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especially those recorded in the Gospel of St. John, and in his parting charge to his Apostles: "Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'

What thoughts should this day more especially employ our meditation, and what should be the feelings excited by the services of this day? Thoughts of love, and feelings of pious gratitude. God the Father, in his boundless mercy, planned the scheme of man's redemption; God the Son, in his tender compassion, undertook the great work, and humbled Himself, even unto the death of the cross, "for us men, and for our salvation." God the Holy Ghost still continues to shed his gracious influence over the redeemed, during this their state of trial, helping their infirmities, and sustaining them in their conflict with the enemies of their souls. Thus, each person in the ever-blessed Godhead, claims our adoring gratitude, and should receive the worship of our hearts and lives. That worship consists not in a cold and heartless acknowledgment of the Trinity in Unity, but in the sincere and heartfelt homage which a fallen creature ought to pay to a Divinity who has rescued him from everlasting death, and given him the promise of so glorious an inheritance. Finally, the faint idea which is here afforded us of the glories of Heaven, should enkindle in our minds an earnest desire after the enjoyment of those enduring pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore.

Let the thoughts of these "better things make us less eager in seeking the short-lived gratifications of earth, which all are to perish with the using;" more watchful against any temptation to forget the life to come, or to live as without God in the world; and more desirous of being admitted into the glorious Presence, which is shadowed forth to us in this Scripture, of God the Father, our Maker and Preserver, of God the Son, our Redeemer and Intercessor, and of God the Spirit, our Comforter and Sanctifier,to whom be glory, both now and for ever. Amen. L. S. R.

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OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.

WHATEVER laws may be made for the better observance of the Lord's day, these will do but little, compared with the example and the conduct of those whose manners have an influence on society. When poor people work, it is often because rich people employ them. If there were no buyers on a Sunday, there would be no sellers. There is no good reason, in a Christian sense, that there should be either: both, therefore, are guilty.-We trust that the late discussions on this subject will be productive of good, and that all who wish well to the cause of Christ's religion, and to the real peace and comfort of their fellowcreatures, will set themselves to earnest consideration on this important subject.-The tradesman should have his rest on the sabbath. If he be a conscientious and Christian man, he will not employ himself on that day in seeking his worldly gains: he will bear the loss rather than commit the sin. Many persons who wish to see all work stopped on the sabbath, will see no harm in partaking of what they call innocent pleasure. No pleasure, however, can be called innocent which leads others into sin; and if my Sunday habits lead a tradesman to work on my account, I am guilty of the sin of making him break the sabbath. How many servants are obliged to labour hard on the Sunday to contribute to the pleasure of those who employ them! Works of charity and necessity the Scriptures do not forbid: but, as to travelling about on Sundays, either in public or private carriages, and giving, or joining in, convivial parties, how many grooms, stablekeepers, coachmen, cooks, footmen, waiters at taverns and ale-houses, and other sorts of servants, are made to labour. This will be well considered by those who really desire to act like Christians.

A meeting was lately held at the house of the Rev. Mr. Tyler, the Rector of St. Giles's. Mr. Justice Park, Mr. Justice Patterson, Sir John Richardson, Sir James Burroughs, Sir George Rose, several gentlemen of rank, and many tradesmen of great respectability, were present. A society was formed, of which the Bishop of London con

sented to be president.—The following resolutions were passed:

I. That it is our duty as Christians to observe the Lord's day religiously ourselves, and to promote its religious observance among all within the sphere of our influence and example.

II. That it is our duty to make such arrangements in our families, that ourselves, and every one of our household, may habitually attend divine worship; and not to employ unnecessarily any one to labour for us on that day.

III. That we ought never to allow any purchases, except in case of sickness or other like emergency, to be made on Sunday, either in the street or at a shop, for ourselves or our families, nor suffer any article of food or clothing to be brought unnecessarily into our houses on that day.

IV. We ought not to carry on business ourselves, nor to countenance such tradesmen as do it unnecessarily.

V. We ought to make our payments at such times as will enable those to whom our money is paid, to make their purchases before the Sunday.

VI. We agree to form a society on the principles of the above resolutions, and to use our best endeavours to cause the sacredness of the Christian sabbath to be observed among us, in a manner more worthy of a people fearing God.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE.

V.

IN Isaiah xl. 6 & 7, we have, as in many parts of Scripture, the short-lived existence of man, most beautifully compared to that of the grass or flower of the field. "All flesh," says that prophet, "is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.' may all, in some measure, at least, feel the lesson taught us in this most affecting passage; but much of the force of it is lost, we are told, on those who are not acquainted with the rapidity and suddenness with which the vegetable world decays or withers away in the hot countries of

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ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE.

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the East, where the Holy Scriptures were written. The verdure is, we know, almost perpetual in England: it is difficult to discover a time in the year when it can be said the grass withereth. But let the traveller visit the beautiful plain of Smyrna, or any other plain of the East, in the month of May, and afterwards revisit it towards the end of June, and he will then perceive the force and beauty of these allusions. In May, an appearance of the freshest verdure, and of rich luxuriance every where meets the eye: the face of nature is adorned with a carpet of flowers and herbage of the most delightful kind; but, a month or six weeks afterwards, how changed is the entire scene! the beauty is gone; the grass is withered; the flower is faded; a brown and dusty desert has then taken the place of a most delicious garden."-Let us never for a moment forget that such is the life of man; and let us look for the blessed hope of the faithful, of being hereafter planted in the paradise of God.

In the history of one of our Lord's miracles, the healing of the sick of the palsy, as given, Mark ii. 4. and Luke v. 19, we are told, that, when the friends of the afflicted man "could not come nigh unto Jesus for the press, they uncovered the roof" of the house" where he was; and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed whereon the sick of the palsy lay." The following account of the roof of a house, given by the Rev. J. Hartley, in his "Researches in Greece," may serve to explain the circumstance :— "When I lived," says he, "in Ægina, I used to look, not unfrequently, at the roof above my head, and consider the ease with which the whole transaction might take place. The roof was made in this manner: a layer of reeds, of a large species, was placed upon the rafters; on these a quantity of heather was strewed; upon the heather, earth was deposited, and beat down into a compact mass. Now, what difficulty could there be in removing, first the earth, then the heather, next the reeds? Nor would the difficulty be increased if the earth had a sort of pavement or tiling laid upon it." In some houses in the East, there is a sort of staircase on the outside, and a door in the roof opening into the house.-The observations of tra

vellers often throw great light on passages of Scripture which refer to customs different from our own.

D. I. E.

ON HEARING THE WORD OF GOD WITH A RIGHT SPIRIT.

MR. EDITOR,

I NEVER can help feeling grieved when I observe a disposition to make captious and critical remarks on a preacher, instead of endeavouring to profit by what he says. How great would be the blessing if we all came to public worship with that peaceable spirit which the Gospel requires, and without which, we are told by our Lord, that we cannot enter into his kingdom,—that is, we cannot belong to his people.

"To come unto Christ like a little child," I have always thought a beautiful illustration of the simplicity and teachableness of mind with which we should listen to Gospel truths.

What I would wish to inculcate on my cottage friends is, that they should have an earnest desire to be benefited by what they shall hear. Let them not go to church with a view to discover whether Mr. A. is of the high or low church,-(it is lamentable there should be such distinctions); and even if they find, as will sometimes happen with serious and reflecting people, that their minister has not adopted exactly the same ideas as they themselves have, on some important truths; still, to a heart bent on improvement, there can seldom be a discourse so barren of instruction, as not to afford some subject for wholesome meditation. When I was younger, I fell much into the error I am now pointing out. too much like the Athenians to whom Paul preached; anxious, when I went to church, "to hear some new thing;" and, like them too, when there was any thing in the sermon which offended my ignorant mind (as preaching of the Resurrection did theirs), I " mocked." By the blessing of God, I have been enabled to see the sin of this; and, I am happy to say, that I seldom hear a sermon from any minister without having some difficulty removed,—some weak point, in myself, exposed, some

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