try to animate those dead souls. Their own life is all of grace -the work of the Spirit of God in Christ. Of themselves they are dead just as others. Let them earnestly pray that God would of his mercy in Christ breathe life into "those dry bones." Let them blow the trumpet of the Gospel, to warn those slumberers of their danger. For "none of us liveth to himself."

We cannot comprehend it, and yet we are sure that it must be true that from everlasting to everlasting he is God. We know that duration, both past and future, must be eternal. It never could have a beginning, never can have an end. There never was a moment which had not another moment before it ; nor can there ever be a moment which will not be followed by another. Was there, then, in the millions of ages past, a moment when the Maker of all things came