pose of grace, which was established in Christ Jesus from everlasting ages. As afflictions are, however, in themselves painful to flesh and blood, and as the enemies of God, and of his truth and people, are actuated solely by malice and hatred, when they persecute, defame, and maltreat, the man who fears God aright, it is fit and becoming the usual method observed in the divine government of the world, that the saints in a future life should enjoy a happiness that is commensurate with the degrees of sorrow which they have experienced on the earth. It seems to be the doctrine of Scripture, that those who loved not their lives unto the death, but who willingly suffered themselves to be slain for the testimony of Jesus, shall receive distinguished honours at the period of the consummation of all things. Without attempting to inquire too anxiously into the nature of those signal marks of the divine approbation of their conduct which will then be bestowed upon them, we may rest assured, that, whether they shall literally rise from the dead, and reign with Christ, during what is usually styled the millenial age, or whether their spirits, being still separated from their bodies, which sleep in the dust of the grave, shall merely experience an exultation of joy and triumph in heaven, in consequence of the universal prevalence of truth and righteousness during that period through. out the earth, they will at last receive, in the eternal world, an ample compensation for all the sufferings which they endured in this lower state of existence. We are indeed certainly informed that, even in their disembodied condition, they will rejoice when they witness the progress and prosperity of the cause for which they suffered, toiled, and bled; and when they perceive the accomplishment of those divine judgments which the Scriptures de

clare will be executed upon antichristian perfidy, oppression, and cruelty. At the last day, they will be openly acknowledged by the sovereign Judge as his servants and saints, and their characters and pretensions will be publicly vindicated from the injury which they receive from the slanders and the malicious detraction of hypocritical and noisy professors of religion, as well as of the avowed enemies and opposers of its power in the world. The afflictions which they endured in their mortal condition on the earth, will be compensated by the possession of an everlasting inheritance of heavenly glory. "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or on their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.""Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." It is not the lot of every Christian, however, to be called to lay down his life in the cause of God and truth. During a time of peace and concord in the church, and in the world, it is comparatively easy to discharge the public duties of Christianity, with some regard to principle and fidelity. Such, however, in general, is the state of circumstances, and such is the depravity of human nature, that it be comes a very painful and embar rassing thing to support with hos

nour and consistency the character of a true Christian. In order to obey God, we must often disoblige the world; we must oppose its principles and its conduct, even at the expense of our nicest feelings; we must be contented with reproaches, with misrepresentations, and misconstructions of our opinions and actions; with poverty, and its concomitants, contempt and maltreatment; and with the harsh censures and the opprobrious designations that are bestowed upon us by the petty jealousies, the ha tred, or envy, of corrupt, self-righteous, and presumptuous pretenders to the possession of extraordinary zeal and piety; or by the forward impertinence of the champions of sectarian ignorance, bigotry, and prejudice. True religion will not permit its disciples to procure either wealth or reputation by the violation of one feeling of duty and conscience; or by the omission of any known and commanded act of obedience to the Divine will. In addition to those trials of an external nature, which we must bear with a meek and patient spirit, we will, if we be the sons of God, experience the chastisements of his fatherly displeasure with us on account of our undutiful conduct before him. Our bodies will, in consequence of his just indignation against our iniquities, be from time to time sub jected to affliction; and our minds will be clouded with grief and anguish, so that we may perhaps be tempted to choose death rather than life, and be disposed to curse the very hour in which we were born. All our distresses, however, work together for our good, and they will at last minister to our supreme felicity in the world which is to come. Our sorrow will be turned into joy; and the recollection of former pains will serve to enhance the pleasure which eternity supplies in immeasurable abund

ance, and in exquisite degree. "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Every one of the saints in heaven will be completely happy, but, like vessels of cups and vessels of flagons, that differ in size and capacity, they will contain different measures of glory and felicity. The stars are all beautiful and filled with light, although one of them may be more resplendent than another.

From the remarks which have now been made, the following reflec tions seem naturally to arise.

It is cbvious, in the first place, from all that has been stated on this subject, that very inadequate notions of the nature of true religion almost universally prevail in the world. Some classes of per sons presume that they shall be saved by a certain sort of faith, with which they charitably suppose themselves to be very liberally en dowed, while they totally neglect the cultivation of the dispositions of the heart, that produce those ac tions in life which are agreeable to the genius and spirit of the religion of Christ. Such men would storm and be angry if we were to tell them that their condition is dangerous, and pregnant with destruc tion. Blinded by self-love, and that pride of heart which is abominable in the sight of divine pu rity, they see not the defects of their own righteousness as the ground of their hopes of acceptance with God; and they build an edi fice of vain expectations upon a foundation of sand, that will be

swept away by the inundation of the tempest. Unless, indeed, our souls be filled with the fervent love of God, and of our brethren of mankind, we can have no reason to be lieve that we are partakers of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Although we should make ever so loud a profession of zeal for the purity of religion, and abstain from the grosser vices of human nature; if we hate our brother; if we be guilty of backbiting, ridiculing, or defaming an innocent, unsuspecting person; or if we lie, cheat, deceive, or other wise injure our neighbour; when we can practise such arts with impuni ty, we are in reality as ignorant of God, and of the power of his grace, as the most bigoted and profligate Mahometans and Pagans. Other classes of individuals are of opinion, that they also shall be saved, because their public conduct is, upon the whole, irreproachable, and their dispositions and habits are charitable and peaceable. The Scriptures assure us, however, that there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not; and that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God. The divine law is exceeding broad, for it reacheth to the thoughts, imagina tions, and motives of the heart, as well as to the whole actions of the life. We are told, by infallible authority, that "for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account in the day of judgment." "How, then, can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?" The hypocrite and the self-righteous person will both stand condemned and speechless at the righteous bar of the eternal judge. That individual only knows the truth, and feels the power of religion, who believes in God, and hopes in his salvation, and who cultivates holiness of heart, and uprightness of

conduct, in all his transactions in the world.

It is obvious, in the second place, that it is a wicked calumny to affirm, that the doctrines of Christianity tend to encourage and promote li centiousness of manners. From the days of the Apostle Paul to the present time, has a reproach of this nature been liberally heaped upon the character of our holy religion. It has been asserted of true Christians, that their language is, "Let us do evil that good may come ;' and multitudes have in all ages "turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness." Religion itself, however, furnishes no grounds for such an accusation, nor warrant for such a practice. Although it is by the grace of God that we must be saved, through faith in his son Jesus Christ, we can never, with the least shadow of reason, flatter ourselves with supposing that we have been made partakers of this divine principle, unless it operate in the production of love within us both to God and man, and effect, in some degree, the purification of our depraved hearts and affections. There is, indeed, an inseparable connection between faith and holiness. No man can be considered as in a state of friendship with God, who does not give evidence that he has been born from above, and has been endowed with those graces of the Holy Spirit, which constitute holiness of heart, and produce a mild, humble, benevolent, and conscientious conduct in life. It is, therefore, a very idle and malicious objection which the papists, and indeed many others who wear the name of Protestants, make against the view of the doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ, which has been adopted into the Confessions of Faith, and other authorized books of almost the whole of the reformed churches, as if it were a theory that naturally

and necessarily tends to produce opinions and practices of the most dangerous and flagitious description. Men will be tried and judged ac cording to their work. Let not therefore the proud and self-right eous person presume to assert, that the grace of the Gospel is unfavourable to the interests of morali ty and religion; and let the man who professes to believe in God, through Christ the Saviour, be careful to maintain good works, otherwise he can have no reason to hope that he shall be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

It is obvious, in the third place, that those professors of religion who disregard the obligations of the Divine law, under a pretence that they are delivered from subjection to its authority by means of the death and resurrection of Christ, are plainly involved in the deep est infatuation of spirit, and are chargeable with the grossest hypocrisy and wickedness of heart. Vicious as the dispositions of men are, few persons would be inclined to allow that such an abominable figment possesses any influence over their conduct. It is not difficult, however, for an individual of ordinary penetration and sagacity to discover, that multitudes of the most vehement and zealous adhe. rents of religion, unhappily employ the doctrines of divine grace to promote their own destruction. Persons may easily be found who make a considerable noise in the world as men of eminent upright ness and fervour in the cause of true Christianity, and yet habitually and deliberately violate one, or other, or more, of the precepts contained in the second table of the decalogue. These individuals seem to forget that the law of God exercises a paramount authority over the designs, motives, words, and actions, of every reasonable creature; and that for all these things

VOL. XXI. NO. XI.

they will be brought into judgment. The egregious inconsistency that exists between the profession and the practice of pretended Christians, is a decisive proof that they are only hypocrites and deceivers, and it is the cause of excessive injury to the interests of religion and of mankind in the earth. The doom that is hereafter to be pronounced against these enemies of God and of man, will be far more dreadful than that which will be pronounced against heathens and profligates.

It is obvious, in the fourth and last place, that the doctrine which is contained in the portion of Scripture which we have been occupied in examining, affords the most soothing consolations to believers in Jesus, who are placed beneath the pressure of trials and afflictions. All things, as has already been ob served, work together for the glory of God and the good of his saints. The tribulations which befal the righteous in this world, are appointed to minister to their sanctifica tion, and to prepare them for admission into the heavenly kingdom. "Let them, therefore, that suffer according to the will of God, com mit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faith ful Creator." They who confess the name of Christ, and of his Fa ther, before the world, and who maintain the credit of their profes sions of religion, by the exercise of a meek, uncensorious, and charitable frame of disposition, and by a quiet and humble deportment of conduct, even when their attachment to the truth of the Divine testimony exposes them to the hatred of the wicked, on the one hand, and to the peevish and illiberal reflections of the ignorant and the factious zealot, on the other, will in no wise lose their reward. Christ will openly acknowledge them as his friends, in the presence of the assembled uni

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verse; and he will appoint them "to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them," where all their sorrows will be for gotten, and all their mourning will be turned into joy.

J- -S.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTOR.

On the Duty and Importance of Distributing the Scriptures.

SIR,

HAVING been on a visit at the northern metropolis, some years ago, I had an opportunity of hearing, during my stay, a synod sermon, in which the preacher made a violent attack upon Bible Societies. He seemed greatly offend. ed at the existence of these institutions, and greatly hurt at their ex. ertions, at the countenance they meet with, and at the success that attends them,

Amidst many simple and common-place remarks upon the importance of education, and the duty of promoting it, which no person, I suppose, ever seriously thought of disputing, the preacher hazarded many absurd and extravagant positions, and uttered many untenable assertions. Some of his dogmatical assertions and objections I noted down at the time of hearing, and as the paper lately fell in my way, I shall now consider them a little.

The preacher observed that " If people have no desire for reading, the possession of copies of the Scriptures would avail nothing; and," said he, "if they desire them, they may easily procure them for themselves." But did this gentleman never know, that the want of desire

for reading is itself an evil which we should attempt to remedy, by labouring to convince them of its utility, and by endeavouring to communicate to them the means of availing themselves of its advantages? Many persons may be found who have no desire for many things which may be of great and lasting advantage to them, merely from being ignorant of their nature and use. Would it be of no benefit to such people to be informed of the use and value of those things which they are ignorant of, or indifferent about? It is not likely to be the fact, that persons, when they possess the Scriptures, and perceive their worth and excellence, and are able to peruse them for themselves, will continue destitute of the desire of reading in general, or of reading this precious volume in particular, but will be inclined to consult it frequently, seriously, and with care. The possession of copies of the Scriptures would be a boon of great value to those who could read them, if they were also persuaded of their importance. And those who cannot read them, or do not understand their use, are proper objects of our solicitude, and should receive our aid to enable them to read and understand them. Then the possession of the Scriptures would not be, as this gentleman insinuates, useless and unavailing.

Neither is it true, which this gentleman says, "That if they desire them, they may easily procure them for themselves." Had this gentleman read the reports of the Bible Societies, he would have found that many persons in different countries have great desire for the possession of the Scriptures, and a great desire for reading them, whọ cannot procure them at any price, and but for the intervention and aid of the British and Foreign Bible Society, or of some other similar institution, must have continued