d HEAVENLY PROSPECTS. answers. One complains of this, and another of that; but do you complain of all to Christ, that he would give you with his everlasting arms a lift? Iniquity is too heavy for the soul, and the soul is too heavy for itself, when it only bears itself, and makes not to Christ to be borne. Everything cracks under the weight of sin; our very souls crack under the weight of sin. Sinners, thank yourselves: Why is not Christ of more use with you? You would bear all alone that will kill you: Christ can carry all alone-your souls notwithstanding the guilt and filth that is in them, but none else. He did tread the wine-press alone. There is art in unloading the soul upon Christ, and it lies in this-in observing particularly what loads the soul, and what Christ hath said particularly to such a case. No soul miscarries of being borne to heaven that thus do es. Christians, bless God; he takes much pains with you. Receive this, and I conclude this point. God's arms are as free for you as yours for your children. I have often wondered at that expression, They shall run and not be weary;" but now I see how it comes about-we run upon another's legs. Christians, that you keep on the way of God so cheerfully and so resolutely, against all opposition-'tis God's bearing of you. Bless him. You would wax weary and withdraw to the perdition of your souls else. Perseverance in grace is a great deal of pains to Christ, though it be little to us. When you carry children long in your arms, over this stile and over that, do not your arms ache? Then think of Christ, what bearing your souls and your sins is, and whether it be worth thanks. Let him have the burden for the bearing, even if it were all gold. You pay porters for carrying this and that; pay Christ well-let him have your souls for the carriage -f them. HEAVENLY PROSPECTS. OUR bodies shall not be what they now are-even the wrecks, and loads, and chains of souls. What are they now, but foul inactive lumps of clay? They are pierced with cold, and worn with labours, appalled with griefs and dangers, and griped with pains, and macerated with keen and envious passions, and after all, mouldered to dust by death and rottenness; but there neither deformity, pains, nor death, shall be their fear nor exercise. Our souls shall quit their prisons, clouds, and chains; our apprehensions shall be clear (1 Cor. xiii. 12), and consciences full of peace and joy. O what a harmony and concord shall there be betwixt God's will and 107 ours! what purity, order, warmth, and vigour shall there be in our affections! and what subserviency and due prostrations in our passions! be in full and grateful exercises in the whole Yea, what comfort and constancy shall there man! No jars and discords shall spoil the melody of our spheres; our holiness shall need no crutch, but reach the "fulness of a perfect stature;" no broken-winded nor imperfect praises there; the pulse of perfect souls shall know no intermissions nor unequal motions, And what a change of state, as well as persons, but keep one constant rate of work and joy. shall we meet with there! (Phil. i. 23.) A vale of tears quit for rivers of eternal pleasures; an element of joys succeeds our bitter cups.. Our rights can never be invaded there; nothing can stain the comforts of that world; no blots. nor wounds are there contracted nor endured; no troubles in that Israel. There are no pauses of astonishment through surprisals of afflictions; death smites no corners there; Providence makes no storms. There lies that ark wherein no vile or wicked Ham shall dwell: the glory of that place-it knows no eclipse nor cloud. No dim discoveries or flat notes shall be the exercise or entertainment of that state-how sprightly are the airs and descants of their hallelujahs! No worm on conscience or carcass there. There charity knows no breach; no mal-administrations in that kingdom, nor bad constructions of God's providence, or of the actions of his servants, there. There are no frailties to report, nor enemies to report them; cuts from friends, nor gripes from enemies; no no falls in Israel to grate upon these holy hearts, nor fears to be their painful exercises. There are no wrinkles on the brows of God, nor frowns upon the face of majesty, nor one dejected look amongst those blessed myriads of saints and angels; their ark hath neither shake nor cover, dants. Souls, once arrived at this harbour, are nor any startling strokes to terrify its attenentertained with perfection in a morning-blush and everlasting youthfulness. These upper springs-they run clearly and freely; and all "the fountains of the great deep" shall there be "broken up," to overflow the banks of Paradise with everlasting joys and satisfaction. With what a torrent shall these clear and pleasant rivers run! Should I attempt a full description of this joyful state, I might far sooner set rhetoric upon the rack, and contract the character of being one that quaintly did attempt to play the fool, and was eloquently mad, than think to escape that censure: 66 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" (Job xxxviii. 2.) O! it must be vision and fruition, and not the flourishes of expression, that must reach the excellent perfections of that state. (1 Cor. ii. 9; Ps. xvi. 11.) And now shall we fear to leave this world and die? What shall we be undone by being happy? Is it the misery of man, to be with God, like Him, and dear and near unto Him? THE THEATRE A SCHOOL OF MORALS. WILL any of you who have been to theatres, please to tell whether virtue ever received important accessions from the gallery of theatres? Will you tell me whether the pit is a place where' an ordinarily modest man would love to seat his children? Was ever a theatre known where a prayer at the opening and a prayer at the close would not be tormentingly discordant? How does it happen that in a school for morals, the teachers never learn their own lessons? Would you allow a son or daughter to associate alone with actors or actresses? when acting, take any part in public moral enterprise Do these men who promote virtue so zealously when their stage dresses are off? Which would surprise you most, to see actors steadily at church, or to see Christians steadily at a theatre? Would not both strike you as singular incongruities? What is the reason that loose and abandoned men abhor religion in a church and love it so much in a WHEN MAY ONE BE SAID TO TALK TOO theatre? 1. When talking excludes thinking.The tongue outruns the wit: a little of this talk is too much, as being to no purpose but to betray our folly, abuse our brother's patience, and waste precious time. One may talk to children at this rate to save a needless expense of sense, where there is but little; but it is an intolerable presumption upon men to entertain them with words more crude than our belches, that we fetch not so low as our breath, and that little differ from an ass's braying. 2. When it will not give way to hearing, especially when wiser and better men be present.-If they were inferior and weaker, it were meet they should be allowed their turns; every one may be supposed to have brought something wherewith the whole might be edified. In engrossing all the talk to thyself, thou art chargeable with unseemly vaunting, thou art in the ready way to emptying-there is no hope of thy replenishing; go whoop and haloo in the woods, if thou wilt be answered only by thy own echo. Proud men and passionate men are apt so to offend: they have no ears, and so are unlike to edify, and, for anything they are like to get, had as good keep out of company. Mark the advice of one that understood the government of the tongue as well as any other: "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." (James i. 19.) The last direction is to make good the former. 3. When talking shuts out working either in our common or Christian calling.-Some men have got such a vein of talking, that it is their great business, and for which they neglect all business, so many hours in a day they snatch from all occasions on purpose to chat: this is more than can be justified. The apostle blames it in the women of his day: "They learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not." (1 Tim. v. 13.) And, sure, it is more to be reproved in men, that should be more staid, and might be much better employed; but the tongue is not only wont to take the hands off from business, but to take upon it the business of the hands; as in the great duty of distributing to the poor, that will serve them with good words, when the hands should be ministering good things; the vanity of which he upbraids. (James ii. 15, 16.) And so it is apt to run all religious offices into mere talk, which is like grain that hath only a stalk.-West. Since the theatre is the handmaid of virtue, why yet so offensive to churches?-H. W. Beecher. are drinking houses so necessary to this neighbourhood, DROP BY DROP. "LIFE," says the late John Foster, "is expenditure. We have it, but are as continually losing it; we have!! the use of it, but as continually wasting it. Suppose a man confined in some fortress, under the doom to stay there till death; and suppose there is there for his use a dark reservoir of water, to which it is certain none can ever be added. He knows, suppose, that the quantity is not very great; he cannot penetrate to ascertain how much, but it may be very little. He has drawn from it, by means of a fountain, a good while already, and draws from it every day. But how would he feel each time of drawing, and each time of thinking of it? Not as if he had a' perennial spring to go to. Not, I have a reservoir, No! but, I had water yesterday. I may be at ease.' I have water to-day; but having had it, and my having it to day, is the very cause that I shall not have it on some day that is approaching. And at the same time I am compelled to this fatal expenditure!', So of our mortal, transient life! And yet men are very indisposed to admit the plain truth, that life is a thing which they are in no other way possessing than as necessarily consuming; and that even in this imperfect sense of possession, it becomes every day' a less possession!" SIN. EVERY sin is an imitation of the devil, and creates a kind of hell in the heart.-Hervey. No sin can be little, because there is no little God' to sin against.-Brooks. Those sins shall never make a hell for us which have been a hell to us. and suffering has kept many a believer from sinning. Sin has brought many a believer into suffering; -Dyer. THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY. 109 TO-DAY. THE season of grace is called " a day;" and friends can make a supply of those losses. But as it is so called, it eminently engageth us to the present improving of the season of grace. 1. It is a day, and it is but a day; and that is but a short time. It is not called "a year-a month." It doth not last long. It is but for a while. Had Jonah prophesied to the Ninevites, that within forty years Nineveh should be destroyed; if the Ninevites had not derided him, yet it is very probable they would have delayed their repentance. But when he told them, "yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown," this startled and quickened them unto a present repentance. Our season is here expressed by the term of 66 a day"- -one day. Yea, our day is but a short one. We have indeed a summer's day for clearness, but it is a winter's day for shortness. "While it is called to-day," saith the apostle, "exhort one another." (Heb. iii. 13.) We have not so much time that you should be prodigal of it. He that is profuse of a minute in this day (poor prodigal !), spendeth above his estate. Time, in the whole compass of it, is but short (1 Cor. vii. 29); the time of particular persons is shorter; and the time of season and present opportunity is the shortest of all. Our precious season, our day, it is but like the few sands in the little middle hole of the hour-glass. The sand in the upper glass is uncertain whether ever to run one sand more, or no; that is the time to come. That in the lower glass is as the time spent and past. But the few sands in the narrow middle hole are as the present season, and only ours. "Nature hath not dealt so liberally with us, as that it doth allow us to mis-spend any of the little time it hath given us," saith Seneca. We are prodigal of time, though covetous of a penny. We are more profuse of our time, "of which alone there is an honest covetousness." You may have many pieces of gold together in your hand; but you can have but one day of grace at once: it is but one day. 2. It is a day; and therefore that which cannot be recalled when it is spent and done.The loss of a day is an irrecoverable loss. Who can restore the loss of a day! "Time doth neither suppress its course, nor recall it ; neither doth it slack it, nor revoke it." As time stops not, so time returns not. If thy house be burnt, or thy goods stolen, or thy lands forfeited, if all thy friends, nay, creatures in heaven and in earth, should conspire to make thee happy, they cannot, with all their combined industry and united forces, restore to thee one of those good hours in the day of grace that thou hast foolishly mis-spent. Esau lost his day, and he could not recall it with tears. The knocking of the foolish virgins could not break open the shut door of heaven. When thy sun is set, and thy day completely ended, thy sun will never rise more. I have heard of one that wantonly threw a jewel into the sea; and they say the jewel was brought to him in the belly of a fish that was served up to his table. I know not how true this is: but who or what shall ever bring back to thee the jewel of thy lost day? None shall ever bring back this jewel to thy table, if thou will throw it away by wantonness and negligence. God will not turn thy glass when it is once out. What the fall was to angels, that is death to man. 3. It is a day; and this should put us upon the present improving of it; for it is a clear day, a lightsome day." The Sun of righteousness" is risen. "The Day-spring from on high hath visited" our horizon with the light of the gospel. Now a lightsome, a sun-shiny day is to be regarded, improved, for the present. It is a dark day indeed, compared with heaven : but it is light, compared with the shadows of Judaism, or the fogs of Popery. Work, work! work apace, you that have the sun-shine of the gospel! I wish I could not say, "I see a cloud far bigger that a man's hand, and I hear a noise of much rain." Now you have sun-shine: make⠀⠀ your hay; shock your corn apace; wanton not away your summer, lest you beg in winter. God, by giving of you so fair a day, showeth not that your sun will always shine, but that now thou shouldst work. Slumber not away a sun-shiny day in harvest. The day, and such a day, is surely intended for working. "Man goeth forth to his work till the evening:” the night is for sleep; but the day, especially a sunshiny day, a clear day, for working. 4. It is a day; and therefore puts us upon the present improving of it, because it is a wasting day, a day that passeth and runneth apace. We usually say, "The day is far spent." The day goeth, whether you sit still or no. The sun runs, yea, like a giant, like a strong man, though thou creepest like a cripple. Though the passenger sleeps in the ship, the ship carrieth him apace towards his haven. Thou art idle; but time hurrieth thee to the grave. Time is winged: thy hour-glass needs no jogging there is no stopping the stream of time. It was a notable speech of one once to a person that was in a fit of anger: "Sir," saith he, "the sun is going down." This is my caution to every lazy Christian: if the sun must not go down upon your wrath, surely it must much less go down upon your loitering. If the sun in the heavens must not go down upon your wrath, the sun of your life should not be suffered to go down upon your laziness. "Our swiftness in work must contend with the swiftness of the time in which we work," saith Seneca. Thou dost not see thy time going; but shortly thou wilt see it gone; like the insensibly-moving hand of a dial, which though thou dost not see it moving, yet thou seest it hath moved. 5. It is a day; and therefore puts us upon the present improving of it.-For it is possible yet, that in this thy day, thy work may be done, before sun-set, if thou beest speedy. Despair not; for then industry will be frozen. The bridge of mercy is not yet drawn: there is yet a possibility for thee to get over to a blessed eternity. It is bad to say, "It is too soon," though most have said so too often; but it is worse to say, "It is too late." I confess, thy morning was thy golden hour, and had been far the fittest for thy employment; but the evening time is better than no time. I dare not write DESPAIR upon any man's forehead. If God will help us, much work may be done in a little time; but yet God must step in with a miracle almost, if thou shouldest run back the mis-spent age of forty or fifty years in an hour or two: surely you must fly rather than run. : 6. It is a day, and, for aught you know, it may be your last day; and therefore improve that present day. You have no assurance of another from the pper glass of the hour-glass thou canst not be assured of one sand more. Often say thou, therefore, to the day wherein thou livest," Art thou my last, or may I look for another?" Though thou art young, it may prove thy last day: death taketh us not by seniority. The new pitcher may be as easily broken as the old. And, which is a more severe consideration, the Spirit of God possibly may never knock at the door of thy heart again, never strive in thee, never strive with thee! Death may knock next; and, remember, he will easily break into thy body, though thy minister could not get into thy soul. Death never cometh without a warrant; yet it often comes without a warning. We do not live by patent, but we live at pleasure. How knowest thou that the candle of the ministry shall shine one Sabbath longer? The message shall always live, but the messenger is always dying. The clods of the earth may soon stop that mouth that so frequently and unfruitfully hath given thee the word of life. He, the light now of his place and of his people, may be blown out by violence, as well as burnt out by death. Thou canst not say but God may soon make that ear of thine deaf that now thou stoppest: God may soon blind those eyes which now thou shuttest. It is a peradventure whether God will ever give repentance or no. God hath made many promises to repentance; but he hath made none o repentance. If to-day thou sayest thou wilt not, to-morrow thou mayest say thou canst not, pray. It is just with God, that he who while he liveth forgets God, when he dies should forget himself. I have heard of a profane miscreant, that being put upon speedy repentance and turning to God, scoffingly answered: “If I do but say three words when I come to die," ("Miserere mei, Domine-Lord have mercy upon me!") "I am sure to be happy." This miserable wretch shortly after, falling from his horse, and receiving thereby a deadly wound, had indeed time to speak three words, as the relation informed me; but those three words were these: "Diabolus capiat omnia-Let the devil take all." Thou dost not know what thy last words shall be: the very motions of thy tongue and of thy heart are all in the hands of that God whose grace thou hast despised. 7. It is a day: that requireth present improvement; because it is followed with a night. a night that is dark as pitch. "The night cometh, wherein no man can work." So saith our Lord. (John ix. 4.) There is neither work nor invention in the grave. In the dark thou mayest see to bewail thy not working in the light; but in the dark there is no working. Sorrow then will not help thee, couldest thou make hell to swim with thy tears. Thy tears are only of worth in time. Put not off your working till the time wherein you must leave work. It is perfect madness, not to think of beginning to work till the time of working is at an end. “What man, after the fair, will go then to buy and sell? There is no negotiation, but in the time of the fair," the season of grace. The spiritual manna of grace is only to be gathered in the six days of thy THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. life. The time after this is a time of rest, wherein there is to be no more work done to procure salvation. If this be the day of thy death, to-morrow cannot be the day of thy repentance. It is miserable to have that to do for lack of time, which is to do for loss of time.-Jenkin. THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. [A FULL and detailed Report of the proceedings of the Conference held in London during the months of August and September last, for the purpose of deliberating on the formation of an Evangelical Alliance, having just been published, we have thought that a few ntoices of its most important proceedings, with extracts from the many admirable addresses delivered in connection with these, may be of interest to our readers, especially to those of them who cannot afford to purchase the large volume in which the Report is contained. Those who, being able to purchase it, do so, will find the pleasure and profit to be derived from its perusal repay them a hundred-fold.] The first meeting of the Conference was held on the morning of 19th August, at which, on the motion of Dr. Bunting, Mr. Bickersteth (who had just recovered from the effects of an alarming accident) was called to the chair. After prayer and praise, and the reading of the Word, Mr. Bickersteth addressed the Conference, calling on them to give glory to the Lord for what he had done for them. "When our beloved brother, Mr. James, opened the meeting at Liverpool-that ever-memorable meeting with which our work of love began-he said he would us give the key-note of love; and well was that key-note responded to by every speaker. And as that key-note was given, our God gave us truth with love, and united our hearts in the great truths of the gospel which we hold in common. May I suggest another key-note for our meeting at this time? the key-note of praise and thanksgiving_to God-giving glory to him, and exalting our one Redeemer. This may seem in many respects inconsistent with our present position. I strongly feel-I know my beloved brethren feel that we all need much deeper humiliation before God; much more abasement of a contrite spirit before him, in order to deepen and extend our union. Why, then, should we open with the key-note of praise? I reply, I believe that not only my heart, but all our hearts, overflow with thankfulness to God for what he has already done for ns. We see in every step of our proceedings that he has been present with us. He has extricated us out of difficulties: he has marvellously appeared for us from time to time: and he has, especially in all our meetings, given us the spirit of brotherly love. Let us glorify his name for it. By offering praise we glorify him; and if we abound in praises, he will give us with it deep humiliation. And while we glorify our God, and come into his presence to praise his name and tell of his goodness to us, let us be abased in the sense of our own unworthiness and unprofitableness. When Jehoshaphat went against his enemies, and when the assembled army began to praise the Lord, then the Lord gave them the victory; and the place was called Berachah, or blessing. At the dedication of Solomon's Temple, when the singers were as one in praising the Lord, then the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord." 111 Considerable time was then spent in arranging necessary details, classifying and appointing committees, &c.; after which, Dr. King (Glasgow) read a paper containing a historical sketch of the circumstances which led to the proposal of, and prepared the way for, the contemplated Evangelical Alliance. The paper was received with much approbation, and ordered to be printed among the Conference documents. At the evening session it was proposed, on the recommendation of the Business Committee, and unanimously agreed to, that Sir Culling E. Smith should be permanent president during the sittings of the Conference. "We were thoroughly persuaded," said Dr. Buchanan (Glasgow)," upon full consideration of the subject, that this Conference could not get comfortably and satisfactorily through the immense mass of business which it has to transact, unless we have a chairman ject which has called us together, and whose knowledge who is thoroughly acquainted with the important obof business generally will enable him to conduct the business of the Conference with that promptitude and accuracy which, in our circumstances, are so indispensably necessary. The gentleman who has been selected from among us to fill the chair, is not only one whose whole heart has (as we have heretofore seen) been engaged in this cause, but also one who has proved himself pre-eminently competent to fill it." The remainder of the sederunt was occupied in hearing the statements of several of the American and Continental members as to the feeling of Christians generally in their circles, regarding the proposed Alliance. Dr. Patton of New York spoke first: He said found a very warm response in America: and some "The objects contemplated by this meeting have little evidence has been given of that, by the fact of so many pastors having been most cheerfully surrendered by their people, to be absent for three or four months, for the purpose of crossing the Atlantic to be present) at this meeting. Had the proposition been laid before these respective congregations, for their pastors to be absent to attend your anniversary meetings in May, I am certain there would not have been a response in the affirmative made by one out of ten; but when the proposition was, that their pastors should come and be present at this meeting, as a pledge of the deep interest they felt in the subject, though it was with self-denial (perhaps it does not become us to say any thing on that point ourselves), and in view of the difficulties that would arise, from their pastors being away so long a time; yet, after prayerful consideration, they came, in every instance, I believe, to a unanimous resolution, in a public assembly, to spare pears here a large number of individuals from Ametheir minister, and bid him God-speed.' There aprica; and not from one section of the country alone, not only from the Atlantic slope, where it might be supposed that it was easy to step into a steamer, or a packet ship, and to come across the Atlantic, but there are individuals here from our western wilds, where no cities have sprung up." Mr. Kirk of Boston followed, and bore similar testimony. Mr. Richey, from East Canada, stated that there the Christians of different denominations had been compelled to form a sort of Evangelical Alliance. |