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ON THE CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

AMONG the numerous passages of Holy Scripture, enjoining on Christians the duty of extending the knowledge of the word of God, there is one of our Saviour's observations which has struck me very forcibly. I allude to his answer to John's disciples, when questioned as to whether he were really the Messiah. He in reply enumerated the acts of divinity he had performed; and, commencing with the miraculous manner in which he relieved the distress and healed the infirmities of suffering humanity, by restoring the blind to sight, making the lame to walk, cleansing the lepers, &c.; then exhibiting a still stronger proof of his boundless love to fallen man, at the same time establishing his omnipotence, he adds, the power that he exercised over even the "king of terrors," breaking the iron sceptre of death, and rescuing his devoted victims. "By me the very dead are raised." But yet there was another point by which he could convey a more just idea of his character, one which was of more importance to those for whose sake he came down from heaven; one which concerned not their temporal relief, but their everlasting happiness. "I do not" (for so the eminent and pious Dr. Doddridge makes our Saviour to utter this important truth)" court the rich and the great, as impostors are most apt to do: nor do I bear a commission chiefly directed to them, as some of the prophets did; but as you see, by the auditory now around me, the poor, and even the meanest of the people, have the Gospel preached to them; they have the good news of salvation most freely published among them, and the blessings of it offered to their acceptance."

Surely, thought I, from this passage our Saviour wished to imprint

upon our minds the incalculable blessings of the knowledge of the Gospel, and that the dissemination of it was what he considered the most important part of his ministry. If this be a just conclusion, how imperiously does it call upon all who profess Christianity to imitate so glorious an example, and that too with something of the measure of zeal which our blessed. Redeemer displayed. The Bible Society immediately struck me as presenting the simplest and most efficacious means of accomplishing this desirable object. How then shall we dare to neglect this duty! How can we be so blind to our own interests as to neglect this duty? Not merely that by so doing we incur the displeasure of the divine Master who imposed it, but we injure ourselves by it even in a worldly sense. Are we parentswhat will secure us the affections of children so purely as placing the word of inspiration in their hands, teaching them its importance, and regulating their ideas by its precepts? Are we favoured by Providence with the control over extensive estates, on which are numerous labouring tenants, ignorant of every thing moral or religious, save an intuitive shrewdness in their temporal interest :-perhaps this degree of ignorance may appear exaggerated, at least as far as relates to this country, in this day of general knowledge; but I fear it is more general than is imagined. I had occasion a short time ago to visit a village about one hundred miles from town, where but very few of the inhabitants could either read or write. As to religion, they were but a few degrees removed either from the American Indian, or African Hot tentot. It is true, public service is performed once every Sunday, and a dozen, perhaps twenty, of the

old men and women may attend divine worship; but there their religion ends; while the generality do not seem to have any idea of the obligation of keeping holy the sabbath-day, even by attending to the formularies of religion. The proprietor of this and some adjoining villages rarely appears among them; and when he does, he is too much engaged in his own sports and pleasures to attend either to the comforts, morals, or religion of his tenants, How would such a man improve his own happiness and interests by attending to the happiness and interests of his tenants; by giving them instruction, and placing in each of their hands a Bible! What a change might not, under the blessing of the Holy Spirit, in a short time be experienced! Religion increases man's industry and corrects his ideas of interest; it teaches him, that "the powers that be are ordained of God;" and that

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And thus by inculcating contentment the poor man is rendered happy in his situation, and taught to know, that though he is bound to exert himself for the support of his wife and family, it is not only censurable but criminal to neglect the interests of those whom Providence has placed over us.

The same will apply, varying the circumstances, to all relations of society. We have pleasing evidence of the beneficial effects arising from such systems adopted in manufactories; and no reader of the annals of Bible Societies can fail of deriving gratification from the accounts of the good that has been done by distributing Bibles to our hardy tars and brave soldiers. I have heard it objected, that by FEB. 1825.

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distributing Bibles among sailors, and palavering too much to them about religion, you would destroy that fearless character and total unconcern about death for which they are distinguished, and make milksops of them. A part of this charge is just; and if it be a crime to remove their total unconcern about death, I for one plead guilty. I would give them Bibles to teach them that after death there is a judgment; and that they, as accountable creatures, must appear at that bar. I would, if possible, excite a very great anxiety in their minds about death, by awakening them to a sense of their state as sinners; but having destroyed that unconcern, I would establish something better in its place. Instead of a callous feeling, the fruit of ignorance, I would give them the firmest of all supports the Rock of Ages made theirs by faith. No reasoning can induce me to believe, that making a bold man a Christian deprives him of his courage, and renders him a coward; his only fear then will be to offend his God. It is not by assuring a man, that through the eternal Saviour life and immortality shall be his portion, and endless happiness his reward, that you make him afraid of the valley, however dreary, through which he must pass to obtain these; at all events, not when the same Saviour promises to be with him in all difficulties. When deaths fly around him in all directions, and comrades bleed by his side or expire at his feet, the promises of his Lord will recur to his mind, and he will, as it were, hear the voice of his Saviour whispering, "Be not afraid, for I am with you always;" he will know, that without " His permission not a sparrow can fall to the ground;" and if his probationary course be finished, the leaden death that wounds his flesh will but open for his soul a passage to the "celestial gate;" and though the.

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pangs of dissolution may rend his frame, the same soothing voice will again sound in his ear, "Be not afraid, 'tis I," who am now taking thee to myself. And at the great judgment, when, sinking under the consciousness of his own guilt, he sees the Judge of quick and dead appear in all the majesty of heaven, his heart ready to fail at the re

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membrance of his imperfections:with what rapture will he hear Omnipotence proclaim, "Be not afraid, 'tis I"-who, though your Judge, am also your Saviour and Advocate.

May I be prepared for this dread tribunal, by obtaining the favour of that only Advocate who can successfully plead at that bar! C. V.

ON ATTENTION TO WORLDLY BUSINESS.

not that I must be about my Father's business.-Luke, ii. 49. IN the example of Christ, we have a model for our conduct in every period of our lives, and under every circumstance peculiar to each period. An account is here given of his early piety. He did not propose to begin his spiritual course when the career of life was half run; he commenced both together. With the dawning of his reason; his graces began to unfold; and as he increased in stature, he increased in the wisdom which is from above.

Religion may be aptly comprehended under this expression-our heavenly "Father's business." To this grand concern we are bound diligently to attend: it is the end of our being every thing else must be subservient to it. It is for this that our time, talents, and all our other privileges, natural and spiritual, are given us. This is the only concern in which our success is insured and our gain eternal; and for this important business, the season of youth is peculiarly appropriate. "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth;" is among the last injunctions of the Whoever wishes for a plentiful harvest must sow his seed in due season; but whoever defers it till the time "when the sun, and the moon, and the stars are obscured," cannot expect those fruits which can only be nourished and ripened by a genial influence.

wise man.

But though our heavenly Father's business is thus incumbent on us, and though such is our happiness in attending to it, we are by nature the willing slaves of Satan; and although eternal death is his wages, yet he has so blinded our minds, that if divine grace did not interpose for our rescue, we should yield him a willing obedience to our life's end. But even among those who are eventually rescued from his power, how many spend the prime of their days in his service, and then come into the service of God as it were maimed, halt, and blind; incapable, through advanced age, increasing infirmities, and confirmed habits of sin, of vigorous exertion in his cause: but, nevertheless, the merciful God frequently receives those who offer themselves at the ninth and eleventh hours, and gives to these last even as to the first. Thanks be to God if the above description does not apply to us.

Some have erroneously thought, that the service of God is exclusive of all worldly concerns, and therefore have superstitiously retired into perpetual solitude. But not to dwell on the mischief, nay the impossibility of an universal practice of this kind, it is sufficient to consider that this life is a state of probation—a state of warfare—of active service, and not of listlessness and inactivity. You are serving God while you are diligent in the business of your earthly master,

and you cannot serve him acceptably without. "Be diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord," says St. Paul. And what makes the Christian so peculiarly diligent in all his lawful temporal concerns, is, that he performs them from the sweet constraining principle of love to God, and with a single eye to his glory; and looking upon God as his supreme Master, attends to them as serving "God rather than man." It is delightful to see a young man thus acting from such a motive, with

such views, and to such ends. Let us strive, by a diligent use of the means of grace, to maintain in our own souls a lively sense of the love of Christ, and labour continunually that our obedience may keep pace with our knowledge of his will. That his love may be our motive, his favour our reward, and that our lips may be devoted to his glory, is my sincere and hearty prayer. O may grace more reign in our hearts through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Amen.

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ciple, which "is rather to be described as to its operations, than to be defined as to its essence," is variously designated as the mind, the soul, the heart, and the conscience-here it is called " our spirit

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ON THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. EXTRACT FROM A SERMON ON ROM. VIII. 16. WE may infer from this passage, that if we are, indeed, the children of God, there are two witnesses to the fact, viz. the Spirit of the Lord and our own conscience. Such I take to be the meaning of the words :-The Spirit itself bear< eth witness together, or in conjunction, with our spirit. Of these two witnesses St. Paul elsewhere speaks severally and distinctly. Of the former, Gal. iv. €; of the latter, 2 Cor. i. 12. Here (Rom. viii. 16) the same inspired writer describes the united testimony of both," the Spirit of the Son" corroborating "the testimony of our conscience." See also Rom. ix. 1.

Even a slight review of the context can hardly fail to convince us, that by the Spirit itself" is intended God the Holy Ghost, the third person in the eternal Trinity. And by "our spirit," we must understand that immortal principle within us, whereby we think, reason, and judge; whereby we are enabled to call to mind our actions, words, and thoughts, and comparing them with the eternal rule delivered to us in the word, to form a judgment of our character accordingly. This reflecting prin

1. If then we are the real children of God, we shall not be totally destitute, in the first place, of the inward testimony of our conscience, that such is our state and character; though at the same time it must be allowed, that this humble consciousness will, in different characters, considerably vary in degree, and in the same individual may be stronger at one period than at another. Every believer in Christ has received power to become the child of God, being born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This, which is de

I must confess myself not fond of nice metaphysical distinctions at any time, and least of all upon theological points. To me, therefore, it does not appear at all needful to define very nicely, or distinctly, what we are here to understand by "our

spirit." Nor do I think that it involves the least self-contradiction, but is perfectly consistent to understand it, of the enlightened conscience, of the renewed mind.

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scribed in Scripture as a new creation, a being turned from darkness to light, a resurrection to newness of life from a state of spiritual death, cannot surely be either a trivial or an imperceptible change. Those who have experienced it were once darkness, but now are they light in the Lord; the shades of natural ignorance have passed away, the daylight of saving truth hath dawned upon them, and the day-star arisen in their hearts. And I ask, is it possible that such an alteration in their religious views and sentiments, as is here evidently implied, could have taken place, and themselves remain wholly unconscious of it? Surely not.

The affections, also, of the renewed mind have undergone a change no less remarkable. The child of God is now weaned from the world to which he was before entirely wedded; reconciled to God, with whom he was once at enmity; and captivated by the love of Christ, which was previously an utter stranger to his breast. Divine grace has thus made him to differ from his former self, and from a world still lying in wickedness around him, and of this difference he has a humble consciousness; "his spirit" testifies to the change.

Neither is the believer wholly unconscious of the actings of faith. If convinced of his sins, he has groaned under the oppressive burden of their guilt; if, perceiving and feeling himself lost, he has sought and obtained in the Lord Jesus Christ a Saviour altogether suitable to and sufficient for him; and if, in a believing application to Jesus, encouraged by the promises of his word, he has experienced the efficacy of his peacespeaking blood, atoning death, and spotless righteousness; if such has indeed been his happy experience, doubtless his conscience will bear ample testimony to these

things as the marks of his adop tion, and as the earnest of his future inheritance. But,

2. The testimony of our own spirit upon the point of our adoption into the family of God, will be strengthened and corroborated by another more important witness, even that of the Holy Ghost himself; for, saith the Apostle, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit." Now this he does, not by any extraordinary influence, or supernatural impulse; but by dwelling in the hearts of Christians, and progressively carrying on there his own proper work; for we may be assured, that he dwells and abides in all such as a Spirit of light, life, holiness, and love; enlightening, quickening, sanctifying, drawing forth into exercise all the various graces of the Christian character, and, especially, shedding abroad in the heart more and more the love of Christ, which is the main spring and principle of action, and the very soul of all holy and acceptable obedience.

Thus it is that the Lord sets his mark as it were upon the foreheads of his people in characters legible, in some measure, even to themselves and others. Thus it is, that every child of God, as Leighton beautifully describes it, being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, bears upon him the likeness of his heavenly Father, just as the figures engraved upon the signet are copied out upon the wax." So that, not only does the Lord know them that are his; but they, being enabled to depart from iniquity and to follow after holiness, are themselves brought in some humble measure to the knowledge of their blessed state, and unspeakably precious privileges; the Spirit itself bearing witness with their spirit by his own work, operation, and influence.

The Spirit itself bears witness with the spirit, or conscience, of the

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