men of high degree are a lie." O then,

66

as

66 put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help." Look to Him, who alone is invincible and "mighty to save." Look to Him who has subdued every enemy, who "through death has destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil," and who has "led captivity captive." Look to him in every emergency, for those supplies of grace and that assistance, which especially your case may require and, no doubt, you shall find, from your happy experience, the truth of that cheering promise, thy days, so shall thy strength be." You shall become expert and valiant in this warfare, strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." Even the feeblest, who, from a consciousness of manifold infirmities, seem to themselves wholly unable to maintain the contest, shall thus be victorious, nay "more than conquerors, through him who loved them." Notwithstanding all their fears, the issue shall be successful, and they shall be able to adopt as their own, those words of St. Paul, "thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Pp.

22-24.

The Tears of David and the people at the Grave of Abner; and, The Great White Throne. Two Sermons. By Thomas Mortimer, M.A. Pp. 40.

II. Samuel iii. 32.-And they buried Abner in Hebron: and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept.

THE history connected with the text is most affecting and distressing. The commander in chief of the forces of Israel is hailed by a brother officer as a friend, and, in the same moment, receives a fatal wound from his sword, and falls dead to the earth. The assassination of Abner occasioned to

David the deepest sorrow. His mortal remains were, by the king's direction, treated with the utmost respect, and interred with all suitable military pomp, in one of the most ancient of the Jewish cities.

Hebron is about the same distance from Jerusalem as Windsor is from London. It was a spot endeared to the children of Israel, as containing in its immediate environs the sleeping dust of their progenitors, Abraham, Isaac, and

Jacob. Modern travellers mention the beautiful scenery which surrounds it, and its famous castle, which yet remains. Zacharias and Elizabeth are supposed to have resided near this hallowed spot; and it would be no easy matter to mention the great names of the mighty dead who lie entombed at this place. Among the number was Abner; and the passage before us represents the royal son of Jesse appearing as chief mourner on this melancholy occasion. And they buried Abner in Hebron: and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept.

From this passage suffer me to direct your attention to the three following particulars.

I. THE FUNERAL OF THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

II. THE SORROW OF THE KING. III. THE SYMPATHY OF THE PEOPLE. Pp. 5, 6.

II. Abner was the faithful servant of his sovereign, and ranked high in his estimation; but Abner was only the subject, not the brother of the king. The present mournful situation of our own beloved Monarch is more afflicting than was that of David: he has lost an affectionate brother as well as a brave commander. May Almighty mercy comfort his heart, and Almighty grace sanctify the painful visitation! May he learn the brevity and vanity of life, and the necessity of being always prepared for that awful moment, when the prayers, and the hearts, and the tears of a devoted people cannot save him from the grasp of death!-Oh, the striking and important lesson which this dispensation reads, or might read, to all in authority and power! May that lesson, as it is delivered by the lips of death, be attended with the unction of grace, and effectually learned by those whom it more immediately concerns. To the Royal House, to British Nobles, and to the British Army, this dispensation has a voice. God grant it may be heard! lest, if neglected, or despised, or misimproved, it be repeated in accents of wrath, and in a visitation still more severe.-Pp. 11, 12.

Rev. xx. 11, 12. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life and the dead were

:

judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

From these words I proceed to consider,

I. THE MAJESTY OF THE JUDGE. II. THE SUMMONING OF THE DEAD. III. THE OPENING OF THE BOOKS, AND THE JUDGMENT OF THE WORLD.

I. THE MAJESTY OF THE JUDGE.

I need scarcely remind you, my brethren, that the glorious Redeemer, who on this day shall take his seat on the great white throne, once appeared in our world as the Babe of Bethlehem, and the Man of Sorrows. Invested from all eternity with the highest honours of the highest heaven, he was here despised and rejected of men. Adored by all the heavenly hierarchy, when he stooped to save our fallen world he was dragged before the bar of Pilate; was insulted, spit upon, struck upon the face, and at length died an accursed death, amid the taunts of men and the malice of devils. He died, not indeed the brother, but the Son of the King Immortal yea, himself equally the King Immortal, Eternal, Invisible. One of his disciples, of senatorian rank (a rank which, alas! can boast of but too few of his disciples) begged his sacred body from the Roman Governor, and placed it in his own tomb.

The funeral of Jesus we know but little of: yet that little is sufficient to make us blush, when we reflect how much honor has been shewn, justly shewn, to the sleeping dust of earthly princes, and how little was paid to the mortal remains of the Lord of Glory. That mortality, however, was but short, and on the third day swallowed up of life. The Saviour rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. From that hour to this he has had a kingdom upon earth; but that kingdom has not been of this world. His suffering members have been conformed to their suffering Head; and real Christianity, however occasionally respected in official situations, has generally been despised in proportion as it has been deep and vital. The exhibition of the mind and temper of Christ has but too generally elicited the sneer of the gay and the thoughtless, and the contemptuous smile of the merely nominal professor. In short, my brethren, sin has reigned-the powers of darkness have triumphed-the word of the Lord has been little regarded, and treated as if inferior to the word of man-men have spent their

time in vanity and profligacy; and thousands have lived without repentance, and died without conversion.

But the day of the Lord WILL come. At the appointed period, ordained in the councils of the Father, the great white throne will be erected, and the Man of Nazareth shall take his seat as the Son of God and the final Judge of all mankind. The former scenes of his abasement shall not be forgotten--shall indeed never be forgotten-but on this occasion shall specially be remembered, to heighten, by contrast, the grandeur of the spectacle. Messiah's first coming was in great humility; his second shall be in glorious majesty. Celestial legions shall attend as a guard of honor, while all Heaven's inhabitants shall vie with each other, on that day, in the endeavour to make some return-though infinitely inadequate for the tears and blood of Gethsemane and Calvary. Earthly glory shall flee away before the brightness of his appearing, while He who died as the Saviour of the Church proceeds to discharge his high duties as the Judge of the world.-Pp. 26—28.

A Sermon. By the Rev. Thomas Macconnell. Pp. 32. II. Sam. iii. 38. And the King said unto his servants, Know ye not there is fallen a Prince and a great man this day in Israel.

THE death of the late heir presumptive to the throne of this kingdom, recalls to our minds the last stroke of mortality, which broke the line of succession to the monarchy of England. I allude to the lamented death of the Princess Charlotte. Although there are many points of difference between the two occurrences, yet as the important article of succession is disturbed in both cases, that circumstance will connect the two events in the minds of the wise and pious; and revive in their recollection an occurrence, which, like the present, once cloathed the nation in deep mourning. And however such events at the time they transpire are dignified with the name of ever memorable, experience teaches us that feeling is treacherous and forgetfulness greedy; and that even these events would in their turn be devoured by it, but for the faculty of association with which a wise and good Creator has endowed his forgetful creatures!-P. 3.

Here was no sudden and unexpected stroke of mortality which startles the

thoughtless, rouses the torpid, and causes the ground underneath them to tremble; but a blow which was scarcely perceptible, because it was hourly expected. This case presents us not with the opening qualities of youth, but the matured properties of age-advancing towards the common limits of human life. Here was no striking illustration of the instability of human grandeur, but merely an instance of its ordinary termination.-No lovely babe was in this instance struck off from the list of the living with its parents, nor did death here sunder, into tatters, the close and endearing relationship between husband and wife. But though there be nothing in the materials which are now furnished to our hands, to rouse the imaginations of the torpid, or to quicken the sensibilities of the stupid, yet the Deity who disposes of crowns and sceptres with a mysterious and uncontroulable sovereignty, is "to be known by the judgments which he executeth."

A prince of our nation has had a long and arduous struggle with the last enemy. This prince has fallen; and has not fallen UPON the enemy, but UNDERNEATH him! He has fallen as all must fall-as earth's mightiest conquerors and history's proudest heroes, who shook the world at every step have fallen; and that is, UNDERMOST, in the struggle with death!-Pp. 5, 6.

This event teaches us that the great are equally exposed as ourselves, to the worst evils with which fallen humanity can be visited in this world. It is true that princes dwell in a region into which many of those evils which are the sad inheritance of sinful man, cannot penetrate. Want, oppression, contempt, neglect, and evils of that class they cannot, generally speaking, either feel or dread. They have peace within their walls and prosperity within their palaces, plenty rolls within their reach, power is placed underneath their grasp, and honors await their distribution. "Their breasts are full of milk, and their bones are moistened with marrow, and they have more than heart could wish." But sickness assails their health, pain darts its pangs through their bones, and death finds the way to their habitations.-P. 13.

Our religion teaches us to weep with those that weep, as well as to rejoice with those who rejoice. "We are called upon then to commiserate with the army, who have lost a father, and who

present to our eye the affecting image, of a family in deep mourning for a beloved parent. Amongst the soldiers he had a father's eye, a father's ear, a father's hand, and a father's heart; and if he be a father who acts as such, toward those with whom providence has connected him, then the Duke of York may be said to have had a very large family, though he died childless. Almost one of his last acts was a deed of benevolence towards a very deserving class of men amongst the military. And I was informed by a general in the army, that he had given orders for every soldier to be provided with a Bible, and commanded that book to be regarded as a necessary part of equipment. These are not great deeds, but good ones; they have none of the glare of great victories, but shine with a gentle and steady lustre, and though they dazzle us less, they please us more.

But there is another view of his conduct as commander-in-chief, which I do not recollect to have seen noticed, and which appears to me to deserve observation, and that is the condescension, promptitude, and justice he displayed, in settling all disputes that arose between the military and the people, when they were represented to him. The military are a body independent of the people, and when one body of men are INDEPENDENT of another, they are too apt to suppose they are DISTINCT also; to feel independent and not to feel distinct is difficult, thence quarrels arise, hence a quickness in receiving, and haste in resenting injury. A case in point came within my own personal knowledge at Romford, in Essex, where there was a rupture between some of the inhabitants and some of the military, who were in the barracks at that place. A private tradesman who had suffered either from insult or injury in the fray, or perhaps from both, drew up a statement of the disturbance, authenticated by the clergyman of the parish, and sent it to the commander-in-chief. By the next post there came an order for the officers against whom the complaint had been lodged, to ask pardon, and make restitution, or forfeit their commissions. They embraced the former alternative, and peace was permanently restored. I have heard of similar instances, but his character for justice, although himself a soldier and on that account more liable to lean to the military, was so well known, that it preserved order and peace almost universally. In this res

pect his death is a national loss, as indeed in what other respect in which it is a loss, is it not national ?-Pp. 19-21.

The PROTESTANT INTEREST of this kingdom is sensibly affected by the death of the late prince. It is well known to the world, that he was a bold and decided supporter of the present form of our constitution, which excludes Roman Catholics from seats in its legislative assemblies, and from places of trust in any of its departments. Upon the justice and policy of these exclusions, for which he was so warm an advocate, there exists a difference of opinion amongst Protestants themselves. To agitate this question, in this place, and on this occasion, would be highly indecorous and unseasonable. But as it unavoidably comes before us, in connection with his death, permit me to observe, that there is a point of character in this matter about the late prince, in which both parties will unite, and the mention of which will excite the sorrow and sympathies of the wise and feeling among both. Now though there should be a division of opinion about the rectitude of his sentiments on

this subject, there will be none, I presume, about the sincerity of his motives; and while some may think the PRINCE WAS MISTAKEN, all will agree that the FRIEND WAS REAL. All the wise and feeling amongst Protestants, will regret the loss of a sincere friend, whose influence would tell prodigiously on the ultimate fate of this great subject; respecting which I would say, that he who upon it can be neutral, has yet to learn its importance-and that he who is indifferent to its issue, is unworthy of the privileges it agitates.— Pp. 29, 30.

A Sermon. By the Rev. Peter Roe, Kilkenny.

Ecclesiastes viii. 6-8. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. For he knoweth not that which shall be, for who can tell him when it shall be? There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he in the day of death; and there power is no discharge in that war. THE love of the world has such a firm hold of the human heart, and the things of the world are so alluring, that we have need to be reminded continually

that they are all vanity; and that the more they abound, the more does vexation of spirit abound. But the evil does not end here-for the love of the Father is opposed to the love of the world-both cannot exist together at the same time, in the same heart-and therefore as the former urges on the soul to obedience here, and to glory hereafter, so the latter chains it down and prevents even its aspiration after heavenly joys. This love of the world produces a soul-destroying contentedness, blunts the edge of the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and altogether hides eternity from the view: hence it is that the preaching of the Gospel is so little regarded, that sin is trifled with, and the power and authority of God resisted. We may learn from the parable of the sower, that the seed was as effectually prevented from yielding an increase, by the thorns which choked it when it had sprung up, as by the birds of the air which devoured it when it was sowed by the way-side. But, plain as is this lesson, we do not learn it, until taught it by the Holy Spirit. That Spirit does, however, often sanctify afflictive dispensations, and make the season of terror, of despondency, and of grief, the season of gracious visitation. Before David was afflicted, he went wrong; but afterwards he kept the law of God, that is, walked according to the divine will. The Thessalonians received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost; and the experience of the ministers of Christ will bear them out in saying, that they have frequently seen the most thoughtless and irreligious of their flocks brought, for the first time in their lives, to think seriously, and to feel penitently, upon beds of sickness, when distracted by pain, oppressed by weakness, or threatened by death. Thus we find that in the over-ruling providence of God, the very calamities which owe their existence to the entrance of sin into the world, are made instrumental in loosening the cords by which the soul is tied down to earth; and although there are multitudes who are alike insensible to the howling tempest of divine wrath, and the soft gale of divine grace, yet there are a few, who hear bothwho attend to both-who are influenced by both, and who are led by them to wrap around them more closely the robe of the Redeemer's righteousness. May Jehovah give you grace to see his rod when he chastens, and lead you to im

prove the times and seasons of his providential dealings!

However we may escape other sorrows, or be insensible to other events, there is one trying and important event which all will witness, and in which all are interested; because it will in a moment deprive us of all we have seen, or loved, or possessed on earth, and be followed by a doom of unutterable misery or joy-that event is death. Its chambers are filling fast; its destructive power is felt at the very same moment, like an electric shock, in every nation, in every quarter of our globe; and each returning sun seems to rise for the very purpose of enabling us to read the letters of surviving friends, announcing the removal of those who were beloved by them and us, or to peruse in our public journals the records of departed greatness; or perhaps to behold the last pangs of expiring nature in those with whom we once took sweet counsel, and with whom we walked as friends. In every county, in every city, and almost in every village, we have repositories of the dead: yea, if our eyes were opened to the subject in the manner they ought to be, we should, as it were, perceive a tomb in every family. The very ocean is peopled with human beings, who must be given up in the day when small and great shall stand before God.

Once more has the kuell of death resounded in the ears of all the inhabitants of this United Kingdom! Once more are we brought to contemplate a striking proof of the instability of human greatness! Once more have we received a call from a Prince's tomb, to prepare to meet the just judge, in whose sight the sons of men are but as grasshoppers, and the very nations of the earth but as the small dust of the balance! Once more does the voice of eternal truth proclaim to man, dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return! Once more does the yawning grave

prepare to hide from the view the first subject in our land, and plunge into deep sorrow a monarch and a family dear to every truly loyal heart! The Duke of York is dead, and insensible alike to the calumnies of his enemies and to the flatteries of his pretended friends but impartial history will do justice to his character, whilst his memory will be revered by the most distinguished army in the world, by the friends of our unrivalled constitution in church and state, and by the lovers of scriptural education. How greatly must it have cheered the heart of a soldier, dying upon the field of battle in a distant land, to be assured that his children at home would not be left destitute of a protector, but find a refuge in the Hibernian and Chelsea schools: those monuments of a nation's gratitude and liberality, called into exercise at the particular recommendation of the kind and benevolent Prince whose loss we deplore. He was Patron of the Naval and Military Bible Society, established so far back as the year 1780: and only a short period has elapsed since he issued an order, carrying at this moment into operation, for the supply of a copy of the Sacred Scriptures to every soldier in the British army capable of reading it. Thus strikingly did he follow the footsteps of his revered father, who solemnly expressed the fervent wish of his heart, that every individual in his dominions might be able to read the Bible and have a Bible to read. This eminently useful Prince is removed, and at a time when our church and state are assaulted with no ordinary degree of virulence and power. We must acknowledge the loss to be great, but we are taught not to put our trust in princes, nor in any child of man: and we may rest assured, that if our concerns are fully committed into the hand of the Lord, he will order all things well.

to the serious perusal of our readers.

APRIL 1827.

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