THE peace which is experienced in believing is relief from the terrors of wrath; it is not merely the removal, but the reversal of its anticipations; it is our altered view of God, when from an enemy we are taught to regard Him as a friend; it is our assurance of His good will to us here, and a confident expectation of the promised bliss hereafter these all spring in a disciple's spirit from the faith of the Gospel, and these are the main elements of his peace and joy in believing. Should a powerful and offended neighbour, under the threats of whose resentment I had been living for months in fearful insecurity, should he send to my door an offer of reconciliation, it is not difficult to understand how, at the moment of my reliance the truth and honesty of this offer, upon I would be at rest. Nor would it at all disturb the peacefulness of my heart, that I were given to know that the proposed friendship was only yet mine in offer, and not mine in possession, till I had performed certain conditions which I knew to be easily practicable. It would not, for example, abate the joy of the announcement, that I was told of an intended call on the part of my relenting adversary, and that I must give him a courteous reception, and stretch out my hand as the token of my having accepted his overture; and that then what was now mine in offer would become mine in possession also. If I consented to all this, and felt not merely the possibility, but the perfect ease of it, I would not postpone my gladness till the hour of the expected visit. On my faith in the reality and integrity of the offer, I would consider my before formidable enemy to be now my placid and my attached friend. An instantaneous peace would arise in my bosom, nor would I wait the coming formalities of reconciliation ere I threw aside the burden of my disquietude. No. I. JAN. 5, 1839.-1d.] Now in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God addresses to me just such an offer; and I have only to believe in the truth of it, that I may cease from my apprehensions of God as an enemy, and God as an avenger. It is true that there is a difference between a thing being mine in offer, and a thing being mine in possession; and the difference still obtains, though that thing be forgiveness from God. But there is nothing in this difference which ought to serve as an alloy, or as an abatement, upon peace in believing. We have not, in the case of the Gospel overtures, to look forward to any condition of future difficulty, ere the forgiveness that is now ours in offer becomes ours in possession. It is offered to us now, and it is competent for us actually to receive it now The truth is, that it becomes ours simply upon our believing the truth of that message by which the offer is made known to us. No sooner do we believe than we possess; and let us cease, then, to wonder at the many recorded examples of the instantaneous peace which has dropped into the sinner's bosom from the word of the testimony. And grievous, indeed, is their misunderstanding of the Gospel, who think that peace must be postponed till we know that holiness is in progress within us, and that repentance is going onwards even unto perfection. It is true, that without holiness no man can see God; and it is as true, that unless we repent we shall perish. But just as the man who had the offer of reconciliation laid by an offended neighbour at his door, ought not to postpone his joy till the hour of certain easy and practicable formalities; so neither ought we to postpone it till the time when we know that repentance and holiness have been realized upon our characters. And that, not because these graces are easily attainable by us, but because these graces [SECOND SERIES. VOL I. are actually included as so many offers in the communication of the Gospel; because God holds them out for our acceptance, just as effectually as he holds out pardon for our acceptance; because He, in whom all sufficiency dwells, promises to make his grace sufficient for every one of our necessities; because He, who has given us his own Son, pledges himself to all who receive the gift, that he will also with him freely give them all things. The man who only hears the offer of pardon upon repentance, and looks to that repentance as a contingency which depends upon himself, may well hear such an announcement without being gladdened and tranquillised by it. But let a man hear the offer in the whole comprehensiveness of its terms; let him perceive that repentance, as well as the remission of sins, is included in it; let him understand, that God holds out to him in the Gospel a sanctifying Spirit as well as an atoning Sacrifice, and then let holiness be represented to be as indispensable to heaven as it may, no sense of impotency whatever will intercept the peace which ought to flow in upon his heart from such a communication. From the moment that he closes with these overtures, he may have peace; and the point at which belief enters into his mind, the point at which he recognizes in the Gospel the view of Him who, when he commanded, made the winds and the waters to obey, marks the point at which the dark and fearful agitations of a sinner's bosom should cease into a calm. And there is not a single reader of the Bible who might not thus appropriate to himself the offer of forgiveness, and have peace in believing it. Such terms as all, and every, and whosoever, bring this offer just as effectually to his door, as if a special messenger had been sent to him from heaven, or as if he was the only person upon earth for whom the Bible was intended. That he may have the peace to which we refer, all that is necessary is to understand the message in the terms of it, and to believe in the trueness of it. If the word of salvation has reached him, the offer of salvation has been made unto him. In that word God holds himself out to every man as beseeching him to be reconciled; and proposes to all who will, the gift of that pardon and that preparation which are necessary for restoring them to an inheritance in the heavens. Let me endeavour to urge a few distinct considerations, all grounded on the word of the testimony, and all fitted to confirm and to strengthen the peace of a believer, by being fitted to assure him of the reality of God's good will. First, then, Christ undertakes to save all who believe in him, and His honour is at one with the success of His undertaking. As the economy of our redemption is constituted, had none believed, there would have been no trophy to exhibit of His redeeming power; Christ would have died in vain, or the whole fruits of His death would have been to aggravate the guilt of the world in rejecting Him, and so to demonstrate more strikingly than ever the justice of God in its final condemnation. Had none believed, there would have been no actual salvation, no living triumphs of grace, no extension of the kingdom of righteousness, no inroad and no abridgement on the territory of him who is at the head of that great moral rebellion into which he has seduced our unfortunate species. The prince of the power of darkness would still hold an entire ascendancy over the world,-would still boast an unviolated limit around his dominions,—would sit securely on his throne, and eye the enterprise and preparation of the Messiah as an impotent parade, and all this for the want of believing. It is said of Christ that He came to destroy the works of the devil, and yet, if there be no believers among men, he fails in his errand; and does not this prove, that the certainty of salvation unto all who do believe is in most inviting unison with the glory of Him who is the Captain of salvation? There is a consideration here that is fitted to draw sinners in trust and in expectation around Him. It fully warrants them to venture their all upon Christ. It leads them to see that their security is in every way at one with His reputation. Every man who comes in the way of dependence to the Saviour is just adding to the prosperity of that cause on which his heart is set, and rendering to Him of the travail of His soul that He may be satisfied. And every man who has come may, by the thought which has been suggested, deepen and establish the foundations of his peace. Christ will never frustrate His own undertaking by casting off one who hangs upon His power, or looks with an expectant eye to the fulfilment of His promises. He will never so thwart the express and the special purpose of His own great achievement, as to withhold everlasting life from him who has been led by the terms of his own message, to regard it as the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He will never, in the face of His own declaration, that whosoever believeth shall not perish, leave any believer to perish; or give room to the great adversary to say, in a single instance, that here is one whom you have inveigled into confidence, but whom I still claim as my prisoner, and will torment as my victim through eternity. The believer may gather an argument for security from such a contemplation. He may add to his peace and to his joy when he looks to this part of the testimony of God. He may view himself as the subject and the prize of a great competition between the Prince of light and the Prince of darkness. And as he places himself under the covert of the great and the appointed mediatorship, he may regard the honour of Christ and the glories both of his character and of his power as the guarantee of his own safety. THE ALTAR OF THE UNKNOWN GOD. BY THE REV. ROBERT JAMIESON, Minister of Currie. EVERY one acquainted with the history of the ancient Athenians, is aware that that people were pre-eminent, not only for their attainments in philosophy, and their was a custom," says Dr Ellis, in his learned work on the Knowledge of Divine Things from Revelation-not from Reason or Nature," among the ancients to engrave on the altar the name of the god to whom it was dedicated; which, at Athens in particular, was necessary to distinguish them amidst a conflux of the most remote and strange ones from all parts of the world. Amid this variety, there was one, probably many, "to the unknown God." Critias, in Lucian's Dialogues, swears by "the God unknown to the Athenians;" and according to Ecumenius, the whole inscription was thus: "TO THE GODS OF ASIA, EUROPE, AND AFRICA; TO THE UNKNOWN AND STRANGE GOD." The crowding him among all the demons in the world proves them to have been ignorant of his nature; and the placing him among the strange gods shows that they had received him from others, and were not the authors of the discovery. exquisite taste in the liberal arts, but for their ever active | owing to some strong and unusual circumstances. "It zeal in what they accounted religion. Not content with the deities which the native superstition had established, they opened their ports with boundless hospitality to the gods and goddesses of foreign countries; and, although by the law and practice of the land, no new object of worship was to be admitted, till it had received the sanction of the Areopagus, yet such was the liberality of that celebrated court, that no sooner were the claims of a foreign deity set forth, or his name ascertained, than they licensed his introduction into the Pantheon, a niche was assigned him in the spacious temple, a statue erected to his honour, priests were appointed to celebrate his peculiar rites, and the people taught to acknowledge the influence, to propitiate the favour, and to do homage at the feet of the newly imported stranger, as well as of the earlier and well known images that commanded their hereditary reverence. By this system of free and indiscriminate admission, the number of deities who had a local habitation and a name in Athens increased, in process of time, to so prodigious an extent, that it became one of the distinguishing features of the city; and the fondness of the inhabitants for demon-worship was frequently made a subject for the sarcastic wit and satire of the poets and orators of classical antiquity. One writer, for instance, says, that Athens was so crammed with deities, that it was easier to find a god than a man in it. Another complains, that the city was but "one immense altar;" and the name by which it came afterwards to be proverbially known was, "the country and shop of the gods." It was on this account that Paul's spirit was stirred within him, when he saw the city "wholly given to idolatry," or, as it is in the margin,-full of idols; and it was in conformity with the usual practice that he was summoned to the Areopagus, not to be dealt with as an impious innovator on the religion of the country, for that court had greatly changed its character since the time of Socrates, but, in all probability, to be introduced as a man of public spirit, who wished to make known the claims of some 66 strange" or foreign gods, to be enrolled among the other objects of national worship. Several reasons are assigned for the erection of such altars, but the most probable is their superstitious fear of omitting any God, which, amidst the uncertainty of so many religions, might easily have been done, or it might proceed from their not knowing to what god to ascribe some remarkable benefit or deliverance, and therefore, in gratitude, erected an altar to the unknown one. Diogenes Laertius gives this account of their origin: That Epimenides stayed a plague among the Athenians by a strange expedient. He took a black and a white sheep to the Areopagus, whence he let them go whichever way they would, commanding those that followed them that wheresoever they lay down, they should sacrifice to some fit and proper God. The calamity ceased; and to this very day, says the historian, there are altars to be found without name, which were then made in memory of this expiation. The Ro Nor was this custom peculiar to Athens. mans also erected altars for the reception of any sudden benefit; as that to Adoption mentioned by Tacitus, and another to Revenge. In like manner, when they felt an earthquake, they betook themselves, by public comThe apostle obeyed the summons, and no part of his mand, to religious observances; but did not, as on history, perhaps, affords a more striking example of the other occasions, name the god to whom they dedicated happy manner in which he turned to account the cir- such solemnities, lest, by mistaking one for another, cumstances of time and place, than the subject of his they might oblige the people to a false worship; and as discourse on that memorable occasion. In passing it was uncertain by what power or god earthquakes through some of the ante-chambers that led to the spa-happened, they offered sacrifice to an uncertain deity cious rotunda where the council met, his eye was caught in the ancient form, si deo, sive deæ, “if thou be a god by "an altar with this inscription,-To the unknown God;" and as his examination by the court was to be particularly directed to the doctrines he taught concerning Jesus and the resurrection, which their grossly idolatrous minds conceived to be a god and a goddess, he chose that familiar inscription as a text from which to discourse to them on the being and the character of the true and living God. It was a dexterous accommodation to a Christian purpose, of one of the favourite customs of that heathen people, for we are not to suppose that, by the deity described as the "unknown God," the Athenians meant the pure and spiritual Being whom the apostle proclaimed; and it may gratify the reader to learn something of the origin of a statue, whose mystical title indicated its introduction to have been : or a goddess." They had many altars dedicated to "all the gods and the goddesses." Aulus Gellius says, that they whose names were uncertain, or whose sex was doubtful, were called unknown gods and indeed there were so many of this description, that Varro wrote a book concerning the unknown gods, and another concerning the uncertain ones. THE FLIGHT OF TIME. BY RICHARD HUIE, ESQ., M.D. And shall we drain the wassail-cup, No! If in youth's unthinking day, And, conscious of the mighty debt We reap but what we sow! No! Let us seek with holy dread, A pardon for the year that's fled, For peace and safety given; BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. BY THE EDITOR. and felt, unmixed with those motives which are liable to obscure its lustre in less peaceful circumstances. Mrs Hawkes moved throughout life in a circumscribed sphere, and the variety of incident, therefore, which lends a charm to the biographies of many individuals is not to be found in hers. Still her Christian experience was amply varied from the numerous personal and domestic trials through which she was called to pass. It was her privilege to learn, by many a painful but salutary lesson, that through "patience" as well as "faith" we must "inherit the promises." She was trained in the school of affliction, and it is interesting to mark the various steps of her progress under the effectual teaching of the Holy Spirit. Mrs Hawkes was born in 1759 at Broad Marston in Gloucestershire. She was the youngest of thirteen children, five of whom died in childhood. Though both her parents were persons of decided piety, Sarah's early days were marked by a peculiar relish for scenes of gaiety and amusement. Giddy and thoughtless, she sought the company of young persons like-minded with herself. Naturally amiable and sweet in her dispositions, and prepossessing in her manners, her society was courted, and for several years she moved only in the circles of the gay and the polite. God was not in all her thoughts. Light and frivolous employments formed her chief delight. The world was her all; she sought no higher portion. In such a spirit, and attracted by no other than mere earthly allurements, she entered into the marriage state with one who was himself actuated by motives similar to her own. A union thus heedlessly formed, could not be expected to produce much happiness, and Mrs Hawkes was not long in feeling that she had taken a step which involved her in much domestic trouble and unhappiness. This, however, was ultimately productive of incalculable benefit. It was the mysterious mode by which the Almighty designed to lead her to himself. She felt the insecurity and utter vanity of all earthly happiness, and was thus THE advantages of Christian Biography are numerous, but there is none which more obviously occurs to the mind of a reflecting reader than the peculiar insight which he thereby obtains into the varied workings of the renewed, as distinguished from the unrenewed, heart. The principles of religion are seen, not as matters of speculative belief, but in actual operation, influencing the whole character and conduct. With a living ex-gradually prepared to seek all her comfort and true enemplification of Christianity thus set before us, we become more minutely and intimately acquainted with the diversified aspects of the believer's experience. A knowledge of this kind is of inestimable value. We feel more strongly impressed with the truth of the Christian scheme, by perceiving the wonderful effects to which it gives rise; we gradually learn to perceive how we ourselves may imbibe its sacred truths so as to influence our own hearts; we are constrained to examine ourselves, that we may discover whether our experience coincides with that which is brought under our notice; and we may perhaps be led, by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, to strive after the attainment of a more quickened and more marked progress in holiness than we have yet reached. It is thus that from the frailties and follies, as well as virtues, of those Christians whose lives are unfolded to us by the pen of a faithful biographer, we learn to deny ourselves to all sin, and to make progress in meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. The individual whom we have selected as the subject of our present sketch, is taken not from the stirring scenes of public life, but from the quiet and unobtrusive privacy of domestic retirement. It is here, we conceive, that the native power of Christianity is seen joyment from a higher and a purer source. The cir cumstance by which this change in her sentiments and feelings was effected is simple in itself, but sufficiently marks the hand of an over-ruling Providence. While her mind was thus harassed and broken down with the severity of her domestic cares and anxieties, she was persuaded by her sister, Mrs Jones, who was a person of remarkable piety, to accompany her to St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, London, that they might hear the Rev. Richard Cecil, who was then, in 1787, in the very height of his popularity. The impression made upon the mind of Mrs Hawkes' by the discourse of Mr Cecil was deep and abiding. She had entered the house of God depressed in spirit, but by the blessing of God, a stream of heavenly consolation had flowed into her soul; and from that day onward till the death of Mr Cecil, she continued to attend on his faithful and affectionate ministry. The revolution which had been thus effected by the Spirit of God in the whole views and feelings of her sister, was very pleasing to Mrs Jones, and anxious to promote the progress of the good work thus begun, she resolved to write Mr Cecil requesting him to visit Mrs Hawkes. For two years after her mind was first led to serious thought, so deep were her convictions of sin that she was almost in a state of utter despondency. "The only thing," she said, describing this awful conflict of spirit, "which seemed to save me from absolute despair and distraction, was the reading Christian's fight with Apollyon, and his walk through the dark valley, in the Pilgrim's Progress."" The introduction to Mr Cecil, and the personal interviews which followed, tended to calm the mental perturbation to which she had been so long subjected. The sound scriptural views of that eminent Christian minister, combined with a judicious masculine understanding, rendered his counsels, in every stage of Christian experience, peculiarly valuable; but to the recent convert, like Mrs Hawkes, whose knowledge was necessarily very imperfect, and her zeal ill regulated, the advices and warnings of such a man were inestiinable. We gladly quote a few of the most striking remarks which fell from his lips in his first conversa tion with Mrs Hawkes. "You must not look for perfection either in yourself milk of the word, he has to distinguish between bones of doctrine; till at last he begins to doubt if there be any true spirit of religion at all. "Do not form too high expectations from the professing world. Do not be in haste to form connections— to make acquaintances-to place confidence to turn to every professor and say, lead me. 'Do not enter into the list of religious gossips, who may not only puzzle you about hard points of doctrine, but may lead you to waste your time to no purpose, in going from house to house, talking, instead of getting into the spirit of unity. There are too many of this sort whose chief religion lies in going from church to church to hear, and from house to house to prate; but who are too seldom in their closets, too seldom in close converse with God. Retired Christianity is the truest. It is easy to fill the head with notions; but to sit still like Mary, at Christ's feet, and be a learner, is far better. Always be afraid of a specious religion.” The peace which Mrs Hawkes felt in the belief of the with which she was still tried. She cast her burden Gospel, supported her amid the domestic unhappiness or others. Not to allow for the infirmities and defects of a fallen nature, is not to understand any thing about upon the Lord, and she felt of a truth that He susthe matter; nay, it is to speak directly contrary to tained it for her. Devotion became with her a delightthe Bible, the standard of all truth. There never was ful exercise. When on a visit to her paternal residence, more than one perfect character upon earth, and He was on one occasion, after the death of her mother, she thus the most tender and compassionate towards the imper-writes in her Diary, under date 9th August 1789:— fections of men. He knew what was in man, for he looked at the heart; and if he saw that right, he pitied, where those who judged only by the outward appearance, blamed; and defended, where they condemned. There is one distinction you should keep very clear in your mind that religion itself, in its essence, is perfect; as our rule and standard it is unerring; nor can it be affected by the inconsistencies or imperfections of its professors: the standard remains the same: the balances are true: but when its professors are weighed therein, even the very best of them,-they are found wanting. Our aim must be to get every day nearer the standard; for whoever does not labour, not merely desire, but labour to be a better Christian every day, is not yet a Christian at all. Yet in this you must exereise patience. Do not measure yourself by a false standard. There are no doubt giants in the Christian world, -but would you be a giant at once? Do not be satisfied to be a dwarf; but remember there must be time to grow." "Be careful, in your commerce with the world, to act up to the character you profess. Do not put on a Pharisaical manner of, Stand by, I am holier than thou.' Yet let it appear, that while you are under the necessity of hearing their vain conversation, you have no taste for it; no delight or interest in it. A humble, kind silence often utters much. "Wherever God gives faith he will try it; and whoever becomes a follower of Christ, must deny himself, and take up his cross-must make great sacrificessuch as right hands, and right eyes: must expect opposition, persecution, mortification, cruel scoffings, not only from the world, but from nearest and dearest friends. A man's sharpest and bitterest foes are those of his own household.' You must set your face like a flint against threatenings, and against allurements. "But I would warn you of another danger arising from a quarter you may least expect-namely, from the Religious World itself. There are stumbling-blocks even in the Church; there are many professors, who when they see a person setting out in religion, will advise, one this course, and one that. One sort says, religion is in its best estate among us.' Another sort says, among us; and the young convert, having a tender conscience, desirous of being right, is often greatly perplexed; for he finds that in the religious world there is a party spirit. Instead of obtaining the mother's chamber, the very walls and furniture of which are sacred. A thousand times have I marked her re- have breath.' 66 My brother-seemed much upon her mind. Oh may his mother be much upon his mind, and upon all our minds; and may we meet her in glory! Who knows but her happy spirit has been a witness to my secret transactions in her former chamber. May all my transactions through life be equally pleasing in her eyes!' In the course of the following month, Mrs Hawkes paid a visit to her pious sister, Mrs Jones, at Birming ham; and while there, she records the following remarkable incident : 66 Happy to return to this favoured place. Heard the Rev. Mr Burn from Luke xxii. 31, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have thee, to sift thee as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.' "A remarkable circumstance occurred under this very animated and striking sermon. A poor woman had for some time been under a violent, and almost irresistible temptation to drown herself; and declared she had actually risen from her seat no less than twenty times with a design to throw herself into the canal. One of |