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hail sweeps away the refuge of lies, he will lay a sure foundation for his weak but affectionate disciple.

It will be my object, in the following discourse, to consider from our text,

1. The description there given of Christ; and

2. The value, as there pointed out, of union with him.

First, we are to consider the description here given of Christ.

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He is described under the images of a stone," a "tried stone,' a "precious corner-stone," a "sure foundation." Let us examine these various terms.

1. In the first place, he is described under the image of a "stone." The figure is borrowed from a building, and the Saviour of the world is compared to a massy stone laid in the foundation, or wrought in as the key-stone of the arch; the stone, in short, on which the strength and stability of the building depend. The image is evidently used here, as elsewhere in the Scripture, to convey to the mind a conception of the breadth and firmness of the foundation on which every true Christian builds for eternity. Nothing is more awful, to say the least, than the uncertainty of that man's creed, and the insecurity of his hope, who is resting for salvation upon any thing but the grace and the atonement of his Redeemer. Your scheme of religion, you say, may be true. Yes; but it may be false. And what is the evidence that it is not? It rests not upon fact, but fancy, not upon revelation, but conjecture. On what do you found your hopes? On the merits of your own works, on the strength of your own resolutions? on the hopes of a life of unerring obedience for the time to come? But what are these hopes? Dreams of a dream, and shadows of a shade. Is not this to dig your foundation in air? Christ is the rock-the rock of ages-build upon him; and then, and only then, the edifice of your hopes shall never fall. "The

grass withereth, and the flower fadeth; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever."

2 But, again, Christ is here compared to a "tried stone." His Gospel, his promises, his power, his love, his merits, are represented, not as a faulty stone selected by an unwary builder, on which to lay a weight too heavy for it to support; but, as a stone, "tried," and ascertained to be suited to its purpose. Many faint and sinking spirits have already proved this foundation, and found it strong enough to bear all their cares, their doubts, and their fears. Other supports have given way, or have crumbled under the burdens of life; or other expectations have dried up in the withering contemplation of the fires of Divine displeasure. But thousands and tens of thousands have lived happily, and died triumphantly, because they lived and died in dependence upon this merciful Redeemer. "None but Christ, none but Christ," was the language of a faithful martyr as he approached the stake: and the same is the daily language of the peaceful and joyful souls who are catching through the darkening shades of death the bright vision of a glorious eternity.

3. But still further, the Saviour is spoken of as a "precious cornerstone." Every other stay in religion is worthless; but he is intrinsically valuable, and gives value to all his gifts. He cements the scattered stones of the Christian edifice, as the corner-stone gives stability to the whole building. Prayer were of little value to a being who has offended God, and closed up every avenue of access to him, if we were not privileged to offer it in His name who is the way to the Father. The Scriptures were of little value to us fallen and perishing creatures, could we not find there a Deliverer from the guilt and power of sin, and the guidance of that Interpreter whom he promised as the enlightener and sanctifier of his people. The offices of religion were of little value, did

we not know that the Saviour has pledged himself to stand in the midst of every little company of sincere worshippers. Therefore, "though once (the Christian may exclaim) I could forget him from day to day, though once a detailed account of his glories and mercies was wearisome to me, though once I could see no beauty in him, that I should desire him, now he is my sun, my shield, and my exceeding and eternal great reward: though, once, I viewed God only as a stern lawgiver and judge, and trembled under the lash of his displeasure; now I thank him, and love him, as the compassionate Father, who has laid in Zion the corner-stone on which I am building my hopes and my joys."

4. Lastly, our Saviour is here called a "sure foundation." The two words thus translated, are in the Hebrew the same word, and might be translated "foundation, foundation." The repetition is designed to fix the idea of the firmness of this foundation more strongly on the mind. Christ is the foundation on which the expectations, the hope of grace and pardon, the virtues, the powers, of the Christian are to be erected. "Other foundation (says the Apostle) can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Utterly false is that conception of religion which would tempt a man, having professed to lay the merits and mercies of the Redeemer as the ground of his hopes, to stop at that point. The foundation is laid; but where is the superstructure? A Christian will indeed lay this foundation widely and deeply, but he will strive by Divine grace to erect upon it the edifice of a holy life, a life of cheerful devotion to God, and obedience to his laws. Having laid aright the only foundation, he will pray and labour to add to his faith virtue, and to crowd the ample sphere of life with these spiritual graces and holy fruits. Christ being the "foundation," faith and penitence and love, hope and peace and joy, honesty and kind. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 336.

ness and patience, and all the vast body of Christian qualities and duties flowing from union to him, constitute the ample superstructure. If we search for these qualities, except in connexion with the love of Christ, we may often find their counterfeits, but we shall never find the reality.

II. We come, secondly, to inquire into the benefits of union with the Saviour, as described in the text: "He who believeth in him shall not make haste;" or, as the text is quoted in the New Testament, "shall not be confounded." The latter part of this expression means that true believers in Christ shall not feel the agitation, impatience, and terror of mind so common under circumstances of trial and danger to the people of the world. They shall be divinely supported; and when the hearts of others "fail them for fear," they shall lift up their heads with joy." They shall not make haste, as persons fleeing in battle from a victorious enemy. In order to see the value of this privilege, let us contemplate the Christian under three distinct points of view, as looking to the past, the present, and the future.

1. In the first place, then, the believer in Christ is calm as to the past. None but those who have never known the torments of a terrified conscience will make light of them. "A wounded spirit who can bear?" God is the "God of the spirits of all flesh;" and when for some wise purpose he points the arrows of his wrath at the conscience, he can kindle feelings of remorse and dismay in the heart only less terrible than those which await the condemned sinner in the world of despair. Under the worst bodily suffering the spirit will often sustain the mortal frame, will rise above the storm, and triumph over its fury. But when the mind is wounded, the very pinion by which we would rise is injured; and the whole man sinks under the overwhelming pressure. How strongly does the language of

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Scripture often describe this state of soul! 66 Thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind:" "Thine arrows stick fast in me:" "When I say my bed shall comfort me, and my couch shall ease my complaint, then thou scarest me with dreams and terrifiest me with visions." Nor are these pangs of memory and conscience confined to the deeply profligate. The most moral and amiable person, when he duly contemplates himself as in the sight of God, and with a scriptural knowledge of his guilt, as an offender against his laws, may well feel dismay. His sins arise upon him in terrible array, and scare away repose from the soul. What, then, is the security from assaults such as these? Faith in the Redeemer. "He that believeth shall not be confounded:" "No weapon formed against him shall prosper." The love of God in Christ shed abroad in his soul quenches these terrors, and calms the perturbations of his mind. The Saviour walks upon the troubled waves, and bids the storm be still. And who shall picture his joy as he escapes from these alarms? It is delightful to drink the warm breath of spring after the biting blast of winter it is delightful to shake off the chains of imprisonment and to walk free amidst the glories of nature. But faint indeed are such images to describe the joy of him who escapes from the dread of hell to the hope of heaven; from the storms of eternal wrath to the bright and holy sunshine of the Divine favour and love. "The Lord is my strength and my song, he also is become my salvation."

2. But, secondly, the Christian is calm as to the present. Suppose the past not to haunt or agitate the mind, still is not the present a subject of anxiety? I will not dwell on the bodily evils to which we are exposed-on the sudden inroads of disease, "the arrow that flieth in secret, and the pestilence that walketh at noon-day -on the rapid and unseen flight of the many shafts

which may reach us or the bosoms of those we love. There are within still deeper sources of disquietude than these. God is holy-the law of God is holy: the demands of that law require our whole heart and soul and mind and strength; and we are irresolute of purpose, and weak in action, and cannot of ourselves think a good thought, or take a single step in the steep ascent of duty and holiness. What, then, shall calm us under the contemplation of present difficulties? Faith in the Redeemer. "He that believeth shall not be confounded." The difficulties around us melt away when met in the strength and power of our God. "When the enemy cometh in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him;" and our spiritual foes shall fall like the army of Sennacherib, slain by an invisible Hand. Other men, if they knew their danger, would tread the earth as travellers the country of a resistless enemy; the servant of God, as a country watched by the eye, and guarded by the armies, of the Captain of his salvation. He is calm, because the Lord "reigns, be the earth never so unquiet."

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3. But thirdly, the servant of God is calm as to the future. Who can look through the pages of Scripture, and contemplate the awful pictures of the future world of punishment, without some quickening of his fears, and sinking of his spirits, unless he is rightly armed against the terrors of futurity? This awe of the future is, perhaps, oftener felt than confessed. It often shakes the stoutest minds in the hour of calamity and sickness; and darkens the visions of joy which they are labouring to raise up around them. But surround the real Christian with these apprehensions, unveil to him the terrors of the future, break up their terrible depths, and throw wide to his eye the "lake of unquenchable fire,"-still if, in the true exercise of faith, "he shall not be confounded,” “he shall not

that he has broken from the prison of his grave, and ascended to "His Father and to our Father, to His God and our God."

make haste,"-aların shall not overwhelm him. On the contrary, he looks to the day of death as the day of release, of escape, and of joy" to depart, and to be with Christ, is far better." For him those fires are quenched; his eye lifted above them is fixed upon the throne of that Saviour who lived for his people, bled for his people, conquered for his people, and is for ever advocating their cause at the right hand of God. He has heard his Saviour's voice, "I appoint you a kingdom, that ye may eat at my table and drink in my kingdom" and he answers, "I will fear nothing; for when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall also appear with him in glory."

And now what is the practical conclusion to be drawn from these observations?

1. In the first place, let each of us ask whether he himself is thus united to his Redeemer. And, to determine this point, look at the text. It is there said, "He that believeth" shall be thus blessed. This, then, is the great question to be settled before we may venture to decide upon our eternal hopes. Have we a real living practical faith in the Saviour of the world? Do we receive Him in his offices as a Saviour, a Teacher, an Example, a Ruler, a God? Do we not merely yield a dry and cold assent to the truth that He is all this? but has this truth laid hold of the heart, the hopes, the fears, the conscience and affections? Do we rejoice to know that He is what he is, and is "able and willing to save to the uttermost all that come unto him?" Do we love Him because He has first loved us? Does the knowledge that he has lived and died for us sweeten the toils of life, lighten its burden, blunt the edge of calamity, throw a brighter hue over the path of prosperity, and fill us with "peace and with joy in believing?" The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. And a holy joy should fill our own souls when we know

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2. If you feel the value of this foundation for your hopes and interests, learn from the text, by whose hand it has been provided and laid. "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." You have not laid it by the strength of your own arm; you have not procured it to be laid by your own deservings. He laid the stone who is the " thor and finisher of salvation." To Him, then, is our gratitude due. To Him must arise the song of triumph, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name be the praise." And what fruits ought not this gratitude to produce? Does it live in our souls? then it must have a voice and speak out in all the circumstances, trials, duties, and exigencies of life? Then the bye-stander must see it and feel it. Then it must proclaim itself in the strong and unwearied labours of zeal, and love, and holy ardour, in the calm movements of patience, and submission, and devout resignation to the will of God. To this end, let us draw near to God. Let us approach Him, and see if he has not some new blessing in store for

us.

He has not laid this "founda tion," or the temple, without meaning to bestow upon it many additional gifts: "séeing he has given us his own Son, he will with him freely give us all things." Let us come to Him, then, for more love and more faith; for a deeper spirit of humility, and patience, and obedience. "The Lord, who has brought us out of the land of bondage," and guilt and misery," with great power and a stretched out arm; Him must we fear, Him must we worship, and to Him do sacrifice:" peace fice:" "Worship Him "Worship Him in spirit and in truth;" "worship Him in the beauty of holiness:" and may He hear and bless and pardon us, and keep us for ever and ever.

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HUMAN SACRIFICES IN INDIA.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

THE public attention has of late been directed in an unusual degree to the opprobrious fact of our administration in the East having permitted the continuance of human sacrifices by the natives as a means of placating "them that are no gods;" "that have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not, neither is there any breath in their nostrils." When it is considered that this is the administration of a professedly Christian country, whose ecclesiastical establishment in India has been recognised by the British parliament, and supported by British munificence, it might have been hoped that one of her own bishops would not in vain have detailed from personal inspection the misery and degradation of our own fellow Christians and fellow-subjects in the East (among whom he soon afterwards breathed his last); but that the English nation would before this have responded to his scriptural and benevolent appeal, and, after having effected the extinction of slavery in Africa, would have decreed the suppression of religious murder in Asia. That time, however, has not at present fully arrived; but let us trust, for the interests of piety and humanity, that it is not now far distant.

An effort was made in the court of proprietors at the East-India house, about three years ago, to interest that corporation and the country at large in the interdiction of these abominations. The attempt had been preceded by the motion of Mr. Buxton,in the House of Commons, for the production and printing of a voluminous mass of official information received from India in the shape of regular returns

of the sacrifice of human life. The documentary evidence thus collected is of the highest importance; and without it the motion made at the East-India House could not have been brought forward, or would have been unsuccessful. That motion was however carried by the proprietors, in exclusion of an amendment proposed upon it by the directors. The motion carried declared, that "This court, taking into consideration the continuance of human sacrifices in India, is of opinion, that in the case of all rites or ceremonies involving the destruction of life it is the duty of a paternal government to interpose for their prevention, and therefore recommend to the honourable court of directors to transmit such instructions to India as that court may deem most expedient for accomplishing this object, consistently with all practicable attention to the feelings of the natives."

In consequence of this resolution, the court of directors, though defeated in their opposition to it, were honestly desirous of transmitting it to India; but the late Board of Controul overruled it, so that this solemn instruction has not to this hour officially found its way to our Indian empire.

Since the above motion was carried, nothing has publicly transpired at the India House beyond an occasional inquiry as to whether any further information had been received, and whether any hopes might be entertained that the Indian government, either abroad or at home, was any nearer the suppression of the atrocious cruelties of the Hindoo idolatry. To these inquiries only general and unsatisfactory answers have been obtained: and thus the matter at present stands. In the mean time, however, I rejoice to state, that an increased interest in

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