met their Christian counsel with this false maxim, you hug yourself in the fond conceit that you have shut their mouths, and quenched their ardour, and cut short their work. But as you use false weapons so you also glory in false victories. We find you difficult to overcome with good; and, surely, you must not expect to find us easily overcome with evil. You may tire our patience, but not exhaust it. You may refuse our proffered good, but that does not convince us that you do not need it. You may speak lightly of Gospel blessings, and that will exalt them in our estimation, and endear them more and more to our hearts. You may despise our prayers, and refuse to pray for yourselves, and that shall induce us to pray the more for you. You may neglect the appointed means of grace, and we will bring their blessings home to you, and we will stand at the doors of your houses, or in the street, or the court, or the lanes, and bear your scorn and laughter, and reproaches, that we may tell you of Him who left the glories of the heavenly world to die for your salvation and restoration to God. We will tell you of peace and reconciliation through the blood of the Lamb! Of the grace of repentance, of the pardon of sin, of the power of faith, the bliss of heavenly love, the cheering and delightful expectations of Gospel hope, all given by God, through Christ, freely, plenteously, and effectually to all that come unto Him. Ah! my friends, these things and many others we have told you of repeatedly, and you have disbelieved their truth; will you still live on in the sin of disobedience? Remember that every day you live you have a day's more sins to repent of, and a day less to repent of them in. Remember also that God has graciously spared you to commence another year,—it may be your last! And will you still persist in your rebellion against Him? Will you still live regardless of His great and yearning compassion towards you? having no thought of His goodness; no admiration of His love;-1o remembrance of His mercies;-no thankfulness for His kind providence ;-no consciousness of your guilt;-no faith in the Gospel ;-no feeling need of the redemption He hath wrought;-no fear of His judgments? How can you live thus; and live believing you may die thus? Live, having your souls enwrapped in forgetfulness and ingratitude towards your best Friend? Live, lost in the gloom of unbelief, in the darkness of error, in the shades of moral and spiritual death? Live, in contact with all that is hurtful and corrupting to the soul, without any counteracting influence to arrest the rankling bane? And shall sin still embolden and Satan persuade you to endanger the welfare of your souls, by indulging the flimsy idea that you are as good as those who make so great a fuss about religion?" May you be rather induced to look into your heart, and there you will see, if the light of truth enable you, goodness wanting, and badness abounding. There you will see with us (who make no pretensions to goodness, but feel great 66 need of it), pride, and deceit, and depravity, and iniquity, and all manner of abominations. There you will see the need of cleansing, and washing, and purifying, and renewing. There you will see ignorance, helplessness, and insensibility. There you will discover no particle of your fancied goodness; but vileness, vanity, and unrighteousness. And where, for all these evils, will you find a cure? Where obtain relief? Where seek deliverance? Thank God, we can direct you with safety. For the cure, we point you to the Balm of Gilead, which is Jesus' blood. For relief, to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, which is Jesus' blood. For deliverance and hope, to that unfailing truth—"The blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanseth from all sin," and again, "I come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness," and "That ye might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Our hearts' desire and prayer for you is, that these infinitely valuable and infinitely gracious blessings may be yours. We labour to point you to them, to lead you to their possession and to their enjoyment. And we are ready and willing to accompany you in the search. We, who have already tasted these blessings, still feel our constant need of them;—we still need the balm of the Gospel to heal and comfort our souls, we still need the Fountain to refresh and purify our hearts,we still need the blood to make us more holy and keep us so, we still need the life to animate us in the discharge of our duties, and to sustain us in our efforts to do good. My friend and neighbour, come with us, and we will surely do thee good. Do not suppose that we "make too great a fuss" about these things; come and try them, and you will find with us that they are good things, rich things, desirable things, the things of the kingdom of God. If you like a religion without "fuss," seek it quietly and enjoy it silently if you can; for we know that heavenly grace sometimes does work in the heart quietly and imperceptibly; but the fruit of its operations on the mind will soon show itself. It will give the subject of it a new bias, a new principle of action; there will be a visible and noticeable difference; it opens the ears, and the eyes, and the understanding, and the mouth. You cannot have grace in the heart and not pray to God, nor grace in the soul and not praise God. And, having this grace, you will desire to pray always, and in everything to give thanks, to rejoice evermore, and to be constantly telling what the Lord hath done for your soul, that others may hear thereof and be made glad. And, instead of finding that we or you "make too great a fuss" about these all-important matters, you will find that you are too remiss, too backward, too wanting in moral courage, holy energy, and heavenly devotion. My dear reader, nothing is so important to you, as a mortal or as an immortal being, as the religion of Jesus. This alone will make you happy amidst the trials of life; this alone will sustain you amidst the pains of death; this only can accompany you and make you joy ful throughout eternity. "Nothing is worth a thought beneath But how I may escape the death Brighton. JOHN GAGE. ance. THE ALL-IMPORTANT QUESTION. Matthew xvi. 26. The question proposed here by the Son of God, is of vast import"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" The supposition in the former part of this passage is altogether imaginary. "The whole world" can never be acquired. A man may rise out of perfect obscurity, and make his way through seas of blood to a crown, and, with desolating armies, seek to monopolize the world; but all the conquests of the Cæsars, Alexanders, Napoleons, and others, only extended their dominion over a very small part of it. And were it even possible it could be obtained, the soul, the immense value of the soul, outweighs ten thousand times ten thousand worlds. In Genesis we are informed that it was the last, the noblest work of the Great Architect of the universe. When the earth was fashioned, when the suns were lighted up, and the ocean poured forth into its appointed bed, God said, Let them be, and they were. Then, Job informs us, the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy. But when man was to be formed, when the human soul was to be created, the Creating Power retired within himself, and thus the divine consultation took place-Let us make man in our own likeness. Thus it stood at first among his works the fairest resemblance of himself; and, fallen as it is, it is still more like its Maker than any other of his creatures in this world. The redemption of it proves its immense value. For "it is not redeemed with such corruptible things as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ;" and since nothing else could effect its salvation, God spared not his own Son. Let the ungodly sinner, let the swearer, let the Sabbath breaker, let the drunkard, consider the importance of his soul; go to Bethlehem, and read it in the tears of Jehovah Jesus,-go to Gethsemane, and behold it in his sweat and blood,-ascend Mount Calvary, and see it displayed in the agonies of his dying Lord, and recollect the dignity of the Sufferer, the Lord of angels, the Creator of the world. And let it not be forgotten, that in the estimate of infinite love, your souls were preferred to his life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son (John iii. 16.) The immortality of the soul proves its value. The soul will survive in death; it will exist in eternity; and it will, through unending periods, be filled with an infinity of love, or be overwhelmed with unutterable vengeance; this consideration raises its worth far beyond all calculation. Could we but see the happiness of the world which is provided hereafter for the righteous,-could we know their bliss, and see their glory, and think that their joys are to be eternal,—with what earnestness should we not seek so to live, as to ensure our own entrance there! And, oh, could we follow lost souls into the bosom of despair, witness their misery, and hear their wailings, and think that their state too is eternal, what obdurate heart is there that would not weep at such a scene? what eye is there that would not send forth fountains of tears at such an awful catastrophe ? "When the lost spirit leaves all that is mortal Devils fast bind her in strong iron fetters, Plunging her headlong into lakes ever burning, What then is a man profited, "if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Reader, say! Fly, then, guilty sinner, fly to the hope set before you in the gospel. Guilty as you are, you need not be condemned. Fallen as you are, you need not be lost. "Deliver," says our Saviour, "from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom." Oh, do you go to Him as a poor sinner. Commit your eternal all to his care. And, so far from being in the position of him, who for the sake of the world has lost his soul, you will obtain, even here, happiness and peace, and in the world to come life everlasting. E. G. RELIGION RECOMMENDED TO MECHANICS. The Bible tells us that "Wisdom is the principal thing." The New Testament tells us that "Godliness is profitable to all, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.' And, after many years' experience, a poet saith : "Religion is the chief concern Of mortals here below." Now, let me ask the parties addressed here, do you believe these statements? Do you act as though you believed them? Do you think it very important that you should have religion; or, is it not the case, with by far the greater part of you, that you think religion may do very well for your neighbour, but, as for you, your calling and your circumstances are of such a nature as to require the exertion of every faculty of the soul, so that you cannot attend to religion? Talk to you about a newly-invented machine, of an improvement in the construction of a steam-engine, of a fresh project in mechanical power, then your ears are open, and you listen with the deepest interest. But only let one speak to you of the wonderful scheme of redemption, of the love of Christ in the heart, or of the cleansing virtue of the Saviour's blood, of the necessity of your being born again, oh, how different then is your conduct! turning away from them, have you not said in your heart, "Say no more about religion now, I will think of serious things to-morrow ?" Friend, be entreated to think of them to-day, this moment; to-morrow may never come to you. Ten thousand evils are around your path, and death stands only at your door, and will you put off till to-morrow that without which you cannot die in peace; or without which, if you die, you will be lost for ever? "But," said two apprentices, to whom I was speaking the other day, on the importance of seeking an interest in Christ, 66 we should like to be religious, for we know we cannot be safe or happy unless we have religion. We sometimes try to leave off sin, then we feel more comfortable. But when we think that others can work so much better than ourselves, this makes us unhappy, and it is all over with our religion." Thus it is we trifle with religion and our souls, and we are miserable every time we sit down to think. My friends, if you thus trifle with religion and your souls, you cannot be happy; if you decide for the world, the world will destroy your souls. Let me tell you (on the authority of God's word), that, though you exert all your faculties in seeking improvements, though you build iron steam-boats, which may plough the mighty deep, though you lay railroads, or contrive conveyances wonderfully swift, these cannot convey you to the bosom of Jesus, where alone you can be safe. You may be clever in your trade, you may be more ingenious than a Watt, you may obtain more skill and a greater name than a Brunell, yet what, oh, what will, what can, these do for you in the hour of death? Then you will want the consolation of that religion which you esteem so little worth. This, and this alone, is the one thing needful. This will give you true peace while you live, this will take away the sting of death, by this you may escape the torments of the lost, and gain a happy entrance into those mansions above, prepared for all those who count all things here but dung and dross, that they may win Christ. However important it may be that the business of this life should be attended to, let it be also remembered that while we are diligent in this, we should be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Now is the accepted time, May the Lord, of his vince you all of sin, "If slighted once, the season fair May never be renewed." infinite mercy send His spirit that He may con |