derness with Moses, the Gospel was preached as well as unto us, and that the only reason why any of them did not profit was, not that they knew it not, but because they received it not in faith. And such was the feeling with which Moses abandoned the court of Egypt,-it was to be a follower of that Saviour whom God had revealed; He saw before him-although many difficulties intervened—the land of promise, which he knew to be only a faint representation of the Canaan of everlasting rest. And although he had stronger ties to bind him to Egypt and its perishing glories than any of his brethren; although at his feet lay collected riches, honours, pleasures, and a kingdom, yet he shook himself free from them all, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward." And, then, observe the time when he adopted this resolution. It was not in the rashness of youth, nor in the peevishness of old age, but when he was "come to years," and was able fully to judge of the nature of the choice which he made when the riches, and honours, and pleasures of the world wear, to the ardent mind of man, their most engaging aspect, then he despised them all, and esteemed the very reproach of Christ greater riches. me. commandment. It is only the pleasures of sin that are to be abandoned, and that as much because they fill us with sorrow, as because they are displeasing in the sight of God. Love, infinite love is the distinguishing attribute of God, and the great desire which he has expressed towards the members of our race is to promote their happiness. When man was holy, a paradise of delight smiled around him. He placed the children of Israel in a land flowing with milk and honey; and heaven itself will be a place where fulness of joy and rivers of pleasure will delight and satisfy the redeemed for evermore. No mistake can be greater than that of supposing that Christianity requires us to deny ourselves to any real present enjoyment, that we may be put in possession of a greater hereafter. The joys of Christianity are as much to be desired every instant, as they will be at the hour of death. It is a coming at once to the full fountain of living waters, viz., to God as he is manifested in Christ, instead of any longer endeavouring to hew out to ourselves broken cisterns which can hold no water. "How long," saith the prophet, "will ye spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? incline your ear, and come unto me; eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life which now is, as well as that which is to come." "And all things," says the apostle, "are yours, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." And unquestionably in the wilderness of Sinai Moses enjoyed true happiness, which he could not have enjoyed in the court of Pharaoh. This is exactly the resolution which Christ requires all his disciples to adopt, when he says, "He that loveth father or mother, or wife, or houses or lands, more than me, is not worthy of He that saveth his life shall lose it; he that loseth his own life for my sake shall find it." And therefore to imagine that we are Christians, because we have abandoned the pursuits of the The great doctrine, therefore, contained in the world, when we could no longer enjoy them; or text is this, that all the riches, and honours, and when oppressed by affliction, and crossed by ad-pleasures of the world, are unsatisfactory as comversity; when all our hopes on earth are blasted, and we stretched upon a bed of death, then to speak of the vanity of the world, and of our willingness to part with it all for the sake of heaven, is only to mock God, and deceive our own souls. It is when temptation is presented that the strength of inward principle is tried; and if, when our wealth is increased, and all our worldly interests are prosperous, and when our vigour continues, we would willingly sell all to obtain the pearl of great price, saying in our hearts, "What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" then are we followers of "them who through faith and patience are now inheriting the promises." Now, let us not suppose, as we are very apt to do, that God wishes us to make in this, what we conceive to be, a sacrifice. Pleasures that are not sinful we need not abandon; and if we abandon not the sinful pleasures of the world willingly, Moses did, and because we see that, in the of Christ, a happiness infinitely more pure d is to be enjoyed, we obey not his pared with the enjoyment which personal Chris- There is no subject upon which the sentiments ters are like palaces for beauty; our garners are full, affording all manner of store; our sheep bring forth thousands, and tens of thousands; our oxen are strong to labour; there is no complaining in our streets." They pronounced the people blessed who were in such a case as this; but the Psalmist declared, that they alone were blessed whose God was the Lord. Riches, and wisdom, and strength, have obtained an almost universal respect, whilst a knowledge of God has been despised. "But thus saith the Lord," says Jeremiah, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me; that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." When our Saviour declared to the rich and covetous Pharisees, that all their riches would not profit them in the day of trouble, we are toldness in the enjoyments of this world, the conthey derided Him; imagining, perhaps, as many sideration that they are but for a season, is fitted, to this day do, that the statement only proceeded with all who allow themselves only to refiect, from envy, and that if He, instead of having no to turn it all into gall and wormwood. Not to where to lay his head, had been the visible Sove- speak of that conscience which, like a worm that reign of a thousand States, He would have ap-never dies, gnaws the very vitals of the sinner in the plauded, as well as they, the pomps and glories of the world. than by Solomon, God had given him riches more than all the kings that had reigned in Israel. All the vessels of his house were of gold; none of them were of silver. It was as the dust of the streets, and was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. In wisdom, none before him was his equal. In honour he was in the highest degree exalted, for all the kings of the nations did him homage. All this he sought out, to see what pleasure it could convey. He collected all the delights of the children of men; men-singers and women-singers, and musical instruments of all sorts. Whatsoever his eye desired, that he had; he withheld not his heart from any joy. And what was the result? "I looked upon all my labour, and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit-favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain-the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing-and there is no profit under the sun. And yet every one must acknowledge, that, in so far as they have already made the experiment, the statements of Scripture have been found to be literally true, that the heart is often sick in the hour of greatest apparent joy, that what was pleasure in prospect, is dust and ashes in possession! It is like the grass upon the housetop, which withers ere it be grown. We live ever in prospect of a future happiness, at the very time when we feel ourselves sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind. But still we are not convinced, by all our experience, that every worldly object is equally unsatisfactory. We may, indeed, by sad experience, be convinced, that many objects which are fair and promising at a distance, are altogether destitute of pleasure when possessed, but we never hence infer that the statements of Scripture are equally true respecting all. And we never profit by the experience of others; let them tell us that they have tried all the sources of worldly enjoyment, and found their souls faint and empty, still we will not believe them. We regard it as the statement of a mind either incapable of relishing the pleasures of the world; or, like the Pharisees, we smile at what we conceive the envy of one who has never himself been permitted to make the experiment. We cannot believe that this smiling world, of whose delights and fascinations we have heard so much, should be so empty of satisfaction as the Word of God asserts it to be; and although we have never yet experienced these delights, it is only because we have never yet sought them aright. Moses had tried them all, and yet he esteemed the very reproach of Christ greater riches. And the same experiment was never more fully made Even if there was any substantial happi midst of all his joy, and casts a shade of gloom and of horror upon all his future prospects, what shall we say of the appalling fact, that in a few days at most death will smile in ghastly triumph over all? Men walk over a vast sepulchre. Beneath their feet lie the bones of the countless dead. The miser has accumulated his wealth, but he not only finds it altogether barren of comfort, and ever ready to take to itself wings and flee away as an eagle towards heaven, but just when he has pulled down his barns and built greater, and is calmly reposing himself under the assurance of a long series of enjoyments, since he has much goods laid up for many years, he is awakened by the decree of God, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee." "Be not afraid of one that is rich, when the glory of his house is increased, for at death he shall carry nothing away, his glory shall not descend after him." Ŏr the sensualist is in the midst of his pleasures; he is surrounded by the companions of his iniquity, but God is not in all his thoughts, suddenly the hand-writing on the wall makes his inmost soul to quake, his face to gather blackness, his knees to smite one against another. "Thus saith the Lord, thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." Or the man of wisdom has stored his memory with all that man ever knew; to him the eyes of nations are directed, assembled senates make choice of him as their best example when they would demonstrate the intellectual majesty of man, and in the pride of his heart he may be lifted up far above his fellows, and imagine himself the lord of the lower world; but on him death pours contempt, in an instant he is summoned away from a world in which alone he was fitted to shine, to an eternity for which he has made no preparation. O my dear brethren, one hour of eternity will communicate to us a greater knowledge, even of that science which we here so laboriously seek, than a whole life of present existence; but surely when it is sought to the exclusion of that which alone maketh wise to salvation it is foolishness before God. "The learned logician," says one," whom Satan daily deceiveth by his subtilty, is only a fool for all his skill,—and the subtle arithmetician, who hath not learned so to number his days as to apply his heart unto wisdom, who has never thought of counting the endless ages of eternity, and the cunning orator, who has persuaded others, but is only himself half persuaded to be a Christian; O what does wisdom, or honours, or riches, or pleasures avail, if they rescue us not from death, if they leave us still to lie down in eternal sorrow." "Wherefore bethink thyself at length," says he, «O deluded world, and write over all thy school doors, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; over all thy exchanges, Let not the rich man glory in his riches; upon all thy taverns, Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.' "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! And the harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands;' over all thy storehouses, Lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal;' and upon all the accommodations, Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity."" 6 Of all this Moses was firmly convinced, and it was partly this conviction that the apostle here calls his faith, He knew that all the honours and treasures of Egypt were unable to satisfy the large desires of his immortal soul, which God himself alone could do; and as God manifested himself alone amongst the children of Israel, however despised they were, since He was the shield of their help, and the sword of their excellency, he threw off all connection with the idolatrous Égyptians, and the word implies that he did it resolutely under a dread of remaining any longer in the midst of them, lest he should have become a partaker of their plagues. We find him in every after period of his history celebrating God in Christ as the source of all his joy, his strength, and song, who also had become his salvation, and breathing forth this as the most earnest desire of his heart, "I beseech thee, O Lord, show me thy glory." And well might he triumph in the exchange which he had made, even although it was accompanied with reproach and persecution. Instead of the crown of Egypt he had received a crown of righteousness, which he now wears and shall wear eternally in heaven; instead of the garments of beauty with which he was adorned, he had received a robe of spotless righteousness which shall never fade away. Instead of the servants of Pharaoh's household, all the angels of heaven received charge concerning him. Instead of receiving, the son of Pharaoh's daughter, the adulation of mere creatures of a day who are now mouldering in the silent tomb-the place that once knew them now knowing them no more-he became a son of the Most High God, who lives for evermore, and with whom is the fountain of everlasting blessedness; and instead of the riches and glory of Egypt, he became an heir of heaven itself, of that fulness of joy and of those rivers of pleasure which are at God's right hand for ever more. In this, therefore, we may clearly see the nature and the worth of that faith which the apostle so highly commends. It is a looking upon every present object as vain and transitory, and upon an incarnate God as the only object worthy of our regard. It is a stretching of our views beyond the little spot of earth on which we dwell, and living as if the veil were altogether removed which separates the world of spirits from our view. And when the glory of God is really revealed to a human soul, then it is that all flesh appears as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The heart is lifted up above all the passing vanities of time, the period during which we are here to sojourn vanishes into nothing, and events which depend upon the statement of God, are regarded as if already present, the Christian lives as if the last trumpet were already sounding, as if he saw the glories of the new Jerusalem, the terrors of everlasting destruction, the plan of redemption already completed, and is convinced that the salvation of his soul is the one thing to be desired, that happy alone is the man who has the God of Jacob for his help, and whose hope is in the Lord his God. But whilst we can easily see how, from such a faith as this, conduct like that of Moses could not fail to proceed, and, therefore, whilst we can also see clearly the error of those who would decry it as a principle altogether inefficient, well may we ask, Where is it now to be found? Alas! we speak evil of a principle through which the saints of God of old were almost omnipotent, because in us it either exists not at all, or is well-nigh drowned by our love of sinful enjoyment or our fear of human ridicule. "Show me thy faith by thy works." Does it ever lead you to deny yourselves to one sinful advantage? Does it ever raise you above the shame of confessing that this is not your rest, that you are candidates for immortal glory? Might not Christ address us in the same language in which he addressed his disciples, "What do ye more than others, do not even the Pharisees the same?" But Christians must be a peculiar people, firmly deny themselves to all the pleasures of sin, declare plainly to all that they seek a better country, and endeavour to persuade as many as they can to accompany them to Zion, saying, We are all journeying towards that good land, of which the Lord God said, he would give it to us, come thou with us and we will do thee good. And it is faith alone which can enlarge, quicken, and sustain the soul; it is an antidote against every poison, a shield against every dart, a complete armour in which alone we can war successfully. And be not deceived. It is not to be obtained by mere human resolution, for he that trusts in his own heart is a fool. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit of God implanted by him, cherished by him, by him alone carried on until it is swallowed up in vision. And as that Spirit is the gift of Christ, when the Scribes and Pharisees saw the boldness of the primitive disciples, rejoicing like Moses that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his sake, even they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. None of us have kingdoms like Moses to relinquish, but all of us have souls of infinite value to be saved. "These are now," in the language of another, "confined to a frail bark which shall soon split on the rock of death, when the pilot will be forced to depart and to swim to the shore of an untried eternity." And if, whilst the day of health and prosperity continues, we seek the favour, and acknowledge ourselves the disciples, of an exalted Saviour, He will acknowledge us when He comes in his own glory and in his Father's glory, whilst "he that is ashamed of Him and of his words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's glory, with all the holy angels." Let us stir up ourselves to contemplate the magnitude of the object after which we aspire, viz., eternal happiness. Let us fear "lest a promise being left us of entering into rest, any of us should even seem to come short of it." Let the resolution of Moses be ours, and then our end shall be glorious like his. The winter will soon be past, the rain will be over and gone, let us only be "stedfast and immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, and in due time we shall reap if we faint not." CHRISTIAN TREASURY. The Rose of Sharon.-Some flowers yield their fragrance only when bruised. See the rose of Sharon trodden under foot by earth and hell; but again lifting its head, filling heaven with incense, and shedding its fragrance from India to the pole. How beautifully is this typified in the entrance and return of the High Priest into the holy of holies! In his own fragrance he presents our persons and prayers to the Father.-HOWELS. Temptation.-Temptation serves to awaken faith. Not one moment passes but we have occasion to say "Lord save."—QUESNEL. An Important Distinction.-There is a great deal of difference between a willingness not to be damned and a being willing to receive Christ for your Saviour. You have the former, and so, doubtless, you are willing to be saved from eternal misery. But that is a very different thing from being willing to come to Christ.-EDWARDS. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. THE REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, A.M. BY THE EDITOR. PART III. THE tour through New England, to which we referred in the close of the last Part of this sketch, was one of the most useful in which Mr Whitefield had ever been engaged. Wherever he went, he was received and welcomed with a cordiality and enthusiasm which encouraged his heart. His ministrations, whether in the churches or in the fields, were accompanied with evident tokens of the divine presence and blessing. Sinners were awakened, backsliders were reclaimed, formalists were roused, and believers were refreshed and strengthened. Both ministers and people felt it to be a time of quickening and revival. The Churches were watered as with the dew of heaven, and multitudes of all classes in New England dated their first impressions of the value and importance of religion from this visit of Mr Whitefield. His own feelings on reviewing the tour were thus expressed by him before sailing for Charleston :— Stop, O my soul! and look back with gratitude on what the Lord hath done for thee, during this excursion. It is now, I think, the seventy-fifth day since I arrived at Rhode Island. My body was then weak; but the Lord has renewed its strength. I have been enabled to preach, I think, a hundred and seventy-five times in public, besides exhorting frequently in private. I have travelled upwards of eight hundred miles, and gotten upwards of seven hundred pounds sterling, in money, &c., for the Georgia orphans. Never did God vouchsafe me greater comforts. Never did I perform my journeys with so little fatigue, nor see so much of the divine presence in the congregations." 66 Shortly after his return to Bethesda, he made arrangements for paying another visit to his native land. Before setting sail, however, he received several very encouraging letters from Boston in reference to the evident blessing which had attended his New England excursion. And lest, perhaps, he should be puffed up by such tokens of the divine approbation, false accusers were permitted to harass and annoy him. They laid to his charge things which he knew not. The enemies of the truth were of course his determined foes; and a complaint having been made to the magistrates of Charleston that he had maliciously libelled the clergy of the province, a warrant was issued for his apprehension. As soon as the proclamation appeared, Mr Whitefield went before the magistrate, and gave security for his appearance when summoned. He presented himself on the day appointed; and such was the effect of his bold and masterly defence, that he was triumphantly acquitted. Public opinion now rose against his persecutors; and he himself, overloaded with presents and sea-stores for his voyage, embarked for England; feeling, in all its force, the truth and emphatic meaning of the divine declaration, “When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." On reaching his native shore, Mr Whitefield found matters in a very different state from that in which they were during his former visit to England. The tide of popular sentiment no longer ran in his favour. When in America, he had written and published two letters against England's two great favourites, "The whole Duty of Man," and Archbishop Tillotson, whom he declared to have known no more about religion than Mahomet did. The violent invectives which these letters contained, had awakened a feeling of hostility to him in many minds. Mr John Wesley, too, who now began to avow Arminian sentiments, had violently attacked the doctrine of Election,-a doctrine which it was well known Mr Whitefield held, and, when occasion offered, openly avowed. The consequence of all this, which had taken place in his absence, was, that the warm attachment of many of Mr Whitefield's former friends was cooled; and when he appeared on Kennington Common the Sabbath immediately after his arrival, his audience, instead of twenty thousand, as it had formerly been, consisted of not more than a hundred persons. His own account of the trying situation in which he now found himself is very affecting : "One that got some hundreds of pounds by my sermons, refused to print for me any more. And others wrote to me, that God would destroy me in a fortnight, and that my fall was as great as Peter's. Instead of having thousands to attend me, scarce one of my spiritual children came to see me from morning to night. Once on Kennington Common I had not above a hundred to hear me. "Ten thousand times would I rather have died than part with my old friends. It would have melted any heart, to have heard Mr Charles Wesley and me weeping, after prayer, that, if possible, the breach might be prevented. Once, but no more, I preached in the Foundery, a place which Mr John Wesley had procured in my absence. All my work was to begin again. "Never had I preached in Moorfields on a weekday but, in the strength of God, I began on Good Friday, and continued twice a-day, walking backward and forward from Leadenhall, for some time preaching under one of the trees; and had the mortification to see numbers of my spiritual children, who, but a twelvemonth ago, would have plucked out their eyes for me, running by me whilst preaching, disdaining so much as to look at me; and some of them putting their fingers in their ears, that they might not hear one word I said. "A like scene opened at Bristol, where I was denied preaching in the house I had founded. faithful band who had deemed it their duty to separate themselves from the Established Church of Scotland. His reply, therefore, when urged to lend his exclusive countenance and support to the Seceders, was firm and decided. "I come only as an occasional preacher, to preach the simple Gospel to all that are willing to hear me, of whatever denomination. I write this, that there may be no misunderstanding between us." It must not be supposed, however, that Mr Whitefield was prejudiced against the excellent men with whom the Secession originated. He maintained, on the contrary, a very close correspondence with both Messrs Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, and on reaching Scotland, the first offer of his ministrations was made to Mr Ralph Erskine at Dunfermline. The meeting-house was crowded on the occasion, and minister and people were alike delighted with their gifted visitor. Having secured the first-fruits of Mr Whitefield's ministrations in Scotland, Mr Ralph Erskine was very anxious that the Associate Presbytery should hold & conference with the illustrious stranger, and endeavour to gain him over to a full approbation of their peculiar views. The conference was held, but although an interview of considerable warmth took place, Mr Whitefield positively declined to act upon the exclusive principles which were most strenuously, but as might easily be conceived unsuccessfully, inculcated upon him. His own opinion of the sentiments urged by the Associate Presbytery he thus expressed in a letter to one of the sons of Mr Ebenezer Erskine at Stirling : "The treatment I met with from the Associate Presbytery was not altogether such as I expected. It grieved me, as much as it did you. I could scarce refrain from bursting into a flood of tears. I wish all matters would not then be carried on with so high a were like-minded with your honoured father and uncle: hand. Such violent methods-such a narrow way of acting-can never be the way to promote and enlarge the kingdom of our blessed Jesus. have also been owned of him. Christ would not have done so. "Busy bodies on both sides blew up the coals. A "It surely must be wrong to forbid even our hearbreach ensued. But as both sides differed in judging-those who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity, and ment, not in affection, and aimed at the glory of our common Lord, (though we hearkened too much to talebearers on both sides,) we were kept from anathematizing each other, and went on in our usual way; being agreed in one point, endeavouring to convert souls to the ever-blessed Mediator." It is interesting to notice that the very circumstances which had lowered Mr Whitefield in the estimation of his English friends and admirers, were of such a nature as enhanced his reputation in Scotland. He was not unwilling, therefore, to accept of the invitation which was now pressed upon him by the Erskines, both Ralph and Ebenezer. His visit to the churches of North Britain was blessed as the source of much good. It happened at a period of great interest and excitement. The secession from the Church of Scotland had but recently taken place, and the Associate Presbytery, yet small in number, were naturally anxious to strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of their adherents by the assistance of such a man as Mr Whitefield. But the Erskines had mistaken the spirit by which that great man was actuated. His large and expansive soul could not be fettered by the narrow limits of party; and having been so long occupied in a distant part of the world, he could not be expected to feel any very strong interest in the circumstances of the small but 66 Supposing the scheme of government for which the Associate Presbytery contend to be scriptural; yet, forbearance and long-suffering is to be exercised towards such as may differ from them. I am verily persuaded there is no such form of government prescribed in the Book of God as excludes a toleration of all other forms whatsoever. Were the Associate Presbytery scheme to take effect, they must, out of conscience, if they acted consistently, restrain and grieve, if not persecute, many of God's children, who could not possibly come in to their measures; and I doubt not but their present violent methods, together with the corruptions of the Assembly, will cause many to become independents, and set up particular churches of their own. This was hand: and whether it be Presbytery or Episcopacy, if the effect of Archbishop Laud's acting with so high a managed in the same manner, it will be productive of the same effects. Blessed be God, I have not so learned Christ!" The following letter, addressed by Mr Whitefield to a gentleman in New York, gives a very amusing account of the same interview, which terminated in an open rupture between him and the Associate Presbytery : "My dear Brother, I have written you several letters; and I rejoice to hear that the work of the |