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THE BOND OF UNION IN OUR CHURCH CONGREGATIONS.

"Thou art my portion, O Lord." You lay upon yourself the responsibility to be all that we have described a Christian to be; and as far as you differ from it, and come short of this standard, you incur the guilt of inconsistency; guilt only to be washed out by the blood of that Redeemer whom you slight. And if you come in carelessness and unbelief to that sacred feast, in which you pledge yourself in the most solemn manner of all, that the Lord is your refuge and your portion, you do enhance that guilt most grievously. But if, on the other hand, you have been led by a practical experience of self and of the world, and of the vanity and the evil of both, and by a believing view of the infinite excellency and glory of a covenant and manifested God in Christ the Saviour, to make your choice between sin and holiness, between religion and the

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world, oh, then, with what comfort, with what holy calm, with what intelligent deliberation, with what well-founded affection, we come to this emblematic demonstration of our confidence; and while we partake of those typical elements which shew forth the atoning death in which we trust; we declare before men, before the Church, before angels, before devils, before the Eternal God and His Christ, that God is our portion. May we be enabled to go forward in faith, with sincere and unreserved devotion; and as we stand upon the confines of this world, and look forward through all the unknown contingencies which shall press us onward; and at length when we enter another; may we be able solemnly and affectionately to avow that God is the strength of our heart and our portion for ever.

Φωνη τεθνηκοτος.

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THE BOND OF UNION IN OUR CHURCH CONGREGATIONS.

SUGGESTIVE REMARKS.

We often see christian congregations, which have apparently been flourish ing, suddenly dispersed, on occasion of the removal of a beloved and valued minister. Sometimes, in addition to such removal, there has been the appointment of another of a totally different character,-one who preaches "another Gospel, which is not another." Hereupon we lament, and there is cause for lamentation;- we blame those with whom, directly or influentially, the appointment seemed to rest and there is cause for blame. But should we not look deeper? should we not enquire, What was really the state of this fair-seeming congregation? Was there anything that called for chastisement?-that provoked the rod?

Was there ever any real congregational union among them? Or were they, at the best, only a rope of sand, JANUARY-1851.

-held together by no other tie than personal regard and liking to a particular minister?-estranged from one another, and utterly negligent of the cultivation of those feelings of brotherly affection and sympathy, by which the members of any christian Church should be bound together, so as to exemplify, in the little sphere of the Church local, something of that unity and mutual love by which the whole Church on earth,-the mystical body of Christ, should feel itself bound together in one, as by a sevenfold bond, according to Eph.iv. 4-6 ?

If there was nothing of this union in the congregation, can we wonder at the dispersion? It may be mourned over as a sad event; but may it not also be regarded as a righteous judgment inflicted by the Great Head over all things to His Church, upon a state of things which is in itself utterly wrong, and highly displeasing in His sight? We must say, in reference to

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this, as in reference to every other visitation of affliction,-personal, social, ecclesiastical, or national, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Far be from us the thought, that He should visit without righteous cause.

We cannot do more at present than propose this subject for serious consideration and searching inquiry. The main point to be kept in view, we conceive, is this, to which we have already referred: that every christian congregation ought to be so ordered as to be, in miniature, a fair representation of the Universal Church of Christ. Surely, A Church should be, on a small scale, what The Church is on a great and magnificent scale; why else is the name of Church applied to both? What propriety could there be in this, if the one were not a like ness and representation of the other?

A diligent study of 1 Cor. xii. would suggest to us many things, in connexion with this leading idea. There are many members in one body; each has, or should have, its place and office in subservience to the welfare of the whole; and there should be union and sympathy among all the various members, such as would make it possible for each one to occupy his place and station, and to improve his particular gift, with reference to the welfare and growth of the whole.

Is there any attempt in our several congregations to realize this? If not, can we wonder that, again and again, we have instances in which those which have seemed most fair and flourishing are, as in a moment, by some sudden event, scattered to the winds?

PRAYER FOR THE SPIRIT.

Our beloved and honoured brother, the Rev. J. Haldane Stewart, has recently sent forth his fifteenth annual invitation to united prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We are thankful that this eminent servant of Christ is so long spared to us, to call us again and again to this important duty, and this precious privilege. We feel that we need continual and awakening calls to remind us of it;

and we feel that with the solemn call to prayer for the blessing, there is also a solemn call to consideration and enquiry, as to how far the blessing for which we have so long been praying, has been really vouchsafed in answer to our prayers. And, if this has been less manifest, and in less measure, than we had fondly hoped and expected, there should also be much self-examination, and much searching enquiry upon every side, in order to discover, Why it is that the blessing is withheld?

We are thankful for the call to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost: we respond to that call; we do pray for this great and inestimable blessing.

Are we prepared to receive the blessing, and to welcome it, in whatsoever manner it may be bestowed?—if it should come like a rushing mighty wind, stirring up some to burning zeal for truth, and uncompromising faithfulness in exposing and rebuking error? as well as if it should come in the soft and gentle breezes of tenderness, and peace, and love?

Or are we, on the other hand, doing anything to resist, and grieve, and quench the Holy Spirit? Are there any sins and evils,-allowed, connived at, cherished, and fostered, among the professors of evangelical religion,which provoke the Lord to withhold the blessing, for which we are called upon so often and so earnestly to pray?

Would it not be well, that this question should be seriously and prayerfully discussed in every Clerical Meeting,-in every company of Evangelical Clergymen and Christians throughout the length and breadth of our land?

At such a time as this, would not such enquiry; such searching of our own consciences; such searching into the real state of our churches, and of the Evangelical Body at large; be peculiarly suitable? Is it not a matter of unspeakable importance, in order that we should pray aright for a blessing, on which the well-being and increasing prosperity of the Church so peculiarly depends?-without which the Church cannot prosper, or really be in health.

T. A.

"THE SIXTH SEAL."

As many of our readers may not have access to Mr. ELLIOTT'S HORE APOCALYPTICE, they may be gratified by the following gleaning from this highly interesting work. His observations upon "the sixth seal" throw a strong light upon the metaphorical language of the Revelation of St. John; and as they are in accordance with the opinions of many learned commentators, they may tend to fix the meaning of this passage of Scripture, and to make other parts more intelligible.

"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men. and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" REV. vi. 12—17.

FROM the earliest times, the symbols of the sun, moon, and stars, as we see in Joseph's dream, were used to represent rulers. The sun and the moon, the chief heads; the stars, the inferior heads. An earthquake shaking the firmamental heavens, and their luminaries, was used as the symbol of a political revolution in a State or kingdom; of the subversion of its institutions, and fall of its governing powers. So in Jeremiah's vision (iv. 23) of the destruction and desolation of the Jewish kingdom by the Babylonians: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. ... I beheld, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger." So in Ezekiel, (xxxii. 7, 8, 11,) of the overthrow of Pharaoh and his kingdom by the King of Babylon: "When I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord." And in Isaiah, (xiii. 9, 10, 17,) of the overthrow of Babylon by the Medes, it is said that the day of the Lord

should come against it, with His wrath and fierce anger; and the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof should not give their light, and the sun should be darkened in his going forth, and the moon should not cause her light to shine.

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In these passages, changes in the heavenly luminaries, it will be well to observe what is also said of the presence of the Lord, as manifested, though acting by human agency; and of the day of the Lord, and his fierce anger, being shewn in the subversion of the former political government, and dethronement and destruction of its political governors, in cases where, after the first shock of the catastrophe, it does not appear that the conquered were treated with any particular oppression, or the yoke made very grievous. Finally, to illustrate what is said of hiding themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains, and saying to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, we may refer to Hosea's prediction (x. 8) of the Israelites thus calling on the mountains to cover them, and the hills to fall on them, under the terror and calamities of Shalmanezer's invasion. To which we may add what is told us, historically, of the Israelites hiding in such rocky caverns, whensoever, as in the times of Saul or of the Maccabees, (1 Sam. xiii. 6, 1 Mac. ii. 28-36,) the

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We infer, therefore, that the vision of the sixth seal betokened some sudden and extraordinary revolution in the Roman empire, which would follow chronologically on the era of martyrdoms of the seal preceding; a revolution arising from the triumph of the christian cause over its enemies, and in degree complete and universal. Nothing less would answer to the strength of the symbolic phraseology, than a destruction of Paganism itself throughout the empire, before the progress and power of Christianity; or, at least, a sweeping from their high places in it, of pagan powers and authorities: and this not through the gentle progress of opinion, but with circumstances of force accompanying, such as to strike the anti-christian opposers with consternation and dismay.

When God is about to act, the fittest instruments appear ever ready for His service. Behold, as in the olden times, He raised up Cyrus, in order to be the restorer of His captives from Babylon, agreeably with foregoing prophecies, so now, from the far west, and for the deliverance of His Church, as here promised, from their persecutors in the Roman empire, he raised up Constantine. Already he was known as the favourer of the Christians, ere he bore down from the Alps against Maxentius, the son and successor of the persecuting Emperor Maximian. Then, in a manner most extraordinary, and most illustrative of the prophecy under consideration, he avowed his espousal of the christian cause, and of that of Him whom the Christians worshipped, the crucified One of Nazareth, the Lamb of God. From as early a date as that of the great battle with Maxentius, according to the decisive testimony of both Lec

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tantius and Eusebius, he adopted the Cross as his distinctive military ensign. From that time to this, it has been borne upon the banner of every christian nation; and, whilst we avoid every superstitious use of it, let us ever glory in our standard, and remember that under this banner we are pledged to "fight manfully' against our great spiritual enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Shall the Mahomedan glory in the crescent, and shall the Christian forget the cross? No! Let us unfurl our banner, and look up to Him whose emblem it is, and fight manfully against every thing that would impede the coming of His kingdom. The cross, that object of abomination to the heathen Romans, was seen in the time of Constantine, "glittering in the helmets, engraved on the shields, and interwoven with the banners of his soldiers.' More especially in his principal banner, the labarum, as described by Eusebius, v., c. i. 31, which fifty men were especially appointed to guard, he displayed at its summit the same once accursed emblem, with a crown of gold beside it, and the monogram of the name of Him, who, after bearing the one, now wore the other.

We may be sure the question was in every mouth, Why so strange an ensign? And let it not be forgotten, that besides other reasons to impress him, as to the excellence of the doctrine, the virtues of the professors, and other internal and external evidence of the truth of Christianity, there might have been mention made of a mysterious vision of a cross of flame just before seen in the sky, in the night watches, by the western emperor; and how he had been warned in the vision, by a voice from heaven, to adopt that ensign of the cross, and with the promise added, that through it he should conquer. Scepticism, as we know, has been frequent in expressing its disbelief of this asserted fact. For my own part, I am unable to resist the force of Constantine's solemn declaration to Eusebius of its truth. The time, as well as solemnity of his statement,-a time when nothing was to be gained by the fiction,

THE SIXTH SEAL.

for it was made when life was drawing to a close,-and, moreover, the whole character of Constantine,-so little prone either to credulity or to deception,-seem to me alike to forbid its rejection. If true, it satisfactorily explains to us the fact of his adoption of the cross as his ensign; otherwise all but inexplicable. And as to its miraculousness, surely the case, if ever, was one that from its importance might seem to call for the supernatural intervention of the Deity. Thus Constantine was the first crusader; and, with better reason than the princes of the eleventh century at Clermont, might feel as he prosecuted the war, that it was "the will of God."

"By this ensign thou shalt conquer. Such was the tenor of the promise. And well, we know, was the promise fulfilled to Constantine. Army after army, emperor after emperor, (for since Diocletian's division, there were, according to the prophetic intimation, several cotemporary emperors, or "kings of the earth,") were routed, and fled, and perished before the cross and its warriors,-Maxentius, Maximin, and, after his apostacy to the pagan cause, Licinius. A basrelief, still remaining, on Constantine's triumphal arch at Rome, vividly represents to us the terror of the former and of his army, in their flight across the Tiber, after defeat in the battle of the Milvian bridge. A similar consternation attended the others, also. And this was chiefly remarkable,-that it was not the terror of their earthly victor only that oppressed them. There was a consciousness of the powers of heaven acting against them; above all, Christ, the Christian's God. For the war, in each case, was felt to be a religious

war.

When Maxentius went forth to battle, he went fortified by heathen oracles, and relying on the heathen gods, -the champion of Heathenism against the champion of Christianity. When Maximin was about to engage with Licinius, he made his vow to Jupiter, that, if successful, he would extirpate Christianity. When Licinius, again, was marching against Constantine and his crusaders, he, in public ha

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rangue before the soldiers, ridiculed the cross, and staked the falsehood of Christianity on his success.

Thus, in all these cases, the terrors of defeat must have been aggravated by a sense of their gods failing them, and of the power of heaven being with Christ against them. It was observed, that wherever the labarum, the banner of the cross, was raised, there victory attended. "In the war against Constantine," says Gibbon, "Licinius, after his apostacy, felt and dreaded the power of the consecrated banner; the sight of which in the distress of battle, animated the soldiers of Coustantine with invincible enthusiasm, and scattered terror and dismay through the ranks of the adverse legions.'

All this must needs have added to the impression. Besides which, there are to be remembered the recorded dying terrors of one and another of the persecuting emperors. Already Galerius had, from his suffering deathbed, evinced his remorse and terror of conscience, by entreating the Christians, in a public proclamation, to pray to their God (i.e. to Christ) for him. And Maximin soon after, in similar anguish of mind and body, confessed his guilt, and called on Christ to compassionate his misery. Thus did a sense of the wrath of the crucified One, the Lamb of God, whom they now knew to be seated on the throne of power, lie heavy, intolerably heavy, upon them.

And when we combine these terrors of the death-bed with those of the lost battle-field, in which latter terrors the officers and soldiers, each active partizan in the persecution and the war, including all, in short, that are particularized in the sacred vision,low as well as high, the slaves as well as the free men,-must needs have participated; when, I say, we consider the terrors of these antichristian kings of the Roman earth, thus routed with their partizans before the christian host, and miserably flying and perishing, there was surely that in the event which, according to the usual construction of such scripture figures, might well be deemed to answer to the symbols of the prefigurative vision

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