of Pentecost, and that they did reduce to practice some of the severest of them during their Master's life.

I would also observe, that when the Redeemer commanded the young rich man who came to him, as recorded in Matt. xix., to sell all that he had, and give to the poor, he gave the young man no intimation that he would not be required to obey this command until the day of Pentecost, or until he received some fresh and unparalleled power from on high. The Redeemer spoke as if the young man had already power, if he had been disposed to use it; and that if he did not obey the command, strict and severe as it was, it would not be for want of power, but want of will, and that the blame of his disobedience would be all his own. The Redeemer never once intimated to them that heard him, that he would give to any of them, at any future period, any other power to obey his precepts, but what they had at the moment he was speaking to them, or what they might obtain at any time in answer to their prayers. I do not suppose that those who heard the Saviour's doctrine could practise it without the help of the Spirit; what I mean is, that they had the help of the Spirit at the time the Saviour spoke to them, and that they had, in Christ's own words, a promise of further help, if they would ask for it, not to be bestowed in years to come, but to be given then, and at every moment of their lives, if they would ask for it in a proper manner. Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. What man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things," or, as it is expressed by Luke, "give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask it."

66

Matt. vii., 7, &c. But even the communication of the Spirit promised here, is not only promised as a means of obedience, but as the

result of obedience also: hence the Redeemer, after promising the Spirit in answer to prayer, adds, "therefore,-in order that ye may secure the Spirit's help,-whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." By obedience and prayer, seek for help to obey still further, and it shall be given. A measure of power was given to all to obey the will of God from the beginning, from the first dawn of reason, and the first revela tions of the divine will to the mind; and fuller measures of heavenly power were placed within their reach, and might be obtained at any time, on condition that the former communications of power were faithfully improved, and fresh supplies solicited by prayer.

And as it was in the days of old, so is it still. A measure of power to obey the will of God is given to every man, the moment the will of God is in any measure revealed to his mind.

If the first communication of light and power be improved, further and fuller communications will be granted in answer to prayer; and thus the servant of God will be enabled to go on to perfection. Every man to whom the truth is communicated, who is not given over to a reprobate mind, has, if there be truth and meaning in the sacred writings, power to begin at that moment to obey the truth; and if, while he exerts the beginning of power which he possesses, he seeks for more, he will be strengthened more and more. Those to whom lectures and sermons, or tracts and books, have made plain the great principles of Gospel duty, have already power to begin to reduce those principles to practice. There is no need for them to put off obedience for a single day, or for a single hour. The language to be employed to such is not the language quoted so often by our friend, "Tarry ye at Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high;" but the language of the Apostle, when addressing the Corinthians, after they had been favoured, as we have been, with the plain and faithful preaching of the Gospel: "We, then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in a day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2. Cor. vi. 1, 2. We do not say that further prayer is unnecessary; we know it is necessary: but we do say, that it is our duty to obey as well as to pray; and that there is no need to tarry, or to put off obedience for a single hour. We know that the commands which require us not to lay up for ourselves treasures upon earth,-not to be careful for our life, what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, nor yet for our body, what we shall put on,-which require us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow Christ, which require us to resign all thoughts of mastership over our brethren, and all thoughts of worldly greatness ;-which require us to employ our property, our time, our all, in the service of God and of our fellow-men, trusting in God alone for every thing we need, both for body and for soul,we say, we know that these and similar commands are very hard, and that to obey them without help from on high is impossible; but what then? We have received help from on high already. Already the Spirit lives and works within us, giving power both to will and to do what God has commanded. And already numbers have laid aside the creeds and rules of men's formation, and begun to act on the thorough-going principles of the Gospel. They have renounced their earthly dependencies, and placed their whole trust on the promises of God: they have ceased their efforts to lay up treasures for themselves on earth, and embarked their all in the cause of God and human happiness, they have dared to be singular; they have ventured to believe whatever God has said, and to do whatever he has commanded; and they are living as the lights of the world, and as examples to all that are around them. And what they have dene, others may do. God is no respecter of persons. He gives ability to all to obey him, according to the light which they receive, and according to the sphere of action in which they are placed. The proper course therefore for the friends of Evangelical Re

form to pursue, the next step for them to take is, not to tarry, but at once to obey. We know they cannot obey without power from on high; but who will say that he is left without power? Who will say, that he has not power to do better than he has done? Secret and united prayer are not out of order or out of season; we ought to pray always, and we ought to pray every where; but let us, while we pray for further power, be careful to use well the power we have. Let us grapple fairly with our flesh; let us grapple with the powers of hell; and let us go forth, boldly trusting in God, to grapple with a fierce and wicked world. Let us free ourselves from our entanglements, that we may war to greater advantage. Let us lay aside every weight, that we may run so that we may obtain. Whatever would prove to us an occasion of sin, let us cast it away from us without delay. our right hand offend us, let us cut it off; if our right eye offend us, let us pluck it out. Let us die to earth, that we may live to God; let us mortify the flesh, with its affections and lusts, and let us, while thus struggling, lift up our hearts in earnest prayers to God, and he will give us power to do all things. His grace shall be sufficient for us; his strength shall be made perfect in our weakness.

If

My friend appears to come nearest to the truth, when he speaks as follows:-"If we are willing to do the whole will of God, there is no remaining obstacle. Nothing but the unfaithfulness of God's people has hitherto prevented the bestowment of overwhelming showers of heavenly influences." Here my friend expresses the very sentiments for which I have been pleading, namely, that it is not the power to obey which is wanting, but the will, that a want of will is the only remaining obstacle to full obedience,-that if we had used faithfully the power bestowed on us in times past, we should have had, before this, a heavenly influence quite overwhelming,

and, which follows of course, that if we are faithful to the power we have at present, that overwhelming influence shall still be given. This is in accordance with the Scriptures too, both of the Old and New Testa

ments.

"Bring ye all the tithes into my storehouse," or as the duty runs under the present dispensation, "Bring yourselves and your all to my service, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Mal. iii. 10. "If ye abide in me, and my word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." John

xv. 7.

The sum of the whole, so far as we are all agreed on the subject, appears to be this. 1. The requirements of the Gospel are exceedingly strict, much stricter than the requirements of the law of Moses. 2. Professors of religion generally, are living far below the Gospel standard of holiness, and many of the most important parts of Christian duty have been so passed over by the generality of preachers and writers, that they have been almost entirely neglected or forgotten. 3. Of late a number of those forgotten or neglected portions of Christian duty have been urged upon the attention of professors, and inculcated both from the pulpit and the press. 4. Many have been brought, by these means, to see their present short-comings, and to resolve on a strict and full obedience to the whole will of God. 5. We are also agreed, that we cannot obey the commands of the Gospel, without the assistance of God's Spirit, and that we have need of fuller measures of God's Spirit than was requisite to those of ancient times, who lived under a lower dispensation. 6. We are also agreed that more abundant influences of the Holy Spirit are promised to those who live under the Gospel dispensation, that strength is promised in proportion to the task which we are called upon to perform. 7. We are agreed that a measure of heavenly help is given to all to whom the Gospel is made known, and by which they are enabled to believe and obey it. 8. That if those to whom the Gospel is made known, use the power with which they are already favoured, they will receive an increase of power to enable them to understand and obey the Gospel more perfectly. Thus far we are agreed. Then where is the difference?

Simply here, as it appears to me. 1. Our friend appears to think that these fuller measures of heavenly influence are to be tarried for; we believe they are to be had just now. 2. Our friend appears to think that those richer influences are to be looked for in answer to prayer alone; we believe they are to be looked for not in answer to prayer alone, but are to be looked for as the result of a faithful improvement of the power we already possess as well. 3. Our friend appears to think that the disciples of John and of Jesus, after hearing their duty explained, had to wait till Christ was raised from the dead and glorified before they could reduce what they heard to practice : we have shown that many of them reduced to practice what they heard from the time when they first heard it, and that there is no intimation that the rest were disobedient for want of power to obey, except in the case of such as were already given over to judicial blindnes. 4. Our friend appears to suppose that the power to be tarried for at Jerusalem, was power to obey Christ's precepts; we have seen that it was power to teach the Gospel, and to demonstrate its truths to all nations. 5. Our friend appears to think that professors now, after hearing their duty fully explained, must wait awhile before they can thoroughly discharge it; we believe that power to begin to obey is given along with the light which shows us our duty, and that continued and increasing help is to be looked for in the way of obedience, and in answer to prayers offered from obedient hearts. It is the idea of present inability, of the necessity of waiting for power to obey, that appears to us to be erroneous; and it is on this point, that the difference of opinion exists. We leave the matter with our readers; let them ponder the whole, let them come to their own conclusions, and let them act accordingly. The agreement is greater than the difference, and even the difference that exists will probably soon disappear. Great is the power of freedom, of truth, and of love. Great is the power of the Spirit of God.

J. B.

The following passage from anoher communication received from the same kind and devoted friend that wrote the first article called "The Next Step," expresses exactly our sentiments.

MAKE HASTE! MAKE HASTE!! CHRISTIAN Brethren,-you who are seeking to detect and remove the hindrances to the spread of Christianity, MAKE HASTE, MAKE HASTE.

Be decided. Be zealous. Be firm. Be decided, for God: for him to live, and for him to die.. Give him all you are, and all you have. This is your reasonable service. Seek to glorify him with your body and your spirit which are his. Make haste to do this! Do not lose time in hesitation. So far as you see your duty, at once perform it. Use the light and grace you have, without one moment's delay. And in this way, wait for more light, and greater grace.

A WONDERFUL CIRCUMSTANCE, BUT
WELL AUTHENTICATED.

THOMAS HOWNHAM was a very poor man, who lived in a lone house or hut upon a moor, called Barmourmoor, about a mile from Lowick, and two miles from Doddington, in the county of Northumberland. He had no means to support a wife and two young children, save the scanty earnings obtained by keeping an ass, on which he used to carry coals from Barmour-moor coal-hill to Doddington and Wooler; or by making brooms of the heath, and selling them around the country. Yet poor and despised as he was, he was a man of piety, and lived near to God. On one occasion, he said to a person, Did your parents send me any unexpected relief last night? The person answered in the negative, at which he seemed uneasy. He was then solicited to explain in what manner he had received relief, and he proceeded to give the following relation:-Having been disappointed of receiving money for his coals the day before, he returned home in the evening, and, to his pain and distress, found that there was neither bread, nor meat, nor any thing to supply their place in his house; that his wife wept sore for the poor children, which were both crying for hunger;

that they continued crying till they both fell asleep; that he got them to bed, and their mother with them, who, likewise, soon went to sleep, being worn out with the sufferings of the children, and her own tender feelings. Being a fine moonlight night, he went out of the house to a retired spot, to meditate on those remarkable expressions in Hab. iii., 17, 18. Here he continued, as he thought, about an hour and a half; found great liberty and enlargement in prayer; and although he went out to spread his family affairs and temporal wants before the Lord, yet he obtained such a heart-attracting and soul-captivating view of Christ by faith, and was so enamoured with his beauty, that all thought about his temporal wants was entirely taken away. In a sweet, serene, and composed frame of mind, he returned to his house, and by the light of the moon which shined through the window, he perceived something on a stool, (for chairs there were none) and after viewing it with astonishment, and feeling it, he found it to be a joint of meat roasted, and a loaf of bread, about the size of an half-peck loaf. He went to the door to look if he could see any body; and after using his voice, as well as his eyes, and neither perceiving nor hearing any one, he returned in, awoke his wife, who was still asleep, asked a blessing, and then awoke the children, and gave them a comfortable repast. The person to whom he gave this account, was enjoined to keep the subject a secret, unless something should transpire from some other quarter. Accordingly, he resolved to keep it a secret, and left that country a short time after. When twelve years had rolled away, he happened to pay a visit to the same neighbourhood, and one evening while he was at a friend's house, the conversation turned about one Mr. Strangeways, a farmer, who lived at Lowick Highstead, which people named Pinch-me-near, on account of this miserly creature that lived there. asked,

When the question was What had become of his property? accompanied with an expressed opinion, that he had never done one generous action in his lifetime; an elderly woman in the com

pany said, it was a mistake, for she could relate one that was somewhat curious. She said, that she had lived with him as a servant or housekeeper; that about twelve or thirteen years ago, one Thursday morning, he ordered her to have a whole joint of meat roasted, having given her directions, a day or two before, to bake two large loaves of white bread. He then went to Wooler market, and took a bit of bread and cheese in his pocket, as usual. He came home in the evening, in a very bad humour, and went soon to bed. In about two hours after, he called up his man-servant, and ordered him to take one of the loaves and the joint of meat, and carry them down the moor to Thomas Hownham's, and leave them there. The man did so, and finding the family asleep, he set them at their beďside, and came away. The next morning her master called her and the man-servant in, and seemed in great agitation of mind. He told them that he intended to have invited a Mr. John Moot, with two or three more neighbouring farmers (who were always teazing him for his nearness), to sup with him the night before; that he would not invite them in the market-place, as he purposed to have them taken by surprise near home, as two or three of them passed his house, but a smart shower of rain coming on, they rode off, and left him before he could get an opportunity: that, going soon to bed, he did not rest well, fell a dreaming, and thought he saw Hownham's wife and children starving for hunger; that he awoke and put off the impression; that he dreamed the second time, and endeavoured again to shake it off; that he dreamed again, and that he was altogether overcome with the nonsense the third time; that he believed the devil was in him, but that since he was so foolish as to send the meat and bread, he could not now help it, and charged her and the man never to speak of it, or he would turn them away directly. She added, that since he was dead long ago, she might relate it, as a proof that he had done one generous action, though he was grieved for it afterwards. Here we see a proof of Divine interposition, and it teaches

us, that God is never at a loss how to relieve his people. He can make the hands of the wicked, or the mouths of the ravens, contribute to their support.

HINTS TO THE RICH.

It is not the having of wealth that undoes men, it is true, but the loving of it; but none but such as faithfully employ it in doing good can reasonably pretend not to love it. The man who hoards it, loves it ; and if he that spends it in extravagance does not love it, he loves the flesh, and both are in the way to destruction.

THE RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. (CONTINUED.)

OBJ. 1. "What you say seems true enough, but who questions it? Every man has a right to judge for himself as to what it is that God requires, and to act on his judgment too; but do any of your readers deny this? The Roman Catholics deny this right, and State Churches infringe on this right, when they impose civil disabilities on those who dissent from them, as well as when they demand for their worship, compulsory support; but your readers are most of them members of voluntary churches, and it is impossible for voluntary churches to interfere with the right of private judgment. Men are at liberty either to join them freely, or to withdraw from them in peace, and the severest penalty that such churches can inflict, is nothing more than exclusion from their communion. And can this be any infringement on the right of private judgment?"

Ans. The question is this,-whether or not a voluntary church interferes with the right of private judgment, by excluding a person from its communion for exercising this right? It seems to me unquestionable that it does; and I have little doubt but it will so appear to the reader when he comes to consider the subject. The nature of the act itself, excluding a man from churchfellowship, and the consequences that ensue, both to the individual and those who are associated with him, prove it to be, in such cases as the objection contemplates, a