or the malevolent, or the wick not again," and forgave, with his ed, to gratify their own evil pas- dying breath, his inveterate enesions, or private views, would not mies and murderers. Always be hesitate to injure, scatter, and found in your place at the table ruin, a Christian Society, yet, of the Lord. Differences with blessed be God! there are not a any of your brethren can never few who will exclaim, with the afford a just reason why you Psalmist," Peace be within thy should neglect this holy ordi-. walls, and prosperity within thy nance. Train up your children palaces! If I forget thee, O Je-" in the nurture and admonition rusalem, let my right hand forget of the Lord." Be much concernher cunning. If I do not remem-ed, that there should be an eviber thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. For my brethren, my companions' sake, I will now say, 6 Peace be within thee!'' > dent difference between your families and those of the ungodly. Let your conversation, let the whole of your deportment, in the family, the church, and the world, be such as becometh the Gospel of Christ. Unremittingly pursue after that holiness" without which no man shall see the Lord." Watch for opportunities of usefulness. Wherever you may see. good impressions made on the mind of any attendant on the means of grace, talk kindly to the individual, and encourage him to "follow on to know the Lord." Reader! are these the sentiments of thy heart, in reference to the church of God in general, and towards that part of Zion especially with which thou art more peculiarly connected? Let your conduct, as well as your words, prove the sincerity of your profession. Diligently attend the public ordinances of God's house. Let there be a marked If you have not a Sabbath difference between the Sabbath School, collect one immediately; and other days. Let the whole you will by this means do good, of the Lord's-day be consecrated not only to the children, but to to God. Take your families to the parents--some of them will the sanctuary, and invite your come and hear the Gospel, and neighbours and friends to accom-it may become the " pany you. Be much in prayer in secret, and in your Social Prayer Meetings, that God would prosper his cause amongst you. At-rage them, feel for the general tend Church Meetings with a spirit of devotion and love, and with a sincere solicitude for the divine glory. Love all who love Christ, "with a pure heart fervently." Cultivate an affection-permanent usefulness in a congreate disposition towards all who are around you. Do not be readily offended. When offences come, be anxious for reconciliation, re- Hold up, in every possible collecting the precepts and glori-way, the hands of your minister, ous example of our divine Lead- He can never be eminently suc er, who when reviled, reviled cessful without your active and power of God" to their everlasting salvation. If you have a school, visit it, pray with the children, encou prosperity of the institution. Be willing to deny yourselves somewhat of your usual ease and comfort for the public good. There can be but little hope of gation, where there is no ardent concern for the spiritual welfare of the rising generation. "In answer to my fervent cries, Aid him, wherever ON WALKING WITH GOD. THE Christian Course (2 Tim. iv. 7) is a perpetual walking with God. Influenced by religion, Enoch was thus devoted to him, Gen, v. 22. zealous co-operation. Ever meet him with the smile of affection. You cannot profit by his labours, unless you love him; love him then; "esteem him highly for his works' sake." Bear him fervently on your hearts at a throne of grace. you can, in the spread of the Redeemer's kingdom. Always speak of him, and to him, with respect and kindness. If you, who attend his ministry, do not revere him, you will destroy his comfort, and injure his usefulness. Be assured, that your happiness and respectability are intimately connected with his. Be more generous than to make him an offender for a word. Disdain to countenance such as would slander or calumniate him. In temporal matters act towards him not only with justice, but, as far as you can, with liberality. "Be stedfast and immoveable, always abound-ercises. We must have no will ing in the work of the Lord: your labour cannot be in vain in the Lord." Pursuing such a line of conduct, you cannot but be prosperous. Generally speaking, it is the fault of a people themselves, when a church falls into decay or ruin. Of a community, where love, and truth, and holiness, and benevolence, and devotion, pre side, even an individual of no piety might sometimes be induced to exclaim, "Blessed be he that blesseth thee, and cursed be he who curseth thee!- Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his !" The man who feels as he ought, will indeed often say, Let the joys and the sorrows of Zion be mine.-Give me, O my God, to see the prosperity of that part of thy cause especially with which I am personally connected, Walking 1. DESCRIPTION. with God is not a monkish se clusion from the world; it is not an ostentatious display of devotion. But it is a sincere and universal obedience to the Divine Will; an entire subjection to his holy authority; an unlimited confidence in his promises. It comprehends our deportment in the world, and our devotional ex of our own, opposed to his. They who walk with God, retire frequently from the world to meditate upon his glorious character and exalted perfections; they delight in pouring out their hearts. to him in humble prayer; they. obey his commands; they culti vate the dispositions which he has enjoined, and which the example of Christ exhibits; they live perpetually under the benign influence of religion; and they walk in the light of the Divine countenance. II. BENEFITS. These are neither few nor small; nor can we be deprived of them by our most malicious and powerful enemies. 1. Knowledge of, and cleaving to, the doctrines of the Gospel. We shall behold their beauty and importance. We shall experience a sincere and growing attachment to them. We shall know their value, and feel their suitableness to our condition. Conformity to the Divine Will, and the just conception of Divine Truth, are inseparable." If any man," said the Saviour," will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." John vii. 17. Every dereliction of religious truth is preceded by disobedience to the Divine Will in some way or other. The mind is in some degree diverted from God; his authority is disregarded; his claims are overlooked; devoted ness of heart to him is with-held. When men "choose their own ways," God" chooses their delusions," Isa. lxvi. 3, 4. If men take pleasure in unrighteousness," God "will send them strong delusions, that they may believe a lie," 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. But the Lord, in this as well as in every other respect, preserveth his saints. 2. Solid and permanent Peace. The wicked are" like a troubled sea." But "the Lord will bless his people with peace," Ps. xxix. 11, he will "extend peace to them like a river," Isa. lxvi. 12, they shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace," Ps. *xxvii. 11. "Glory, honour, and peace shall be to every man that worketh good," Rom. ii. 10. Their path is the way of peace," Luke i. 79. This peace they have through our Lord Jesus Christ," Rom. v. 1. John xvi. 33. "passeth all understanding," Phil. iv. 7. It is an antidote against the fear of death. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ?" It flows from hope in the promises, from the pardon of sin, from the light of heaven on our path, and from the presence of God. It 3. Assurance of Salvation. This is peculiar to those who live daily under the influence of the fear of the Lord; whose hearts are fixed, trusting in him, Ps. cxii. 7, and whose souls breathe the language of the poet, O for a closer walk with God" It is the fruit of every grace of the Holy Spirit. This assurance is not faith. Faith is a belief of the divine testimony: but the divine testimony points out no person by name. Being, however, one of the graces of the Holy Spirit, by which the christian is sealed and designated, the believer beholding it in himself, together with the other graces of the Spirit, becomes assured of his own salvation. Blessed is the man, who, walking with God, has a hope full of immortality. 4. The Divine Honour pro• . moted. He who walks with God, adorns the religion which he professes, illustrates its purity, exemplifies its excellence, and lives down the prejudice and overcomes the opposition of its enemies. 5. Meetness for future Blessedness. They who have no communion with God in the present life, shall not dwell with him for Lever. But "the pure in heart shall see God." They who have fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ; who manifest by their actions the supreme control which religion has over them; who have the testimony of their consciences in their favour; and who are conformed to his image in the present world; -shall dwell with him for ever. 6. The Divine Presence in Death. If our hearts are devoted to God; if we maintain habitual communion with him; if we constantly submit to his authority, and obey his commands; if we cordially receive his Son, and rely with confidence on his atonement; if we are guided. effectually benefit ourselves, our families, our country, and the by the teachings of his Spirit, HINTS For a General Union of Christians FOR PRAYER FOR THE Out-pouring of the Holy Spirit." The aim of this paper is huni bly to suggest such a plan, not to disparage other benevolent attempts, but to give life, and vigour, and energy to them all. The plan is this; TO UNITE ALL SINCERE CHRISTIANS IN EAR- HOLY SPIRIT. This will meet and of our desires. The limits of this paper require brevity; but if the Scriptures are examined, the following truths will be clearly seen; viz. That no human effort is of itself suffi cient to change the heart of man, or to build the spiritual temple of the Lord. God employs men as instruments, but He is himself the great agent. Paul may plant and Apollos water, but God only IN the present day; a day which, for obvious reasons, may be called a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of blasphemy; and yet a day which, from the advance of true religion, shines with many a ray of bright hope and earnest expectation;-in such a day, in which hope and fear thus alternately prevail, one great question ought to occupy the mind-giveth the increase. Not by How to overcome the evil, and to extend the good; how to confound the works of Satan, and to enlarge and establish the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. The Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of Jehovah, the third Person of the ever-blessed Trinity, is Many are the attempts now infinite in power; with Him nomaking for this purpose. Socie- thing is impossible; all hearts ties are in active operation to súp-are open to Him, and all creapress vice, to reform our prisons,tures subject to His will. Exto afford a refuge for the desti-clusively of his almighty power tute-to provide an asylum for as God, in the economy of our the penitent-to educate the salvation, he has undertaken young-to circulate the Holy offices which are fully sufficient Scriptures to evangelize the to secure the most extensive blessheathen-and to promote Chris-ings. He convinces the world of tianity among the Jews. Each of sin, of righteousness, and of judg these institutions has its peculiar ment-He takes away the stony excellence, but they are all li- heart, and gives a heart of flesh. mited in their object and in their effort. No one great and extensive plan has yet been adopted, which may, at the same time, Knowing the respectable source from which this paper proceeds, we with pleasure give it to the public. ED. He assists in prayer, and acts as a teacher and remembrancër, He guides into all truth.-He glorifies the Lord Jesus, and sheds abroad the love of God in the heart.-He has also a boundless treasury of every requisite to who are now as a multitude of dry bones, shall stand up as a great army of true believers. The divine oracles at the same time accomplish his purposes: for he receives of the things that are Christ's, and shows them to his people; and in the Lord Jesus we know are hidden all the trea-assure us that it is in answer to sures of wisdom and knowledge. prayer that this blessing will be "In Him dwelleth all the fulness bestowed. It was not till the of the Godhead bodily." The Prophet had said, "Come from Holy Spirit, therefore, has only the four winds, O breath, and to exercise his office, to pour out breathe upon these slain that they gifts and graces from the inex- may live," that the life-giving haustible fulness of Christ, and Spirit came. In another prophewhat man by all his efforts can cy, also, after promises of great never attain, the Eternal Spirit mercies, it is added, I will yet can immediately accomplish. The for this be inquired of by the same power which, on the day house of Israel to do it for them." of Pentecost, effected the con- Such is the connexion between version of three thousand unbe- the gift and prayer for its bestowlieving Jews under one discourse, ment.-So much is this the order can convince the most prejudiced, in which the Lord grants his merand change the hearts of the most cies, that he has promised not obdurate of the present day. only to pour out a spirit of prayWhen He makes bare his arm, er and supplication upon his peothe mountains will flow down at ple, but to lead them to excite his presence, nations will be born one another to this exercise; for at once, and the kingdoms of thus it is written, "The inhabithis world become the kingdoms tants of one city shall go to anof God and of his Christ. other, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts; I will go also." And when prayer is offered, God declares," Before they Without, therefore, entering into the question as to the exact period of these glorious times, we have every reason to believe, that whenever prayer is generally made for the out-pouring of the Holy' Spirit, this unspeakable blessing. will be afforded. Whilst the sacred Scriptures thus acquaint us with the power of the Holy Spirit to effect these great objects, they afford us every reason to expect this aid when-call I will answer, and while they ever general prayer is made for are yet speaking I will hear." its exercise. The prophecies clearly show that days of great blessedness are before us, and that these days will be preceded or accompanied by a very large effusion of the Holy Spirit. The Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Joel, plainly predict this effusion, whilst Ezekiel confirms these predictions by the most striking emblems. Who can read the remarkable vision of the valley full of dry bones, and the interpretation given of that vision, without being convinced that the Holy Spirit will yet exercise his office in a very remarkable manner? So powerfully, that those Could we find any instance in which the Lord has refused to hear the prayers of his people, even when praying solely for their own deliverance, we might be' discouraged; but when He has from the beginning heard their cry and saved them, we may rest assured he will answer our petitions. That which is now de |