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NATIONAL sins call for national humiliation. The times are eventful, such as we have never witnessed. In the 26th chapter of Leviticus, we have cause and effect of the calamities which befel the Jewish nation. Idolatry was the curse in those days which brought down the heavy judgments of the Almighty on that nation, and the threatenings of greater punishment still were put forth, should they persevere in their evil course, and not put away their abominations. The result is now a standing miracle among all the people on the face of the earth, for they continued to rebel against the Holy One of Israel, and they have been smitten with the blast and the mildew, and the pestilence and the sword, according to the prophecy, and they have been broke to pieces as a nation, and scattered to the four winds of heaven; and why? Because they repented not of their evil ways, and did not humble themselves as in dust and ashes before the mercy seat; although the promise was fully made to them, that the Lord would return and be favourable to their land, and heal their sicknesses, and give them rain in due season, and cause the land to yield her increase, and the trees of the field to yield their fruit, and that they should eat their bread to the full, and dwell safely in their borders. And this nation, we must remember, was the favoured of the Lord, his chosen people, the descendants of faithful Abraham; but the mighty prevalence of idolatry, the forgetfulness of God, the departure of their hearts from following the Most High, brought down upon them the judgments of heaven; and to this day they stand before the world as a record of the just dealings of the great moral Governor of the Universe.

And what are the circumstances in which we are placed as a nation in the present day? Let the acts of the last few years speak for themselves. Was not the Charitable Bequests Bill a proof of the friendly disposition of the Government towards the Unitarians, to the injury of other bodies of professing Christians? This was a gratuitous and uncalled for act, with the exception of that section which it was designed to favour.

Look, again, at the increase to the Maynooth grant, under Sir Robert Peel's government; in spite of 1,284,000 names

VOL. X,

having been appended to petitions. against such a measure, it was adopted. Here is an extraordinary fact, and one which cannot fail to impress the mind of every Christian, that a Protestant Government can wisely, justly uphold and maintain an anomally so monstrous, by actually doing for the Catholic what it does not do for any Protestant in the United Kingdom. Thirty thousand a year paid by a Protestant Legislature for the training and education of five hundred priests, to spread doctrines and opinions at variance with the Holy Scriptures! What a glaring act of inconsistency in a Protestant Government, and what a sacrifice of professedly religious principle? The Act which has endowed Popery, not only is dishonouring to God, but violates the consciences of all who value the truth, and are anxious for the spiritual welfare and prosperity of this great nation. Instead of the increased grant, as it was said, producing peace and good will towards the Protestants, it has only tended to embolden and encourage the daring spirit of the Papists to infringe on our religious liberties, and attempt, by an act insane and monstrous, to force on us their own creed, and bring us into the meshes of the Man of Sin. They have thrown down the gauntlet willingly, cordially, and deliberately. Is it the duty of a Christian State to pay for the support of idolatrous worship? Why not have granted a sum annually for the worship of Juggernaut? It would have been with equal justice as to have given money for the training of the Catholic Priesthood to spread the virus of the Papacy, and the system of an idolatrous worship throughout the world. Nay, in my opinion, it would not have been so great an evil to have countenanced the latter as the former-as Pagan idolatry is, to a certain extent, limited to India and China; but the Roman idolatry is a spreading pestilence over the entire globe; consequently its evils are greater in proportion; and the souls of millions are enslaved by her abominations. Who can pretend to tell the results, the fearful results, of this act of a British Parliament? The deed is done, and is recorded on high. Is there not a cause for national humiliation, to avert the Divine displeasure for the sanction of that system which

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is denounced in Holy Scripture, and which will be swept away when that Wicked One shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming?

But is there not fear of the young adder, as well as the lion, in these perilous times? Is not Puseyism a vampire in the Anglican Church, sucking her very vitals? Is there not more danger to our country from this source than from the open advocacy of Catholicism? Of all evils, this appears one of the greatest and most alarming. It is like the pestilence walking in darkness, slow and sure in its deadly march; and its consequences already are such that a man must be very bold to endeavour to treat slightly or contemptuously such a fearful evil. The viper is not easily to be destroyed, nor its venom extracted; and the number of clergymen and laymen who have been nursed in this cradle of Semi-Papacy, already gone over to the Romish Church, is at least an indication of what is still going on a fact most fearfully to be deplored and mourned over. Their influence is great; their status in society; their connections with the high and honourable of the land, will give them a lever which will shake the stability of the English Church, unless she arouse from her slumbers, and shake off the plague-spot which has fastened on

her bosom.

Let us also consider the flood of Infidelity which is passing over the land. The circulation of millions of publications and tracts, all designed to poison the mind of the masses, the public advocacy of infidel principles by lectures, the blasphemous language shamelessly uttered, the importation from foreign countries of vile and sceptical books, are calculated to fill us with alarm, and to excite the most painful apprehensions.

And what shall be said of ungodly doings in the high places of our land? the desecration of the Sabbath, its open violation by the sanction of the opening of the new Crystal Palace by the late Premier and others high in authority; the payment by our great manufacturers of wages on Saturday night to their workmen, a fruitful source of evil, driving them at a late hour to market, and often on the Lord's day, to spend their earnings at shops to provide for their necessities; the worship of Mammon, railroad excursions on the Lord's day; the contempt of the ordinances of the Lord's house; the

conformity of the professing Church to the world; the declension of vital piety; the forgetfulness of God the awful and increasing crime, in spite of Gospel privileges; are not these things sufficient to call down the anger of the Most High? Are we not solemnly reminded of past judgments, when the cholera swept off its thousands; when famine in Ireland did its fearful work; when the potato crop, so long the sustenance and staff of millions, was destroyed? We have been verily smitten by the hand of God in a manner so remarkable, that the most casual observer cannot fail to recognize in those awful visitations, the immediate stroke of the Divine Power. The messenger of vengeance came in the form of a devouring insect, which ravaged the green and flourishing crops of our fields, and laid prostrate the hopes of millions. It fell like the mildew, silently, but powerfully, on the plants of the earth, and cut off the common supplies of our population. The researches of the most gifted and talented of our countrymen can find no adequate cause for the destruction which has taken place, and have, with all their arguments and reasonings, and theories, come to no satisfactory conclusion. They have been confounded and silenced, and their counsel has failed to devise a remedy to stay the spread of the plague-spot: "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.' And this blast on the green crops has thrown the whole empire into confusion, dismay, and peril. Pestilence and death followed in the train, and thousands have fallen a sacrifice in the Sister Island to the heavy judgments which have fallen upon her. Who would have thought this when the green leaves first began to fade, and change their colour for the sickly hue of decay and blight? And yet this was sufficient to accomplish the designs of the Almighty in humbling the pride of this great nation, if not to produce its repentance.

We are verily a guilty nation, and our rulers have sinned against the Lord and against his Anointed, in having suffered that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce the people from the obedience due to his laws as the Head of his Church and the King in Zion.

If we look to our present position in reference to the Continent, the changes which are taking place, the fears excited as to the stability of peace, the fearful

persecutions which are directed by the Papal powers against the Bible and Protestants in general, we cannot fail to observe that there is much cause for supplication at the present period. Past judgments should remind us that stronger and more severe judgments may be at hand, unless we repent, as a nation, of our aggravated guilt. What, then, shall we do, but return to the Lord with penitence and supplication, because of our great sinfulness in his sight, and entreat the Lord, as the men of Nineveh, to turn away his anger from us, and restore us graciously to his favour, by pouring out the influences of his Spirit, to refresh and renovate the face of the land? Nothing but the cry of repentance will do. The nation must return and look to Him they have pierced, and make lamentation as in dust and ashes, because of their multiplied transgressions in his sight. No more vain oblations, no pretended fasts, but the heart of the nation must be bowed down before God: the churches apart, families apart, individuals apart, young and old, rich and poor, all before the Throne, pleading with God. Then shall light break out on every side; the land shall be healed, the Spirit shall be poured out from on high, revivals will take place, the dews of heaven shall fall upon the parched ground, the wilderness shall become a fruitful field, churches be brought to feel their high and solemn responsibility, and the tokens of the Divine favour be made manifest by the conversion of the ungodly. "God, even our own God, will bless us, and cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us," pouring forth the streams of joy and gladness on every side. If, on the contrary, Popery is sanctioned, and the Man of Sin taken by the hand, we may still expect the decline of this great Empire. Just in proportion to our faithfulness as a nation, will be our prosperity. If we forsake Him, He will forsake us, and remove the candlestick, to give it to another nation and another people, who shall not deal treacherously, but who shall be likenesses for His truth, and stand forth to war against the Papal Antichrist, even unto death. May the Lord awaken the Churches of our land to a sense of their obligations and responsibility, that they may "come forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty;" and may the present call be overruled for the increasing prosperity of the Universal Church, and the more intimate union and fellowship

A WORD IN SEASON TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS.

THAT you may end well, you must begin well; if the first step be wrong, all that follows will be affected by it. Here we have, then, to beseech you,

He

Firstly.-LOOK WELL TO THE SOUNDNESS OF YOUR CONVERSION. Conversion is a word that is full of significance, expressive of one of the greatest events in the world; and it is, therefore, of the utmost importance to guard against mistakes concerning it. It is a thing of the heart and life. There may be conversion as to doctrine, system, and polity, while the soul remains the same; just as a man may change his name, dress, style of living, residence, and associates, while mentally and morally he is unaltered: so it is in things spiritual. A man may be severed from his companions, led to break off evil habits, and betake himself to new courses; he may even become the student of the Sacred Scriptures, and actually preach the word of life, while, in heart and mind, he is entirely unchanged. may be so disciplined by circumstances, by teaching, and by religious connections, that he may continue throughout life in this new course, and yet be an unconverted man. Now, this is a great danger, against which you are required, by all that is solemn in eternity, and important in personal salvation, to guard, since mistake here must end in everlasting destruction! On this point the Sacred Scriptures are appaling in the extreme. The Saviour has been careful to record warnings, which will render error without excuse. He tells men distinctly, that something more is wanted than a mere profession: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity," Matthew vii. 21-23.

Here, then, we find men actually prophesying in his name, and in that name casting out devils, and doing wonderful works; but all to no purpose, since the performers were perpetrators of "in

iquity." The plea of the parties was founded in truth; it is, therefore, not denied, that they spake the truth; and it is elsewhere granted, that they had "eaten and drank in his presence; and that he had "taught in their streets." Still, as workers of "iniquity," they could not enter in. They were unconverted men, and the only words Divine justice could address to them were, 66 Depart from me, ye that work iniquity!"

The test, then, of true conversion, is, the having ceased to work iniquity. It is written, "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away; behold all things have become new." Reader, do you understand this? Are you really penetrated with a sense of the importance of the fact? Has it become with you a matter of the most solemn consideration? Have you examined yourself in the light of these great disclosures? Has the result of the examination been a satisfactory conviction, a wellgrounded hope that you know you are converted? As I am anxious to aid you in rightly conducting the inquiry, let me furnish you with unerring tests, which, if duly applied, will render mistake impossible. You will, therefore, now let me have your solemn attention. Where genuine conversion is, the following points of experience will always be found:

1st. Sincere repentance is invariably connected with all genuine conversion. Now, the essence of repentance must not be confounded with the circumstances of it. The amount of the aggravation of sin must, in some degree, regulate the amount of sorrow and anguish. The penitence of the Apostle Paul was clearly distinguishable from the penitence of the Apostle John, or any other of the Apostles; the penitence of both was, no doubt, one in essence; it was sorrow for sin; but the circumstances widely differed. In the case of Paul, sin had reached a climax-in the case of the other Apostles, the probability is, that they were, in point of moral conduct, prior to their conversion, not worse than the bulk of their countrymen. Their lives had more of the special aggravations which attended that of Paul, who had "Done many things against Jesus of Nazareth:,"who had "Breathed threatenings and slaughter against the Church of God, and made havock of it." The guilt of blood-the blood of the saints-was on him beyond any other man of the time; and there can be no doubt, that this fact added fearfully to the distress under which he

laboured, during those three dreadful days and nights, in the course of which he never closed an eye, and food never passed his lips. Here was horror and anguish without a parallel, and without a name! Nothing of this kind wrung the breasts of the other Apostles. We must not, then,overdo in the matter of the amount of the distress attendant on penitence. I have, therefore, only to ask, have you seen yourselves to be lost and undone? Has the law come home to you in its killing power? Have you felt that the favour of God was for ever lost, and that you were obnoxious to the Divine displeasure because of your transgressions, and that nothing could meet your case but the sovereign mercy of God extended through the atonement of Christ? You are consequently here required to guard against a serious error, lest your sorrow be the sorrow of the world, that worketh death, ending in a mere temporary, or more extended reformation, without embracing the Gospel. The character of repentance unto life is most safely tested by its results. Godly repentance never fails to lead the penitent to the Cross. No repentance can be wrong which is attended with such an issue; for repentance, in itself considered, can bring no salvation, since even the confession of sin and cessation from it, combined with an endeavour after new obedience, cannot bring foregiveness; there is nothing in such an event to meet the case of the Divine justice. To this end it possesses no value at all. Forgiveness must flow from other sources. The test, then, of genuine repentance is,

Secondly-FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, which is always inseparable from true conversion. In the case of persons come to years of discretion, there can be no conversion without this; it is, therefore, of the utmost moment that you should fully understand what faith 18. On this point it must not be taken for granted, that whatever is found in print, or heard from a pulpit, is correct. On these subjects, I beseech you, therefore, to have recourse to the inspired page. The Acts of the Apostles form the best book that ever was written on the subject of faith. There you find that faith is always connected with a testimony-that is, with something to be believed. Faith and belief, therefore, signify the same thing, and wherever there is belief, there must be something believed. Faith must have an object as much as repentance must have a cause.

Now, the thing believed here, is just what Almighty God has said concerning the Lord Jesus, which is sometimes called "the record he hath given concerning his Son." You may take an example or two. In the day of Pentecost, there was a testimony borne concerning the Lord Jesus. The penitent men who had been pricked in their hearts by Peter's address, inquired, "What must they do to be saved?" He told them about Christ Jesus; they believed him, and they were converted. This faith finished their conversion. Again, at Philippi, Paul and Silas bore a similar testimony concerning the Lord Jesus, to the Jailer and his household. They believed what they heard, and in so doing became converted. In this case, the knowledge, and the belief came together. Now, my dear reader, do you understand this, and are you a witness of the truth here laid down? Let me press it upon your attention, that upon this your salvation turns! But, again,

Thirdly.-FAITH IS ALWAYS FOLLOWED BY FEELING. It is faith that produces this feeling. If there is no feeling there is no faith, however the understanding may have been assenting to evidence. Salvation always implies heart work. In the absence of this feeling, it cannot exist. It is written, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." In all the cases mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, you see feeling invariably accompany faith. The thousands of converts on the day of Pentecost "received the Word with joy." The Jailer at Philippi "rejoiced, believing in God." In a word, wherever there was faith there was feeling, and that feeling displayed itself under the forms of peace, of joy, of love, of hope, of gratitude, of praise, and so forth-it was heaven begun on earth! It is easy to perceive, that, from the very nature of the case, this was, and ever must be, the result of believing, since the object of belief is "goodness, glad tidings of great joy." The "joy" is not in the tidings, but in the heart of the receiver of them. Conversion is attended with such circumstances, that not to rejoice in some measure-which I grant will be modified by temperament and circumstances,-is impossible, unless the mental condition of the convert be attended with peculiarities, which interfere with the full exercise of his moral and mental faculties. Conversion brings

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salvation, but salvation is a life, -a new life,—so that the object of it is a "new creature." "Old things are passed away; and all things are become new." Now, of this great change the person who was the object of it must be conscious. He feels it, and that feeling is what is called Christian experience.

Now, the great thing it is important for you to notice is, the fact that this feeling admits of being counterfeited to an awful degree. It has been so counterfeited in cases innumerable. I am

deeply solicitous to prevent any disaster overtaking you; and I shall, therefore, now supply you with a test, which, rightly and honestly applied, will never fail to discover the counterfeit.

Take an instance: the coin of the realm may be fitly employed to illustrate this matter. A servant of the Government labouring in the Mint receives a quantity of gold-dust from the mine. He proceeds to melt and purify the precious metal, pouring it into the mould by which sovereigns are made. This done, in obedience to instruction, he pays himself with the sovereigns he has actually manufactured, and goes forth with his pockets laden, with a consciousness equal to that of his own existence, that the coin is genuine. If, in offering it in the walks of commerce, he is suspected, he dares investigation, and fears no inquiry. He is at perfect ease as to all consequences, verifying the Scripture, "The righteous are bold as a lion." Another man determines to counterfeit the said coin: for this purpose he collects his base materials, prepares his instruments, and having shrouded himself in darkness, commences the villanous operation; the result being, that, by a skilful hand, he fills his bag with seeming gold, which, to the inexperienced, may pass as genuine.

Now,

this man knows that he is a base coiner and a cheat. His act has been deliberate. His purpose, from the outset, was to deceive. His own conscience condemns him. Everywhere, by night and by day, he is haunted by fear of discovery and its consequences. He knows that every hour brings danger, and that each successive sun may set upon him in a dungeon.

Now just so it is with Christian experience that which is genuine, in everything, flows from the person, work, and offices of Christ; it is the result of a heart-felt belief in his love and grace, and trust in his perfect righteousness. To him the soul constantly looks; on