supposition is dreadful. What, go through the house of God to the flames of hell! Well, many do. There are no easy professors in hell; but there are many in hell who were easy go-and-come professors on earth. Deceitful professor, you know you wear a cloak. You practise deception in your business, and justify it. You deceive your brethren, by pretending to be what you know you are not. Will you dwell with devouring fire, with everlasting burnings? Yes, there is no doubt of it, except God unmask you, and give you repentance unto life. You may hold your head high now; you may talk of election and final perseverance; but there is no proof that any one ever elected you but yourself, and as to perseverance, you have never passed the strait gate, or entered on the narrow way yet. Trifler, will you have to suffer this dreadful doom ? Yes, except you repent, you will so perish. You make light of the gospel feast, you neglect the great salvation, you despise your own soul, and for you, in your present state, there is no hope. The King will say of you, "Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." My dear young friends, is it possible that such should be your portion? It is. There are many young people in hell. We know not exactly when responsibility commences, but you know it has commenced in your case; and if an accountable agent diesunpardoned, unsanctified, unregenerated, he cannot be saved. Think, my young friend, if you should be doomed to dwell with devouring fire ! If you should have to dwell with everlasting burnings! If you do, it will be entirely your own fault. You will never be able to trace up the cause of it higher than yourself. Through eternity you will be obliged to take all the blame to yourself. You would not take warning. You would not come to Jesus. You would not be advised to flee from the wrath to come. But you chose death in the error of your ways. Just for one moment suppose yourself in hell. All hope gone. Your immortal spirit floating on floods of liquid brimstone. Tossed with tempests and not comforted. Taunted by devils and damned souls. Tortured beyond the powers of description. With the impression burnt into your soul, "This is for ever. This is the wages of my sin. This is the due desert of my deeds. I preferred this to heaven. I am here by my own fault. I can blame no one but myself. My doom is irrevocably sealed." How will you endure it? How, how, how will you be able to bear the bitter, bitter reflection, that when life and death were set before you, you chose death in preference to life? Aged reader, is there any possibility of your dwelling with devouring fire, with everlasting burnings? Is your soul safe? Are you quite sure it is? Is there no ground for doubt? Your sands will soon be run out,-your days will soon be numbered,-you will soon be carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom, or in hell you will lift up your eyes. God will not be affected by thy gray hairs, or pay respect to thy wrinkled brow,-all will depend on this, Art thou in Christ? Hast thou been born again? If after a long life spent in the land of hope, if after so many warnings, so many opportunities, so many convictions, so many impressions, so many purposes of amendment, you should be doomed to dwell with devouring fire, with everlasting burnings, it will be fearful. But there are multitudes of old people in hell. Many an old man has gone to hell with the Bible in his hand, the gospel sounding in his ears, and a false hope in his heart. Many an old woman has been driven from the presence of the Lord who talked about religion, had a sitting in the house of prayer, and at times appeared very devout. Let us not, then, put the supposition hastily away from us. Let us not be too secure. But let us closely, carefully, and thoroughly examine ourselves, remembering that Christ is in us, except we be reprobates -

Reader, we warn you in love. We try to alarm you, that we may prevent the possibility of your meeting such a dreadful fate. Oh, flee, flee, flee from the wrath to come! Flee, flee, flee to the Lord Jesus! He can save you, but he only can. He is willing to save you, if you are willing to be saved by him. Haste thee, escape thither, for thou art in danger until thou hast come to Christ, until thou hast received Christ, until thou hast cast thy guilty soul entirely on Christ. Remember, oh, remember, the great end of life is to secure salvation, lose not, therefore, Life's great end!

"There are no acts of pardon past

In the cold grave to which we haste;
But darkness, death, and long despair,
Reign in eternal silence there."

Cheltenham.

ON PROMPT OBEDIENCE TO DIVINE COMMANDS.

BY THE REV. J. JENKINSON.

66

The Most High righteously requires all his creatures to obey him. As the Creator of all, the Ruler of all, and the Sustainer of all, He has justly exhibited his will as the ultimate authority to which all are required to bow. And by all material agents obedience to that will is prompt and perfect. This fact is presented to our notice at almost every opening of the inspired volume. God said, "Let there be light, and there was light.' "Let there be a firmament, and it was so." "Let the dry land appear, and it was so." 'Let the earth bring forth grass, and herbs, and fruit, and it was so.' "He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast." Nor was this prompt and full obedience yielded only at the commencement of our world. Sun and moon, and earth and stars, continue to this day according to His ordinances, for all are his servants (Ps. cxix. 88-91.) The stormy wind is still "fulfilling his word;" and when its mission is accomplished he says, "Peace; be still," and winds and waves instantly obey him. He calls for the lightnings, and forthwith they answer, 66 Here we are 99 (Job xxxviii. 35). He says to the mighty ocean, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shalt thy proud waves be stayed;" and its most furious surges never overleap the boundary prescribed. He "commands the morning,' and "the day spring knows its place." The loftiest mountain is as prompt in its obedience as the smallest dust of the balance. The countless myriads of trees in the forest, and the tiniest mosses and lichens which grow upon the solid rocks, grain and grasses, flowers and fruits, all promptly perform his pleasure. Animated beings too are equally prompt in their obedience (Jer. viii. 7). He sent the quails to supply the cravings of the Israelites, and they went at his bidding. He commanded the fiery flying serpents to destroy the murmurers, and their mission was instantly fulfilled. He bade the ravens to sustain the needy prophet, and though opposed both to their nature and their habits, they obeyed the mandate with exemplary perseverance and regularity. He bade a monster of the deep to swallow Jonah, but instead of eating him, to convey him safely to the shore, and it did so. He sent a fish with the tribute-money to Capernaum, and the deed was done.

Less miraculous, but not less real, is the obedience still rendered everywhere by the irrational creation. Nor is this of trivial import: for it is just by this prompt, perpetual, and entire obedience to the will of the Infinitely Wise, that the balance of creation is preserved, the harmony of the universe perpetuated. Were any of these creatures able to shake off

his control, and to treat his mandate with contempt, disorder and disaster would be imminent; destruction speedy and extensive.

That, however, which is merely a tremendous hypothesis in reference to the lower departments of creation, presents itself before us as a fearful fact when we ascend the scale. True, even here, through all the ranks of created intelligences, from the lowest to the very highest, we have the blessedness of believing that obedience, prompt, cordial, and entire is the rule; disobedience the exception. Not merely in one world, but, in our opinion, in countless myriads of worlds, the Supreme says to any one of their inhabitants, "Go, and he goes; to another, Come, and he comes; to another, Do this, and it is done." Still we are neither able nor desirous to deny or explain away the sad, the humiliating fact, that disobedience does exist, and that too to an appalling extent. Not a single individual amid all the legions of fallen spirits has either the intention or desire to obey God at all; while the vast majority of the inhabitants of our own world are every day practically saying, "Who is the Lord, that we should obey him? or the Most High, that we should serve him?" And even where this God-defying spirit is less daringly manifested, many, very many, instead of obeying the Lord, content themselves with intending to obey him; while not a few, we fear, fatally delude themselves by what they call praying to be enabled to obey. Now we are anxious to impress on the minds of all, that God, their Creator, their Preserver, their unfailing Benefactor, their final Judge, demands sincere, cordial, full, perfect, constant, and immediate obedience to his will. True, we well know that this full obedience will not be realised in the present world. Of this humiliating truth few are more painfully convinced than we. But it is not the less true that this obedience, in all its perfection, and in all its constancy, ought to be habitually the object of our aim. And while the grace of God's good Spirit is the only fountain whence this obedience can flow, no instrumentality employed by him tends more to the realisation of that object, than our yielding prompt obedience to whatever we perceive to be the requirements of his Word. "I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments." "Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." Thus said David and Paul; and if we would share their blessedness, we must imitate their promptness too.

God says to every one to whom his Word has come, "Give me thine heart," i.e., love me cordially, let me rule in thy soul supremely. Now it is not enough that this demand be heard, or even listened to; neither is it sufficient that we should intend to obey it, or even desire to do so. For all this may be, and the demand be still refused, and thus the soul be left undone for ever.

He commands all men everywhere to repent. Here again it is not sufficient that the sinner intends to repent. That may be, and yet his soul be irrecoverably lost. It is not intentional repentance, but actual repentance which God requires. And, happily, it is not intentional, but actual repentance which Christ is exalted to bestow (Acts v. 31).

He commands us to believe in Christ (1 John iii. 23). Almost everyone who hears the Gospel intends hereafter to believe it. But evidently this is not what God requires. Neither does a mere desire of faith come up to that requirement.

He requires men to give up their sins, even those which they may be as reluctant to part with as a right eye or a right hand; and he requires this to be done at once without delay. A mere intention to believe, and repent, and obey, is in some respects worse than daring infidelity, inasmuch as it testifies that the sinner who thus purposes to do right cannot plead ignorance as his excuse. It shows, too, that conscience enforces the law of

God, and that the sinner is so decidedly and desperately wedded to his sin> that he loves darkness rather than light, disregards the voice of conscience, and deliberately disobeys, insults, and defies the Almighty.

Christ commands all his people to be baptized in his name, and to commemorate his dying love in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. And he requires this to be done, not after having loved him for seven years, or one year, or six months, but promptly, that is, as soon as practicable after your pastor, and the church over which he presides, are satisfied that you are a child of God. "And now, why tarriest thou ? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." "Do this in remembrance of me." So prompt was the obedience rendered to these precepts on the day of Pentecost, that they who gladly received the word of Christ, as preached by Peter, were at once baptized and added to the church.

We are far enough from wishing to exclude the heaven-born sisters, Prudence and Discretion, from the house Beautiful (though we enter our caveat against two imposters who sometimes simulate the appearance, and assume the names, of these damsels); but we would urge every religious enquirer with all practical promptitude to follow their Lord fully in all his appointed ways, for assuredly it is only in so doing that they can reasonably expect their evidences to be brightened, their hope confirmed, their love increased, their highest usefulness attained, and thus to go on their way rejoicing in the God of their salvation.

Oakham.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE CHRISTIAN.

FROM THE GERMAN OF NOVALIS.

When I can feel my Saviour mine,
Mine by a sure, unchanging tie;
When on his promise I recline

To guide and guard me till I die;
Little can earthly griefs annoy,-
'Tis all devotion, love, and joy.

When I can feel my Saviour mine,
Then dear my pilgrim's staff to me;
All meaner pleasures I resign;

I follow where his smile I see;

Not mine to tread where thousands stray,
The noisy, broad, and crowded way.

When I can feel my Saviour mine,
How calm I sleep upon my bed;
The love that fills his heart divine
Sheds sweet refreshing on my head;
His grace subdues me to obey
With all-pervading mildest sway.

When I can feel my Saviour mine,

I own the world, for He's its King;
With angel-light my graces shine,

While humbly to his robe I cling;
Wrapt in confiding, grateful thought,
The worldling's terrors scare me not.

Where'er I feel my Saviour mine,

There is my home, my fatherland!
The gifts Thou dost to me consign
Come doubly precious from thy hand;
And christian brotherhood imparts
Its union blest of loving hearts.

Tales and Sketches.