Page images
PDF
EPUB

thine hand, put him on: repeated acts of recumbency and application will rise up into acquaintance and evidence, and will let in this precious joy and consolation. Believe it, sirs; it is a sin of a far greater nature than we are aware of-a sin of horrid unkindness, neglect, slighting of our best friends, namely, that we make sure of everything but Jesus Christ. A little land, a small tenement, a little moneythere we cry, "Fast bind, and fast find;" but in the great concern of our souls, we are at uncertainties and hap-hazard; there the blind and lame is for sacrifice. What a noise is there about a civil property in mint and cumin : and what a silence and remissness about the soul's property in the Son of God! It is a prodigious and inexcusable indiscretion and folly, and an unspeakable mischief into the bargain.-Fowler.

OBJECTIONS TO SABBATH RAILWAY
TRAVELLING.

1. It is a gross invasion of the rights of the people.The people have a right to the stillness and quiet of the Sabbath. The rumbling and screaming, the tumult and bustle, poise and confusion of the rail cars, as they run through a village, and often in the time of public worship, is a gross and outrageous violation of that right.

2. It is exceedingly injurious to the men who are employed in it.—It tends to blunt their moral susceptibilities, to degrade them in their own eyes, and in the eyes of their fellow-men, and to debase their whole character. It tends to lessen their conviction of moral responsibility, to render them reckless, and thus to increase the danger of all who travel under their care. It tends also, they have families, greatly to injure their children, and increase their exposure to evil, crime, and infamy.

3. It tends to demoralize the public mind, to weaken the efficacy of law, and thus to endanger the purity and permanency of all our institutions; while it keeps many away from the house of God, and thus lessens the efficacy of the means of grace. This no man, or body of men, for the sake of increasing the value of railroad stocks and dividends, aiding and abetting others in breaking the Sabbath, or for any other secular purpose, have a moral right to do. And while they do it, it is wholly without right, in opposition to the moral law, and in violation of one of the great principles by which every man in the community is bound to be governed.

4. The Sabbath-day was not made for secular business, nor was it given to man for that purpose.-Of course, it does not belong to them. If they take it, they take what is not theirs. That is not honest. Honesty is contentment with what belongs to a man. An honest man, who is acquainted with his rights, will not take what is not his. The Sabbath-day for secular business is not his. So to take it for that purpose is not honest.

5. Property gained by the open violation of divine laws, is not apt to wear well. It does not seem to produce a good influence on the minds of the possessors. And if it goes down to their children, and they pursue a similar course, it seems to be followed with a curse downwards.

And should men wisely regard their own highest interests for this world, and the interests of their children, they would not consent to gain any more property, or retain it any longer than they could by obeying divine laws.-Edwards.

A VOICE FROM CHINA. BY MRS. M. A. MILLEK. FROM China's clime, weak woman's voice Is heard with wailing cry, "Ye who in light and hope rejoice, Behold us-lo, we die!

They tell us you have homes of peace,
With no stern master there;
And elegance and happy ease,

They say, 'tis yours to share.

And childhood's little bird-like tone,
And earnest, loving eye,
Are yours; and not the mournful groan,
Of infants doomed to die.

Sisters, on us red murder's hand,

With cruel grasp is laid;

While ignorance pervades our land, And we its victims made.

Enslaved, oppressed, the aid we crave
God's word alone can give;

O send us o'er the dark blue wave
The light that bids us live!

For tears are ours, and woe and pain,
If spared an early tomb-
Our lives, alas! are worse than vain,
And all beyond is gloom.

No joy in life-in death no hope-
Unblest, we pass away;
Say, will ye heaven's bright portals ope,
And give us Gospel day?

The awful King who reigns on high,
Who all your blessings gave,
Will ask in thunder from the sky,
Why ye refused to save?

BELIEVERS.

1. Their persons.-Believers being united unto Christ, they are, they cannot but be, his Father's Jedidiahs, Beulahs, Hephzibahs, dearly" accepted in the Beloved." (Eph. i. 6.) They are also his own delight. (Prov. viii. 31.) He rejoiceth over them, as a bridegroom over his bride. They are to him as the "seal on his arm," as a signet on his right hand. (Cant. viii. 6.) He carries their names on his breast continually. (Exod. xxviii. 29.) And as for the Spirit of God, that, like Noah's dove, finds nowhere to rest the sole of his foot, but the soul of a sincere believer; of whom it says, "Here is my rest: here will I dwell for ever; for I have a delight herein." (Ps. cxxxii. 14.)

2. Their graces.-True believers' graces are in themselves very defective and imperfect; the eye of

THE WORLD.

their faith, like that of Leah, a blear-eye; the hand of their confidence, like that of Jeroboam, much withered and blasted; the fire of their love, like that of green wood, apt soon to expire; the anchor of their hope, very much cracked; shoulders of patience, sorely bruised; feet of obedience, like Mephibosheth, lame. Yet, because united unto Christ, all are accepted, all hold scale and weight in heaven, though not as to merit, yet as to acceptance. (1 Pet. ii. 5.) "There is much alloy in the metal: however, I see my Son's stamp and picture on the coin; and, therefore," saith God, "it shall pass for current in heaven."

3. Their duties.-O the defects of saints' duties! How often do they pray, as if afraid to be heard; hear, as if afraid to learn; learn, as if afraid to do; do, as if afraid to please! And yet, being united unto Christ, how acceptable are their persons and performances! Their weak prayers sound like melody; their broken sighs smell like incense; their very stammerings seem rhetorical. (Cant. ii. 14.) Not a good word falls from their lips, but it is recorded (Mal. iii. 16); not a tear drops from their eye, but it is taken up and bottled. (Ps. Ivi. 8.) Mites are received as if they were talents; cups of cold water, rams' skins, goats hair (Exod. xxv. 4. 5)—any thing; desires instead of performances; the will for the deed; grief for want of will for the will itself (2 Cor. viii. 12): and all, because from such as are united unto Christ, in whom the Lord is so" well pleased" (Matt. iii. 17) that he looks on the very smoke of his saints' performance, mixed with Christ's merits, as a sweet perfume.-Lye.

CRUCIFIXION.

CRUCIFIXION is spoken of in Egyptian, Grecian, and Carthaginian, as well as in Roman history; but it was never employed as a Jewish punishment. The Romans executed slaves in this manner; and it was deemed 30 disgraceful, that Cicero, enlarging on the crimes ❘ of Verres, describes his ordering the crucifixion of a Roman citizen as the highest conceivable enormity, and declares that "no language is adequate to express the horror he feels at the infliction upon any such persons of this most shocking punishment." (In Verrem, lib. v. See also the Oration pro Rabirio.) It was the most cruel of punishments; and the Romans, when expressing the greatest degree of suffering, borrow from it the term, which we retain, excruciating. Upon the transverse beam the arms were extended back in an unnatural position, and the hands nailed to it, causing exquisite pain from their many nerves and tendons. Thus suspended, the sufferer occasionally hung some days, till he perished through agony and exhaustion. The Emperor Constantine abolished this punishment out of respect to the Saviour, and it has never been revived. Forster's Gospel Narrative.

QUESTIONS TO BE PUT BEFORE RRAYER. WHEN thou art called to family-prayer, put some of these questions to thyself:

1. What am I? A sinful sinner, dust, ashes, guilty. O how should a guilty person, going to the dust, pray for pardon!

2. Where am I? In whose presence do I kneel? Is it not before God? and doth he not know whether I trifle or am serious?

615

3. Where might I now have been? In hell, among devils and damned souls; and shall I not pray indeed with all my might, that I never may be cast into that place or company?

4. Whither am I going? To eternity. Where shall I shortly be? In eternity; and shall I trifle in my way?

5. What am I come about? What is now my business? About the highest matters that concern my soul.

7. What, if this were to be my last prayer before 1 die? Should I then fall asleep upon my knees?

7. What, if my everla ting state should be deter- | mined according to my sincerity or hypocrisy in this duty I am now going to? Should I dally then with God?

8. What, if God should tell me if I trifle with his majesty, he would strike me sick, or dead, or blind, or deaf and dumb, upon my knees? Should I not then watch my heart in prayer?

9. What, if I were to speak to an earthly king, or were to see some glorious angel? Should I not be filled with fear and reverence? and is God not infinitely above these?

10. What, if I were to give an account to God immediately how I pray, and should appear at his bar as soon as I rise from off my knees? Should I then be formal and lukewarm?-Doolittle,

INTERNAL EVIDENCE.

A MAN of subtle reasoning asked
A peasant, if he knew
Where was the internal evidence
That proved the Bible true?
The terms of disputative art

Had never reached his earHe laid his hand upon his heart, And only answered-" Here."

THE WORLD,

THE flattery of worldly things prevails with many. The grandeur of the world-that pleaseth the eye; the esteem of the world-that pleaseth the fancy. Whereas, would but these persons consider, all things of the world appear better at a distance than we find them near at hand. I dare confidently make this offer, and, without imposing upon God anything indecent, peremptorily assure you, God will make it good, that if you can but give any one instance of any one person made happy, satisfyingly happy, by any worldly enjoyment, you shall be the second. I grant, many are through grace contented with a little pittance of the world; but where dwelt the man that was ever yet contented merely with the world? The wealth of the world promiseth satisfaction: “Money answereth all things" (Eccles. x. 19): but "he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase." (Eccles. v. 10.) The pleasures of the world promise refreshment, to relieve us of all our cares: but instead of it, they are "all vanity and vexation of spirit." (Eccles. ii. 11.) The honours of the world promise quiet and contentment: but surely they are "set in slippery places," as upon a pinnacle, whence though they do not presently fall, yet they are "utterly consumed with terrors" of falling. (Ps. lxxii. 18, 19.) In short: "Man that is in honour, and un lerstandeth not" how to honour God with it," is like the beasts that perish" (Ps. xlix. 20); degrades himself into a beast; and the time is at hand when he would count

[blocks in formation]

SCRUPULOUS CHRISTIANS.-"If you send your servant on your message, you had rather he went on his way as well as he can, than stand scrupling every step whether he should set the right or left foot forward; and whether he should step so far, or so far at a time. Hindering scruples please not God.

DEGENERACY.-We are no sooner warmed with the celestial flames, but natural corruption is inclining us to grow cold; like hot water, which loseth its heat by degrees, unless the fire be kept continually under it.

THE BIBLE SAYS SO.

CHILDREN should early be taught that the Bible is the great authority; and that, when it speaks upon any point, the question is settled for ever. They should be taught to go directly to the Scriptures, to find what is good and what is bad, what is true and what is false. Thus, with the blessing of God, they will acquire the habit of constantly subordinating their own notions and inclinations to the plain declarations of Scripture. It is a good sign to hear a child often use the expression "The Bible says so."

Fragments.

"I HAVE had six children," said Mr. Elliot, "and I bless God that they are all either with Christ, or in Christ, and my mind is now at rest concerning them. My desire was, that they should have served Christ

on earth; but if God will choose to have them rather serve him in heaven, I HAVE NOTHING TO OBJECT TO IT."

DR. PAYSON, when racked with pain and near to death, exclaimed, "Oh, what a blessed thing it is to lose one's will! Since I have lost my will, I have found happiness. There can be no such thing as disappointment to me, for I have NO DESIRES, but that God's will may be accomplished."

THE Rev. John Newton, when his sight had become so dim that he was no longer able to read, hearing this Scripture repeated, "By the grace of God I am what I am," paused for some moments, and then uttered the following affecting soliloquy: "I am not what I OUGHT to be. Ah, how imperfect and deficient ! I am not what I WISH to be. I abhor that which is evil, and I would cleave to what is good. I am not what I HOPE to be. Soon, soon, I shall put off | mortality, and with mortality, all sin and imperfection. Yet though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, yet I can truly say I am not what I once was a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledgeBy the grace of God I am what I

am." "

AT a meeting of ministers, as the brethren were inquiring after each other's welfare, one said, "I feel that I have peculiar occasion for thankfulness that I am here, for my life was brought into great peril by an accident on the way." "And I," said another, "have surely still greater cause for thanksgiving, seeing that I was brought all the way hither WITH

OUT ANY ACCIDENT AT ALL."

I WAS once called, says the excellent Jay, to attend the dying bed of a young female. In answer to my inquires she replied: "I have little to relate as to my own experience. I have been much tried and tempted, but this is my sheet-anchor-He hath said, 'Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.' I know I come to him, and I EXPECT HE WILL BE AS GOOD AS HIS WORD. Poor and unworthy as I am, he will not trifle with me nor deceive me. It would be beneath his greatness as well as his goodness."

"FOR an old Christian to say to a young one, Stand in my evidence,' is," says Newton, "like a man who has with difficulty climbed by a ladder or scaffolding to the top of the house, and cries to one at the bottom, 'This is the place for a prospect,-come up AT A STEP.'"

"Two things," says Pearce, "are matter of daily astonishment to me-the READINESS of Christ to come from heaven to earth for me; and my BACKWARDNESS to rise from earth to heaven with him."

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »