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stature of perfect men, after the little interruption | the Scriptures evidently suppose that at the comoccasioned by death, be intimate associates in the ing of Christ they shall remember what passed on kingdom of God? Shall not they whom religion earth. For as they must all appear before the has united on earth and prepared for the mansions judgment-seat of Christ, it is impossible to conof everlasting love, be joined together in that af- ceive how they could be there acknowledged and fection which they shall know to be the continua- rewarded, without the knowledge and remembrance tion of former friendship? What, in truth, is of former things. How could the wisdom and the more reasonable to be believed? Their sentiments justice of the great Judge of all appear, in approand tastes will no doubt be greatly changed, and priating happiness to the righteous, unless they, their judgments regulated by a perfect standard, and all who should witness the scene, possessed a whilst many former attachments which in this recollection of the past, and should be, therefore, they had cherished with partial fondness, shall capable of acknowledging the just and gracious be broken off as unworthy of the future world. No nature of the sentence which refers to it. homage that may have been paid to pride, no abject compliance with passions, no weak indulgence to errors and faults will be permitted to remain. Yet after every unjust claim of affection is cut off, the friendship which is formed by the power of religion will continue and be enjoyed for ever. In the hearts of the just made perfect, every tie of gratitude and esteem, of sympathy and delight, by which the hearts of good men are now bound together, will be drawn more firm and close than ever. All the graces which now adorn their souls will shine out in perfect beauty, and they shall for ever be united in the employments and blessedness of the heavenly state.

4. If we turn to the bright and certain discoveries of the Gospel, the view they give us leads us to believe, that Christians shall in heaven meet and recognise each other.

Of the scenes which lie beyond the grave we are permitted to know but little, and it is not perhaps expedient that in this world of discipline, faith should be lost in vision, or that the bright prospects of hope should appear to be bounded. Yet it seems evident from Scripture, that a remembrance of the present state accompanies the soul after death. This our Saviour himself seems to have assumed, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. A poor afflicted beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. A rich man also died, and was doomed to the place of torments. Here he lifted up his eyes and beheld the patriarch and Lazarus afar off. This relation, it is true, is given us as a parable, and refers to the case of a bad man.

But the representation must fill our minds with notions as vain as the fictions of the Pagan poets, unless ideas of a future state are to be derived from it. The rich man not only saw, but recollected Lazarus, and at the same time cried to Abraham for mercy, circumstances which afford a striking representation of human beings recognising and addressing one another in the world of spirits. The reply of Abraham to the rich man sets the matter in a still clearer point of view. "Remember," said he, that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus his evil things;" hereby not only shewing his own knowledge of the circumstances of both, but appealing to the memory of the rich man himself, for the truth of his assertion.

Besides, in the case of good men themselves,

Again, heaven is represented in Scripture as a community. Angels themselves are not solitary beings unknown to each other, and so far elevated above the state and circumstances of man, as to derive their enjoyment from themselves, and to stand in no need of reciprocal communications of friendship and love. On the contrary, they are spoken of in such terms as convey the idea of society and the mutual participation of happiness.

But a circumstance particularly to be noticed is, that the saints and faithful of the human race are exhibited to us in the Scriptures as intimate associates in the kingdom of God. There are in the New Testament various passages from which this animating truth may be inferred. Jesus himself hath declared, that in his "Father's house are many mansions;" plainly holding out the idea of domestic society and social intercourse. In this declaration there seems to be included the pleasant thought of home; of a residence in the presence of a Father, under the roof which his hand has formed, around the table which his love and care have furnished; of brethren dwelling together in unity, each one occupying his place in the mansions of peace. And it is not only asserted in Scripture, that the servants of Christ shall be with him where he is, beholding his glory, but that he died for them, that whether they wake or sleep, they should live together with him ; an expression which, if it includes the idea of a mutual interchange of sentiments and communication of pleasures, leads us to believe that these shall certainly belong to good men in a future world.

From these considerations, then, are we led to look forward to a state of being, in which those who are redeemed from all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, shall participate in the happiness of each other, and, by reciprocal communications of affection and love, at once receive from and add to the sum of the universal bliss. Hail, thou great and illustrious birth-day to another and a nobler life! when the society of good men, assembled in the presence of their Saviour and Lord, shall commence or continue an acquaintance which shall never end! Welcome the coming of the Lord Jesus! when the cordial affection which has been enkindled among the saints during the first stage of their existence, instead of being extinguished, shall rise into all the ardours of heaven, and glow for ever with a warmth unknown in the cold regions of mortality!

II. Let us now proceed to consider, what peculiar | joy the renewed acquaintance of Christians at the coming of Christ will then afford. For the interrogations in the text amount to an intimation, not only that they shall meet together in the presence of Christ, but also that their meeting will prove a source of the highest joy. "What is our hope, or oy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" To the case of the apostle and the Thessalonians, the text particularly refers. And to them it will no doubt be the cause of the most exquisite enjoyment, not merely to meet, but to remember the events which took place at Thessalonica, and to trace the commencement of their happiness, from what was then seen, and heard, and handled, and tasted of the bread of life; to call to mind how the apostle reasoned out of the Scriptures, and how he exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of them, as a father doth his children; and for the apostle himself, when shining as the brightness of the firmament among those who have turned many to righteousness, to remember and say, "Our Gospel came not to you in word only. It was there ye received of us how to walk and please God. I planted, and God gave the increase. Not unto me, Lord, not unto me, but unto thy name be the praise."

Such joyful recollection of their former state, however, we cannot suppose will be peculiar to the apostle and the Thessalonians, but will be common to all the faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus. In order, therefore, to illustrate this view of the subject, it may be observed,

1. That renewed acquaintance and intercourse among good men, who have known and loved one another on earth, will of itself be a source to them of mutual rejoicing.

shed the sweetest influence on the days and scenes of former existence! What divine joy will pervade all their hearts, when what they once hoped for they actually behold,-what they once expected is fully come, even the mansions prepared for them from the foundation of the world!

More particularly, let it be observed,

2. That the remembrance will occur of the path in which they trod, and of the scenes of trial and of danger through which they passed, in the present world.

When friends meet after a long separation, numerous and interesting are the subjects on which they have to discourse. The situations in which they have been placed; the hardships they have endured; the dangers they have escaped; the prosperity with which they have met, and the favours they have received, become matters of delightful conversation. Of such things they love to speak, and they dwell on them with a minuteness corresponding to the strong emotions of their minds. Is it not, therefore, natural to think, that it will be a source of joy to glorified spirits, to take some retrospect of this valley of tears, and of their own path through it; to remember former things, though passed away, as a ground of triumph, and a source of thankfulness; to recollect the relations sanctified by religion, which they sustained on earth; to think of the scenes of anxiety and sorrow, which are gone for ever; to reflect on the advantages which they assisted each other to improve, and the trials which they helped one another to endure; and above all, to call to mind the goodness and mercy which followed them all the days of their lives, and to ascribe all their success and their happiness to the sovereign providence and tender mercies of God in Christ Jesus?

To

The present world is full of temptations and snares; hence many are wrecked in their voyage through the ocean of life; and it is through much tribulation that even good men enter into the kingdom of heaven. Those who are concerned for the best interests of their relations and friends, and who understand the dangers to which they are exposed, often know what it is to be filled with perplexity, and to tremble on their account. parents, in particular, who love God and the Saviour, and who have compassion for the souls of their children, it is always matter of deep concern to have them wise, and good, and happy. With all their cares and fears, their counsels and prayers, could they obtain even a distant prospect of this, it would afford one of the most delightful satisfactions which can enter into the human mind. But, in an unexpected day, the summons of death arrives; they must go the way of all the earth, and leave their children before their characters are established, and their conditions permanently se

From the social affections of the human mind, men in all conditions of life enter into friendship; and when friends meet after having been for some time absent from each other, there is a scene opened, delightful in proportion to the strength of their attachment. It is indeed one of the dearest blessings, and most sublime enjoyments, which this life affords, to receive a friend home from a far country, where for many years he had taken up his residence, and where he had been involved in many dangers. Hence we may form some notion of the raptures of joy with which good men, whose souls have been knit together in love, will, after the separation which death has produced, meet together at the coming of their Lord. Even among holy and faithful men, sorrows and fears may here be apt to mingle in the prospect of death. Nay, some degree of reluctance they may naturally feel, and even be allowed to feel, concerning an event so solemn as death, and when considered as a removal from a state of existence which the exercise of Christian love and friend-cured. To such parents, what joy and rejoicing ship had consecrated and endeared to them. What an accession of happiness will it therefore be to them, to find each other surviving the stroke of death, and to renew the intercourse which had

must it prove, in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming, to find those who, while in this world, were dearer to them than themselves, after trials and dangers, and even death itself,

safely arrived in the mansions of the blessed! | Like mariners after a long and perilous voyage, happily landed on their wished-for shore, they will most cordially hail each other welcome, turn the perils they have escaped into sources of joy, and the safety of each will contribute to and enhance the happiness of all.

(To be concluded in our next.)

THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE
BIBLE.

From "Remains of the Rev. Edmund D. Griffin." 2 vols. 8vo.
New York, 1831.

eval with the dawn of the Reformation; that the moral and the literary heavens were lighted up at the same time; that the sun of righteousness and of science arose together. It could scarcely have been otherwise. There is a dignity, a majesty, a power, in revealed religion, coming as it does from the fountain of knowledge, clothed as it is in the attributes of divinity, which must needs have expanded and ennobled the mind once emancipated from the fetters of superstition. Its sublime doctrines, its pure and lofty precepts, imposing as they then were from their novelty, as well as from their grandeur, could not fail to have taken the strongest hold upon the intellect, the imagination, and the heart, upon every faculty and every affection of our nature. Nor was there any thing of literary deficiency in the Scriptures, to diminish the force of the impres sion. On the contrary, where shall we find a history so simple, so pathetic, so true to nature; a philosophy at once so sublime and so familiar, so lofty in its flights, yet so practical in its influence; an eloquence so direct, so convincing, so authoritative? The Bible, too, opened a poetic fountain, more exhilarating than any at which the Grecian muse ever drank. Where else shall we find a poetry by turns so rich, so tender, so sublime? In the pastoral lives of the early patriarchs, in the melodious strains of Israel's royal bard, in the inspired rhapsodies of prophecy, there is a simplicity, a

The whole story of redeeming love, the life and death of Christ, the unimagined terrors of hell, the ineffable glories of heaven, are replete with poetic, as well as with evangelical inspiration. It was this living spring, "above the Aonian mount," at which Dante and Milton drank their copious draughts of unearthly sublimity.

The style of the translations, chaste and simple, yet rich and copious, is worthy of the subject; and they have ever been regarded almost as much the standard of language as of faith. It would seem as if Divine Providence had been specially careful in the superintendence of these important works; as if a sort of secondary inspiration had been breathed into the minds of the translators of God's Holy Word.

THE translation of the Bible into the English tongue had an influence upon the genius and learning of the Elizabethan age, too important to be omitted in a literary course. The principal versions were that of Tindal in 1526; that of Coverdale in 1535; that of Cranmer in 1539; that of Taverner in the same year; that of Geneva made by the English reformers, who had gone abroad in 1557; and the Bishops' Bible established by authority in 1568, and used until a new translation was proposed by the Puritans at the conference of Hampton Court, in 1603, under James I. That learned monarch, well calculated to preside over such a work, gave orders for a new translation, and appointed fifty-pathos, a grandeur, unmatched even by classic antiquity. four of the most learned men in the kingdom, at the universities and elsewhere, to undertake the enterprise. Their labours were not actually commenced until 1607. The mode in which they proceeded was well adapted to produce the greatest possible accuracy and elegance. The whole number was divided into six classes; and to cach class was assigned a portion of the Scripture. Of this portion each individual made his own translation; which was compared from time to time with those of his associates, and the result of the whole adopted by the class. Cases of difficulty were referred to a general meeting of all the translators. After three years of incessant labour and toilsome comparison, the great work was completed; and was then again revised by six of the most eminent translators. Nor was it committed to the press in 1611, without an additional review by two of the most learned of the bishops. It surpassed, however, but little in elegance the versions which immediately preceded it. Even the early one of Tindal has a polish and purity of language seen in no other works of its day. Thus the opportunities given to the Scriptures for influencing, through their translations, the literature as well as the religion of the age, were most ample. For though the early version of Tindal was condemned and burned, a marked change took place on the breach of Henry with the Pope, and the establishment of the king's supremacy in the Church in 1534. Thenceforward the influence of Cranmer procured the royal countenance for the multiplication of versions and editions, and more than one ordinance commanding that a Bible in the common tongue should be placed in every Church in the kingdom, and expounded, when required, to the people. Under Edward VI. laws were passed, commanding that a chapter should be read aloud morning and evening on every Sunday and holiday. With the slight interruption of the reign of Mary, the familiarity of the people with the Scriptures was from that time forward more and more encouraged. Thus the diffusion of the Bible became universal. Formerly it had been concealed in an unknown tongue: now, like the natural light, its faint emblem, it shone upon every eye, and enlightened every cottage.

The candid mind, whatever may be its religious bias, must admit the favourable influence of this diffusion of the Bible upon the literature of the age. We know from history, that the daybreak of letters was co

CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY.

No. V.

ELECTRICITY.

BY THE REV. JAMES BRODIE,

Minister of Monimail.

THE name ELECTRICITY has been given to a very subtile fluid, which seems to pervade the earth, and to exert a powerful agency on all the various bodies therein contained. Its nature and relations are as yet involved in great obscurity; but, without entering into discussions respecting them, which could only be intelligible to those who have studied the subject, a brief description of its production, communication, nature, and effects, may be useful and interesting, even to the unlearned.

Production. It is most commonly excited by friction. There are various substances which, when briskly rubbed, exhibit peculiar appearances. They attract such light bodies as may be near them, and, after keeping them for some little time in contact, again repel them; they emit sparks and flashes of light, and communicate, when their size is large, a peculiar sensation to the hand that touches them. These appearances are caused by the peculiar fluid of which we are now treating, and the substances that thus produce it are called Electrics; they are amber, gums, resins, sulphur, glass, the precious stones, silk, furs, vegetable matters when thoroughly dried, and a few others. It is also generated by simply bringing into contact different bodies, which have, in reference to it, peculiar properties. If we join together a plate of copper, a plate of

zinc, and a piece of wetted card, we find them exhibit some faint indications of Electricity, and when a number of such combinations are connected together, very evident proofs of its action are afforded. The Electricity thus excited is termed Galvanism: it differs in some respects from that produced by friction, but their general properties so nearly correspond, that they are universally considered modifications of the same mysterious fluid. It is also evolved in various chemical processes, and more especially in the conversion of fluids into vapour. This seems to be the source of the Electricity that pervades the atmosphere, and produces the grand phenomena of the thunder-storm; for, as most of our readers are aware, Electricity and lightning are the same; repeated observation and experiment having shewn, that there is no difference between the thunderbolt and the spark produced by rubbing a cylinder of glass, excepting that the one is vastly larger and more powerful than the other. The Aurora Borealis is also reckoned among electrical phenomena.

Communication. The fluid that has by these means been produced may be communicated from one body to another; and it has been found that some substances conduct it much more readily than others. The electries which were above enumerated will scarcely allow it to pass through them at all, while other bodies transmit it freely, and are, from this circumstance, called Conductors. The principal of these conductors are the metals, charcoal, acids, metallic ores, water, snow, living vegetables, living animals, earths, and stones. The velocity with which it passes through their solid substance is so prodigious, that science has hitherto been unable to compute it. All material things are thus divided into two classes those that produce Electricity when rubbed, and those that permit its passage after it has been excited. In consequence of this communication of the fluid from one body to another, conductors partake of all the properties of those Electrics with which they may be connected, though they cannot be made to exhibit electrical appearances when they are themselves subjected to friction. It is by such a union of different substances, that the most remarkable results are produced; in the common electrical machine, for example, a cylinder or plate of glass is made to revolve against a cushion covered with a metallic composition, and the fluid thus generated is collected on the opposite side by a rod or cylinder of metal.

Nature. If care be taken to prevent the escape of the Electricity thus produced, the two electrics that have been rubbed together, along with the conductors that may be severally connected with them, exhibit exactly the same phenomena. Both of them emit sparks, give a shock to the hand that touches them, and alternately attract and repel the light substances that are around; but the moment they are brought into contact, all trace of Electricity disappears. In explanation of these facts, it has been supposed by some that there are two kinds of Electricity, commonly distinguished by the names of positive and negative, which have, when separate, the same general properties; but, in relation to each other, are so completely contrary in their nature, that whenever they are combined, all visible action on other bodies immediately ceases. In their natural state of union, they produce no effect by which we can be made sensible of their existence, but when, by friction or any other means, their union is disturbed, when the positive Electricity is driven off in one direction and the negative in another, their latent powers are called forth, and continue to manifest themselves till the obstacles that opposed their reunion are removed, when they instantly rush together with prodigious velocity, exhibiting in their course those remarkable effects which excite at once our admiration and our dread.

Effects. However dark and perplexing the nature

and laws of Electricity may be, its effects are distinctly observable; and those more especially which mark its progress are worthy of enumeration. 1. It produces in almost every case light and heat, and is accompanied by a crackling or crashing sound, more or less loud according to circumstances. 2. It affects the magnet, sometimes destroying and sometimes reversing its power. 3. When its passage is hindered, it makes those bodies to which it is communicated repel each other; if a tuft of wool, for example, be electrified, every fibre separates as widely as possible from its neighbour; if an electric shock be sent through a card, and we examine the hole that is made, we find the fibres of the paper torn asunder, and raised up on the side at which the fluid entered, as well as on that at which it escaped; and if lightning pass through a wall, the stones are cracked and displaced, and the mortar and plaster are driven off on both sides, as if a charge of gunpowder had been exploded within it. If a light body thus repelled discharge the Electricity with which it is filled, by coming into contact with another body, it is again attracted, and is thus made as it were to ferry across the accumulated fluid, whose passage has been stopped. 4. When its passage is narrowed, so that its action is confined to a small portion of any body, it melts and dissipates into vapour every simple substance, while it resolves into their original component parts those that are compound. Metals, for example, are consumed, and water, so long considered a simple element, is proved, by means of Electricity, to be a mixture of two different species of air. 5. When there is no line of conductors to form a continuous path, it leaps as it were from the one to the other, preferring always the nearest and the best. It is owing to this cause that the course of the lightning, as it darts from cloud to cloud, is generally crooked and forked, that metal attracts it rather than stone, and that lofty trees and spires are struck while humbler objects escape. 6. When its course is slightly interrupted, it is found to accelerate fermentation and other chemical changes, as is proved by the well known effects of a thunder-storm in the brew-house and dairy. 7. When it is allowed to pass freely through a conductor, no perceptible trace is left of its progress; a rod of metal, for example, carried from the ground to the top of a house, affords a complete protection; and though the lightning should strike it again and again, no injury will be done either to the rod or the building. 8. When Electricity passes through living animals, a small quantity produces a peculiar nervous sensation, with which most persons are familiar; a larger portion causes convulsive movements of the muscles, prostration of strength, and temporary insensibility; and a yet more powerful charge induces instant death.

When we trace the connection of Electricity with the various phenomena of nature, we find that the closest relation subsists between it and Magnetism. Recent researches have, indeed, induced the belief, that the power of the useful instrument that guides the mariner over the trackless ocean, is altogether dependent upon the agency of Electricity. Its relations to light and heat are not so close; they all have, however, such a general resemblance to each other, that we are naturally led to form them into a class by themselves. They differ widely from all other substances, they are exceedingly subtile in their nature, and comparatively little is known of their laws; but they all manifest the power of him who said, "Let there be light, and there was light," and "who sendeth forth the lightning" at his pleasure. Every year makes us acquainted with some new fact respecting them, and every addition made to our knowledge shews more and more fully the mighty influence they exert in promoting the purposes of our gracious Creator. Electricity must not be considered as a mere philosophical toy; it pervades

the earth, and circles round it in an unceasing stream; | it fills the atmosphere, it rises with the ascending vapour, it distends the clouds, and it falls with the dew; the thunder-storm exhibits its power in the lower regions of the air, and the Aurora Borealis shews its presence in the higher; and, though we know not how it benefits man, we may rest assured, that it is too extensively diffused, and too powerful in its agency, to have been formed by Infinite Goodness without some corresponding end. There is a use in the lightning, there is mercy in the storm, and the voice of the thunder that bids us tremble at the presence of the Almighty, tells us too that God is good.

In Scripture we find reference made to the brightness, (Matt. xxviii. 3,) the speed, (Nahum ii. 4,) and destructive power of the lightning, (Zech. ix. 14.) It is more especially employed as an emblem of judgment; and when we remember that it is not only the most terrible instrument of destruction that nature presents to our view, but that it is in this character alone that it is generally recognised, we see the propriety of the allusions which the sacred writers have made. Lightnings and thunders accompanied the giving of the law on Sinai, to intimate the fearful consequences of violating Jehovah's commands. In the book of Revelations, sirnilar manifestations are described as preceding the infliction of judgment on the nations; thus in Rev. xvi. 18, we are told, "When the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, there came a voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings;" "and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." Again, in Luke xvii. 24, our Lord tells us that the coming of the Son of man shall be "as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, and shineth unto the other part under heaven."

Who does not tremble at the thought of being eternally
blasted with the unrelenting curse of God? And yet
we daily sin and hurl defiance at the Thunderer!
If we would escape from impending woe, let us re-
member that now is the time. As the lightning issuing
from the cloud bursts forth at once in all its brightness,
and in a moment lays its victim low, completing the
work of death ere a hand can be lifted to avert its
stroke, a word of prayer breathed, or a cry for mercy
uttered, so shall the coming of the Son of man be.
Let us individually remember that we know not how
soon the summons may come that calls us hence; that
it may be even this night our "souls may be required."
And let the nations beware; the day of the "Lord's
controversy" with them may be nearer than they sup-
pose. In the end of the present dispensation, there
will doubtless be signs and warnings, but the godless
will despise, and the careless will not perceive them.
The people of God may see the gathering cloud, and
may perceive, in the very stillness and calm that lull
the wicked into security, the omens of impending woe;
but the voice of the scoffer will be loud, as he taunt-
ingly inquires, "Where is the promise of his coming,
for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as
they were from the beginning of the creation?" Des-
pising warnings, rejoicing in outward peace, luxuriating
on the rich productions of their skill and labour, they
will be satisfied with time and forget eternity; they will
be puffed up with vain thoughts of themselves, and
scorn and deny the hand that sustains them; they will
go on increasing in heaven-daring profanity, till the
trumpet call them to meet their God, and “the sign of
the Son of man is seen in the heaven." And when
shall these things be? We cannot tell. This only we
know, that the hour approaches, the signs of the times
call on us to consider, the prophecies that relate to the
future are fast fulfilling, and the unwonted continuance
of peace, the prosperity of trade, the abundance of
worldly good now given to the nations, may be but the
dreadful calm that precedes the thunder-storm.
"Watch
therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour
wherein the Son of man cometh."

The dazzling brightness of the flash, as it issues from the lowering cloud, blinds the eye of him that is near; the crashing peal stuns his ear, and an instinctive sense of present danger awes the mind, and makes him feel that the Omnipotent alone can "make a way for the lightning of thunder." And if the storm thus manifests the Creator's power, and fills the soul with dread, who shall endure the terrible majesty of the Judge of all? What ear shall hear unmoved "the voice of the Lord that is full of power, that divideth the flames of fire, that shaketh the wilderness, and breaketh the cedars of Lebanon?" And who shall stand before the reproving glance of Him whose " eyes are as a flame of fire," who "cometh in the glory of the Father," to "destroy his enemies with the brightness of his coming?" As an agent of destruction, lightning is dreaded alike by the learned and the ignorant; we trace its course by the havoc that it makes; wherever it passes, the vegetating principle of plants is destroyed; the life of animals in a moment extinguished; and the most solid substances are shattered into fragments or dissipated into vapour. No power of man can arrest its career or turn aside its stroke. And if we strive in vain against the irresistible power of the thunderbolt, who shall contend with Him that made it! While Jehovah restrains his wrath, sinners may reject his offered salvation and despise his forbearance, but when he ariseth to execute his decree, who shall stay his arm, or bind up the flaming fire of his wrath! Shall the creature contend with the Creator! the inhabitant of an atom with Him that fills the immensity of space! Shall the child of a day measure his prowess against the Eternal! the helpless subject of innumerable changes strive with the unchanging God! If he pronounce the decree, none can rescue, none can aid; the mightiest angel dare not interpose; nor though creation should all combine, can there ever be a mitigation of the doom. Who does not anxiously desire to be saved from wrath like this?'

CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

Afflictions necessary to Successful Preaching. The angel who appeared to Cornelius did not preach the Gospel to him, but directed him to send for Peter; for though the glory and grace of the Saviour seems a fitter subject for an angel's powers than for the poor stammering tongues of sinful men, yet an angel could not preach experimentally, nor describe the warfare between grace and sin from his own feelings. And if we could suppose a minister as full of comforts and as free from failings as an angel, though he would be a good and happy man, I cannot conceive that he would be a good or useful preacher; for he would not know how to sympathize with the weak and afflicted of the flock, or to comfort them under their difficulties with the consolations wherewith he himself, in similar circumstances, had been comforted of God. It belongs to your calling of God, as a minister, that you should have a taste of the various spiritual trials which are incident to the Lord's people, that thereby you may possess the tongue of the learned, and know how to speak a word in sea. son to them that are weary; and it is likewise needful to keep you perpetually attentive to that important admonition, “Without me ye can do nothing."-Newton's Letters.

Make the attempt while you Pray for Assistance.When Christ said to the man whose hand was withered," Stretch forth thine hand," he did not answer, "Lord, I cannot, it is wholly withered;" but this true son of Abraham made the attempt in faith, and was healed accordingly.-MOSES BROWNE

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