Should we wish for other facts to the same purport, we have not far to look. In the eighth chapter we have recorded also the case of the Eunuch, to whom Philip having preached Jesus, and he having expressed a desire to be baptized, Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God." Now faith, we know, is the gift of God; and, moreover, that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord except by the Holy Ghost. The Eunuch, therefore, was regenerated; and no person will maintain that he was a second time regenerated in his baptism.

The case of Cornelius (Acts x.) is perhaps stronger. "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord."

Once more: if circumcision be considered a type of baptism, St. Paul will supply us with an unequivocal definition of the latter, which exactly, accords with the above-mentioned instances. Rom. iv. 11: "And he (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised."

"These facts commend them selves to every man's conscience with irresistible influence, and defy all the efforts of the most torturing criticism to wrest them from their obvious and natural application."

AMICUS.

CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 181,

For the Christian Observer.
ON WORLDLY CONFORMITY.

To many Christians even, this command of the Apostle will appear a hard saying. It is not at first view evident how a man can live in so. ciety, engage in the business of life, and yet do nothing, in word or deed, except what he considers himself as doing according to the will of God. By some persons, ignorant of Christianity, who consider it as something scarcely admitting of definition, but, at all events, requiring those who subject themselves to its laws to be totally different from those around them, the Christian character has been always viewed as something extremely gloomy and unsocial. That a man may obey the whole Moral Law, they can easily conceive. It may even be admitted by many, that he may thus be a much better member of society, and in every respect a more amiable character. But when the peculiar demands of Christianity are represented to them, and those parts of it which can be only spiritually discerned come under their consideration; when they hear the command, "Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth;" when they are required to abandon "father and mother, houses and lands, for Christ's sake and the Gospel's; when they are forbidden to be anxious concerning" what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and wherewithal they shall be clothed;" they are apt to exclaim, "How can these things be? How can we obey so hard and austere a Master?"

But there is nothing inconsistent in the idea of keeping one's self unspotted from the world, and yet living in the world. It is perfectly possible to use the world as not abusing it;" to enjoy the innocent pleasures and all the comforts which our situation affords, without being conformed to the

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understood by the men of the world, in whose months it may generally be considered as signifying something not so contrary to all decency and good principles as the ordinary course of their conduct. What are thus called innocent amusements may indeed, perhaps, be so in themselves; but the manner in which they are abused, the preference which is frequently given them over the most important duties, the errors and fatal consequences to which they have sometimes served as the first step, have generally rendered them suspected in the eyes of the more serious part of mankind.

There should certainly, in this respect, be a distinction between the children of God and the world lying in wickedness; and perhaps one way in which Christians ought to confess their Saviour, in these days, before men, is by abstaining from some indulgences which, though no direct criminality may attach to them abstractedly considered, yet, from circumstances, prove hostile to consistency of character, and tend therefore to bring reproach upon religion. Let the world revile and hate us, if they please, for this separation: they hated Him whom we before they hated us; as in his case too, they will hate us without

a cause.

serve

The boundary of what is innocent is often so indistinct, and may so easily be passed when we approach it, that it is better to keep from its verge. It is better to be thought rigid and over scrupulous, than that others should be encouraged in sin by our example; and that, on account of our conduct, the Sacred Name which we bear should be blasphemed. It surely does not become him for whom Christ died, who should always have before his eyes the value of time, the important purposes for which he was sent into being, and, above all, the realities of eternity, to be immersed in the fleeting va

nities of those whose whole life is a vain show. These are the ties which bind men to the world, and thus destroy that happy tone of mind which the Christian sometimes attains by much prayer and self-denial: they give to the tempter a more commanding position, rekindle new hopes of victory in the powers of darkness, and revive those lusts of the flesh, which had been in a degree vanquished. Let us not thus encourage the enemies of our souls, nor check the heavenward progress of our spirits for the sake of such poor momentary gratifications.

Let us, then, take heed to our ways, and regulate our conduct according to the standard by which our actions will finally be tried in that day when God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.

P. Z.

FAMILY SERMONS.-No. XCVII. 1 Tim. i. 15.-This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. AMONG the instances of the efficacy of Divine grace, recorded in Scripture, there is none more decisive than that of St. Paul. With the ardour of youth he had associated some of the worst of human passions; and notwithstanding his zeal for God, he was "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious," a man of violence and blood. If we follow him in his Christian course, we find the lion converted into a lamb. He was bold indeed; but his was the courage not of persecution, but of suffering. He now went from city to city, not to drag the followers of Jesus to prison and to death, but to preach the very Name he had blasphemed, and the Gospel he had so fiercely laboured to destroy. He was himself astonished at the change; and in the overflowing of his gratitude to the

Saviour who had called him from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, he can scarcely find words to express the feelings of his heart. While writing under these impressions to Timothy, and declaring the exceeding abundance of the grace of our Lord, as displayed in his own person, he breaks out into a more general strain, and is led to magnify the love and mercy of God in the offer of salvation to all men: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

In this passage we are led to consider the mission of Christ, and its claim to our attention.

I. The mission of Christ includes two particulars; his appearance in the world, and the end for which he appeared.

1. The expression is remarkable—“ Christ Jesus came into the world." We read, in other parts of Scripture, that he was born of a woman, made under the law;""the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us;"-" he took not upon him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham;" with many other phrases of a like kind. Now in all these phrases there is something very peculiar. We do not say of Moses, or St. Paul, or St. John, or of any mortal, however high his rank or attainments, how ever holy his character or dignified his commission, that he came into the world, was made of a woman, was made flesh, &c. We cannot but feel that this mode of speech implies something extraordinary in the person to whom it is applied. It is proper only as applied to a superior being, and not to a mere man. Jesus Christ came into the world, not as his proper place of residence, but as the inhabitant of another country. He took our nature, not as belonging to himself, but as foreign to his own. This was in him an act of humiliation, of condescension. He veiled the majesty of a higher nature in this

tabernacle of flesh.-I notice this merely to shew that the inspired writers do indirectly, as well as directly, bear witness to the exalted nature of the person of Christ. It is not in this case the dignity of office or of character, but of person; and this we cannot deny without doing violence to the plain forms of common language.

2. The end for which Christ appeared was "to save sinners."Those who are contented with the plain meaning of the word of God, will feel no doubt upon this point. He came not merely to vindicate the honour of his Father's law; or to do away the peculiarities of the Jewish system, as little suited to mankind in general; or to set before us an example of obedience and virtue: he had still nobler ends: he came "to save sinners." It was for us men, and for our salvation, that he left the glories of his throne, and visited the earth in great humility. It was to redeem us from sin and all its dreadful consequences, and to raise us to the blessedness of heaven, that he became man, and lived, and laboured, and died.

And here an important question arises: In what way does the mission of Christ avail to our salvation? That he came to deliver us from the wrath of God, and from the awful punishment denounced against sin, is readily admitted. But who are the persons to be saved? Do the blessings of salva tion extend to all who have sinned, or only to a part of mankind? What saith the Scripture?" Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved:" "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life." The promise, then, is made to those that believe, and it is made to them alone: "He that believeth, and is baptized,shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned." We see, then, how inexpressibly

important it is that we should be lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ. But here again there is danger of mistake. What is meant by thus believing? If it means nothing more than an admission of the truth of the general statements of Scripture a belief that the Son of God had actually come into the world to save us from the curse of the law--such a faith would be consistent with any mode of life, how ever wicked: it would be a principle without power or efficiency; it could not cleanse the heart from sin, or produce those views and affections which distinguish the disciples of Christ, and fit them for heaven. He who believes to the salvation of his soul, feels that he needs a Saviour: he perceives that he has sinned against a holy God, from whose wrath he can have no refuge but in the merits of his Redeemer: he discovers and welcomes in Jesus Christ the phy. sician of his wounded spirit: he listens with gladness to the invitations and promises of his word: he relies with entire confidence on his mercy and grace. In looking to the cross of Christ, he beholds not merely the atonement which was made for the sins of the world, but the Victim which was offered for himself. "On him has my iniquity been laid, and by his stripes must I be healed." Such is the language of faith; it brings us to the Fountain which has been opened for sin and uncleanness; and appropriates to the soul all the benefits which Christ bath purchased by his blood. Faith is not, therefore, a speculative notion, but an active and powerful principle, which, by the grace of God, gives a new impulse to our hearts, and a new character to our lives. Faith of this description must of necessity produce fruits meet for repentance, and a life formed on the precepts of the Gospel. A barren faith is the faith of devils: it has none of the characters of the faith that justifies the sinner. Those who believe in

Jesus, according to the scriptural meaning of that expression, "walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit:" their whole conduct must be consistent with the principles they profess: their fruit is unto holiness, and the end is everlasting life.

It deserves remark, that the Apostle derives pleasure from the universal manifestation of the fove of Christ. He had been speaking of himself; but his large and liberal mind, while stating his own obligations to Divine mercy, rejoices that Jesus Christ came into the world, not for his sake alone, but to save sinners wherever they are to be found. No barriers were now to be raised between the Gentile and the Jew: the partitionwall was broken down. If all had sinned and come short of the glory of God, the voice of mercy was now to be extended to all; and all who would hear and obey that voice, should live. The commission of our Lord to his Apostles required that they should go into an the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. I proceed, then, to consider,

II. The claim it has upon our attention. "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation."

1. "It is a faithful saying"that is, a true saying; a fact resting on evidence which cannot be denied, and which meets us in every page of the Gospel. We find it in the doctrines which were taught, in the mighty works which were done, and in the testimony which was given, in the name and by the authority of God; and if we examine the records of the Old Testament, we have the evidence of patriarchs and prophets; for, even in the remotest ages, they looked forward to Christ and spoke of him. "It is a faithful saying," as many have witnessed who have passed from the bondage of sin to the freedom of the Gospel, the Spirit itself bearing witness with their spirits that they are the sous