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uttermost all that come unto God by Him;" and too just, now that He has proclaimed His satisfaction with the work of Jesus,-the "one offering" of His "well-beloved Son"-to demand assistant atonements. Than Christ's, therefore, "there is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we can be saved." The manifestation of Jehovah's love in the person and work of Jesus Christ, while it proves His high estimate of the purity of His own law, and the wondrous value of the human soul, also demonstrates the impossibility of effecting redemption at a cheaper rate than the pouring out of the precious blood of Christ. Without shedding of blood there could be no remission. The indistinct impression of this fact is universal among men. A glance at the heathen world reveals the tendencies of our race to sacrificial worship. The deities of the Gentiles were thus approached: and the universal belief was, that the more costly the sacrifice brought by the worshipper, the higher he would stand in the favour of his god; hence a guilty conscience prompted its possessor to put his imagination on the rack to discover those barbarous and bloody rites at which humanity shudders. But, barbarous and bloody, cruel and expensive, as they were, "vain oblations" was their expressive characteristic. "Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering." "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Ah! no; it were in vain: for had the universe contained a sacrifice capable of meeting the exigence, less valuable than that which was presented on Calvary, we should never have heard of "God manifest in the flesh." He who was 66 set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was," would not, in such a case, have left His dazzling throne and "dwelt among men,"

would never have

"Cold mountains and the midnight air,"

"Witness'd the fervour of His prayer,"

for a dying world, had the death of another substitute been able to procure its life. The Garden of Gethsemane would not have echoed His groans, nor would its soil have been moistened by His bloody sweat, had the other treasures of infinite benevolence been commensurate with the claims of infinite holiness. Had it been possible to save one soul without Jesus, it would have been equally possible to save the whole family of God without him; the difficulty arising not from the "multitude that no man could number," about to be "redeemed from all nations," but from the condition in which every individual soul was placed; and the blessings resulting from the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession of Messiah, are applied to every believer, as well as to the aggregate church. There will be no jarring note, therefore, in the hallelujahs of "the general assembly and church of the first born." Every voice will rise in unison when the Lamb is adored, -for the harmonies of eternity must not be distracted by any of its inhabitants ascribing his felicity, either in part or entirely, to any but Jesus. The hope of Adam and the Redeemer of Job are one. The "Man of sorrows" of whom Isaiah sung, and the "Messiah" of whose glorious achievements Daniel prophesied, and on whose bosom John reclined, and in whose army Paul wrestled, is the same High Priest who intercedes for the convert of yesterday, and who will yet gather in the scattered tribes of Israel and the alien Gentiles into His united, holy, glorious, spotless fold, for "He must reign till His enemies be made His footstool," till He "sprinkle many nations," and till He "see of the travail of His soul and is satisfied." Mighty conquests await Him yet. The hell-mortared bulwarks of superstition, idolatry, infidelity, pride, and malice, must be shattered before Him. "Every knee shall bow to Him; and every tongue confess" His exclusive mediatorial claims. A countless, spiritual seed shall own themselves His exclusive subjects. The infinite benevolence of His soul will not be always satisfied with a "little flock."

"And lo! Thy royal courts to grace.

An offspring fair, a countless race
Shall to Thy youthful prime be born.

Like dew drops from the womb of morn. "#

The mansions of glory are not being prepared to stand untenanted; heaven has to

Mant's translation of Psalm cx. 3.

be populated from earth; the North, the South, the East and the West, have to yield their tributary myriads of polished stones to the spiritual temple; and the finishing stroke, by the Master builder, has to awaken the echoes of the eternal hills with shoutings of " Grace, grace unto it." But mark! there will never appear such a "wonder in heaven," as one of the descendants of Adam, who cannot look at the glorified Saviour and say, "THOU hast redeemed me by Thy blood."

PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

It is not necessary to detail the proceedings, which have recently taken place in the Church of Scotland, in order to render intelligible the extracts we subjoin. It will be sufficient to state generally, that the great body both of ministers and people stand out for the principle of non-intrusion, at least to the extent that the patron of a living shall not force upon the parish a minister, whom a majority of the heads of families, being communicants, declare unfit; and that the civil Courts have decreed that the law of the land is otherwise.

At a recent Meeting, Dr. Chalmers and Mr. Candlish made the following observations.

Rev. Dr. CHALMERS.-"Certain it is that one of the principles for which we have of late zealously contended is, that there ought to be a national establishment of Christianity-but there are times and occasions when even this must give way to a higher principle. It did give way at the times of the Reformation. Our ancestors renounced the Establishment of their day, because there was in it the deadly flaw of Popery; and it must give way anew, should we, their descendants, be compelled to renounce the Establishment of our day, because there is in it the deadly flaw of Erastianism. Meanwhile, a great question is on its trial-whether a Church connected by temporalities with the State can or cannot maintain its spiritual independence. If it can, the cause of religious establishments will be placed on an impregnable foundation to the end of the world. If it cannot, the essential principle of corruption will prove an element of weakness which sooner or later must lead to their overthrow. Still it is not we who are responsible for the demolition of the fabric, or for the evils which that event must bring upon society; they have been the moral means of that consummation who have given effect to the cry of the Voluntary, that a State Establishment of Christianity is a moral nuisance. Our solemn duty-I feel it powerfully-our solemn duty is to do all that in us lies for averting this catastrophe; and heaven forbid that we should hasten it by any indiscretion, and far less by any disrespect or deed of violence on our part. These charges may be laid, and indeed have been laid against us already, merely because we deem our principles of higher force than aught that relates to our private or personal interests. This we cannot help; and we must not, we dare not, and we will not try to help it, even though the power which first conferred her privileges and distinctions upon the Church should now be pleased to recall them, and we should be declared to have forfeited at her hands the title and the privileges of the established Church of Scotland. We will not resign the higher title of the Church of Christ-nor will we quit our ancient hold on the name and national appellative of the Church of our own beloved land. There is much land remaining to be possessed-the glorious work of Church extension, which in the Establishment was so thwarted, and crippled, and impeded in every way possible by heritors and courts of law, will break forth into tenfold enlargement when those bonds and manacles are shaken off, and the noble work is resumed in the inspiration and with the sense of a new-born liberty. True, it would be better, (and we do not mean yet to lose our hope of that betterness; we must be driven out)-it would be better, I say, if the work were fostered, and countenanced, and helped forward by the friends of government; but still, when we cannot do as we wish, we must do as we can. I shall proceed no farther in the contemplation of our ulterior prospects should the worst come to the worst; bnt I contemplate the prospect without alarm. Even should the crisis arrive, we know a clear, an honourable, and a Christian outgoing from it: we are confident of the smile and approbation of Heaven: and that confidence is not abroad when we look around upon the goodly spectacle of friends and fellow Christians-the best and worthiest of Scotland's sons, who are ready to harbour the men who gave up all for the sake

of a good conscience and of Christian liberty. The God they serve will not leave them without a help and without a home.”

Rev. R. S. CANDLISH.- "The question which the minority of the Church has raised, is in plain terms this, whether we who maintain the principle for which the Church is now contending, which we hold to be essential to the purity which the Lord Jesus Christ has established in His Church, and to the liberties of His people-the question is, whether we are to continue the Established Church of this country or no! They have raised a question, that we, from a regard to the interests of this Church, and the welfare of this country, never would have ventured to raise. It is a fearful responsibility which these men take on themselves, especially in days like the present, which are witnessing the breaking up of old institutions -it is a fearful responsibility from which we should have thought that men, Christian men, must have shrunk with alarm and dismay,—to raise a question so grave in itself, so awfully momentous in itself, so awfully momentous in its issue. But they have raised it. The question has been raised whether we are to continue to be recognised as the Church of Scotland; and I am to contemplate this event, our being thrust out of the Establishment, as an event that is possible to happen. Now the effect of the breaking up of our Establishment might be like the effect of our first persecution of the disciples at Jerusalem to scatter them over the earth; and if such were the issue,-if we who are now met together as brethren-if those who have taken sweet counsel with us in the great things God has done for us,-if we must be scattered to the four winds of heaven, we must rejoice in this, that by thus diffusing the good seed of the Word, the Lord may be preparing a more abundant harvest in the end. But even this may not be the result. It does not follow that if we are separated from our benefices, we are also to be separated from our flocks. God might still permit us to dwell among our own people. And we need not distress ourselves greatly if that event should come, respecting the means of our support; although there is not, as I hold that there is not, in the Voluntary principle, that which can fully and adequately meet the wants of a great population. But I do still believe in the Voluntary liberality of those whose hearts God has opened in time of trouble, and will open still more. And here, Sir, it is well for ourselves, for the country, for our opponents, that we should be seen in the attitude of men, fairly calculating the question. Let me add, that I can conceive of the Voluntary principle being brought into operation into our Church, if such should be the event, in such a way as has not been tried in this country. Even our friends, the Voluntaries, who have so strenuously advocated that principle, have not given it a fair trial. My impression is, that our Voluntary friends do not know how to work it, and do not make the best of it. They do not adopt the apostolic rule, that all things in this matter should be common. I cannot doubt that in the earlier church the system of ministerial support would not have been analogous with that system which leaves ministers to depend upon their congregations, but rather analogous to that which the wiser Methodists have adopted, viz., the system which unites the contributions of the faithful, and out of a common fund supplying the wants of the ministers. This, I am fully persuaded, would be the course which this Church, in such an event, would be led to adopt. We would be led, by the providence of God, to have recourse to some such plan. No other measure would be at all a reasonable or a capable measure. There are some of us so favourably situated in the larger towns of the country, and in possession of youth and vigorous health, and who might find little difficulty in retaining congregations, who would devote their means to the maintaining of the minister among them. But would this be reasonable should that crisis arise, which would effect but little those in larger towns. Would it be reasonable to our fathers, who have spent their days in lonely valleys of our land, to our brethren, who have borne the heat and burthen of the day, and that in districts, where willing as the people might be to support their beloved pastors, they are straitened from the want of means,-would such a course be reasonable! There can be no doubt, I should think, that if God gave the ministers of this Church grace to be so faithful to our principles, as to consent to the loss of their benefices, rather than surrender this principle for which she is contending, He will give us the farther wisdom' to provide in such way as this, that the ministry throughout the land should share in common from the freewill offerings of the whole people.

THE HAZARD OF A LIFE OF WORLDLINESS.

REV. ALEXANDER FLETCHER, A.M.

CROWN STREET CHAPEL, SOHO; WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH, 24, 1841.

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world ;*if any man love the world, the lo of the Father is not in him."-1 John ii. 15.

THE being of a God is written upon the visible universe around, in lines of glory surpassing the sun in its meridian brightness. Wherever we turn our eyes, there we see the marks, the footsteps of the Deity. The heavens declare His glory, and the earth and the firmament display His handiwork; "day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night declareth knowledge" of Him. And that Being, whose existence is proclaimed by His works, is adorned with every moral attribute and perfection; He is possessed of every possible glory. But no where else have we an accurate account of the moral excellencies of God, than in the Scriptures; the Bible is the only book, which presents before us a correct and a consistent view of God, as the great First Cause and as the moral Governor of the universe. We look in vain any where else for this intelligence. It is not to be found even in the very best works of the sages of antiquity. God's glorious excellencies as a great moral Governor are only to be found in this sacred production. Here we learn, that He is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, His wisdom, His power, His holiness, His justice and His truth.

This great God is infinitely worthy of our love. All His perfections claim our admiration, they claim our homage, they claim our worship. Even natural religion joins with revealed religion, in calling upon us to love the Deity. We hear (as it were) from natural religion, though imperfectly, what we hear from revealed religion distinctly and loudly-even this proclamation, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength." Nothing can be more reasonable; nothing can be more desirable; nothing can be more honourable. Man was made to know God; man was made to love God.

If we saw a magnificent building, of great splendour, recently completed and enriched with every accommodation rendering it fit for the residence of the great and the mighty, we should instantly conclude, that this magnificent structure was reared for some person of eminence-for some nobleman or for some prince. Now, my friends, look to the structure of the human mind; look to that intellectual structure, look to that moral structure; take a view of its astonishing faculties, its astonishing powers, its astonishing capacities. Then the question is-By whom was this structure planned? by whom was it reared? for whom was it prepared? The answer is-For God; it was made by God, it was made for God. And man, as an intellectual, as a moral, as an accountable being, never lives up to the end of his existence, and never lives in the full enjoyment of that happiness for which he was formed, until he knows God and until he loves God.

Seeing, my friends, that nothing can be more reasonable or just, than that we should love God with all our hearts, oh! how dangerous it is to refuse God that love to which He is entitled! When we give this love to other objects in preference to God, we are guilty of impiety; we treat God with scorn; we elevate the creature above the Creator. When we refuse God our heart and give it to earthly objects, we appear, on the one hand, to consider the creature capable of filling the boundless desires of the human mind-(which it is impossible for any creature to do); and on the other hand, to consider God, though possessed of all boundless excellencies and perfections, as actually unfit to impart to the human mind that happiness and felicity, of which it is susceptible, and without which it must be miserable for ever and for ever. And therefore, to refuse God our love and to transfer to earthly and carnal objects that love to which God is entitledor, in other words, to be worldly-minded-is to place ourselves in a situation of

3 F

the greatest disgrace. They who refuse to give God their hearts, are in circumstances the most dishonourable and degrading. They bring themselves (as it were) down from that lofty attitude, where they were originally placed by the hand of a beneficent Creator. And while they are in a situation the most dishonourable, they are also in a situation the most dangerous. For true felicity can only be derived from God; and this is shutting out the mind from that felicity, which can be acquired no where else. And at the same time it is exposing ourselves to the Divine displeasure; and it is impossible that man can ever be blest, while he is living under the displeasure of the Deity, the fountain of all goodness, and in whose hands our destinies are necessarily placed.

See, therefore, the correctness and accuracy of the words of our text-"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world: if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." He furnishes evidence, that he has no interest in the love of God; and therefore, so circumstanced, he must be in a situation of indescribable hazard. And while he has no interest in the love of God to him, he has no love to God in his heart. So that there is a double calamity; he makes himself an object of the Divine aversion, while at the same time he manifests his hatred of that God, who is infinitely worthy of his love, and who alone can make him happy and blessed.

By the assistance of Divine grace, I purpose, in the first place, to show what worldliness is; in the second place, to point out the danger of a worldly spirit; and in the third place, conclude with some short improvement, containing some advices.

I. I intend, in the first place, to endeavour to show what worldliness is. Worldliness is the love of the world; a worldly mind is a mind that loves the world. The world is taken in a variety of acceptations. Sometimes it is taken to signify the globe; at other times it is taken to signify the men of the world; and at other times, the objects of the world. But in the present discourse, the world must be taken to signify its pleasures, its riches, its honours. And worldliness, therefore, my friends, or the love of the world, is to love the world's pleasures, to love the world's riches, and to love the world's honours, in place of God. It is to put the world's pleasures in the room of God," in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore. It is to put the riches of the world in the place of God—that God who holds "in His right hand length of days, and in His left hand riches and honour.” It is to put the honours and the dignities of this world in the place of God, and to prefer human fame and earthly renown before the love of the Deity, "whose favour is life and whose loving-kindness is better than life."

This, my friends, is a general answer to the question-What is worldliness? And I now proceed to show, that to love the pleasures of the world as our chief good, is worldliness; that to love the riches of the world as our chief good, is worldliness; and that to love the honours of the world as our chief good, is worldliness. 1. I observe, in the first place, that to love the pleasures of the world as our chief good, is worldliness.

God, my beloved friends, has created in our bodies appetites; and these appetites He has formed, in His wisdom and in His benevolence, for the health, the preservation, the safety and the comfort of our corporeal frames. But such is the depravity of the human mind, that these appetites are perverted by corrupted man for the most depraved purposes and the most depraved ends; purposes and ends which are altogether at variance with the interests of the body, and with the particular objects for which God originally formed these appetites. Thus man puts into the hand of his appetites the sceptre of government. These appetites were originally designed to be under the management of reason, as the appetites of the brute tribes are under the management of instinct. To these, God has given instinct; to man, God has given reason. He puts reason upon the throne; He gives it the reins of government. But corrupted and depraved man hurls down reason from the throne of eminence, and puts the sceptre of authority into the hand of the appetites. Then these appetites are changed into lusts; and when they obtain the

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