appreciated, even by those of us who and most appreciate them. This is an editorial note on the sermon in qu

The occasions of human alienatio countless, and sometimes insignifican by a narrow frith, abhor each other make enemies of nations which had been melted into one." But all th rise in a single cause the depravity Alienated from God, man is necessar

It is instructive to see, on the con one single force attaching man to his most opposite of their race, by educa and temperaments, may become in single cord. How did the pulse of in unison with France, Greece, P Italy and Hungary, because they w spired with the spirit of national and

Could some benevolent heart or some one great bond of union, capa tion, tribe and family of man in on brotherhood, on that heart would de and praise of a thousand generations the poles, all nations one, each wit but every man recognizing in ever friend.

This is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ proposes to do, and what it, when allowed to do its own work, actually does. In its feeling, language and manners, no man is a Jew, or a Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free-all are one in Christ Jesus; and this, not as a final object, but something incidental to objects of infinitely greater moment. While Christianity saves from hell, and exalts to heaven, it assimilates man to God, and man to man.

We are not certain whether we possess the talent and learning requisite to a definition of brotherly love. We do not know whether it is more properly a principle, or a moral feeling. We venture, however, to say, that it is that attachment or regard which every Christian has for every Christian as a Christian.

This definition disentangles the subject from many irrelevant questions which have been supposed to embarrass it : as, for instance, whether there are different degrees of brotherly love. Restricted by our definition, brotherly love can be more or less, only in proportion as the agent loving, or the object loved, is more or less like Christ. Ordinary friendship, for instance, founded it may be on similarity of tastes, or identity of professions, may be perfectly consistent with brotherly love, but can constitute no possible part of it. Two friends, neither a Christian, may be, on principles not religious, united as one soul. Should either become converted to Christ, he would not love the other less, but his regards for him would undergo a wonderful transformation; and if the other were afterwards to become a believer, another transformation, equally great, must be the result: first, friendship; then pity and compassion added; and, finally, brotherly love superadded to both.

We do not know whether there be anything to which this attachment may be likened, or by which it may be illustrated. An American citizen loves all his fellow-citizens as such. All feel this affection for each, and each for all. If the property of one is seized on the ocean, or his personal rights invaded by the most powerful adversary on earth, this whole nation resents it, as with the heart of one man, and will peril fortune, life and honor to defend him. But this is a faint illustration. Let us look to the scriptures. In his epistle to the Hebrew Christians, St. Paul uses these words: "Consider them that are in bonds, as bound with them;

and them that suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in (or of) the body." Christ is the head, his disciples are members

of his body.

The meaning is this: "When another Christian is chained and sent to the dungeon, perhaps for his allegiance to Christ, remember He sustains to you a relation like that of your eye to your hand, or your feet to your head. Those chains are on a part of the body of which you also are a part. And when another Christian suffers adversity, or is thrown into the theatre to be torn to pieces by lions and wolves, remember that he and you are fellow-members of a body of which the Redeemer is the head. That flesh all gored, and those bones all mangled, are flesh and bones of one who, with yourself, is a fellow-member of the body of Christ."

The poor man in the street, upon whose wearied limbs and tattered rags your carriage wheels throw their dust, is your brother. The man in fine apparel, and the lady adorned with silver and gold in one part of the temple, and the poor man in coarse raiment in another, are both children of God and fellow-heirs of that kingdom that never can be moved.

But want of space admonishes us to pause. Perhaps we may resume the subject hereafter.-ED.

MEMORANDA,

From which sermons may be made by any who have the skill, devotion and ability to do it. With this view, they are respectfully submitted to the consideration, especially of our younger brethren.-ED.

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”—Prov. xxvii : 13.

In order to arrive at the full meaning of proverbial sentences, especially in the writings of Solomon, it is necessary, in all antithetic forms of expression, to supply the words omitted in the ellipses. They are understood by the writer, who gives to the reader a clue by which he also may understand them. Take, for example, the passage before us. To cover, is antithetic to confessing and forsaking; and not to prosper, has its opposite in the finding of mercy.

It is pertinent to remark, that to the voluntary agent the great lawgiver and judge offers only two alternatives. The one is to confess and to forsake, which are followed by mercy; the other is to cover; that is, not to confess and forsake, which is followed by no mercy, but its opposite wrath. To confess without forsaking, is virtually to cover; and were it possible to forsake without confessing, that would still be to

cover.

From this brief exordium and exposition the following propositions, among others, are plainly deducible :

1. That the prosperity meant in the first part of the text does not appertain to the affairs of the present life. This is evident, because it consists of mercy, the ordinary lot of whose recipients has, in all ages, been poverty, affliction, oppression and persecution. In a word, there is on the one hand, no necessary connexion between worldly prosperity and the favor of God; nor on the other, between adversity in this life, and the disapprobation of God. Your children may die, or living fail to meet your expectations; your property may wing itself away, like the eagle, towards the heavens; your friends, real or pretended, on trifling or no considerations, may abandon you in the hour of trial; health, reputation, every thing worldly, may vanish into air; and yet God may be your friend.

It is in this life that the good have their evil things, and that the bad have their good things. Purple and fine linen, and sumptuous fare every day, may be followed by the want of a drop of water to cool a parched tongue; whereas beggary and rags may be followed by a place in Abraham's bosom at the right hand of God.

Either this doctrine is true, or Job, and David, and Paul were very wicked men; and the tyrants of earth, and its devotees of mammon have been the favorites of heaven. 2. The repentance which is not followed by a new life, is not the repentance of the Bible. Wherever life lasts to allow it, the fruits of repentance will always grow on the tree of repentance.

3. We observe thirdly and finally, that true prosperityprosperity in the sense of this text-and mercy, are equivalent expressions. All earthly possessions combined, without mercy are misery, and do but augment the certainty and fearfulness of misery yet to be; whereas mercy unites in itself, or

ensures in its results all needful blessings in this life, and glory in that to come. Fallen human nature is miserable now, and unrelieved, doomed to absolutely certain and infinitely greater misery hereafter. To bring the needed relief is the great object of the gospel, and the amplification and enforcement of this idea is the great and beneficent design of the Christian ministry.

THE HEAVENLY ALLIANCE.

A NOTE BY THE EDITOR.

To the excellent author of this tasteful and pious little sermon, unknown to us personally, but known and loved in character, we are under obligations for this contribution to our columns. Its perusal has brought in review to our pensive moments, the fashions of the pulpit in this country for the last fifty years. We well remember the various transitions through which this, among other mutable things, has passed within that time. The experimental journeyings of the spiritual Israelite from moral Egypt to the true Čanaan, and all similar illustrations and discussions are now forgotten in the appeals of protracted and camp meetings, and the benevolent enterprises of this progressive and stirring age. From the old fashioned experiences of grace, either constituting conversion or inseparable therefrom, we are fast getting into the simple yes, to two or three simple questions propounded by the pastor of the church preliminary to the ordinance of baptism. This is good, but not sufficient. We like to hear in addition the candidate's own statement of the Lord's dealings with his soul.

The metaphor, the "Bride," the "Lamb's wife," justifies the institution of a comparison, and though on the one hand, we may not, perhaps, extend the comparison into an allegory, yet, on the other, we do not see why theological fastidiousness should lead us to throw away as texts, those passages of exalted grandeur and inexpressible beauty, from which our forefathers educed discourses, the tones of which will linger on our ears for ages to come. As a mere specimen, in addition to that of the text, we submit a few, mention of which will revive recollections of the past in the mind of many an old disciple.

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