the patriarchal God, .. it is the Theocrat, . . deploring the fate of his own people. “ How often would I," &c. Here, compare the self-drawn picture of the Almighty, cherishing infant Israel. Deut. xxxii. 9-12. All this, and more, Christ had been ready, in his divine capacity, to do for Jerusalem.

It was by the second person in the glorious Trinity, that patriarchs were visited, and blessed with immediate revelations; and that prophets are inspired and commissioned to declare the Divine will and purposes. “No man hath seen God (the Father) at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him” (John i. 18.), not only as regards spiritual revelation, but personal appearances (see Mr. Scott's note on the verse). Thus, we have a key to various remarkable occurrences in the Old Testament page. It was the Son of God," the Judge of all the earth,” who appeared to Abraham. Compare Genesis xviii. 22–25; xix. 24, with John v. 22. It was the Son, “the Angel of the Covenant,” who was the special guide of the Church in the wilderness” (Exod. xxiii. 20–25; Acts vii. 30, 34-38), who breathed the pathetic lamentation in Psalm 1xxxi, 13,“ Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways !” and whose tender care is most touchingly depicted in Deut. xxxii. 9-12, under the figure of the eagle nourishing and instructing her young. A similar spirit, strengthening the view here taken, pervades the language of Israel's Redeemer in Isaiah xlviii. 17, 18, “O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments," &c! the reproof expressed in Jer. xxxv. 13-17, “I have sent also unto you, all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them;" and the wonderful conflict of mercy with judgment in Hosea xi. 8, 9, “ How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ; how shall I deliver thee, Israel : how shall I make thee as Admah : how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim : for I am God and not man: the Holy One in the midst of thee.” The language of the urgent expostulation of the Church (Isaiah Ixiii. 15.), “ Where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained ?' is by the Apostle Paul transferred almost verbatim to the Lord Jesus Christ, at the commencement of a chapter, wherein he speaks of His glory laid aside, in its essential brightness, for a season, that He might, for our sakes, assume the form and the garb of a slave (Phil. ii. 1), “ If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy.” Surely it is not difficult to conceive, from a close comparison of the portions of Holy Scripture adduced, that He who bewailed the impenitence of Jerusalem (Matt. xxiii. 37; Luke xii. 34); who delivered a prophetic intimation of its impending ruin (Luke xix. 41-44); and respecting whom St. Luke testifies chapter xi. 49, “ Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute," is the same glorious person, of whom the elder prophets, not unfrequently spake, as the Jehovah of Israel. The Spirit, under whose divine influence those “ holy men spake,” was the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter i. 11.), proceeding from the Father and the Son, and glorified together with them.

He who bequeathed and gave “ peace" to His afflicted disciples, and promised rest to the “ weary and heavy laden," is God, as well as man; and who, blessed be His matchless love and tenderness, having, during His brief sojourn on our globe, fulfilled the prophetic description, “ He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be beard in the street, a bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax He shall not quench : He shall bring forth judgment unto truth (Isaiah xlii. 2, 3), showed, not only after His resurrection (John 8x. 17), but after His return to glory, that compassion still retains an abode in that heart, which has been beautifully termed “the dwellingplace of pity,” (Rev. i. 17.)

With the deepest feeling of reverence, may unfeigned gratitude and humble confidence of soul be mingled in all true Christians! The Messiah sympathizeth with us, not oply as our brother, but with a depth, and height, and strength of love, infinitely more than human : for in His character are blended, all the riches of the Divine nature, with all the milder qualities of a sinless humanity. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ;” and whilst he is exquisitely “ touched with the feeling of our infirmities," " He is able also to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

Finally, since the glory of the Saviour gilds the pages of both Testaments, may it be reflected, in answer to the prayer of faith in the Christian's life and conversation, that “ beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, he may be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." “ Put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering.” “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in Heaven."

W. R.

MINISTERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT.*

I THINK in this place it may be profitable to you, as it is interesting to me, to recall the particulars (unknown to many of you at least,) of a case which occurred a year or two ago; a case in which the seed of Divine truth was lying dormant for some time before it sprang up and brought forth fruit to perfection. You know for the first two years and more of my residence among you, I lodged with a respectable farmer. From the first he always treated me with attention and deference. He seemed glad of the opportunity afforded him of being present at the evening reading and exposition of the Scriptures and prayer, though he did not leave his business for this purpose in the morning. At times the sermons he beard made much impression upon him, especially the consideration once brought strongly before the

* From A Pastor's Farewell, or Address to the Parishioners of Earl Stoke, Wilts. By the

Rev. D. Longmire, M. A, Curate, since deceased.

congregation, that those who were not really fit to partake of the Lord's Supper were also not fit to die-not fit for heaven. Still there was no decided change. Before he left the place, he became apparently more anxious to follow the other members of bis family, in attending more to the things of God, and being desirous to be present at the Lord's table; though I could not, as yet, be thoroughly satisfied that his motives were those of genuine piety. The sequel will show that I was not mistaken. It was remarked also by a member of his family with regret, that his heart seemed to be still much set on the things of this world. Some months after he had left the place, he was visited with serious illness, during which I went to his house at some miles distance, to see him. I found that a remarkable change had taken place in his feelings. • O sir,' said he, smiting on his breast, “I am crying to the Lord to soften this hard heart, to break this hard heart. (), to think that I should have lived so many years in the world (he was, you know, somewhat advanced in age) and yet to no purpose. I have gone here and there, but what have I been doing ? Sir (added he with deep emotion), I learned more from you than I learned all my life before. You told me what I ought to do, but I did not do it.' I knew what he meant by this expression ; that I had told him of the necessity of going as a lost sinner to the Saviour, of renouncing the world, and of giving up his heart to God. This he felt he had never done in truth. He mentioned afterwards, with such strong feelings that he could hardly speak, that it had been such a burden on his conscience to reflect, that when we were in the same house, and he might have come in to family prayers in the morning, as well as in the evening, he went to attend to bis business, as if it were the first thing and the most necessary. O that some may be led to ask, what will be their feelings about wilfully slighted ordinances and neglected opportunities of Christian instruction, if not on the sick and dying bed, yet afterwards in the day of judgment! O that some who think themselves Christians because they are respectable in the eyes of man, and attend, as he did, upon all the ordinances of religion, would look at the requirements of the gospel, and within at their own hearts, and entreat of God to soften their hardness and to convert their souls! I will not relate more of the conversation which passed at that time. After a while it pleased God to raise him up, and grant him a measure of health for some months. It was manifest that a pleasing change had taken place in him. The world was no longer the chief thing with him. He showed by his manner and deportment that he was a new man. His delight now was to spend all the time he could in reading or hearing the word of God, his bymn-book, and such pious and devotional works as were to be procured. When I visited him again in his last and fatal illness, his trust was in the Lord Jesus only, and he afterwards died in peace, saying shortly before, I hope soon to be with Christ.'

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CHRISTIANS IN GREAT

CITIES.*

By the talents which Christ puts into the hands of his servants, we understand all the opportunities which we have of doing good, either to ourselves or to others; and if, at the great day, our responsibilities are to be commensurate with our opportunities in these respects, they will be great indeed.

You wish for the opportunity to get good to your own soul,-to enjoy the Sabbath,-and the best instructions which the pulpit can afford. Here is the Sabbath, and here amongst these churches, you will find as good instruction as the earth can yield.

You wish for the opportunity to train up your children for heaven. Here you have the opportunity. You can bring them to the altar of God in baptism,—you can here daily show them the difference between the Christian and one who is not,-in your conversation-in your equipage-in your associates,-in your manner of keeping the Sabbath,-in your plans of life,-in your manner of spending your money, and in all that they see in you which goes to make up character. Perbaps in no situation can the Christian family have a better opportunity to show that they are the sons of God, because they are led by the Spirit of God. And when you do down to the grave, whether you do or do not leave a portrait on which they will gaze, you can leave the impression that will last many years, that here, amid temptations, frequent and strong, you stood firm, and lived, and acted in all that made up your character, as if conscious that the eye of God was upon you, as you were passing onward to eternity.

You wish for opportunity to do good to others,—and no field need be wider. Very likely, under your very roof, you have those who were neglected in their childhood, who may not be able to read the word of God, who do not care to be present at family worship, who love not to go to the house of God, or who have no place to go to,—who hardly know, and who do not realize, that they have immortal, perishing souls,--heathen under your roof. Begin there, and feel that you are placed at the head of a family by God,—that you may feel responsible for it, and to which you may do good. God will never respect a piety that blazes abroad, while it overlooks what is perishing under your own roof..

You are a merchant, or a mechanic. You have clerks or apprentices committed to you ; and a heavy trust is involved. I am aware that many feel they have done their duty to these young men, if they teach them the business, for the learning of which they were committed to them, and if they see that the young men are at their posts at business hours, and are faithful to their employers.

But this is a very inadequate conception of the duties involved in that relation. Let it never be forgotten, that a Christian cannot have intercourse with his fellow men, and leave out the relation of eternity. These are committed to you in the place of parents; and can parents be excused for neglecting their sons at all times, except merely in the hours of business? Perhaps their parents are in the grave; and suppose you were there also, and should leave a son to be a clerk, or an apprentice to another,-in your instructions on your dying-bed, would you merely say that you wished the employer to oversee the boy during the hours of business? Would this protect his habits, his morals, his character ? Where do these young men spend their evenings ? Where their Sabbaths ? Let the bell strike the alarm of fire, and watch at the small taverns wbich line our streets, and you will have an answer. How often do they attend family worship? What is their progress towards heaven ? or their prospect of ever getting there ? Alas! if we should tell of the exposure of those young men who are under the care of professed Christians,-dangers, the depicting of which we know would make our readers shudder ;-and we know but a small part of thein.

Now the responsibility of the Christian over these youths, is in exact proportion to their danger. You take them into your employment to aid you to become rich; do not forget that their immortal souls are hazarded in doing it. How much easier to give the fragments which are left from your table to the beggar at your door, or to give your cast-off garments to the clamorous mendicant, and call this charity, and doing your duty, than to feel responsible for the spiritual and everlasting welfare of those, who in the providence of God, are especially committed to your care! Who are your family? When God established his covenant with Abraham, he commanded him to include his servants in his family, and to command them, as well as his own children; but to call only your own blood-relations your family, while you have others under your care, growing up as heathens, is almost as much out of the way, as for the Jews to call only those neighbours who lived the next door.

You would do good! need I say that in these lanes and alleys there are thousands of beings who feel that they are oppressed by the rich, who need advice, counsel, reproof, instruction, and aid ? That there are the children growing up in squalid vice,- in depraved ignorance,—who need to be searched out,- brought again to the sabbathschool, and taught the character of God, nor is this enough. I am per. fectly satisfied that the little teaching and the little influence of the sabbath-school, can never do the work of saving our great cities. What makes a lake stagnant,--sending out death all around it ? The answer is, there is no circulation of its waters. Only create a circulation of the waters, it ceases to send out disease and death. Just so in great cities. There is a broad belt drawn around each, where there is vice, and ignorance, and crime, and darkness almost Egyptian. The waters are stagnant. There is a broad distinction drawn between them, and the enlightened and the rich; and there is very little sympathy between them. And why? Because the rich man hopes never to see his son go down there ; and the poor ignorant man despairs of ever seeing his son arise. Now, what we want is something that will put these waters in motion, and thus purify them ; and that something is education ; and never can you hope io raise, and enlighten, and save our great cities, till you have got the mind