stead of being overjoyed as any other per. son would have been, he began to lament the loss (as he called it) of his sixty guineas. His contrivance, therefore, was how to cheat the oculist; he pretended he could not see anything perfectly; for that reason the bandage on his eye was continued a month longer than the usual time. By this means he obliged Taylor to compound the bargain, and accept of twenty guineas; for a covetous man thinks no method dishonest which he may legally practise to save his money. Dr. King. AVARICE-Misery of. "And "What an unfortunate wretch am I!" complained a miser to his neighbour. "Some one last night has taken away the treasure which I buried in the garden and laid a cursed stone in its place." yet you have never used your treasure," answered his neighbour. "Only bring yourself to believe that the stone is still your treasure, and you are none the poorer." "If I am none the poorer," returned the miser, "is not some one else the richer? The thought is enough to drive me mad." Prof. Lessing. AVARICE Pretence of. "There are those," as our Bromiard observes, "who in a fair pretence of mortification, like soaring kites, fly up from earth and cry, Fie, fie!' in their flight, as if they scorned these lower vanities, and yet, when they have done, stoop upon the first carrion that comes in their eye." False Pharisees, that under the colour of long prayers devour widows' houses; pharisaical votaries, that under colour of wilful poverty sweep away whole countries into their corban. Bp. Hall. AVARICE-Selfishness of. Had covetous men, as the fable goes of B. BABE-Comforts of a. A babe in a house is a well-spring of plea- Yet is it a talent of trust, a loan to be delight, but redolent of care; honey- BABIES-Death of. 'Twas summer, and a Sabbath eve, I saw a sight which made me grieve- Did on each face appear; A rose-bud nearly closed I found And yet the flowers that round them lay, Their mother, as a lily pale, Sat by them on a bed- BABIES-Intellect in. It is well for us that we are born babies in intellect. Could we understand half we should be filled with a conceit of our Briareus, each of them one hundred hands, what mothers say and do to their infants, they would all of them be employed in grasping and gathering, and hardly one of them in giving or laying out, but all in receiving, and none in restoring; a thing in itself so monstrous, that nothing in nature besides is like it, except it be death and the grave, the only things I know which are always carrying off the spoils of the world and never making restitution. For otherwise, all the parts of the universe, as they borrow of one another, so they will pay what they borrow, and that by so just and well balanced an equality, that their payments always keep pace with their receipts. J. Dryden. BABY-Death of a. The baby wept; The mother took it from the nurse's arms, And soothed its grief, and stilled its vain alarms, And baby slept. Again it weeps ; And God doth take it from the mother's arms, From present pain, and future unknown harms, Hinds. : BACKSLIDER-Course of a. As the fig-tree began to wither so his gifts begin to paire, as if a worm were still gnawing at them: his judgment rusts like a sword which is not used: his zeal trembleth as though it were in a palsie: his faith withereth as though it were blasted; and the image of death is upon all his religion. After this, he thinketh like Samson to pray as he did, and speak as he did, and hath no power, but wondereth like Zedekiah how the spirit is gone from him. Now when the good Spirit is gone, then cometh the spirit of blindness, and the spirit of error, and the spirit of fear; and all to seduce the spirit of man. After this, by little and little he falls into error, then he comes unto heresie, at last he plungeth into despair: after this if he inquire, God will not suffer him to learn: if he read, God will not suffer him to understand: if he hear, God will not suffer him to remember: if he pray, God seemeth unto him like Baal, which could not hear: at last he beholdeth his wretchedness, as Adam looked upon his nakedness; and mourneth for his gifts as Rachel wept for her children, because they were not. All this cometh to pass, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken that which he seemeth to have." Henry Smith. BACKSLIDER-Degradation of a. It is a just matter of lamentation when souls which have been clad with zeal as with scarlet, constantly forward for the glory of God, fall to such apostasy as with Demas to embrace the dunghill of this world, and with an avarous hausture to lick up the mud of corruption. T. Adams. BACKSLIDER-Lament of a. Where is the Saviour now, By heavy grief oppress'd; Where can the mourner go, Earth cannot heal the wounded breast My gracious Lord, return, Bind up my broken heart, And bid me cease to mourn; Then shall this night of sorrow flee, BACKSLIDER-Misery of a. Anon. After poor Sabat, an Arabian, who had professed faith in Christ by the means of the labours of the Rev. H. Martyn, had apostatised from Christianity, and written in favour of Mohammedanism, he was met at Malacca by the late Rev. Dr. Milne, questions, in reply to which, he said, “I who proposed to him some very pointed am unhappy! I have a mountain of burning sand on my head. When I go about, Ỉ know not what I am doing." It is indeed "an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord our God." W. Nicholson. Terrible is the falling away of any who make profession and act quite contrary to conviction. A lady here (Huddersfield) thus relates her own 66 case. 'Once Mr. and I were both in the right way. I drew him into the world again. Sweet was the time when first I felt In prayer my soul drew near the Lord, And when I read His holy Word, I called each promise mine. But now, when evening shade prevails, My soul in darkness mourns; And when the morn the light reveals, No light to me returns. J. Newton. BACKSLIDER-State of a. As David crieth, How are the mighty overthrown, we may mourn and say, How are the zealous cooled, how are the diligent tired! They which should season others are become like the white of an egg which hath no taste: once they seemed to have fruit, but now they are not hanged with leaves. As God cried unto Adam. " Adam, where art thou ?" so they may cry: Zeal, where art thou? Learning, where art thou? Conscience, where art thou? Love, where art thou? They which shined like the BACKSLIDING—Avoidance of. To avoid this state or recover from it, we should beware of the first appearance of sin; be much in prayer; attend the ordinances; and unite with the people of God. We should consider the awful instances of apostacy, as Saul, Judas, Demas, &c.; the many warnings we have of it (Matt. xxiv, 13; Heb. x, 38; Luke ix, 62); how it grieves the Holy Spirit; and how wretched it makes us; above all things, our dependence should be on God, that we may always be directed by His Spirit and kept by His power. BACKSLIDING-Causes of. C. Buck. Was it the spirit of sloth that seized you? Did you shrink from the effort of continued resistance to evil, and of prayerful watchfulness against your own insidious sin? Was it self-complacency which took possession of your heart? Was it anger that seized and shook you in its petulant grasp because you were not appreciated by your fellows, because you were mortified at the hollow preference given to inferior men, because your envied pre-eminence was denied you, because your efforts to do good were met with prejudice or repelled with scorn? Was it the spirit of indifference which exhausted your recent energy? Had you entered upon a work too high for yon, demanding sacrifices which your heroism knew not how to reach, and imposing restraints against which your pas Were your sions fretted in rebellion ? convictions superficial, unrealising things, that touched the surface of your nature, but that left the depths within, mere rousings of a narrow and selfish fear, but not an earthquake that shook to the very centre of the soul? Alas! from these, and many similar causes, how many have rested in the luxuriant arbour of their ease until they have lost their roll, or entangled themselves in the skilful toils of the flatterer, or lain down in troubled and almost hopeless slumber upon the world's enchanted ground! W. M. Punshon. The cares of the world; improper connections; inattention to secret or closet duties; self-conceit and dependence; indulgence; listening to and parleying with temptations. C. Buck. BACKSLIDING-Consequences of. Loss of character; loss of comfort; loss of usefulness; and, as long as any remain in this state, a loss of a well-grounded hope of future happiness. C. Buck. BACKSLIDING-Dangerous, We find in Scripture many desperately sick, yet cured the first time by our Saviour; but where do we read, in all the Scripture, where in all the Gospel, of any blind man's eyes twice enlightened? of any deaf ears twice opened; of any tied tongue twice loosened? of any possessed with devils twice dispossessed? of any dead twice raised? No doubt but that Christ could have done it, but we read not that ever He did it, the reason that we should be most careful to avoid relapses into former sins, the recovery whereof is very uncertain, always difficult, and, in some cases (as the apostle teacheth), impossible. Spencer. BACKSLIDING-Degrees in. A Christian never falls suddenly from an advanced Christian life to barrenness or open sin. The stages in the descent are little foxes spoil the vines. Little neglislow, and often almost imperceptible. The gences of duty bring darkness on the soul, and eat out its spiritual joy. Little temptations betray it to the power of the enemy. By gradual departures from God, and little indulgences in sin, one at length falls into ing may serve as an admonitory list of the total backsliding and apostacy. The followsteps taken in the downward path: 1. Neglect of secret prayer.-Job xv, 4. 2. Disregard of the Bible.-Jer. vi, 19; Hosea iv, 6. 3. Forsaking the means of grace.-Neh. x, 39; Heb. x, 25. 4. Worldly-mindedness.-2 Tim. iv, 10; 1 John ii, 16. 2 Peter iii, 11. 5. Levity in conversation.-Eph. v, 4; 21; 1 Cor. iii, 3. 6. A quarrelsome spirit.-Isaiah xxix, 7. Dwelling on the faults of others.Matt. vii, 3-5. 8. Readiness to take offence.-Prov. xiv, 17-19. Cor. x, 10; Philip. ii, 14. 9. A murmuring, repining spirit. -1 10. A critical hearing of the Word.1 Cor. iii, 4; 2 Tim. iv, 3. 11. Covetousness.-Luke xii, 15; Col. iii, 5. 12. Light thoughts of sin.-1 Kings xvi, 41; Matt. xxii, 5. 13. Intemperance.-Prov. xxii, 29-32 14. Love of pre-eminence.-Prov. xvi, 18; 3 John 9, 10. 15. Indulgence in secret sin.-Num. xxxii, 23; Eccles. xii, 14. 16. Falling into outward sin.-Prov. xiv, 4; Hosea iv, 17. 17. Into scoffing and infidelity.-2 Peter iii, 3. 18. Persecuting the righteous. -Acts | ing that will not agree to so reasonable a vii, 52. 19. An awful death.-Prov. xiv, 32. BACKSLIDING-Gradual. We warn you against little concessions, little acquiescences, little indulgences, little conformities. Each may only destroy the millionth part of the velocity; but this destruction of a millionth has only to be perpetually repeated, and the planet's march is arrested, and its lustre is quenched. If vital religion be driven out of the soul, it will be as the Canaanites were to be driven before the Israelites, by little and little." H. Melvill. BACKSLIDING-Nature of. Backsliding is the act of turning from the path of duty. It may be considered as partial when applied to true believers, who do not backslide with the whole bent of their will; as voluntary, when applied to those who, after professing to know the truth, wilfully turn from it, and live in the practice of sin; as final, when the mind is given up to judicial hardness, as in the case of Judas. Partial backsliding must be distinguished from hypocrisy, as the former may exist when there are gracious intentions on the whole; but the latter is a studied profession of appearing to be what we are not. C. Buck. BACKSLIDING-Punishment of. Shimei was a man condemned to death (1 Kings ii, 26). It is likely some courtiers of Solomon got him his pardon; the king grants it, but requires this one thing of him, that he should build him a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and go not from thence any whither; and fulfilling this condition, without all peradventure he might have lived happily and safe as the best of his neighbours; but when he must needs be running after his servants, and prefer a small advantage before perpetual safety, he justly suffers the punishment the king appointed for him. can condition) no marvel if they fall a prey to that wrath from which the Son of God is ready to deliver them; and if their blood be upon their heads that do despite unto the Spirit of Grace, and count the blood of the Covenant, wherewith they were to be sanctified, an unholy thing-an affront so great that no ordinary vengeance expiate it; and should God ask them, as the prophet Nathan did David, what punishment they themselves thought fit for such offenders (provided they did not know that they were the persons concerned) they would no doubt, doom themselves to as great if not greater plagues than God intends to inflict upon them. When Amurath, emperor of the Turks, had notice given him that a Doctor of Law had cheated a poor pilgrim that was gone to Mecca, and at the man's return would not restore to him the jewels he had entrusted with him, but resolutely denied that he had received any such things from him, the emperor one day, in a third person, asked the doctor what he thought a man that had notoriously betrayed his trust might justly deserve, he answered, "It was fit that so notorious a villain should be pounded alive in a mortar." He had no sooner said the word but the emperor gave order that so it should be done to him who had so notoriously cozened the poor pilgrim. Dr. A. Horneck. BACKSLIDING-Signs of. Indifference to prayer and self-examination; trifling or unprofitable conversation; neglect of public ordinances; shunning the people of God; associating with the world; thinking lightly of sin; neglect of the Bible; and often gross immorality. BACKSLIDING-Voluntary. C. Buck. God does not predestinate man to fail. That is strikingly told in the history of Judas. "From a ministry and apostleship Judas fell, that he might go to his own place." The ministry and apostleship were that to which God had destined him. The Son of God by the blood of His To work out that, was the destiny ap cross hath in truth gotten all Christians pointed to him, as truly as to any of the their pardon, but is resolved none shall other apostles. He was called, elected to enjoy it but those that will forsake their that. But when he refused to execute that sins and resign themselves to His guidance mission, the very circumstances which, by and direction. A reasonable demand, a God's decree, were leading him to blessedcondition so equitable, so just, so easy, ness, hurried him to ruin. Circumstances that no man in his wits but must say as prepared by eternal love became the destiny Shimei unto Solomon, "The saying is good, which conducted him to everlasting doom. as my lord the king has said, so will thy He was a predestined man-crushed by servant do." But then, if the pardon the his fate. But he went to his own place. Son of God hath obtained for them appear He had shaped his own destiny. So the so inconsiderable a thing in their eyes that ship is wrecked by the winds and wavesthey do not think it worth enjoying (and hurried to its fate. But the wind and certainly they do not think it worth enjoy-waves wer in truth its best friends, Rightly guided, it would have made use BAPTISM-Definitions of. Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and our partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord's. Westminster Catechism. not. Thousands go to heaven without baptism. Thousands, alas! perish with it. Dr. T. Guthrie. BAPTISMAL REGENERATION-Not true. We acknowledge no authority in these matters but the word of God. And there I can discover no foundation for the idea, that baptism and salvation-baptism and regeneration are necessarily linked together, or in any respect inseparably connected. Were it so, baptism were the highest, holiest ordinance of God. Had it been so, surely it is not reasonable to suppose that our Lord would have left a rite of such transcendental importance to be administered in every case by inferiors-by the hands of His servants. Were baptism identified with regeneration and the "new creature," would the apostle Paul, who gloried in preaching, have spoken of it as an inferior ordinance? He declared with manifest satisfaction that he had not been sent to baptize but to preach; and, leaving the administration of the rite to his inferiors, he even thanked God that, with two exceptions, he had baptized none of them. Besides, do the cases, for instance, of Simon Magus and the Ethiopian lend any sanction to this theory of baptismal power? Assuredly not. [The one after baptism proved himself to be in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity; the other proved himself to be a Christian before his baptism, by believing with all his heart that "Jesus Christ was the Son of God."] 1. Primarily, to signify, seal, and convey to those to whom they belong, the benefits of the covenant of grace. Thus-(1) It symbolises "the washing of regeneration," "the renewing of the Holy Ghost," which unites the believer to Christ, and so makes him a participant in Christ's life and all other benefits (1 Cor. xii, 13; Gal. iii. 27; Titus iii, 5). (2) Christ herein visibly seals Besides, does not the sad and melancholy His promises to those who receive it with history of thousands prove that the outward faith, and invests them with the grace ordinance is often administered without promised. any corresponding administration of re2. Its design was, secondarily, as spring-newing grace? The altar and the offering ing from the former-(1) To be a visible are there, but no fire descends from heaven sign of our covenant to be the Lord's, i. e., on the sacrifice. Grant that in our case to accept His salvation, and to consecrate and in that of any other such church as ourselves to His service. (2) And hence to ours, the cause of the failure is to be found be a badge of our public profession, our in our lack of apostolic succession; grant separation from the world, and our initia- that in our case the water, if not actually tion into the visible Church. As a badge, polluted by unconsecrated hands, is deit marks us as belonging to the Lord, and prived of all virtue by the channel through consequently distinguishes us from the which it flows; grant that we have no world; symbolises our union with our fellow-commission to baptize, and that therefore Christians (1 Cor. xii, 13). 4. A. Hodge. BAPTISM-dces not Save. It is a happy thing that baptism is not the door to heaven. Otherwise it had been unhappy for millions, who, dying in earliest infancy, never undergo that ritenever pass on that way. Dying unbaptized, we hold not that they die on that account unsaved; for whoever dare hang God's mercy on any outward rite, we do not, and although we believe that this interesting ordinance is also, when engaged in with faith, an eminently blessed one, we dare what we do in such holy offices is null and void; grant the relevancy of all these allegations (each and all of which we deny) is it not an undeniable and melancholy fact that the lives of persons in all churches, even the most transcendental in their claims, demonstrate that many are baptized with water who have never experienced the baptism of the Holy Ghost? The question, therefore, that we would urge on your most serious consideration does not concern the sign but the thing signified. If you have got the living element, I care little or nothing through what church, or by what |