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relentless career;-it may perhaps again return with still greater malignity and still more deadly violence; and will we slumber on till it comes upon us in all the carelessness of fancied security? No, let this not be our conduct; let us be constant in our unwearied applications to the throne of grace, for grace to help us in every time of need, to strengthen our hands in the work of the Lord, that we may be enabled to adorn in all things the Gospel of God our Saviour; and so, that should we be smitten with its destructive poison, we might be enabled to exclaim, in the firm assurance of faith, even iu the midst of all our torture and our anguish-" Lord Jesus receive my spirit."

But this has not been the only evil which has brooded over our country during the year-misery, arising from want and destitution, has retained its dominion over many of the mem bers of our community; and though our fields have waved in all the gladness of plenty, still are there many who have participated not in its blessings, and have tasted not of its abundance. We look not for the primary cause of this evil alone in the state of trade, or as produced by certain legislative enactments injurious to the interests of commerce; but we regard the demoralization of our population as the efficient agent of the production of that misery which so extensively prevails throughout the community. Wherever there is a demoralized or depraved population, there will also be in that place, sooner or later, a suffering people; and on the contrary, wherever we find a religious and a virtuous population, we will universally find an industrious and a happy people. This is no idle, unsupported theory-it is a fact which has been confirmed by the history of every successive generation of our species. It is sin that brings misery upon man, and it is the prevalence of immorality which establishes the influence of suffering over a famished and destitute population. Legislative enactments may for a short time meliorate, but they cannot eradicate the evil-it will return again with redoubled violence, when the temporary relief which they afforded has passed away; and unless the people of these realms be turned from the evil of their doings, unless the hallowed influence of religion exercise a righteous dominion over their hearts, the efforts of the legislator will be powerless and vain. The reform which will alone substantially benefit the country must be a moral reform; men must become Christians, not in name only, but in spirit and in truth; the truths of the Bible must influence their hearts, before prosperity or happi

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ness can shed their bland influence over our country, or the present evils be meliorated or removed. What, it may be asked, are those crimes of which we complain? We require not any ingenuity to help us to an answer. Do we not see district and corner of our land the Sabbaths of the Lord profaned? is not his holy name blasphemed by many in every grade of society? are not his laws trampled underfoot? and are not licentiousness and intemperance stalking with unblushing effrontery through our streets? Is not blood bedewing our land, and, as it sinks into the earth, calling upon heaven for vengeance? We need not farther enumerate-a load of guilt is on our land; and unless timely repentance avert the doom, the desolating scourge of heaven's displeasure shall spread ruin and woe throughout it. It becomes us, then, to humble ourselves before our God, to confess our guilt and reverence his laws, and to implore of him who suffered for our sins to send forth his Spirit in its converting power, that the wicked may forsake his way and live. The Lord can turn the hearts of the children of men as he turneth the rivers of waters; and it should be our earnest prayer, that he would turn our hearts and the hearts of our countrymen from the desire of sin to the love of holiness and the belief of the truth.

With the varied associations, however, which present themselves to us at the close of another periodical revolution of our world, there are feelings connected, perhaps in the great majority of minds, more of an individual than of a general or national character. As we cannot stand still in the moral world, but must be either progressing or retrograding, so also is it with respect to the circumstances or feelings that have occurred to us during the year that is now fast passing away to join the vast period of duration which has already elapsed. None have come to the close of this year in precisely the same circumstances, and actuated by precisely the same feelings, as he did when he stopped to reflect upon the termination of that which has immediately preceded it. Something has occurred to gladden his soul with joy, or to cast the sombre shade of gloom and of melancholy around it. Prosperity may perhaps have brightened the path of some; they may have basked in its sunshine and rejoiced in its smiles; they may have had their path strewed with flowers, and no voice of sorrow nor no pang of woe may have cast a cloud over their brow. Their onward course may have been like the placid stream, waveless and unruffled as it winds its way through vales smiling with plenty, or vallies blooming in love

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liness: this may have been the lot of some, but their numbers must be small, for the few days of man are full of trouble, Such persons, however, as have felt no deeply impressed cause of sorrow, should not expect that their years will still flow on in a like current of calm placidity; cares, and troubles, and anguish are before them; and now when their spirits have rest from the annoyances of the world, they should be endeavouring to learn those precepts and to imbibe those heavenly principles which will unbarb the dart of sorrow when it comes; they should be thankful to their God; and whilst he is merciful to their weakness, not permit their hearts to be elevated by pride, or smitten by the love of a world in which they are at best but "strangers and sojourners. If sickness has not entered their dwellings, nor misery taken up its habitation in their houses, they should not suppose that this has arisen from any merit of their own which demanded such a reward from their heavenly Father; but they should seriously reflect upon their spiritual state, lest they should not be amongst the number of those whom the Lord loveth and therefore chasteneth. How fervent should they be in their supplications to the throne of redeeming love for the blessing of God to be upon them, lest their hearts should be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, or lest they should forget, amidst the enjoyments of time, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and the nobler joys and glories of eternity.

But it cannot be supposed that the providence of God has been thus externally propitious to all-what sorrows, what bereavements may have been the lot of some-death has invaded the habitations of many, and numbers have been gathered to their fathers, and have slept with their fathers. The tenderest ties of affection, the fondest ligaments of love, have been torn asunder, and our tears have been shed at the grave of those, whose names shall ever remain deeply engraven on our hearis. The truth of the declaration of the word of God has been abundantly established by melancholy fact-" Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble; he cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." But there is consolation brought to the soul of the afflicted mourner when he sheds the tear of sorrow over the departed believer-he has hope, he has comfort in the midst of his anguish ; for, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." The stream of time, however, is flowing on, and

we cannot check its rapid progress;-we may sport us on its surface, but it will not delay with us for the enjoyment of our follies; we know not whether we shall, even in this world, see the close of another year; but if we even should, the time will come when others, in the retrospect of the past, will have to weep over our departure, and remember us as the inhabitants of the tomb. Other eyes shall gaze upon the loveliness of summer, or upon the stern features of winter, when we observe not the smile of the one or the frown of the other. Other tongues shall speak the words which we now utter, when we have closed our earthly career for ever; and other feet shall tread our dwellings, when we are sleeping in the silent loneliness of the grave. How solemn, then, should be our feelings, as we meditate upon the change which awaits us; with what unremitting earnestness should we seek after the kingdom of God, so that" when the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we may have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." The year is at its close, ask yourselves what you have done for the glory of God, what for the cause of Christ, what for the salvation of your own souls during its passage over you? Answer to God as you will be called upon to do at the last day.

X.

THE TIMES-LIBERALISM.

AGES as well as men have their besetting sins, and these it is our duty to mark and expose. During a long season, superstition, like a dark cloud, weighed heavily on the church, benumbing all her energies, and almost quenching the feeble spark of spiritual life. In the last age infidelity reared its hideous form on the earth, speaking great swelling words of vanity, and threatening to sweep away every thing sacred in a flood of blasphemy and wrath. But in our own time a more subtle and deadly enemy is preying upon the vitals of the church. We mean that insidious liberalism, which under a Christian exterior, is doing the work of infidelity as well as its most eager partizans can desire. By this term we understand not any well-defined system of principles, clearly laid down and professionally taught, but generally those lax, pernicious maxims that spring from inadequate views of the importance of truth, and of the nature and importance of faith, and that meet us under every variety of form in the commerce of life. This vagueness will render it more

difficult to grapple with the evil, and may seem to impart some degree of uncertainty and indecision to our statements; but we hope to make them sufficiently intelligible to all who will compare them with the religious aspect of our times.

The first principle of liberalism is, to depreciate the value of the truth. By the truth we understand the great distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel as the manifestation of the divine nature in the mysterious relations of Father, Son, and Spirit-the guilt, corruption, and ruined condition of fallen man-the abundant mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ-the atoning sacrifice and justifying righteousness of the Son-the renewing work of the Spirit-the headship of Christ-the glorification of his body, the church, and all the doctrines vitally connected with these. These are the doctrines which are essentially and pre-eminently the truth-doctrines that stand out in bold relief on the imperishable pillar of God's word-doctrines revealed with such clearness and fulness of evidence, that “he who runs may read." Be it remembered, then, that we assume these doctrines as the truth. This we are entitled to do; for our present controversy lies not with those who deny the truth, but with those who degrade it. It is not for the purity, but the importance of the truth that we are now to contend. Our modern liberal may hold any system of doctrine, "provided always," that he attaches no serious importance to it. He is more of the scoffer than the heretic; he despises rather than disputes the truth. It is true he is generally found to profess some anti-evangelical system as being favourable to his practical infidelity; but have we not often seen the most determined liberal garbed in an Orthodox profession?

Assuming, then, the above view of the truth, we repeat, that the first principle of liberalism is to depreciate this pearl of great price. It is a curious trait of the liberal school, that Gospel truth alone should be treated with contempt. Moral, natural, political truth, all are allowed to be important—all should engage our eager inquiry, and excite our liveliest interest; but Gospel truth must be regarded with perfect indifference, and any zeal in this cause betrays, forsooth, a narrow mind and overheated temper. A principle so convenient, relieving men at once from all serious, prayerful inquiry-so extensive in its use, applying to the whole range of Gospel truth-so indulgent to error, releasing the conscience from that solemn responsibility felt cleaving to its decisions;-in a word, a principle subversive of all that is important in Chris

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