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giant's strength over us, and lay us prostrate before them. See how jealousy, by not being resisted, led to murder in the case of Cain. Mark again how the rise of the lust of concupiscence in David, by his not resist ing the first motions to sin, led to adultery and secret murder. Behold, also, how a a spirit of covetousness and hypocrisy, led Ananias and Sapphira to lie unto the Holy Ghost, and what fearful punishment followed it! And see, in the case of Joseph's brethren, also, how a spirit of envy indulged in, led to hatred of their brother, cruelty to his person, deceit to their father, grief to his mind, lies against their own consciences, and after misery to themselves. If we would, therefore, successfully resist those feelings, those enemies, "which war against the soul," we must combat with them on their first approach, and give them no quarter. We must not permit them to gain strength by any indulgence of them in the heart, since that would be like conspiring with them to our own destruction. But, then, have we power to resist sin? power to resist envy, jealousy, evil concupiscence, and a whole train of other evils? Of ourselves we have no power to help ourselves," since "the heart" within us "is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked" (Collect for second Sunday in Lent). Nevertheless, there is a source whence every one of us may derive power to have victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil-a source whence spiritual strength may be obtained to repress the feelings of envy; to deaden the workings of jealousy; to calm down the raging of evil concupiscence, and to bring over the whole soul the influence of" that wisdom which is from above and which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good purity" (James iii. 17). To that source we should ever apply, "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance," that we may have grace according to our day, and be made "more than conquerors through him that hath loved us." And in thus supplicating at the throne of heavenly grace for spiritual power and influence to overcome everything that rises up against us, we should "not walk after the flesh" to fulfil the desires of the flesh and the mind (Eph. ii. 3), but be enabled to "cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. x. 5). Had Cain, had David, had Ananias and Sapphira, and had Joseph's brethren fled to the strong for strength on those objects first being suggested to them, which led to their

transgressions and brought upon them a
flood of misery, instead of fostering them
into desire, and letting them conceive and
bring forth sin, they would not have known
that guilt of which they were the subjects,
nor had the disapproval of heaven to rest
upon them as they had. From their ex-
ample, then, let us learn wisdom, and, in
every hour of temptation, lift up our hearts
to heaven through Christ, and cry, "I am
thine; save me.'
"Lead me not into

temptation, but deliver me from evil.”

But, lastly, we learn from the subject,4. That the providence of God attends those that love him An inspired apostle declares that, "the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and that his ears are open unto their prayers" (1 Pet. ii. 13). How exemplified was this delightful assertion in the case of Joseph! Through every step of his way the eye of God was upon him; at every winding and intricacy in his path he was present with him to order and direct for him. Being a follower of that which was good none could really harm him (1 Pet. iii. 13), though for a time they might try him, and cause him anguish of spirit. But even this, God would take care, should afterward yield to him the peaceable fruit of righteousness (Heb. xii. 11). Not only was he protected on his way down to Egypt, but, even when he had arrived there, his way was opened before him; he was "led in paths that he had not known; darkness was made light before him, and crooked things straight" (Is. xlii. 16). And when trouble arosewhen "for righteousness' sake" he was cast into prison, even those circumstances transpired that tended ultimately to bring forth his righteousness as the light, and his judgment as the noon-day (Ps. xxxvii. 6); 80 that his hard fate of being cast into prison for cleaving to God, and resisting temptation to evil, was a link in the chain of divine Providence, that led him from his situation in the house of Potiphar to the becoming a father to Pharoah, king of Egypt, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land, and to his being placed in a position to be an instrument, in God's hand, of providing sustenance for his father and for his brethren, and of preserving them a posterity in the earth, and of saving their lives by a great deliverance," (Gen. xlv. 8).

But God does not lead all his children to degrees of honour and usefulness equal to those of Joseph. Among his people there are those who may be compared to "vessels of gold, and of silver, of wood, and of earth; some to honour and some to dishonour" (2 Tim. ii. 20); that is, some who are designed and qualified for, and used in, more honour

able posts and offices than others. Take, as | instances, Moses, the lawgiver of Israel, and Lazarus the beggar, full of sores, at the rich man's gate. Moses in this life might be termed a vessel of honour, and Lazarus a vessel to dishonour, though both are now lodged in Abraham's bosom. Though we cannot tell why God setteth up one of his children among princes, and places another on the dunghill (1 Sam. ii. 7); why he gives to this man five talents, and to that two, and to another only one, we may be assured that he, as Judge of all the earth, doeth right in all that he does. Whether his children are placed in positions of honour, or of dishonour, they may rest satisfied, if children, and led by God's providence to the particular positions they occupy, that those positions are the very ones which are the most suitable for them-those which are the most conducive to God's glory and their own individual good. It is not the post we occupy that should trouble us, whether it be of high or of low degree; but we should rather be concerned to use the talents that God has committed to our trust to his glory, and whether we are used as vessels of gold or of silver, of wood or of earth, to be sanctified and made meet for the master's use (2 Tim. ii. 21). And if this is our care-if this is our object-if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, become reconciled unto him by faith that is in Christ Jesus, then his eyes will be as assuredly over us as they ever were over Joseph. His mercy will be upon us, and he will cause, by his watchful providence, all things to work together for our good in this life, and then at last cause to be ministered unto us an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

CHURCH SCENES IN OHIO.* CAMP-MEETINGS, as such, are never held by Episcopalians. Yet occasionally, for want of a church, our services are performed in the open air, and I recollect with pleasure an interesting occasion of this kind in Delaware county, Ohio. The place of worship was a beautiful orchard, and the time was the month of May, when the abundant blossoms of the apple and the peach filled the air with their deicious odour. A table for the communion was placed on the green grass and covered with a cloth of snowy whiteness. Adjoining the rustic altar a little stand was erected for the clergyman, and a number of benches were provided for the congregation. A large number of persons attended, who behaved with the strictest decorum and propriety. Besides the service for the day, baptism was administered by the missionary to three or four adults, a

Rev. H. Caswall's "America and the American Church."

stirring extempore sermon was delivered, and the Lord's Supper completed the solemnities.

I happened to be witness of a curious scene in a similar place of worship near Kenyon College. It

mer,

was the time of the annual convention of the diocese of Ohio, and the clerical and lay delegates assembled at Gambier. It was also the period appointed for the annual commencement of the college, and a great gathering of the neighbouring population was expected. Rosse chapel being incomplete, there was occasion, and accordingly a large arbour was erected no room in Gambier sufficiently capacious for the for temporary service. It was formed of a number of poles fixed in the earth, united at the top by cross pieces, and covered with a profusion of green boughs. The sides were protected in a similar manand thus a complete chapel was formed about sixty feet square. On a platform, at one extremity, was a pulpit and a communion table, and the rest of the area was occupied by benches. The convention assembled and was duly organized, after which morning service was performed, and Bishop Chase proceeded to read his episcopal address in the presence of a numerous congregation. In the course of this address, he animadverted severely on the conduct of the Rev. Mr. West, in respect to his agency in England in behalf of Kenyon College. Just as the condemnatory expressions were about to issue from his lips, a tall figure in black was seen gliding behind the boughs, and Mr. West himself, who was supposed to be at least a thousand miles distant, quietly entered the arbour, and, unobserved by most of the assembly, scated himself in front of the his address, and at the conclusion was about to give bishop. Bishop Chase not perceiving him continued

out a hymn, when, to the surprise of all, Mr. West stood up, and requested that a copy should be furnished him of that part of the address relating to himself. The bishop complied with his request, and on the following day Mr. West was heard in his defence. It will be recollected that the same Mr. West afterwards asserted his Episcopal character on the ground of an alleged consecration by Bishop Chase, and made some ineffectual attempts, near Liverpool, to produce a schism in the Church of England. He has since been suspended from the performance of the clerical office.

Places of worship like those mentioned above are certainly very agreeable during the warm days of an American summer. But it is obvious, that, even in the most sequestered regions, all who have any relish for the regular service of the sanctuary will desire something more permanent and better adapted to the great varieties of weather. Accordingly the erection of a log-church is often one of the first efforts of the well-disposed settlers of the western forests. Such a church was that at Perry in the vicinity of Gambier. It was the work of a few Irish lished religion, and who in this distant land reEpiscopalians who had been educated in the estab

mained faithful to the Church of their fathers. Their

pious undertaking was quickly accomplished. They sallied forth into the woods with their axes, and, having chosen a spot, felled the tall trees, hewed them square, cut them into regular lengths, and with

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LENT.-We are now in the midst of that hallowed season, when the Church, by the voice of all her holy services, calleth the world to repentance, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. And if ever there was an institution calculated to promote the glory of God, by forwarding the salvation of man, it is this appointment of a certain set time for all persons to consider their ways, to break off their sins, and to return from whence they have fallen, through the infirmities of the flesh and the prevalence of temptation. For though most certain it is, that sorrow should be the constant attendant upon sin, and daily transgressions call for daily penitence, yet fatal experience convinces us of another truth no less certain, that in a body so frail, and a world so corrupt, cares and pleasures soon oppress the heart, and, insensibly, bring on the slumbers of listlessness and negligence as to its spiritual concerns, which, unless dissipated and dispersed by frequently repeated admonitions, will at length seal it up in the deep sleep of a final impenitence. It was wisely foreseen, that should the sinner be permitted to reserve to himself the choice of a convenient season wherein to turn from sin to righteousness, that convenient season would never come; and that the specious plea of keeping every day holy alike would often be found to cover a design of keeping none holy at all. It seemed good, therefore, to the Church, to fix a stated time, in which men might enter upon the great work of their repentance. And what time could have been selected with greater propriety than this Lenten or Spring season, when universal nature, awaking from her wintry sleep, and coming out of a state of deformity, and course of penance, imposed for the transgression of man, her lord and master, is about to rise from the dead, and, putting on her garments of glory and beauty, to give us a kind of prelude to the renovation of all things? So that the whole creation most harmoniously accompanieth the voice of the Church, as that sweetly accordeth to the call of the apostle, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”—Horne's Discourses.

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.-All the senates that ever were convened, and all the assemblies that ever met upon business or pleasure; all the armies that were ever conducted into the field, and all the generals who conducted them; in a word, all the men and women that shall have lived, from the first pair to their last born son and daughter, are to appear together, and to take their respective trials at the day of the great assize. High and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, will then be distinguished only by their virtues and their vices; so that the whole world shall perceive and acknowledge that "God is no respector of persons." The injured virgin, the afflicted widow, and the oppressed orphan, shall then see those, face to face, who have spoiled them of their innocence, their reputation or their substance. There men shall meet all those who seduced them, or whom they have seduced into the ways of sin; and all those who have directed and encouraged

them, or whom they have directed and encouraged, to proceed in the paths of righteousness. From the former they shall turn away with shame and fear; There they shall view the wisdom of religion in the the latter they shall behold with joy and rejoicing. persons of the righteous, and wonder why they did not see it before, and give themselves up to the study of it; there they shall clearly behold the folly of irreligion in the persons of the wicked, and be astonished at their insensibility in following so hard after it. Amidst all this unimaginable multitude, there shall not be one idle and unconcerned spectator; not one that shall have leisure to trouble himself with the affairs of his neighbour. Every man will have a cause to be heard, and how will he be straitened until it be determined!-Bishop Horne.

Poetry.

"SWEET ARE THE USES OF ADVERSITY."
(For the Church of England Magazine)
BY THE REV. CHARLES S. BIRD.
"TWAS a bright summer's day;
The sun rode gloriously on high,
Mid clouds that flitted o'er the sky
To soften, not obscure his ray.
Long suffering had been mine;

And tho' I owned my Father's will
I felt not as beseemed me, still
How gracious was the hand divine!
Stretched in the shade, pursuing

I know not what sad train of thought,
I suddenly instruction caught
From what an idle bird was doing.
Hour after hour this bird,

Hopping, twittering, peering round

A small, dark spot of withered ground,
'Neath a thick tree, my wonder stirred.
Why shun the gladsome day?

What could so long content him there?
Had he not wings and fields of air
To bear to sunnier spots away?
The grove on yon hill-side-

Hark! from his fellow-warblers' throats
What bursts it sends of joyous notes!
Why thus his own sweet treasure hide?
So ran my thoughts of wonder,

When lo! a hand I could not see
Discharg'd a missile 'gainst the tree,
And roused my little friend like thunder.
Instant, with airy bound,

Up to the nearest bough he flew;
Anon-his fluttering o'er- he threw
A hesitating glance around:
Shall he descend below?

Yes! stood implied in every look;
When lo! another stroke, that shook
The wood, sent fearful answer, No!
Up to a higher bough,

And so to higher still he rose,

As blows successive followed blows→→→
Till on the very topmost now,

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PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.† -The divisions promoted by many of our Protestant brethren on the one side, and the ambitious advances of the advocates of Romanism on the other, render this confessedly an age of trial to our church. It was considered in former times, a sufficient reason for the strenuous exertion of its energies, when only one of these classes of adversaries came to the assault. Surely, then, when we are attacked by the united forces of two parties, whose enmity to each other has, till now, been only exceeded by their hostility to us, we are bound to leave nothing undone which may contribute to the safety of our church. The plans of the enemy embrace every art and stratagem which might be expected to result from such a conjunction of forces. While the one proclaims loudly that there is, properly speaking, no church at all, and that we are but one sect among many, the other insidiously whispers that we are worthy of a thousand curses, because we deny that Rome is a church universal. The means of supporting the church, the value of her liturgy, the fair authority of her clergy; the rights attached to their parochial appointments; these are questioned by the former party with degrees of boldness, varying according to circumstances, but always intimating a hope that the nation may at length be persuaded to forget both its

"The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord." (Jeremiah viii. 7).

+ From a sermon preached Nov. 5., 1839, at St. James's Chapel, Hampstead-road, by Henry Stebbing, D.D.-London, Cadell.

interests and its duties, and to leave the people to the chance of having no teachers at all, and to the certain evil, if they have, of being subject to many systems instead of one. An age of busy excitement, and stimulated to every species of inquiry by political circumstances, will necessarily afford a party of this kind many opportunities of promoting its interests. They have been carefully seized upon and employed; and however willing churchmen may have hitherto felt to trust themselves simply to the goodness of their cause, they cannot fail to see that whatever be their station, they ought now to declare openly that they are fully and deeply sensible of the sacred authority of their church; of its claims to the nation's fidelity; of the inestimable value of its evangelical ordinances. When we look, on the other hand, to those who assail us, in the name and spirit of another and a foreign church, we find new reasons for caution, and for mingling our caution with sorrow. The members of the Church of Rome, if aware of the nature of their own principles, must know that it is a high and fearful sin to do aught that might tend, even remotely, to the dismemberment of a church. They have solemnly promised, and openly, and plainly, that they will refrain from any such attempt; and the genius of their faith, the tenor of their religious education, as well as their promises, would, if fairly followed up, bind them to this course of forbearance. How can they, without involving themselves in deadly guilt, without committing a crime of the nature of which they are fully aware, promote schism in a church and nation? How can they favour a state of things which tends to separate the people from their pastors; to set aside the due laws of long-established ecclesiastical government; to introduce novelties, and leave every thing to the hazard of untried experiments? Let it be said that they cannot be expected to promote the interests of our church, we will allow it; but let it be further said, that it is their duty to oppose those interests, and supplant that church; and our answer must be, that their justification then is a solemn call to the whole Protestant world never to cease from a vigilant and active circumspection. Our forefathers denied the supremacy of the Pope, and separated, like others, from joint communion with the Roman church, because they regarded the former as a usurpation, and believed the latter to have embraced and propogated doctrines unsupported by Scripture. In the progress of their advance towards a more perfect emancipation, they had ample proofs of the sanguinary and persecuting spirit which animated the hierarchy of that church. Now, is independence less sweet to us than it was to them? Or has the Pope made more manifest the righteousness of his clains to universal domination? Or have we have we changed our opinion as to the unscriptural character of some of the doctrines of Rome? Or is there any clear and definite promise at present in existence? Is it in the nature of things that any promise should be made, that a church so constituted should afford an assurance that though endowed with the power, it would never again light the fires of persecution? never again allow inquisitions to exist; never think itself justified in sacrificing on its altars the helpless opponents of its creed? If you quit the world, the world will soon quit you -Thomas à Kempis.

London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country.

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JOSEPH ROGERSON, 24 NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, LONDON.

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THE PIETY OF JESUS CHRIST.

HISTORICAL and external evidences of the most varied and satisfactory character attest the divine original of the gospel of the Son of God, and Christians may employ a portion of their time most profitably in the perusal of those volumes in which learned men have collected the interesting particulars of this part of the sacred fabric of Christianity. But the wisdom and goodness of God are most signally displayed in the fact, that the simple character of Jesus Christ, as it is recorded in the four gospels, furnishes complete and unanswerable demonstration of the divinity of his mission; so that those individuals who have neither the time nor the talent to investigate and comprehend the historical evidences of their religion, are yet able to arrive at a conviction of its veracity not less complete (to their minds at least) than the most minute exhibition of details could produce. One of those features in the character of our blessed Saviour, which cannot fail to attract our highest veneration, is the heartfelt and devoted piety with which he evermore mentioned the name of the Deity, and the unbounded submission with which he yielded to his appointments, however great might be the sufferings which were thereby entailed upon himself. A brief consideration of the principles upon which his piety appears to have been founded, may be of great service in assisting us to improve and strengthen a similar disposition in ourselves.

I. It was based upon a perfect knowledge of the purposes to be answered and accomplished by all these sufferings, and a conviction of the inestimable importance of the fulfilment of the divine intentions. Our Lord was not sent into this world upon a doubtful

VOL. VIII.-NO. CCXVI.

PRICE 1d.

or misunderstood mission; the nature of his work, and the bitterness of his agonies, had all been seen by him in prospective, and he had concurred in the determination of his Father, that upon no other terms could pardon be offered to a guilty and ruined world consistently with the moral dignity of the divine administration. When, therefore, the hour of trial came, and when the terrific and unknown weight of the burden seemed at times to make his human nature tremble beneath its load, he appears to have invariably recurred to the original views which had been taken on the subject, and to have banished all rising emotion by the recollection that the glory of his Father imperatively demanded the endurance of every pang. On one occasion the expressions he employed are deeply affecting, and will serve as a powerful illustration of these remarks. The prospect of the accumulated miseries of his last hours appears to have awakened some of those intense agonies of mind which formed, no doubt, a part of the great work of the atonement, and he is recorded to have asked aloud, in what form of prayer he should give utterance to the troubled emotions of his soul. And as the apostacy of all his chosen friends, the fiendish cruelty of one of them, the malice of his persecutors, the injustice of his sentence, the malignity of Satan, the cross, and the mysterious withdrawal of the divine protection, all rose up to his imagination, he is stated to have said, Shall I say, save me from this hour? But the very utterance of such words, even in the form of a question, confirmed all his unparalleled magnanimity, and he triumphantly exclaimed, No, I will not do that. This hour, this dreadful hour, this hour, the like of which neither has been nor

[London: Joseph Rogerson, 24, Norfolk-street, Strand.]

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