God now needs, and how he stands related to us.

And this is precisely the

When first

knot which reason cannot untie, which requires revelation to solve. we seek to form a conception of God in relation to us, we look around to the world abroad, to the constitution of external nature. We see the system of things arranged, with a view to the happiness of the creatures of God; we see benevolence pervading all his plans: not one instance of purpose or contrivance can be brought forward which has anything like a malevolent design. We see how he causes all the fair face of nature to smile with ineffable attractions. We see how liberally and luxuriantly he showers down the gifts of his abundant blessings. Is it not He who clothes the grass with more than royal glory, and Is it not he that hath made us mind and provides for the fowls of heaven? body, and given us the sense of enjoyment? Does not every object that affords us pleasure, bear evidence to the good will of Him, who has so constituted us to receive, and so made the object to afford-the pleasure? Does not every day bring with it new proofs of God's design to make us happy? For what else does he keep us in safety, load us with benefits, and give us food, and raiment, and all things richly to enjoy? Oh, it cannot be that He who has placed us amidst so much that speaks of his own goodness and beneficence, can be otherwise than favourably disposed towards us: it cannot be that he seeks anything else than our happiness, our comfort, our enjoyment.

But then, we turn our eyes within, and there a still small voice reminds us of the righteous authority of our God. Conscience gives us the notion of a Being having the moral attributes of justice, and holiness, and truth. Some causes of apprehension might arise from the world without, as we see there tokens and traces of our ruin. There is much in the world around that speaks of a God of judgment: but there is in the world within, in the conscience, which speaks to us with a voice which we cannot always resist-there is something that will far more emphatically remind us of a God of righteous severity. We feel the purpose for which we were created-to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. We feel there must be a reason in all this bounteous liberality, even that we And when conscience may seek after the Lord, if haply he may be found of us.

tells us this design has not been fulfilled; that we have not thus acknowledged the Lord; then arises the difficulty-How are the tokens of love in the world around us, and the forbodings of ill in the world within us, to be harmonized and reconciled?

Here it is that the necessity arises for the interposition of another method, to declare to us that God, whom otherwise we must "ignorantly worship :" and here, accordingly, it is, that the Apostle brings in the doctrines of revelation to solve the difficulty. Men were created that they might seek after the Lord and find him: and, when they did not find him, what was the Lord's method of acting? "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men, everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained." We must look to the dispensation of the Gospel, the dispensation of God's longsuffering, as preparatory to God's judgment—to the dispensation of grace, as preparatory to the dispensation of wrath-if we would rightly understand how these two opposite testimonies are to be reconciled-the testimony of nature without, the testimony of conscience within. Nature speaks of a God of love, loading us with a father's liberality, and watching over us with a father's care:

conscience speaks to us of a God of judgment; tells us we have not fulfilled the design for which our God placed us in the world; and reminds us we are exposed to his wrath. And how is it these two testimonies are to be reconciled? In the cross of Christ. Look to the cross of our Lord and Saviour: you see there, something correspondent to the love wherewith all God's works do show that he abounds towards us, for he so loved the world that he spared Lot his only begotten Son, but delivered him to the death for us all. And is here not a reason for the cross of Christ echoing back the testimony that conscience gives to the justice of our righteous Judge? Is there not a token in the cross of Christ of God's indignation against sin, and of his determination to uphold the sanction of his law, and to visit sin with its penalty? Is there not in the sufferings of Christ on the cross; his unknown and inconceivable sufferings; is there not a prefiguration of that wrath which remaineth for those who will not accept of the offer of mercy?

The remarks that have now been made, will show the importance of a real knowledge of God above all other knowledge: without it all other knowledge is unprofitable, a curse instead of a blessing. And the paramount importance of the view which the Gospel gives of God, as distinguished from the view which nature gives, will appear from the consideration, that ultimately it must be the view which all of us shall be compelled to take: for the spirit of every one departing from this world, must pass into the presence of God, and come into close contact, so to speak, with all his majesty, as a just God and a Saviour. And what will all our knowledge avail us, pleasing and profitable as it must be, in this world, when we come to God, not as a God afar off, but as near, and as a God of judgment? There is a pleasure, however, elevating and ennobling, in the approach after truth; there is a satisfaction in the cultivation of strong and intellectual powers: and many there are who can give themselves up to intense and untiring energy in the searching out of nature's works and the questioning of intelligent minds: they can give up their days and their nights to the exercise of their intellectual faculties and the generous pursuit of knowledge. But alas! are there not many who, with all their knowledge, have not that "wisdom that cometh from above"-who, in all there getting get not understanding? They may feel a proud and high satisfaction, arising from the importance of the knowledge acquired in the successful employment of their powers and faculties of mind. But, brethren, they scarcely meet, in all the various and diversified tracks which they take, and in all the endless variety of objects which encounter their judgments-they scarcely ever meet their God; they scarcely ever find him in the way; they scarcely ever seek him. In the wondrous element, the richly scattered treasures of power, and wisdom, and goodness, through which they make their progress, they cannot shut their eyes to the presence of God; they must acknowledge a God: but it is God with attributes of their own choosing, not the God of Scripture-the God of nature, not the God of justice. Him they exclude from their view; Him they do not like to retain in their thoughts; and in the circumstances in which they cultivate the idea of a God, if mingling in their researches at all, they strip their ideas of all which might remind them of their unsettled controversy with him. Conceive of a man in such a state, so blind as to have exercised his powers of discovery, in the full blaze of all the glory and the terrible majesty of

a just God and a Saviour, without really finding him, condemned to carry on his future work of discovery with a clear and startling apprehension of all the moral attributes of God-his holiness, his justice, his truth-all as manifested in the cross of Christ, and all still carried on in a carnal mind, and a self-condemned heart. Where now will be the joy of his lofty inquiries? Where now the triumphs of his lofty powers of knowledge? Every object he contemplates now, is connected with the idea of a righteous God; every subject he can examine now, is fraught with the presence of a righteous God; every new ray of light that meets his eye, reveals to him a righteous God; every sound carries to his ear the name of God, repeated by a thousand echoes. He can make no experiment now, that will not show him more of the wonders and the terrors of God. He can look at nothing, he can think of nothing, that does not speak to him of God, and remind him of Deity and all the bold traces of his profound discoveries regarding nature, now do but suggest reminiscences of nature's God as a God of judgment; and so the very faculty which was once his pride and admiration-the capacity of deep reflection and enlightened inquiry, does but add new sting and torture to his reprobate mind, by suggesting always, everywhere, and in all things, new images and representations of that awful, that almighty Being, whom he has chosen to make his foe.

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Such is the indispensable necessity of a right knowledge of God in his character as the Moral Governor of the universe, in the light in which Scripture presents him. Without this knowledge, all our advances in other branches of knowledge are but vain and unprofitable: with it, how delightful, how pleasing, how elevating are they! To see, at every step of our progress, the wonders of nature to see traces and vestiges of the wisdom of our God, and to know him that he is a reconciled God and Father-here is the true blessing of knowledge -here is the true design of searching into nature's works.

Since the knowledge of God in this his peculiar, his scriptural character, as the God of grace now, and of judgment hereafter-since the knowledge of God is of this vast importance, how paramount is the obligation which lies upon us to diffuse that knowledge! All other knowledge is useful, entertaining: this alone is needful. This may do without knowledge, but no other knowledge will do without this. If you teach men the elements of education, you put into their hands a powerful weapon either for good or for evil, according to the direction that may be given to it. If you put into their hands the elements of sound religion, if you teach them the truths of Scripture, you give their minds a right and safe exercise; while those truths yield to their minds such a knowledge of God as a Saviour, Ruler, and Judge, as will keep them from the abuse of the tremendous power you put into their hands. We have seen that whilst all nature speaks open.vt a designing God, it gives but obscure, and difficult, and dark intimations of a righteous Ruler, and Lawgiver, and Saviour. You must spread along with other knowledge, the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. You must make men acquainted with the cross of Christ; and then you will give them the knowledge of God, whom else they can only "ignorantly worship."

We to-day request your sympathy on behalf of the Highland Society, whose sacred and exclusive object is to teach the Bible, and to teach the Bible alone. And without at all detracting from other knowledge-nay, ascribing all merit to it we say that the more you encourage the teaching of secular knowledge, the more you are to encourage the teaching of that knowledge which is required

to complete and to continue it. You have in this Society one which labours to diffuse among your ignorant and benighted countrymen the Word of God, the Gospel of salvation, which may do, without any other knowledge, for man's direction in life, and his salvation in eternity, but without which all other knowledge is vain. This is adapted alike for all, learned and ignorant: this is what we all need to know ourselves, and to teach to others. The inhabitants of the distant parts of our land, separated as they are by mountains and arms of the sea, have been but poorly provided with ministers and teachers: the parishes being of unmanageable extent, the admirable machinery of our parochial teachers and parochial schools has not been fairly brought to bear upon them. The mountaineers in the remoter districts have been literally left to perish from lack of knowledge, without the advantages which, by the blessing of God, we in these regions enjoy: they have been left, and, humanly speaking, might still have been left, in ignorance of the great truths of salvation, but for the existence of this Institution. Some few years since this Society first called the attention of the Christian public to the claims of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Other institutions have now been founded; other efforts are now making for communicating the knowledge of the truth to them: but will you forsake and suffer to decline that Society, to which must be assigned the credit of having first stirred up an interest in the Lowlands of Scotland on behalf of our less favoured brethren?

The management under which this Society is placed, is such as to secure your countenance and support. It is one of the express and special rules of the Society, that its teachers are confined strictly to the work of instruction: wherever they have been found to interfere with the work of the ministry, and so as we suppose) weaken the hands of the ministry, the teacher has been at once discharged. The Society may claim your support as having been already proved to be abundantly beneficial Instances are on record of the good effects produced in large districts of country, by these same schools which you are invited to support. Instances are on record of fathers and grandfathers crowding with their own children to these schools, where thus they have been brought to read in their own tongue of the wonderful works of God. Instances are on record of the means of reading being provided for those whose eye-sight has been dimmed by age. And when, by any cause, the schools have been removed from the neighbourhood where long they have existed, the people, poor as they are, have contributed their money to retain among them those teachers whom they have cause to reverence as, through God's blessing, the means of awakening their souls. These are the people who now stretch forth their hands for assistance; surely you will not refuse them-you who are wont to speak with enthusiasm of our Highland scenery, and our island rocks. The men of science find in their caverns the elements of profoundest wisdom; the men of taste admire their romantic glens and towering prospects; the men of imagination are roused by the records of heroism, and are affected by the warmth of hospitality, that are there to be met with and will you not lend your aid to communicate to them the benefits you enjoy, in being permitted to sit under your own vine and your own fig-tree, and to read in your own tongue of all that God hath done for you? Do your part to strengthen the hands of its managers and teachers, that there may not be any longer a famine in the land-a famine, not of bread or water, but a famine of the Word of the Living God.

COMING TO JESUS A MOTIVE FOR BRINGING OTHERS TO HIM

REV. J. FLETCHER, D.D.*

BRIDGE STREET CHAPEL, BRISTOL, SEPTEMBER 23, 1834.

"And he brought him to Jesus.”—JOHN, 1. 42.

THE most important and endearing elements of character are derived from association with others. It is one of the great laws of our nature that our principles, and habits, and all that distinguishes the complexion of our mental and moral being, should be mainly dependant on the minds and characters of those with whom we voluntarily associate. Sometimes events, to our apprehensions seemingly contingent, bring us into contact with such as exert the most powerful influence on our whole lives. How often are talents elicited, trains of emotion kindled, modes of thinking and feeling originated, resolutions and determinations formed, at one interview, with some master-spirit, that may affect the entire complexion of a man's history and character, and fix the elements, not only of his future, but his final destination?

In the recollection of events, these circumstances stand out before the memory in bold and prominent relief; and they never can be forgotten: and in no respect is this principle more strongly illustrated than in the history of a sinner's conversion to God. The value of such a crisis does not result from its connexion with any order of human instrumentality, however interesting or delightful it may be to trace it back: it derives its importance from its being the time when, and the means by which, to use the simple but comprehensive phraseology of the text-a man is "brought to Jesus." It is the commencement of an intimacy with the Saviour; it is the formation of a friendship, which shall form his character in time, and fix his destiny for ever. To be introduced to Jesus, to be acquainted with Jesus, to become one of his disciples, to yield the understanding to the authority of his word, and the conscience to the claims of his law, and the heart to the demands of his love, and the life to the interests of his service, is the very character and essence of all true godliness. And this is the turning point on which depends the interest of time, and the momentous results of eternity. Such an event, however brought about, by whatever means effected, cannot be lost from the recollection; and the very locality connected with such an event (where you can so connect it) acquires an interest and an attraction superior to all other sources of influence in the world. Can those disciples, who for the first time met with the Son of God, forget the day and the period of that interview? Can the woman of Sicar forget the well of Jacob? Can Zaccheus forget the sycamore tree? Can Paul the Apostle forget the way