not possessed so largely in outward ever." Then as the best new year's for a little on the blessed example of | lieve it, dear reader, even if you are one greater than Solomon," who had the spirit without measure,' whose "zeal consumed him," and who gave himself for you :-yes, think of the Redeemer how he " finished the work that was given him to do"-whose "meat and drink it was to do his heavenly Father's will," and who was straitened till that will was accomplished; till he was bap-eousness as the stars for ever and tized in sufferings for our salvation. Reader, remember this was largeness of heart. You are called upon to consider Christ Jesus the great High Priest of your profession.' Well, then, consider him in his sufferings for your sake-consider him in his example for your imitation, consider him as your Lord, your King, to maintain a right in your services, your love, your obedience; and then, reader, then his love will constrain you to devote your powers to himto yield yourself a living sacrifice," and to give up yourself, body, soul, and spirit," unreservedly to him as a reasonable service." In considering Christ Jesus, you will feel and lament your own coldness and indifference, and that will lead you to cry mightily to him for the fulfilment of his gracious word, and what is it? what did God say to Solomon? "Ask what I shall give thee; well, then, be encouraged, | he says the same to you—yes, to you, and not only says it, but will do it. Do you ask how it was Solomon had a large heart-it was because he asked it of God-yes, reader he asked for wisdom and knowledge in preference to wealth, or honour, or dignity. Oh! follow his example, seek first for spiritual blessingsseek first the glory of God, and then you have the Saviour's promise that all other things shall be added unto you." Solomon found it true; he left all worldly things with the Lord, and was he destitute? Ah! no, read the history of his greatness, his splendour, his servants, his honours-and be THE OBLIGATION RESTING ON MEETINGS. THE following, though a common circumstanice, is one that calls for serious consideration; inasmuch as it is more intimately connected with the dormant state of religion in our churches than many are apt to imagine. As the pastor of a christian church was recently visiting his flock to inquire of their welfare, and to promote their spiritual comfort by his counsel and his prayers, he met with Henry-a member of his church. After the usual friendly inquiries, he observed" Well, Henry, you were not with us at the church-meeting last evening, how was that?" Henry answered, Why, sir, I had a little job which I wished to finish, so I stopped at home.' 66 As Henry was going to his employment the pastor had not then an opportunity of saying much to him on the subject; but as he pursued his walk he reflected on the circumstance, and said to himself, so then, a little job is, in the estimation of this professor, of more importance thau a church-meeting! He felt grieved, that a Christian social and devotional exercises ? should make such a sorry excuse which profits the most from the serfor absenting himself from, what vices of the Lord's-day-which every disciple of Christ ought to manifests most fully the Divine imconsider, an important duty and an press of the Holy Spirit's sealing, invaluable privilege. Not that he and the sweet odour of his anointthought Henry the only person, or ing?—which enjoys most of the but one amongst very few, who are love of God shed abroad in his guilty of such conduct. He felt heart-which promotes the Divine persuaded that every pastor has glory most, and is most useful in many in his church, who act from the church and the world?-and similar motives, and adopt the same which feels the purest and most short sighted policy. How often elevated pleasure in the anticipation are excuses made on account of ab- of eternity? O! ye who neglect sence from church and prayer- church and prayer-meetings! you meetings, which a man of business wound your pastor's heart, you do would be ashamed to make for not an injury to your fellow members, executing an order, and are these you wrong your own souls, and meetings of less importance than quench the Holy Spirit who kindles business? Did the Lord thus the fire of devotion on the altar of judge, when he said, "Labour not the Christian's heart. for the meat which perisheth, but Ministers and people often exfor that meat which endureth unto press surprise and regret, that coneverlasting life-whosoever he be versions are so few, and that vital of you that forsaketh not all that he religion is at so low an ebb in the hath, he cannot be my disciple." churches. Our surprise will cease In these words, he evidently teaches and our sorrow will be augmented, us that there must be great self- when we consider how few there denial and giving up, so much, at are in any church who attend least, of temporal things and em- prayer-meetings with regularity, ployments, as are inimical to our perseverance, and holy importunity. growth in grace and the promotion It is admitted, that there are circumof his glory. We are to "seek stances connected with a large fafirst the kingdom of God, and his mily, young children, afflictions, and righteousness;" and if this be done," works of necessity," which justify we shall not hesitate to sacrifice the the absence of those who are immepleasures of sense, the profits of diately concerned. But it is too nobusiness, and all other temporal in- torious to be denied, that the great terests that oppose the claims of majority of those who neglect our divine master and prevent our prayer-meetings have no just cause frequent communion with God in for absence. the institutions and services of the Christian church. How can the church prosper, whilst such a multitude of its memThe beneficial influence which bers neglect the most efficacious these meetings have on the Chris- means for promoting growth in tian's experience and prospects, grace, and increase of its numbers ? show the importance of his habitu-"We have not because we ask not. ally attending to them. Let any Let us draw nigh to God, and he one judge, which is the most con- will draw nigh to us. Then shall sistent disciple of Christ, he who ye call upon me, and ye shall go conscientiously and regularly attends and pray unto me, and I will hearkprayer and church-meetings, or he en unto you. And ye shall seek who is frequently absent from these me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.' themselves be more separate from Before we experience the out-pour- the world and spend more time, ing of the Spirit, which is necessary with more heart in pleading with to a revival of religion and the con- God, saying, "We will not let thee version of the thoughtless, worldly, go except thou bless us." and infidel multitudes around us, the members of our Loughton. churches must S. B. JUVENILIA A WORD BY THE WAY-SIDE. IN some of the deserts that stretch their burning sands amid the wilds of Africa, spots of verdant beauty oft-times greet the wanderer's eye, and afford him shelter and delight. The cooling spring invites his thirsty lip; the air, loaded with the fragrance of surrounding flowers, soothes his aching brow; the birds of heaven chaunt him to repose. It is in the moral as in the natural word, as we journey through this wilderness of human cares and toil, we sometimes find amid the barrenness of Christian profession a spiritual Oasis of lovely holiness and peace. The state of religion in general, though the Sun of Righteousness gilds its mountain tops and illuminates its vales, has, alas! too many of these moral wilds, over which the light of heaven seems to shine in vain; while in other parts of its wide domains, some happy hill of Zion, encamped by the armies of the living God and of the church which is on earth invite your weary steps. We rest beneath its sacred shadow with delight, we gather the immortal fruit which grows on its tree of life, we drink | with joy of the "brook by the way," and voices as from angels whispering nigh, tell of the rest laid up for us in glory. It was after a refreshment similar to this, that the preceding reflections suggested themselves. I know that we frequently mistake our feelings when placed in new and uncommon situations. The excitements even of novelty have been honoured as the elevations of devotion; for who is independent of the associations of feeling and impulse, those subtle and mysterious laws which no human heart, amidst all its stubbornness, has ever yet withstood? Perhaps there was some degree of the emotion which then possessed my soul attributable to causes such as these. Yet conceding this, I have seldom in the course of my Christian pilgrimage felt my spiritual strength so renewed by waiting on the Lord. I have heard brilliant addresses from popular talent, as it marshalled the advocates of truth on a constellated platform, or I have rejoiced in the holy captivation of genius, when, hallowed by the influence of Divine grace, it has dared to trace, through the bewilderings of human reason, a pathway to the skies; and I have bowed beneath the influence of some great master spirit, as I grasped his page and revelled in the mental banquet his intellect had spread-but I have seldom felt so deeply my own condition of sin and helplessness,or the value of redeeming love and truth, as I did at the little Baptist chapel at W. B. I was conducted there by some friends I was visiting, and among whose kind and endearing attentions I hoped to find recovered health. The chapel, mean in exterior form, was that morning thinly attended, and the little flock of Sabbath children, and the lowly garb of all around, verified the truth of our Lord's observation. They belonged to a kingdom which is not of this world, though it has a highway through it on which the ransomed of the Lord are daily advancing to the eternal hills of bliss. In this lowly house of prayer there was no altar of gems, or clouds of surrounding incense; no proud and, as I traced the symbols of his power in the adoration of their worship, 1 understood the beauty of that sublime prediction: "The hour cometh when ye shall neither at this temple nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Fathor; but true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him." And now the minister ascended the pulpit stairs; his step was slow and feeble, his form as a flower of the field which the wind is withering away, his lip and cheek pallid by the tokens of death, but his eye was bright with the glory he had long coveted to possess. He paused, as for a moment or two he regarded the congregation spread out before him; a benign com miseration deepened on his countenance, and, with the deep and deathless accents of a pastor's love, commenced a short address. The topic was unexpected and peculiar. Worldly policy, or the vulgar cunning of a common mind, might have urged him to a pathetic appeal on his own array of priestly vestments, or sacerdotal pomp; no strains of softened music, or painted window of impressive gloom, to captivate the senses and mislead the mind. But there was the solemnity of deep devotion, the spirits of the just in progression of that perfecting grace which hallows the altar of the human heart in eternal consecration unto God. There was a powerful illustration of the simplicity of the gospel of Christ, as it seemed, in the majesty of its independent love, to give that peace to the believer's heart which passeth all mortal understanding. And there was, I trust, the presence of the great Master of assemblies, whose Spirit, though it rested not in symbolic tongues of fire, touched the renovated heart as with a living coal from off the heavenly altar. My soul was again excited to run her Christian course with joy; and, as visions of the heavenly world unfolded to her view, the trials, sorrows, and pains of this, seemed scarcely worthy of a thought. To be a ransomed heir of glory-a fellowcitizen with saints whose robes are washed | behalf; for I was afterwards informed of and made white in the blood of the Lamb -a member of the Church of the living God-form a gift worthy the beneficence of Sacred Love. And though many a claimant of these divine riches is clothed by the hand of vulgar poverty, and knows nothing of the refinements of taste, or the graduations of learning, while the delusions of wealth are cast upon his humble path, and the pride of intellect disowns all sympathy or love-yet is he already in possession of the investments of his future dignity, maturing by the Spirit of God for companionship with seraphs, and the boundless progression of celestial intelligence. The minister, whose lowly brows had won no laurel from the wreath of fame, did not appear until some time had passed in alternate exercises of prayer and praise. As the third hymn was engaging the attention of the congregation, I looked around on that little band of the true and faithful met in that humble house of God. No powdered head corniced the cushioned pews, or rustling silk adorned some lady Pharisee in its ample folds. They seemed a poor people whose God is the Lord; the miserable pittance by which he is supported. But no: he had too much of his Master's spirit to envy the holes of the crafty hypocrite, or the nests of high professors. Or he might have given a brief and elegant dissertation on the rapi. dity of time, a theme now so exhausted and misimproved that Time himself may be ashamed of his own biographers; but this was not the argument. Or some may imagine that the terrors of death might help just then to throw an awful interest on a moment auspicious to oratorical effect. It was none of these: it was a truth which the wailing spirit of woe, while it prayed for a drop of water to quench its burning thirst, besought some messenger of heaven might be permitted to preach to its brethren still in the regions of hope and repentance. It was the voice of warning, caution, and expostulation; it was the lamentation of the prophet mourning over the ragged rocks and barren plains of an unregenerate world; the sorrows of the husbandman over the seed which had perished by the way-side. (To be continued.) REVIEWS AND BRIEF NOTICES. 1. The Harmony of Religious Truth and Unhappily, the denomination of chris Human Reason asserted, in a Series of tians, with which we esteem it a privilege Essays. By JOHN HOWARD HINTON, A.M. pp. 336.—Holdsworth. 2. Man's Ability and Obligations illustrated in the Life, Death, and eternal Dwelling Place of an unconverted Sinner. pp. 80. -Nisbet. It is impossible for any one, who professes the least respect for revelation, to attempt erecting a theory of religion, however extravagant, without some endeavour to sustain it by the "oracles of God." Even the most superficially acquainted with ecclesiastical history, must know, that from the earliest period of the Christian church, every one who has aspired to be the founder of a sect, or upon whom the honour, unsought, has been conferred, has been anxious to support the consistency of his scheme by pressing into its service a selection of scripture texts, supposed to be sufficient for that purpose. Hence have arisen what every sincere friend of divine truth must deeply deplore, and which the infidel, though ineffectively, never ceases to urge in defence of his hopeless cause; not such a rightly dividing, ogfotoμava, the word of truth," as the apostle recommends, but expositions of its statements, destructive of each other. The effect of these discrepancies, as, alas! is but too well known, has been to sever those who profess a common faith in the sacred volume, into numerous divisions, each having, as far as attainable, its distinctive appellation ; and presenting, when surveyed in association, an appearance too motley to be contemplated without emotions much more adapted to humble than to delight the pious beholder; as indicating, even at this advanced period of the world, a distressing distance from that "unity of the faith" which is at once to fulfil the Saviour's request, and remove every doubt from the minds of men, as to the dignity of his character, and the authority of his mission. VOL. VIII. 3d Series. to be connected, is already so far divided in theological belief, as to require, for the sake of distinction, the employment of the terms "general" and "particular;" and it is not without extreme regret that we perceive any tendency towards a further subdivision; for while the author, whose work is now before us, may congratulate himself by saying, "There are many who think with me; and that the sentiments I have advocated, are becoming every day less singular," we are apprehensive that he would, at present, object to be identified with that section of our denomination whose views, on some of the principal articles of the Christian faith, are obviously in much nearer accordance with his own, than those which it has been and still is, the purpose of this periodical to maintain. In short, though it has now become abundantly manifest that to describe him as a Particular or Calvinistic Baptist, according to the conventional use of the phrase, would be little short of offering him a direct insult, yet his notions of the law of God, the power of man, and the necessity of Divine influence, carry him so wide of the acknowledged sentiments of our Arminian brethren, as to induce some expression of disappointment on finding him too much in advance of themselves*, to admit the hope of immediate union, or cordial co-operation: so that, for anything we are capable of discovering to the contrary, if, as the author suggests, those, who think with him, are daily multiplying, a new sect is inevitable; which, in this unparalleled age of invention, cannot be permitted to remain long without an appropriate cognomen. Our author informs us that the essays *See a Review of a Sermon before the Bradford Institution at Bradford, by Rev. D |