LIFE UNCERTAIN AND DEATH SURE. fulness, is that which tempts many to forget their latter end altogether; or, at least, to consider it so as not to "apply their hearts unto wisdom." This arrangement of Providence, by which we are left in ignorance respecting futurity, has often been referred to as wisely calculated for promoting the interests of society. But what tends to the welfare, perhaps to the very existence, of the community, often, through the perverseness of man, leads to the ruin of the individual, who dies in the midst of his occupations, the results of which continue to benefit those whom he leaves behind him, while he himself has made no provision for his reception in another world. Brethren, let it not be your condemnation, that you refuse to work while it is day, forgetting that the night cometh-no one knoweth how speedily. You cannot but know that the hopes of a prolonged existence can in no instance be built upon a solid foundation; and that life is never for a moment secure. For everything under the sun a particular season is appointed; but to Death every season belongs. At every period of the year, at every hour of the day, his arrows are abroad on the earth. In winter the earth is desolate, and before the withering blast the aged and infirm are swept away from the face of creation. In spring nature again revives, and the world seems to open into a new existence, and rejoices in the beauty of its youth; but the springtime of nature is the harvest-time of Death; for then his reapers go abroad into the fields, and fill his garners with unripe and untimely fruit. The summer's sun burns with a deadly heat, and the strength of man is dried up before it. And in autumn, the season of beauty and of happiness, when a rich feast is spread forth on the earth, and when smiling Plenty with lavish hand pours forth her golden stores over every clime, alas! even in that season, when corn and wine do most abound, and when man asks "where he will bestow all his fruits and goods," who is there that can be assured he will live to eat of the fruits that he then gathers, and that he himself will not be gathered for eternity! Different periods of life are appropriated to different pursuits, and subjected to peculiar calamities; but death is incident to every period. Different fates await those in different situations; but one fate, at last, awaits us all; for the rich and the poor lie down together, and the small and the great are there. We can calculate upon the time of many other events; but Death mocks all our attempts at calculation. We have, in this case, nothing upon which to form our judgment. The frail and the diseased linger on for years in life, while the vigorous and healthy are crushed before the moth. Those who are daily and hourly exposed to dreadful dangers, are preserved, as if by miracle; while he who is living at ease and in quiet, with no evil to come nigh his dwelling (the fountain of life drying up from within) dies as the fool dieth. Those who are useless to themselves, and pernicious to others, may continue long a blot and burden upon creation; while he whose life is the life of many, and who toils unrepining, that he may supply the wants of those he loves, is cut down like the flower of the field, and leaves his children to want and misery. What, then, is it that leads any of you to suppose that he has yet a number of years or of days to live? what title has any one to presume that there is more than a step between him and death? It is not to be denied that your days may be prolonged; but be assured, that when the approaches of Death are first perceived by you, they will be as unexpected, and excite as much surprise, as if you were at this moment to hear his summons sounding in your ears. If the question were put to any of you: Will you be alive at the distance of a year? who is there that would dare to say he is confident 211 that he shall? This at least I know, that no father would risk upon such a supposition the fortune or happiness of his child-no friend, that of his benefactor; and yet will you stake upon a wretched probability like this your own immortal soul? Nay, if any one were asked if he were fully assured that he would live to see to-morrow's sun, none, surely, would say that his assurance was wholly undoubting. If I am mistaken, and if there be among you all any one who would be so bold, may there not be reason to dread that to presumption like his the voice may go forth: "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee?" If, then, such be the uncertainty of life, surely the consideration of it should dwell with you continually. Though you were to live a thousand years, it could not be productive of harm to suppose every day might be your last; but if you die a single hour sooner than you lay your plans for preparing for death, then you may rue your miscalculation throughout eternity. Brethren, let me beseech you to lay these things to heart. When you are falling into the snare which Satan prepares for you-giving yourselves up to the influence of the things which are seen-resting in the pleasure, distracted by the care, absorbed in the pursuit-consider the uncertainty of life-consider, further, if you would be willing thus to live always; and let such views lead you to use the world as not abusing it, and to devote the strength of your powers to those things that may endure for ever. I cannot conclude without addressing myself to the young. You are entering upon existence, and enjoying, I trust, many of its blessings, and it may seem severe to single you out, and to force upon your thoughts that you, alas! must die; nay, to urge it upon you as a duty to learn such views of life as may lead you in truth to say, "I would not live alway." But, be assured my young friends, that the advice is indeed kind, notwithstanding its apparent severity. It is essential to your best, to your everlasting interests. Everything belonging to you gives you a place in my warmest affections; the very thoughtlessness, or fearlessness, or joyousness, with which you look forward to the future, increases my interest and concern. But it must not be forgotten that the blight of sin is upon you, and that there is a worm in the bud. And therefore it is that I bid you remember, that the youngest are not secure from the inroads of disease and death, and that the same hand that lays the axe to the root of the aged tree, often tears away the tender branches, and crushes the blossoms of the spring. Be wise, then, and be instructed. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. Consider your condition as sinners, and as mortal; and come to Him who can pardon your sins and give you life. Nor will you find this course destructive of your happiness. On the contrary, it will multiply and enlarge your sources of enjoyment. It has been justly said, "that life has not a true joy but what death improves; nor has life any bliss till death can give a greater." This is a truth which I would urge also upon those of riper years, who, in the vigour of their health, and in the ardour of their pursuits, are so prone to forget that they are mortal. Let the warnings of the Word and the calls of Providence, teach you that none are secure in this warfare, that there may be but a step between you and death. And ye, my aged friends, tell us if you have found aught in life that would lead you to wish to live alway. And if you would not, as you cannot, live alway, let me beseech you to double your diligence in preparing to die. Brethren, let us all live as those who are dying creatures, and who wish not to avoid our doom. In this way, and in this way only, we will escape the bitterness of our fate;-but in this way we will escape it, and be enabled to say: "O Death, where is thy of this we may mention Lyell's arrangement of the sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?" Death is the crown of life. Were death denied, poor man would live in vain ; Thus it is that the greatest evil is converted into the greatest good; and such is the perfection of the redemption purchased by Christ, that the original curse of life is converted into its blessing. WHAT IS THE USE OF NATURAL HISTORY? | strata of the tertiary formation. In older formations IN vindicating the study of natural history, the Christian Treasury's page is not quite the place to deal with those who put the cui bono question, on the score of pounds and pence. We would send them to the man who, from hopeful appearances, as he thought, in his fields, was led to dig for coal till he had sunk his property in debt, though he found abundance of what seemed to have all the properties of coal, except inflammability; and who has learned, after he has been reduced to beggary, that a little knowledge of geology would have convinced him that he might as well have sought for coal, in any workable quantity, in a wreath of snow, or in the waters of the deep. Or if this will not satisfy them, we shall introduce them to the person to whom his father had given a good education; more valuable even in a pecuniary point of view than the few hundred acres eventually left to him; for it comprehended so much of the knowledge of geology as enabled him to ascertain that the rock in his property was neither trap nor schist, but rich ironstone, it may be black-band; so that the mineral treasures under ground yielded a hundred times more than the richest crops that ever grew on the surface. And if scientific knowledge is necessary for the proprietor, it is not less necessary for those who either in the We ought all to study the Sacred Scriptures; and employment of others, or in speculations at their a knowledge of natural history often throws a bearown risk, take the charge of mining operations. tiful light on many of the richest passages of the We shall only add, that if it be granted that the Inspired Volume. In a very able and learned article knowledge of geology may in many cases be use- "On Biblical Literature in Scotland," in No. 5 ful, because it proves lucrative, it must be borne in of the North British Review, there is a precious mind that a person cannot now hope to make much passage bearing on our subject, of which, however, progress in geology unless he make himself well ac- we shall quote but a few sentences: "The interprequainted with almost every branch of natural his-tation of Scripture also gathers assistance from every tory. The different formations cannot, with certainty, be distinguished but by the fossils which they contain. The organic remains, whether animal or vegetable, become thus the alphabet by which we learn to read the disinterred records of the remotest periods of this world's history. Botany, and zoology in its various branches, such as conchology, ichthyology, and zoophytology, must no longer be regarded as pursuits to amuse the idle. They are, to change the figure, pleasant handmaids, whose acquaintance must be cultivated; as, without their guidance, we could not find our way to the heights and depths of a most interesting department of science. In proof quarter. The researches of physical phi losophy excite us, in studying the inspired annals of creation, to feel yet more intensely that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.' The man who travels in the East, and notes its herbs and flowers, its jewels WHAT IS THE USE OF NATURAL HISTORY? study. The promotion of biblical science is accelerated by contributions from the vast encyclopædia of recorded human attainment. Most earnestly do we wish that a taste for these studies should prevail among us, not to displace or corrode our religion, but to give it a new pabulum. The Bible is surely worthy of all that investigation which we commend." The study of natural history, if rightly conducted, bleads to deeper impressions of the wisdom and goodness of God. It is possible to study the works of creation without any reference to the great Creator. How sinful, however, to shut out God from his own world, and to deny him the praise proclaimed by his own works! Not so our first parents in their primeval innocence. Their adoring song, according to the bard of Paradise, was: These are thy glorious works, Parent of good! Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous, then!- In these thy lowest works; yet these declare "But the gems of life The fly, the bee, the butterfly, the worm To me they are the characters of heaven- 213 I've learned to meditate thereon, and turn Thence to the contemplation of my GodThe all-wise, almighty Author of the wholeTo love, to fear, to worship, to adore!" Want of interest in the works of creation is no proof of superior piety, nor is a deep interest in them a symptom of deficiency of pious feelings. The venerable Carey, who spent a life of devotedness in India in the service of his Master, had great delight, in his few moments of leisure from more important matters, in prosecuting the study of botany, in which he had made great proficiency. When some of his worthy associates, who had no taste for these pursuits, expressed their wonder at his zeal, and intimated that his great delight in flowers was beneath a person of his talents and piety: "Shall I," said he, "think it beneath me to admire what my God did not think it beneath him to create, and beautify, and cherish?" Ray, in his "Wisdom of God in Creation," says: Think not that anything God has vouchsafed to create is unworthy thy cognizance-to be slighted by thee. It is pride and arrogance, or ignorance and folly, in thee so to think. There is a greater depth of art and skill in the structure of the meanest insect than thou art able to fathom or com"How much of God," says a talented prehend." writer, "may be seen in the structure of a single leaf, which, though so fragile as to tremble in every wind, yet holds connections and living communications with the earth, the air, the clouds, and the distant sun, and, through these sympathies, with the universe, is itself a revelation of an omnipotent mind." One other quotation, and we have done. It is from Paley; and yet we cannot adopt the sentiments it breathes without great qualifications, such as he himself, we trust, would have been willing to allow : "In a moral view, I shall not, I believe, be contradicted when I say, that if one train of thinking be more desirable than another, it is that which regards the phenomena of nature with a constant reference to a supreme intelligent Author. To have made this the ruling, the habitual sentiment of our minds, is to have laid the foundation of everything which is religious. The world thenceforth becomes a temple, and life itself one continued act of adoration." This sounds well; but it will not stand examination. It must have been written inadvertently. It might There is the suit a Heathen moralist, but is it what might be expected of an intelligent Christian? shadow of religion; but no more of the substance than might be looked for in an amiable Theist. It may be the religion of nature; but it wants the living breath of that blessed religion which came as a revelation from God. Christ is not there. It points out to us, however, the hidden rock on which sentimenThey are apt to talists are apt to split; though Paley cannot be ranked in the tribe of sentimentalists. think themselves religious, because they admire nature, and can speak of the wisdom and goodness displayed in the works of God. Could nature have made us religious, would Christ have suffered?-would the Holy Spirit have descended?-would a revelation have been granted to the children of men? When did nature ever convert a sinner, or fill the heart with an acceptable song of gratitude to the Lord? Will nature humble him before God, and tell him how sin can be blotted out, and how "man can be just before his God?" By grace the sinner must be led to say: "Behold I am vile;" and to cry: "What shall I do to be saved?" And by grace the answer must be brought home with power unto his heart: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Then the humble, grateful language of the believer is: "O Lord, I will praise thee; for, though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou hast comforted me." By grace we are saved, through faith; and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God." "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Then, having experienced the mercy, he can rejoice in the numerous manifestations of the wisdom, and goodness, and power of the Almighty; he can delight himself in God, as his reconciled God and Father through Christ Jesus. Giving this the merited prominence, it is most desirable to acquire the habit of "regarding the phenomena of nature with a constant reference to a supreme intelligent Author;" that "the world may become a temple, and life itself one continued act of devotion." Seeing God in all things, not merely as the God of nature, but still more as the God of grace and peace, we are not without songs in the house of our pilgrimage; and we are pruning the wing for flight, and learning to sing the song of songs in our Father's house above: "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Stevenston. Amen." YOUTH AND AGE. D. L. THE seas are quiet when the winds are o'er- MISSIONS. WALLER. HOW THEY MIGHT BE SUPPORTED, AND THE RETURNS THEY BRING. (From "Christian Missions to Heathen Nations ”—an admirable work-by the Rev. Baptist Nocl.) SELF-DENIAL may form yet, as the Bishop of Chester once said, a vast fund for the cause of God. If the lovers of pleasure will give nothing, because they want to spend all that they can get; and the lovers of wealth will give nothing, because they want save all that they can get; if the lovers of power wi give nothing, because they are too busy with thei politics to think of religion; and the lovers of distrac tion will give nothing, because missions are u fashionable; still, the disciples of Christ may per haps find, that, by more simple habits and more con scientious economy, they may save much for religious objects which is now wasted. Rich wines, expensive delicacies, superfluous servants, unused carriages a horses, magnificent furniture, useless journeys, une cessary visits to fashionable watering places all th expenditure which is for ostentation, and not confort-which tends to enervate, not to improvemay, as our religious light and grace increase. sacrificed to the love of doing good; and Christians they may, by a Christian-like moderation, of in may find that, without leaving their stations in socie mense benefit to themselves, to their children, and to their whole circle of friends, secure considerab funds for all the highest purposes to which wealt can be applied. Here it may occur to some, that the country cold not bear this abstraction of its wealth. "Number (as they think) would be thrown out of employment and much misery would ensue. Charity must be at home, and we must not attempt universal sche of benevolence, while we leave numbers to starve application of it to missions is false. our doors." The general principle is true; but the For how is the missionary income of this country employed? Part is spent in the outfit of missionaries that is, in the purchase of British manufactur:28; part goes to their passage-which is spent on Brita shipping; part is spent in the printing of Bibles and tracts which goes to maintain British papermakers, supplies of European commodities, shoes, clothes, printers, and bookbinders; part is spent on these furniture, and books, which missionaries yearly re ceive at their stations; and the rest, which is spes among the heathen, is more than repaid by the European tastes which are thus created, and the it be said that the various classes of shopkeepers ar 1 trade with England which invariably follows. Shoni artisans who supply the luxuries of the rich must maintained, and hence that Christians, by adopting simpler habits, would throw them out of employment, I answer, that they would bring almost an equal number into employment, and therefore would not really throw any out of employment, but would en v change their occupations; and they would serve the interests of the community just as much by employing missionaries, schoolmasters, printers, bookbinders cotton spinners, and manufacturers, as they would by enriching jewellers, supporting tragedians, or by keeping a useless number of grooms and footmen If it be said that the money spent upon missionaries is spent on unproductive consumers, and, therefore, withdraws from the nation all the wealth which would be created by an equal number of operatives I answer, that actors and domestic servants, post-boy and ostlers, hotel keepers and waiters at fashionable watering places, are also unproductive consumers and, therefore, whatever is drawn from the theatre and the gambling-house, from useless journeys at from expensive establishments, for the support of missionaries, is only given to one unproductive clas instead of to another. In the next place, we must remark, that there ar classes which, though not directly productive of wealth to the nation, do, perhaps, more than all the rest to enrich the nation, both physically and morally Wise legislators, acute lawyers, able physicians, well principled authors, good schoolmasters, and piou ministers of Christ, do, in reality, contribute to the intelligence, health, morals, and religion of a nation FRAGMENTS. / the security of its property, to the stability of its Eeedom; and, therefore, eventually to its actual wealth and prosperity, far more than they possibly bould contribute by the labours of their hands: and he same is true of missionaries. If, lastly, it be objected that all this missionary income is spent abroad, we must recollect that it releaves the community, to a certain extent, of its perfluous hands, just as emigration to Sydney or Upper Canada; that it there maintains Englishmen who would have been maintained at home; that much s spent in English manufactures; and that the remainder is originating in many places a trade with England, which will be soon worth much more than he whole sum employed in the enterprise. Who eckons the money spent by British merchants at myrna or at Singapore as money lost to their suntry, since, in truth, that expenditure is annually dding to our wealth? And just as the British trade Smyrna and at Singapore more than repays the tation for what its merchants spend in these places, the trade with the South Sea Islands, with New lealand, and with the native tribes of South Africa, beginning to repay to the nation the cost of those nissions. 215 REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD. Assuming, then, that we have enough of men and noney most materially to extend our missions, we re further encouraged to extend them by other great advantages which we possess. Never was print- THE cold, philosophic, and sceptical Dr Franklin ng so cheap and expeditious as it is now; every year bears the following testimony to the effects of Mr s steam lessening the distance between the nations Whitefield's oratorical powers:-Mr Whitefield reof the earth; our commerce affords a safe and regu- jected my counsel (to build an Orphan House in ar conveyance for missionaries to every part of the Philadelphia, rather than in Georgia), and I thereworld; larger numbers continually are fitting for this fore refused to contribute. I happened soon after to work by education, which now descends to the poorest attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I of the community, and to the necessity of which perceived that he intended to finish with a collection, mong all classes, the nation is now, for the first time, and I silently resolved that he should get nothing wakening; the name of England is a safeguard to from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper English travellers and settlers everywhere; and almost money, three or four silver dollars, and five gold every important place of trade in the world has a pistoles. As he proceeded, I began to soften, and British consul, who may employ the influence of the concluded to give the copper; another stroke of his British Government to protect his fellow-subjects; oratory made me ashamed of that, and determined so that, in ordinary circumstances, Englishmen are as me to give the silver; and he finished so admirably, safe in Cairo, Constantinople, or Canton, as they that I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's would be in London. To this let us add the influence dish-gold and all! At this sermon there was also which Englishmen possess among the heathen, by one of the club, who being of my sentiments respectthat superiority in the arts of civilized life, which ing, the building in Georgia, and suspecting a collecoften attracts their attention to the Christian teacher, tion might be intended, had, by precaution emptied no less than miracles would. Multitudes of the his pockets before he came from home: towards the South Sea Islanders, witnessing the increased com- conclusion of the discourse, however, he felt a strong forts which the Christian islands obtained from their inclination to give, and applied to a neighbour, who teachers, were strongly induced by that circumstance, stood near him, to lend him some money for that united with others, to relinquish their own idolatry; purpose. The request was made to, perhaps, the and the same result may be expected wherever the only man in the company who had the firmness not arts and commodities of civilized countries are intro- to be affected by the preacher. His answer was: duced among savages in conjunction with the Gospel. "At any other time, friend Hopkinson, I would lend Lastly, It should never be forgotten that, in addi- thee freely, but not now; for thee seems to me to be tion to whatever influence we may possess in other out of thy right senses." heathen nations, by our superiority in arts and arms, we possess in India the influence of absolute dominion. In that country a hundred millions of idolaters have been placed under the British Crown, upon whom the Indian Government acts with incomparably greater force than a Government can ever exert upon an educated people, accustomed to free institutions. The Government there is everything; and that Government is Christian. There the European is reverenced, and the missionary is protected. Multitudes are eager to learn the English language. Knowledge fatal to their superstition is rapidly gaining ground; and there is nothing to hinder us, if we pleased, dividing the whole country, for missionary purposes, into contiguous parishes, and giving to each parish its missionary; supposing these missionaries to be maintained, not by taxation of the Hindus, but by our Christian zeal. Fragments. THE APOSTLES.-The secretaries of heaven.-Dr Barrow. A POSITIVE ARGUMENT IN THE NEGATIVE FORM.-When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone.-Rev. Thomas Scott. ST JOHN THE BAPTIST.-Gregory Nazianzen says of John the Baptist (who is called "The voice of one crying in the wilderness "), that he was all voice: a voice in his habit, a voice in his diet, a voice in his dwelling, a voice in his conversation, and a voice in his preaching.-Dr Calamy. |