vain, the incense that is abomination, the solemn meeting which is iniquity, the feasts which God hateth, and which the Almighty is weary to bear with; the people whose prayers he will not hear, and whose humbling he will not behold, because their hands are full of blood; who, it may be asked, with apostolic boldness, will step forth with the hated exhortation, "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings: cease to do evil, learn to do well?" And yet, if this cannot be effected, there is but one apparent alternative, and that is in their complete annihilation; for when we collect from various sources authentic accounts of the immoral and inhuman practices at country wakes, we at once feel that we are not interfering with the amusements of the people, but with their manslaughters; not with their feats of prowess, but their cowardly conspiracies against the life of an obnoxious opponent; not with their sports, but their brutal cruelties; not with their neighbourly meetings, but gatherings for invariable rioting and brawl; not with their socialities, but their drunkenness, swearing, and licentiousness; not with the companionship of friends and relations, but of thieves and harlots: and so commonly, in addition to the usual corrupt practices, has death ensued at these festivals of late, that we may aptly ask, in the words of the great dramatist,

What! shall our feasts be kept with slaughter'd men?''

It rejoices me greatly to know, that a society+ for the pression of these incalculable miseries has been forined, and that on its committee are to be found men of the most exalted attainments in the Church, and who will, dependent on the blessing of God, do all that can be done in the good cause. I will not now mention names; but I can assert, from personal knowledge and general report, that their praise is in all the churches; and yet, since the task is committed to earthen vessels, we must pray that all things may be undertaken, and all aid and success be sought, through

Jesus Christ our Lord.

(To be continued.)

The Cabinet.

ST. PAUL AN EXAMPLE TO THE CHRISTIAN MIVISTER. We must remember, that the object of St. Paul's epistles was not the detail of his own feelings or experience, but the edification of those whom he addressed. He naturally, therefore, enlarges on those points alone which tended to advance it. In whatever other subject his mind might be interested, it is likely to break out rather in those occasional and incidental bursts of feeling, which his fervid mind was unable to restrain, than in the form of a direct statement. And such are the notices from which we learn that St. Paul felt that he himself also had a soul to be saved; and that salvation was attainable by him through no other means-that his faith in his Redeemer was to be proved by him in no other waythan by the least publicly useful of those whom he addressed; that no performance of his ministerial duties, however exact, however earnest, however successful, could compensate for, or palliate, the absence of that personal holiness, or those Christian dispositions, which were as indispensable in him as in the humblest and least effective members of the Christian Church; or free him from those temptations to which he and they were alike liable; nay, to some of which the very discharge of these ministerial duties but the more exposed him. It was, perhaps, for our instruction, who should come after, that from that very city, where, "for the space of three years, Ialah, i. 13-17.

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he had not ceased to warn every one, day and night, with tears," and whose elders he had taken to record after what manner he had been with them at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations which befell him, and how that he had kept back nothing that was profitable unto them, but had shewed them, and had taught them publicly, and from house to house, testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ," from that very city of Ephesus, in his epistle to the Corinthians, he concludes his review of the zealous, the wise, the devoted manner in which he had exercised his ministry, by telling them that, notwithstanding this, he had still to strive after personal holiness; that he was himself as much required as others to watch his spirit, and to resist those temptations which beset him, "lest by any means, when he had preached to others, he himself should be a castaway." If such was the anxiety of the inspired and zealous Paul, what ought our watchfulness to be, that while we are teaching others we leave not our own spirit untaught!-Rev. G. Stevenson's Visitation Sermon.

SOCINIANISM. The difference existing between those calling themselves Unitarians, and all other professing Christians collectively, is of such a nature as not to admit of a compromise. If each party is conscientious in the belief it professes, the one must look upon the other as offering a direct insult to the Divine object of its adoration.-Kidd on Unitarianism.

GOD INCARNATE SEEN OF ANGELS.-We have, in the recorded facts to which this expression alludes, another testimony to the essential dignity of Christ. It is really most astonishing how every particular fact, and admonition, and incident of Scripture bears on this one point. We are continually meeting with some history, some text, some language, which is irreconcilable with have already quoted a passage where all the angels the supposition of Christ's being inferior to God. I are commanded to worship him. Now prophets of the highest character, it will be remembered, were frequently on the point of worshipping the angels who appeared to them; and though their inclination to this reverence was always promptly and decidedly checked (a full reproof, by the way, to the Romish invocation of saints), yet there is, I think, a marked difference between the manner in which the angels ministered to Christ and to common men. The services they rendered to men seemed to have somewhat of the stamp of condescension-they are rendered willingly, affectionately; but still it is the stooping of a superior to an inferior being, inspiring generally awe and apprehension. The services they rendered to Christ evidenced the busy alacrity of honoured dependentsthey are received calmly, and appropriated as an indisputable, acknowledged right. I cannot account for this difference, except as they then paid service to "God manifest in the flesh." The expression is emphatic : "God was manifest in the flesh... seen of angels." It appears to me to imply that these exalted spirits saw what man could not see. To man there was exhibited the form of a meek and lowly one, decked with no beauty, invested with no splendours, clothed in his hour of need with no power. To angel eyes the Godhead was apparent: they could discern the divine glory, bright even under its mortal covering. They recognised the hand of might, the brow of majesty, the word of infinite authority;-they saw and wondered. The full mystery of that veiled Deity they could not indeed comprehend-they desired to look into it--but they beheld enough to convince them that He who walked the earth a man of sorrows, who wrestled with intense and thrilling agony, who died an ignominious death, and lay, as it seemed, the prisoner of the tomb, was none other than their Lord and their God. From the Mystery of Godliness, by Rev. John Ayre.

Poetry.

BLESSED ARE THE DEAD.
THEY dread no storm that lours,
No perished joys bewail;
They pluck no thorn-clad flow'rs,
Nor drink of streams that fail;
There is no tear-drop in their eye,
Nor change upon their brow;
The placid bosom heaves no sigh,
Though all earth's idols bow.
Who are so greatly blessed?

From whom hath sorrow fled?
Who find such deep unbroken rest,
While all things toil?-The dead!
The holy dead!-Why weep ye so
Above their sable bier?

Thrice blessed! they have done with woe, The living claim the tear.

We dream, but they awake;

Dark visions mar our rest;

Mid thorns and snares our way we take, And yet we mourn the bless'd:

For those who throng the eternal throne,
Lost are the tears we shed-

They are the living, they alone,
Whom thus we call the dead.

MRS. SIGOURNEY.

TO ONE" BROKEN IN HEART."

BROKEN-HEARTED, weep no more!

Hear what comfort He hath spoken, Smoking flax who ne'er hath quenched, Bruised reed who ne'er hath broken,"Ye who wander here below,

Heavy laden as you go,

Come, with grief, with sin oppressed,
Come to me and be at rest!"

Lamb of Jesus' blood-bought flock,
Brought again from sin and straying,
Hear the Shepherd's gentle voice,
"Tis a true and faithful saying,-
"Greater love how can there be
Than to yield up life for thee?
Bought with pang, and tear, and sigh,
Turn and live!-why will ye die?"

Broken-hearted, weep no more,
Far from consolation flying:
He who calls hath felt thy wound,
Seen thy weeping, heard thy sighing;-
"Bring thy broken heart to me,
Welcome offering it shall be-
Streaming tears and bursting sighs,
Mine accepted sacrifice!"

Miscellaneous.

BP. DOANE.

COMMON-PRAYER.He (Bp. Sanderson) did most highly commend the Common-Prayer of the Church, saying, the collects were the most passionate, proper, and most elegant expressions that any language ever afforded; and that there was in them such picty, and

so interwoven with instructions, that they taught us to know the power, the wisdom, the majesty, and mercy of God, and much of our duty both to him and our neighbour; and that a congregation behaving themselves reverently, and putting up to God these joint and known desires for pardon of sins, and praises for mercies received, could not but be more pleasing to God, than those raw, unpremeditated expressions, to which many of the hearers could not say, Amen.Izaac Walton's Life of Bishop Sanderson.

ST. BERNARD'S three questions should be asked of himself, by every Christian, before he sets about any work-1. Is it lawful? May I do it, and not sin? 2. Doth it become me as a Christian? May I do it, and not wrong my profession? 3. Is it expedient? May I do it, and not offend my brother-Christian?

OFFA, king of the Mercians, won an arduous way to superiority over every domestic impediment and neighbouring power, through a remorseless career of sanguinary wars and crimes. Among his victims was the king of Kent, who perished in battle amidst a frightful carnage. This decisive victory, however, failed of satisfying Offa: his vindictive spirit now fastened upon Lambert, archbishop of Canterbury, who had negotiated for assistance from abroad, while his unfortunate sovereign was preparing for the fatal conflict; nor could he rest without making the offending prelate feel the bitterness of his resentment. He determined upon curtailing importantly that extensive jurisdiction which Lambert and his predecessors had hitherto enjoyed, by establishing an archbishopric at Lichfield, in his own dominions: but such arrangements demand an acquiescence often baffling very powerful sovereigns. Hence Offa turned his eyes to Italy, shrewdly calculating that recognition there would prove effective nearer home. He was duly mindful to give his application pecuniary weight; and he thus established a precedent for stamping that mercenary character upon Rome, which Englishmen reprobated as her conspicuous infamy, even under the blindest period of their subserviency. The recognition sought in a manner so discerning was not refused, a pall arriving, testifying papal approbation of Offa's wish to seat a metropolitan at Lichfield. From the vengeance of this imperious Mercian arose another injurious innovation upon English polity. Since the days of Augustin, no agent bearing a papal commission had ever set his foct on British ground; but under a recent exigency, domestic approbation had been sought through Roman influence. Two legates soon appeared, to improve the opening thus afforded by a selfish and short-sighted policy.-Soames's Anglo-Saxon Church.

SCRIPTURE DIFFICULTIES.

An exacter knowledge in language and circumstances would cause many difficulties in the Bible to vanish like shades before the light of the sun. Jeremiah, to describe a furious invader, saith, "Behold, he shall come up as a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong." One would be apt to think this passage odd and improper, and that it had been more reasonable to have said, "a lion from the mountain or the desert." But travellers who have seen the river Jordan, bounded by low lands, with many reeds or thickets, affording shelter to wild beasts (which, being suddenly dislodged by a rapid overflowing of the river, rush into the upland country), perceive the force of the comparison, and that the difficulty proceeds, not from nonsense in the writer, but from ignorance in the reader.-Bp. Berkeley.

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THE BLESSEDNESS OF HEAVEN. BY THE REV. THOMAS BISSLAND, M.A. Rector of Hartley Maudytt, Hants.

No. II.

HEAVEN A REST FROM SIN.

WHEN St. Paul gives utterance to the exclamation, in the epistle to the Romans, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" he speaks the language of the convinced sinner, whose eyes are opened to behold the deformity and malignity of sin, and who yet laments the fearful tyranny which it exercises over his heart and affections. The apostle surely uttered these words, not in the character of an unconverted man, partially illumined by the light of nature, and longing for emancipation from spiritual bondage, nor as referrible to the state of his own desires and feelings, when, a stranger to the truth and power of the Gospel, he was, after the straitest sect, a pharisee; but after he had undergone a decided change in his views and character, and when, having been brought to an experimental acquaintance with the Gospel, he was labouring incessantly for the promotion of his Master's glory, and the good of the souls of his fellow-creatures. And such, it may be remarked, will be the exclamation of every truly converted man.

Whilst man remains in his natural state, he has no real desire to be emancipated from the yoke of sin, except so far as he dreads its consequences in this world or in the next. The sensualist may seek deliverance from the dominion of passions, the indulgence of which injure his constitution, and lower his re

VOL. IV. NO. XCII.

PRICE 1d.

spectability, and against which the wrath of his almighty Judge is denounced; but he does not loathe the sin itself-nay, he clings to it with most ardent attachment. He only trembles at its consequences; let these consequences be removed, and the sin will be greedily indulged; let him be convinced that he will not suffer here or hereafter, and he will rejoice to give an unbridled license to his desires. But it is not so with man in a converted state, when his conscience has been aroused, and his heart impressed by the lifegiving energy of the Holy Spirit; when, awaking from the spiritual trance in which he so long slumbered, he begins to have a clear insight into the true character of the Divine law, and to regard every transgression of that law as an act of rebellion against his legitimate Sovereign, of indignity against the Most High. The heinousness of sin now appears to him to consist in its directly opposing the will and disobeying the commands of a Being whom, on every principle of love and gratitude, he is bound to honour and to obey. Judas was sorry for his betrayal of the Lord, on account of its wretched consequence to himself; Peter bewailed his denial, because it argued a defect of love to his divine Master.

And yet how frequently has the believer cause for deep humiliation and prostration of soul before God, on account of his transgression of the divine law! "Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off." How frequently has he to deplore not only a languor in his spiritual feelings, and a deadness in his spiritual affections, but even acts avowedly opposed to the revealed will of the Almighty!

I

How frequently, after having for a time walked consistently, and even been instrumental in leading others to embrace the truth, does he fall into some snare of the archenemy, and bring discredit on the Christian name and character, and mingle for himself the bitter cup of self-reproach, and is thus led to doubt whether the faith which he exercises can be that living faith whence good works do necessarily spring, and the love which he feels to God, that holy love which will constrain him to live no longer to himself; whether, in fact, he can have set out on the narrow path; and whether he has not been deceiving himself as to the hopes he entertained! It may be maintained, it has been maintained, that such fear will never arise in the heart of a true servant of God; that he will be preserved from the commission of every act which would cause such spiritual despondency. And yet such feelings have been experienced by many of God's saints, who, from that "infection of nature" which "doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated," from the corruption still lurking in their hearts, a remissness in watchfulness and prayer, or the assaults of the spiritual adversary, have been led to the commission of acts utterly repugnant to the requirements of the Gospel, the remembrance of which causes many a bitter tear to flow. They feel that they are engaged in a warfare in which the enemy is not unfrequently victorious; that they have set out on a race in which they are not unfrequently retarded by the things of the world; that the good principles implanted in their bosom by God's Spirit are sometimes permitted to be overcome by the evil principles of their corrupt nature; and that, consequently, their humble confession must be that which the Church puts into the mouths of even the holiest of her sons, "We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us." It is almost needless to observe, that on the principle of man's arriving at a state of sinless perfection here below, or of God's not regarding with abhorrence the sins of his people, such a confession could not properly be put into the mouths of all her worshippers.

But as heaven shall be a rest from sorrow, so shall it be a rest from sin; and, when regarded in this light, it cannot but be an object of intense desire to the believer. If he is anxious to arrive there, that he may never more drink of the waters of Marah, how much more anxious will he be, that he may be cleansed from all moral and spiritual defilement; that he may not only see God as He is, and dwell

• Article IX.

in the effulgence of his brightness, but serve him with a heart from which every vestige of corruption shall have been eradicated, and with affections entirely purified from the slightest taint of sin-when the race shall have been run, and the battle fought, the warfare accomplished, and the victory achieved, and when it will be impossible to commit one act, or indulge one thought, which can cause the bitter weeds of remorse to spring up, or be offensive to a God of purity. Nothing can enter the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem that defileth or worketh abomination; nothing inhabit the holy city which is not absolutely holy. Let this solemn truth ever be present to the mind, that heaven is the abode of every virtuous feeling, of every hallowed desire, of every pure affection; and that it is by the cleansing blood of Christ alone, and by the sanctifying influence of the Spirit shed upon the heart, that the sinful child of Adam can be made meet to have his dwelling with the angels of God, who never fell, and in His immediate presence before whose throne the unceasing song of praise ascends, "Holy, holy, holy." For, be it recollected, that though in one sense heaven is a state of rest, yet it is not so in another; it is a state of unceasing activity, and of unwearied employment. Of its blessed inhabitants it is said, that they rest not day nor night; that, whatever may be their other exalted employments, their chief will be the celebration of His praise who loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood.

Christian believer! stricken in conscience with a sense of guilt, dispirited by frequent tokens of your weakness, mourning over the coldness of your affections, and weighed down with the reflections that you have too often broken the holiest resolutions, and suffered sin to have the dominion over you,—give not way to despair. Even when the apostle groaned from the encumbrance of the body of death, he could exclaim, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ my Lord." A beam of heavenly light shone upon his soul; his spiritual eye was directed from his own weakness to the strength of that Redeemer who is mighty to save. Doubt not but that the remorse you feel for guilt is produced by the grace of the Spirit; that the prayers which you offer, and the struggles in which you engage, are so many evidences that God has begun a good work in your hearts. There is no such remorse experienced, there is no such prayer offered, there is no such struggle made, while the soul is dead in sin. The elemental conflicts which now disturb your bosom are tokens of a state far less dangerous than when all is hushed in the pestilential calm. Take to you the whole armour of God. Many may

be against you, but if Omnipotence be engaged for your defence, you will ultimately prevail. The conflict may be arduous, the struggle difficult to flesh and blood; but, if God be for you, victory must be yours. Make him, then, your stay. Pray earnestly that he may "keep you from falling," and "present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Pour out before his throne your spiritual wants; approach him through the merits of that adorable Saviour who manfully resisted the tempter's wiles; your prayer shall not be offered in vain; the voice of your supplication shall enter the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Jesus is gone to heaven, your allsufficient Mediator and Advocate. The Spirit itself maketh intercession for you, with groanings which cannot be uttered. Prayer will bring down increasing grace, and increasing grace will call forth more earnest prayer. Keep your heart and affections ever fixed on God's everlasting kingdom. Think of its spotless purity. Meditate on its entire freedom from evil, whether natural or moral; of the holiness of its inhabitants, and the majesty of its God. Temptation cannot there enter; sin cannot there defile. Go on your way in God's strength, then, hopefully, prayerfully, patiently. Aim at an increasing conformity to the Divine law, a more close resemblance to the image of the spotless Saviour. Thus you may hope to realise the fulfilment of the promise, that no weapon of the adversary formed against you shall ultimately be permitted to prosper; but that yours shall be the sinless inheritance of those who have fought and conquered through the blood of

the Lamb.

Sacred Philosophy.

ASTRONOMY.

stars apparently sinking behind them into the sea, whilst before them stars unknown to our sky rise out

of the south. Now, let us for an instant suppose the

apparent daily motion of the heavens to cease, and let one of the persons just spoken of, instead of travelling southward, travel due east; his horizon will then, for the same reason as before, so alter its position as to cause the stars to appear to rise before him out of Instead the cast, and to set behind him in the west. of the slow motion of a ship, suppose him to be carried round the earth with a velocity great enough to complete the circuit in twenty-four hours; the rising and the setting of the stars will then evidently be to him precisely as we see it: the only difference of the cases is, that he is conscious of his motion, and we are not. Make them, then, alike. Suppose that he floats upon a current which circulates round the earth, and of whose flow he is unconscious; the deception will then be complete. Now, let the earth itself turn beneath this current with the same velocity with which the current circulates, and in the same direction; the whole, current and earth, will now turn round together and in one mass, and the phenomena of the daily motion of the heavens will present themselves precisely as we see them; the point of the heavens about which all the stars will appear to turn being that where the axis of the earth's revolution, being produced, meets them, and the position of the horizon in respect to that axis determining the apparent position of that point in the sky.

Thus is the apparent diurnal revolution of the heavens explained by an actual diurnal revolution of the earth.

Give to the earth, at the same time that it thus rotates continually round an axis within itself, an annual revolution round the sun, such as the other planets have, and in the same direction, the epicyclical orbits of these will then pass into circles described round the sun at rest, and the earth will take her place amongst them-one of a system of worlds of which each has its particular orbit, and its own time of revolution; different elements, which are nevertheless related to one another by numerous analogies, and by various common laws of dependence upon the central sun.

What is required to prove this?

It has been stated

that all the apparent distances of the planets from the earth, and all their apparent positions in respect to the sun, have been found by observation to agree with the hypothesis of epicycles.

It is now, then, required to shew that these circumstances will all be the same on the hypothesis of the earth's revolution in common with the planets round the sun, as upon the opposite epicyclical hypothesis of the earth's quiescence, and the sun's revolution about it, carrying the planets with him.

The proof of this fact is very easy. It depends "that upon the general principle of relative motion, if any number of bodies be moving in any way in respect to one another, and you communicate to them all, other motions equal to one another, and in parallel directions, and towards the same parts, then whatever are the amounts of those motions, provided they are thus equal, and whatever are their directions, provided they are thus parallel and towards the same parts, the motions of the bodies in respect to one another, and their positions at all times in respect to one another, will remain unaltered"—that is, these bodies will all be in the same position in respect to one another, and at the same distances from one another, at any given time, as they would have been before.

To illustrate this principle, let the reader conceive to himself a number of people moving about with any regular motion on the deck of a ship at anchor-the sailors working the capstan, for instance; and to communicate to them equal motions in parallel direc