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Poetry.

LINES ON A ROSE.

BY A YOUNG MAN NOW DECEASED.

THIS lovely flower, whose beauteous tints
Vie with the blushing morn,
Flourish'd in Eden's fragrant bowers,
A rose without a thorn.

Had spotless innocence remain'd,
Had man from sin forborne,

It still had been that lovely flower,
A rose without a thorn.

Alas! that innocence is fled;

Virtue no more adorns

Base man; and earth no longer yields
Roses that bear no thorns.

The Rose of Sharon! fairest flower

That could a world adorn,

Once bloom'd on earth; but man entwined
Round Sharon's Rose a thorn.

Hail, Sharon's Rose! thy fragrance cheers
The soul to sorrow born,

Whose trembling hand e'en now can grasp
One rose without a thorn.

Transplanted to the heaven of heavens,
Where one eternal morn

Casts its bright beams, blooms Sharon's Rose,
A rose without a thorn.

Miscellaneous,

LAW. Whoever goes to law, goes into a glasshouse, where he understands little or nothing of what he is doing; where he sees a small matter blown up into fifty times the size of its intrinsic contents, and through which, if he can perceive any other objects, he perceives them all discoloured and distorted; where every thing is too brittle to bear handling; where, as in an element of fire, he frets, fumes, and is drained at every pore; and where whatever he buys, he buys out of the fire, and pays for according to its fictitious bulk. It had perhaps been better for him to have been-contented with an earthen vessel.-Skelton.

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THE TOMB OF LAVATER, AT ZURICH.-The tomb of Lavater in St. Peter's church much affected me : he was wounded by the hand of a common soldier, during Massena's invasion in 1799, and died after fifteen months of extreme suffering. His benevolence and tenderness of heart had been remarkable amidst all the eccentricities of his opinions through life; and they appeared conspicuously on this trying occasion. He not only did all in his power to prevent the criminal from being discovered, but left him, at his death, the following affecting testimony of his forgiveness :"Memorandum to be given, after my death, with an affectionate letter, if it be possible, to the grenadier (D'Elsass, as I think) who shot at me, Sept. 26, 1799; but care must be taken that his name be concealed. May God pardon thee, as I from my heart pardon thee! O may you never suffer what I suffer through you! I embrace you, my friend; you have done me a kindness, without knowing it. If you see these lines, may they be a seal to you of the grace of the Lord, who forgives penitent sinners; who delivers them, and makes them happy! May God enable me earnestly to pray for you, so that I may never doubt The celebrated physiognomist.

that we shall one day embrace each other before the presence of the Lord!" Surely, this paper breathes something of the spirit of the martyr Stephen. The murderer is said to have previously received favours from Lavater.-From D. Wilson's (Bishop of Calcutta) Letters from an absent Brother.

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REV. C. WOLFE.-On the day before his dissolution, the medical gentleman who attended him felt it his duty to apprise him of his immediate danger, and expressed himself thus: "Your mind, sir, seems to be so raised above this world, that I need not fear to communicate to you my candid opinion of your state." "Yes, sir," replied he, "I trust I have been learning to live above the world:'" and he then made some impressive observations on the ground of his own hopes; and having afterwards heard that they had a favourable effect, he entered more fully into the subject with him on the next visit, and continued speaking for an hour, in such a convincing, affecting, and solemn strain, (and this at a time when he seemed incapable of uttering a single sentence,) that the physician, on retiring to the adjoining room, threw himself on the sofa in tears, exclaiming, "There is something superhuman about that man: it is astonishing to see such a mind in a body so wasted; such mental vigour in a poor frame dropping into the grave!"

ARDENT SPIRITS.-On conversing with J. G., I found that he had been twenty-one years in the country, and was still penniless, the poor servant of the other Englishman, who was scarcely less poor than himself. His fondness for ardent spirits, he informed me, had kept him thus poor; and he could trace to this source all his lapses and all his misfortunes. He assured me, in our conversation, that he had foresworn the further use of spirits. I told him of a strength greater than his own, and this I entreated him to implore. He was much affected by a prayer in which I proposed he should join me in his tilt: he kept a standing posture when I commenced, but the poor fellow soon sunk upon his knees; and before the conclusion of my prayer on his behalf, he was weeping like a child. It will give some idea of the prevailing use of spirits in this island, and of the consequent discouragement which the minister is doomed to experience, if I mention that, notwithstanding all that I had said against the use of this intoxicating stimulant, in all which he had heartily acquiesced, and, bringing the test of his own melancholy experience, had declared voluntarily that he had left it off,--he yet offered to myself, on my rising from my knees, what is called "a morning," from a little keg which he drew from under his straw bed; and on my reminding him, when about to help himself, that he engaged to break off this habit, he excused himself by saying he had made a reservation for the use of the remaining contents of the keg.Archdeacon Wix's Newfoundland Missionary Journal.

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THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. RELIGION is not a thing of times and seasons. It is to be the very element of existence: then, and then only, do we fulfil the purpose of God, in making us capable of religion, when its influence fills the whole of our life. But God who made us, and knows our nature, has seen fit to institute religious ordmances, as well as religion itself. Such ordinances have existed in every dispensation under which he has revealed himself to man; and though they have varied in their specific character, yet in each they have been adapted to the peculiar circumstances of those upon whom they were enjoined. Among these divinely appointed ordinances, that of the Sabbath stands foremost to our view; and it is, therefore, of the highest importance that we should rightly understand the grounds on which we ourselves, and the Church at large, found the authority and obligation of this ordinance.

Even natural religion requires that there should be certain seasons of solemn public worship, universally agreed upon among members of the same society; but while it shews the necessity of there being some such seasons, it does not determine how often they should occur, nor what proportion they should bear to the whole of our time. Now, even supposing that the word of God were quite silent on these points, it would, nevertheless, be decent to bow to the established laws and usages of our country, in abstaining from any employments which they might forbid, and in frequenting some assembly for public worship; and (if there were no obvious objection) to do this at the times

VOL. I.-NO. II.

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recommended, rather than at any other time. But the Sabbath, and the mode in which it is to be observed, are both alike taught in the revealed word of God: so that the agreement which the universal Church has shewn with reference to this ordinance has not been a matter of mere convention, but has rested on a foundation which is solid and lasting. We have, however, to lament, that notwithstanding the strong scriptural authority on which this question rests, late years have produced those who have assailed the divine origin and permanent obligation of the Sabbath. The enemy of souls is unwearied in his devices against the happiness and salvation of men; and it would seem as if, enraged at the many overthrows he has received at the hands of the champions of truth, when they have exposed to the world the hollowness of scepticism and infidelity, he has resolved to make a desperate thrust at the Sabbath, knowing that if he should succeed in demolishing its claims, the downfal of religion itself would quickly follow. With reference to such attacks upon the sacredness of the Sabbath, we adopt the sentiment and the inference of Dr. Watts, in whose day, it seems, some vexatious differences on this subject were rife. "It is an unhappy thing indeed," says he, "that that very day which God originally designed for a sacred rest here on earth, and appointed it to be a pledge and emblem of eternal rest in heaven, should become a matter of noisy dispute and contention in his Church; but God hath seen fit to exercise our faith and patience with some darknesses and difficulties even in his own worship in this world, that we may breathe and long after the light and glory of the

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future state, with that more perfect rest, and more exalted worship, which is enjoyed and practised in the world above."

It is impossible to read the Bible, beginning with its earliest revelations, and carrying the view down to the latest, without seeing that the idea of a Sabbath pervades all the purposes of God towards man. The patriarchal Sabbath marked the first revelation of God's will to Adam; the Jewish Sabbath, the Mosaical institution; while the day which we term the Lord's day, is distinctive of the Christian dispensation. If we read the second chapter of the book of Genesis, we shall find that immediately after God had finished the creation, he instituted the Sabbath, as commemorative of his completed work, and gave to it that name to mark the figurative rest upon which he then entered: no more being really intended to be conveyed by that term than that God had then accomplished his work: "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." This was the moment at which God first appointed the Sabbath: at this moment he bestowed on man that gift which has blessed every successive generation of mankind, and which is now the source of incalculable blessings to millions in our world. It was at this moment that God enacted, "by an ordinance for ever," that six portions of man's time should be given to his ordinary labour, and that the seventh should be portioned off, and for ever reserved unto himself. It is of the highest importance that we should be convinced of the fact, that the Sabbath dates its institution from the moment when creation was complete; because the question of its universal obligation will be then allowed on all hands to be settled, since they who impugn it ground their opinions upon the abrogation of the Mosaic ritual, where, as they contend, the injunction to observe the Sabbath is for the first time found.

Now, any one who should read for the first time the first three verses of the second chapter of Genesis, could not but be struck with the very express manner in which the account of the institution of the Sabbath is there given it is given twice, with remarkable emphasis, in that very short space. Something more, he would say, is here meant than simply to record the fact of God's resting from his work. The works of the six days are detailed in order, and then the seventh day is recorded; its distinguishing feature being, that God then rested: as he had consciously occupied each of the six days in work, with equal consciousness of purpose did he on the seventh day "rest"

from his work. Unless we allow that the Sabbath was instituted at this time, it is impossible to understand why the work of creation should have been divided into its several regular parts. Clearly this is done to shew what proportion of his time man is to employ in his ordinary labour, and what proportion he is to devote to the duties of religion. In the division of the week of creation, not into six portions, nor into eight, but into seven, we are taught that it was designed by God that such a distribution of time should be a fixed arrangement, an ordinance which was to stand for ever: and, in like manner, the proportion of six days' labour, and one day's rest, was an intimation equally plain, that this proportion of labour and rest was to be alike enduring.

Again, if we allow that the Sabbath, whenever instituted, was meant to be commemorative of creation, there seems every reason to expect that the observance of it would take its date from the creation itself. We are warranted to expect this, from the analogy of all the other rites in subsequent dispensations, whether Mosaic or Christian. There is no mention of any interval of time between the appointment of the rite, and the time when it began to be observed; on the contrary, we know, both from the Scripture narrative and from collateral history, that the ordinance was practised immediately after it was instituted. The reason for keeping the Sabbath was coeval with creation, and why then should not the actual keeping of it have begun then? The argument for keeping the Sabbath being taken from creation, reached not to the Jew only, but to all who were found within creation's utmost limits; and why, then, should the Jew be the first to commemorate an event of so glorious and universal a character, which had occurred more than two thousand years before his time? And it is particularly worthy of note, that, in the fourth commandment, there is a clear reference to the Sabbath as an institution already existing, and of long standing; and to the sanctification of it, as a duty well established. The Jew was to remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy, because God had "blessed and hallowed it ;" and the apostle, in his epistle to the Hebrews, does not stay to prove, but assumes that the rest of the Sabbath began the moment after creation was complete-when "the works were finished from the creation of the world."

The Scripture says nothing of a weekly Sabbath being observed during the patriarchal ages; but does this prove that it was not observed during that period? If it was expressly appointed at the creation, surely that appointment would not become annulled by the mere fact of the silence of Scripture on the

subject during the subsequent period of two thousand five hundred years. It was a primary and binding law of the Almighty; and therefore, even if we can suppose that it was neglected amidst the corruption of mankind after the fall, this neglect would not impair its authority. But, if there is no historical testimony, there is a strong probability that the patriarchs kept the Sabbath. To say nothing of the perpetual character of the reason for observing it, we may conclude they did so from certain passages which contain strong hints of such a practice. "The end of the days," (there being no other division of time then known but the week), we may reasonably suppose to have been the last of seven days. "The day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord," mentioned in the book of Job, (the history of which, we know, belongs to that period,) was, not improbably, the Sabbath, when the pious families, called "sons of God," met for divine worship. At the period of the flood, we find the reckoning by weeks the division of time. God gave instructions to Noah of what should be done "after seven days;" and on the seventh day Noah sent out the dove to find a sabbatical repose from his wearisome imprisonment. After the flood, all the nations of the East joined with the Israelites in exhibiting some traces of it; and in the ancient heathen writers there is a reference to the Sabbath, not as observed by the heathens, but as being well known by them, through some more ancient tradition, as a thing of very early, divine appointment.

Finally, The renewal of the Sabbath before the Mosaic economy was instituted, suggests another argument of great strength for its primeval obligation. When the manna is promised, a command is given that a double portion of it should be gathered on a prescribed day. What day ? the sixth; for no reason that is assigned, but for a reason well known, universally understood. Nay, Moses refers to the Sabbath as a thing not forgotten by them during the two centuries of Egyptian bondage. "This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord your God."

Enough has been said to place it beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Sabbath is an institution coeval with creation. Critics, confident in their own strength, and supported by natural ingenuity, may attempt to weaken its authority; and they must not be regarded with more reverence because they meet with ready disciples, in an age unexampled for its love of novelty and innovation. The authors of such notions might probably have been deterred from publishing their crude speculations, had they looked forward to all the con

sequences likely to follow, when the authority of the Sabbath is undermined. A heart naturally averse from the things of God (and such is that which every man possesses) will eagerly seize any argument that will serve its purpose; and, above all, an argument for overthrowing the claims of that day which has ever been the day devoted to express communion with God. While, therefore, we comply with the divine purpose in blessing and hallowing this day, let us do so with intelligent thankfulness to God that he has placed the obligation of his Sabbath beyond the reach of human scepticism, by indenting its authority on the trees of Paradise, and engraving its sanction on the walls of creation itself.

66

[To be continued in a future Number.]

THE DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN MINISTER. To the Editors of the Church of England Magazine. THE following document was lately put into my hand; and appears well worthy of being recorded. It is entitled 'An Inscription in a Parsonage-House;" but where, it is not stated. The Lady Elizabeth Hastings founded several valuable exhibitions in Queen's College, Oxford, for scholars from certain schools in Yorkshire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland; and to this circumstance reference is made. The advice is so excellent, and so deserving the attention of those who "minister in holy things," that it were to be wished that a copy were found in every parsonage-house in the kingdom.

I am your obedient servant and well-wisher,

RUSTICUS.

"The Right Honourable Lady Elizabeth Hastings, who was seised of the perpetual advowson of this parish church, provided that the present incumbent and his successors, to the latest generations, should have legal settlement in the same, as by her last will and testament directed, earnestly beseecheth him and them, not for the sake of the perishable bread which he may in his youth have received by her appointment, or may in future time receive, but for the sake of the Almighty Creator and giver of it, and for his sole honour and glory, that he will religiously weigh and carefully observe the following rules, adding to and enforcing them as occasion shall require, and his own prudence suggest.

"1. That he content not himself with an orderly and regular discharge of his duty, as the same is marked out and prescribed to him by human laws, but that from a true fervency of spirit, and Christian zeal for the salvation of his people, and his own, he add to the obligations required of him by man the adequate and only sufficient measures of the Gospel, daily abound in the works of his high calling, rule his own house well, and enforce his preaching upon the minds of men, by holiness of life, and the strength and power of his own example.

"2. That he would daily and earnestly, in private prayer, humble himself before the throne of God for all spiritual blessings upon himself, upon his flock, and upon all mankind,

"3. That he would be much in conversation with

his people; and, without partiality, or preferring any one to another, he would inform himself of their spiritual condition, the respective wants and occasions of their souls, and give them their portion of meat in due season; and, by all the wisdom and prudence he is master of, turn the stream of their affections from the momentary and vain enjoyments of this world to the everlasting riches and only solid pleasures of the

next.

“4. That at every visit he receives or pays, he would

provide that some part of the discourse should be upon some vital subject of religion, as, the absolute necessity of having it planted in the heart, and what are the hinderances whereby it is rendered unable to strike root and fix itself there; and what the salutary and only effective means are, and wherein lies the heavenly wisdom, and what are those holy methods and ways for the removing and exterminating such hinderances: so that, having the kingdom of God established within himself, and in the souls of all his sons and daughters (as in his ministerial relation he must ever account his whole people to be), he and they may be able to stand in the judgment, and may, through God's great mercy in the redemption of all men by his blessed Son, find their eternal lot and portion among his saints. Amen."

PASSING THOUGHTS.

BY CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH.

II. THE SNARE.

Ir is a fearful thing to contemplate the power of Satan, and his skill in making our bodily senses the means of leading our souls away from God. Of all traitors, he is rightly considered the worst, who lifts against his lawful king the arms that king has given him to employ in his service. And surely, of all criminals he is the most guilty, who makes the good gifts of God the actual instruments of rebellion against the Giver. I was led to these reflections a short time since, when, in passing a Roman Catholic chapel, on my return from worshipping in a parish church, I saw at the gate a string of carriages belonging to Protestant families; and learnt that, in consequence of some fine professional singers having been engaged to perform there, these people were induced to sanction, by their presence, the idolatrous service of the

mass.

Does any reader question the justice of the charge of idolatry, thus brought against the Romish Church? Surely the act of falling prostrate in adoration before the little cake which the priest elevates, and which the Roman Catholic Church avers to be changed, by the utterance of certain words, into the body, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, is at least as flagrant an act of idolatry as that of the Israelites of old, who made a molten calf, and professed to worship Jehovah under the symbol. Their sin was visited by an immediate and extensive judgment,

marking the Lord's abhorrence of what he has so strictly forbidden. Nor is the consecrated wafer the only object of such prohibited adoration: the Virgin Mary, the saints and angels, are addressed in language of prayer and praise, such as it is clearly idolatrous to use to any created being. No one can turn over the leaves of a popish prayer-book without seeing that it was for no imaginary or trivial cause our blessed reformers laid down their lives. They contended for the faith once delivered to the saints; and were content to die, rather than to dishonour their God by doing the abomiThe very name nable thing which he hates. of Protestant originated in a solemn protest made by the first reformers against these deadly errors of an apostate Church and it would be difficult to shew its applicability to any who, by their conduct, renounce such protest.

But the Church of Rome, deeply versed in unholy arts, has ever adorned herself with such things as fall in with the course of man's corrupt affections. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, there find abundant gratification. In the present instance, the charm of a little fine music was tried as a snare; and it was, alas! found effectual in drawing several away from that solemn and scriptural service, in which the open doors of their own church invited them to join on the Lord's day. It induced them to look on, and thereby seemingly to approve, while the Holy Spirit was grieved, and Christ dishonoured, by the delusive mockeries of a worship openly addressed far more to the creature than the Creator. Was this to let their light shine before men, as the Lord has commanded? Was this "having compassion" on the deluded souls of their fellow-creatures ? Was this exposure of their own souls to the influence of the same delusion, a fit sequel to their morning prayer-" Lead us not into temptation?" Or, supposing them sufficiently guarded by their better knowledge from the danger of being led astray, was the example thus set to their servants and ignorant neighbours consistent with the prohibition against putting a stumbling-block in another's way? These questions passed in solemn thought through my mind as I walked on, reflecting how many have recently been called away, even in the prime of life, from this uncertain world; and how very few Sabbaths might remain to some of those who were thus defrauding God of the honour due unto his name, and wantonly mis-spending the sacred hours; gratifying their senses by hearing hymns melodiously sung to the praise of those who would indignantly rebuke such worshippers with-" See thou do it not.”

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