that which produces true faith, repentance, and holiness. In applying the subject, I trust I may adopt the language of the apostle with respect to many : "We are bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because that ye received the word which ye heard of us, not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God;" and "ye have the witness in yourselves". You have abundant cause for gratitude to God for what he has done for you; and at the same time you ought never to forget to pray for others, that they too may experience the same blessedness. But remember, likewise, that those things, which hinder others from profiting at all, will in proportion as they are indulged in prevent you profiting more, and from growing in grace as you ought. Therefore be careful to prepare for your attendance at the house of God, and afterward to improve it by meditation and prayer, that opportunity may not be given to Satan to take the word out of your hearts. But there are other dangers beside this. Be not satisfied with yourself because you do not answer this description; for there is the stony ground and the thorny ground hearer as well as the wayside hearer. Be not, therefore, contented unless you bring forth the fruits of righteousness through faith in Christ Jesus; for this will invariably follow when the word is received into an honest and good heart. Let me call upon others, especially young persons, to consider the importance of the business for which we meet together. It is of infinitely greater importance than those things which Occupy your time and thoughts. Eternal things, like the heavenly bodies at a distance, appear small; but, could we approach them, they would overwhelm us by their magnitude. We set before you life and death, a blessing and a curse, eternal happiness or eternal misery. "It is not a vain thing for you; for it is your life." Make up, then, your minds: if it is true, it is every thing. When you come to the house of God, you come not to hear what a man has to say, but to attend on God's ordinance: attend on it, therefore, as if you came to hear God himself, expect ing to hear something which may be for your everlasting benefit. Come with prayer for the ministers and for yourselves; and, if in any thing you feel yourself condemned, be not offended, but take it to the word of God, and examine it by that. Finally, if you are convinced of any thing being right, go and practise it: "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your ownselves." THERE are some sins which we find denounced in the bible with what appears to be an undue severity; the criminality of which seems to us, at first view, to be exaggerated-over-stated. One of these is the sin of "wilfulness"; that "stubboruness" which it declares is "as idolatry." In the condemnation of this sin the standard of human opinion differs so widely from that of the divine that we are almost at a loss to account for it; and this the rather because we often find allied to this failing many excellences of character, and even blamelessness of general conduct. The consequence is that, although we nominally assent to the judgment pronounced on it, yet we have our secret misgivings and doubts as to the perfect equity and fairness of the same. But the judgment of God is always according to truth, no matter how widely that judgment may differ from our preconceived opinions or fancies; and the grounds for that judgment will be found to be strong and sufficient. Accordingly, if we form our estimate of the criminality of a sin by the amount of evil which it entails, then it will be seen that this sin is fully entitled to the reprehension it has received; for, if we advert to facts, if we make an appeal to the experience of individuals or families or communities at large, we shall find that this sin is the prolific parent of an amount of wretchedness which would appear almost incredible. I venture to affirm that it will be found, on inquiry, that some of the most poignant sufferings that are at this moment preying on the heart are to be traced to the sin of wilfulness; that these sorrows are the bitter penalty annexed to a proud, stubborn, unbending will. I venture to affirm that, if we looked to the families of the land generally, we should find a large proportion of the domestic sorrows endured in them were owing to the sin of wilfulness; that it is the wilful, stubborn spirit which alienates many who should be united by the tenderest bonds; that it is the "wilful spirit" which makes many a "house divided against itself"; that it is the wilful spirit" which produces alienations and antipathy, which makes many a home a scene of wretchedness; and on the other hand, were the meek, gentle, yielding spirit, which is "in the sight of God of great price," to take the place of the proud, froward, wilful one, that hundreds of the abodes which are now scenes of masked wretched.ness, and of strife and hatred, would be scenes of peace and happiness. Or, if we look to communities of men, we shall alike perceive that it is the same spirit which converts what should be scenes of contented industry into arenas of disaffeetion and stifled hatred and jealousy. The guilt or the gravamen of this sin is that it strikes at the root of that good order and subordi. nation which is the true cement and bond of union alike in families or in communities of men. It "kicks at" authority. It despises the lawful superior, and sets the inferior up against him; and this is enough to constitute its deep criminality. For this spirit would convert a heaven into a hell. It was this bad sin which drove from heaven the angels "which fell from their first estate." This contempt of subordination would of itself convulse any society to its centre. The most obvious illustration we have of the evil of it is in those professions of which subordination is confessedly the strength, the bond, the vital principle: I mean the military and naval professions. A spirit of insubordination, a resistance to lawful authority, is regarded in these professions as the greatest crime in the list of delinquencies. That man, that soldier, who kicks at authority, and would bring his superior into contempt with his subordinates, is regarded as having committed one of the worst offences against the service. Other delinquencies may be remitted; but this cannot be overlooked. He who is guilty of it, athough he possessed a hundred good qualities, is removed from the service. In like manner, that servant who brings his master into contempt, and weakens and undermines his authority with others, is the deadliest enemy to that master; and, no matter what be his redeeming qualities, he has inflicted on him the worst and most treacherous blow which one man cau inflict upon another; for he has turned his house into a scene of rebellion and disorder. That man, likewise, who has sown the seeds of disaffection and discontent in the hearts of those who were orderly and happy and contented before, and exasperated their minds by their outcry against supposed oppression and wrongs, is guilty of a heinous offence against society, and is the deadliest enemy to the peace and happiness of those whose minds he has influenced. of the peace and happiness of that place is subor dination. "There," as Hooker said (when he saw himself, we may humbly hope, on the borders of it), "there every angel and every rank of angels stand before the throne in the very post which God has assigned them." We cannot be fitted for that abode except this stubborn will is subdued. It must be broken; and to break it is the design of most of the secret chastisements undergone by us. Afflictions are often sent us; and we are at a loss to know why? They are sent to break the stubborn will, to make men yield; for this submission is often the very surest test and measure of our preparedness for that world which the meek shall inherit. This shows us the wisdom and goodness of God in all his dealings with us. This makes us perceive how he consults for the happiness of the human family by setting so high a value on "the meek and quiet spirit," and by enjoining the cultivation of it as the first of duties. O, give us more of that spirit, and what abodes of peace and happiness would hundreds of families be, that are now the ' scenes of discord and wretchedness! O how infinitely and unspeakably more conducive to the happiness of man is this meek spirit than that vain spirit which the world encourages, which attaches a sort of splendour and heroism to the proud, unbending, stubborn will! O weak and empty glory, masked wretchedness, the wreck of the peace of hundreds! Yes, fatal to the peace and happiness of man is all that fosters a spirit of this kind, as so many of the fairest and the fashionable maxims and usages and customs, as well as so many of the admired models and examples of the day, are so well calculated to do. From this we learn to prize that beautiful characteristic feature of our religion, viz., the superior worth and excellence which it attaches to the mild and unostentatious virtues; those virtues too often held in low esteem by man, while the showy These are evils, the danger and destructive and heroical ones are unduly extolled. But time, character of which all can understand; but wil- as it rolls on, developes more and more the adfulness, "stubbornness," will be found to be the mirable beauty and excellence of these milder virroot from which they spring-even that proud, tues; and the essential importance of them to the stubborn, unbending will which hates a superior, peace, the happiness, the very existence of society, which despises authority, which rebels against is being felt more and more. We may affirm that subordination, which would set the servant against the present is the most civilized and enlightened the master, the inferior against the superior, and age in the annals of the world; and one cannot which, in doing so, would break up all order, and help remarking that one of the characteristic feareduce society to a very chaos. This will enable tures of the day is a growing sense of the excelus better to understand why God has denounced lence of those milder virtues which our Lord so the sin of "wilfulness" with such severity. He highly commended eighteen centuries since, in who is the God of order, and who wills the happi- the face of a scoffing, disbelieving world. It is ness of his creatures, shows how inimical this sin not uncommon in the present day to hear the senis to their welfare. His all-seeing eye discovers timent put forward that he who rises superior to the serpent that lies beneath, however plausible revenge, who passes by an injury, who under the outer form or garb the sin may assume. great provocation evinces uncommon temper and Therefore the stubborn will is represented by him self-command-that he who can repay wrongs as the great evil of man's nature; and the subju- with kindness, and render good for evil, evinces a gation of that will is the great aim and object of magnanimity which is infinitely to be prized above much of the appointed discipline of life To this the valour of him who is quick to feel, and bold to end most of God's dealings with his people are resent, an affront. At the present time, when we shaped and directed. To break the proud, stub- read over the biographies of the most illustrious born spirit; to make man give up his own will; men that have adorned the annals of our country, to make the self-willed meek and gentle and what are the circumstances and events which yielding-for this purpose some of the secret awaken our greatest admiration? Is it their chastisements he inflicts on man are sent. For, high and jealous spirit, their sensitive vanity, ah! this stubborn will must be subdued. We their impatience of the slightest supposed injury? cannot enter heaven without; for the very essence Not so: a thousand times higher than these ranks, in our estimation, some noble act of forbearance, which showed a superiority to every feeling of vindictiveness and resentment. These milder virtues are the virtues which, on calm deliberation, and after the lapse of centuries, we most admire. A growing sense of what is most essential to the peace and happiness of society has decided that the cultivation of these milder virtues is the best safeguard of society; that man must learn to bear and forbear much, to pass by without notice much that would naturally provoke resentment, to be blind and deaf to many things which are calculated to wound the spirit, to feel, in short, the folly of contending about trifles. And thus does the progress of civilization, the growing refinement and enlightenment of the age, undesignedly vindicate the excellence and beauty of those precepts of our Lord, which at the time they were delivered were looked upon with scorn; for the proud Roman had not even a word in his vocabulary (copious as it was) to express "humility" and it may, I fear, with equal truth be affirmed that this virtue is alike inconceivable to multitudes amongst ourselves, who though living in a Christian land are every whit as proud and worldly and scornful of the virtues of meekness, godliness, long-suffering, as were those haughty masters of the world, of old. The Cabinet. LET THE LIFE OF HIM THAT PRAYETH BE ANSWERABLE TO HIS FAITH.-But, since faith is not a vain imagination, but an effectual power working by the Holy Ghost all kind of good works (though they neither trust unto these, neither think in consideration of them to be heard), yet nevertheless such sinners as are faithful do not impudently, and without repentance, trust to their own wits, dealing only in words with the Lord, but they join a holy life with prayers. For Solomon saith: "He that turneth his ear from hearing the law, his prayer shall be abominable." And the Lord saith in Esay: "Though ye make many prayers, yet will I hear nothing at all, seeing your hands are full of blood." Of such impenitent persons we understand that, in the gospel, God heareth not sinners." But that more is, the saints shall obtain nothing if they continue prayer for such; for Jeremy, praying earnestly for his people, otherwise being obstinately wicked, heareth: "Thou shalt not pray for this people: thou shalt neither give thanks nor bid prayer for them; make thou no intercession for them; for in no wise will I hear thee. See thou not what they do in the cities of Juda? The children gather sticks, the fathers kindle the fire, the women knead the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out drinkofferings unto strange gods, to provoke me unto wrath.' "" After the same manner saith the Lord in Ezekiel, "If I send a pestilence into this land, and if Noe, Job, and Daniel were therein" (or in the midst of it), "as truly as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter, but save their own souls in their righteousness." Wherefore it followeth that the supplications of unrepentant men, and impudently persevering in their sins, though they cry without ceasing, "Help us, O God, our Saviour; deliver us, O Lord; we beseech thee to hear us," are bess. "Humilitas" does not: it means servility and mean altogether fruitless; for they desire to be preserved that they might take their further pleasure and commit wickedness. And, though God give us freely those things which we ask, yet it is necessary that an affection or desire to live well do accompany so great benefits received at the hands of God; for here we ought most diligently to take heed, that we think not we shall be heard for our virtues' (sake, but for the mere mercy of God in Christ Jesus.-Bullinger's Decades. DEVOTION IN PRAYER.-When we stand occupied in prayer, we must with our whole heart watch and be diligent in prayer. Let all worldly and fleshly thoughts depart; neither let the mind think upon any thing else at that time than only that which it prayeth. Let thy breast be shut against the adversary, and let it be open to God only; neither ler it suffer the enemy of God to enter into it in the time of prayer; for he oftentimes stealeth upon us and entereth in, and subtilly deceiving us, turneth away our prayers from God, that we may have one thing in our heart, and another thing in our mouth; since not the sound the voice, but the mind and sense, ought to pray un God with an unfeigned affection.-St. Cyprian. Poetry. HYMNS FOR THE SUNDAYS IN THE YEAR BY JOSEPH FEARN. (SUGGESTED BY SOME PORTION OF THE SERVICE FOR THE DAY.) (For the Church of England Magazine.) "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time an are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us"-(The Epistle) Rom. viii. 18. FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. "THE sufferings of this present time" Not worthy they to be compared, Though long and bitter were the pains, For whom the promised bliss remains. High pleasure dwells at God's right hand, O, when we reach that blessed sphere, "The sufferings of this present time”! London: Published for the Proprietors, by JOHN HUGHES, 12, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROGERSON AND TUXFORD, DEATHS OF EMINENT CHRISTIANS. No. XXV. KING. CHARLES THE FIRST*. (Beheaded Jan. 30, 1649.) ON the morning of his death, king Charles, according to the relation of his faithful attendant, sir Thomas Herbert, awoke about two hours before day-break, after a sound sleep of four hours. He called to Herbert, who lay on a pallet by his bedside, and bade him rise, "For," said the king, "I will get up: I have a great work to do this day. I fear not death: death is not terrible to me. I bless God, I am prepared." Soon after the king was dressed, bishop Juxon came to him, according to his appointment the night before. He remained an hour in private with him, when Herbert was called in, and the bishop prayed with the king, using the prayers of the church, and then From "Last Hours of Christian Men; or an Account of the Deaths of some eminent Members of the Church of England;" by the rev. H. Clissold, M.A. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. No. 953. read the 27th chapter of St. Matthew, which so beautifully describes the passion of our Saviour. The king thanked the bishop for his choice of the lesson; but he was surprised and gratified to learn that it was the lesson for the day, according to the calendar. Attended by the bishop on the one side, and col. Tomlinson on the other, he walked out through the garden of the palace into the park, and said as he went along, "He now went to strive for a heavenly crown with less solicitude than he had often encouraged his soldiers to fight for an earthly diadem." When delayed at the cabinet chamber of Whitehall, he offered up several prayers, and entered into religious discourse with the bishop. Herbert and the bishop were deeply affected at the signal for their final separation from their sovereign and master. The king stretched out his hand to them, which they kissed, falling on their knees and weeping; the king helping the aged bishop to rise. In his address to those about him, he said, "Now to show you that I am a good Christian, I hope there is a good man (pointing to bishop Juxon) that will bear me witness that I have for. innumerable; in the multitude, therefore, of thy mercies, and by the merites of Jesus Christ, I entreat thy Devyne Majestie, that thou wouldest not enter into judgement with thy servant; nor be extreame to marke what is done amisse; but bee thou mercifull to mee, and wash away all my sinnes, with the merites of that pretius blood that Jesus Christ shed for mee and not only washe away all my sinnes, but also to purge my hart, by [thy] Holly Spirit, from the drosse of my naturall corruption; and as thou doest add dayes to my lyfe, so (good Lord) add repentance to my dayes, that when I have passed this mortall lyte, I may bee a partaker of thy everlasting kingdome through Jesus Christ our Lord." given all the world, and even those in particular | heavie displeasure: as for sinnes, O Lord, they are that have been the chief causes of my death. I pray God forgive them. But this is not all: my charity must go further: I wish that they may repent. For indeed they have committed a great sin in that particular. I pray God, with St. Stephen, that it may not be laid to their charge; nay, not only so, but that they may take the right way to the peace of the kingdom; for my charity commands me not only to forgive particular men, but to endeavour, to the last gasp, the peace of the kingdom. You must give God his due, by regulating rightly his church, according to the scripture, which is now out of order. I pray God it be not laid to your charge that I am the martyr of the people. I have delivered my conscience. pray God you take those courses that are the best for the good of the kingdom and your own salvation." I Reflection: However bleak and stormy the night may be, and however oppressive may be our adversaries, we should look forward to the morn of the resurrection, and to the times of the restitution of all things" (Acts iii. 21). NOTES ON RELIGION IN FRANCE. No. II. Bishop Juxon then said, "Though your majesty's affections may be very well known as to religion, yet it may be expected that you should say something thereof for the world's satisfaction." The king replied, "I thank you heartily, my lord. In troth, sirs, my conscience in religion, I think, is very well known to all the world; and therefore I declare before you all that I die a Christian, according to the profession of the church of England, as I found it left me by my father." Turning to the bishop, he said, "I have a good cause, and a gracious God on my side." The bishop: "There is but one stage more this stage ALTHOUGH there is a greater demand for the is turbulent and troublesome: it is a short one; scriptures than has existed before in France, so but you may consider it will soon carry you a very many obstacles are raised to their distribution, great way it will carry you from earth to hea- that the amount actually disposed of is probably ven, and there you will find a great deal of cordial rather diminished. It is a curious fact, and one joy and comfort." The king: "I go from a that has, like Pandora's box of evils, hope at the corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no bottom, that the demand for the holy scriptures i disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world." enormously increased by violent changes in the The bishop: "You are exchanged from a tempostate. The distribution in 1848, the year of the rary to an eternal crown-a good exchange*." last revolution, was increased by at least one-third; and during the autumn of last year, when men's (Copy of a daily prayer, entirely in the handwriting of king Charles the First; from the future, and quaking for fear, again was there a minds were full of apprehensions of some bodeful autograph in her majesty's state-paper office; increased demand for the bible. This is a clear such handwriting having been identified by proof of the repressive action of the government. the late keeper of the state-paper office, who compared this M.S. with others there deposited.) easily, pressure is exerted over all parts equally When the political machine works smoothly and "A PRAYER' [dated on the back] "1631. slight dislocations or deviations are readily per "Good Lord, I thanke [thee] for keeping mee ceived, and instantly remedied. Then is the hey this; I humblie beseeche thee to keep mee day of prefectorial surveillance. Instructions t this night from all dangers or mischances that may pected of active protestantism; careful watching maires and sous-prefets to look coldly on those su happen to my boddie, and all evell thoughts which of the authorities themselves, if not sufficiently may assalt or hurt my sowel for Jesus Christ his zealous, and freezing them down to the requisit sake and looke upon mee thy unworthie servant, who here prostrates himselfe at thy throne of the north side of the great man's countenance zero of political temperature by a short sojourn of grace; but looke upon mee, O Father, through the orders to gendarmes to dodge and dog possible merites and mediation of Jesus Christ thy beloved hawkers; despatches, reports, autocratic missives, Sone, in whom thou art onlie well pleased; for shower down quick and fast. Then, too, holy of my selfe, I am not worthy to stand in thy pre-mother church lays aside her deshabille, and stalks sence, or to speake withe my uncleane lips to thee, most holly and eternall God; for thou knowest that in sinn I was conceaved and borne, and that ever since I have lived in iniquitie, so that I have broken all thy holly comandments, by sinfull motions, evell words and wicked workes, omitting many deuties I ought to doe, and comitting manie vyces, which thou hast forbiden under paine of day * Trial of Charles the First, &c. of forth in all her bravery. The confessional is worked at high pressure, the pulpits and sounding boards groan and crack under the eloquence the preachers: in all places the priesthood are see with beaver fiercely cocked and rampant look, and may be heard with loud tones bearing down the timid and hesitating questioner; episcopal charges are frequent, bold, and decided, like those of the heavy brigade at Waterloo; all announce |