off into vain discussions, which turn men from the main point. In these, and perhaps in some other senses, I grant, that they are to aim at "the simple exhibition of truth." But Satan will sometimes contrive to get a maxim into circulation, obtain currency for it, and give it a meaning afterwards. By such hellish alchemy, this phrase, which had originally something plausible in it, is now little better than one of Satan's lies. It comes just to this; that we are to state the truth, and let error alone; as abominable a principle for pulpit instructions, as ever was recommended. Aim at the simple exhibition of truth.' That is, first, do not press the truth too strongly home; be contented with simply exhibiting it; it is so very beautiful, truth, you have only to display it in its native excellence, and all will love it, for its own sake: secondly, be not too vehement in denouncing error. These principles have been received and acted upon; and what are the consequences at this very moment? First, look, I pray you, into the world at large. Here, all is going wrong. All sorts of errors in sentiment are manifesting themselves by all sorts of iniquities in practice. Public principle we have NONE: and hence public integrity, or rather public decency in maintaining some little shew of integrity, is rapidly on the decline. All this, upon the system of adhering to "the simple exhibition of truth,”—i. e. of not interfering, the pulpit, High church and Evangelical, in a great measure lets alone. Hence Satan is taking his full swing through the land, no mortal interposing; and is rapidly profiting by his advantage, to sow on all sides, with an hundred hands, vice, impurity, profaneness, popery, and misery, in an open field. Meanwhile the preacher goes on, from Sunday to Sunday, with his "simple exhibition of truth." Next, consider the religious world. Here, religious errors of the most fatal kind are shewing themselves in rank abundance, and spreading unopposed, on all sides. I say, Now, even now. It is a remarkable feature of the church in the present day, that such fatal errors are shooting up on all sides in the midst of us, and that no one comes forward to check them. What! Is nobody aware of what is going on? Are all our good men asleep? Oh, no. They are all wide awake. They are all alive. They are all at their posts. They are all occupied, with all their might, in "the simple exhibition of truth." What then can we look for in particular congregations, so far as this is the case, but-DEATH? All is tame. We come to this at last, that the people shall agree to it, let the pastor say what he will: and let me be permitted to observe, that may be a very bad state for a people, when they agree to all their minister says. Where the whole congregation, good, bad, and indifferent, go on agreeing to the whole truth as it is set before them, yet go on without improving, the minister may have little substantial cause for satisfaction. This may be a very different thing from true peace; a very different thing from a true harmony and union in the Gospel verity. The flock has its errors and its sins: the pastor goes on preaching the truth: the truth is praised but the sins and errors are not surrendered. And why? It never comes to that. The truth and the error are never brought fairly into conflict. Sin is not assailed in its strong holds. The hearers grant all that they hear to be very good, but never dream that it is meant for them. No more it is. All such meaning is disclaimed upon principle. All the preacher's object is "the simple exhibition of truth." Has the worst been spoken? I fear not. For in cases where every thing is brought to this" simple exhibition," there still will remain a question, whether the truth is really exhibited after all. It is a question for every preacher to ask himself, whether he really does this. But where a person reduces all to that one point, I am bigoted enough to suspect peculiar causes of failure in the execution. 66 Why, really, I do wish to exhibit the truth, and the whole truth: but then I must confess, that I wish to avoid crude statements: I have a particular objection to any thing crude." Now this brings us to the point. What sort of statements are those which we now call crude? Any plain, unqualified, scriptural statement of a scriptural truth, without explanation, or in other words without explaining away, it is now very much the fashion, with a very knowing look, to call crude. Let a man give such a plain, straightforward statement, adding no qualification, on the subject of the inspiration of Scripture, justification, adoption, assurance, simple faith in Christ, regeneration, predestination, election, the absolute necessity of obedience and submission to God, or any other cardinal doctrine of the Gospel, and there is a very great probability that it will be set down as crude. Thus the end is, that truth is not simply exhibited at all. We reduce the whole to this, that such a simple exhibition is to be made; but the fear of crudeness interposes, and it is not made. For the sake of this simple exhibition, all is omitted besides, and then the exhibition does not take place! Thus Satan gains his end; and while carrying on his work, as now he is, upon a gigantic scale, contrives to neutralize the resistance, which the preached word ought to oppose to his progress. The exhibition and his works do not interfere with one another. The "exhibition" goes on, and his works go on too. He sees before him an open field, and not an adversary to resist him. In pointing out these evils, I denounce no other errors as prevalent around me, than such as I am conscious of in myself: and, though bigotry is no excuse for pretending to dive into the motives of others, I hope I may lay open my own. For I also have been much inclined, formerly, to the " simple exhibition;" or I might not now be able to say so much harm of it: and this I know, that my own motives were of such a kind, that no plan of conduct which they could lead me to adopt was likely to do much good. I know that such things as these entered into my own case, when disposed to limit all to the " simple exhibi tion." There were loose views of the evil of sin. There was want of due concern for souls about to perish. There was a laxity of doctrinal principles. There was sloth, there was false tenderness, there was false nicety, there was a low standard, there was an indisposition to strive against sin, there was the fear of committing myself, there was rank cowardice. So much for motives. But as to the tendency, as to the end whither the motives lead us, here I may speak of others as well as myself: and I say this, that the effects of contenting ourselves with the "simple exhibition of truth," the end to which it comes, the results, are these: a compromise with the world; a compromise with false doctrine; a compromise with sin in our people; in one word, a compromise with the evil one. Look! What monstrous errors are beginning to stalk abroad. See how they come out and make mows at us before the sun. Mark what an age we live in: an evil and adulterous age; and withal a very smooth, gentle, conciliatory age: an age that cheats, robs, and lies: an age that deals in murders, poison, and sorcery. And we know these things; and we say nothing about them; because we are intent upon "the simple exhibition of truth." Oh, why is not every man a Bigot! I'll tell you what, my friend. If we want to do any good, we must go to work in earnest, and that speedily. Our plans must be totally changed. The Lord hath a controversy with this people; and we ought to take part in it, on his side. You may be gentle, because it is the best way of managing people, and carrying objects: but this will not do. It is an evil time. The gentle, all-conciliating man is not the man for these days. The peaceful Solomon was the king exactly suited for the time when he reigned: but he would not have done for the warlike days of David. You will think it strange, what I am going to say: but we need more of a CONTROVERSIAL style, in declaring the truth from the pulpit.-" Controversial? The pulpit surely is the last place for controversy."-It is, it is. But we are now almost driven to our last place. Here the stand must be made. The opposite plan has been carried so far, that the enemies of the truth hardly understand us: they hardly know that we are against them. We must begin, then, to controvert. I mean, we must begin so to state the truth, that our truth shall be opposed to their error, and that they may feel it to be so. We must not go on in one course and let them go on in another; but we must so shape our course, as to meet them in theirs, to set ourselves against them. At present, indeed, even if truth and error do meet, they so meet that each slides by the other, without collision. We are terribly afraid of collision. But truth must now be so declared, as to lay hold of error: not to pass it by without a shock, but to meet it, full butt, with the full determination of bringing it to action, and trying the issue of the conflict. Are you delighted at the thought of general harmony? I tell you, General harmony, under present circumstances, is a very bad thing. Some among the partners in this harmony must be bad, unbelieving, unconverted men. Hence, if the word were so preached as really to touch them, you would have harmony no longer. We should at once find ourselves in conflict with them :-and oh for that glorious day, when the Lord of hosts, the God of battle, having put heart into them that are his, shall scatter the mist of treacherous concord, that now sits like a stagnant pestilence upon our land, in the dust, the flames, the outcry, and the agony, of a glorious conflict; out of which shall come forth celestial peace, beaming on the frightened world like sunshine after a storm, whilst mercy and truth meet together, and kiss each other, on the face of the renovated earth!-One thing is becoming more and more evident; that, in publicly declaring the truth, we ought to feel no hesitation in specifying prevalent errors. It has been urged, indeed, that by so doing, we may only put evil into the minds of our hearers, and lay a stumbling-block in their way. But the time for this objection is past. The evil is in their minds already. In bringing forth the error, therefore, we only bring forth what is there. Let every sermon, then, be a public execution. Drag out the caitiffs from their hiding-places: bind them hand and foot: bear them away, not down to the valley of Achor, but up to Calvary's summit, and slay them there. What, my brother? Do we begin to talk of their burning us? This is grand talking indeed: but I almost doubt whether we have any thing combustible. They might perhaps carry us to the stake; they might even set light to the faggots: but whether they could get us to burn is another matter. I question whether, after all, we might not escape the martyr's end; though not as salamanders, but as snowballs. The furnace is kindled; the culprit is thrown in; the people jump, and scream, and clap their hands. But, lo, a hissing noise, and the fire goes out!-Why, the Catholic bill passed both Houses, and not one Clergyman got taken up. Degraded church! Degenerate offspring of martyrs! As many of her forefathers as found a tomb, turn round upon their faces in their graves! I will tell you when we may expect the burning to begin. When we open our Bibles, and therein, by the light of the Spirit shining upon their contents, but more especially shining on the page of prophecy, take our view of the world: when, speaking by the same Spirit, according to what has there been shewn us, we pronounce a just judgment on society as it now is, balancing, with all its murders, sorceries, delusions, and abominations, upon the brink of a yearning hell: when we proclaim aloud that the works which it does are the devil's works, and the men whom it worships as idols are the devil's agents: when we see and feel all this so clearly, so fully, and so forcibly, that we shall not proclaim it with an uncertain voice, or in language that seems hesitating or figurative, but distinctly, plainly, broadly, literally, and most offensively; so that what we state shall in some measure come up to what is in the recreant CONSCIENCES of those who hear us, and set their own shame before their faces, and lay open, in such manner, the secrets of each man's charnel-house, that is, his own bosom, that they shall begin to gnaw their tongues for pain and rage:-then will the fires also begin to blaze; then will false professors begin to drop off, and leave the faithful to stand the brunt alone; and then perhaps will something happen to make it plain, that one at least thought far too highly of himself, and took far too good a name, when he signed himself A BIGOT. SUGGESTED IN A TIME OF AFFLICTION BY A MODERN SONNET. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.” Psa. cxix. 71. ANOTHER and another fearful blow! My earthly hopes and comforts all o'erthrown! 'Tis well! From this time forward I shall know Of faith, triumphant over doubt and fear, I use even pain and anguish to withstand The base affections which would bind me here, A sensual captive in a slavish band. N. THE CATHOLIC QUESTION NOT SETTLED. THE Catholic question still waits the settlement of that day, when He, who already rules, a spiritual King, shall be manifested to all, sitting upon the throne of his glory, openly to redress and rectify all things, whether in the world or in the church, and to judge his enemies.-The writer who a few months since announced "the last of the Catholic question," announced a falsehood, palpable at the time; but a falsehood not discernible in its full extent; which remains to be measured out with each succeeding year, that shall behold the question still undetermined, still agitated, and still agitating; and which will probably reach in length from the time when the lie was uttered to the consummation of all things.-Some may think, indeed, that they have disposed of the question by an Act of Parliament. But if so, its ghost still walks; and behold it here, once more to blanch their cheeks, and carry terror to their guilty hearts. THE CATHOLIC QUESTION IS NOT SETTLED. The present state of our country is prophetically depicted, in the word of the Lord spoken against the merchant-city of old by Ezekiel: "Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas" (xxvii. 26). Thy rulers have pulled thee out into dangers far beyond their powers to fathom; and in that situation an offshore storm has come upon thee and is shattering thee, at once forbidding thy return, and whelming thee in that ocean which was once thy wealth but is now thy destruction, in the general |