1st. The principles of Christianity, corresponding with the holy, merciful, and righteous nature of God, must, consequently, be worthy of Him who is the perfection of holiness, righteousness, and love. 2d. These principles being invariably the same, in all ages, countries, and circumstances, prove that they proceed from one invariable cause. A Christian, let his country be what it will-let his rank be what it may-let his previous character have been ever so bad-you find the man under the influence of the principles of which we have been speakking; you find him governing his passions-exercising equity in his procedure with his fellow man-rendering, according to his ability, all their due; to God what belongs to him, and to his fellow creatures what belongs to them. The Gospel, producing these invariable effects, proves that it has come from Him who is without variableness, or shadow of turning. It proves, notwithstanding the diversified circumstances of human creatures, that they all stand in need of the same truths. 3dly. They have been produced to an extent that powerfully demonstrates the co-operation of God. I once read, in the history of a celebrated infidel-I refer to Mr. Hume-a declaration which I have frequently found to correspond with the statement of the Gospel. "I have seen many men so miserable, as to be beyond the reach of any system of philosophy with which I am acquainted." His acquaintance with philosophy none will dispute. He knew men under such circumstances as to be beyond the reach of all philosophy. But we can show, by evidence not to be contradicted, that there is no human being so wretched, or so depraved, as to be beyond the philosophy of what we call Christianity. It is suited to the wise, the great, the noble, of the earth; and it raises the savage barbarian to the rank of man. I may remark, in connexion with this, that it is utterly impossible to account for the universal, the extraordinary, the permanent influence of the Gospel in the world, upon a supposition that it is a system of falsehood. Let the man who thinks so account for it. Let him account for the changes which have taken place upon the complexion of the human character. Let him endeavour to account for these things upon the supposition that the Gospel is a falsehood. If there be any future state of happiness prepared for holy and blessed creatures;—if that state of happiness cannot be enjoyed except by those who are like God ;—if likeness to God consists in deliverance from the power of sin, and in the love of holiness, righteousness, and mercy-if the Gospel is powerful to produce this state of character: if it does produce it whenever it really operates-then it is a system, and the only system, which is adapted to man's present condition, and which is fitted to make him "meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." If this be so, I am justified in saying that the Gospel is a faithful saying; if so, I am justified in announcing it to be worthy of all acceptation. If you feel yourselves what the Gospel describes you to be, unholy, imperfect, sinful, rebellious creatures, if you have a consciousness that you are not what you ought to be, what God desires you should be; then, let me say, the Gospel is preached to you for salvation. It is the revelation of the God of Heaven to wretched condemned sinners. It proclaims pardon without money and without price. It proclaims salvation without restriction. Eternal life is not to be bought with money-is not to be purchased by the merits of man. It is what God has declared it to be, "The gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” May God bless his word! Amen. WATCH NIGHT. How still and holy is this house! it is the noon of night. The moon and stars from their high spheres look steadily down upon the silent city; even the wintry night winds which have swept up so coldly from the waters, are in this sacred moment hushed, as if the mysterious influence which now rests upon the spirit, and with freshly imparted divinity, prepares it to hold most solemn converse with its God, were touching all things above us and around, until they feel His presence, and a voice from the earth, the winds, and the far-off stars, proclaims to the adoring soul-the Lord, the Lord is here! He whose wisdom pervades the secrets of creation, and upon whose word the pillars of the world were based, has come down, and placing His hand upon the springs of time, again measures out to man another period of duration, another swiftly re volving circle of hope and fear, of joy and sorrow, of life and death. Well may we bow and worship before Him, while His infinite mercy offers to faithless servants so rich a gift; and meet it is that we receive the wondrous boon with prayer and watching. By the year now gliding from us, yielding its latest message even from the portals of eternity,--and by the dread responsibilities with which the coming new one shall invest us, we are called alike to penitence, to prayer-and therefore "watch." In guilty alienation from the promised rest of "perfect love" and faith, our free inheritance, we watch as those who, in a gloomy night when death and danger were abroad, watched, and trusted that the sprinkled blood upon their humble dwellings should meet the eye and stay the arm of him who, with the sword of justice bared, was passing over the land. But a hope which speaketh better things is ours. Though the polluted record which the closing year now bears to Heaven is open to the gaze of uncreated purity, with penitential tears, yet humble faith, we glance beyond this searching sight, to where a milder glory beams for man to look upon-to the changeless throne of mercy; and there already has the blood as of a lamb newly slain washed all that guilt away-because our Redeemer lives, we live also. We live awhile on earth, and therefore watch; for in every hour of this varying scene, we are sowing the seed of which we are to reap in that unending state to which we hasten, of daily joys and daily trials, that fearful harvest is preparing; from God alone must come the constant aid to sow the seed aright, by whose grace and smile it shall ripen and increase, and yield to us the fruit of endless life. Grief, too, has been mingled with the past, and from the hand of change and death we gathered oft a bitter portion, and therefore watch, ere we advance, lest those tokens of His presence be withdrawn, so long our guide, our glory and defence,-for in the way which we must tread, are many dangers; and sorrows still will grow together with our joys until the end shall come; but an end shall come, a full and glorious end to anxious care, and grief, and every fear; for He has numbered them. When the heart thoroughly purified, shall no more need refining grief and wayward faith, taught by afflicting mercy, shall fasten steadily upon the rock Christ Jesus, and Hope cleansed from all the earthly aspirations which now dim its lustre, shall brighten in the light of "perfect day"-then to the society of those dear ones, who have joined the sainted band above, to all the spirits of the just, and to Himself in His own glorious abode will He welcome us; therefore now we pray, that when the end shall be, and He shall come to summon us before Him, whether it be at the eve of this new year, or in the middle of its course, or when the morning of another dawns, He may find us "watching." January 1, 1842. H. M. P. ON WORLDLY AMUSEMENTS. IN our number for December, page 634-40, was suggested a plain and practical test, by which to try worldly amusements. We proposed to contrast the character and conduct of those who conform to them, and of those who separate themselves from them. And, with this criterion, we would readily stake the cause upon the honest decision of every unprejudiced mind. engulphed in this system of delusive pleasure will refuse to hear this reasonable appeal. Let me then turn to the compromising professor of religion, who would join, in unholy union, God and the world. But those who are thoroughly In the midst of enjoyments which you plead that you deem innocent, but which a stricter class of Christians pronounces to be incompatible with a truly Christian walk, you lock abroad upon those who are living in gross and open sin; and you can form a true estimate of the nature of their pursuits; and of their insufficiency to promote the great and common object of man-happiness. You wonder, for instance, what infatuation can blind the man who wallows in gluttony, drunkenness, and sensuality, thus to shatter his constitution; to impair his fortune; to debase his nature; and eternally to ruin his soul; for the momentary gratification of a low and grovelling passion, whose insatiable desires are but increased by indulgence. You can thus form a right judgment upon the folly of all those who are beneath you in the moral scale. And why? Because your judgment is not warped by any prejudice in favour of their besetting sin: while the wretched victim himself, fascinated and deluded, discerns neither the heincusness of his sin, nor its utter inability to promote even his temporal comfort and enjoyment; and this, because his judgment is prejudiced by the love of this sin; because his heart has been depraved, his mind and conscience been defiled, and his understanding darkened, by those foul vapours which indulged sin never fails to raise in the soul. But while you can thus, to a certain extent, form a just estimate of every character beneath you in the scale of morality, you are yourself living contentedly, and at ease, in practices and pleasures which a stricter and more serious class of Christians unhesitatingly condemns, as wholly incompatible with the genuine spirit of Christianity. Now let me ask you, with all solemnity-and remember that it is a question in the true decision of which the best interests of your soul are vitally involved, 66 is it not possible that your judgment also, as well as that of the gambler, the drunkard, or the sensualist, may be warped by prejudices in favour of your own practice; and that you cannot, as you affirm, perceive that those practices are opposed to Scripture, only because that the "sword of the Spirit" has lost its keen edge, in frequent, but unsuccessful, collision with a hardened conscience? May not that clearer light, in which the spiritual man, as Scripture tells us, discerneth all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man,' be that light by which the stricter Christian discerns, and passes a sentence of condemnation upon, those vanities which you deem innocent? And may not that clearer light be the result of a closer walk with God?-of an emancipation of the soul from the love of those vanities?—of a surrender of the will to the Divine guidance: a submission of the understanding to the teaching of the Spirit of God?-of a still silence of the passions: a recollection of the dissipated affections: a state, in which the soul adopts, as it were, the language of the prophet child, 66 Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth!" and is answered by that Spirit which guideth into all truth : that unction from the Holy One by which he knoweth all things: by which he "knoweth of the doctrine," or of the precept, "whether it be of God?" May not you, like the drunkard, or the sensualist, awake, when it is too late, from this stupor of moral death; and feel the frightful conviction flash upon your newly opened eyes, and rankle for ever in your soul, that, in striving to compromise between religion and the world, you have been endeavouring to serve two masters whose interests are wholly incompatible? May you not learn, by sad experience, the truth of our Lord's merciful but unheeded warning," Ye cannot serve God and Mammon ?" To every Christian professor, then, we would urge an entire separation from worldly amusements, as he values his own soul: because the spirit of the worldits principles and affections; tastes and tempers; objects and pursuits; ends and means; in short, its whole spirit, is not the spirit of the Gospel of Christianity-of Christ and because a drinking into that spirit intoxicates his soul; spoils its relish for simple, innocent, and spiritual enjoyments; renders irksome to him the offices of charity and utterly unfits him for the right discharge of those relative duties, which, under the penalty, of his vengeance, God has indissolubly bound upon his conscience. : But we would also urge this upon the Christian professor, as he values the souls of others.We would beseech him not to strengthen the hands of the great enemy not to deceive the ignorant to entrap the wary: to encourage the timid sinner to determine the wavering to sanction, by his presence, and by the weight of all that the world may deem amiable and religious in his character, practices and pleasures which he sees daily, and inevitably, leading thousands into sinful excesses to which he would not himself dare to pursue them. We would solemnly urge him to beware of those tremendous judgments which must have burst upon the devoted heads of those who have brought a religious charac ter, or a religious profession, to sanction irreligious practices; and thus become the main pillars which prop up an ungodly system: who have been playing the hypocrite with a jealous God; and coquetting with His rival, the world, beneath the heart-piercing eye of Omniscience: who have been seducing, by their example and authority, into paths of everlasting perdition, their weak brethren "for whom Christ died :" who have been compromising between God and the world—and the stake at issue, immortal souls; who have used the watch-word of Christianity but to creep in, unawares, among the people of God, and to betray the cause who, in the garb of religion, have been doing Satan's work; and making" Christ the minister of sin !" : There are some, whose general pursuits and dispositions are not hostile to religion, who yet mingle, to a limited extent, in the amusements of the world but who, whether from constitutional temperament, or clearer views of moral truth, are averse from carrying matters to an extreme of dissipation; and who think that to object to this "golden mean" is unreasonable and scrupulous is carrying religion into extremes: is being "righteous overmuch." Such persons appear to forget, that it is impossible once to open the floodgates, and suffer the current of dissipation to flow, and then to arrest its progress at a given height. They forget they are themselves, by their character and example, the main pillars of a system of iniquity into which they should shrink from entering deeply, yet which, but for the sanction, and the partially restraining influence, of their presence, would soon be |