her consciousness almost to the last, and frequently expressed by her looks that her prospects were cheering and peaceful *. Thus our sister, while it was permitted her to live," lived unto the Lord;" "she adorned the doctrine of God her Saviour," and then fell asleep in Jesus. But I mean not to assert that she was a perfect character. She was truly sensible of her sinfulness, and deeply deplored it; but owing to the union of a simple faith, with an unfeigned humility, her sins abased her in her own sight without destroying her peace of mind. It is true she was a sinner; but then she was a pardoned sinner. She had found refuge in Him whose blood cleanseth from all sin. She thought very meanly of her own attainments, and had none of that forwardnesswhich distinguishes many religious professors. A casual observer, therefore, would not perhaps discover the depth of her religion; but "the Lord knoweth them that are his :" she was most surely known and acknowledged of him, and he blessed her in her should be made instrumental of essential benefit to those before me. The event which first led her own mind to serious reflection on religion, was the death of a near relative. Happy would it be for me and for you, my dear young friends, if the present dispensation were productive of a similar blessing to you. This is the only object I have in view in addressing you on the subject. Every fact in connection with our beloved sister has been brought forward to enforce the exhortation in the text. Suffer me, then, seriously to remind you of your state and of your prospects, and affectionately to beseech you no longer to defer an attention to the " one thing needful." Remember, you are immortal beings; you have souls destined to live for ever in perfect happiness or in indescribable misery. Which of these two conditions will be yours, depends on the manner in which you employ the time present. Are you living to the world? Are your hearts set on the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life? Or are you really living for another world, setting your affection on things above, and aspiring after a crown of glory that fadeth not away? Let the silent monitor within you answer the question. To many, I am well aware, the question ought to give rise to sad and painful reflexions. Let me entreat you, however, not to stifle them on that account; for, under the blessing of God, the pain they now give you may be the commencement of endless happiness. You that are young are under peculiar temptation to put off the work of religion; you are looking forward to a long life; and though you hope not to die in your present state, you think there is still time enough yet to alter it. The death of the young, the blooming, and the healthy, might surely be a sufficient guard against such temptations. Is it possible you can be truly convinced of the value of the soul, and yet place its salvation on the extreme hazard of this frail, uncertain life? The season now lost 'will never return. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. This may not be said tomorrow; then it may be too late. Think on the untimely summons of our friend. Had she, like you, delayed the work, where had she been now? Talk not then of a more convenient season, for no such season will ever arrive. The text is designed expressly to warn you against this delusion. "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth; while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." The evil days, the days of sickness or old age, will be no time for such a work-when the body is weak, HAPPINESS. How vain our dreams of Happiness below! Look once again, and what a change ensues! O why then vainly try? Know that in heav'n Its kindred sister dwells, e'en Holiness. The same their source, the same the joys they give. Where one is found, the other must exist. Strive after Holiness; and rest assur'd, The more thy purity increase, thy joys . II. REVIEW OF BOOKS. The Evidence of Christianity, derived from its Nature and Reception. By J. B. Sumner, M.A. Prebendary of Durham, &c.Pp. xvi. and 430. Hatchard. The Difficulties of Infidelity. By George Stanley Faber, B. D.Pp. xix. and 272. Rivington. IGNORANCE and vice are the real foundations of infidelity. No man ever yet rejected and condemned the Scriptures whose cha racter and conduct were not previously condemned by their contents. Nor are these positions invalidated by the circumstance of the literary attainments and characters of some infidels being highly and deservedly praised. These very individuals will be found, on careful examination, to have been exceedingly ignorant of the real nature of Christianity; to have judged of it by the corrupt examples and sentiments of men possessing the name without the power of religion, and to have been themselves indulging in dispositions and practices condemned by the Word of Truth. These sentiments have been reimpressed upon our minds by the perusal of the volumes before us; which, setting out on very different grounds, arrive at the same conclusion, and exhibit most convincing proofs of the divine original of Christianity, and the utter fallacy of all those arguments by which its authority is assailed. Mr. Sumner states his object thus: The idea, which the following pages are designed to illustrate, is briefly this: that a religion like the Christian could never have existed, unless it had been introduced by divine authority. It could not have been invented: it would not have been received. This line of argument has at least one advantage; at the same time that it proves, if well founded, that the religion is true, it shows also what the religion is.-P. iii. He then proceeds, in a succession of chapters, to treat of The Origin of the Christian Religion. Opposition of Christianity to the Opinions prevailing among the Jews.-Originality of the Christian Doctrines. - Connexion of Christianity with the Jewish History and Scriptures. Christian Phraseology of Scriptures.-Agreement of Christian Scriptures with subsequent Experience.-Wis dom manifested in the Christian Scriptures. -Originality of the Christian Character.-Reasonableness of Christian Doctrines. First Promulgation of Christianity.-First Reception of Christianity; and Effects of Christianity.—P. xi—xv. The following specimen of the author's reasoning is taken from the first chapter. Having settled this preliminary question, we come to another of more importance, respecting the Author of this religion. Did such a person as Jesus exist, or no?. On the supposition, however, that no such person ever really existed, but was merely an allegorical or imaginary personage, or the hero of a romantic tale, we must believe what follows; we must believe, that a set of persons undertook to persuade their countrymen that a man had grown up and lived among themselves, and had rendered himself conspicuous by his works and doctrines, and had at last been put to death at the most solemn and frequented festival of their own nation;-when no such person had ever been executed, or even seen, or heard of. And more, that they did persuade their countrymen to believe all this. For the first Christians were converts from the city in which the principal scene was laid, and became so at the very time when these transactions are said to have happened.-Pp. 13-14. After noticing in detail the various respects in which Christianity is opposed to Jewish opinions, Mr. S. proceeds: Here, then, were Jews, undertaking to invent a religion; and having the field open before them, they were bound to nothing but the general records, traditions, and opinions of their age and nation. Yet these are the very points which they op great uneasiness and impatience. Yet they persisted in asserting, that the Messiah's kingdom was not of this world. It was a favourite belief among the Jews, confirmed by the whole course of their history, that their nation enjoyed the exclusive regard and protection of the true God. But the first principle of the Christian religion tended to dislodge the Jews from these high pretensions, and to admit all other nations indiscriminately within the pale of God's church. The city of Jerusalem was universally believed to be secure under the especial care of God, as being the seat of the only true religion; and its temple consecrated to his peculiar service, by divine institution, and ancient usage. Yet these men declared, that total destruction was quickly approaching both the temple and the city. Now we find an equal difficulty meeting us, whether we consider the improbability of men bred up in these prejudices, he coming, by some unknown process of reasoning, superior to them all: or whether we consider the impolicy of fabricating a religion which ran counter to these well known prepossessions in the minds of those to whom it was proposed. Yet they did that, which, to every common apprehension, must appear most impolitic; and they succeeded in that which, according to every known principle, must appear equally improbable. Pp. 54-57. The originality of the Christian doctrines is ably argued from the basis of the Christian religion-the alienation of mankind from Godthe redemption by Jesus Christ, and the peculiar obstacles from the crucifixion of Jesus, and is thus summed up: All this has very little the appearance of fabrication, No one has ever shown what could induce men to impose a religion on the world, when, by doing so, they risked every thing and could gain nothing. If they were led by interest, where was their profit? If they were hurried along by enthusiasm, whence came their sobriety? why was there so much method in their madness? But if this argument is set aside; if it is thought that the anomalies of human nature make it impossible always to determine, from any ordinary rules of conduct, what enterprise men may or may not take in hand: then I look to another test, to the religion itself, instead of the persons who introduced it. And I argue, that the main doctrines of Christianity— the condemnation of mankind as corrupt in the sight of God, and the atonement made upon the cross by Jesus as a Mediator between the offenders and their Judge,―are doctrines which we cannot, on any rational or probable grounds, attribute to imposture. Taking them as maintained by the Apostles, with all their attending circumstances of the resurrection of the dead, the future judgment, the final punishment of the wicked, and the eternal happiness of the redeemed, we cannot trace their origin to any known or accessible source in the belief of those times and countries. Neither can we account for their reception. There was nothing in the doctrines themselves to allure or conciliate; and the minds, both of Jews and Gentiles, were utterly unprepared to embrace a religion which had nothing in common with their former opinions, and directly opposed some of their strongest prejudices.-Pp. 101, 102. Christianity with the Jewish history, We pass over the connexion of phraseology, &c. which are ably stated, in order to insert some extracts from the agreement of the Christian Scriptures with experi ence. It is clearly intimated in these passages, that the persecution of Christians should be for righteousness' sake: that the peculiar piety and strictness of life demanded of them by their faith in Jesus, and practised for his sake, should be generally disliked, and cast in their teeth as a reproach. And it is a certain fact, that this species of persecution has existed under the dispensation of the Gospel. Yet I do not see that it was to be previously expected. That the name of Jesus should be odious to those who found their prejudices assaulted, or their interests endangered, was sufficiently natural. But that the particular objection made to his disciples should be taken from their adherence to the strictest rules of temperance, moderation, and piety: in short, should be for righteousness' sake; arose from a trait of human nature which had not been before exhibited, and could only be foreseen by him who "knew what was in man."-Pp. 153, 154. It was a new case: it was an improbable case: not that those whose situation might oblige them to reprove or restrain the vices of others, should become objects of hatred; this might have been anticipated; but that silent piety, conscientious temperance, unresisting patience should be treated as contemptible, and opposed as pernicious. Yet this case was clearly foreseen and provided for by the authors of the Gospel. It was foreseen, not as arising from the mischief of such deportment, which cannot be pretended; but from the nature of the human heart.-P. 157. And even in happier and more enlight ened times, no persons are treated with so The wisdom of the Christian Scriptures is strikingly contrasted with the Mohammedan statements concerning a future world, human liberty, and divine prescience, prayer, fasting, alms, &c.; while the originality of the Christian character is argued from the humility, peculiar benevolence, meekness, patience, &c. prescribed in the Word of God. If the condition of the world were not such as the incarnation of Christ supposes: if there is not that holiness in God, and that unworthiness in man, which sets one at a distance from the other; then there is no propriety in a confession of unprofitableness which sues for pardon, but dares not claim reward; which looks for ward to eternal life, not as a recompense which is to be earned and deserved, but as a boon which is to be bestowed through the merits of the Redeemer. Take away the judicial purpose of the cross, take away its expiatory effect, and there remains no basis for humility like the Christian. And therefore it is a natural consequence, that those who do not receive the doctrine of atonement, do not pretend to any such humility as the Gospel prescribes, and the Apostles profess. If, on the other hand, human sinfulness is so heinous in the sight of the Moral Governor of the world, that it required a sacrifice like that of Christ, and if every individual is indebted to that sacrifice for reconciliation with God, or still remains unreconciled to him: the humiliation in the Gospel becomes natural, nay, necessary. But unless there had been, on the part of the promulgators of religion, an intimate conviction that Jesus did indeed die for our sins, and rise again for our justification,” it would nei ther have occurred to them to conceive such a humbling disposition of self-abasement, nor to require it of all who should embrace the religion.-Pp. 228-230. Now the natural impression of the human mind seems to be,-I can do all things. Nothing is wanting but my own purpose and resolution. And although a contrary doctrine is implied in many parts of the Jewish Scriptures, the dialogues occurring in the Gospel history do not lead us to suppose that any doubt of personal power, or desire of spiritual assistance, was intimately felt. But a very different language is held where the Christian is describing his state of mind. "I can do all things, through Christ who strengtheneth me." What he depends on is, a realization of the promise, "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made "He of God is perfect in weakness.” made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Language like this, not introduced in elaborate argument, but incidentally conveying the feelings of the heart, can only be ascribed to personal conviction.-Pp. 231, 232. Interest so vivid as this, in a case which had no concern with anything belonging to the present world, was altogether new. To go about the world, teaching religion, teaching it to all ranks, to the poor as earnestly as to the rich, had never entered into the thoughts of Jew or Gentile. Whatever instruction had been given by heathen philosophers, was given to those who were able to remunerate their teach ers. To communicate the mysteries of religion to the vulgar and illiterate, to women and children, would have been reckoned most preposterous. All conspired, on principle, to keep them in ignorance; and to make the characteristic of Christianity more remarkable, that "to the poor the Gospel was preached." Pp. 237, 238. When, at the present day, I see a person contented to abandon his private comforts and enjoyments, and occupy his life in making the Scriptures known, in teaching the ignorant, and reclaiming the vicious; when he appears to find a sufficient recompense for this labour, if even a very small flock are brought over to Christian faith and practice, I am sure that he must himself believe the condition of these persons to be dangerous, and that they actually need his interposition. If I were to observe further, that he submitted with patience to insult and injury, and was only stimulated by resistance and opposition to more unceasing efforts for the conversion of his adversaries, I should feel assured that he must be actuated by some powerful and uncommon principle, which thus enable him to over |