Address to the Inhabitants of St. Giles's. 69 (Rev. vi. 16, 17.) The day of grace will be gone by, and the day of his wrath and the hour of his judgment will be come. But who then shall abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? Those who have cast their anchor upon the rock of ages, those who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them, even Jesus Christ; and whose lives and dispositions are such as accord with the precepts of the Gospel, and which may therefore be believed to be inspired by the Spirit of God. Those who have been thus sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and are passing as strangers and pilgrims through the wilderness of this world, seeking and desiring a better country, even a heavenly: "who have not been slothful in business but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." "Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of Christ." Such shall lift up their heads with joy in that day, and exclaim, "Lo this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." (Isaiah xxv. 9.) Let us seek him now, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. (1 John ii. 28.) Once more. is short. Watch and pray-Remember the time (Sent by L. E. A.) ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF ST. GILES' IN-THE-FIELDS. The Rev. J. E. Tyler, the Rector of St. Giles's, at the close of the last year, distributed among his Parishioners an excellent Address on the religious observance of the Lord's Day, from which the following extracts are taken,—we wish that we had room for more. Ar the present sacred season of the Christian year, when individuals are accustomed, if ever, to review more carefully their own lives; and when a pastor looks with greater anxiety to the progress of religion in his flock, various subjects offer themselves to my mind, on which I could desire to excite a more general and an increased attention among you. Upon some of these I may, God willing, take another opportunity of communicating my sentiments; particularly would I wish to urge, with all importunity, every master and mistress of a household to the daily habit of family prayer. At present I confine myself to one Christian duty, the religions observance of the Lord's Day. That the Lord's Day, as a Christian ordinance, is most lamentably abused in our age and country, no one at all acquainted with what is passing around us now, can entertain a doubt. In various parts of our parish, the work of traffic is carried on without any restraint at all; and in many others the business of various trades is pursued, though with less open defiance, yet not with more scruple, nor less irreligiously. Under this head I cannot but specify, as deserving the reprobation of every good man, the sad custom of paying wages, and defraying other expenses at so late an hour, that those to whom the payments are made have too strong a temptation to put off, till the Sunday morning, purchases of the necessaries of life, which they might otherwise make on the Saturday. The poor family who are driven to lay out their little pittance on the Sunday morning, we cannot hope to find prepared for public worship. With few exceptions, they must pass the day as their employers have tempted them to commence it, not as the Lord's own day to be employed in the Lord's own work. Another very general cause of the neglect of the Christian Sabbath, is the inducement to frequent places of public resort. The great end of the Lord's day is the same with that of the Gospel itself, which is no other than this-to prepare souls for eternal happiness, by inducing men to lay hold on the salvation purchased by Christ. The Christian Sabbath, therefore, set Address to the Inhabitants of St. Giles's. 71 apart as it has ever been for the worship and to the honour of God, is intended to withdraw us from the engrossing cares of the world, and to fix our thoughts on heaven. The account of the manner in which the Christian Sabbath was observed in his time, is given by Justin Martyr, who flourished about the middle of the second century: "on the Sunday, all of us assemble in the congregation, as being that first day on which God separated light from darkness, and on which Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead. All that are in the city, or about the fields, meet together in one place, where the records of the apostles and writings of the prophets are read to us. Next, the priest or bishop ministereth a word of exhortation, that we imitate the good there recorded. Then standing up together, we offer our prayers to the Lord. Then we receive the sacrament: and then all, according to their abilities and dispositions, contribute somewhat to the relief of the poorer brethren." Thus was the primitive Sunday devoted to holy worship, to pious meditation, and to deeds of charity. I feel confident, the wider our experience is, the more unhesitatingly shall we bear witness to this point, "That the spiritual observance of the Lord's day is inseparable from the vital religion of Christ in the heart of the individual, in the Christian morality of the country, and in the character of the age." Convinced as I am that the honour of Christ, and the work of the everlasting Gospel, cannot long survive the general neglect of the Lord's Day in any country, equally persuaded that our own eternal interests are deeply involved in its religious observance, -I beg with all plainness to solicit your attention to three practical remarks, praying you to receive them as the words of one who careth for your souls. 1. Every individual professor of the Gospel, every one who builds his hope of everlasting happiness on the foundation laid by Christ, lies under a solemn obligation to a personal religious observance of the Sunday; that observance consisting in an abstinence from worldly cares and occupations, in a constant willing attendance on public worship, in reading and meditating in private on the truths of God's revealed willand in all works of piety, kindness, and charity. 2. Every head of a family is responsible to God for the habitual attendance on public worship of all his household, and for the means afforded them of improvement in Christian knowledge. That master and that mistress may be assured, that some serious error lurks at the bottom, if any one individual belonging to them wants either an opportunity or even the encouragement to frequent the house of God, and to study the religion of Christ at home. 3. Every individual, whether the head of a family or not, who has the honour of our heavenly Master at heart, will feel it his duty and delight to lessen as much as possible the labours, on the Sunday, of all whom he employs, in taking a lively interest in preserving them from all temptation to neglect that day, and encouraging them to devote it to God's service, and the especial care of their souls. A short time since I was requested by some excellent Christians in my parish, to call a meeting of those who might desire to join in causing the sacredness of the Lord's Day to be more respected among us. Were such a meeting to take place, and were its views to coincide with my own, they would not widely differ in spirit and character from the following, to which I earnestly invite your best thoughts. AS CHRISTIANS, 1. We ought, by God's help, to observe the day religiously ourselves, and endeavour to promote its religious observance among all within the sphere of our influence and example. 2 We ought to make such arrangement in our families, as that ourselves and every one connected with us Clothing and Provident Societies. 73 may habitually attend divine worship; nor ought we unnecessarily to employ any one to labour for us on that day. 3. We ought never to allow any purchases, except in the case of sickness or other like emergence, to be made on the Sunday, either in the street or at a shop, for ourselves or our families; nor suffer any provisions unnecessarily to be brought into our houses on that day. 4. We ought not to countenance such tradesmen as unnecessarily open their shops on the Lord's day. 5. We ought to make our payments in good time, for those to whom we make them to lay out the money on the Saturday, and we should endeavour to induce them so to do. 6. In a word, we ought to make the whole of Sunday a day of religious rest and Christian improvement to ourselves, our families, and all within reach of our advice or example; and so To PASS EVERY LORD'S DAY AS WE SHALL DESIRE TO HAVE DONE WHEN WE COME TO DIE. CLOTHING AND PROVIDENT SOCIETIES. To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor. I HAVE read in your December number a letter on the above subject. I think societies which have any tendency to create among the poorer classes a feeling of independence, or to lead them to practise habits of economy and frugality, cannot be too generally instituted. I beg to submit to you a plan which has been adopted and acted upon in the city in which I reside, during the present year. The population is about 10,000-principally consisting of labourers, and of the poorer description of mechanics. In May last the whole city was divided into districts, and one or two ladies were appointed to No. 2.-VOL. XI. E |