said than that they are the food and raiment upon which you subsist till your inheritance is ready for you, and you for your inheritance. If you make more than this of them; if you take them for your portion to rejoice in, it can only be because you think meanly of the true riches which God hath prepared to be your portion in eternity; or else that you believe not that God is able and willing to bestow the eternal wealth upon you. But either of these is very insulting to the Divine wisdom, faithfulness, and love. Do not "think scorn," either of God's promises, or of him through whom they are made to you; and who says, "I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." Consider what is included in this promise. Is it not something better worth thinking about, and fitter to be rejoiced in, than such poor things as usually occupy men's minds? In that place there is "no more sorrow, nor crying, nor pain." There "the Lord God hath wiped away all tears from all faces." There "the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest for ever. In that place there shall be no jarring of interests, no strife, no contention, no temptation to hurt others in order to enrich yourselves, and no fear that others will serve themselves by injuring you. In that place there will be no conflict with those around you; no envying, but all harmony and union, and every one the richer and the happier for his brother's happiness. And no conflict with sin, no conflict with unsatisfied longings and appetites, no care to watch a traitor in your own bosoms; no obligation to a burdensome service, no call to selfdenial; but employment which shall be your delight; a service which shall be perfect freedom; enjoyment which shall leave you nothing to covet; your desires and your possessions, your will and your

duty, exactly and absolutely coincident; no possibility and no fear of falling from your high estate of blessedness. There, in short, "with angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven," with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the saints of God, and all your dear friends who have died in the faith before you, you shall "be before the throne of God, and he that sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among you." You shall see him face to face, and "be like him,” be made capable of supreme enjoyment, and have all the enjoyments of which you are capable, and that for ever. This is the hope of Christians, and surely the foundation of it is such as makes it sure. You are not called to rejoice in the hope of eternal life because God has promised it to such as of themselves can find their way to it; or to such as by their own meritorious deeds have earned it; or to such as, by their own endeavours, can make themselves fit for it; or to such as can deliver themselves from the condemnation for sin which hath already doomed them to the forfeiture of it; but because "of God, Jesus Christ," his own Son, "is made unto you wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Because he hath earned it, and paid for it, and prepared it for you, and is ready to prepare you for it. Because he "hath borne your sins in his own body on the tree," and having been "delivered for your offences, hath been raised again for your justification;" and, having ascended to his Father's right hand, hath received for you the gift of the Holy Ghost, and ever lives to plead for you. And because in him, and in whatsoever he does, and in all persons for whom he undertakes, God is well pleased always.

Then be your rejoicing this: that an eternal weight of glory hath been purchased for you by Jesus Christ. This hope will not make you ashamed, or disappoint you; and having

this hope in you, it will be as effectual to sanctify as to comfort you. Your treasure is in heaven: if there your hearts were also, what should you have to do with sinning, or fiercely fighting and contending, as so many poor creatures do, to obtain the world?

However, though God hath "ordained peace" for you even here, if you will walk in the way of peace; and joy, too, if you will believe his word; it is nevertheless declared by our Lord to his disciples, "In the world ye shall have tribulation." And there is no inconsistency in this. He can build joy upon tribulation, and bring advantage out of it, if he pleases, and let the tribulation remain at the same time, and be felt for what it is.

II. Look now, therefore, to the next precept of the text, "Patient in tribulation." "Ye have need of patience," and you will have need of it to the end; but if you can "rejoice in hope," through Christ, you will find the duty itself to be as practicable as the discharge of it will prove consolatory. If you look back upon those afflictions of your lives which are past, you will see at once that the grief would have been lessened, and the burden have been far more tolerable, if you had had more patience. This is one of those self-evident truths which there can be no need to dwell upon in the way of proof. It follows, that if you would fare better for the time to come, you must cultivate this useful grace; and if you shall do this effectually, you will surely find that increase of patience is a better thing than diminution of sorrow could be, inasmuch as sanctified affliction is a better thing than unsanctified rest and ease.

But the question is, how may you attain to patience, or what ground is laid for it to Christians? No doubt, like joy in things hoped for, it must have its root in the faith of the Gospel. Therefore, hear God's testimony: believe his word, and understand his meaning in suffering

afflictions to come upon you. They are for chastisements; they are to do you good: they are proofs, not of God's anger, nor of his unmindfulness of what you suffer, but of his faithfulness and zeal for your well-being. "I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

Now hear the language of a son, of one who knew his interest in his heavenly Father's love: "It is good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes." View every cross that comes upon you as the "minister of God for good,"-as sent to humble you, to prove you, to wean you from the world, to turn your regards from the vain creature to the all-sufficient Creator, to set you upon taking God for your trust and your portion; as ordered for the best in infinite love and perfect wisdom; and as your own Father's choice for you; and thus taking it, you will love God better, and give him thanks for every thing, and be broken of your self-will more and more, and be fitter to leave this world, where you cannot, under any event, stay long-be enabled to leave it without leaving your heart or your treasure behind you, and be wiser for the future than you have been for the past-happier whilst you stay, and not cut off from comfort, but released from toil, and brought to the true riches, when you go.

One precept more, however, remains to be attended to, or nothing will be done either for your better consolation or for your growth in grace.

III. "Continue instant in prayer."

Prayer must be taken here in the most extensive meaning of the word, or at least for all the parts of direct religious worship-for confession, supplication, thanksgiving, intercession. Το "continue instant" in prayer, means first, to hold actual converse with God, or actually to address him in those several ways at very frequent in

:

tervals, regularly and without intermission but it means further, to be, in one sense, always praying; that is, to be always in that temper or state of mind which is requisite for a right discharge of the duty of actual prayer;-to have habitually those views of God, of ourselves, and of others, which the several parts of prayer suppose or imply.

If you will look back, I think you will find upon consideration, at least if you have been used to meditate seriously upon your soul's concerns, that to remissness in actual prayer, or to defect of this spirit of prayer, or praying frame of mind, more than to any other single and assignable cause, have been owing your past failures and miscarriages and sins, and your impatience under crosses, and fretfulness, and discomforts, and disappointments.

These things therefore do :

1. First examine yourselves.Compare your lives with the law of God, and make actual confession to him of all your sins with all their circumstances and aggravations, as far as you can recollect or see them, and make something of this a part of every day's duty. Strive to "have your sin ever before you;" to be habitually as sinners in your own sight; to be always viewing yourselves as creatures having no claim of right upon God's kindness as unworthy to gather up the crumbs under his table, and therefore subsisting wholly upon his mere grace, and without hope or refuge from any other quarter. In a word, be, what your confession teaches you you ought to be, "Be clothed with humility."

2. In the next place, "continue instant" in supplication, or prayer, properly so called; that is, whatsoever you know yourselves to need, be continually asking it of God in Christ's name. And remember, also, that this likewise supposes and requires a correspondent habit of mind; and see that the habit abides with you. Accordingly, strive, as to have your sin, so likewise to

have your necessities, your ignorance, your weakness, your inability to help yourselves, ever before you. And set the Lord God continually before you. Understand that he is ever present, ever at hand, ever able, and ever willing to help you, and to do you good for the sake of Jesus Christ; that his eye is always upon you, that he orders all things in heaven and earth; that he loves you, that you are safe under his protection, that you can do or endure all things with him, nothing without him. Be continually looking up to him as a Father, as reconciled in Jesus Christ, as covenanted and pledged to you, whilst you wait upon him, to save you from sin and danger; to guide you by his counsel whilst you commit your way unto him, and afterwards to receive you to glory for Christ's sake. Know that you are never alone if you belong to Christ, because your Father is with you. Always depend upon him, always confide in him; hope in his word; refer every thing to him, and do every thing for him; and act just as if you were always in his com pany and under his care, for so you surely are; and deem this to be privilege, and portion, and happiness enough for you in this world, let what will be against you; for so it surely is. And,

3. Therefore next "continue instant" in thanksgiving. If you are to recollect your sins every day to confess them, and your wants every day to entreat for the supply of them, can there be a reason why you should any less recollect, every day, God's mercies which he hath so freely and so profusely poured upon you, to give thanks for them? Well would it be for you, could you be brought to be in this duty as persevering, and as explicit and particular as perhaps you will admit you ought to be in the others. Greatly would it conduce to the confirmation of your faith and hope, to the increase of your love and zeal for God, to the support in your

souls of a joy in the Lord which would prove your strength. If self-knowledge be necessary and good for you, can the knowledge of God and of his dispositions towards you be less so?. But how may he so well be known, or be understood so practically and so effectually, as through habitual recognition and constant special commemoration of his great and continual bounties? See with what long-suffering they are still extended to those who make so light of them. Make explicit acknowledgment of this, and hear the Psalmist "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities, and healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with loving, kindnesses and tender mercies." You can have no religion at all, if God is not habitually upon your thoughts in this manner, and you can have no enjoyment of his good creatures which can do you any thing else but mischief.

4. But I hasten to the last par, ticular. "Continue instant " also in intercession. Remember, that "none of us liveth to himself alone;" that "we are every one members one of another,' and therefore pray for others no less than for yourselves. Every day of your lives remember those around you at the throne of God's grace. Pray that God's "way may be known upon earth, and his saving health among all nations:" that all men may have grace, and that the souls of all may be "fed with food convenient for them," and their bodies supplied with all necessary comforts. Consider it a part of your duty to all who are near and dear to you, to pray for them-a duty it is to your parents, to your children, your husbands or wives, and to all your households: to the ministers of God's word, to all your rulers in church and state, to all the distress

ed, to all in temptation of any sort, to the whole Christian world, to the whole heathen world ;—and no man does his duty by his fellow-creatures who omits it.

And now put all these things together, and "your profiting shall appear unto all men." "Set your affection on things above." Receive affliction as sent by God for good; live in perpetual communion with your Maker through Jesus Christ, coming to him for all you want for yourselves or others; acknowledging him as the author of all you have or hope for and believing yourselves the objects of his good will in Christ, at the same time that you see yourselves to be worthy of nothing but his displeasure. Fly to him in all troubles, pour out your hearts before him, be continually thinking of him, ever seeking his favour as the one thing needful: and then-though I cannot tell you that you shall live long, or live without great afflictions, yet I can assure you, that if you live and meet with such afflictions, you shall have cause to bless God for them, and have his comforts to refresh your souls under the endurance of them. And if you live in prosperity, you shall have cause to bless God for that, and have his grace to keep you humble, and to save you from its snares. And I can assure you, too, in the name of the Lord, that you shall be better kept from sin than you have been, and that you shall grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ; and though you shall be nearer death, you shall also be nearer life, nearer to glory, and honour, and immortality.

ON THE TERM VIRTUE IN
THEOLOGY.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

THERE appears to me to be an unnecessary scruple in the minds of some excellent persons against the use of the term "virtue," in

theology. I admit that, from our early classical habits on the one hand, and the vernacular English of our authorised translation of the Scriptures on the other, it is, in general, better to avoid words which remind us of the former, and to choose those which have been employed in the latter. I should, therefore, in general prefer, and almost without exception in sermons, the word God to Deity, holiness to virtue, godliness to piety, and sin to vice; and, indeed, Saxon words in most instances to those derived from the Latin: but still the scruple is often carried too far; so that many a pious clergyman has been set down as a very heathen, for using one of the latter class of words, when he by no means intended in so doing to mutilate the force of scriptural ideas. The word "virtue," for example, even in our vernacular translation, is sometimes used, as Cruden well expresses it, as "the generical word that contains all moral and Christian virtues under it" as in Phil. iv. 8, "If there be any virtue, think on these things." It is used in the same manner in our Prayer-book. Let us not, then, make a man an offender for a word, or infer that he is of necessity preaching mere morals, because he may happen, from long habit, to employ, not perhaps wisely, terms used in moral science, to express ideas of scriptural divinity. The mere sound is of little consequence, if the meaning be clearly defined: the chief evil is, that where these words are used, the meaning is too often defective.

the

CANDIDUS.

VERBAL MISAPPLICATION OF SCRIPTURE.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

I ADMIT, with your correspondent G. (p. 166), that it is desirable to avoid verbal, as well as substantial,

misapplications of Scripture; but I cannot think the instance he has adduced perfectly applicable to his argument. He quotes Mr. Cadogan as saying, "Exalt Jesus," and the promise is, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me:" on which he remarks, that "exalt” means to magnify; whereas, in the text alluded to by Mr. Cadogan, "lifted up "" means crucifixion.

This is true; but Mr. Cadogan seems also to have had in his mind an allusion to Moses "lifting up the serpent in the wilderness; and though this was typical of crucifixion, yet it was primarily an elevation and exhibition; the junction of all which ideas is implied in Mr. Cadogan's remark. The successive steps are, that the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness prefigured the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross; that Moses was to lift up the serpent, and the Israelites were to look at it that they might live; and that thus, under the Gospel, the Christian minister exhibits Christ to mankind. There is, however, a little quaintness or technicality in such condensed expressions; and they suppose the hearer competent to trace the latent analogy; but I see not that they are so exceptionable as your correspondent supposes. The chief objection to them is, that they are deficient in simplicity. Try the experiment in a Sunday school or village circle. First read Mr. Cado. gan's sentence, and then ask, What is meant by exalting Jesus?" The answer will, perhaps, be, "Preaching Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King; making Him the great subject of every discourse.” "Where is the promise which Mr. Cadogan mentions, that if we thus preach Christ we shall draw men to him?" A pause; you quote the passage referred to, but find your auditors not satisfied: "No, sir: that promise was not about preaching Christ, but about his crucifixion." Well, but you remember what is said about lifting up the