4. The last consideration that we would at present urge on the attention of our readers to induce them to cultivate a pure and elevated spirituality of mind is this, that it constitutes the only preparation for future happiness. There is this wide difference between the present and a future state of being: in this world men have the opportunity to choose between the pleasures of sin and the pleasures of holiness in the next, the only alternative will be, the pleasures of holiness, or the miseries of sin. Here, if a man reject the pure, spiritual pleasures of religion, he may, to some extent, supply the lack by the polluted gratifications of selfishness and sin. Not so in the world to come. If we die unprepared for the pleasures which are at God's right hand, all the objects and influences in the universe beside, will be unable to afford us the least enjoyment.Reader, remember this! Thou hast no relish for the sober and tranquil joys of piety now, and thou canst supply their place by revelling in the unhallowed gratifications of passion, and appetite, and sin. But, by and by, the case will be entirely altered. If thou pursue thy present course, till death summons thee into the world of spirits, thou wilt have neither a title to, nor a meetness for, those heavenly enjoyments which thou hast despised on earth. And whither canst thou flee for shelter or relief? Alas, there will be nothing in the whole wide universe to produce one thrill of satisfaction in thy desolate, cheerless, wretched soul! There will be no gold to satisfy the covetous desires of the miser there. There will be no intoxicating drink to satiate the drunkard's thirst, no licentious pleasures to gratify the libertine there! There the ambitious man will long in vain for distinction and for power; the votaries of gaiety and fashion will have no frivolous amusements to dissipate the eternal gloom which shall reign around them. Unconverted reader, ponder these things in thy heart! If thou art so disposed, thou hast an opportunity at present to barter away thy spiritual interests for the vain, short-lived joys of time and sense. But remember, if thou dost decide on such a course as this, in this world only canst thou have thy good things. If thou wilt have thy portion in this world, thou mayest; but remember, in that case thou hast no portion for the world to come. Spiritual good is the only good that can endure beyond the present life: spiritual joys alone are lasting as eternity. Choose this world for thy portion, and thou shalt find, as the prophet says, that thy bed is too short to stretch thyself on, and thy garment too narrow to wrap thyself in. All thy joys will fail when thy last breath is drawn, and nothing will await thee afterwards but a dark and cheerless and wretched eternity. Spirituality of mind is the only preparation for eternal happiness; "for to be carnally-minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." T. THE SEA; OR THE WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF DIVINE PROVI DENCE. Question. Why should two-thirds or three-fourths of the earth be covered with water? Ans. Some say, to make easier the intercourse of nations. But it seems to be forgotten by those friends, that if there had been no sea, there would have been land in its place, which might have been the abode of nations, and that in that case, instead of having to cross a wide sea to visit another country, we should have had the country and its inhabitants close to us. If the space between England and Germany was land instead of sea, we should not have to go so far east to reach a new land; we should have it at our doors. Or if Germany and the Continent at large had been placed close up to England, we should have had the opportunity of visiting Germany by merely crossing the street. There is, nevertheless, one great advantage which we derive from so great a part of our warmed nor so soon frozen; it remains more at one stay than the land: the sea thus becomes the softener, the moderator of all climates and of all seasons. In winter the rivers far inland' are frozen over in a single night; but the sea will bear a keen frost of several weeks without being frozen. Indeed, the wide open sea, where the volume of water is large, is never frozen. The remarks which I have just made, receive confirmation from this fact also. In continents, the heat and cold are more severe than in islands. Countries in the same latitude, and equally raised above the level of the sea, differ exceedingly with respect to heat and cold, if one country be an island, fixed in wide seas, and another a part of an extensive continent. In America, those parts which lie in the same latitude as Ireland and Great Britain, are far colder in winter, and far hotter in summer, than our country. And it is much the same with the countries on the continent of Europe. globe being covered with sea; it is same way. sea. The sea is neither so soon It ap Now suppose the whole earth to be continent; suppose land to be adjoined to land, without a single interval, all round the world; and what would be the consequence? the earth would be uninhabitable. The summers would be so hot, that the vegetable world would be burnt up, and every living thing would die; and the winters would be as fierce and ruinous in cold. pears very probable, that if the vast and immeasurable spaces now filled with water, were to be turned to dry land, the heat of one single summer would set the earth on fire, and utterly burn it up. And it is equally probable, that one winter would, if it were not for the sea, by the fierce and irresistible rigours of its frosts, utterly extinguish both vegetable and animal life throughout the whole globe. And if any thing should survive the fierce extremes of heat and cold, yet the change from one extreme to the other would be so great and so rapid,―the winds, the storms, the floods, would be so fearfully wild and violent, that the whole surface of the globe would become one horrid wreck. As things are now, all things are happily tempered, and move on with wonderful regularity. Almost every land on earth is habit able; every variety of climate and of season is tolerable, and almost every change from the extreme of one season to the extreme of another, is so measured and so gradual, as to occasion comparatively little inconvenience. The sea, like a mighty and ever watchful ruler, ceaselessly sends forth his softening, moderating influences in all directions, and through all lands. He tempers the heat, and he tempers the cold, and restrains the violence, and regulates the movements of every element. 0 Lord, how wondrous are thy works! in wisdom thou hast made them all. THE USE OF TIME. 1. Spend it in nothing, as a deliberate moral act, which is not truly, directly or remotely, an act of obedience to some law of God. 2. Spend it in nothing which you know must be repented of. 3. Spend it in nothing on which you dare not, or on which you may not warrantably pray for God's blessing. 4. Spend it in nothing which you would not like to review at the hour of death, with an awakened, well-informed mind. 5. Spend it in nothing which you would not hear of in the day of judgment. 6. Spend it in nothing which you cannot safely and comfortably be found doing, if death should surprise you in the act. 7. Spend it in nothing which fleshpleasing persuadeth you to against your consciences, or with a secret grudge or doubting of your consci ences. 8. Spend it in nothing which hath not some tendency, directly or remotely, to your ultimate end, the pleasing of God, the welfare of your fellow-men, and the attainment of eternal happiness in heaven. 9. Spend it in nothing which tendeth to do more hurt than good; that would do a great hurt to some one, under pretence of doing some little good to others, which perhaps may better be done another way. 10. Lastly, spend it in nothing which is but a smaller good, when a greater good should be done. TIMES OF TRIAL. TIMES of trial let us know our selves; they teach us what we are. They do not so much make us bad perhaps, as show us what bad things there are still within us. Many people, when they do wrong in times of trial, speak as if the trial was the cause of the wrong which they do; whereas the trial does no more perhaps than bring out to light, evils that were previously existing in the soul. I was speaking with a person very lately, in reference to the excitement and commotion which took place in this neighbourhood some time ago; and he said, "They often made me very wicked." thought it would be more correct to say, that the things which had taken place had shown him something wicked about him, which he had not previously seen; that the agitation had not so much caused his imperfections, as brought them to light, and given him an opportunity of learning what was amiss within him. I ac It would be well for people, when they find themselves, in times of excitement and persecution, carried away by anger and resentment, if, instead of throwing the blame on the events and circumstances, they would take the blame home to themselves, and suspect the state of their souls. We have no right to reckon ourselves any better than we prove to be in times of trial. We are not to reckon our religious attainments according to what we feel in our classmeetings and love-feasts, nor cording to the pleasure we find in reading good books; but according to the decision with which we choose the good and reject the evil in times of temptation, and according to the firmness and calmness with which we pass through reproachand persecution, and the perseverance with which we pursue the path of arduous duty. If we would know ourselves, we must ask ourselves what we are in our families, when our children try us, and when our husbands or wives disappoint and grieve us; and not what we are when sitting under a sermon from a favourite preacher, or when reading a book of our favourite author. We must ask ourselves what we are when we meet with rebukes, as well as when we meet with commendations; when we are betrayed, insulted, and reviled, as well as when we are surrounded by a host of smiling friends. We must reckon ourselves to have just so much religion as we exhibit in the hour of trial. If we do right no longer than while all things around us go on pleasantly, we have no right to reckon ourselves to have any religion at all. If we are good-tempered only so long as no one injures or insults us; if we are patient only so long as we are allowed to go on uncrossed; if we are calm and kind only so long as we are allowed to go on without persecution and disappointment, we have no right to reckon ourselves good-tempered or patient, or kind or calm, at all. We have just so much real, solid religion, as we find ourselves to have in the hour of trial. We are not to conclude that we are what we ought to be, because we feel little or nothing amiss with ourselves, when all things go on pleasantly around us; and to suppose, when we find ourselves wanting in the hour of trial, that the trial makes all the badness that we find about us: we are to consider those trials as bringing out to our view our real character, and showing us exactly what we are and what we are not. And in those cases in which the progress of Evangelical Reform, and the excitements and controversies which accompany it, appear to do mischief, the mischief is frequently more in appearance than in reality. The persons that appear to be driven from religion by those commotions and separations, are frequently persons that have nothing more of religion than the name and the form. Some few of those who fall away in consequence of such excitements and commotions might be sincere, but there is reason to believe that most of those who leave the church and return to the world on such occasions, were Christians in profession only. They probably never understood religion, or never heartily submitted to its renovating influences; or if they were truly religious, they had probably lost their religion, and continued united to the church from mere in ever terest or habit, or, for want of a suitable pretence for going away. And even in those cases in which truly sincere persons fall from the church and from religion, it is through their own neglect. There is no necessity for them to fall away. If they were as watchful and as prayerful as they ought to be, they would not fall away. Religion, and Christ, and God are the same; and their souls and eternity are of the same importance in times of trial and commotion as at other times; so that they have no just reason for turning back to the world. The blame of their apostacy, therefore, ought not to be laid so much on the trying circumstances in which they were placed, as on their own unfaithfulness. Religion had the same claims on their reverence and love in the times of commotion, as in the times of peace; and if they had sought help of God, and faithfully improved the grace bestowed on them, they would have taken no harm. Times of excitement and persecution are not so much destroying times, as winnowing times; they do not so much change people, as show what people are; and those who take part in propagating those truths, and in encouraging those principles of duty, which are the occasion of excitement and commotion, ought not to be alarmed or troubled, so long as they are careful to do every thing in the fear of God, and act in all things according to the principles of the Gospel. They ought to go forward, and leave the management of the storm to God. All that we are answerable for is the plain and faithful inculcation of truth and duty, and obedience to the law of Christ in our own temper and conduct: the rest belongs to God, and with him the responsibility should be left. I say that those times of excitement and persecution are not so much destroying times, as winnowing times; they do not so much consume the church as refine it. This is the light in which John the Baptist appears to have regarded those times. He appears to have foreseen that the preaching and labours of the Saviour would occasion a very great excitement among the Jews, and that the result would be that serious separations would take place, and that multitudes would be driven from a profession of religion altogether. Still, he does not appear to have anticipated the destruction of any thing but what was fit for nothing better than destruction. Thorough as the winnowing was to be, he appears to have anticipated that all the sound and heavy grain would be secure. "His fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. The Prophet Malachi looked forward to the excitement and agitation which should take place through the preaching and labours of Christ, with the same kind of anticipation. He regarded the Saviour as a refiner, and expected the result of his labours to be, not the loss of any good metal, but only of the dross. The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteous ness." This purifying, refining process, was not to take place in the souls of individuals merely; and it was not to cause a separation of the evil from the good in the character of individuals only, but in society also. The day that was coming, was to be a day that would try men, and ascertain of what kind of metal they were composed, and if they were not composed of silver or gold, cause them to run away as melted dross. "Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?" When we have once found ourselves overcome in times of trial, we ought to direct particular attention to the point in which we failed, and labour to obtain an increase of strength there. We should look to God, and beseech him to remove what is amiss, and to strengthen what is good, And we ought, if we would stand in times of trial, to be exceedingly faithful in times of quiet and prosperity. We should be careful not to indulge the flesh, or trifle with our obligations in any thing; but live a self-denying, serious, and laborious life. We shall then be prepared for whatever may happen. When the winnowing times come, we shall be found like heavy, solid grain, which the wind cannot carry away, and be gathered by God into his own garner: when the refiner kindles his fires, and casts us into the furnace, we shall be like gold, the purer for the fiery process. And let us endeavour so to conduct ourselves in all our efforts to promote a reform of the church and the conversion of the world, that we may do as much good, and be the occasion of as little harm as possible. We must not refuse to do our duty, for fear of agitation or persecution, but we ought never to cause agitation, or provoke persecution, but when duty requires us to do so. We ought not to allow the church to languish or die of diseases, for fear of giving pain to some of its members by the administration of needful medicine, or the performance of some painful operation; but we ought to choose rather to die than give pain to a member of the church unnecessarily. If the church be slum bering, we ought to awake it; even though by disturbing its slumbers we should bring down upon our selves its rebukes and censures; but we ought not to alarm or agitate it needlessly. We ought to do every thing which God requires us to do, and we ought to declare every thing which God requires us to declare; but we ought always to endeavour to declare the truth, and do our duty in such a way, that we may bring no unnecessary trial upon any soul of man. THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. "THE truth is, as to estate, they were not concerned for more than what would supply the necessities of nature, or the wants of others; not solicitous to get or possess such revenues as might make them the objects either of men's envy or their fear."-Dr. Cave. |