blade nor a leaf meets the eye, where yesterday nature revelled in luxuriance and beauty. Happy is England, which this scourge never visits! It cost us full three hours to get clear of these marauders. We calculated that they must have extended fully twelve miles from north to south. We came to a patch of sterile, hilly country again; and there we parted from the insects, who seemed passing to the westward, preferring the valley. Never had I before seen, and I hope I shall never again see, such a district of utter desolation as we passed this day, during which we travelled sixteen leagues. THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. THE day of judgment will be very terrible to impenitent sinners; yet to the servants of God it will be a day of joy and triumph, of jubilee and exultation; or, as the Scriptures term it, a day of refreshing and redemption. Neither ought this to seem strange. The same sun which melteth the wax, hardeneth the clay; the same beams exhale both offensive vapours, and sweet savours. The beam is the same; only the difference of the subjects which it operates upon, diversifies the effects. When the judges come, apparelled in scarlet robes, environed with halberds, attended by troops, assisted by knights and gentlemen of the country, all this is a pleasant sight to the innocent prisoner, because he hopes that now his innocence will appear, and the day of deliverance is come: whereas to the guilty it is a dreadful sight. He knows that his trial, and consequently his execution, cannot be far distant. The majesty and glory of Christ, innumerable angels at DIDYMUS. tending him, the sound of the trumpet summoning all flesh to appear before his tribunal, shall daunt and confound the wicked; but the trembling of the earth, and the shaking of the powers of heaven, to the righteous, shall be as the earthquake was to Paul and Silas, which served to loose their fetters, to open to them the prison doors, and to set them at liberty. Nor can it be otherwise, considering the love which Almighty God bears to them. He hath redeemed them by the precious blood of his Son, regenerated them by the incorruptible seed of the word, illuminated and sanctified them by his Spirit, sealed them by his sacraments, pacified their guilty consciences by his grace, delivered them out of dangers, supported them in their temptations, relieved them in their distresses, resolved them in their doubts, made all things work together for their good; and he will not forsake them at the last trial. If they were pardoned through his death when they were enemies, they shall much more be saved by his life now that they are friends. For how incredible it is, that he who pardoneth an enemy should condemn a friend! He loved them when they bore the image of the devil; and will he not much more love them now when he hath repaired his own image in them? They were dear to him when there was in them no goodness; and can he now abandon them when they are made partakers of that goodness which he hath wrought in them? I will rejoice, therefore, at his appearing, knowing that my redemption draweth near.-Hakewill. From the Impérial Magazine. ON THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. "Survey the wondrous cure, divine! THE doctrines of the gospel are all entitled to the serious and frequent contemplation of the Christian, and are admirably calculated to administer consolation to his mind, amid the varied circumstances in which he may be situated during his pilgrimage through life. They are strikingly adapted to meet his every moral necessity, whether as it regards his present happiness, or his anticipations respecting a future state; and whatever may be the circumstances in his history which he had supposed peculiar to himself; there are doctrines contained in the gospel, ineulcated in the form of promises, as precisely suited to his condition as if he had been the only individual in existence for whose benefit they had been intended. Of all the momentous and consolatory doctrines contained in the sacred volume, that of the atonement of Christ is, without controversy, the most important and consoling. It is a doctrine alike interesting to all-to the Christian of individual peculiarities, whatever those peculiarities may be; and to him whose spiritual exigencies are common to the whole household of faith. It is from this doctrine that all the other truths of revelation derive their importance. Were it expunged from the sacred records, all the other doctrines contained therein would be divested of meaning, and would be possessed of no more interest than the fictitious sallies of a fertile imagination. It is the vast importance which attaches to the atonement of Jesus, that irresistibly attracts the soul of the Christian to its frequent and delightful consideration; and the more he ruminates on this glorious theme, the stronger does he feel his mind impressed with a persuasion of the incalculable interest with which it is invested. The important points of view in which the doctrine of the atonement may be contemplated, are exceedingly various. It is only, however, my present intention to consider it as an event calculated to excite the highest wonder; and, in viewing it in this light, I shall concisely advert to the incarnation, sufferings, and death of Jesus regarding them respectively and conjointly, as circumstances peculiarly fitted to fill our minds with emotions of the greatest amazement. The doctrine of the atonement of Christ is particularly calculated to excite the highest astonishment, if we consider the character of the Being by whom it has been accomplished. The Saviour of mankind was not a mere human creature; nor was he only one of those illustrious intelligences who perpetually bask in the meridian splendour of heavenly glory. He was a divine person-invested with all the properties and attributes which belong to the Supreme Being. Regarding the glory of the character of Jesus, the Scriptures speak in strains of the most sublime and expressive eloquence. He is represented as having existed from the remotest ages of eternity-as having been eternally cotemporary with his Father. He is declared to have been the object of his su-, preme regard to have been from eternity so essentially incorporated with the glory and felicity, nay. the very existence of God; as that the one divine person could not have existed independently of the other. Agreeably to this view of the divinity of Jesus, we find that the same perfections and works are ascribed to him as to the Father. He is possessed of infinite wisdom. In him, says the apostle Paul, are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is omniscient. Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee," was the confession of an inspired writer.He is omnipresent. "Go ye into all nations, and preach the gospel to every creature," was the gracious injunction of the blessed Redeemer to his primitive disciples; and for their encouragement he 66 promises to be with them always, even unto the end of the worldan expression intimating, that in whatever portion of our globe his people may be situated, they shall enjoy his blessed presence.-He is omnipotent. Hence he is represented as possessing all power in heaven and in earth; and none but an Agent invested with omnipotence, could have accomplished the creation, and could preserve and govern the universe,-acts which are ascribed in Scripture to the second Person of the Trinity. In fine, being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God: in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily: he is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person and as such has the same names applied to him, and is entitled to the same worship. To enlarge our conceptions regarding the wonder which the event of the atonement of Jesus is calculated to produce in the mind, it might be proper to contemplate, as far as we are enabled by the disclosures of revelation, that glory and felicity which he possessed with his Father in the heavenly state. It has been already mentioned, that in him Jehovah placed supreme delight, and that he was, in every respect, on an equality with the Father. It consequently follows, that whatever glory and felicity the first Person of the glorious Trinity enjoyed from eternity, must have been equally enjoyed by the second. Agreeably to this, we accordingly find the Scriptures every where representing Jesus as hav ing eternally possessed the su preme glory and happiness of heaven. Those innumerable angelic intelligences with which the abodes of bliss are replenished, sented in the sacred oracles as imwere perpetually around his throne, pressed with the most profound contemplating and adoring his glo wonder at the contemplation of the rious person. These winged mes- incarnation of Jesus Christ. This sengers were ever awaiting with is an event which, were it not estabreathless anxiety the annuncia- blished beyond the possibility of tion of his gracious commands, doubt, neither the angelic nor the invariably regarding it as their human mind could, for a moment, highest felicity to be made the believe. The comprehensive soul honoured instruments of execu- of the apostle Paul applied itself ting his sovereign pleasure. to the contemplation of this subTheir hearts and harps were ever ject, but the result of his attempts attuned to celebrate his praises in to grapple with it was, that it the loftiest strains; and though was an incomprehensible mystery. they themselves are an inconceiv- Hence he exclaims, "Without ably glorious order of intelligences, controversy, great is the mystery yet all the excellency and glory of of godliness, God manifested in their natures are exclusive emana- the flesh!" tions from Jesus Christ-a consideration this which must be powerfully calculated to impress our minds with the most elevated sentiments regarding his glory. In one word, all we can think or speak respecting the glory of the divine Saviour may be summed up in this, that he is infinite. Now, that a being so resplendently glorious should have condescended to leave for a time the abodes of bliss, and to appear in our world, and in our nature, is unquestionably one of the most wonderful circumstances with which created intelligences are acquainted. Had the Supreme Being intimated to the angels which surround his throne, that both heaven and earth were respectively to be made the theatres of some peculiarly wonderful event, and had left it to themselves to conjecture what, in each of these places, this event might be; they would never, never have imagined, that in the first instance, it should consist, in the Son of God's abandoning for a time the glory and felicity of heaven; and in the second, appearing in our world in the likeness of sinful flesh. Hence they are repre In addition to the incarnation of Jesus, abstractedly considered, there are circumstances attendant on the event, peculiarly calculated to excite our highest astonishment. Had the angels above, when first apprized of the determination of the divine Three, that the Word should be made flesh, and should dwell among us, been left to form their own conjectures respecting the manner in which he should appear in the world, there cannot be a moment's doubt but they would have been under circumstances, which should, in some measure at least, bave corresponded to the dignity of his person; and they would have exerted their excursive imaginations in picturing out to themselves the resplendent glory which should attend the advent and incarnation of Jesus. But, ah! how different from this were the circumstances attendant on the birth of the child of Bethlehem. Instead of appearing in our world amid the display of external splendour, his incarnation was characterized by the most degraded circumstances. Go into yonder stable, and behold the Prince of glory, on his introduction to our world, destitute of those necessary conveniences concealed in his own breast; but which, under such circumstances, are within the reach of the poorest of mankind. The new born helpless babe has not so much as a cradle for its reception, but is laid in a manger, and is wrapped in swaddling clothes; and is, consequently, exposed to sufferings on the first breathings of its terrestrial existence. These and other circumstances attendant on the incarnation of Jesus, are surely calculated to awaken in our minds emotions of the highest wonder. And corresponding to the degradation and suffering which characterized the birth of Jesus, was the whole course of his existence in this world. While he was in a state of infancy, his mother was compelled to flee with him into a foreign country, in order to avoid the fierce persecution which cruel Herod had instituted on his account. In his subsequent history we find him the subject of poverty, degradation, and suffering. At one time we hear him complaining, that "the foxes had holes, and the fowls of the air had nests; but that the Son of man had not where to lay his head;" and if from the period at which he uttered this plaintive language, we follow him to the precincts of the tomb, we behold in his history one unbroken scene of wretchedness. Independently of the sufferings he experienced frota the nature of the worldly circumstances in which he was situated the contempt, reproaches, and persecution of ungodly men; and the misery which originated from the anticipation of the sufferings which awaited him, he endured inconceivable internal or mental wretchedness, arising from causes of which we can form no conception. The extreme misery he had so long experienced had hitherto been as the termination of his earthly existence approached, his sufferings reached an extremity which rendered farther concealment impossible. "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." The excruciating pains he experienced in the garden of Gethsemane made him sweat great drops of biood, and compelled him to exclaim, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.” And on the cross-that scene of his final sufferings, when the wrath of men, of the powers of darkness, and the reservoirs of the vengeance of heaven, were poured out, with concentrated energy, on his devoted head,—he was made to cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"-Can the human mind, or the mind of angels, conceive of any thing so inexpressibly wonderful, as that he who, from the endless ages of eternity, had enjoyed a degree of glory and happiness infinitely superior to any enjoyed by the most exalted intelligences in heaven, should thus be subjected to a measure of suffering and wo, infinitely more extreme than any endured in the regions of despair? Nor is this all: he who had assumed human nature, and in our world bad experienced such unparalleled sufferings, did voluntarily give himself up unto death. Yes! he who, by the word of his power, had created the heavens, and had given being to the various orders of angelic intelligences by which they are inhabited,-he who, by the breathing of his mouth, had called our world into beautiful order, from that state of perfect chaos in which it originally was,who had given existence to, and continued to preserve and govern, |