hunt for their prey. Suspicions of the love, truth, wisdom, and faithfulness of God, march in troops, devastating the land wherever they obtain an entrance. Worldly cares, fretfulness, murmuring, and despondency, with fierce looks cast fire upon all the goodly houses of our delight and hope. Temptations of all shapes, but chiefly suggestions of an unbelieving character, barbarously ravage our hearts. Before one has finished his terrible work, another is at hand. Like the frogs of Egypt, these invaders go up into our bedchamber and disturb our sleep; they leap into our kneading troughs and embitter the bread we eat, and even enter the king's house and defile our devotions. Behind our business they entrench themselves, and in our evil hearts they find munitions of war; our increasing families, our health, our trade, our work for God, our unanswered prayers, and above all, our sins, seem all of them to be as ladders by which they scale the ramparts of our soul. Alas, for us, that these Moabites thus cruelly invade the land.

What is their errand? It is the thief's business. They come to kill and to destroy. Doubts are ruthless robbers, and spare nothing upon which they can lay their mischievous hands. Unbelief ravins as a wolf; in the morning it devours the prey, and in the evening it divides the spoil. Distrust of the God of providence and grace is cruel as death, and insatiable as the grave. To suppose that we can ever be profited by harbouring such visitors, is as foolish as to dream of carrying coals in our bosom, and escape burning. Doubts spoil our comfort, impede our progress, injure our usefulness, dishonour the Lord, and vex his Spirit. Faith enriches, suspicion empoverishes; trust fills the garner, fear empties the storehouse; confidence trades with Ophir, mistrust wrecks the vessels; believing feeds the fat kine, but doubts are the lean kine which devour the fat kine. We shall never overcome trouble by fretting, or lighten care by dark forebodings. These bands of the Moabites are enemies, and are bent on ill designs.

How shall we receive them? The edge of the sword of faith must give them a sharp reception, and the weapons of our holy warfare must all be plied with vigour, to make the land too hot to hold them. Believers in the Lord Jesus, rally your forces around the standard of the cross; unsheath the invincible weapon of all-prayer; put Captain Credence at the head of the troops, and march vigorously against the band of cares, the host of doubts, the legion of suspicions, and the army of temptations. No truce or parley may be talked of. To submit tameless even though it were but for an hour would involve the ruin of our joy for many a day, for these foes in a moment perpetrate mischief which years cannot amend. "Get thee behind me, Satan," must be our answer to any dark thought of God which may crave a hiding-place in our bosoms. The wonderful dealings of the Lord with his people in ancient times, his faithfulness as proved in our own experience, the immutability of his counsels, the power of his arm, the love of his heart, the veracity of the promise, the prevalence of the precious blood, all these should furnish us with artillery against the Moabitish bands. God is on our side, why should we fear? He has given us deliverance aforetime, let us rely upon him now. Our hope is in heaven, and our boast in Jesus, and therefore with courage we advance to preserve our borders and expel the foe.

Are there no other visitors? Did not a host of angels meet Jacob at Mahanaim? Are there not still watchers, and holy ones who have commerce with the heirs of salvation? Is the King himself a stranger to his blood-bought ones? Is there no Melchizedek to refresh conflicting believers with bread and wine? Is there no goodly fellowship of saints on earth, and no noble army of martyrs in heaven? Let us seek communion with heaven and heavenly things, and fill our house with the friends of Jesus, that there may be no room in our inn to entertain worldly cares. Let us dedicate our days to Christian service among the Lord's people. To wait upon God is to bless ourselves. Can we not wish the poor a happy New Year practically by relieving their wants? Can we not visit some sick brother to-day and cheer his lonely bed? Can we not do something for King Jesus by feeding his sheep or lambs? Surely we can find a band of godly workers to unite with, that like those of old who feared the Lord, we may speak often one with another. While thus engaged the enemy will find less occasion against us, and being in holy employment, we may hope for heavenly protection. If bands of hallowed desires, gracious endeavours, fervent supplications, and devout meditations shall garrison our souls, we need not fear that the bands of the Moabites will invade the land at the coming in of the year.

Can we not invade the enemy's territories? There is yet very much land to be possessed. Districts lie unvisited, towns unevangelised, sinners unsaved. War must rage, then let us be the invaders, and carry the battle into the enemy's camp. Oh for one great, energetic, earnest, persevering onslaught all along the line! England expects every man to do his duty; what does the Church expect? What does our Lord expect and deserve at our hands? By the love we bear him let us seek to snatch the souls of men from ruin, by telling them of the love of Jesus to sinners. Rouse us, O Lord, at the coming in of the year, and make 1866 to be blessed in the annals of our race.

C. H. S.

Divine Foreknowledge.

O every individual man,

L°

And plant, and insect, in his plan,
Hath shared his thought ere worlds began.
To him was every being known,
Before it could a being own,
When self-involved he dwelt alone,
Companioned but by schemes sublime,
Before Creation's morning prime,
Before the birth of eldest Time.
But 'twould avail thee nought to know
He loved thy world so long ago,
Or e'en thyself, if thou couldst show
That he neglected and forgot,
When it had gained existence, what
He knew when it existed not.

One after one, thought's motley train
Goes filing through thy groove-like brain,
Length without breadth,—a line-like chain;
And canst thou hope to comprehend,
How thought and love of God extend,
From right to left, and end to end?
Synoptically in his eye,

Past, present, future, equal lie;
Nought is to come, and nought gone by.
His thoughts can never turn away;
Once known to him is known to-day;
Once loved by him is loved for aye.
From Poem entitled "Spes Super Sidera,"
in "Angel Visits."

D

8

On Duty-Faith.

BY G. ROGERS.

UTY-FAITH is a modern phrase of frequent use by a certain class of Theologians in our day. It is employed by them as descriptive of the Theological system to which they are opposed, and with the view of holding it up to contempt. They intend it, moreover, to be an avowal on their part, that it is not the duty of man to believe the gospel, that faith is in no sense a duty to saint or sinner, and that no man is responsible for its possession or its exercise. Theirs may be fairly designated, therefore, a No-Duty-Faith. If Duty-Faith be what they repudiate, No-DutyFaith must be what they approve. It is not intended here to recount the several arguments that might be adduced to prove that it is the duty of all who hear the gospel to believe it, but to show the consequences that inevitably follow from the opposite belief. The truth of a proposition may often be best established by proving its contrary to be absurd. The consequences of No-Duty-Faith are:

1. That faith is not an act of man, but of God. Either man must believe, or God for him. If man believes, the act of believing is his, and in so doing he either does right or wrong, If right, he has done what it was his duty to do. The principle of saving faith, we admit, is from God; but the exercise or use of that principle is by man. Granting that in the act of believing he is helped by God; help implies that the act is man's, and not God's. So far as man is concerned in believing, duty is implied. In No-Duty-Faith the agency of man is excluded altogether. If faith be a privilege only, it is an act of God only, and not of man.

2. That faith in its own nature is not a duty. Faith, we hold, in everything made known to us, that is accompanied with sufficient evidence, is our duty. It is the right use of the reason which God has given us, and for the right use of which we are responsible. In proportion to the evidence is the duty of believing; and still more in proportion as our own welfare is involved in the belief. It is our duty to believe man when we have no reason to suppose he intends to deceive us. How much more to believe God! The only case in which faith is not a duty, is when the object of faith is unknown, or not sufficiently confirmed. If it be not our duty to have faith in God, much less are we bound to believe those who say faith is no duty at all.

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3. That it is not the duty of man to do what God commands him to do. The commands of God are the rule and measure of man's duty. Is faith commanded by God? We reply, Yes! for when the Jews asked him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" Jesus replied, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' He did not mean this is the work of God in you, but this is the work that God requires of you; for that was the subject of their inquiry, and in that sense they understood the reply, as they immediately rejoined, "What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee?" Yes! faith is commanded by God, for in 1 John iii. 23 it is expressly said, "This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.” The next words are, "and love one another." If, therefore, it be our duty to love one another, it is our duty to believe on the name of Jesus Christ,

It

may be said this refers to the elect only, but if it be the duty of any to believe, Duty-Faith is admitted. In Acts we read that " a company of the priests were obedient to the faith," in the Epistle to the Romans that Paul "received an apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations," and at the close of that Epistle that the gospel," according to the commandment of the everlasting God, was made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." Peter too, asks, "What shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?" Three things are evident from these quotations; that the gospel is a new commandment or law to man, that it is the duty of man to obey it, and that faith is the obedience it requires. Numerous other passages, implying the duty of believing the gospel, might be adduced; we have aimed simply to show that it is a positive command, and what God commands, it is man's duty to obey. If it be the duty of the elect to believe, it is equally the duty of the non-elect, since they are, prior to belief, under the same laws, and in the same moral condition; and in one of the instances adduced, the command of Christ to believe in him was given to those of whom it is said, that "many went back, and walked no more with him." The command to believe properly applies to those only who, in the sense of the commandment, have not believed.

It has been said that the non-elect are under the moral law only, and that no requirement of the new dispensation is addressed to them. This, however plausible in theory, is contrary to fact. Men who have the revelation of the gospel are in a more responsible situation than those who have it not, of which the Jews were often reminded by our Lord; and obedience, even to the moral law, required belief in whatever might afterwards be addressed to us by God. No provision, it is said, has been made in the gospel for the salvation of the non-elect, and, therefore, its commands and invitations are not addressed to them. Provision, we admit, must be made to render it the duty of all who hear the gospel to believe it, or the commands and invitations of the gospel would not have been sincere; but the invitations prove ample provision to have been made. Again, it has been said, that it is not the duty of man to do what God has not decreed to be done; consequently, it is not the duty of those who are not decreed to be saved by the gospel to believe it. To act contrary to God's revealed will is one thing, to act contrary to his decreed will is another. We are responsible for the former, but not the latter. What is not revealed, is no rule of duty to us. There may be sin in doing what God has decreed to be done; as in Joseph's brethren, when they sold him into bondage; and in Pharaoh, who was raised up to display the power of God in his people's deliverance; and in the sin of the Jews in crucifying Christ; in which cases their duty was to have acted contrary to the divine decrees; and why not, if it should be so, in believing the gospel? The commands of God are the rule of our duty, not his decrees. Again, we are told, if faith be a duty, it is the duty of man to do what of himself he cannot do. So it is, if he has disqualified himself from doing it, and much more, even then, if God's command implies a promise of help for its fulfilment. There is the command, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;" to which, No-Duty-Faith is diametrically opposed, and for which it must give account of itself to God. Another consequence of No-DutyFaith is :

4. That man will be punished for not doing what it was not his duty to do.

Condemnation comes upon all men, on account of their violation of the moral law. Here the gospel finds them, and here it leaves them, if it be rejected by them. It does not leave them, however, in the same degree of guilt and condemnation. If their guilt be not removed by receiving the gospel, it is increased by its rejection, and additional condemnation is incurred. "If I had not come and spoken unto them," said Jesus, of the Jews, " they had not had sin," that is the sin of unbelief in him; "but now they have no cloke for their sin." Had not faith in him been a duty, a cloke might easily have been found. "He that believeth not," said the same Divine Teacher, "is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God;" not left in his former condemnation because he hath not believed, but condemned by the light he has already had, because he hath not believed; according to the explanation in the following words, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Again, Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, "When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." Of what sin? it may be asked. The reply of Jesus is, Of sin because they believe not on me." Is not unbelief then a sin? If a sin, is it not liable to punishment? And if unbelief is a sin and condemnatory, is not belief a duty? Why does the apostle point the Jews to their fathers, who incurred the wrath of God, and could not enter into Canaan because of unbelief, and exhort them to take heed lest there should be in them the same evil heart of unbelief, if it were not their duty to believe? And why tell them of sorer punishment than that which befel those who despised Moses' law, that was reserved for those who trod under foot the Son of God, if there were no condemnation for rejecting the gospel, distinct from the law? Why that fearful destruction of the Jewish nation, and their city, and their dispersion to this day? "Because," says Paul," of unbelief." If, then, it was not their duty to believe in Christ that they might be saved, they are punished for not doing what it was not their duty to do.

5. That the Spirit of God helps men to do what it is not their duty to do. If it be not the duty of men to believe the gospel, and if the Spirit of God helps any to believe, he inclines and enables them to do what it is not their duty to do. If it be our duty to believe with the help of the Spirit of God, it is a duty still; and if with his help, it is our duty before, and without his help; as the very idea of help implies. Whatever the Spirit does for us, is what our interest and our duty to God requires. Faith is the gift of God; but it is not the gift of faith, but the act of faith that saves. The gift is by God, its exercise is by us; and admitting that the gift is both in the principle and its exercise, the Spirit becomes in both respects a party to our believing,-to do what? To do what it

was not our duty to do. Faith, it has been said, is a privilege, not a duty; but if it be a privilege, it is the duty of man to seek it on that very account. There is something to be done by man in believing with a view to great privileges; and, certainly, if the Spirit of God helps him in this, and faith be not a duty, he is encouraged, directed, and impelled by the Spirit, to that which he was under no obligation to himself, to his fellow beings, to God, or to his Christ, to perform.

6. That it is not the duty of man to do anything towards his own salvation. If it be not his duty to believe, neither is it to do anything towards it.