deemer. The good old priest found it hard to believe a message of so much strangeness, and asked of the heavenly assistant a sign to assure him of its truth. The sign was at once a pledge and a reproof-the aged minister became instantly dumb, and continued so till after the birth of the child.

Six months later the same messenger came again to earth; but it was still to obscure individuals in their lowly homes, and not to kings in their councils or princes on their thrones. He appeared this time to Mary, a young virgin of Nazareth, living in poverty under the protection of her espoused husband, Joseph; both of them of the line of David. To her he made it known that she was herself to be the honoured instrument of the Creator's purposes. Mary was the cousin of Elizabeth, the pious Zachariah's wife, and having heard that she too had received a message from Heaven, he went to rejoice with her on their own distinguished destiny, and the approaching epoch of mercy. After three months abode with her cousin, Mary returned to her lowly habitation in Nazareth, and Elizabeth gave birth to the predicted son: he was christened John in obedience to the Angel's injunction to his father, a name that in the Hebrew tongue is expressive of his embassy; and Zachariah immediately recovered his suspended speech.

The birth of the Messiah followed quickly-but here our history is to make a pause. And how naturallyfrom the lowly dwellings of Mary and Elizabeth, remotely situated in the province, where a few individuals of the lower class were holding such strange intercourse with Heaven, and things like these were transacting, do we look out, as it were, upon the now populous world, and ask what they were doing at this momentous hour. The history of each separate nation we shall trace up to the present period, ere we proceed with this. As a whole, a single glance discloses what they were about. The children of men possessed the earth and ruled it,

:

and did their pleasure with it, and no one forbade them. Forgotten every where, defied every where, and every where unwelcome, he who created it for himself, seems to have had no dominion upon it, but the cottages of Joseph and Zachariah-for though there was a whole nation that he called his own, when he came to them, they too disowned him. How few were at that time the sons of God upon the earth, may well be perceived in the Gospel narrative; when among the thousands who followed and listened to the Messiah, so few could be found who really believed him to be what he declared himself.

We have thus traced up the Jewish History to the moment of our Saviour's birth, 4004 years after the world's creation. Though in this latter period their history loses much of its peculiarity, from the withdrawing of God, as it were, to a more invisible distance from them, leaving their affairs to be directed like those of other men, still there is an air of romance in their circumstances, and of enthusiasm in their character, that gives unusual interest to the narrative of their concerns : they still commend themselves to our interest as the selected few, God's chosen people, acknowledged though in disgrace and whether we see them with a few hundred weapons dispersing the heathen armies, fasting and preaching before the conflict, to which they were led by the priests in their pontifical robes, or mourning on the heights about Jerusalem for their polluted altars, we become deeply interested in their concerns, as a people apart from and unlike to the world that surrounded them. And such in truth they were. That they have now become to us objects of contempt and injury, is the judicial decree of Heaven, doubtless: but it is not therefore less blameable or less surprising that we should hold them such. As God's peculiar people, the subjects of dispensations so extraordinary, and the instruments of events so rare, as distinct from others now in their adversity as erst in their prosperity, it would seem more

natural that the sight of one of these isolated beings, wherever encountered or in whatever condition found, should excite an immediate feeling of interest in the bosom of any one who believes what has been written of them. Were it not for the deadening effect of habit upon our minds, the sight of a Jew would surely bring to memory the God of Abraham and all the tissue of miraculous events with which the Jewish name for ever stands associated.

REFLECTIONS

ON SELECT PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE,

Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.-ROM. xiv. 23. WE hear so much cavilling and disputing about the smaller points of Christian practice, the right of this and the wrong of that-one surprised that another does such a thing, and that other surprised that the one does not the same: some even venturing to condemn the servant of a far kinder master, because his practice or his opinions accord not with their own-one might suppose that the Christian's God had left his followers without a guide; and like the fabled tyrant of antiquity, placed them in a labyrinth of moral difficulty, from which they may issue safely if they can, but of which the intricacy makes escape almost impossible. Is there then no rule, no right-no bright beacon on the path to glory, by which the servant of the Most High may choose his steps? Or is man so blinded rather by self-love, and his own fancied wisdom, that he cannot see it, and so end these doubtful disputations? They were not disputations of principle Paul was speaking of—but of small matters of practice, as consistent or otherwise with a known, admitted principle. And Paul is directed to set them all at rest in these few and simple words, explained

as they are by the preceding chapter. Would you know if that thing was sin-seeing that God has not named it in his law, either to command or to forbid it? Consider what was the motive that inclined you to it. Was it an honest desire to glorify and please your Maker-a simple intention to put things to the uses for which he intended them, and work with his means the good that he wills— for he wills always good, to yourself, to others or to his own honour? Are you certain that this was your motive, and that had you not so considered of the action, you had foreborne it? Then be you sure that action was not sin-you condemned not yourself in that you did. But you hesitated. Why did you so? Because you thought you perceived in the measure something inconsistent with the known commands of God-something not quite conformable with the spirit of his religion, though unforbidden in the letter-something that might counteract the good purposes of his will, and indirectly administer to the harm of others or yourself, or attaint the honour of his name, or be productive of evil, that thing he never wills? Then be assured that whatever it might be to others, that thing to you was sin-for when you did it, it was not of faith. It might be an innocent act, but you did not see it to be so you did not wait to see it so, but did it at a venture. Some motive must have been stronger in you than the desire to please God-something must have turned the suspended scale-conviction it was not; for had you been convinced you would not still be doubting: the determining motive of your action was something apart from God, his pleasure or his glory-these were the motives of your hesitation-you allowed the other to prevail, and doing so you sinned. Thus it should seem that our difficulties would be abated much, were we to look to our motives rather than our actions, in questions of this sort and instead of asking continually of others, "May I not do it"-" Must I abstain from doing it❞— ask rather of ourselves, "Why do I wish to do it?" "Why do I hesitate to do it?" To whichever question

the better answer will apply-to whichever it may more properly be answered, "To do the will of God"-let that, for the present at least, be our determination-it cannot be the wrong, however we may hereafter see the answers changing places, and change our conduct also. But to this criterion our own actions only can be brought; we cannot measure thus the actions of another. What is to be done in this case? The context has decided : "Let us not therefore judge one another

any more." Et la porte s'ouvrit à eux d'elle même.-ACTES xii. 10. LA facilité que la grace fait quelque fois trouver dans la conversion et dans la delivrance des inclinations corrompues, la fait presque regarder comme un songe par ceux qui l'éprouvent. Les secours des Saints Anges sont imperceptibles. N'attendons pas que nous les connoissions en particulier pour leur en temoigner nôtre reconnoissance, et pour en louer Dieu. Toutes les difficultés s'applanissent souvent pour ceux qui ont une fois quitté la peché et les occasions. Ceux qui ont une véritable confiance en Dieu, le trouveront toujours prêt à la proteger d'une manière ou d'une autre. lui qui sauve aussi-bien par les voies ordinaires et insensibles, que par les miracles les plus éclatans. Mais les hommes ne sont guère frappés que par les moyens extraordinaires et miraculeux. Dieu cesse d'employer ceux-ci, quand la nécessité cesse. Qui fait reflexion sur la conduite que Dieu a tenue sur lui dans la conversion, y voit et y admire ce qu'il ne voyoit pas alors. Il voit qu'il a fait des demarches qu'il n'auroit jamais faites par lui-même, et que Dieu lui a caché des difficultés qui l'auroient épouvanté. La main de Dieu est plus puissante que toutes les puissances de la terre et de l'enfer. Qui s'appuye sur elle, n'a rien à craindre.

C'est

QUESNEL.