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that an answer is promised. "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord."

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With these views it is a melancholy truth, which the daily walk of life evinces, that while a few here and there worship God acceptably, the multitude are mere professors. It is altogether overlooked by such, that God is an Omniscient and Omnipresent Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." It is the conviction that this is awfully forgotten by the many-that the MEANS of grace are taken for the end-the bent knee SUBSTITUTED for the homage of the heart, and the moving lip for the prayerful soul, which prompts the publication of these meditations. Of all the delusions existing in the world, the most fatal is this -taking "the FORM of godliness" for its realitymistaking a constant attendance at church for the vital spark of religion, and a mere assent to the doctrines of the Gospel for that living principle of faith which, through the atonement of our blessed Lord, brings every blessing from above.

God is always Omnipresent. But, when we go into His sanctuary, we, by our very act and deed, go voluntarily, as it were, into His presence. Has this truth ever been duly considered? We of ourselves go into the immediate presence of God, who "is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," and who "will not at all acquit the wicked." May we think deeply

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upon this! may we pause on the threshold of His house! It is "holy gronnd." "Shall not His excellency make you afraid? and His dread fall upon you?" May we, ere we again enter the temple of the Most Highest, consider the fulness of what our Liturgy so beautifully expresses on the Omniscience of Deity-that unto Him "all hearts are open, all desires known, and from Him no secrets are hid." Therefore, "sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread." "Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about Him."

It is a fearful thing to rush thoughtlessly into the house of God. "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me," is at once a reproof and a condemnation which, did we know ourselves, we could not bear. May we be blessed with the mighty grace of God to pause on our past sinfulness and self-deception, to bewail our inconsiderate hypocrisy, and to believe that such lip-service can never be acceptable to "the Searcher of hearts." May we "be strengthened with might by Christ's Spirit in the inner man," and exemplify in our lives, more and more every week, the services of each suc

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cessive Sabbath. While on earth, may each be enabled to respond, with a growing fervour of devotion, "O Holy, Blessed, and Glorious Trinity, three Persons and one God, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners!" And, in heaven, may the writer and every reader of these feeble pages meet around the throne, and unite in saying, through the countless ages of eternity," Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come; blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever!”

George Place, Plymouth, June, 1840.

THOUGHTS ON THE LITANY.

SECTION I.

"O GOD THE FATHER OF HEAVEN, HAVE MERCY UPON US, MISERABLE SINNERS."

THE National Church of England has her services based on the eternal words of Jehovah. The first clause of our petition follows both the example and commandment of Jesus, who taught His disciples to say "Our Father, which art in heaven," ere they presented their wants in prayer. In uttering this clause, we not only acknowledge the supremacy of Deity, but that He has dominion over every living thing, and that, as the Father, every living thing owes allegiance to Him. In calling for mercy, we allege

such to be an attribute of the Godhead and our need of mercy. In confessing ourselves miserable sinners, we assert our criminality—that "we are all as an unclean thing;" thus the minister and the people alike beseige the throne of grace-"O God the Father, of heaven, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners; " and herein we acknowledge, 1st, that there is a God; 2nd, that He is the Father, of heaven; and 3rd, that He has the power of shewing mercy.

I. There is a God. The regenerated of our congregations confess and adore Him as the eternal source of all sources, power of all powers, cause of of all causes. There are others who have never seriously thought on our proposition: consequently, we must begin at the beginning.

B

My youthful reader-you exist, you think, you feel, you act. Now take this consciousness of your existence as the source from which flows your present knowledge; and reflection, by the faculty of memory, will lead you instinctively back to childhood's hour, when, by the power of reasoning, you will come to one of the most important truths, viz. that you could not have created yourself, and therefore must have been created by some mighty Being superior to yourself. As an intelligent, reasoning creature, you are conscious you could not spring from chance. You look around and see one thing produce another in the rational, animal, and vegetable world; but still you feel there must have been a beginning. The gradual production and transmission of things bespeak both order and design; and it is the natural question of your mind, Who first produced this order? Who is the designer of all this mental and material machinery? In answer, common sense replies-Some eternal Being. Dr. Young says→→→→

"Had there e'er been nought, nought still had been-
Eternal there must be!"

Now carry your thoughts back, in silent meditation, to before the world began, when universal stillness was not heard by man-when all, save the deep Spirit of Infinity, was lifeless. Humbly, yet firmly, go back, in imagination, before creation was, to the dark matter of a motionless chaos, when the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters, and there was the diffusion of life. O, earnestly implore that life-giving Spirit to breathe over your darkened soul, to grant His blessing to this little work, to give each reader grace to seek Him, who is the "great first