3. For Tuesday, "What good shall I do for my relations abroad?" Sometimes he changed good shall I do to my enemies? And how shall I overcome evil with good?". 4. For Wednesday," What shall I do for the churches of the Lord, and the more general in been in substance pointed. out. In other cases, however, the first comfortable exercises may be so long continued, or repeat-it for another, namely, "What ed after such short intervals, that a settled assurance of hope may soon be obtained. In other cases, again, without those elevated views which have been described, there may be such an accurate discernment of the dis-terests of religion in the world?" tinguishing nature of gracious exercises of a lower order, together with such a clear perception and conviction of the unchangeable nature of the covenant of grace, that the assurance of hope, as a habit, may be possessed almost from the first. (To be continued.) 5. For Thursday, "What good may I do in the several societies to which I am related?” 6. For Friday, "What special subjects of affliction, and objects of compassion, may I take under my particular care? And what shall I do for them?" 7. For Saturday, "What more have I to do for the interest of God in my own heart and life?" [Mass. Mag. A week well spent. By Dr. C. Mather, of Boston, in New England. ANECDOTE. WE publish the following Anecdote in hopes it will yield that pleasure to our readers which we received at its recital IT was constantly one of the first thoughts in, a morning of this very successful minister,* "What good may I do to-day?"-the source from whence it He resolved this question into comes, leaves little doubt of its the following particulars : authenticity. 1. His question for the Lord's day morning constantly was, "What shall I do, as a pastor of a church, for the good of the flock under my charge?" A young girl about seven or eight years of age, of a pious cast and uncommonly fond of attending church on the Sabbath, was asked by an Atheist-how large she supposed her God to be? to which she with admirable readiness replied-"that HE is so great that the heaven of In the first year of his ministry heavens cannot contain him, and (though only about 18 years of age) he had reason to believe he was yet so kindly condescending as made the instrument of converting to dwell in my little heart." 2. For Monday, "What shall I do for the good of my own family?" at least 30 souls. [Augusta Herald. POETRY." Isaiah Chap. 53. WHOSE faith has trac'd in David's less'ning line, To Bethlehem's humble vales a Prince divine? Who hath beheld, by Heav'n's prophetic word, 4 In Bethlehem's babe th' anointed of the LORD? 5 No pomp accustom'd mark the Monarch's worth, 6 No regal honors wait him at his birth, No shouts triumphal wake the natal morn, No herald's trump proclaims a SAVIOUR born; No form peculiar future grace portends, 10 No titled greatness on his youth attends; 11 No pleasing hopes maturer years impart, 12 No kindred wishes kindle in his heart, Nor form etherial, such as angels wear, Himself despis'd, rejected of our race, Yet man incensate bids the sufferer groan, 28 And marks the guilt and judgment for his own, For them the stratagems of malice bore. While every crime transpierc'd his injur'd heart, While mercy pours the vengeance on his head, In vain the waves o'erflow, the thunders roll, Mute as the peaceful lamb condemn'd to smoke, To earth's dark cavern is the prisoner borne. Now God's eternal counsel to fulfil, Sin's expiation made, obey'd his will; To earth's remotest bound his seed shall rise, Line 4th......How small will be the number of those who at Christ's appearing, will receive him as the promised Messiah. He came to his own, and they received him not. They laughed at his pretensions.The prophet in the first verse of this chapter does not allude to the number of those to whom the gospel shall be preached, but of those to whom Christ in spirituality should be revealed. 5 Instead of a palace, the common birth-place of kings, that of Christ was a stable-instead of a bed of state, a manger and a couch of straw received him. The herds of the stall take the place of maids of honor. 6 It is hardly to be supposed that the wise men of the east paid the infant regal honors. 10 Till his entrance upon the ministry, he was called, the carpenter's son. 11, 12 An assumption of the imperial purple would have inspired his nation with more pleasing hopes, than a victory over the doctors in the temple and a deliverance from their subjection to the Roman yoke, the only business, as they imagined, of the Shiloh that was to come, would have much better met their expectations than the overthrow of the rulers of the darkness of this world. 17 He grew up insensibly and without observation, 'tis said ; that the figure employed better represents his imagined inability to resist the enemies of the Jewish nation.-His springing from their nation at that time weak and depressed may have given rise to the allusion to a root in a dry ground or barren soil, but it is more natural to suppose it a figure of his descent from the decayed and reduced family of David. 18 There is no beauty in him that we should desire him, doubtless has reference to his design and object, rather than his person. 23 His visage was so marred more than the sons of men. He was so macerated and worn with continual griefs, that when but little more than 30 years of age, he was taken to be near 50. Epistle of Lentulus to the Roman senate quoted by Henry on the place. 25 He hid, as it were, his face from us; such is the marginal reading probably the most correct-though neither can be thought literal expres sions. 28 Yet we did esteem him stricken of God. According to Bp. Lowth judicially smitten. 47 He was taken from prison and from judgment. Scarcely two commentators agree in the exposition of this passage. By the judgment of Pilate, Christ was acquitted, but at the suggestion of his release the tumult was so great he was constrained to give him up to the populace. Thus was he taken from or against judgment. It is not so easy to determine in what sense he was taken from prison-some translations render it, he was taken away by distress and judgment. 49 And who shall declare his generation? His manner of life who would declare. (Lowth.) It is said in the Mishna and Gemara of Babylon to have been a custom of the country before any person was punished for a capital offence-proclamation was made by the public crier in these words, Quicunque noverit de ejus innocentia veniat et doceat de eo, and though our Lord seems John xviii. &c. to refer to this custom aud to claim the privilege it was denied him. 56 And he made his grave with the wicked and the rich in his death. Either by the oversight of the translators there is a transposition here, or the prediction relates not to the events generally supposed. According to the evangelists he made his grave with the honorable and his death with malefactors. Lowth has it, he made his death with the wicked and with the rich man his tomb. 76 I am the light of the world. 1808. Donation to the Missionary Society of Connecticut. April 1. Received from the Church in Stonington.......S 12 50. Among the members of the church thus composed, some young persons had associated together for the purpose of conversation, and reading books up MR. EDWARDS from his on subjects of an immoral and ordination, February 15, 1727, continued laboring among the people of Northampton with great success, and to the entire satisfaction of the people, for about seventeen years, before any event happened to disturb their harmony. The church at Northampton, had before the year 1744, been composed of all persons in the town not of a scandalous behaviour, or of openly vicious lives, who from fashion, for reputation's sake, or a desire to have their children baptized, were willing to own the covenant. This organization of the church, had been introduced by Mr. Stoddard the predecessor of Mr. Edwards, and had without much attention been for many years practised upon by Mr. Edwards. VOL. I. NO. 6. licentious tendency. This came to the knowledge of their pastor, and he, after preaching a sermon adapted to the case, laid the subject before the church, but without mentioning the names of the delinquents. The church almost unanimously, and with great zeal, assented to the propriety of examining into the conduct of the members accused, and appointed a committee to as sist Mr. Edwards in the enquiry. In pursuance of the request of the church, he appointed a meeting at his own house, to which he invited the attendance of all those who were accused as well as witnesses, without discriminating who were witnesses and who were accused. It was then discovered that the persons named were either nearly or Bb |