THE LIFE OF CHRIST THE SUPPORT OF THE CHURCH.

THE existence of the Church in this depraved world is one of the wonders of Providence. It is a vessel living in a tempestuous sea; a bush on fire, but not consumed. If we reflect on the enmity of the wicked against the righteous, their great superiority over them-the attempts that have been made to exterminate them-the frequent diminution of their numbers by defection and death-their existence, and especially their increase, must be wonderful, and can no otherwise be accounted for, but that Christ liveth.

When they were "few in number, and wandered as strangers from one nation to another, he suffered no man to hurt them; he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." In Egypt he saw their affliction, and came down to deliver them. Of Jerusalem the enemy said, "Rase, rase it to the foundation;" but the Lord remembered it, and destroyed its destroyer. Under the Persian dominion, the captives were restored to their own land; yet even then the enemy intrigued against them, so that for one and twenty years the building of the temple was hindered, and the prayers of the prophet Daniel were unanswered. Thus it was, I conceive, that "the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood the angel for one and twenty days; but, lo, Michael, the chief prince, stood with him, and helped him."

Under the gospel dispensation, as the church became more spiritual, the hatred increased; and as religion was from hence more of a personal than a national concern, such was the opposition

directed against it. But still the Great Head of the church lived. The persecution which raged at the time of this prophecy, was the second of ten cruel persecutions from the heathen emperors; and though after this the government became professedly Christian, yet such were the corruptions which entered in at this door, that in a little time that which was called the Christian church, became an antichristian harlot, persecuting the servants of Jesus with a cruelty equal, if not superior to that of heathens. These floods filled the breadth of Emanuel's land, reaching even to the neck; but the Church's Head being above water, she has survived them all.

Often have we seen in our smaller circles the cause of God reduced to a low condition; sometimes by the falling away of characters who seemed to be pillars, and sometimes by the removal of great and good men by death. But under all this it is our comfort, the Lord liveth-The government is on his shoulder.

THE SURE FOUNDATION.

SOME are all their days laying the foundation, and are never able to build upon it to any comfort to themselves, or usefulness to others; and the reason is, because they will be mixing with the foundation, stones that are only fit for the following building. They will be bringing their obedience, duties, mortification of sin, and the like, unto the foundation. These are precious stones to build with; but unmeet to be first laid, to bear upon them the whole weight of the building. The foundation is to be laid in mere grace,

mercy, pardon in the blood of Christ. This the soul is to accept of, and to rest in, merely as it is grace, without the consideration of any thing in itself, but that it is sinful and obnoxious to ruin. This it finds a difficulty in, and would gladly have something of its own to mix with it. It cannot tell how to fix these foundation stones without some cement of its own endeavours and duty; and because these things will not mix, they spend a fruitless labour about it all their days. But if the foundation be of grace, it is not at all of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. If any thing of our own be mixed with grace in this matter, it utterly destroys the nature of grace, which, if it be not alone, is not at all.

CHRIST THE SINNER'S REFUGE.

WHEN the Spirit of truth makes inquisition for sin, guilt is then felt, because man beholds himself a child of wrath by nature, and a condemned criminal by means of his practice. In this salutary, but unhappy stage of things, he often looks behind, and every glance discovers blacker darkness, and nearer approaching storms. He looks forward, and sees nothing but apparent rocks of judgment, waves of wrath, without one inlet or shelter for his trembling soul. This is a time of trouble and dismay, an hour when succouring mercy is the all in all. Oh! what an unspeakable happiness is it, at such a time as this, to find that haven where the trembling spirit would be-to find Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners, as our Saviour, our "hiding place from the storm, and covert from the tempest." Him having found,

the thunders of the broken law may echo forth all their condemnation. Him having found, the sword of vengeance and of justice, like the fluid stream, may blaze on every side, yet the soul can rest secure; and, blest with a sense of his pardoning love, it can smile away every pursuing storm, and pass in sweet tranquillity the waves of death, and the rocks of judgment. Nay, more, they will guide his happy pardoned spirit into that haven of rest which it so anxiously sought for its final refuge.

MISERABLE FATE OF THOSE WHO DESPISE CHRIST.

YE that have, to this moment, despised the Saviour by neglecting his salvation, Oh that God would open your eyes to the horrors of your situation, before these horrors are unutterably augmented, and must be inevitably and eternally endured! You stand as upon a shelf, undermined by every wave borne in upon it by the tide of time; and if the last shock be given, before you are "reconciled to God through the death of his Son," you will be engulphed in ruin. The worm that never dies must then commence its gnawings, and the flame that is inextinguishable, its inconceivable torments. All this you may perhaps laugh to scorn as the frantic raving of a fanatical enthusiasm, or at least as the commonplace terrors of professional cant; but may God give you repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth, lest you experience all to be dreadful realities! Now you are careless and unconcerned: the terrors of the Lord you despise the message

of his mercy you turn away from you; too well do you answer the description of the wise man

as

"fools," you "mock at sin;" but the shaft may be on the wing that numbers you with the dead-the storm that brings destruction in its blast, waits but for its commission to hurl you to the depths of hell. I pursue you, in thought, through a life of alienation from God,-spent in pursuit of that visionary pleasure, which, like the apples of Sodom, crumbles at your attempt to seize it—in amassing the glittering dust, that only augments the cares it was imagined it would dispel-in hunting after fame, that dies with the breath that raised it; or honours, that, like empty bubbles, when you think to grasp them, burst away for ever from the view. At every step, I read upon the monuments your folly has raised, the inscription "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." I see you on the bed of death; your eyes, that once sparkled with vivacity, are languid and lifeless; the rose of health and youth has faded away to the wanness of despair. There— the last effort is made-nature has groaned its last shall I go on? My soul shudders at the prospect. The immortal spirit has received its doom. Nor angels nor God can reverse it. On the walls of that prison, which must eternally inclose it, these words are written as in characters of flame, "Reserved under chains of darknesssuffering the vengeance of eternal fire; because they obeyed not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ." But now is the accepted time, the day of salvation. Sinners, it is Jesus who delivers from the wrath to come. For this he poured out his soul unto death. Flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before you.