that evil inclination of man to forget his soul's best interest. At the season of Advent1 we are invited to think of our Lord's first coming into the world, and exhorted to consider how we may be prepared for his second coming to judgment! Now, have we made the right use of this season which has lately passed? If we have, the great subject will be still on our minds: if we have not, it will become us to give our best attention to it now. The four Sundays in Advent supply us with four prayers (the Collects) which a true Christian will see to be proper subjects for his petitions, at every season of the year, and during the whole course of his life.

Let us earnestly pray, then, that God would give us his grace, that we may "cast away the works of darkness, and put on us the armour of light 2."

That He would enable us "to embrace, and ever to hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which he has given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ."

That He would enable "the ministers and stewards of his mysteries to prepare and make ready his way,"-that they may be the instruments in his hands of " turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just," that, "at his second coming to judge the world, they may be found an acceptable people in his sight*."

And that God would "raise up his power, and come among us, and with great might succour us,"—that He would, "by his bountiful grace and mercy, speedily help and deliver us, and enable us to run the race which is set before us,—since, in running that race, we are, through our sins and wickedness, so sorely let and hindered ". "

How needful are these prayers, at all times! How important it is that we should be sincere whilst we are offering them up! How essential that we should constantly so look unto Jesus, and meditate upon his first coming, that through his forgiving mercy, and through the sanctifying help of his Spirit, we may be prepared to meet Him, when he comes again to judge the world.

1 Advent means coming.
3 Second Sunday.

V.

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THE LAW OF LOVE.

THE SINNER'S STAY.

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WHAT shall be the sinner's stay, on that great and awful day of our Lord's second coming, when we must all be judged according to our works? No man will say, that his works can bide the judgment. But Christ will answer for his people,-He knoweth his sheep, and they shall be taken by Him to dwell in his heavenly pastures for ever. But that the Lord Jesus may know them then, they must know Him now, and be known of Him. If, looking to Him as their Redeemer, they have turned to Him in true repentance, they are under the guidance of his Spirit,they are sanctified to his service,-their hearts are turned to the love of Him,-they delight in his service here, they seek his glory,-their aim is, that their works may be such as He approves, they are "new creatures in Christ Jesus," they are, by Him, prepared for his presence, they are fitted to dwell with the holy inheritors of eternal life ;-and there they will dwell. The prince of darkness has no power to hurt the children of light.

But, let us examine ourselves in earnest, to see whether we are such, whether our lives and conduct,—our words and actions, our tempers and dispositions, the object of our desires and pursuits be such, as to mark us for the people whom the Lord calls his own.

V.

THE LAW OF LOVE.

THE love of God ought to be the motive from which we constantly act. When there is this right principle within us, it will soon show itself in all our actions, and it will influence all our thoughts. Our great wisdom is to seek for right principles. In no other way can we insure right conduct. And if a principle of love to God does lead us, and urge us, in all things, to seek to do his will,

then does this principle contain the whole of the law of God, and thus our blessed Saviour declares that, love to God, and love to man, are the sum and substance of "all the law and the prophets." If we love God with all our hearts, and minds, and soul, we shall ever try

duty is written But those two

to obey Him; and if we love our neighbour as ourselves, we shall be ever trying to do him good. We do not try to injure those whom we love: the golden rule of love to our neighbour not only keeps us from committing any sort of injustice and dishonesty towards him, but also restrains the tongue from speaking evil of him,-it keeps the mind from thinking evil against him. Thus, "love is the fulfilling of the law." The law of for us; we have the commandments. tables of the law are summed up in this very short exposition of our Lord,-" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength." Here is the substance of the first table of the law, the first four commandments. The second table, the six last commandments, contains our duty to one another," Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The compilers of our Catechism have summed up these two tables according to the teaching of our Lord," Love to God," and "love to man," duty to God," and "our duty to our neighbour.' Let us not be content with repeating these, let us seek for the spirit of love which they inculcate. Let us pray the Spirit of God to graft this love in our hearts. Let us seek for that love of God, which shall produce in us true devotion, and sincere obedience. Let us seek for that love to one another, which shall suppress all unkindness, and every angry feeling, and shall teach us to ask, not how we may most indulge our own inclinations, but how we may best consult the good of others.

PATIENT CONTINUANCE.

66 our

for

v.

THE cultivation of our tempers will be quite as įrksome to us as is the cultivation of our understandings: indeed, no labours of the mind can be compared to the long and painful struggles with our bad passions and moral corruptions which we must go through; with our pride, our lust, our covetousness, our worldly mindedness. In doing God's will, and striving to purify ourselves from these, there is enough that is irksome, and ever will be, to our natural inclinations and feelings; for God is good

1836.]

EXTRACT FROM DR. ARNOLD.

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and we are evil. If any man will come after me," said our Saviour," let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me!" What is denying ourselves but doing what we do not like, because it is the will of our Master? What is taking up our cross daily, but finding and bearing some difficulty or other, which besets and would hinder us in the path of duty?

But it may be said, we cannot go on for ever doing what is irksome to us: we may try for a time, but it is impossible to continue such painful exertions. Here it is we feel the value of the Gospel promises, "That which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," that is, the love of God, and the aid of His Spirit, make us do, what, of ourselves, we are not able to do; help us to love, what, by nature, we may esteem, but cannot love. Even a heathen poet has expressed the fact, that love makes the hardest task easy. So he who loves God and Christ, finds in himself a stronger motive to what is good, than his natural desire to avoid it; and, though the weak and corrupt flesh still finds the duty painful, the regenerate soul finds the will of its Father most agreeable. You may not see the use of all the discipline through which God leads you. You are not capable of seeing it. When our missionaries first introduced wheat into some of the South Sea islands, the natives, who had been accustomed to get all their fruit from roots of plants, and in a much quicker time, began, after a while, with great curiosity, to pluck up the corn, thinking the promised bread, which they supposed must grow upon the root, would now be quite ready to gather: but, when they found nothing there, and were informed. that they must wait much longer, and would get their bread, after all, not from the root, but from some little seeds which must first ripen, then be ground down into flour, the thing was beyond their comprehension, and nothing but their faith in the superior knowledge and experience of the missionaries, prevented them from pulling up the whole crop, as occupying the ground uselessly.

So it is with the fruit of our trial here. We must work: on in faith, even to the end of our lives. We must believe the knowledge and experience of others, who have lived to see the harvest, and know, and most deeply feel its value. We must work our work betimes, and God, in His good time, will give us our reward. "Cast thy bread upon the waters and thou shalt find it after many days." "In due time we shall reap, if we faint not." May God grant us grace to persevere, and whatever beguiles us from our Christian watchfulness, our dread of sin, our labouring after righteousness, may we count it all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord! DR. ARNOLD. Sent by Obscurus.

BEER DRINKING.

MANY persons seem to think that beer makes a man strong for his work. I believe this to be a great mistake.. At the time I write, there are a set of men employed in. draining by task-work, in Richmond Park, who are patterns of English labourers. Hard as they work, from morning till night, and in all weathers, they seldom drink beer. They boil a large kettle of coffee in their little shelter in the park, and drink it hot at their meals. This costs them but little; but they do as hard a day's work upon it as any labourers in England, and have continued to do so for three years past, under all the disadvantages arising from wet and cold, to which a drainer is subject.

A proof of this may be found in Captain Ross's recent voyage to the Arctic regions. He says, that on a journey, attended with great difficulty and hardship, he was the only one of the party whose eyes were not inflamed, and who did not drink grog. He was the oldest person amongst them, and, for the same reason, he bore fatigue better than any of them. No better testimony to this is required, than the experience of the men who work at the iron founderies. This is the hardest work which: falls to man to do: and so well do the labourers in this department know that they cannot perform it if they

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