OBJECTIONS TO PRAYER. class of effects, it places the same bar in the way of using prayer for the securing of every other class of effects. On this hypothesis, then, prayer should never be offered at all. Again, this objection goes to set aside a special providence in the affairs of mankind. For if the uniformity of nature forbid the supposition of God's acting so as to procure an answer to prayer, it equally forbids our supposing that He will act so as to secure any other result. If there be no absurdity in supposing that He sends affliction on a man, notwithstanding the uniformity of nature, in order to produce a particular effect on that man's mind-say to induce him to pray-where is the absurdity of supposing that He may interpose to remove that affliction, so as to grant an answer to the prayer which the afflicted sufferer utters? or, if the latter be impossible because of the uniformity of nature, is not the former equally so? If we admit this objection, then we must settle down into the gloomy belief that we inhabit a forsaken and fatherless world, where all things happen in virtue of an unalterable sequence, and in which, though a terrible agony between good and evil is going on, there is not a single interposition on the part of the Lord of all to make the evil succumb to the good, or to bring good to his intelligent and moral creatures out of the evil through which they have to struggle. It appears further, that this objection, if valid, would go to supersede our calling in the aid of our fellow-men in the time of trouble; for if it be absurd to ask God to deliver us from some evil that has befallen us, is it not still more so to call in the aid of a mere creature like ourselves? Or, if the latter be wise and lawful, surely the former is much more so, seeing, in the one case, we ask help of one who is, perhaps, but a little wiser than ourselves, whilst in the other we invoke the aid of One whose resources are infinite, and whose skill and power are immeasurable. We To this it may probably be replied, that when we ask a fellow-creature to help us, we only ask him to use means in the order of nature for our relief; whereas, when we ask God to help us, we ask Him to use supernatural means. To this I reply, that the assumption here made is not admitted. When we speak of God as acting in answer to prayer, we do not speak of Him as violating the order of nature, or even as superseding it; we do not even assert of Him, that He acts, in any way, without means. simply apply to Him as a Being to whom every thing is known, and who, if He pleases, can bring the most recondite agencies of nature to bear upon our case, so as to remove our calamity by purely natural means. In a case of sickness, for instance, we ask the aid of the physician and the aid of God; but we do not in the former case ask the use of means, and in the latter the working of a miracle. The only difference between the two is, that in the one case the being whom we ask to use the means on our behalf is a frail creature like ourselves, with whom only a few things are possible; in the other, it is the infinitely wise and potent God, with whom nothing is impossible. And here lies the fallacy of this objection. It assumes, that the things seen, and felt, and known by us, are the whole of nature. It assumes that no agency can influence man but what is cognizable by his senses, and that no means are in operation around us but such as man can apprehend and use. Now this is plainly a very huge assumption. On what is it based? By what arguments is it defended? Is not all sound philosophy against it? Are there not certain agencies actually known to us, of immense power, but over the action of which we have no con 501 trol? What right, then, has an objector to assume that the Divine Being, to whom all agencies are perfectly known, and by whom they are perfectly controlled, may not, in answer to prayer, set some of those which lie beyond our knowledge into operation, so as to secure the result prayed for? In reply to this objection, then, I would say briefly, 1. That there are many, and, for aught we know, there may be multitudinous agencies in nature, over which we have no control, but which are all under the control of God; and that, consequently, to ask Him to use such of these as may be suitable for our help, is not more absurd than is our asking a fellowman to use such means as he can manage for our benefit. Suppose, for instance, that it were certainly proved that that mysterious disease which is now carrying off so many of our countrymen to the grave, derives its virulence from a particular state of the atmosphere in reference to electricity, would it be more absurd to ask God to restore the right electrical condition of the atmosphere so as to remove the disease, than to ask a skilful physicist to subject us to the curative influence of an electric current, in those cases where experience may have shown this to be useful? 2. It is accordant with the soundest philosophy to. believe that God may exert his agency in the direction of events. In this assertion there is nothing contradictory-nothing incompatible with right views of the Divine character-nothing inconsistent with the most enlightened belief in the uniformity of nature. Here let me cite the words of a distinguished philosopher, remarkable for his acuteness, but not particularly known for his attachment to evangelical religion. "Our experience," says he,. "of the order of events, may be sufficient to render less probable the Divine interpositions supposed; but it certainly is not sufficient to disprove what might or might not be, while all which we know of the order of nature had continued exactly the same. That the supposed agency of Deity is not made visible to us by extraordinary appearances, is no proof that the Divine interposition is falsely supposed ... Ignorant as we are of the many bearings of events upon each other, it appears to me that we are not entitled, in sound philosophy, to affirm of any sequence, in which antecedent and consequent are not exactly known to us in their fixed mutual relation, that the Deity has not operated in this particular case." It is not, then, unphilosophical to believe that God may act in the affairs of men without our perceiving how he acts. But if so, is it wrong or absurd to ask Him so to act? ..... 3. In the case of prayer for the removal of calamity, the objection before us seems peculiarly out of place. Calamity-evil in any of its forms-is no part of the order of nature. The order of nature is the system of wise and kind adaptations which God has instituted for man's welfare. With this, evil has, for wise and good purposes, been suffered to interfere; but evil forms no part of the arrangement. It is an intruder and a disturber, and its removal is a restoration of nature to her normal state. When, therefore, we pray to God to remove evil from us, we simply ask him, as the great Governor of all, to take away something which has come between us and his good arrangements for us. This is no more asking Him to set aside the order of nature for us, than our petitioning our sovereign to drive an invading army from our shores, would be asking her to set aside the British constitution. We simply pray that something not belonging to that order may be removed from it, that we may again experience and enjoy its beneficent uniformity. By the devout author of the 93d Psalm, the providential government of God and the stability of nature, instead of being facts mutually incompatible, were regarded as being in perfect harmony, and as forming together the great comfort of God's people under calamity. When the floods lifted up their voice and their waves, the pious psalmist was consoled and sustained by knowing that Jehovah is mightier than they-that he reigneth clothed in majesty and girdled with strength-and that the world also is established so that it cannot be moved. The reign of God and the stability of his world, are the two great pillars of the confidence of the believer in reference to earthly affairs; and on both of them he may lean, when, in obedience to the Divine command, he calls upon God in the day of trouble. LOWLINESS. charity, and though now scarcely half a century old, even in its oldest operations, it has produced the most magnificent results, and is already beginning to change the destinies of the human race." There is something very encouraging to the Christian in these facts and statements, and there is much therein to suggest reflection and pensive musing. It is not a matter of trivial or commercial estimation, to ascertain precisely the dimensions of the "noblest and most comprehensive form of Christian charity," which this late age and generation of the world have produced. It is a fact of sad significance, that this enterprise, which is beginning to change the destinies of the human race, is scarcely half a century old, though the divine command that ordained it was given eighteen centuries ago. Then, the sum total of all the contributions of Protestant Christendom to this enterprise, though liberal and yearly increasing, seems small when compared with the annual contributions of Christian nations to enterprises of an opposite character. For instance, these Christian nations of Europe and America expend every year in preparations for war, £200,000,000. This amount, when compared with "the most comprehensive form of Christian charity," stands thus: For preparations for war, per day, £548,000. For preaching the gospel of peace to the heathen, £1,640; or, to make the comparison more distinct, one pound sterling for preparations for war between Christian nations, against one halfpenny for evangelizing the pagan world, and bringing myriads of benighted idolaters to bow to the sceptre of the Prince of Peace! Or, millions for Mars and mites for the Messiah! OBLIGATIONS TO THE HEATHEN. WHILE the man of the world is aiming at something THE SWORD AND THE BIBLE. By a volume recently published in London, entitled "The Year-Book of Christian Missions," it appears that there are no less than twenty-five large denominational societies, in the several Protestant countries of Europe and America, devoted entirely to Foreign Missions. Of these, nine are found on the Continent, ven in England and Scotland, and six in the United States. The aggregate amount annually expended by these societies, for the objects of their organization, is estimated in round numbers at £592,000, of which about £32,000 are contributed on the Continent, £460,000 in England and Scotland, and £100,000 in the United States. "The enterprise," says an American writer, "is the offspring of the noblest and most comprehensive form of Christian 1. What we do for the salvation of the heathen is not 3. A day of settlement is approaching. We must all appear before our original Creator, and answer to the inquiry, Whether we have been honest debtors, and, according to our ability, discharged our obligations? The heathen will be there to testify to the measure of our fidelity, and we shall be held responsible for every deficiency in our duty. How will stand the account of the present generation of Christians? Reader, are you in arrears to the heathen? THE FOLLY OF PRIDE. AFTER all, take some quiet, sober moment of life, and add together the two ideas of pride, and of man; be-, hold him, creature of a spun high, stalking through infinite space in all the grandeur of littleness. Perched on a speck of the universe, every wind of heaven strikes into his blood the coldness of death; his soul floats from his body like melody from the THE AGED CHRISTIAN. string;-day and night, as dust on the wheel, he is rolled along the heavens, through a labyrinth of worlds, and all the creations of God are flaming above and beneath. Is this a creature to make himself a crown of glory, to deny his own flesh, to mock at his fellow, sprung from that dust to which both will soon return? Does the proud man not err? Does he not suffer? Does he not die? When he reasons, is he never stopped by difficulties? When he acts, is he never tempted by pleasure? When he lives, is he free from pain? When he dies, can he escape the common grave? Pride is not the heritage of man; humility should dwell with frailty.-Sidney Smith. EVIL COMPANY. FROM THE GERMAN. SOPHRONIUS, a wise teacher, would not suffer even his grown up sons and daughters to associate with those whose conduct was not pure and upright. "Dear father," said the gentle Eulalia to him, one day when he forbade her in company with her brother to visit the volatile Lucinda; "dear father, you must think us very childish, if you imagine that we should be exposed to danger by it." The father took in silence a dead coal from the hearth, and reached it to his daughter. "It will not burn you, my child, take it." Eulalia did so, and behold! her delicate white hand was soiled and blackened, and as it chanced her white dress also. "We cannot be too careful in handling coals," said Eulalia in vexation. "Yes, truly," said her father;" you see, my child, that coals, even if they do not burn, blacken. So it is with the company of the vicious." "SERVANTS OF SIN." THERE are two degrees in the world's bondage; the milder form is when the rude and aroused passions lead a man into a course of life from which his will revolts and strives to withdraw; the form still more tyrannous is when the will unites with the passions in giant strength, crowding a man into loose pursuits, from which reason turns with deep abhorrence. When a man's will and judgment are thus dragged downed a precipice, as by an avalanche of passion, is he not a slave? Pride is the master that with a long lash urges a man through life; Envy bends another to the rack; Lust crowds some down a livid path paved with coals of fire; and Ambition, like a "mounting demon in the soul," hurries many along the rocky cliffs of reckless adventure to certain and signal ruin. Thus Satan, personated in some of the looser passions which crowd the human heart, grasps, controls, and counts his slaves by millions. WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? A RIGHT Contemplation of Christ is not merely thinking him divine, for many do this and fall short. Some look to his hands, as displayed in his works of creation; some look to his feet, as traced out in the ways of his providence; some look to his head, as exploring his unsearchable decrees: but forget, amidst all, that the names and cares of his people 503 are engraved upon his heart; that this is the seat of the divine tenderness, as it is somewhere and beautifully said : "Compassions in his heart are found, Hard by the surface of his wounds." Here it is his secrets are deposited, and hence it is they unfold themselves: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant;" or, as read from the Hebrew, "HIS COVENANT TO MAKE THEM KNOW IT." O love divine ! Love beyond degree! To place such a sun in the firmament, and then come down to make men know it! Surely this is worthy of a God! The natural sun, as we commonly say, runs his race and rides his circuit from one end of heaven to the other, and the benefits are immensely great. But oh! the race the Sun of Righteousness runs is from everlasting to everlasting. His circuit is from one end of eternity to the other, if eternity, that is endless, might be thus compared. His covenant to make men know it! Think of this, meditate, and then ask yourselves, "What think ye of Christ?" THE AGED CHRISTIAN. 'TWAS early day, and sunlight stream'd Whose hope is from above, Pure fell the beam, and meekly bright, On his grey, holy hair, And touch'd the book with tenderest light, Some word of life e'en then had met Some ancient promise, breathing yet Some heart's deep language, when the glow And silent stood his children by, Of thought o'ersweeping death: -Mrs Hemans. INDUSTRY. A CELEBRATED divine has said, "If it were not for over the active man lightly like a dream, or the fea- THE MOTHER OF SWARTZ. dying bed informed her husband and her pastor, NOVELS AND INSANITY. THE most abundant proof has been furnished of late years, that excessive novel-reading has produced many cases of insanity. It is philosophical that the education of fictitious sentiments at the expense of real feeling-that the undue excitement of the imagination and of the passions, at the expense of the reasoning faculties and the exercise of real benevolence, should tend to insanity. It has often been charged to religion, that it has made people crazy, insane, and melancholy. This is a baseless charge. True religion never makes a man insane. Fanaticism, superstition, error, lust, and passion, have produced insanity; but true views of God never did, and never can produce either mental or moral derangement. We are thouroughly persuaded, that the numerous works of fiction, with which the press is so prolific of late years, and which are sown broadcast over the land, have vitiated the taste, and corrupted the hearts, and ruined the peace of more individuals than any other one cause of evil known amongst us. It is heart-sickening to see how much precious time is spent over the vile ravings of hothouse feeling, that the novelists of our day pour out upon the reading community. HEARING SERMONS. FOUR NAMES TO CHRISTIANS. THE Scripture gives four names to Christians, taken from the four cardinal graces so essential to man's salvation: saints, for their holiness; believers, for their faith; brethren, for their love; disciples, for their knowledge.-Fuller. Fragments. Be sure that God has not forgiven that sin of which you have not repented. The gift of repentance is the token of forgiveness. The wicked man carrieth every day a brand to his hell, till his heap be come to the height, then he ceaseth sinning, and begins his torment; whereas the repentant, in every fit of holy sorrow, carries a whole fagot from the flame, and quencheth the coals that remain with his tears. There is no torment for the penitent; no redemption for the obstinate. Safety consisteth not in not sinning, but in repenting; neither is it sin that condemns, but impenitence. O Lord! I cannot be righteous; let me be repentant.— Hall. It is one thing to wish to have truth on one's side, and another thing to wish sincerely to be on the side of truth. There is no genuine love of truth implied in the former. Truth is a powerful auxiliary, such as every one wishes to have on his side. A determination to " obey the truth," and follow wherever she may lead, is not so common. It is undoubtedly a just maxim, that in the long run "honesty is the best policy;" but he whose practice is governed by that maxim, is not an honest.. man.- -Whately. Accustom your children to a strict attention to truth, even in the most minute particulars. If a thing happen at one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them: you do not know where deviation from truth will end. It is more from carelessness about truth, than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world. -Dr Johnson. All truth is not, indeed, of equal importance; but if little violations are allowed, every violation will in time be thought little.-Dr Johnson. "He shall be called, The Lord cur Righteousness." IN the life of Philip Henry it is related, that when "The worst speaks something good; if all want sense, God takes the text, and preacheth patience." My prayers and alms, imperfect and defiled, THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY. 505 CHRIST'S LEGACY TO HIS DISCIPLES. WHEN a sick man dies and is buried, then is his will read. The relatives being assembled, each has an opportunity of ascertaining what has been left to him. The law is at hand, if need be, to enforce the settlement, and to put each in possession of what has been bequeathed to him by his friend. Our Lord Jesus Christ has left a legacy. He has left a legacy to each of his true followers. His commandment is, that all be invited to come, and be made partakers of the benefits he has purchased by his righteousness, sufferings, and death. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." The parties interested in a rich man's will prosecute their claims with assiduity. What has been bequeathed to them may not be much, yet they manifest much anxiety to possess it. Considering the great worth of the Redeemer's legacy, the indifference exhibited by many concerned in it is wonderful. Should we judge of the worth of the legacy by the amount of interest taken in it, we would conclude that its value is not great. We would infer that it is not of such worth as the things of this world that even very unimportant worldly considerations are of greater value than it, seeing they are pursued with greater avidity-with an avidity so great, that in the eager pursuit of them the legacy of the Redeemer is quite lost sight of. Whence this indifference? It is in consequence of that blindness of understanding, as respects spiritual things, which is produced by sin. In our natural estate we do not discern the things of God; have no feeling of our need of them, no appreciation of their vast worth. They are hidden from us. We do not know them till they are revealed to us from above. How earnestly ought we to crave this divine enlight enment! The legacy of the Redeemer contains blessings on hand, and blessings to come to hand-blessings for this world, blessings for the world to come. What do believers, in virtue of this legacy, receive now? what shall they receive hereafter? In this world, great spiritual blessings come to hand to believers. They are so numerous, that we can only now glance at a very few of them. There is the pardon of sin. The free, undeserved, full, absolute pardon of sin. “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." (Isa. xliv. 22.) "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." (Ps. ciii. 12.) The pardon of sin is a blessing at the foundation of all other blessings of the covenant. So long as we are unreconciled unto God, there can be no gracious intercourse between him and us. By an act of divine sovereign grace, quite irrespective of any merit of their own, the Lord justifies his people. Whilst they are yet enemies he gives them the adoption of children. He justifies "the ungodly." Up till the moment of their justification, they are ungodly; as indisposed to, as incapable of, any gracious affections towards God as any of the rest of mankind. Though chosen in Christ from eternity, yet remaining amongst the common wreck of mankind till called out, and separated, by a sovereign act of divine grace, placed amongst the children of God, and sealed with the Holy Spirit, "children of wrath even as others,' and so they remain till the Lord, by his effectual grace, lays hold of them. "Even when we were dead in trespasses and sin, (God) hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace are ye saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." All this when we were dead in trespasses and sins, and thinking of nothing less than of reconciliation to God and a return to him. This is what fills converted persons with such devout admiration of the free, undeserved grace of God. Every such person is ready to declare that God loved him first, and not he God. The sins of believers are pardoned, because Christ, their substitute, has paid their ransom, and has satisfied for them every demand that divine justice had against them. God regards them as righteous in his sight, not on account of any good thing he discerns in them, but only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. His righteousness is theirs. They get all the benefit of it. Whatever it can procure, that is theirs. How precious this pardon of sin! It is to pass from death to life, from under the frown of God into his favour; and his favour is better than life. Justified sinner! thou art indeed a blessed one, for thine is peace with God. "Being justified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." The influences of the Holy Spirit are in the number of the blessings believers enjoy in this life. These are gifted to them in their Lord's legacy. These are truly precious blessings. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature." He is no longer what he was. He was as rebellious and depraved as a devil. His mind was a very hell of wicked, ungodly thoughts and imaginations. He is no longer such. What a change! Actually, he now loves God, serves God, delights in God. It could scarcely have been thought possible. But what cannot divine i power effect? Here was a heart full of all wickedness, developed or latent; it is now a temple of the Holy Ghost. To him, God is infinitely lovely. He can spend hour after hour in thinking upon the divine! beauty and excellence that there is in all the attributes of God. The loveliness of God's holiness, and justice, and truth, quite ravishes him. Poet never hung so enraptured over the sublimest theme, nor |