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SCHOOLMASTERS' DUTIES.

Covenanter, and then as a persecutor, foresworn and ferocious. And what are the lessons which such a record teaches? Dark glimpses into human nature are here obtained. In the same heart there may lie folded up the most contrary principles, but all of the earth, earthy, while grace has not taken possession of the soul. Lauderdale, subscribing the Covenant, pleading and voting at the Westminster Assembly, or consenting to do penance for some of his delinquencies in the church at Largs-how different from Lauderdale commanding judges to condemn, perjuring himself that one whom he reckoned a poor fanatic might be butchered, rifling thousands of their all, and hurrying other thousands into an eternal world, presiding at the torture, directing the turning of the screw, counting the blows of the mallet, feasting on the agonies of his victim, and dismissing him with the blasphemous jest, "Let him glorify God in the Grassmarket!" How unlike in appearance, yet how identical in fact and spirit! Lauderdale, in the chapel of Henry VII., beside Samuel Rutherford and Alexander Henderson, was the same as Lauderdale on the bench or in the Council-chamber, committing perjury side by side with James Sharp. How? Why? Because he was acting on the principles of human nature in either case. He went out from the Covenanters, because he was never of them. He hated them with all his heart, because he had betrayed or injured them. His history is one of the darkest that the records of the past contain; but it speaks the same lesson as that of Julian, Spira, or Sharp. It was nature, not grace, that guided them, and by nature all men are hateful and hating-they are enmity even against God (Rom. viii. 7), and much more against man. In a word, Julian amid the austerities of a monk, Spira while professing to preach the Gospel, Sharp while watching over the interests of a Church which he eventually betrayed, and Lauderdale signing the Covenant, or helping to compile the

Westminster Standards, were all of one spirit, amid all their pretences. Their religion was political, hereditary, or selfish, and they were unmasked on this side the grave, whereas multitudes are not unmasked till they are beyond it. Unbelieving men exult in such cases, as if they proved that religion is all hypocrisy and pretence; but the man who is wise with the wisdom which the Holy One imparts (1 Cor. i. 30), will at once perceive that they only prove the apostate never to have been converted, never to have been the subject or recipient of grace, and consequently at the mercy of the first temptation, like a ship without a pilot at the mercy of the nearest rock.

It will not be supposed that we have spoken here as if there could be no apostasy except in such signal instances as have now been described. Men make shipwreck of the faith and a good conscience in every 'sphere, and at every level. We have selected the cases of Julian and Spira, Sharp and Lauderdale, only because they exhibit the moral ravages of apostasy under a magnifying lens, and render its guilt and danger more apparent. In a sense far different from that in which the words were first employed, they are as cities set upon a hill, and we point to them for warning and for guidance.

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TO SCHOOLMASTERS-THEIR DUTY TO THEIR CHILDREN'S SOULS. (From the Works of Richard Baxter.) PASSING by all your grammatical employment, I shall only leave you these brief directions, for the higher and more noble exercises of your profession. I. Determine first rightly of your end; and then let it be continually in your eye, and let all your endeavours be directed in order to the attainment of it. If your end be chiefly your own commodity or reputation, the means will be distorted accordingly, and your labours perverted, and your calling corrupted, and embased (to yourselves), by your perverse intentions. See, therefore-1. That your ultimate end be the pleasing and glorifying of God. 2. And this by promoting the public good, by fitting youth for public service. And, 3. Forming their minds to the love and service of their Maker. 4. And furthering their salvation, and their welfare in the world. These noble designs will lift up your minds to an industrious and cheerful performance of your duties! He that seeketh great and heavenly things, will do it with great resolution and alacrity; when any drowsy, creeping pace, and deceitful, superficial labours, will satisfy him that hath poor and selfish ends. As God will not accept your labours as any service of his, if your ends be wrong, so he useth not to give so large a blessing to such men's labours as to others.

II. Understand the excellency of your calling, and what fair opportunities you have to promote those noble ends; and also how great a charge you undertake; that so you may be kept from sloth and superficialness, and may be quickened to a diligent discharge of your undertaken trust.-1. You have not 2. You have not the care of their bodies, but of their a charge of sheep or oxen, but of rational creatures. minds; you are not to teach them a trade to live by only in the world, but to inform their minds with the knowledge of their Maker, and to cultivate their wits, and advance their reason, and fit them for the most manlike conversations. 3. You have them not (as pastors) when they are hardened in sin by pretwigs to bow, and the most tractable age to tame: judice and long custom; but you have the tenderest you have paper to write on not wholly white, but that which hath the fewest blots and lines to be expunged. 4. You have them not as volunteers, but as obliged to obey you, and under the correction of the rod; which with tender age is a great advantage. 5. You have them not only for your auditors in a general lecture (as preachers have them at a sermon), but in your nearest converse, where you may teach them as particularly as you please, and examine their profiting, and call them daily to account. have them not once a week (as preachers have them), but all the week long, from day to day, and from morning until night. 7. You have them at that age which doth believe their teachers, and take all upon trust, before they are grown up to self-conceitedness, and to contradict and quarrel with their teachers (as with their pastors they very ordinarily do). All these are great advantages to your ends.

6. You

III. Labour to take pleasure in your work, and make it as a recreation, and take heed of a weary or diverted mind.-1. To this end consider often what is said above; think on the excellency of your ends, and of the worth of souls, and of the greatness of your advantages. 2. Take all your scholars as committed to your charge by Jesus Christ; as if he had said to you, Take these whom I have so dearly bought, and train them up for my Church and service. 3. Remember what good one scholar may do, when he cometh to be ripe for the service of the Church or

commonwealth! How many souls some of them may be a means to save! Or if they be but fitted for a private life, what blessings may they be to their families and neighbours! And remember what a joyful thing it will be, to see them in heaven with Christ for ever! How cheerfully should such excellent things be sought! If you take pleasure in your work, it will not only be an ease and happiness to yourselves, but greatly further your diligence and success. But when men have a base esteem of their employment, and look at children as so many swine or sheep, or have some higher matters in their eye, and make their schools but the way to some preferment, or more desired life, then usually they do their work deceitfully, and anything will serve the turn, because they are weary of it, and because their hearts are somewhere else.

IV. Seeing it is divinity that teacheth them the beginning and the end of all their other studies, let it never be omitted or slightly slubbered over, and thrust into a corner; but give it the precedency, and teach it them with greater care and diligence than any other part of learning; especially teach them the catechism and the Holy Scriptures. If you think that this is no part of your work, few wise men will choose such teachers for their children. If you say, as some sectaries, that children should not be taught to speak holy words, till they are more capable to understand the sense, because it is hypocrisy, or taking the name of God in vain; I have answered this before, and showed that words being the signs, must be learned in order to the understanding of the sense, or thing that is signified; and that this is not to use such words in vain, how holy soever, but to the proper end for which they are appointed. Both in divine and human learning, the memories of children must first be furnished, in order to the furnishing of their understandings afterwards. And this is a chief point of the master's skill, that time be not lost, nor labour frustrated. For the memories of children are as capacious as men's of riper age; and therefore they should be stored early with that which will be useful to them afterwards: but till they come to some maturity of age, their judgments are not ripe for information about any high or difficult points. Therefore teach them betimes the words of catechisms and some chapters of the Bible; and teach them the meaning by degrees as they are capable. And make them perceive that you take this for the best of all their learning.

V. Besides the forms of catechism, which you teach them, speak often to them some serious words, about their souls and the life to come, in such a plain, familiar manner, as tendeth most to the awakening of their consciences, and making them perceive how greatly what you say concerneth them. A little such familiar serious discourse, in an interlocutory way, may go to their hearts, and never be forgotten; when mere forms alone are lifeless and unprofitable. Abundance of good might be done on children, if parents and schoolmasters did well perform their parts in this.

be all in vain. Therefore prayer is a means as teaching, to do them gud; and des go together. He that hath a heart to prote for his scholars shall certainly have line comfort in his labours, and it is haely a sa do most good to them.

VIII. Watch over them, by one ans they are behind your backs, at their m verse with each other; for it is an wickedness that children use to learn at ** which never cometh to their masters' cars e in some great and public schools Tey tam thither to learn sobriety and piety of theết to do oftentimes learn profaneness, and rid cursing, and swearing, and scorning, deridiza viling one another, of their ungracious scOGET. And those lessons are so easily learn, tatt few children but are infected with sec bauchery, though their parents and may against it; and perhaps it never come a knowledge. So also for gaming and ra and fighting with one another, and and romances, and lying, and abundances de which must be carefully watched a BOLT

IX. Correct them more sharply f God than for their dulness and failing the ba Though negligence in their learning erry dulged, yet smart correction should the pecially to take heed of sinning; that they many t derstand that sin is the greatest evil.

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X. Especially curb or cashier the lam piety and rebellion, who corrupt the res are few great schools but have some that T ously debauched; that glory in the wrec that in filthy talking, and fighting, a cas reviling words, are the infecters of the res. -usually they are some of the bigger sort, that greatest fighters, and master the rest, and neering over them, and abusing them, f 20 both to follow them in their sin and to commu The correcting of such, or expelling them i rigible, is of great necessity to preserve the res if they are suffered the rest will be secretly and undone, before the master is aware. Th many that have a care of their children's site." very fearful of sending them to great schools, and rather choose private schock that a freer from that danger; it being almost of 18 27. concernment to children, what their compass as what their master is.

YOU LOSE NOTHING BY BEING RELIGIE AN estate is a very useful hedge about you, the off those many proud that will be trampling that is poor. And nothing raises or keeps hedge like the grace of God, For it spirts rou diligence, which gets riches; with hum, wa hates superfluity, and saveth what is got; with cha which puts out all to use, and unto that Lord never pays less than a hundred-fold in this Liet

VI. Take strict account of their spending the Lord's-Sin is this hedge-breaker: rags are mostly sin's day!-how they hear, and what they remember, and how they spend the rest of the day; for the right spending of that day is of great importance to their souls! And a custom of play and idleness on that day doth usually debauch them, and prepare them for much worse. Though they are from under your eye on the Lord's-day, yet if on Monday they be called to account, it will leave an awe upon them in your absence.

VII. Pray with them and for them. If God give not the increase by the dews of heaven, and shine not on your labours, your planting and watering will

When it is otherwise, and sin makes you a bet it will be full of snakes and snares. In the f of" sinful "sufficiency you will be in straits" xx. 22); and it is odds but "the straits" will bel and "the fulness" a very little while. On the c hand, when a convert's duty to God makes his po it makes him rather a martyr than a beggar. Fr thereby testifies God's truth; and through the of God to his covenant, he abounds in the mi his wants. For God doth but prune his viES; burns up none but thorns. By poverty he may sinners, but he still enricheth saints. Do but

OUGHT A WICKED MAN TO PRAY!

you can never want what is truly good for you God has it. The first minute that a great begins to be good for you, you shall have it: you never have a great one, you shall still have d one. Whereas, unconverts can have but one ese two-a vexing adversity, or (what is worse) ying prosperity; one made of thick clay and

er cares.

rth and comfort are the honey and sweetness of beings. Now, conversion makes "exchange," "no robbery," of these. There is in Africa a y lusciously sweet; but the bees gather it from nous weeds, and it affects with madness and y all that eat of it. He were no thief that I take that sort of honey from you, and give most wholesome to you. Conversion deals no wise by you: only what it gives is more sweet, ore wholesome; and the quantity greater, as well e quality better. For, observe ye, God forbids ny one kind or degree of pleasure, but what is ious, and what your very nature, reason, and est do forbid you. I deny it not, that converts valleys of troubles; but then they have doors of They are in wildernesses; but God prepares 1 tables therein: driest rocks yield them water, in darkest dungeons they have shining lights. y receive here their evil things, and have their upon earth; but then it is a heaven upon earth, ink that this is all the hell they shall ever en

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And as for the ways he commandeth converts valk in, they are all "of pleasantness." (Prov. 17.) Mysteriously, yet most certainly, godly ow is made a sweet thing. Every week almost e I people crying for more of it than I think God ws them. O youth, "when thou art a convert, u shalt feel what I tell thee! " No such manna 8 in Calabria, none falls from heaven, like that ch feasteth the camps of sincere converts. The vert state hath of the joy, as well as of the purity, heaven; unthought-of delights; such as do not die the enjoyment; no, but be stronger than death, as il as sweeter than life; such as none of the busylies of this world ever found in the mills of their siness, or the circles of their pleasure. Gilboa's untains had not rain or dew-unconvert youths ve not joy or peace. Madness is theirs-mirth they ow not. The three Hebrew martyrs were merrier the fiery furnace than their persecutor was in his lace.-Burgess.

MORNING MEDITATIONS.

RESH airing our souls in heaven will engender in us rer spirits and nobler thoughts. A morning seaning would secure us for all the day. Though other cessary thoughts about our callings will and must me in, yet when we have despatched them, let us tend our morning theme as our chief companion. s a man that is going with another about some conderable business, though he meets with several riends in the way, and salutes some, and with others with whom he hath some affairs he spends a little me, yet he quickly returns to his companion, and oth together go their intended stage: do thus in he present case. Our minds are active, and will be oing something, though to little purpose; and if they De not fixed upon some noble object, they will, like uadmen and fools, be mightily pleased in playing with straws. The thoughts of God were the first visitors David had in the morning; God and his heart

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met together as soon as he was awake, and kept company all the day after.-Charnock.

THE DIVINE ENCYCLOPÆDIA THE Bible is a divine encyclopædia in itself. It contains history the most authentic and ancient, tracing it back to the first creation of our world; and prophecy the most important and interesting, traced forward to its final consummation; journeys surpassing all others in the marvellousness of their adventures, and the dignity of their guide, for they were marked by miracles at every step, and in every movement directed by God; the travels of the most distinguished missionaries, the first preachers of the Gospel, and the lives of the most illustrious personages, including the biography of the Son of God; events more wonderful than romance ever imagined, and stories more fascinating than fancy ever sketched; the finest specimens of poetry and eloquence-of sound philosophy, and solid argument; models of virtue the most attractive, and inaxims of wisdom the most profound; prayers the most appropriate in every variety of spiritual experience, and songs of praise that would not be unworthy an angel's tongue; precepts of unparalleled importance, and parables of unrivalled beauty; examples of consistent piety, suited to every situation; and lessons of divine instruction, adapted to every age.- White.

OUGHT A WICKED MAN TO PRAY? THOSE Who deny this position seem to have an eye to those passages of Scripture which declare "the sacrifice and way of the wicked to be an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. xv. 8, 9); and to conclude from them that God does not require any sacrifice or prayer at their hands. But, if so, why did Peter exhort the sorcerer to pray? (Acts viii. 22.) And wherefore is the fury of God denounced against the families that call not upon his name? (Jer. x. 25.) An hypothesis which flies in the face of the express language of Scripture is inadmissible, and the framers of it, to be consistent, should avow themselves infidels.

If they mean only to deny that God requires such prayers as wicked men actually offer, the prayer of a hard, impenitent, and unbelieving heart, I have no controversy with them. God cannot possibly approve anything of this kind. But then the same is true of every other duty. Wicked men do nothing that is well-pleasing to God-nothing which is aimed at his glory, or done in obedience to his authority-everything that is done is done for selfish ends. If they read the Scriptures, it is not to know the will of God and do it; or, if they hear the word, it is not with any true desire to profit by it. Even their pursuit of the common good things of this life is that they may consume them upon their lusts; hence the very 'ploughing of the wicked is sin." (Prov. xxi. 4.) Yet no one would infer from hence that it is not their duty to read the Word of God, nor attend to the preaching of the Gospel, nor pursue the necessary avocations of life; neither would he reckon it absurd to exhort them to such exercises as these.

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The truth is, wicked men are required to do all these things, not carnally, but with a right end and a right spirit. In this way Simon Magus, though

commonwealth! How many souls some of them may be a means to save! Or if they be but fitted for a private life, what blessings may they be to their families and neighbours! And remember what a joyful thing it will be, to see them in heaven with Christ for ever! How cheerfully should such excellent things be sought! If you take pleasure in your work, it will not only be an ease and happiness to yourselves, but greatly further your diligence and success. But when men have a base esteem of their employment, and look at children as so many swine or sheep, or have some higher matters in their eye, and make their schools but the way to some preferment, or more desired life, then usually they do their work deceitfully, and anything will serve the turn, because they are weary of it, and because their hearts are somewhere else.

IV. Seeing it is divinity that teacheth them the beginning and the end of all their other studies, let it never be omitted or slightly slubbered over, and thrust into a corner; but give it the precedency, and teach it them with greater care and diligence than any other part of learning; especially teach them the catechism and the Holy Scriptures. If you think that this is no part of your work, few wise men will choose such teachers for their children. If you say, as some sectaries, that children should not be taught to speak holy words, till they are more capable to understand the sense, because it is hypocrisy, or taking the name of God in vain; I have answered this before, and showed that words being the signs, must be learned in order to the understanding of the sense, or thing that is signified; and that this is not to use such words in vain, how holy soever, but to the proper end for which they are appointed. Both in divine and human learning, the memories of children must first be furnished, in order to the furnishing of their understandings afterwards. And this is a chief point of the master's skill, that time be not lost, nor labour frustrated. For the memories of children are as capacious as men's of riper age; and therefore they should be stored early with that which will be useful to them afterwards: but till they come to some maturity of age, their judgments are not ripe for information about any high or difficult points. Therefore teach them betimes the words of catechisms and some chapters of the Bible; and teach them the meaning by degrees as they are capable. And make them perceive that you take this for the best of all their learning.

V. Besides the forms of catechism, which you teach them, speak often to them some serious words, about their souls and the life to come, in such a plain, familiar manner, as tendeth most to the awakening of their consciences, and making them perceive how greatly what you say concerneth them. A little such familiar serious discourse, in an interlocutory way, may go to their hearts, and never be forgotten; when mere forms alone are lifeless and unprofitable. Abundance of good might be done on children, if parents and schoolmasters did well perform their parts in this.

VI. Take strict account of their spending the Lord'sday!-how they hear, and what they remember, and how they spend the rest of the day; for the right spending of that day is of great importance to their souls! And a custom of play and idleness on that day doth usually debauch them, and prepare them for much worse. Though they are from under your eye on the Lord's-day, yet if on Monday they be called to account, it will leave an awe upon them in your absence.

VII. Pray with them and for them. If God give not the increase by the dews of heaven, and shine not on your labours, your planting and watering will

be all in vain. Therefore prayer is as suitable a means as teaching, to do them good; and they must go together. He that bath a heart to pray earnestly | for his scholars shall certainly have himself most comfort in his labours, and it is likely that he shall do most good to them.

VIII. Watch over them, by one another, when they are behind your backs, at their sports or converse with each other; for it is abundance of wickedness that children use to learn and practise, which never cometh to their masters' ears, especially in some great and public schools. They that came thither to learn sobriety and piety of their masters, do oftentimes learn profaneness, and ribaldry, and¦ cursing, and swearing, and scorning, deriding, and reviling one another, of their ungracious school-fellows. And those lessons are so easily learnt, that there are few children but are infected with some such debauchery, though their parents and masters watch against it; and perhaps it never cometh to their knowledge. So also for gaming and robbing orchards, and fighting with one another, and reading play-books and romances, and lying, and abundance of other vices which must be carefully watched against.

IX. Correct them more sharply for sins against God than for their dulness and failing at their books. Though negligence in their learning is not to be indulged, yet smart correction should teach them especially to take heed of sinning; that they may understand that sin is the greatest evil.

X. Especially curb or cashier the leaders of im-" piety and rebellion, who corrupt the rest. There are few great schools but have some that are notoriously debauched; that glory in their wickedness; that in filthy talking, and fighting, and cursing, and reviling words, are the infecters of the rest. And usually they are some of the bigger sort, that are the greatest fighters, and master the rest, and by domineering over them, and abusing them, force them both to follow them in their sin and to conceal it. The correcting of such, or expelling them if incorrigible, is of great necessity to preserve the rest; for if they are suffered the rest will be secretly infected and undone, before the master is aware. This causeth many that have a care of their children's souls, to be very fearful of sending them to great and public schools, and rather choose private schools that are freer from that danger; it being almost of as great concernment to children, what their companions be as what their master is.

YOU LOSE NOTHING BY BEING RELIGIOUS. AN estate is a very useful hedge about you, to keep off those many proud that will be trampling upon all that is poor. And nothing raises or keeps up this hedge like the grace of God, For it spirits you with diligence, which gets riches; with humility, which hates superfluity, and saveth what is got; with charity, which puts out all to use, and unto that Lord who never pays less than a hundred-fold in this life itself. Sin is this hedge-breaker: rags are mostly sin's livery. When it is otherwise, and sin makes you a hedge, it will be full of snakes and snares. "In the fulness of" sinful "sufficiency you will be in straits" (Job xx. 22); and it is odds but "the straits" will be long, and "the fulness" a very little while. On the other hand, when a convert's duty to God makes him poor, it makes him rather a martyr than a beggar. For he thereby testifies God's truth; and through the truth of God to his covenant, he abounds in the middle of his wants. For God doth but prune his vines; he burns up none but thorns. By poverty he may undo sinners, but he still enricheth saints. Do but con

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OUGHT A WICKED MAN TO PRAY?

vert; you can never want what is truly good for you while God has it. The first minute that a great estate begins to be good for you, you shall have it: and if you never have a great one, you shall still have a good one. Whereas, unconverts can have but one of these two-a vexing adversity, or (what is worse) a slaying prosperity; one made of thick clay and deeper cares.

Mirth and comfort are the honey and sweetness of your beings. Now, conversion makes "exchange," but 46 no robbery," ," of these. There is in Africa a honey lusciously sweet; but the bees gather it from poisonous weeds, and it affects with madness and frenzy all that eat of it. He were no thief that should take that sort of honey from you, and give the most wholesome to you. Conversion deals no otherwise by you: only what it gives is more sweet, as more wholesome; and the quantity greater, as well as the quality better. For, observe ye, God forbids not any one kind or degree of pleasure, but what is injurious, and what your very nature, reason, and interest do forbid you. I deny it not, that converts have valleys of troubles; but then they have doors of hope. They are in wildernesses; but God prepares them tables therein: driest rocks yield them water, and in darkest dungeons they have shining lights. They receive here their evil things, and have their hell upon earth; but then it is a heaven upon earth, to think that this is all the hell they shall ever endure. And as for the ways he commandeth converts to walk in, they are all "of pleasantness." (Prov. iii. 17.) Mysteriously, yet most certainly, godly sorrow is made a sweet thing. Every week almost have I people crying for more of it than I think God allows them. O youth, "when thou art a convert, thou shalt feel what I tell thee! " No such manna falls in Calabria, none falls from heaven, like that which feasteth the camps of sincere converts. The convert state hath of the joy, as well as of the purity, of heaven; unthought-of delights; such as do not die in the enjoyment; no, but be stronger than death, as well as sweeter than life; such as none of the busybodies of this world ever found in the mills of their business, or the circles of their pleasure. Gilboa's mountains had not rain or dew-unconvert youths have not joy or peace. Madness is theirs mirth they know not. The three Hebrew martyrs were merrier in the fiery furnace than their persecutor was in his palace.-Burgess.

MORNING MEDITATIONS.

FRESH airing our souls in heaven will engender in us purer spirits and nobler thoughts. A morning seasoning would secure us for all the day. Though other necessary thoughts about our callings will and must come in, yet when we have despatched them, let us attend our morning theme as our chief companion. As a man that is going with another about some considerable business, though he meets with several friends in the way, and salutes some, and with others with whom he hath some affairs he spends a little time, yet he quickly returns to his companion, and both together go their intended stage: do thus in the present case. Our minds are active, and will be doing something, though to little purpose; and if they be not fixed upon some noble object, they will, like madmen and fools, be mightily pleased in playing with straws. The thoughts of God were the first visitors David had in the morning; God and his heart

563

met together as soon as he was awake, and kept company all the day after.-Charnock.

THE DIVINE ENCYCLOPEDIA

THE Bible is a divine encyclopædia in itself. It contains history the most authentic and ancient, tracing) it back to the first creation of our world; and prophecy the most important and interesting, traced forward to its final consummation; journeys surpassing all others in the marvellousness of their adventures, and the dignity of their guide, for they were marked by miracles at every step, and in every distinguished missionaries, the first preachers of the movement directed by God; the travels of the most Gospel, and the lives of the most illustrious personages, including the biography of the Son of God; events more wonderful than romance ever imagined, and stories more fascinating than fancy ever sketched; the finest specimens of poetry and eloquence-of sound philosophy, and solid argument; models of virtue the most attractive, and maxims of wisdom the most profound; prayers the most appropriate in praise that would not be unworthy an angel's tongue; every variety of spiritual experience, and songs of precepts of unparalleled importance, and parables of unrivalled beauty; examples of consistent piety, suited to every situation; and lessons of divine instruction, adapted to every age.—White.

OUGHT A WICKED MAN TO PRAY?

THOSE who deny this position seem to have an eye to those passages of Scripture which declare "the sacrifice and way of the wicked to be an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. xv. 8, 9); and to conclude from them that God does not require any sacrifice or prayer at their hands. But, if so, why did Peter exhort the sorcerer to pray? (Acts viii. 22.) And wherefore is the fury of God denounced against the families that call not upon his name? (Jer. x. 25.) An hypothesis which flies in the face of the express language of Scripture is inadmissible, and the framers of it, to be consistent, should avow themselves infidels.

If they mean only to deny that God requires such prayers as wicked men actually offer, the prayer of a hard, impenitent, and unbelieving heart, I have no controversy with them. God cannot possibly approve anything of this kind. But then the same is true of every other duty. Wicked men do nothing that is well-pleasing to God-nothing which is aimed at his glory, or done in obedience to his authorityeverything that is done is done for selfish ends. If they read the Scriptures, it is not to know the will of God and do it; or, if they hear the word, it is not with any true desire to profit by it. Even their pursuit of the common good things of this life is that they may consume them upon their lusts; hence the very ploughing of the wicked is sin." (Prov. xxi. 4.) Yet no one would infer from hence that it is not their duty to read the Word of God, nor attend to the preaching of the Gospel, nor pursue the necessary avocations of life; neither would he reckon it absurd to exhort them to such exercises as these.

66

The truth is, wicked men are required to do all these things, not carnally, but with a right end and a right spirit. In this way Simon Magus, though

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