altering the face of nature. Day succeeds to day, and year to year; and on every object of creation, the characters of brevity and instability are engraved by the finger of God.

Reflections of this nature are, at all times, salutary, and can hardly fail to convey an important lesson of wisdom to every serious mind: But they come with greater force, at those stated periods, which mark distinctly the unceasing progress of time. On these points of our existence, we naturally rest awhile, like travellers at some stage of their journey, to recall the scenes we have already witnessed; to survey the place to which we have arrived; and to gain some information of the countries through which we have yet to pass. Such pauses as these are eminently calculated to banish that levity, which is the bane of true wisdom; and to promote that thoughtfulness and serious consideration, which are so highly favorable to growth in grace.

The present year has nearly performed its destined course, it is about to be "numbered with the years beyond the flood;" its glimmering light trembles in the socket, and will soon be extinguished forever. Such, my friends, is our fate. The termination of our time is, also, near at hand; and, at no distant period, we too, like the year which we contemplate, must resign our stations, and give place to a new generation. Let us, then, dedicate its last hours to a serious retrospect of the past, to a careful examination of our present state, and to unfeigned vows of amendment for the future. Thus shall the new year look back with pleasure on the old; and the new generation honor our memories, when our bodies sleep in the grave.

And who is there, that can, without strong and various emotions, review the events of but one year? Has the messenger of death entered your dwelling; has your loved partner been torn from your arms; some valued friend taken from your bosom; some dear child severed from your fond embrace? I do not wish you abruptly to check your tears. Jesus wept at the grave of the friend whom he loved. Time, with lenient hand, will close your wounds, and religion will consecrate your moderated sorrow. But listen to the admonitions of the great teacher, Death. You have leaned on the world, and the broken reed has pierced you to the heart. You have chased a shadow, and your hands have grasped the air. Turn, then, your thoughts to those mansions, where friends shall never die, where children will never leave you, and where those, whom God has joined, shall never more be put asunder.

But some of you have passed the year in health, and peace and comfort your friends and families smiling around you; your characters and fortunes rising in the world; and your prospects brightening on every side. And does not this enviable, unmerited exemption from the common lot, teach you a lesson of gratitude to that Being, who has thus anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows? Ah, thoughtless, unthankful man! Well might Isaiah say, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know; my people do not consider."

But, independently of all temporal concerns, who is there, that

can lay his hand on his heart, and say, that during the present year, he has committed no actions which his conscience reproves, and omitted no duty, which reason and religion required him to perform? Who has so bridled his tongue, as to let no expression of anger exasperate his enemy, or too severe a reproach agonize an offending friend? And, more than all, who has so kept his thoughts and heart as not to offend that Being, who cannot look, without displeasure, on impurity? Alas! my friends, here the best of us must plead guilty. Here are motives of contrition, of humility, and of amendment, for us all.

But, while we thus bring our thoughts to a serious review of the past, and examination of the present state of our hearts, how naturally and anxiously do they press forward to the unknown scenes of futurity! Imagination takes wing, and hope paints the days to come in all the gay colors of delight. But let us not trust to this smiling delusion. Here, let us once more recur to experience; and as age delivers his counsels to youth, let the old year teach a lesson of prudence and moderation to the new.

Life, my friends, let hope flatter as she may, will still be a checkered scene of good and evil. In vain you anticipate that unmixed portion of happiness, which Heaven has denied to the lot of man. You cannot have the rose without its thorn. Winter will continue to deform the beauties of the year, and flowers will not spring up, spontaneously, to decorate your path. Be sober then and modest in your expectations. Such as past times have been, such in general, as to the distribution of joys and sorrows, of hopes and disappointments, will the future be: And all that you have to wish and strive for is this, that affliction may be endured, in future, with more patience, and prosperity enjoyed with more thankfulness and greater moderation.

And tell me, my readers, of the scenes in which the present year has seen you engaged, of the actions which it has enabled you to perform, what scene does memory most delight to recall, what actions confer most honor upon your characters, and leave the best impression on your minds? Are they not those, in which you consulted the dictates of conscience, the purity of your own hearts, and the welfare of your fellow men? And, as only your past deeds of virtue now make you happy, be assured that virtue alone will constitute your happiness to the end of life. Secure, then, while it is in your power, a retrospect so delightful; and let your conduct be so regulated, throughout the approaching year, that when it, also, shall have come to its last hour, its memory may leave no sting behind.

With such reflections as these, let us bid adieu to all the hopes and fears, the cares and anxieties, the restless activity, and busy enterprise of the year, that is now hastening to its close: And with renewed strength, and holy resolution, let us enter on the year to come. And may God enable us so to fill it up with duty and usefulness, that should death meet us in its course, he may find us waiting; and should eternity unfold its great realities, we may find them to us forever glorious.

EXPOSITION.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." John i. 1-5.

The following exposition of these words is from the Rev. Dr. J. P. Smith's "Scripture Testimony to the Messiah," a work which we take the liberty to recommend as, on the whole, the most learned, candid and satisfactory discussion concerning the person of Christ, and concerning the connected topics generally, which we remember to have seen in the English language.

The Gospel of John is distinguished, by very observable characters, from the compositions of the other evangelists. It has much less of narrative, and is more largely occupied with the doctrines and discourses of the Lord Jesus. The topics also of the discourses possess a marked character, indicating that they have been selected with an especial view to the presenting of what, during his earthly ministry, Jesus himself had taught, concerning his own person, and the spiritual and never dying blessings which he confers upon those who believe on his name.

The Introduction which the apostle prefixes to his work has always been an object of peculiar attention, on the part both of friends and of enemies, for its beauty and sublimity, and for its evidently presenting a crowning epitome of the principal doctrines delivered in the whole. To arrive at a satisfactory interpretation of this important passage, I shall attempt a careful investigation of the terms which it employs, and of the force and intention of each phrase and proposition that has a relation to the subject of our inquiry.

I. "The Logos," or Word. That this term cannot with propriety be expressed by Wisdom, Reason, Speech, or any other abstract word; but that it must refer to a personal subsistance; is manifest from the attributives of intelligence and active power connected with it, in the sequel of the passage. This is, also, admitted by Mr. Cappe and Mr. Belsham.

The ready manner, without any notice or explanation, in which the evangelist introduces the term, is a strong ground of presumption that it was familiar to the persons for whom his work was primarily intended. They were, most probably, the Christians of Ephesus and the coasts and islands of Asiatic and European Greece.

II. "The beginning." The word used by the evangelist very often denotes principality in order or dignity: and when it is applied to time, we can ascertain from nothing but the connexion and sense of the passage, whether it refers to the beginning of the created universe, or to the commencement of any other period or series of things. It occurs in the New Testament with a considerable diversity of reference: as, to the outset of a man's life, to the first in a series of events, and to the beginning of a narrative. Frequently it denotes the commencement of the Gospel annunciation, whether by 83

VOL. I.

the ministry of Christ, or that of his apostles. It also frequently signifies the beginning of the works of God, in the formation and government of the dependant universe, or any principal part of that universe.

The question to be determined is, whether the term in this passage was intended to denote the beginning of time, or the beginning of the Gospel dispensation. This can be ascertained only from the sense and scope of the connexion, or from the comparison of other passages. With a view to this end, the following observations are submitted.

1. There seems to be a designed conformity of phraseology with the first sentence of the book of Genesis. The apostle writes, "In the beginning was the Word;" instead of the more natural order, "The Word was in the beginning."

2. In all the passages where the expression refers to the commencement of the Gospel dispensation, or of any other order of things, such signification is clearly marked by the circumstances of the connexion. But there is nothing here to suggest the inferior application. On the contrary, the fair and obvious construction, especially to the evangelist and his countrymen, whose minds were familiar with the Mosaic language just referred to, plainly leads to no other object than the beginning of all time and nature. Had it been the sacred writer's intention to lay his epoch in the opening of the Gospel dispensation, it is next to impossible to conceive that he would not have coupled his expression with some adjunct that should clearly define his meaning.

3. Upon the hypothesis referred to, the sense of the clause is singularly jejune and nugatory, not to say absurd. "The Messiah existed at the commencement of his own ministry." It cannot be supposed that the apostle, or any writer of sound judgement, would introduce such a trifling proposition with an air so solemn and emphatic.

These reasons appear to me satisfactorily to establish, that the designed signification of the expression is, at the commencement of the created universe. Thus it coincides with the well known sense of the Hebrew phrase; and indeed, so plain and obvious is the phrase to convey the sense of the first point of time, that we find it to have been in use with the purest classical authors. It is self-evident that what existed at the actual commencement of creation, must have existed before the creation; and whatever was before the creation, must have been from eternity.

III. "The Word was with God." The expression denotes an intimate union of presence, society, and enjoyment. It frequently occurs in relation to different kinds of social conjunction. From it alone, therefore, no certain conclusion can be drawn; but the connexion suggests that, to be in intimate society and union with the Deity" at the beginning," at the time when the created universe had its commencement, cannot reasonably be understood of any created nature. It may, then, be most justly considered as coinciding with the meaning of our Lord, in his declarations, "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.-The glory which I had, with Thee

before the world was." The fair interpretation, therefore, of being with God, in the time and circumstances pointed out by the connexion, is that the Word existed in the eternal period before all creation, naturally and essentially ONE BEING with the Deity, yet possessing some species of relative, distinction.

IV. "The Word was God." The order of the clauses, and the Hebrew manner of concatenating propositions, suggest a connexion of this with the preceding; thus, "The Word was with God, in such a manner that, in fact, the Word was God."

Samuel Crellius, feeling as it would seem the pressure of this text to be intolerable, upon the Unitarian hypothesis, boldly resolved to cut down the difficulty. In the face of all the proper evidence of the case, he proposed to alter OEO to OEOT, so that the meaning should be, The Word belonged to God. For this licentious conjecture he was so rebuked, that no one is likely hereafter to take up the cause. Yet Mr. Belsham looks wistfully after it, and lauds it as "ingenious and not improbable ;" while he is obliged to confess that it is "unauthorized" and "inadmissible."

Mr. Cappe, apparently not aware that he was violating a rule of Greek construction, translates the clause, "God was the Word;" and paraphrases it thus: Jesus Christ "was so fully instructed and qualified and authorized for the errand upon which God sent him, that it was not so properly he that spake to men, as God that spake to them by him."

The translation being vicious, the paraphrase, upon the writer's own principles, is rendered untenable. But it may, also, be remarked that, admitting the translation, the sense of this paraphrase could never be drawn out of the words, by any process of honest grammatical interpretation. A fair paraphrase is an expansion and explication of a meaning, which is first shewn to be in the sentence paraphrased but here a meaning is arbitrarily put upon the words, a meaning not deduced from any construction of the words themselves, but drawn from the writer's previous hypothesis.

Mr. Belsham prefers the rendering, The Word was a god ;" taking the predicate in the inferior and accommodated signification. On this interpretation, I submit two or three remarks:

1. On a comparison of the instances of an inferior application of the word God, as given to magistrates and divine messengers, with the one before us, every one must perceive a palpable difference. In all of them, either by a strong antithesis in the connexion, or by some other equally marked circumstance, the figurative application is so very manifest, that the most careless or perverse reader cannot fail to be impressed with it. It should also be remarked, that the instances are extremely few. Their rarity, as well as their marked limitation, puts the expression far out of the range of the habitual phraseology of the Jews.

2. This use of the word is evidently declined by the writers of the New Testament. The few places in which an apparent instance occurs, have either a reference to the passages in the Old Testament, or they allude to heathen opinions.

3. It appears incredible that the apostle John should place, in the