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leisure for spiritual and religious duties. The principal duty of the day, unto the end of the world, is constant strict attendance upon the public worship of the Church, assembled in the name of Christ, and with his gracious presence. Impressed with this consideration, every faithful devout soul will have a constant desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord. To forsake such assembly, or to be absent from it at any time without necessity (as by sickness, or such an office of charity to our fellow creatures as cannot be delayed without danger,) argues great spiritual lukewarmness, a state most odious to our Saviour. Absence from public worship on the Lord's day is a manifest sin against the fourth Commandment-a sin tending to root religion out of the world, and plant ruin and misery in the world."-Bishop Jolly.

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The Doctrine of Redemption." We should come to Christ with a true and lively faith; neither trusting to our own merits, nor distrusting the mercies of God; but casting ourselves wholly upon the merits of Jesus Christ, in a stedfast assurance that through his blood we shall receive remission of our sins; and that being justified by faith, we shall have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' But then we must remember that the redemption of Christ consists in his delivering us, not only from the guilt of our sins past, but also from the power and dominion of them for the time to come. • Christ gave himself for us,' not only that he might redeem us from all iniquity,' but likewise that He might purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works'.' And, He was manifested,' not only to take away our sins,' but also by his blood to purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living God. No No persons, then, must hope for any benefit by the death of Christ, but they who will take the redemption which He wrought for us whole and entire; that is, none must hope for the pardon of his sins past but he who sincerely desires to be delivered from them for the time to come."-Bishop Gibson. Sent by Rev. T. FARLEY.

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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. We have received the communications of J. J. B.; Rev. T. Farley; L. S. P.; E.; and M. D.

1 Tit. ii. 14.

2 Heb. ix. 14.

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THE Bible contains all that it has pleased God to reveal
to his Church in general, by supernatural' means. It
shows us his dealings with man from the earliest time,
until He revealed his Son Jesus Christ in the flesh; and
it contains the gospel, or the word of life, by which be-
lievers are to be saved. It is our greatest treasure,
because it leads the soul, which is our highest and best
part, to the noblest state here to which it can attain,
and to the greatest bliss that we can conceive or desire
in the world to come. Every understanding person will
therefore set upon it greater store than upon anything else
he possesses. But although it is so valuable a possession,
the mere possessing it will not do us any good whatever.
It is only when received into the mind and heart that
it becomes a treasure, or a means of benefiting us. It
is the "spirit" of the Word of God, and not the
"letter," as St. Paul says, that "giveth life." Now the

great object, therefore, is to become possessed of this, the spirit of God's holy word. How shall we obtain it? From whom and in what manner shall we seek it? Is it enough merely to learn to read, and to take it up now and then, choosing the most amusing parts of it, and passing over the rest, if it seems difficult for us to comprehend the meaning? This is indeed the custom of many, who think that they are then doing " all that is required of them." But we may do this very long indeed, and yet be, after all, ignorant of the way of salvation, and "having our understanding darkened.”

Indeed it is not absolutely necessary at all that Christians should read; I mean they can be saved very well without reading. For it was not so common once to read as it is now; and perhaps out of all the thousands who believed in the early days of the Gospel, a very small proportion could read a word of those hard manuscripts in which the Bible was then contained; for there was no printing in those days. And yet they knew the truth, and believed, and were saved by it. For the most part they were saved by the Word being preached to them, not read; they heard St. Paul and St. Peter and believed. But there are many now, and were many then, who heard the word preached, and yet were not benefited by all their hearing. How is this? It shows that something more besides preaching and hearing is necessary for our rightly receiving the truth of the Gospel. When once St. Paul was preaching it is said that "God opened the heart of Lydia that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul:" and thus she believed and was saved. God opened her heart, and she was able to understand, and then she gave attention to what was preached, and became a true believer. The same grace must be given to us all, that we may truly and properly attend to the Word of God. Without attention, we never shall have a real interest in its glad tidings or holy precepts. It is too hard to be. understood, unless the whole mind is given to it. And besides this, we want the Spirit of God; He can truly make it understood, and He alone. This Spirit has been promised to all who seek it. Let us all do as the trea

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surer of the Ethiopian queen did, read and hear with earnestness, and with desire to believe, and God will not leave us in ignorance or darkness. He never will refuse his enlightening grace to lead us into all necessary truth, if we are waiting upon Him for it. He never will send us empty away. At last He will surely visit us. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant." Such a promise as these last few words contain is enough for any one to trust to: He will show them his covenant.' God is not bound to give an immediate answer to all our prayers. But He will give a sure answer. And if we use the means He has given, we shall surely obtain the blessing. Let us not then lean on our own understanding, but on God's promise. Let us not trust to our knowledge of the letter of Scripture, but seek for the living "spirit." The one may "kill," but the other "giveth life." We must not be surprised at frequently finding ourselves lost in the mazes of divine revelation, and dark in our own understandings. God knew that we should be so; and He therefore sent us suitable promises to support us. "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God." Our being "in darkness" is the natural state of all men without divine grace, and it is this which makes us the fit persons to require the benefits of that word which "enlighteneth the eyes" and "giveth wisdom to the simple." We come to God for help because we are in darkness without Him; and every one ought to feel that we are all equally in need of his illumination. Prayer ought therefore to be our preparation both for hearing and reading the Bible. We should use David's excellent entreaty, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of thy law;" and we shall not fail to see them.

It is the "Spirit that searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God;" and it is the blessed Spirit's office to take of these things and to show them unto us. "He shall take of mine and shall show it unto you," said our Lord Jesus Christ, and He continued, "All things that

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the Father hath are mine; therefore said I unto you, He shall take of mine and shall show it unto you.' With all these promises the Word of God will not long be as a sealed book to any humble suppliant continuing at the throne of grace; although we see that it remains so to those whom the god of this world hath blinded.

Let us turn from this world to seek the true God in Christ Jesus, and Satan will have no more power to obscure the word or to render it unprofitable to our souls.

E.

"IN THE MIDST OF LIFE WE ARE IN DEATH." THIS solemn truth, uttered as it is from the word of the omnipotent God, is acknowledged by all who search into that precious treasury of Divine instruction, and it may frequently pass through the mind as a precept and a warning that ought to be had in remembrance, but which is too often lost sight of in the turmoil and bustle of daily life, until in an unexpected moment some appalling event in the course of God's providence occurs, arousing us from our thoughtless security, and bringing home to us with awful reality the startling truth, that surely" in the midst of life we are in death."

Such an event befel the husband of a respectable cottager a few days since, in the retired village of C-in South Devon, and in the hope that the affecting recital, as given by the pastor of that village, may be read with interest, and also with profit, by those who value the Cottager's Monthly Visitor, I transcribe an extract from a letter just received from him.

We have had in the village a most melancholy instance of the uncertainty of life. You remember the sickly, but clean and contented Mrs. D. Her husband, who drove a cart and two horses in the L- Establishment, was thrown out of his cart on Saturday, and killed on the spot. No one knows exactly how the accident happened, for he was not seen till Mr. P found the cart upset, as he was riding through the grounds; the poor man was quite dead, the horses not at all hurt: these horses were a new pair, which the gentleman, in whose

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