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to tell the enemy that I was in covenant with God; that | God had himself been witness on Craigdow Hill; and that having fled to the city of refuge, I had got my pardon pronounced upon me; I added, as a farther mark, that I counted the people of God the excellent ones of the earth, and could say, 'Lord do I not love those that love thee, and am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee; yea, I love the habitation of thy house and the place where thy honour dwelleth.' I am sensible of my body of sin and death, and count it my greatest burden, and long exceedingly to be delivered from it; and I can truly say, that whatever corruption may be in me, I have no quarrel with the law, but count it holy, just, and good; yea, I may say, how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day, and stays ever with me. Christ also is precious to my soul, as he is to them that believe. After the enemy found that I was able to read my evidences, and that God had revealed to me his grace, he departed for a season, and my soul was, for some time after, filled with great peace and joy in believing.'

In concluding these extracts, we may perhaps be allowed to recal the attention of our readers, first, to the fact, that John Stevenson was a common labourer in the parish of Daily; and that, therefore, such exercises of mind are not beyond the reach of men in like circumstances. Secondly, that with him Religion was evidently the one thing needful. We fear, that with many professing Christians, this is not the case, and yet, unless it be, their Religion is obviously unavailing, for it is impossible to serve God and Mammon. And, lastly, we see in this specimen of the olden times, how the Gospel was then preached, and how by many it was also heard. The doctrines taught were full of Gospel truth. They were taught plainly, and practically applied; and they were by many freely admitted into the conscience and the heart. Such preaching and hearing indicated a communion of spirits. The Spirit of God and the spirit of man met and strove with each other, while the Word was merely the medium of intercourse, and the minister of the Gospel was at once God's messenger and man's help. "It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."

THE TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE EXISTING *

AMONG DIFFERENT MODERN NATIONS.

THE Chinese literature has several notices of this awful catastrophe. The Chou-king, the history of China written by Confucius, opens with a representation of their country being still under the effect of the waters. The opposing school of the Tao-see also speak of the Deluge as occurring under Niu-hoa, whom they make a female. The seasons were then changed; day and night confounded; great waters overspread the universe, and men were reduced to the condition of fishes. Other Chinese writers refer to the same event.

The modern Parsees or Guebres have succeeded to

Bhagawata Purana, it is also narrated at length, with true Hindoo peculiarities; but the account is remarkable for making eight persons the number of those who were preserved. It is also noticed in others of their venerated Puranas.

Mohammed has preserved the traditions of the old Arabians about it in his Koran, in which it is mentioned in several chapters, and as sent from heaven as a punishment to mankind. The Turkish writers have also their peculiar narrations about it.

We know as yet but little of the African mind, or ancient history of Africa. Yet in one of its nations, the memory of a Deluge has been found to have been preserved.

As the American continent had been possessing for ages a variety of populations in different states of civilized and savage life, unknown to the rest of mankind, and maintaining no relations with them before Columbus revealed the new world to the old one, it is a natural inquiry of our curiosity, if any traditions of the Deluge existed there. To our surprise we find them in every part. Yet I would correct this expression, because the awful event being an actual truth, it would be surprising if no intimation of it could have been traced there. It is therefore quite natural, and it indicates to us the reality of the catastrophe, that both in South and North America, traditions prevail about it, sometimes whimsical indeed in the circumstances, but decided as to the fact.

The ancient inhabitants of Chili, the Araucanians, make the flood a part of their historical remembrances. The Cholulans, who were in the equinoctial regions of New Spain before the Mexicans arrived there, preserved the idea of it in a fantastic form in their hieroglyphical pictures. The Indians of Chiapa, a region in those parts, had a simpler narrative about it. The Mexicans, in their peculiar paintings, which constituted their books and written literature, had an expressive representation of the catastrophe. The nations contiguous to them, or connected with them, had similar records of it, and depict the mountain on which the navigating pair who escaped were saved. It is still more interesting to us to find, that the natives of the province of Mechoacan had their own distinct account of it, which contained the incident of the birds that were let out from the ark, to enable Noah to judge of the habitable condition of the earth. These people had also applied another name to the preserved individual, Tezpi, which implies a different source of information for what they narrated. The belief of a flood has also been found to exist in the province of Guatimala. It was also in Peru and

Brazil.

We learn from Humboldt, to whom we owe so much knowledge of all sorts, of the natives of South America, that the belief prevailed among all the tribes of the Upper Oroonoko, that at the time of what they call "the Great Waters," their fathers were forced to have recourse to their boats to escape the general inundation. The Tamanaiks add to their notions of this pe

the Magi of antiquity in their fire worship, and to many riod, their peculiar ideas of the manner in which the of their ideas. Their mussulman conquerors drove them earth was re-peopled. Upon the rocks of Encaramada out of Persia; but they have found a home on the north-figures of stars, of the sun, of tigers, and of crocodiles, western shores of the Indian Peninsula, where they pursue their peculiar system. In one of their sacred books attached to their Zendavesta, the Deluge is wildly but obviously alluded to.

The ancient and venerated books of the Hindoos, in their Sanscrit literature distinctly and copiously commemorate this destruction. It forms a prominent part of their great and revered poem, the Mahabharat. It is also the subject of the first of their Puranas, the sacred writings which they revere next to the Vedas, entitled, Metsya, or the Fish. In the 8th book of the

Extracted from Sharon Turner's able and interesting work, entitled, "The Sacred History of the World." Longman & Co. 1834.

are traced, which the natives connected with the period of this Deluge. Humboldt appropriately remarks, that similar traditions exist among all the nations of the earth, and, like the relics of a vast shipwreck, are highly interesting in the philosophical study of our species.

Ideas of the same sort existed in the Island of Cuba, and Kotzebue found them among the rude Pagans of Kamschatka, at the extremity of the Asian continent. The Peruvians preserved the memory of a general destruction, as far as their own country was concerned, which their neighbours, the Guancas and others, also entertained. In Brazil, there were also various tradi

tions of the diluvian catastrophe, which, though agree. ing in fact, differed in the circumstances attending it. In Terra Firma it was also floating in the popular memory, and equally so among the Iroquois in Canada, and at the mouth of St. Lawrence.

The Arrawak Indians near the Essequibo and Mazaworry rivers, have preserved still traditions both of the separate creation of the first male and female, and also of the Deluge; and describe it as caused by the demoralization of mankind.

In North America we find in the various Indian tribes or nations, who spread over it, some memorial intimations of this great event. Captain Beechey found that the natives of California had a tradition of the Deluge. The Koliouges, on the north-west coast of America, have also peculiar notions upon it. Sir Alexander Mackenzie heard it from the Chippewyams. The idea prevailed, but with fantastic additions, among the Cree Indians. Mr West heard a similar account from the natives who attended his school on the Red River. In Western or New Caledonia, which was an unexplored country beyond the rocky mountains in these parts, till Mr Harmon visited them, he found a vague and wild tradition of the same catastrophe, with the singular addition of a fiery destruction.

In the islands of the South Sea, whose population had no connection with the North American Indians, the belief of the Deluge was preserved among them. Ancient traditions of it exist in the Sandwich Islands in various shapes. In Otaheite it was ascribed to the displeasure of the Deity at human misconduct. It was mentioned in Eimeo, and in a diffuser shape in Raiatea. Having perused these testimonial traditions from both ancient and modern times, and from all quarters of the globe, let us fairly and dispassionately ask ourselves, not what we may choose or like to believe or to disbelieve, but what is the right and rational conclusion to which they should lead us, as men seeking for truth; valuing only what is true and real, and desirous to avoid all fallacies and prepossessions?

We observe, as we peruse them, a singular diversity of circumstances. This is an advantage to us in an inquiry into the certainty of the great event we are investigating; for these differences and peculiarities satisfy us, that they are not copies from each other, as all uniformity may be. It is always possible that the exactly similar may be borrowed from what is so, but whereever variation begins, this possibility diminishes. The diminution increases with the difference; and when the discrepancies become so great as those of India and North and South America, are found to be, on comparing them with the accounts of antiquity and the ideas of the classical nations, the possibility of a copy ceases, and changes into that character which we denominate by the contrary term.

Convinced from this consideration that we have before us a large collection of independent traditions, what is the impartial judgment which our reasoning mind, according to its usual laws and operations in all our other researches and transactions, should and will naturally form on this subject?

Is it possible for us, without forcing our reason out of its natural bias and tendency, on such evidence, to avoid concluding, that there has been a general Deluge, overwhelming the earth and that population upon it which preceded our present race?

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when he was to suffer; but many circumstances made him apprehend that his death was intended, and he had prepared accordingly. About nine in the morning he was taken from Bocardo to St Mary's Church, where the sermon, which would otherwise have been preached at the place of execution, was to be delivered, because it was a day of heavy rain. The mayor and aldermen went first, then Cranmer between two friars, who chanted psalms as they went, till they came to the Church door; there they began the Nunc Dimittis, and then brought him to a stage in front of the pulpit, raised at such a height from the ground that all the assembly might see him. The Lord Williams, and the other persons of authority who had been ordered to attend the execution, were present with their armed retinue, and the Church was crowded, the Romanists coming in the hope that Cranmer would proclaim his own conversion to their doctrines. They who were Protestants at heart, in the better belief, that 'he who, by continual study and labour for so many years, had set forth the doctrine of the Gospel, would not, in the last act of his life, forsake his post.' A Romanist, who was present, and who thought that his former life and wretched end deserved a greater misery, if greater had been possible, was yet, in spite of his heart-hardening opinions, touched with compassion at beholding him in a bare and ragged gown, and ill-favouredly clothed, with an old square cap, exposed to the contempt of all men. 'I think,' said he, there was none that pitied not his case, and bewailed not his fortune, and feared not his own chance, to see so noble a prelate, so grave a counsellor, of so long continued honour, after so many dignities, in his old years to be deprived of his estate, adjudged to die, and in so painful a death to end his life.' When he had ascended the stage, he knelt and prayed, weeping so profusely, that many, even of the Papists, were moved to tears.

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Cole, who preached the sermon, began by dwelling upon the mercy of God, and from that theme, with the preposterous logic of his Church, proceeded to show how necessary it was, for that justice by which the Almighty's mercy is tempered, that Cranmer should be burnt alive. The queen and council had thus determined, notwithstanding pardon and reconciliation were due to him according to the canons, for three especial reasons; first, for the part he had taken in the divorce: secondly, because he had been the author and only fountain of those heretical doctrines which had so long prevailed; and, thirdly, because it seemed meet, that as the death of Northumberland made even with Sir Thomas More, so there should be one that should make even with Fisher of Rochester; and because Ridley, Hooper, and Ferrar, were not sufficient, it seemed that Cranmer should be joined to them to fill up this part of equality.' He exhorted the auditors to note by this example, that the queen would spare no man in this cause, whatever might be his rank or character. Final ly, he comforted Cranmer, exhorted him to take his death patiently, and promised him, in the name of all the clergy present, that, immediately after his death, dirges, masses, and funeral service, should be performed in all the Churches of Oxford, for the succour of his soul.

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"Cranmer in all this meantime,' (they are the words of good John Fox,) with what great grief of mind be stood hearing this sermon, the outward shews of his body and countenance did better express, than any man can declare: one while lifting up his hands and eyes unto heaven, and then again for shame letting them down to the earth. A man might have seen the very image and shape of perfect sorrow lively in him expressed. More than twenty several times the tears gushed out abundantly, dropping down from his fatherly face. Those which were present testify that they never saw, in any child, more tears than burst out from him at that time. It is marvellous what commiseration and pity

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moved all men's hearts that beheld so heavy à countenance, and such abundance of tears, in an old man of so reverend dignity.' Withal he ever retained a quiet and grave behaviour.' In this hour of utter humiliation and severe repentance, he possessed his soul in patience. Never had his mind been more clear and collected, never had his heart been so strong.

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"When the sermon was ended, the preacher desired all the people to pray for the sufferer. They knelt accordingly, and Cranmer knelt with them, praying fer'I think,' says the Catholic specvently for himself. tator, there was never such a number so earnestly praying together. For they that hated him before, now loved him for his conversion and hope of continuance. They that loved him before, could not suddenly hate So him, having hope of his confession again of his fall. love and hope increased devotion on every side.' Cole then addressed them, saying, Brethren, lest any one should doubt of this man's earnest conversion and repentance, you shall hear him speak before you; and therefore I pray you, master Cranmer, that you will now perform that you promised not long ago; namely, that you would openly express the true and undoubted profession of your faith, that you may take away all suspicion from men, and that all men may understand you are a Catholic indeed.' I will do it,' replied Cranmer, ' and that with a good will.'

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"He rose then from his knees, and, putting off his cap, said, Good Christian people, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, I beseech you most heartily to pray for me to Almighty God, that he will forgive me my sins and offences, which be many without But among all the number, and great above measure. rest, there is one which grieveth my conscience most of all, whereof you shall hear more in its proper place.' Then, drawing forth from his bosom a prayer which he bad prepared for this occasion, he knelt and said, 'O Father of heaven! O Son of God, Redeemer of the world! O Holy Ghost, three persons in one God! have mercy upon me, most wretched caitiff and miserable sinner! I have offended both against heaven and earth, more than my tongue can express; whither then may I go, or whither shall I flee? To heaven 1 may be ashamed to lift up mine eyes; and in earth I find no To thee, therefore, O Lord, place of refuge or succour. do I run; to thee do I humble myself, saying, O Lord my God, my sins be great, but yet have mercy upon me for thy great mercy! The great mystery that God became man, was not wrought for little or few offences. Thou didst not give thy Son, O heavenly Father, unto death for small sins only, but for all the greatest sins of the world, so that the sinner returns to thee with Wherehis whole heart, as I do here at this present. fore have mercy on me, O God, whose property is always to have mercy! have mercy upon me, O Lord, for thy great mercy! I crave nothing for mine own merits, but for thy name's sake, that it may be hallowed thereby, and for thy dear Son Jesus Christ's sake. And now, therefore, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name!'

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"No prayer had ever been composed and uttered in deeper misery, nor with more earnest and devout conRising then, he addressed the spectators, not • hurrying impatiently to his purpose, but calmly and deliberately. Every man, good people,' said he, sireth, at the time of his death, to give some good exhortation, that others may remember the same, and be the better thereby; so I beseech God grant me grace that I may speak something at this my departing, whereby God may be glorified, and you edified.' He exhorted them not to set their minds overmuch upon this glozing world, but upon the world to come; and to obey the King and Queen willingly and gladly, not for fear of men only, but much more for the fear of God, knowing that they be God's ministers, appointed to rule

and govern, and therefore, whosoever resisteth them,
resisteth the ordinance of God. And he entreated them
'Bear well away,' said he,' this
to love one another.
one lesson, to do good unto all men as much as in you
lieth; and to hurt no man, no more than you would
hurt your own natural loving brother or sister. For
this you may be sure of, that whosoever hateth any per-
son, and goeth about maliciously to hinder or hurt
him,-surely, and without all doubt, God is not with
that man, although he think himself never so much in
God's favour.' Lastly, he exhorted the rich to make a
proper use of the wealth with which they were in-
trusted.

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"Well aware how little he should be allowed to speak when he came to the point, he still proceeded with a caution which it would have been impossible to have observed thus to the last, if he had not attained to the most perfect self-possession in this trying hour. And now,' he pursued, forasmuch as I am come to the last end of my life, whereupon hangeth all my life past, and all my life to come, either to live with my master, Christ, for ever in joy, or else to be in pain for ever with wicked devils in hell; (and I see before mine eyes presently, either heaven ready to receive me, or else hell ready to swallow me up!) I shall therefore de. clare unto you my very faith, how I believe, without any colour of dissimulation; for now is no time to dissemble, whatsoever I have said or written in time past.' He then repeated the apostle's creed, and declared his belief in every article of the Catholic faith, every word and sentence taught by our Saviour, his apostles, and prophets, and in the New and Old Testament.

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"And now,' he continued, I come to the great thing which troubleth my conscience more than any thing that ever I said or did in my whole life, and that is, the setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth; which now, here I renounce and refuse, as things written with my hand, contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death, and to save my life if it might be; and that is, all such bills and papers as I have written or signed with my hand since my degradation, wherein I have written many things And forasmuch as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished therefor; for may I come to the fire, it shall be first burnt!' He had time to add, As for the Pope, I refuse him as antichrist; and as for the sacrament, I believe as I have taught in my book against the Bishop of Winchester, the which my book teacheth so true a doctrine of the sacrament, that it shall stand at the last day before the judgment of God, when the papistical doctrine, contrary thereto, shall be ashamed to show her face." The Papists were at first too much astonished to interrupt him. Lord Williams bade him remember himself, and play the Christian-man; he answered, that he did so, for now he spake truth; and when he was reproached for falsehood and dissimulation, the meek martyr made answer, Ah, my masters, do not you take it Always hitherto I Have been a hater of falsehood, and a lover of simplicity, and never before this time have I dissembled !' and with that he wept again. But when he would have spoken more, the Romanists made an uproar, and Cole said from the pulpit, stop the heretic's mouth, and take him away!

so!

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"Cranmer was now pulled down from the stage, and carried to the stake, surrounded by priests and friars, who, with promises of heaven and threats of everlasting torments, called upon him to renounce errors by which he would otherwise draw innumerable souls into hell with him. They brought him to the spot where Latimer and Ridley had suffered. He had overcome the weakness of his nature; and, after a short prayer, put off his clothes with a cheerful countenance and willing mind, and stood upright in his shirt, which came down to his feet. His feet were bare; his head, when both

bis caps were off, appeared perfectly bald, but his beard | naught the dictates both of understanding and was long and thick, and his countenance so venerable, conscience, but as "wise,"-as men whose whole that it moved even his enemies to compassion. Two nature has been renewed, who are forward to purSpanish friars, who had been chiefly instrumental in obtaining his recantation, continued to exhort him; till, sue that which they know to be good, and to flee perceiving that their efforts were vain, one of them said, that which they know to be evil. In carrying this "Let us leave him, for the devil is with him!" Ely, who exhortation into effect, they are admonished to was afterwards president of St John's, still continued "redeem the time," and a reason is added, " beurging him to repentance. Cranmer replied, he re- cause the days are evil." pented his recantation; and in the spirit of charity, offered his hand to Ely, as to others, when he bade him

farewell; but the obdurate bigot drew back, and reproved those who had accepted such a farewell, telling

them it was not lawful to act thus with one who had relapsed into heresy. Once more he called upon him to stand to his recantation. Cranmer stretched forth his right arm, and replied, This is the hand that wrote it, and therefore it shall suffer punishment first.'

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"True to this purpose, as soon as the flame rose, he held his hand out to meet it, and retained it there stedfastly, so that all the people saw it sensibly burning before the fire reached any other part of his body; and often he repeated, with a loud and firm voice, This hand hath offended! this unworthy right hand!' Never did martyr endure the fire with more invincible resolution; no cry was heard from him, save the exclamation of the protomartyr Stephen, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" He stood immoveable as the stake to which he was bound, his countenance raised, looking to heaven, and anticipating that rest into which he was about to enter; and thus, in the greatness of the flame,' he yielded up his spirit. The fire did its work soon,-and

his heart was found unconsumed amid the ashes."

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In the former part of this epistle, Paul had given a most animated and noble exposition of the doctrines of the Gospel ; here he presses upon the Ephesians its great practical lessons. He was warmly attached to a people among whom he had so long and zealously laboured. He seems to have borne them continually on his heart at the throne of grace. And hence, with all tenderness and jealous solicitude, does he beseech and exhort them, by every most powerful and persuasive argument, to walk worthy of their vocation, as the children of God, and the disciples of Jesus. In the verses preceding our text, he compares the knowledge of the Gospel to light, as showing the true nature both of sin and holiness; of sin as hateful to God, and ruinous to man; of holiness, as the object of the divine complacency, and the necessary fruit of the Spirit's residence in the human soul. From this he exhorts the Ephesians to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness," but to walk as children of the light," to regulate their lives by the blessed light which had shone upon them,—by that wisdom which the Gospel gave. Then he adds," see that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise." Take heed, that with care and diligence ye bring your whole conduct and conversation under the power of Gospel truth, not as men,-in Scripture emphatically called "fools," whose evil hearts resist and set at

I. The word here translated "redeem," liter

ally signifies, to purchase. It is quite different from the word rendered redeem, which is used of the Saviour, when he is said to have redeemed

us.

That means to repurchase, to buy back, as, for example, the freedom of a prisoner or slave, to liberate from the power of an enemy. The word in our text again signifies, to purchase or buy any commodity exposed in the market place, or, simply, to make our own by purchase. Some have alleged, that to redeem the time, means to gain time, and that the apostle's object, both here and in his Epistle to the Colossians, where the same phrase is employed, was to admonish his converts not to expose themselves needlessly, by too obtrusive a profession of their faith, to persecution or martyrdom; and, undoubtedly, it was their duty not to give unnecessary offence by any rash, violent or intemperate behaviour, and not to court persecution or death. An admonition of this nature has been necessary at some periods in the history of the Church. The crown of martyrdom, as it was called, has been most eagerly sought, and enthusiasts have, with great obstinacy and recklessness, done all in their power to bring down upon themselves the fury of Christ's foes, imagining that thus they would please God, and gain an immortal recompense. We do not, however, find that any such spirit prevailed at the time among those to whom the epistles were addressed. The object of the apostle throughout, is rather to rouse and animate the courage of these Christians to a strong and persevering adherence to the truth, than to check the exuberance of their zeal. His exhortation is directed not to the preservation of their lives, but to the prosecution of their spiritual interests.

To redeem the time is to improve it. It is regarded as a precious commodity, offered to us, as it were, to purchase. We may purchase it or not. If we do not, it is for ever lost to us. If we do, it becomes ours for ever, an invaluable possession, of which nothing can deprive us; not that we can ever arrest its course, or make it linger with us for any period however short, but we may make its days and its hours our own, in such a way, and to such an extent, that they shall appear in the judgment, not for our condemnation, but for our vindication, and for God's glory. To redeem the time then, is not merely to gain time, but to apply with diligence and zeal to the best purposes, the time and opportunities which God gives us. It is not that we should make it our business to try to live as long as possible, but that we should seek, while we do live, to spend our life in the best employments, and in the pursuit of the most precious objects.

It is well, it is right and proper that we should guard against all unnecessary risks, all dangers which duty calls us not to encounter, of having our days on earth prematurely terminated; but it is a matter of infinitely more importance that our days, whether they be few or many, should be so spent, that, to all eternity, we may have cause to remember them with joy, and not to curse them as the period during which we sowed to the flesh, so that of the flesh we reaped corruption.

The time is thus redeemed, when it is spent in the service of God. That which we spend in the service of the world, in doing the will of the flesh, in the gratification of our corrupt propensities or passions, is irretrievably lost to us. It was offered to us that we might purchase it, but we refused, and no efforts, no tears, no prayers, can ever recal it. It might have become a precious possession to us. It is gone into the power of our worst enemy, to be used against us on that day when it will be most pernicious to us. The time, on the contrary, which we spend in doing God's will, in which we set him before us, and strive to honour him in all that we think, and say, and do, is treasured up in the custody of one who will keep safely that which is committed to him, until the day on which it will be brought forward for the glory of his own grace, and for our eternal comfort and joy. When our time is spent in doing God's service, it is bestowed on the best, the most excellent of all objects; so that no one in his right mind would ever wish it to have been spent otherwise; it gives comfort and satisfaction here below, and it will follow the man who hath been wise enough to make the purchase, in its deeds of holiness and love, into the presence and the bliss of God. We thus redeem the time, when we seek, by reading, hearing, meditation and prayer, to have the light of saving truth to shine more brightly in our minds, to renew, warm, and purify our hearts. We thus redeem the time, when all our =temporal employments are begun and pursued in the love and fear of God. We thus redeem the time, when we strive to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, give all diligence to make our calling and election sure, and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We thus redeem the time, when, from a holy love, we seek to promote the temporal and eternal welfare of our brethren of mankind.

Again, the time is redeemed, by our seizing every opportunity presented to us of doing some special work of God, by our at once doing with our might, whatever our hand findeth to do for him. Men often fail to make this most precious purchase, not so much, apparently, from any general want of intention, as from allowing special opportunities to pass unimproved. They intend to be most zealous in the prosecution of every holy object; and, it may be, they picture to themselves the blessedness and comfort which will be theirs, when they shall make Religion constantly the matter of first importance, when their reading of the word, their attendance on every ordinance shall be

engaged in with more fervent prayer, more earnest desire to be edified, when their first and last thoughts shall be given to God and his Christ, and when no occasion shall ever present itself in vain to them, of promoting their own salvation or that of others. But that happy period they permit always to remain in futurity. Something continually comes in the way to prevent it from being realized; and, unless they be roused to energy and exertion, something will always come in the way to rob them of the offered purchase. They will not avail themselves of the constant opportunities which they enjoy, of actually making their own. that, from which they promise themselves such heartfelt gratification. They allow them to pass away, to steal unheeded from them, to swell the catalogue of their follies and their sins. To redeem the time, is to lose no such opportunity to seize it and make it our own for eternity, by doing that work which it offers to our hands. The Bible is now in our hands, let us use it, and by prayer, and meditation, take its holy truths home to our hearts, to be our delight and our counsellors, and to mould us to the image of our Saviour, as our judgment and our conscience tell us that we shall one day wish we had done. We now have many religious privileges, with inducements and invitations to improve them, most numerous and strong. Let us set ourselves, like wise and holy men, to apply them to the invaluable purposes for which they were given,-God's glory, and our own good. Our brethren are now about us in their temporal and spiritual destitution, and have a claim, by the holy ordinance of God, to whatever we can do for them by word or deed. Let us lose no occasion which may present itself of acknowledging the sacred claim. The future is not ours. We know not if it will ever be offered to us. The present is set before us, and we are commanded to redeem it. More favourable opportunities than we now have, God may never give us. He has given us whatever comes to our hand, and if we neglect that which he has given us, how dare we look for more precious gifts?

Lastly, we redeem the time, when we avoid all those causes of interruption in God's work, by which our precious time is wasted, or those subjects of engrossment or irritation, by which our minds would be rendered incapable for a season of giving heed to the truths and the duties of the Gospel. Alas! how many of our hours and days are lost to us by our minds being drawn away and completely occupied by some insignificant earthly care, so as to exclude from them almost every thought of God and salvation; by some little bargain to be made; some amusement to be engaged in; some project or speculation which attracts our fancy, or promises to gratify our taste or our ambition. How apt are little subjects of emulation, provocation, or quarrel to engross us, and to do so even at those very periods when we are most specially called upon to give ourselves wholly to thoughts of God and heaven. To redeem the time, is to avoid these, to flee from them, or to

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