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"Anastasius-It will not be denied that a large portion of the Sacred Writings consists of Prophecy; to say, then, that no good can result from studying the Prophecies, implies a supposition that a considerable portion of the Bible is useless; and even if the discrepancies between writers were so great as you suppose, it would be more probable that they had treated the subject in an unsatisfactory manner than that the subject itself was unworthy of study.

Philalethes-It has occurred to me that the object of Prophecy was not to make men know beforehand the events which were about to take place, but to shew by the event the foreknowledge of God.

Anastasius.-This is certainly not a sufficient motive for declaring unaccomplished events; for it does not require a revelation from the Deity to prove, that if there be a God, that God must have a knowledge of the future effects aud operations of the works of his own hands.But, instead of considering this point abstractedly, we have only to refer to Prophecies which have been already fulfilled, to see that such was not the only object for which they were given; but in order that men might believe what God declares, and act accordingly.

Men study the Prophecies, as too many do other parts of Christian doctrine, as if they were unconnected and insulated parts. They are like persons who look through the windows of a building which contains a very large and complicated piece of machinery; by dint of some pains they arrive at the knowledge of the uses of all that they see, but, not being able to get inside the building, they cannot perceive how all the various movements are connected, so as to produce one grand, and consistent, and uniform operation. Thus some are so wholly intent upon the doctrine of justification, others upon the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit, others upon the decrees, and unchangeableness of the purposes of Jehovah, that the whole of the contents of the Sacred Volume seems in their eyes, to be included in one or more of these separate doctrines; whereas, no Christian is well and scripturally versed in one branch of divine truth, but in proportion as he perceives its harmony and connexion with all others.

Philalethes. But you surely do not mean that the study of the Prophecies is as essential a branch of Theology as the doctrine of justification, and the other great and leading doctrines which you have mentioned.

Anastasius. God has united them in His Word, and what He has united together let not man put asunder. Philalethes. Do you consider, then, that any practical good is likely to result from the study of the Prophecies? Anastasius. Every portion of Divine truth which is received into the heart, produces a corresponding practice. Systems and creeds in Theology may be learned by the intellect, as readily as systems of Chemistry, Botany, or Mineralogy; and so acquired, will produce no good effect. The activity of the mind of the present generation has caused many to acquire the Christian scheme of salvation in this and in no other way, and hence the large apparent extension of religious profession. But so hostile are the heart and affections of the natural man to those things which God delights in, that no one can acquire such a love for the essential peculiarities of the religion of the despised Nazarene, the crucified God-man, as to have the current of his thoughts, principles, and course of life changed and influenced by them, except through the Almighty Spirit of the Deity himself.

Philalethes. This I firmly believe, and experimentally know, as far as it respects the fundamental truth of salvation by the Cross of Christ; but what good purpose do you expect further to be accomplished by the study of the Prophecies?

Anastasius. For every delusion which Satan introduces into the world, there is a specific antidote in some

particular portion of Divine Truth. After the whole Roman Empire had become nominally Christians, the world was over-run with the superstition, idolatry, and self-righteousness which had been set up by the various Bishops of Rome. The especial truth for the overthrow of that delusion, was the doctrine of justification by faith alone. To preach this doctrine the Reformers were raised up; upon this point the whole difference between the Christian and all other religions essentially turns; and therefore this point is justly termed, Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiæ; upon this foundation the whole body of Protestant Churches was builded, and stands. But superstition and self-righteousness constitute no longer the elements of the prevailing delusion of these days, with which Satan draws men's souls into perdition; scepticism, infidelity, the deification of the intellect of man, reasoning pride, disbelief in the Word of God, is the grand sin of these days in the former case they were at the least alive to the danger of offending God, and anxious in their endeavours to pacify Him, and only mistook the mode by which this was to be accomplished; whereas, now they doubt the fact of His anger, and, consequently, the necessity of any mode of reconciliation. The grand truth, therefore, to bring forward, is the standing miracle of the past and present condition of the Jews; Prophecies fulfilled already, and those which are to be fulfilled hereafter. Thereby shewing, from the analogy of judgments, which, having been predicted, did afterwards come to pass, the certainty and awfulness of those which are yet to come; that many may be roused from their lethargic security, and awake, not to the tremendous realities of a despised indignation, but to the expected glories of an eternal blessedness."

The writer did not foresee the heresy which has lately sprung up in the very bosom of our own protesting Church, the effect of which would be to confuse and unsettle the whole work of the reformation-we cannot see, however, that there is any period in the Church of Christ when this doctrine of justification by faith, so justly called the article of a standing or a falling church should not occupy a prominent place in the doctrine of every preacher of the glorious gospel of "the blessed God. EDITOR.

THE LORD'S DAY.

There is a subject dear to the heart of every child of God, to which we are determined that a prominent place shall be given in the Christian Beacon. The honour due to the Lord's Day. We trust, indeed, that not a number of this paper will appear without some reference to the Festival-Day of the Christian week, of which it has been quaintly but beautifully remarked that "in the ring and circle of the week the Sabbath is the jewel, the most excellent and precious of days." We are well aware that to the sinful and the ungodly the honour and the holiness of the Lord's Day affords no pleasure, and promises no gratification---for "SIN KEEPS NO SABBATHS," but we are deeply convinced that there can be no well ordered society in a Christian country when the sacredness of the Christian Sabbath is not duly observed. Well has it been observed that "if the keeping of the Sabbath were a mere servitude of the body leaving the heart no better than before, it would be a frivolous ceremonial and ought to be exploded. But if it be true that he who sanctifies the Sabbath sanctifies his own soul, then does the Sabbath assume a spiritual importance, because an expedient of spiritual cultivation. The suspension on this day of the labour or business of the world---its scrupulour retiremen from the converse or the festivities of common intercourse ---its solemn congregations and its evening solitudes--These singly and in themselves, may not be esteemed as moralities; and yet be entitled to a high pre-eminence among them, from the impulse they give to that living

fountain of piety, out of which the various moralities of life ever come forth in purest and most plenteous emanation. It is not that the virtue of man consists in these things, but that these things are devices of best and surest efficacy for upholding the virtue of man. Were it not for this subserviency, the Sabbath might well be swept awaye but because of this subserviency, it not only takes its place; among the other obligations of Christianity, but is entitled to that reverence which is due if not to the parent to the foster-mother of them all." These remarks have been called forth by a letter which we have just received.

There is something peculiarly awful in this mode of desecration of the Lord's day, when we consider that every family in the kingdom participates, either directly or indirectly, in this great offence. The countinghouse of the merchant, the chamber of the lawyer, the table of the private gentleman, the hand of almost every householder, the club-room, and the reading-room, display a like on Monday morning, and too frequently even during the Lord's-day, the produce of the Sabbath Mail.

Those who have been long accustomed, without a thought, to make use of the Sabbath Mail, may be tempted to suggest great difficulties in the way of suspending it; but they may rest assured that the difficulties are only imaginary, and not real. No real disadvantage can ever arise to nations from a holy keeping of that rest which the Most High, who "ruleth in the kingdom of men," has ordained. He himself has declared, "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people," (Prov. xiv. 34.) He also has said, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God," (Prov. ix. 17). But we have remarkable proofs before our eyes, that no inconvenience actually arises, but rather comfort and blessing, from suspending the operations of the Postoffice on the Lord's-day. Consider the example of LONDON that great commercial city of the earth. Thanks be to God, no letter is received or sent forth ou the Lord's-day within her streets. She thus pauses in her commerce; pauses, according to the will of God; and doubtless, she finds a blessing more than equal to her consistency. Can any rational being doubt that the same rule would be equally beneficial to the nation at large?

footing. The Mail would depart from every place on every day of the week, except the Lord's day, allowing one universal day of rest, in which all would enjoy an equal opportunity of serving the Lord, of which mauy are now deprived. The habits of commerce would be rapidly accommodated to this holy order; and after a few Lord's days had passed away, men would wonder that they had ever opposed so godly and beneficial an arrangement."

The address is from the Lord's Day Society, on the subject of the stoppage of the Royal Mail during the 24 hours of the Lord's Day.

A HOUSEHOLD HYMN.

Father! from whom thro' life our joys have flow'd,
At whose blest feet we, child-like, bow the knee,
Long may Thy love enrich our poor abode,

And may our little children come to Thee;
Teach the high lesson to their heedless youth,
No way is safe but Thine---the way of Truth!
May no contentious words, no hateful brawl

Rouse their young spirits to unhallow'd wrath;
Be Thou their Faith, their Hope, their Love, their All,
And keep them safe along their upward path:
What foe shall stay their footsteps, if they be
United-- in thy Spirit's unity?'

Thy name is Love: then bind them each to each,
In pure affection's ever-strengthening chain;
And if th' unstable world false terrors teach,
Bring home Thy promise to their hearts again;
That Thou wilt give, should earthly stores decrease,
Unfailing comfort, in the bond of peace ?"

Their riper age may no unbridled lust

Of passion, power, or money lead astray;
May they to all mankind be true and just,

And learn Thy precepts only to obey :
So shall they pass thro' storms of human strife,
With quiet minds---' in righteousness of life.'

E.

Scripture for Meditation on the first of January, 1839. Watchman, what of the night ? _Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.t

* Isaiah xxi. 11, 12. Romans xiii. 12, 13, 14.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS. ADVERTISEMENTS for the "CHRISTIAN BEACON," which will be printed on a separate sheet, may be sent to Messrs. Hamilton, Adams, & Co. London, on or before the 16th of the Month. The Letter of B. T. S. about the Sunday School Teacher at Man chester, (who became a Socialist, and died reprobating the Owenite System,) &c. are necessarily deferred till our next number.

There is at present, all through the country, one day in every week when no letter is received from London, and one day on which none is sent to London; but with shame be it spoken, neither of these days is the Lord's Day; whereas, if the conveying of the Mail were suspended during the twenty-four hours of the Lord's day, there would still be but one blank day, and that, to the glory of God, would be the Lord's day. Let the managers of the Post-office arrange that the Mail shall reach some convenient town, where it may rest, a reasonable time before twelve o'clock on Saturday night; let it resume its journey after twelve at night of the Lord's day, at such a time that no work be done on that day; and it will arrive at the several towns on those days which are now the blank days; while in London the delivery and departure of letters will remain unchanged. There would then be but one blank day all over Great Britain, and that day would be the Lord's day; and the whole population of this kingdom would be placed upon one common Christian LONDON: PUBLISHED BY SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & Co.; HAMILTON, ADAMS, & Co. BANCKS & Co MANCHESTER H PEI S LIVERPOOL: I SÉACOME.

We are glad to inform our readers that although we do not think it right to publish names without permission, we have already received promises of assistance from Clergymen in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, &c. &c. whose names, if mentioned, would carry great weight with them, besides the assistance offered and already given in our own city and neighbourhood.

It is requested that all communications may be addressed, (post or carriage paid,) to the Editor of the Christian Beacon, care of Mr. Seacome, Bookseller, Chester.

T. THOMAS, Printer, Eastgate Back Row, Chester.

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A MEMORIAL OF GOD'S MERCIFUL PROVIDENCE.

THE Evening of the Lord's Day is peculiarly a time of rest to His ministers; for the day itself, though a day of rest to others, is a serving day to us. Joyful and blessed our serving is, but it is often laborious and fatiguing, and at no time does the cheerful quietness of our family circle seem so delightful to me as on the evening of the Lord's Day.

The evening prayers were over, and our family party had separated for the night. I remained alone after every one had retired to rest, that I might see if the doors and shutters were closed, and the house insafety. As I stood in one of the passages I heard that the deep stillness of the night was broken in upon by the sudden rising of the wind. A door in the court yard was slamming so violently that I went out to close it, and I found that the wind had begun to blow a gale, but as our residence stands high, and open to the south west, there seemed to me nothing unusual in the loud and sweeping wind which blew warmly and strongly over my face.

Before I retired to my own chamber I went, as I usually do, to give a passing look to the children.

By the side of one of the youthful slumberers I lingered for some minutes, he is the youngest of the household, and a younger Brother's child. My mother stood beside me-for he slept in the dressingroom adjoining her chamber-and shading the light I carried with my hand, we looked down on the calm sweet countenance of the sleeping boy. There is something very lovely to me in the innocent security of a child's repose, the cheek so delicately flushed on the side pressing the pillow, the eyelids so lightly closed, and the soft regular breathing just parting the rosy lips. I rather touched than clasped the little hand, carelessly resting on the pillow, and more than once I stooped down to kiss the soft cheek of the unconscious child so tenderly loved by us all. As I turned away I heard the roar of the tempest without, but all was peaceful in the hushed stillness and the soft gloom within.

RECTOR OF
ST. PETER'S, CHESTER.

[PRICE 3d.

It was impossible to sleep, nor could I wish to sleep during that awful night, and yet I was too fatigued not to feel at times almost overcome with drowsiness. The wind became louder and mightier in its force; never have I heard such long terrific blasts. At times there came a long long pause of deep and awful stillness, as if the tempest were collecting its strength, like the string of a bow strained back, or the mountain billow drawn down to its lowest depths, and thus gathering force to rise to a towering height, and to burst with overwhelming power-and then the blast came rushing on, and the house seemed to rock to its very foundations. Hour after hour passed, but there was no cessation of the hurricane, and all the night long I thought of those who were out upon the sea, exposed to its wildest fury. But as my spirits turned also to God, who walketh upon the wings of the wind,' I remembered that He is as gracious as He is glorious-as merciful as He is mighty. I felt how great a privilege it is that we are permitted and indeed invited to commend all for whom we ought to pray to His good providence, and to His all-sufficient grace! and it was then a high and holy delight to call upon Him, who, while He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, came in the likeness of man, and lived and died among men sharing our griefs and carrying our sorrows.

I thought of Him asleep in the midst of the storm, and I could not help, like the fearful disciples, entreating Him to rebuke the tempest, and say, as He said in answer to their prayer, "Peace, be still." Oh the blessed, blessed privilege to have such a Refuge, such a Savionr! so gentle, so sympathizing so human, a friend! Still the storm continued, when suddenly there came one heavy thundering crash, which seemed to fall upon the house. What it was, and where it was, I knew not-but I did not stop to think of why or wherefore I found myself rushing forward to the chamber of the child I had left some hours before sleeping so softly. As I sprung up the stairs, a bell rang violently, and then I heard the sound of feet rushing backwards and forwards,

T. THOMAS, Printer, Eastgate Back Row, Chester.

and loud, frantic shrieks. I was in time, and perhaps only just in time.-I found my mother struggling with all her strength to force her way into the dressing room where the child slept; for when the crash came, the door had been suddenly closed. She could just open it, and was able to see the situation of the child, and hear his cries of terror, but all her efforts to enter the room were in vain. My sister had also reached the room, and had rushed round to the other door which opened into the passage, and she was using all her strength to burst it open, but in vain, the door had been locked from within, and resisted all her efforts. Never shall I forget the whole scene as it then appearednever shall I cease to shudder when I think of the situation in which I found the child-the roof rent wide open to the sky, and the heavy masses of brick and timber tumbling about me, and the wind, sweeping in and bellowing with its mighty voice, and the troubled moonlight shewing to me in the further corner the couch of the child almost buried in the ruins. I heard his piteous cries, and they brought joy to my heart, for I thought at first that all was over, that he had been crushed beneath the frightful ruins. He also heard my voice, and called upon me by my name; and with a desperate effort, which seemed easy to me at the time, I forced back the door, which the falling mass had almost closed, I sprang forward, and was permitted to reach the child-just sufficient space was left for me to draw him forth, for the rubbish was as high as his chest. In a moment I had borne him from the room, and placed him in my mother's arms unhurt. I had no sooner reached the adjoining room than there came another dreadful crash-the whole of the roof and chimneys and ceiling, as I afterwards found, had fallen in-but the child was safe, and we were blessing God with him in our arms, as we hastened with him to a place of greater safety.

Blessed be God's Holy name! this was but one instance among many more, of the mercies of His providence on that eventful night, that night to be much observed in our recollections of His goodness, and our thanksgivings for His deliverances!

When I next visited that little chamber, I found it a ruinous heap of brickwork and timber, bared to the open sky. The beam which had been snapped in the middle, hung slanting just above the bed of the child, and a few large heavy slates were still suspended over the spot where his fair head had been lying,-a broad mass of the ceiling had fallen, like a smooth canopy, upon the wooden parapet which surrounds his Indian crib, and under it his tender limbs had been so gently shielded, that the bed clothes had not even been

pressed down; but on the pillow, just where his head had rested, a joist had since fallen, and would, probably, have struck his temple with a fatal blow.

From that same room also, a large heavy wardrobe had been removed only the night before, which otherwise must have been forced through the ceiling, and have inevitably fallen on another youthful sleeper in the room beneath. It had been also proposed, not long before, to move the crib of the child to another side of the room to the very spot where the whole weight of the chimneys had fallen, and where he must have been at once crushed to death. But it was His will who hath said, "There shall not an hair of your head perish," to preserve ns in safety during that awful night. He had seemed to whisper this gracious assurance during those hours of danger. How fervently do I pray, that those who were spared, may live to shew forth His praise, not only as I would now do, with our lips, but in our lives.

One reflection has been often present to my mind, when thinking on that tremendous windstorm, that the power, beneath which we all trembled in so helpless a state was an unseen power. There is, in fact, nothing of all the wonders in the mysterious world where God has placed us endued with such mighty force as the invisible air around us; and yet its presence is the gentlest, the most welcome, the most sweetly refreshing to man. freshing to man. The delicate flower upon the sheltered bank would hang its head, and its tender leaves would be folded and shrunk in death, if unvisited by the playful breeze. We throw open the casement and draw back the curtains in the sick room, that the soft air may come and breathe over the languid sufferer; and how often does the prisoner in his dismal dungeon raise himself to the narrow window of his cell, and lay his fevered brow against the bars, that he may draw in some grateful draughts of the fresh open air for which he often gasps in vain. The common air is, perhaps, the best, the sweetest, and the dearest blessing God has given us here below. In it, to take a low but I am sure a devout view of the subject, the mortal man may be said to "live, and move, and have his being." Let it be withdrawn for a short season, and the living man becomes a hideous corpse. There is One, my christian readers, who is the very fountain of wisdom, and in His sacred word He has Himself taught us to see in the commonest things of earth images of the highest and holiest things of heaven. And as He has likened the second Person of the eternal Godhead to the

resplendent sun, which giveth light and heat to all men; so has He set before us, by the image of the air that we breathe, the third Person of the

same glorious Godhead; giving us some faint idea of the ineffable gentleness of His influences, and the irresistible mightiness of His power. Yes, from the very lips of Him who spake as never man spake, the infusion of spiritual life, in His own way, and at His own seasons, is thus simply but exquisitely described, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Oh! my friends, He is the Lord and Giver of life, and if you have not been brought to acknowledge this; if you have not been taught by the word, and by the Spirit, that he only is a child of God who hath been born from above, there is no life in you. The great danger of all in a nation of professing christians is this, that every one is apt to think himself already a christian, without looking within, to see if the death unto sin, and the new birth and life unto righteousness have been already experienced there. But let us all remember, that although it may seem to us that we permitted to trifle with the gentle influences of Him who is the Lord and Giver of life, there will be no resisting His arm when He puts forth His power, and "ariseth to shake terribly the earth."

Dr. Chalmer's Letter On District Visiting.

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MY DEAR MRS. FRY,-I shall feel a still greater interest in your doings among parishes than in your doings among prisons; and that, not only because the one is more a walk of general philanthrophy than the other, but because it is a walk of higher and fuller promise.

In reference to the moral disorders of Society, they stand in the same relation to each other, that the method of prevention in medicine does to the method of cure. But what I build most confidently upon is, (to express it in the language of the schools,) an argumentum a fortiori, which I would construct on the degree of success that attended your former enterprise, warranting the expectation of a still higher degree of success in your present enterprise. I have ever held both your own experience and that of Mr. Howard to be immensely valuable, as establishing not only a most beautiful, but practically the most important lesson I know in the management of human nature; and that is, THE CHARM OR POWER OF KINDNESS, EVEN IN THE HEARTS OF THE MOST HARDENED AND WORTHLESS OF MANKIND.

Let us carry back this lesson from dungeons to dwelling-places, and try, if a principle not extinct in the malefactor's cell, in what higher degree it exists, or with what more powerful effect it may be operated upon, throughout the homes and common habitations of the people.

This grateful sensibility in one bosom to the manifested goodwill of another, is surely a right and virtuous affection as far as it goes; and if it have been found, as by yourself, to survive that depraving process which the worst of criminals undergo, in what greater vigour may it confidently be looked for, anterior to that process, in the abode and on the domain of average hu

manity? The experiment which you have found to be successful in the veriest receptacles of the felon and the outcast, carries in it a bright and universal promise when it comes to be tried, as is now doing by yourself, on the large scale, and upon the field of human society.

I rejoice to hear from you of the perfect welcome and cordiality wherewith your visitors are received in the districts on which they operate. It is but the exemplification of what you experienced in circumstances which at the onset looked far more discouraging and unkindly. This grateful response on the side of the population, almost unexpected I believe, forms a cheering prognostic, if the undertaking be rightly prosecuted and constantly persevered in, of your full and final success.

Irrespective, therefore, of the specific errand on lower classes, in the very mingling of the two, in the which those of the higher go forth among those of the frequency and closeness of their personal intercourse, there is an incalculable benefit. Even though you should fail in certain of your objects, you will have gained incalculably in the growth which your operations must promote of a kindlier and better spiritbetween the rich and the poor. They only require to know each other more, that they may love each other more. To sweeten the breath, as it were, of the community, and to break down those malignant and social prejudices which separate one class from another, is in itself a service of the highest order, and one which in our present distempered condition is the most urgently called for. To augment the feeling and the recognition of a common brotherhood among men is of itself an achievement of the greatest value. This you will at all events do; but I trust you will do more, and that good not of a higher certainly, but of a more substantive and tangible description will be the result of your present labours, the distinct tendency of which is to raise the character as well as comfort of the lower orders, to elevate both the moral and economic state of our population.

But I have indulged too long in these prefatory and general considerations; and let me now offer a very few remarks on the nature and regulations of your

scheme.

1st. The great excellence, I apprehend, of your scheme lies in the very minute division of a general task, and by which you assign an easily manageable part to each individual member of your agency; and, secondly, in your laying the movement on the doers of the good work, and not on the subjects of it.

There hinges an immense difference in the result of this last peculiarity. In every case where the object of an undertaking is the diffusion of a moral benefit, then, instead of the people being left to seek after it, it is clearly the part of the dispensers of it to go forth among the people. They may with all safety be waited for, when the charity addresses itself with force and immediateness to their physical appetencies. Let an almshouse or a soup kitchen be placed in the midst of a population, the agents in the distribution may be as stationary as they will, they will soon be overcrowded and overdone by the multitude who repair to them But it is not so with the charity which aims at the

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