generated into a mere assemblage of the lower classes, principally consisting of the idle and worthless;" and the writer says of wakes in general, "that they are fast declining, is indeed little to be regretted." In many of the provincial papers, of either politics, some very well-written articles have appeared in condemnation of them; and the Society for the Suppression of Wakes have published, as a circular, an admirable letter that appeared in the Hereford Journal, and which gives a full exposition of the modern wake or feast. In that circular a deliberate statement is made, from real knowledge, "that the annual recurrence of wakes in the neighbourhoods in which they are held, at intervals throughout nearly the whole year, is looked upon by the peaceably disposed with anxiety and alarm." And again, in reference to a special case, it is said, "Those who had been forward in promoting legal measures are threatened with retaliation, and are insecure; for, be it known and remembered, that threats of revenge are not confined to Ireland." In Herefordshire five deaths at wakes have occurred in the course of two years; one took place under the most cowardly and brutal circumstances, as detailed at the coroner's inquest; and the parties engaged in it have absconded. And thus, if it were not for the tediousness of stating the same order of facts over and over again, many more written testimonies might be brought from public and private documents, as proofs of the demoralisation necessarily attendant on the modern wake or feast. And as proof of the abhorrence in which they are held, the facts of the petitions to parliament being numerously signed, and the success which the society for their suppression has met with the order for tracts and sheets having compelled a second edition of all of them in a few days after their announcement,-may be fairly adduced.

If any interference of the legislature towards the suppression of these nuisances is to take place, it is surely well to prepare the minds of the people beforehand; and although we have the difficulty of contending with the evil habits of three generations existing, yet this is but the case with every amelioration of an evil habit of long standing; and our energy should be but increased by the magnitude of the desired achievement. A minister, zealous in the performance of his duties, and who might have influence quite adequate to the suppression of a merely parochial nuisance, and be able to keep the great majority of his flock from a neighbouring revel, may yet be dismayed by the apparent hopelessness of persuading the vast congregation of rabble who come from the neighbouring towns, perhaps for the very purpose of overawing and challenging the moral population-men of known brutal and dissolute habits, who are insensible to acts of kindness and courtesy, and among whom the Gospel would be as the pearl cast before swine. But this fact, and one it is of frequent occurrence, should but incite the neighbouring magistrates, gentry, and farmers, to arouse themselves, and to rescue the peasantry from the depths of moral degradation that are opening before thein. Though magistrates have declared their existing power to be unavailing to the extinction of these abused feasts, although they can severely punish the actual disturbers that may be brought before them, much evidently rests with them to devise, to discover, or set on foot something that may work a cure. "Respectfully, but earnestly upon them we call, and we would that the appeal could reach them, backed by the uplifted reprobation of the united majority of those who oppose these disorders and are the advocates of Sunday rest and quiet. Upon you we call, ministers of the Gospel of peace, knowing that your endeavours in your peculiar capacity to pre

• One young man was buried by the writer of this article amid a large concourse of people. It was a truly affecting scene; and a tract, "The Death at Goodrich Feast," was opportunely written on the subject, which passed through five editions.

serve that peace need little exhortation from us; but in hope that you will redouble your efforts to maintain it where it is, and restore and confirm it where it is not found. Upon you, farmers and householders of every description, we call, each to do his endeavour, when and wherever he can, by keeping your servants at home, by seasonable advice and influence over those who need and will take it, and by setting your faces against these who despise it; that so, if petitions to parliament, now under signature, be laid aside and forgotten, nor laws be found nor framed to reach this evil, yet that your example and influence may in time put down a custom which brings so much disorder into parishes, and misery into private families, while it is an utter scandal to this Christian land."

In conclusion; let every person be reminded of the awful scenes and feelings associated with the word vigil, wake or watch. In the whole Scriptures no command is more general in its application, and more anxiously pressed home to the Christian disciple, than the absolute necessity of watching and waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Saviour, who has spoken more than one parable on the duties of vigil and preparation, has said, in words more peculiarly appropriate to the present subject, "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares" and the apostle commands a vigil next in degree, and without which no hope or looking for the Saviour can be complete, when he says, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." And in order to put in practice this exhortation to vigilance, which is a large duty, and comprehends under it the whole care of a Christian life-for it implies that we immediately put ourselves into that state and condition in which we may not be afraid judgment should find us-what can better instruct us than the following sound, doctrinal, and practical sentence, from a sermon on Mark, xiii. 32, 33, by Archbishop Tillotson? "If we use our sincere endeavours for the effecting of what we pray for, prayer is the most effectual means to engage the Divine blessing and assistance to second our endeavours, and to secure them from miscarriage; and without the aid of God's grace, and his blessing upon our endeavours, they will all be ineffectual, and signify nothing; we shall not be able so much as to watch one hour. If God be not with us, the 'watchman waketh but in vain;' for the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.' It is necessary, therefore, that we continually implore the Divine grace, and that we do not rely upon our own strength, and the fickleness and uncertainty of our own resolutions, according to the wise advice of Solomon, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.' Therefore, as ever we hope to persevere and continue in a good course, and to order our lives so as to be in preparation for judgment; let us every day, by continual and fervent prayer, apply ourselves to the Fountain of grace and merey for his aid and help, to make us vigilant over ourselves and all the actions of our lives; to enable us to a patient continuance in well doing; to keep us from every evil work; and to preserve us to his heavenly kingdom.'"+

And to the notice of the poor, I would especially bring the words of Bishop Sumner, in relation to John, iii. 19: "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.' Such, at least, will be the condemnation of those who, in a country

See a circular of the Society for the Suppression of Sunday Wakes, to be had at L. and G. Seeleys, where all the tracts and sheets are sold, and subscriptions gladly received.

+ Tillotson's Works, folio edit. 1728, vol. iii. p. 171.

like this, a country of churches, and of ministers, and of Bibles, set up the plea of ignorance. A common plea: the want of scholarship to understand the mysteries of religion, the want of instruction in the ways of righteousness. These excuses are frequent; but they can avail only as far as they are seen to be true by Him who knows what is in the heart. Alas, that very ignorance by which many seek to justify themselves is the aggravation of their guilt. The corrupt heart, even from early years, turns away from spiritual things, rejects whatever might restrain evil inclination. Have those who complain of ignorance taken pains to acquire knowledge? Have they rightly employed the leisure of the Sabbath, and sought not for amusement but instruction. Even when present at the worship of God, have they felt any desire, any appetite for knowledge of the truth? Have they used every opportunity of inquiry, and acted in the case of religion, as they would act concerning any other subject in which they were interested, but wished to be informed?"

My poorer brethren, do be led to remember that God is no respecter of persons, and that the poor man who doeth not righteousness is no favourite of God; and when Jesus spread abroad his hands of blessing, and cried, "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven," he addressed only his poor disciples, his meek and humble followers, of whom he shall always have a flock in this wicked world. Do consider with yourselves, whether your attendance at the wake or feast does not harden you in your corrupt nature, and prevent you from seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Think, whether you do not, by your presence at such scenes on the Sabbath, set at nought what you pray for solemnly in your church, when you implore" that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger;" and whether you do not endanger God's compliance with your petition, when you frequent such places of bad report, after having prayed for grace, that "we may shew forth thy praise not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end." And to this mode of honouring the blessed Trinity you respond, in the face of the Christian congregation, Amen, so be it. Do call these things to remembrance; for indeed it is a painful thing to your minister to see the unconcerned way, under mistaken notions, in which the poor too often leave this world. It seems as if they were under the delusion, that because they were poor, and led a hard worldly lot here, therefore they must necessarily be happy hereafter. And so poverty is to be the claim to eternal life, without its companion, richness in faith. But how is this delusion at once done away, when we read the Scriptures; when we know that only he, of rich and poor, who is rich in faith, and doeth righteousness, can be received into the kingdom of God! And does not our experience shew us that iniquity is committed by poor men as well as rich men? How, then, when God is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity, how can he look with regard on the iniquitous poor man? Is not pride as much in the cottage, in dress, in language, in thought, and often much more so, than in the richer man's house? Are not the poor the worst oppressors of the poor now, as in Solomon's time? and he said, "A poor man that oppresseth the poor, is like a sweeping rain, that leaveth no food." How many of the poor envy the rich, and would be as rich if they could! how many murder, steal, and tell lies, and practise imposture, and are given to slander, and break the Sabbath! And can it for a moment be supposed that God can regard those with favour, and "Blessed are ye poor?" say, Can these be those of the honest and good heart, who hear the word of God,

and keep it faithfully through every trial, every temptation, every distress, and every affliction? Are these the persons who, having proved themselves faithful in the least, shall be made lords over the much? Is the promise of eternal life given to the murderer, the drunkard, the reveller, the man of wrath, strife, sedition, heresy, uncleanness? Our common reading, and our common sense, tell us that it is not; and, if it be not, and these persons be found among the poor, then poverty is no plea, and will not save the wicked man. And that they are found among the poor, the practices at these wakes and feasts fully shew. For who is the cruel man there? who the moral murderer, the fighter, the indecent reveller, the drunkard, the man of filthy conversation, the swearer, the Sabbath-breaker? who walks in the counsel of the ungodly, and stands in the way of sinners, and at last sits in the very seat of the scornful? who, when he sees a thief, consents unto him? who is a partaker with the adulterer? who sets forth deceit with his tongue? who hates to be reformed? Does not truth answer, The poor man-the poor man is no more exempt from these sins than the rich. The poor man, then, equally with all men, must pray daily for the aid of the Holy Spirit; and shew forth, practically, the fruits of that Spirit, in the character of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, fidelity, ineekness, temperance, against which things there is no law of God or man, before he pretend to any superior claim to salvation-for the message of all ministers of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God must be, as regards the conduct in this life, that "without holiness no man," rich or poor, learned or unlearned, master or servant, bond or free," shall see the Lord;" and he that lacketh spiritual virtues is the really blind person, who cannot see afar off: but he that gives diligence thus to make his calling and election sure, to him shall an entrance be ministered abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

THE FALL AND RECOVERY OF THE

BELIEVER:

A Sermon,

BY THE REV. JOHN CHANDLER, M.A. Late Fellow of C.C.C., Oxford; and Vicar of Willey, Surrey.

2 SAM. xii. 13.

"And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." THE sin of David, his repentance and forgiveness, his state of mind before it, during the course of it, and after it was over, form altogether a most interesting and affecting passage in the word of God. Sinners as we all are, weak, helpless, unstable, with occasions and incentives to sin on every side of us, how consoling is the assurance it gives us, that if, on the one hand, to say that we have no sin, is to deceive ourselves, and to have no truth in us; yet, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness! Surely nothing ought to sound more sweetly on the ear of a self-convicted sinner, than this account of pardoning love, of mercy rejoicing over judgment. And when

2 Pet. i. 9.

true members of Christ have the same care one for another; and if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. When Christians are all prospering together in God's service, one strengthens and encourages the others; but when one falls, the others feel the shock, it puts them out of spirits: to the weaker brethren particularly it is a sad stumblingblock, that one so much further advanced than they should yet have so fallen; they almost fear to go on, lest they should fall likewise.

But now I proceed to the last and most cheering part of my subject, namely, the good effects which the believer's fall is made the means of producing, by the blessing of that God in whose gracious hand even the worst of evil is made, in spite of itself, to work together for the best of good.

May we not say, that this is one of the ways in which God overrules evil so as to produce good; that the fall of his saints, leading to their repentance, enables them to give a pattern to the world of true sorrow for sin; enables them to shew forth this among all other Christian graces, how worthily to lament their sins and acknowledge their wretchedness? And this is one of the few things which we cannot learn directly from Christ, and which, therefore, we must altogether learn from our fellow-believers. Christ could not be our pattern for repenting, for he alone never had occasion to repent; we cannot learn from him how to rise again after falling, for he alone never knew what it was to fall. This we must learn, then, from his people. Ephraim bemoaning himself and smiting on his thigh, David confessing his sin to the Lord, Peter going out and weeping bitterly; these are our patterns of true contrition, of that godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto life, not to be repented of. And who can say but that one of the reasons why God in his wisdom saw fit to allow David thus to fall, was, that after his conversion he should be moved to write that beautiful Psalm, the fifty-first, which has been, in the Lord's hands, an instrument of comfort to so many penitent sinners, a means of teaching them how to grieve, and how to express their sorrow?

But to the believer himself the following good effects will result from his fall, after the Lord hath raised him up again. In the first place, he is brought to his senses; he is brought to know himself better than he did before his weakness, his vanity, his proneness to sin, he was not properly aware of this before, but he is now; he knows now, to his cost he has learnt it, that he is not quite the perfect, infallible being he was unawares beginning to think himself; he is humbled,

he is put on his guard; he discovers too, that, almost unconsciously, he was aiming too much at the praises of men; he was doing good, to keep up his character with the world; but now that idol is broken in pieces. The world will never forget his fall, and will never, perhaps, have the same opinion of him as before; but so much the better; his motive will henceforth be the purer, not to please men, but God. Let him go through the rest of his life, and descend to the grave, with the character among men of a hypocrite and a deceiver; what matter, so God, who knoweth the heart, approve him as a sincere penitent, a lost sheep brought back to the fold? And he will be more cautious; his conscience will be more tender; he will shrink from even the appearance of evil; he will learn to lean more entirely on that strength which alone can be depended And in his behaviour to his fellow-men he will be changed for the better. Before his fall, he was tempted to make comparisons to his own advantage, and spiritual pride was thus edging itself into his heart: but now the feeling is quite destroyed; the recollection of his sin comes in, and tells him, that he, of all people, has nothing to boast of: he rather reflects now, "how much better would such an one have behaved, had he been in my place!" Thus he walks softly; he can feel more for sinners; he is become tenderer, milder, more pitiful; he no longer rebukes sinners harshly, but he speaks to them as a fellow-sinner, as one who knows, by bitter experience, the misery of sin, and presses them eagerly to join with him in fleeing from the wrath to come.

on.

But his feelings towards his heavenly Father, who hath been so good to him, who shall attempt to describe them? Brethren, we remember how, when we were children, we sometimes had our days of disobedience, of obstinacy, of disgrace; we remember how wretched we were sure to be as long as this fit of rebellion lasted; what a weight there was on our hearts; how angry and vexed we felt with ourselves; nothing could please us or amuse us; it was a miserable time as long as it lasted: but then, the reconciliation in the evening, when we had confessed our fault, and shewn due signs of sorrow, and received forgiveness, and been kindly spoken to, and told to think no more about it, O how our hearts melted immediately, what a load was taken off from them, what holy, happy tears burst from our eyes! was there ever a time in which we felt more love to our parents, more distress at having offended, more anxiety always to do right for the future? O, I think not. Those are seasons we love to look back to, seasons when the holiest, tenderest, best