Scripture Proofs.

Acts v. 4. Whiles it remained, was it not thine own, and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power.

Luke xi. 41. Give alms of such things as ye have.

James ii. 15, 16. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be you warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful for the body, what doth it profit ?

It can never be thought a just and equitable thing,' says Bishop Burnet, that the sober and industrious should be bound to share the fruits of their labour with the idle and luxurious. This would be such an encouragement to those whom all wise governments ought to discourage, and would so discourage those who ought to be encouraged, that all the order of the world must be dissolved, if so extravagant a conceit should be entertained. Both the rich and the poor have rules given them, and there are virtues suitable to each state of life: the rich ought to be bountiful and charitable—the poor ought to submit to the providence of God, and to study to make sure of a better portion in another state than God has thought fit to give them in this world.

XXXIX.

OF A CHRISTIAN MAN'S OATH.

As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ, and James his apostle: so we judge, that christian religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth.

Q. What do we confess?

A. That vain and rash swearing is forbidden by our Lord Jesus Christ, and James his apostle.

Q. What do we judge?

A. That christian religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity.

Q. How should it be done?

A. According to the prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth.

James v. 12.

Scripture Proofs.

Above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath.

Deuteronomy vi. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.

Jeremiah iv. 2. And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness.

The irreverent use of the name of God should be cautiously guarded against; his awful name must not be unfeelingly, ungratefully singled out as the object of decided irreverence and thoughtless levity, to be used indiscriminately to express anger, joy, grief, surprise, impatience,--and profane oaths and curses are wicked in the extreme. This sin has, of all others, the least temptation to it, as it is neither productive of gain, pleasure, or reputation : it is utterly inexcusable-it stands distinguished from all others in its nature and guilt. But oaths used in the administration of justice are not forbidden in scripture," for an oath for confirmation is an end of all controversy," (Hebrew vi. 16.) which words surely admit the lawfulness of an oath, when applied to the settlement of points in litigation. The "prophet's teaching," mentioned in this article, refers to the text last quoted, Jeremiah iv. 2."

READER—we may say Lord, Lord! but unless we are doers as well as hearers of the word, our religion will not avail us any thing, either now or at the hour of death, or at the dreadful day of judgment.

The times (I repeat) are perilous, and if the country is to be saved from the many perils that surround us, it is (to use the language of Dr. Chalmers,) by the efficacy of moral means working a moral transformation: humanly speaking, its Christian instructors will be its only saviours. This is the great specific for the people's well-being, and however derided by the liberalism of the age, or undervalued in the estimation of merely secular politicians, still it is with the Christianity of our towns and parishes that the country is to stand or fall.' If the candidate of patriotism (says Dr. Johnson) endeavours to infuse right opinions into the higher ranks, and by their influence to regulate the lower-if he consorts chiefly with the wise, the temperate, the regular, and the virtuous, his love of the people may be rational and honest; but if his first and principal application be to the indigent, who are always inflammable, to the weak who are naturally suspicious, to the ignorant who are easily misled, and to the profligate who have no hope but from mischief, let love of the people be no longer boasted.

The Roman Catholic priests are continually endeavouring to prove that their church was the first (to use their own words) and shall be the last; but all who read their Bibles must think very differently. Jesus Christ says, "I am the first and the last," and that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (not at Rome) and all his faithful followers of every denomination, without doubt will be saved, for these constitute the real church of Christ, the catholic or universal church, and to such as these, he says (generally) "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world; " but not particularly to the Roman Catholic church. The church of this kingdom was not planted by the see of Rome, it existed for centuries before the time of Augustine, through the heptarchy' proofs abound of the primitive christianity of the bishops and presbyters of Great Britain, and of their resistance to the then growing encroachments of the bishop of Rome. It was during the subsequent iron sway of the Norman conquerors that popery usurped the place of christianity in England, and seized upon the possessions of the church. (Southey.) And we learn from Dr. Buchanan's Christian Researches that in the year 1503, when the Portuguese first visited the western coast of Hindoostan, they were agreeably surprised to find upwards of a hundred christian