then, to show in the suffering person of the "Holy One" of God-represented in the testimony of the prophets and apostles as pure, spotless, immaculate, fulfilling the whole law, exhibiting perfect benevolence to man, and perfect devotion to His heavenly Father, unimpeached and unimpeachable, becoming a Surety— the Just for the unjust, the Holy One for the rebel, enduring in our nature for a time the weight of the Divine displeasure, and, finally, the accursed death of the cross,-it was to teach the whole universe, through His sufferings, what an evil and a bitter thing it is to sin against God, and how fearful are the ingredients of that cup of wrath which must be wrung out to the finally impenitent and disobedient,—that He was thus delivered. It is thus that the awful desert and doom of sinners are clearly manifested. The apostle so explains it; though He knew no sin, He was "made sin "—or a sin offering" for us ;"-was treated as the sinner, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Here we behold the inconceivable love of God, and the danger of neglecting that salvation which was procured by the tears, the agonies, the blood of the Incarnate

Messiah. As God, He could not suffer:-in our nature He agonised and died, that He might teach rebellious men what was due to them, and that nothing can deliver from the bitter consequences of sin, but what shall honour the justice, the law, the government of an infinitely Holy Being. "He was delivered for our OFFENCES." The instruments of His death were the

Jews, by whom, in a certain sense, He may be said to have been "delivered." "With wicked hands" He was "crucified and slain." But, in another sense, He was delivered by God, and of His own will. When the soldiers were sent to apprehend Him, the very majesty of His mien and voice struck them with awe, and laid them prostrate, as if for the purpose of giving them proof of the glory of Him whom they came to "As soon as He had apprehend.

ever

said unto them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground." Nevertheless, He yielded Himself up, saying, "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." On previous occasions He had said, "No man taketh away my life: I lay it down of myself." "Lo, I come, to do thy will, O God!" "A body hast thou prepared me." We justly attach to the parties engaged in this darkest tragedy that was enacted, the enormity and aggravation of their crime. The betrayers and false witnesses, the chief priests and rulers, the soldiers and the populace-all were convicted of guilt; for the sun was veiled in were rent darkness, the rocks asunder, the graves were opened, the earth quaked, and universal nature attested the innocency of the expiring Victim. Yet, whilst admitting the criminality of the agents concerned in His death, we must not forget that He suffered voluntarily on His own part, and as a vicarious sacrifice. This was the very theme of ancient prophecy :-"In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God."

Animal victims could not propitiate; they were but types of the allatoning Lamb, the sufficient sacrifice, the bleeding victim, whose blood was the propitiation for the sins of our fallen race, in accordance with the purposes of Jehovah's love. He was delivered by the Jews, delivered by Himself; but eminently He was delivered by the Father, of whom it is recorded, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." While the death of Christ magnifies the law and its sanctions, and affords a just view of the infinite heinousness of sin, it is the most significant display of the Divine mercy. How awful Justice appears, executing the ministry of vengeance at the cross! How yet more awful Love, suffering in her own person, though innocent, for the benefit of the guilty! "God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." Could any other method have been devised, satisfactory at once to the demands of justice and the designs of mercy, it would have been adopted. But there was no other method: so that "there is no other name given under heaven, whereby we must be saved." "No man cometh unto the Father but by me."

J. F.

MAN NOT RESTRICTED TO
THE PRESENT.

A BRUTE lives only in the present; and whatever portion of memory, or mode of thought, it may be contended that mere animals have, there is no evidence that they ever spon

taneously exercise either, or possess the faculty of self-reflection in any degree. They, look downward and onward, but never behind, or above, or within. Man as a spirit is perfectly distinct from man as an animal; so that, having a double part to bear through life-to act and to reflect on his actions-in the latter character he becomes as genuine a spectator of himself, as any by-stander would be who overlooked him day and night, and saw into the recesses of his soul. It is true that this perpetual witness of our thoughts and their issues is frequently deceived, but it is because he delights to deceive himself, since it is no more necessary for him to see anything that comes under his own inspection in a false light, than it is for one neighbour to see another with two noses on his face, or two faces to his head. But if a man will squint when he looks at his fellowcreatures, he may; then, of course, they will appear as ludicrously distorted as he makes them; and if a man will squint, with a very contrary effect, when he looks at himself with the introverted eye of the mind, he may please his foolish imagination, by appearing as wise, as good, and as great as-he is not.

But the intellectual man, by the power of self-scrutiny, is not only as insulated a spectator through life of his own purposes and deeds, as either a recording or an accusing angel could be; but when he chooses to be honest, he is as truly disinterested and impartial an evidence as justice herself requires, in testifying concerning them at the bar of conscience. On the return of every

birth-day anniversary, if at no other time, an assize ought to be held by each of us in that inexorable court, from the decisions of which, severe as they are, it is well for us that there lies an appeal before the higher tribunal of Heaven. It behoves us, then, individually, to summon that witness to a closet examination in our own hearts, touching the occurrences of the year that is past, so far as we have been actors or sufferers in them; and though, while he has been present with us, feeling every pulse, and marking every breath, it may not have appeared to him, from one throb or aspiration to another, that any change was taking place, yet on the comparative retrospect of twelve months he can assuredly convince us, that if, like the earth, we have seemed to be at rest, like the earth also we have been carried forward in our course by a motion too rapid to be felt; while, not like her in an orbit revolving into itself, but in a line as level as the sunbeam, and darting as directly to its termination, we have been passing through unresisting space into unknown eternity. Here, then, let each take his stand, and think for himself-for himself alone-since no other man can do it for him, or do him any good with thinking-what he has been, what he is, and what he will be for ever, remembering that the first cannot be altered, the second is changing every instant, and the third depends on the issue of both.

A lady had written on a card, and placed in her garden-house on the top of an hour-glass, a beautifully simple stanza, from one of the

fugitive pieces of the Northamptonshire bard, John Clare: it was at that season of the year when flowers were in their highest glory:

"To think of summers yet to come, That I am not to see!

To think a weed is yet to bloom
From dust that I shall be !"

The next morning she found the following lines pencilled on the back of the same card:

"To think, when heaven and earth are fled,

And times and seasons o'er; When all that can die shall be dead,

That I must die no more! Ah! where will then my portion be? How shall I spend eternity ?"

J. M.

RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION. THERE are two extremes in relation to this part of your duty, against each of which you should be on your guard. One is the error of supposing that you are to introduce religious conversation on all occasions, even with professed Christians, without respect to circumstances. Where persons of this description only are together, it ought certainly to be taken for granted that religious discourse may be safely and acceptably introduced; though, even in this case, the peculiar character and circumstances of the individuals with whom you converse ought to be taken into the account, in determining what particular direction the conversation shall receive. But where professors of religion happen to be casually thrown into the company of worldly and wicked men, though this is by no means to be admitted as a sufficient reason in all cases, or even in ordinary cases, for

their not communing together on the most important of all concerns, yet it no doubt does sometimes justify them in keeping silence; and if they were to attempt serious conversation, it would be nothing better than casting their pearls before swine. I have known instances in which professors in a public conveyance, and in a promiscuous company, have urged religious conversation manifestly to the injury of the cause they have wished to benefit; and their imprudent zeal has still carried them forward in a manner the most earnest and determined, while they were drawing insults upon themselves from every side, and, what was worse, bitter reproaches on their holy religion.

The other extreme is that of a false and apprehensive delicacy; an excessive fear of wounding even a fellow-professor by placing him under a kind of necessity to join in religious conversation; and much more of giving offence to men of the world, if the conversation happens to be in their presence. With respect to giving pain to any professed Christian by introducing a religious topic-I would say that, if he is susceptible of pain from such a cause, the sooner he feels it the

better; for no more unequivocal evidence can be needed that, if he has ever felt the power of religion, it has greatly lost its influence over him. The fact that an individual has confessed Christ before the world, and thus assumed the badge of discipleship, is a sufficient warrant, so far as he is concerned, for addressing him on the subject of religion in any suitable circumstances. And

even in respect to giving offence to worldly men who may be present, if the conversation is properly conducted, there is little ground for apprehension. In far the greater number of instances, no objection will be offered; and in very many, there will be marked attention and approbation. I remember to have known two professors of religion in a stage coach carry on a protracted conversation simply with a view to the benefit of a fellow-traveller, whom they did not think proper to approach in a more direct way; and the result was, that there was good reason to hope that the truth was permanently lodged, not only in his understanding, but in his heart. No doubt, while professed Christians are often deterred, by considerations of delicacy, from conversing on religious subjects in the presence of worldly men, they are exciting the surprise of those very individuals, that there is nothing in their conversation to indicate either the profession or spirit of piety.

W. S.

"LEAVES HAVE THEIR TIME TO FALL."

LEAVES have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath,

And stars to set ;-but all, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death.

Day is for mortal care;

Eve for glad tidings round the joyous hearth,

Night for the dreams of sleep, the

voice of prayer:

But all for thee, thou mightiest of the

earth i