they shall cry "to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?"

The mighty contrast exhibited by the respective conditions of the two classes here described cannot fail, if duly reflected upon under the teaching of the Divine Spirit, to stir up the most languid heart, and quicken the most tardy resolution, to a suitable preparation against "that day." It will surely appear the height of madness to indulge any one "carnal affection," or wilfully to practice any one "work of the flesh," which almost necessarily seems to lead to such terrible results. And if the mere expectation," that all these things shall be dissolved," suggests the question, "What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?" what should the further anticipation of a new creation, together with "a new heaven and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness," produce in us, but the most fervent "diligence to be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless ?"

No discouragement is here intended, or necessarily conveyed, to the humblest efforts of a sincere faith, and a true love of God in Christ Jesus. The constant, though, it may be, feeble warfare, of which the mind so occupied is conscious within itself against its worst pas sions," affections, and lusts," is precisely that which shews the existence of a better principle within, springing up to everlasting life. These are the nascent sparks of a Divine flame, the germinal rudiments hereafter to burst forth in all their native force and beauty. Where these symptoms really exist (and into this we should seriously examine), they may be truly considered as "the seal of that Holy Spirit of promise:" and He who

now vouchsafes "the earnest of the Spirit," shall hereafter, by the same Spirit, bestow the full "inheritance of the purchased possession." Great, indeed, will be the energy, and stupendous the display, of Divine Power in erecting such feeble materials into an everlasting monument of grace and of glory. The believer stretches his capacity of faith to the utmost when he anticipates and fully realizes to his own mind all the wonders of the coming day. He listens as with breathless silence to the voice of God; that "voice of the Lord which is mighty in operation, a glorious voice." He views as with heart-struck wonder all nature obedient to the sound the arrows of God flying abroad-the flames bursting around-angels hasting in solemn order, each to their appointed work-the graves opening at their approach-the multitudes of the dead of all ages wakened from their slumbers-the face of all things changed and life, with every new and varied form, spring. ing in wonderful succession from a confused mass of dissolution and death. But nothing of all this scene of wonders strikes the believer's mind with more heartfelt and grateful admiration, than that single operation which shall then reanimate his own individual sleeping dust; and convert this low and sordid mass which he is now too sadly conscious of bearing about him, into a shining and immortal substance, capable of reflecting without sully the glorious holiness of the great Supreme, serving without weariness in the train of an heavenly assembly, and contributing, without end, to the praise and honour of the Redeemer.

T.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. IN the translation of two passages of Scripture, I would request the assistance of any of your learned correspondents. The first is in the

second chapter of the Book of Genesis; where the creation of the world, with that of man, animals, and vegetables, is briefly resumed, and is introductive to an interesting part of the history of the human race. We are there informed, ver. 4, 5, and 6, that "these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens; and every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." From all which it might be supposed, that although there were no refreshing showers, nor human cultivation, yet nevertheless the mist which arose was peculiarly efficient in the creation which was accomplished: whereas, it is obviously the moral of this part of the history, that the Lord God was the sole Omnipotent Author of nature.

The passage which has now been quoted, as translated by Junius and Tremellius (1587), differs in the first word of ver. 6; which verse is also read as one sentence with the preceding, as follows: " When the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth; and there was as yet no man to cultivate the ground; nor vapour, which, ascending from the earth, watereth all the surface of the ground."

In tropical countries, the nightly dews are still so copious as com pletely to drench the clothes of those who may be for a short time exposed to them. But neither dews, nor rain, nor cultivation, nor genial heat, nor all these combined, are capable of creating an animal or a plant of the lowest class.On this point, as on many others, the discoveries of genuine philosophy do uniformly concur with the doctrines of the Sacred Record. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 184.

We are there taught, that the Lord God was the Creator of man, animals, and vegetables; and that in the creation there was no such thing as "spontaneous" generation of plants and animals, by any prolific power existing in nature, as has often been ignorantly supposed; but, on the contrary, that the whole effect was the result of the Almighty fiat. "He spake, and it was done: He commanded, and it stood fast." Ps. xxxiii. 9.

The second passage alluded to is in the Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. ii. ver. 2: “The prince of the power of the air." I have somewhere seen it remarked, that if Homer was right in his use of the word amp, it ought to be translated by the English word darkness. If this sense might be adopted, the passage would coincide with many others in the sacred Scriptures; but, as it stands at present, it stands alone, and cannot, I apprehend, be explained by any other text. E

A TIME of internal peace and temporal prosperity is generally, in the Church of Christ, a season of spiritual decay. The number of religious professors may probably, at such times, be increased, because the difficulties and the tests of that profession are diminished; but in proportion as the trials attendant upon a religious life decrease, a worldly and lukewarm spirit insinuates itself into the churches. It is seldom, indeed, that where "the churches have rest," they continue

to walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost."

This remark will bear a close application to the state of the Church of Christ in the present day. A few years ago, the difficulties attendant upon an open admission of the peculiar doctrines of 2 F

he has freely bestowed the assist ance of his name, his influence, and his purse, has found it necessary to seek the exalted platform, or even the humbler bench below, only as an occasional stimulus, and one which must be used with caution. The heart is seriously injured to which the exhibition of its sentiments, and the applause of the crowd, has become necessary or gratifying.

The degree of worldly respecta bility which now attaches to the profession of religion has had its share in the evil of undue communion with the world. Many are now become bold and active members of the external church of Christ, who possess but little of that pure, and peaceable, and gentle wisdom which cometh from above. But with all such characters, if they are found regularly at church or chapel, if their names are registered in the evangelical subscription lists, and they are heard or seen at these religious theatricals; with all these, and with their friends and connections, who are, of course, one step still further removed from the Gospel-standard of character, the modern Christian ventures to associate. Hence the habits and manners, the compliments, the silly vices, and the trifling spirit of the world, insinuate them selves, by this silent influence, into the Church of Christ; and it is only in the few hurried minutes of closet devotion, which the whirl of religious dissipation allows, that the Christian feels the real difference between himself and his companions. The distinction of "a peculiar people" is disregarded, and modern refinement would not allow it to be mentioned in a mixed assembly. This will proceed in an increasing ratio, and the effect upon the rising branches of each succeeding family is more and more destructive.

Another evil, and one which, in a great measure, results from the former, is a practical unbelief of

1

those principles on which, as Christians, we profess to act. The scriptural distinction between a child of light and a child of darkness, between "him that serveth God and him that serveth him not,” is never sufficiently taken up, even by real Christians, as a principle of practice. The mind, acquiring, in its intercourse with men, an indifference to religious truth, does not practically perceive that the world "lieth in the wicked one, and that the friendship of the world is enmity with God;" that the degree of rebellion in the carnal unchanged heart is such that God looks on it with abhorrence, and calls upon his children to come out and be a separate people. The amiable natural character of men in that commerce and intercourse which relate to this world, and the specious systems of assumed morals with which sceptics and infidels adorn their exterior character, are admitted as realities; and the abstract wickedness of the heart, that hardens itself against the powerful pleading and merciful solicitations of God in the Gospel of his Son, is passed over. Even pious ministers, from an injudicious and almost indiscriminate intercourse with their hearers, are apt to forget the immense power of that machine with which God has entrusted them, and abandon the valuable opportunity of instruction, or speak with unbelief and sinful timidity. There is a want of reliance upon the unseen and mysterious agency of that one Spirit which ordereth, restraineth, and changeth the unruly wills and affections of sinful men.

Intercourse and communion with the world, and conformity to its habits, have given rise to a third evil, which certainly demands correction. The spirit of profuse expenditure, which characterizes all classes in the present day, is, at length, strikingly visible in the professed Christian Church. The same gilded extravagance is visible

in the furniture of their houses; the same luxurious waste upon their tables; the same weak regard to the forms and fripperies of fashionable dress; the same desire for foreign articles of embellishment; the same mania for a continental tour. In these respects, a Christian of the present day is seldom known from the most consummate devotee to the laws of fashionable taste. Certainly (to forestal a stale objection), we need not wear the russet livery of a religious profession, nor mark the amount of our piety, by the bare ness of our walls, and the degree of our domestic inconvenience: but while the believer lounges on his gilded couch, rests his Bible upon a richly inlaid table, and casts his eye with complacency upon the interminable folds and festoons of drapery and fringe that adorn his windows, it is rather in congruous to be reading with approbation, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world." A fastidious attention to meats and wines, to the delicacies and luxuries of the palate, is peculiarly incompatible with a highly spiritual mind; but in an especial manner is it painful to see the young Christian aping the loose habiliments and lounging airs of Bond-street, and the younger wo men, who profess to value the incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, endeavouring to give interest to their character by the attitudes and distortions, and the tawdry glitter, of a Parisian belle. Even in the lowest sense of the passage, this is not keeping our garments unspotted from the world.

Modern Christians err in the choice of their reading. It is very evident that real religion always excites a desire for mental improvement. It lifts the character of the peasant far above the usual

standard; and it gives to those possessed of greater advantages an eagerness to be well-informed. Many professing people, especially the young, devote a large portion of their time to reading; and, for want of cautious and well-educated advisers, are not judicious in the choice of their books. They read rapidly, and read every thing. Every moralist who scribbles a romantic tale, with a slight sprinkle of evangelical sentiment, and every rake who prints a poem, takes his turn: and whenever an idle and li centious lord chooses to protrude upon the public the exfoliations of a diseased imagination, the reli gious world must run mad after them; and the young Christian female, because she has the most leisure, is the first to be well versed in the brilliant pollutions of his page.

Some abstract works upon the principles of population must be turned over by the finger of virgin purity; and the hours of instruction must be worse than wasted on calculations which (let it be said with reverence) even the delicacy of the Christian Observer cannot sanctify. The mischief is, that because Christians mix with the world, they are tempted to inform themselves upon the topics of the world; and for this purpose the pamphlets, and poems, and reviews of the day, and all the promiscuous and unseemly ebullitions of the metropolitan press must be sought and devoured, to the neglect of more wholesome and substantial nutriment, and the lamentable vitiation of a spiritual taste. The Christian is ashamed, in these trifling matters, to be left behind by a literary world, with whom his deep research and superior practical knowledge, on subjects" too bright for human vision," will pass for worse than nothing. Here even some of the champions of the faith have failed, from a wish to shew the world, notwithstanding the high and peculiar dignity of their character and the solemnity