more a great deal besides, and yet be an honest man. For why? 1. His desire of a greater benefice is lawful (this cannot be contradicted), since it is set before him by Providence; so then he may get it if he can, making no question for conscience' sake. 2. Besides, his desire after that benefice makes him more studious-a more religious preacher, &c., and so makes him a better man, yea, makes him better improve his parts, which is according to the mind of God. 3. Now, as for his complying with the temper of his people, by deserting, to serve them, some of his principles, this argueth, (1.) That he is of a self-denying temper; (2.) Of a sweet and winning deportment; and, (3.) So more fit for the ministerial function. 4. I conclude, then, that a minister that changes a small for a great, should not, for so doing, be judged as covetous; but rather, since he is improved in his parts and industry thereby, be counted as one that pursues his call, and the opportunity put into his hand to do good. And now to the second part of the question, which concerns the tradesman you mentioned. Suppose such an one to have but a poor employ in the world, but by becoming religious, he may mend his market, perhaps get a rich wife, or more and far better customers to his shop; for my part, I see no reason but this may be lawfully done. For why? 1. To become religious is a virtue, by what means soever a man becomes so. 2. Nor is it unlawful to get a rich wife, or more custom to my shop. 3. Besides, the man that gets these by becoming religious, gets that which is good of them that are good, by becoming good himself: so then here is a good wife, and good customers, and good gain, and all these by becoming religious, which is good; therefore, to become religious to get all these is a good and profitable design. This answer thus made by Mr. Money-love to Mr. By-ends' question, was highly applauded by them all; wherefore they concluded upon the whole, that it was most wholesome and advantageous. And because, as they thought, no man was able to contradict it, and because Christian and Hopeful were yet within call, they jointly agreed to assault them with the question as soon as they overtook them; and the rather, because they had opposed Mr. By-ends before. So they called after thein, and they stopped and stood still till they came up to them; but they concluded as they went, not that Mr. By-ends, but old Mr. Hold-the-world, should propound the question to them, because, as they supposed, their answer to him would be without the remainder of that heat that was kindled betwixt Mr. By-ends and them at their parting a little before. So they came up to each other, and after a short salutation, Mr. Hold-the-world propounded the question to Christian and his fellow, and bid them to answer it if they could. Then said Christian, even a babe in religion may answer ten thousand such questions. For if it be unlawful to follow Christ for loaves, as it is, John vi. 26, how much more abominable is it to make of him and religion a stalking-horse to get and enjoy the world! Nor do we find any other than heathens, hypocrites, devils, and witches, that are of this opi nion. 1. Heathen for when Hamor and Shechem had a mind to the daughter and cattle of Jacob, and saw that there was no way for them to come at them but by becoming circumcised, they said to their companions, If every male of us be circumcised, as they are circumcised, shall not their cattle, and their sub stance, and every beast of theirs be ours? Their daughters and their cattle were that which they sought to obtain, and their religion the stalkinghorse they made use of to come at them. Read the whole story, Gen. xxxiv. 20–24. 2. The hypocritical Pharisees were also of this religion: long prayers were their pretence; but to get widows' houses was their intent, and greater damnation was from God their judgment. (Luke xx. 46, 47.) 3. Judas, the devil, was also of this religion: he was religious for the bag, that he might be possessed of what was put therein; but he was lost, cast away. and the very son of perdition. 4. Simon, the wizard, was of this religion too; for he would have had the Holy Ghost, that he might have got money therewith; and his sentence from Peter's mouth was according. (Acts viii. 19-23.) 5. Neither will it go out of my mind, but that that man who takes up religion for the world, will throw away religion for the world; for so surely as Judas! designed the world in becoming religious, so surely did he also sell religion and his Master for the same. To answer the question, therefore, affirmatively, as I perceive you have done, and to accept of, as authentic, such answer is heathenish, hypocritical, and devilish; and your reward will be according to your works. Then they stood staring one upon another, but had not wherewith to answer Christian. Hopeful also approved of the soundness of Christian's answer; so there was a great silence among them. Mr. By-ends and his company also staggered, and kept behind, that Christian and Hopeful might outgo them. Ther said Christian to his fellow, If these men cannot stand before the sentence of men, what will they do with the sentence of God? And if they are mute when dealt with by vessels of clay, what will they do when they shall be rebuked by the flames of a devouring fire? DOMESTIC HABITS OF LUTHER. In his preacher's robe, with large sleeves, open at His friend, Lucas Kranach, has painted him in the breast, and showing a black vest, with a little collar of white linen at the throat. This was his usual garb. The Elector, previously to his assuming it, sent him a piece of Prussian cloth, with a note to this effect: "To make yourself a preacher's robe, a monk's dress, or a Spanish cloak;" for Luther was for a time undecided which to adopt. His lodgings in his convent consisted of three rooms-a bed-room; a room for study, which served him as a room these he received the envoy of the King Ferfor receiving visitors; and a dining-room. dinand, who came to Wurtemberg to ascertain the truth of the report that Luther had a numerous guard of armed men with him. He found him alone amidst his books, and did not even perceive the legion of demons which the Anabaptists placed at his service, nor the devil himself, at whose head Luther had thrown his inkstand, although he might have perceived upon the walls of the room the evidence of the Reformer's vision. The walls of his bedchamber were written over with sentences in charcoal, extracted from the Scriptures; as. Verbum Domini manot in otenum, which he had even embroidered on the sleeves of his domes THE TWO ROSES. SPECTACLES WANTED. 323 triumphed over the power of habit in this instance? that triumphed over long-established intellectual indolence? that brought these individuals to submit to all the restraints of the school, at such an advanced period of life? The influence of the love of God and of his Word; for they sought to acquire the art of reading, that in their old age they might read for themselves, in their own tongue, the book which has God for its author, and man's salvation for its object.-From Address by Rev. Dr. Alder. STINGY CHRISTIANS. tics' dresses; or lines from the profane poets. Homer especially, as, "He who watches over the destinies of a people or a country ought no THE gospel of Jesus Christ was introduced into the longer to sleep all night." His closet for work, Friendly Islands by the Wesleyan missionaries. It pleased Almighty God so to bless their labours, that plastered with stucco of milky whiteness, was the entire population renounced idolatry, and were ornamented with portraits in oil of his dearly brought under the direct or indirect influence of the beloved disciples Melancthon, and of the Elec- truth as it is Jesus. Some time afterward we retor Frederick, by the hand of Lucas Kranach, ceived an order for goods. We found in the list sent and with some caricatures against the pope, to us an order for thirty-six dozen of spectacles! the subjects of which he had himself furnished For what purpose were these spectacles required? Who wanted them? in the course of his table-talk to some wander-attended the mission schools. And what was it that The venerable scholars who ing artists, who had afterwards carried them to Nuremberg, the great manufactory, whence issued vast numbers of engravings on wood. From the frames of these caricatures hung paste-board slips with ascetic sentences in German. Lastly, the eye was filled with a clumsy shelving of wood, on which stood or lay a few volumes, forming what he called his library. The Bible, like the divine word in his mind, occupied the place of honour-the Bible, in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; the Psalms by Melancthon; the New Testament by Erasmus; and side by side with these, the writings of Eck; the thesis on the Indulgences; the Bulls of Leo X.; the Epistola Obscurorum Virorum; various works of John Huss, Virgil, Colamella, and some ascetical books printed at Mayence, of which presents had been made him. Coloured glass, soldered together with lead, let in the light of all shades on his table, which has been carefully preserved, and resembles a sort of desk, in the middle of which is a crucifix of ivory, which is its best ornament. This crucifix, the work of some Nuremberg artist, has an admirable expression. His dog usually lay at his feet whilst writing or composing, and of which he used to say. when laughing at the theologians, who boasted of having seen many books, "My dog has also seen many books-more, perhaps, than Faber, who is all fathers, fathers, fathers councils, councils, councils." Near the door of his house was a turning machine which he had got from Nuremberg, in order to gain his livelihood by his hands if ever the word of God failed to support him. We must not also forget that in place of those pipes which one sees now-adays in the room of every German student, there hung a flute and guitar on the wall of his room, on both of which instruments he played. Luther was devotedly fond of music, the language of angels in heaven and of the ancient prophets on earth. Next to theology, it held the second place in his estimation. "Who loves not music," said he, "cannot be loved by Luther." He was charitable to excess, and often borrowed of his parishioners when he had nothing of his own to give; and at times was unable to meet his obligations when they fell due; on which occasions his practice used to be to give in pledge some of the silver goblets, the gift of the elector, which stood on his mantel-piece. tian character of some loud professors whom we have THE TWO ROSES. ON the borders of a pond, situated in a beautiful flower garden, two roses grew side by side. They were both lovely, but not equally modest. One of them never thought of her beauty and attractions; but the other one thought of little else, and constantly admired her fair face, as it was reflected in the clear bosom of the pond. My dear friend," said the modest rose to her one day, "how can you be vain of what is so transient? The beauty of which you are so proud, you may be deprived of in an hour; some fair hand may pluck you from the stem, to aid in adorning her bouquet; or a strong wind may come and scatter your pink leaves on the gravel walk; or even a worm may feast upon them and deface them." "I do not fear any of these threatened evils," said the other rose. "If I am plucked, I shall still be lovely and admired; and as for the wind or the worm they have not the presumption to approach me." As the silly flower thus spoke, a strong east wind suddenly rose, and, stripping off its leaves, sent them whirling over the bosom of the pond. CHRIST'S CROSS. SEEING Christ hath fastened heaven to the far end of the cross, and he will not loosen the knot himself, and none else can (for when Christ ties a knot, all the world cannot undo it); let us then count it exceeding joy when we fall into divers temptations. The noise and expectation of Christ's cross are weightier than the cross itself. Christ and his cross are two good guests worth entertaining. Men would fain have Christ by himself, and so have him cheap: but the market will not come down. The cross of Christ is so sweet and profitable, that the saints (such are its gain and glory) might wish it were lawful either to buy or borrow his cross. But it is a mercy that they have it brought to their hand for nothing. The cross of Christ (or suffering for his sake), is a crabbed tree to look at; but sweet and fair is the fruit it yields. Rutherford. Welcome the cross of Christ and bear it triumphantly: but see it be indeed Christ's cross, not thy own.-Wilcox. A believer studies more how to adorn the cross than how to avoid it. Christ with his cross is better than the world with its crown.-Dyer. CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS. WHATEVER comes in when thou goest to God for acceptance, besides Christ, call it Antichrist; bid it be gone; make only Christ's righteousness triumphant. All besides that is Babylon, which must fall if Christ stand; and thou shalt rejoice in the day of the fall thereof. Do as much as thou wilt, but stand with all thy weight upon Christ's righteousness. Take heed of having one foot on thy own righteousness and another on Christ's. It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for our righteousness. Join anything to him of your own, and you unchrist him. Whatsoever is of nature's spinning must be all unravelled before Christ's righteousness can be put on. Nothing can kill sin but the beholding of Christ's righteousness. Wilcox. THE VISITS OF DEATH. THE Consideration of the state of the dead as of persons asleep, should moderate our sorrow for the loss of departed friends. What master of a family can be uneasy at finding his family, his wife, his children, his servants, in a sound fist sleep at midnight? May he not expect that they will rise in the morning well and healthful, and ready to go about any service that may be proper for them? When Christ said concerning Lazarus, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth;" Lord," said the disciples, "if he sleep, he shall do well." The saints, who are fallen asleep, must needs do well. They cannot do otherwise than well, who not only sleep, but sleep in Jesus. 66 As a man that takes a walk in his garden, and spying a beautiful full-blown flower, crops it, and puts it into his bosom; so the Lord takes his walks in his gardens, the churches, and gathers his lilies, souls fully ripe for glory, and with delight takes them to himself.-Gill. There is no way to live with God, in glory, but by dying. Christians would be clothed with a blessed immortality, but they are loath to be unclothed for it: they pray, "Thy kingdom come;" and, when God is leading them thither, they are afraid to go. What is there in this valley of tears, that should make us weep to leave it ?-Cripplegate Lectures. ENCOURAGEMENT. In all doubtings, fears, and storms of conscience, look at Christ continually. Do not argue it with Satan; but send him to Christ for an answer. There are in heaven many thousands of as rich monuments of mercy as ever thou canst be. The greatest sinner did never surpass the grace of Christ. Throughout the whole Scripture there is not one. ill word against a poor sinner who is stript of his self-righteousness. Nay, the Scripture expressly points out such a man as the subject of gospel-grace, and none else.- Wilcox. FREE-WILL In its best estate, free-will was but a weather-cock which turned at the breath of a serpent's tongue. It made a bankrupt of our father Adam; it pulled down the house and sold the land, and sent all the children to beg their bread.-Rutherford. GOD A SUPPORTER. tions, is but a glass without a foot; he cannot stand THE Christian, when fullest of divine communicanor hold what he has received, any longer than he is held in the strong hand of God. king in the cradle; which gives advantage to Satan Indwelling grace is, in this life, but weak, like a to carry plots more strongly, to the disturbance of this young king's reign in the soul. Yea, he would put an end to the war, in the ruin of the believer's grace, did not God take the Christian into his own guardianship and protection. As when a child travels in his father's company all is paid for, but the father himself carries the 'I purse; so the expenses of a Christian's warfare and journey to heaven are paid and discharged for him by the Lord, in every stage and condition. Hence the believer cannot say, this I did, or that I suffered: but God wrought all in me and for me.-Gurnall. ན་ THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY. 325 A LETTER ADDRESSED TO A RELIGIOUSLY SPECULATIVE MIND. BY THE REV. OCTAVIUS WINSLOW, M.A., LEAMINGTON. MY DEAR FRIEND,-Although you have, for reasons which I will suppose are perfectly justifiable to yourself, seen proper to address me from beneath a veil of secrecy; yet, from the air of apparent sincerity and earnestness with which you reiterate the memorable question once put to Him who came down from heaven to supply its answer-"What is truth?" on some profound points of theology which appear greatly to have perplexed and agitated your mind, with the hope of being instrumental, in the hands of the Spirit of truth, of guiding your perplexity, and of leading you to Jesus, the great embodiment of all divine truth, yea, who is the truth" itself, I am induced, in compliance with your request, to address a few plain thoughts to you upon some of the positions assumed in your coinmunication. I trust I shall be enabled to write in the spirit of prayer, and in the "meekness of wisdom," and will indulge the hope that, in the same spirit, you will read and weigh what I shall have written; and may God bless it to your soul! resolve an infinity of questions, which he has yet sagacity enough_to_make.” * It were no hard task to suggest a thousand difficulties, or to enunciate as many problems, without possessing the slightest claim to any great strength and originality of thought, or to any holy and anxious inquiry. Nor does it argue in the respondent any lack of ingenuity or of skill, that he cannot solve the doubts, or explain the mysteries, or remove the difficulties which a mind given to speculation may have thrown upon his path. A mere tyro in learning might suggest a difficulty, and propose a question, which would perpiex a philosopher and silence! a sage. The same remark will apply to the infinitely more abstruse and subtile questions of theological science, into whose profundities you have boldly (ought I not to say, presumptuously?) plunged beyond your depth. The questions which have occasioned you some perplexity would seem to relate to the origin of sin-the existence of mysteries in revelation-and the plenary truth of the Bible, in which you say, "that there are many things unsatisfactory to your mind." You will not, I trust, for a moment suppose that it is really my intention, in this paper, to attempt anything like a reply to these grave questions. Into such a work of supererogation, if not of You will probably infer, from the heading of this paper, that I am prepared to characterize your letter as decidedly speculative in the nature of its inquiries. Your conclusion is perfectly right. It appears to be the peculiar order of your mind-a mind, I would infer, undisciplined by severe habits of study and re-impossibility, I hope not to be betrayed even by flection, and, therefore, but ill adapted to grapple with the abstruse questions which might confound a mightier and more thoroughly schooled intellect. I would be slow to affirm that you are, in the popular acceptation of the term, a sceptic-but a theorist. Nor, on the other hand, dare I pronounce you, in the Bible sense of the phrase, a believer-but a speculatist. You cavil where you ought to admit; you reason where you ought to adore; you speculate where you ought to believe; you are presumptuous where you ought to tremble. And let not self-conceit, which is so natural to us all, find any nourishment in the idea, that ex-mining and deciding upon the evidence thus tensive research has discovered these wonders, and that profound ingenuity has constructed these questions. It is an observation of a great philosopher, wise and profound despite of his infidelity, that "man has too little sagacity to the apparent earnestness and honesty of the inquirer. But it is my design to address myself specifically and pointedly to the peculiar state of mind which has started against the truth, and consequent reception of Christianity, objections like these. Here, I conceive, lies the root of the whole matter. Men, gene rally, are not cavilers, speculatists, and infidels in religion, from any deficiency of evidence, overwhelming and demonstrative, but from the existence of a deep-rooted and inveterate principle of evil in the heart, which enslaves and stultifies the mind, and prevents it from exa given. It is a solemn and a startling truth, worthy of the profoundest attention of every religiously speculative mind, that man will not be found to have rejected Christianity from the D'Alembert, want of proof, but from a perversion of that proof; that the sinner will not mistake his way to eternity, and at last be condemned, for the want of light, but for his blind rejection of the light: "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Now it is to this state of mind I desire, with all affectionate earnestness, to address myself. | to unriddle and to solve. There are mystries, profound and baffling, in the world of ma ter; shall there be none in the world of m. !! There are "treasures of knowledge” hidaen in the deep and dark recesses of nature; is. ie religion that came down from heaven to be the j only work of God that is exempt! What! ha. He" told us of earthly things," in which there are depths which no line of human philosophy can fathom, and heights to which no pinion of human intellect can soar, and shall we affect an air of surprise at discovering in "heavenly things" abysses which we may not explore, and wonders which transcend our finite reason to comprehend? Shall the silver-haired apostle of science be awed and confounded by the mystery that encircles a blade of grass, an ear of corn, an atom of sand, the tissue of an insect's wing, or a drop of spray wafted from the crested wave-shall he, after pushing his inquiries to the utmost verge, humbly acknow-' ledge that the amount of his research resem-' I begin by affirming it as my solemn conviction, that Satan has more to do with your present views and feelings than perhaps your deceitful heart has led you to suspect. I have no more doubt of this, than of the fact that I am writing to you at the present moment. "We are not ignorant of his devices;" and this is a grand and favourite one of this arch-enemy of souls. I may have occasion to recur to this thought again before I close. Setting out in your airy speculations with a total oblivion of the revealed truth, that "secret things belong to God" (Deut. xxix. 29), you madly and presump-bles but the picking up of a few pebbles upon tuously rush into a territory upon whose unexplored domain not even an angel's hesitating foot-print is seen, and amidst whose unbroken solitudes not a seraph's trembling voice was ever heard-perplexing yourself about questions which God has seen fit to enfold in im penetrable mystery. With the question involving the" introduction of sin into God's dwellingplace," you have nothing personally to do. It is not a matter that concerns you. To endeavour to penetrate this mystery is but to realize the sentiment of the poet: "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." How dare you attempt to lift the veil that conceals this profound and awful mystery? What folly, and what presumption! Evidently not wise even up to what is written, you yet would be "wise abore what is written;" thus falling into the snare of our first parents, whose forbidden and curious prying into secret things brought sin and all its woe into our world. That we should encounter mysteries in our divine religion is nothing to be wondered at. To your mind the existence of mysteries would seem to be the greatest mystery of all! But allow me to say, that their absence altogether would be the greatest marvel. Christianity devoid of things inexplicable to human reason, would expose itself, and justly so, to suspicion and to doubt. A grand and convincing proof of its divinity were wanting, had there been no wonders to astonish no enigmas to confound, and no difficulties and problems defying all human sagacity and skill the shore; and yet the adolescent child of faith. undaunted by the higher field of investigation and thought, "understand all mysteries and all knowledge" contained in the great temple of divine truth, at whose very threshold the tiny light of reason fades and dies the instant that it attempts, by its own taper illumination, to explore these divine wonders, the "shadows and the eclipses" of Him, the inexplicable architect, and the one great light and glory of the temple? Surely not! But, if we will no! feel satisfied until all these wonders are unravelled, let us in our exploration of the field of mystery, commence with ourselves. Surely it is but reasonable and consistent, that before we descend into the mine of the earth's secrets, or, with bold and adventurous wing soar inte eternity past, resolved to receive no revelation, and to credit no fact, the reason of which is not explained, and the mystery of which we canno; remove, we should first attempt to comprehend the wonder, and explain the enigma of our own being! Yet man, beginning from himself, that first deluding Hopeth from the pit of lies to struggle up to truth; And fancieth con.placently that much is done by reach-. Then he maketh answer to himself, as a silly nurse to Evading, in a mist of words, hard things he cannot solve. atoms, Thinking that, if he is blind, no sun can shine in heaven." |