blood, the sacrifice of their lives, in testimony to the truth,-the word of God, thus proclaimed, effected wide and numerous breaches in the walls that surrounded Jericho, and to all appearance the whole had perished, had not worldly policy and human interest interposed, and afforded their aid. She now labours more and more for her former power, and sometimes only too successfully. She repairs the battered walls, and is as haughty and menacing as ever. But the worst is, that even in some Protestant societies they have brought back that which constitutes the very essence of the Papistry,-violence, ignorance, the spirit of domination, tyranny over conscience, persecution, worldly pomp, ceremonies, low superstitions. Let those who are attached to this Jericho by the prejudices of birth and education, remain there: we are not surprised at this; it is the fruit of their unhappy blindness; we pity them, but we do not hate them: but for those who have dwelt in such happier circumstances, who have had the opportunity of marking all the errors of the system, and tracing them to their destructive issues,-for these to seek to set it up again, under other and scantily-disguising names, is not only rebellion against God, but an ingratitude not less criminal than that of the Israelites, who preferred the bondage of Egypt, to the liberty which God had procured for them by so many prodigies. Such evils, my brethren, let us carefully avoid: but, above all, let us take care that we do not rebuild and fortify another Jericho, not less dangerous; and which we find in the midst of us, in our own bosom. It is sin, the flesh, the world. It is the Jericho that Christ our Saviour came principally to destroy. Its destruction is one great end of his incarnation, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension to this tend all his lessons, his example, and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. All cry to us in the Gospel, "Mortify the deeds of the body;' Crucify the flesh;" "Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof;" "Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead." " 66 We have ourselves promised this to God in our baptism. In receiving the seal of Christianity, we become engaged to renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil; to combat our spiritual adversaries without intermission; and as to this Jericho, not to leave one stone of it upon another. Every time we partake of the eucharistic sacrament, we acknowledge our engagement to "fight the good fight of faith" with unshaken fidelity; we confess it in all our prayers, and fastings, and thanksgivings, in all our humiliations, in all our festivals: whatever the particular form of our religious service may be, if our hearts be right, this is our design and end, that we be truly separated from the world, and devoted to God; that the object of Christ's coming be accomplished in us by our being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, and brought to serve God in righteousness and holiness before him, all the days of our life. What are we doing, then, when we allow ourselves to be borne along by the torrent of worldly custom; when we love and follow after the world, imitating its examples, adopting its maxims, conforming to its fashions, nourishing our own foolish and hurtful desires, labouring to satisfy them, abandoning ourselves to their influence? Christ came to destroy all these works of the devil: shall we attempt to preserve them? O let us do nothing that shall be equivalent to restoring the Jericho which the God of Israel has condemned and anathematized, and against which our own Christian profession sets us in direct opposition! But if we do this, let us be assured that we sin against the Lord, against our own engagements, against our essential duty as Christians, and against our own capital interest. Think on the hazards which you thus run. You expose yourselves to the loss of heaven, of salvation, of a blissful immortality. You expose yourselves to the terrible punishment of the second death. "The wages of sin is death." And what death? A death to which temporal death, in its most dreadful form, and under its most painful circumstances, is as nothing. See, then, the audacity of the sinner; his insensate boldness! And sin, has it so many charms, procures it so much joy, gains it so much reward, that we should for the sake of it expose ourselves to the certain danger of eternal condemnation and pain? And what is the source of this insensibility? It is only too well known. We flatter ourselves that we do not, in reality, run so great a risk; we are unwilling to imagine that God is so rigorous; we think he will content himself with menacing, and that he is too good to strike. We only see his judgments in the far-distant future; and thus is their impressiveness diminished. We believe ourselves to be as yet a long way from the tomb; and that, before we reach it, we shall have time to set our house in order, and to "flee from the wrath to come." Some root or other of unbelief, deeply hid in the heart, seems always ready to shoot forth doubts and suspicions of threats the most clearly expressed, the most impressively announced. The passions cast a veil over our head, that we should not behold what it would displease them were they to see. They darken and confuse our reason; and, in certain moments, they deaden every sentiment of religion. Hiel thought not of Joshua and the curse. He only saw the advantages of the plan he had proposed. And thus with ourselves. We shut out from our view the objects which "the word of the Lord" makes known to us; and then our Jericho goes on quietly and rapidly we fancy we are securing the reward of our labours, and we are in reality filling up the measure of our iniquities. : Instructed by the guilt and wretchedness of others, let us ourselves become wiser. The threatenings of God are not vain words. Sooner or later, their effect is certain. "The wages of sin is death." Instead of submitting to this tyrant, let us combat against him without relaxation. Our life depends on his death. Let him die. Strive, pray against him. Not only do not rebuild Jericho, let it be destroyed; let it remain an uninhabited heap of desolate ruin. God wills it: let us conform to his will; let us enter into his views; let us second them with all our soul. His glory, the edification of our neighbour, our eternal salvation, all depend upon it. Instead of giving fresh life to the old man, let us seek that the new man be strengthened more and more. Let us labour in the work of our personal sanctification constantly, ardently; ever seeking to bring it to its perfection. We believe in the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ: let us add to our faith virtue, and knowledge, and temperance, and patience, and godliness, and brotherly-kindness, and charity. For if these things be in us, and abound, we shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus; and so at last, into his eternal kingdom shall there be an entrance abundantly administered unto us. From such an enterprise as this, our heavenly Father will not indeed turn us. He will both stimulate and strengthen us in it. Holy angels will rejoice in witnessing the progress of our work. All that fear God will be edified by our example. The doctrine of God our Saviour, which our profession recognises and publishes, will be adorned by us. Sheltered from all anathema, our conscience will enjoy a sweet repose. Men may unhappily oppose, and even curse, us: God will favour and bless us. All will be benediction, and gladness, and peace. We shall wait for our last hour in patient hope. And at the great day of all, when the rebuilders of Jericho, the unhappy Hiels, condemned of God, have to receive the tremendous dcom, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;" to us, mercifully preserved in fidelity by his abounding grace, he will say, with a countenance and voice full of love, "Come, ye blessed, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." So be it, Lord; so be it! RELIGION IS HEART-WORK. WERE all our swords of contention beaten into ploughshares and pruning-hooks, for ploughing up the fallow ground, pulling up the weeds, and cutting off the luxuriances of the heart; were this the only contention, who should most promote gracious heart-work both in themselves and others; this work would afford comfort, both living and dying. We are every one readier to find fault with others, than to mend ourselves; but were heart-work more minded, we should have no time to spare for such excursions. When the frame and bent of the heart are right, they influence the life; and when heart and life please God, nothing can come amiss to us. When the heart is truly in our religion, God's severest strokes, as they seem to be, will yet be real blessings to us; but where the heart is neglected, even those providences that are most grateful to flesh and blood, will not fail to be curses to us.-Dr. Annesley. THE WESLEYAN METHODIST. (No. XCIII.) THE DUTY OF PERSONAL HUMILIATION AND PRAYER, IN REFERENCE TO NATIONAL DISTRESSES. (For the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.) "IN the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of are made known are plain; and it is by the facts that our conduct is to be governed. Mysteries are to be expected; for the statements are made by an infinite Being, and relate to both his nature and his will. The first is incommensurable cloth, and ashes. And whiles I was speaking, by any finite mind; and yet we are the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sack and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel touched me about the time of the evening oblation."-Dan. ix. 1-3, 20, 21. "ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God; and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto every good work." Such is the explicit testimony of holy writ; and thus both its proper character and its direct intention and object are placed before us. The text is well known, and often quoted; but it is one which, for this very reason, may sometimes pass through the mind without leaving its due impression: so that it may be proper occasionally to pause while it is before us, and ask, What is the information which it really communicates? and what are the purposes for which it is given? Divinely inspired! It is not, then, the word of man: man speaks not to us here, or only speaks as the oracle of God. There is no great and impassable gulf between man and his Maker. We are not left doubtfully and anxiously to infer his will concerning us. God himself speaks; he announces his will and such an announcement we are bound to receive. Mysteries there may be which we are unable to fathom; and we are not required to fathom them. The facts which : so constituted as to be able to receive the idea of the existence of the divine Being, and of the fact, that that existence includes boundless and most glorious perfection. Nor is the second to be expected to be free from obscurity; for the limited capacity of man cannot grasp all the reasons of the divine procedure, and even where this might be possible, yet to the simple enunciations of sovereign authority is obedience due, whether the motives which dictate them be understood or not. The fact, however, is plain. Reli gion is now, in virtue of the gift of inspired Scripture, not only a collection of acts of which God is the object, but one by which intercourse with God is maintained. No part of revelation is more clearly explicit than that which calls upon man to hold communion with God, and which promises that the fellowship shall be mutual. Man is to pray; and God promises that bis prayers, rightly offered, shall be heard and answered. This, indeed, has always been a stumbling-block to the vain philosophy in which the fallen reason of man so often boasts. The earlier polytheism of mankind in this respect presented facts more exactly harmonizing with truth. There were gods many, and lords many; but along with the fables of divided Deity, there was the truth, that the Deity heard and answered prayer; doing, in answer to prayer, what would not have been done with out it. Homer is full of this; and it was not till, in the process of departure from God, man's dislike to retain God in his knowledge had reached its height, that he laid down a maxim which, even in the view of a Heathen, took away all piety to God, and, in doing so, removed the grounds by which alone could be upheld justice and benevolence to man. Such was the perfection of Deity, that it was represented rather as a nature than as a person, and described as dwelling in such entire repose, as neither to impose obligations, nor to interfere for the bestowment of benefits. Such was the Deity of Epicurus; and with such views of Deity, religion, as ordinarily understood, could have no existence. But, clear as is the light of that "day-spring from on high" which has visited us" "to guide our feet into the way of peace," the system is too agreeable to the pride of human nature to be renounced; and, under the pretence -the impious pretence, it might be called-of magnifying the divine perfections, we have a numerous sect of Christian Epicureans. According to them, prayer is inconsistent with the greatness and immutability of God; and is, therefore, not only needless, but improper. The question is, how ever, not whether such conclusions be accordant with the teachings of philosophy, but, first, whether the Scriptures be true; and then, whether this be what they teach. As to the first, the very name of Christian rests upon the affirmative reply; and as to the second, the remarkable term by which the Gospel dispensation was first announced, supplies the answer. To the Lord Jesus Christ all authority, both in heaven and earth, is declared to be committed. The government is upon his shoulders, and he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. He is Prince and Saviour; Prince of the kings of the earth; King of kings, and Lord of lords. The Gospel of Christ is a cunningly-devised fable, or it is the kingdom of God. 66 soever things were written aforetime, were written for our instruction." The book of the Prophet Daniel was thus written; and we turn to it for the instruction it was intended to communicate. Daniel himself was one of "the children of the captivity." He had, however, been highly favoured in reference to his external circumstances. By the wonder-working providence of God, he was placed in a situation of great responsibility; and, by the grace of God, he had been enabled to be so faithful, that, on occasions of severe trial, no error or fault was found in him," and he continued high in the favour of his royal masters. But though he enjoyed great honour and wealth in Babylon, he was anything but unmindful of Jerusalem. The interests that were committed to him he carefully promoted, and Chaldea experienced the benefits of his administration but he continued to remember both Judah and Zion; and sought, both earnestly and wisely, to promote the interests of his country and religion. He states, that he had found, in the sacred volume, a distinct announcement of the period for which it was determined that Judah should be desolate, and her children captives in a strange land. And he well knew the cause of the punishment thus inflicted. The people had refused to serve God in their own land, and therefore had they to serve strangers in a land that was not theirs. (Jer. v. 19) He knew, too, that one offence in particular had drawn down on them these judgments of God. He had given to them his Sabbath, to be a sign betwixt himself and them; but these Sabbaths they had " greatly polluted :" (Ezek. xx. 12, 13 :) and he had threatened, in the very beginning of their national existence, that if this sacred ordinance were not regularly observed, "then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate, it shall rest; because it did not rest in your Sabbaths, when ye dwelt 3 L All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and therefore, "whatVOL. XXI. Third Series. OCTOBER, 1842. |