Church of England

SUNDAY SCHOOL QUARTERLY

MAGAZINE.

1ST JANUARY, 1860.

The Teacher in his Closet.

REFLECTIONS ON NEW YEAR'S EVE.

AMONG the ordinary events of life, there is none, perhaps, that brings before us more forcibly the thoughts of an approaching eternity, than the arrival of a New Year. These landmarks of time are calculated to arrest the attention of the thoughtful and serious, leading them to contemplate the past, the present, and the future. Although scientific men may inform us that we have not calculated the annual rotations of the universe with sufficient accuracy to ensure our knowing the exact period of its recurrence, yet, nevertheless, the new year ever exercises an influence over our feelings, and developes its wonted associations of melancholy retrospect and anticipative hope. To review the progress of events since we first turned over the leaves of the now expiring calendar; to mourn over the gaps in our acquaintance that were then occupied by friends whose loss is still fresh in our memory; to ponder with gratitude on the mercies of Providence that have gladdened our footsteps since the world's last anniversary; and to lament the waywardness of many a sinful action during the same period, are among the employments of this solemn occasion. It cannnot fail to suggest reflections of a sober kind even to the most thoughtless, while to the Christian it is Vol. XII.

B

a season fraught with the most profitable sources of meditation, capable of being improved with the highest spiritual advantage.

New Year's Eve may justly be termed the starting point for good resolutions. It must be within the recollection of most of us how often upon this anniversary we have resolved to strengthen the bonds of our communion with God by some new act of devotion; to impose a check upon sinful habits by withdrawing from previous temptation; to put forth stronger efforts of self-denial, of zeal, or charity. The fate of these good resolutions is various. Too often they prove as fleeting as the impressions which produced them; indeed, they seldom succeed to the extent that was intended. The weakness of human nature still yields to the corruptions against which we had resolved to watch with greater earnestness; similar temptations produce the like results in our conduct, and in the experience with which we reach the year's conclusion, we are inclined to doubt whether Solomon was right in saying, "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof." (Eccles. vii. 8.)

VOWS.

But let not our readers be discouraged by the ill success of former efforts, since they must feel assured that all holy resolutions arise from the promptings of the Divine Spirit, and that they only need a greater measure of his assistance to enable the performance of them. A most valuable lesson is taught us from a retrospect of these broken We lose all confidence in ourselves, and hasten to repair the breach with a more fervent petition to God that his strength may be made perfect in our weakness. Again and again do we tread the same ground, retracing our footsteps each time with more humility and shame, until by God's grace we find that some long cherished infirmity has been at length removed from us, or some painful act of obedience rendered delightful.

It is with a view of assisting such as may wish to improve this season of the year by forming good resolutions for the regulation of their spiritual life, that we will suggest some subjects for consideration, on which the blessing of God has attended the formation of fixed principles, by the good men who recorded them. But every individual is best acquainted with the temptations and failings that beset him in particular, so that no one can be so powerfully affected by the convictions which influence others as by those suggested in his own conscience. Hence, the formation of good resolutions must be preceded by the work of self-examination. A review of a man's spiritual state must pass before his memory, while he engages in the labour of arousing himself to increased devotion. There are probably few better aids to this work, derived from human sources, than such as are found in the writings of Baxter. His chapter in the "Saint's Rest," entitled, "How to discern our Title to the Saint's

Best," affords very useful directions for cultivating a diligent acquaintance with the heart. Indeed the whole of that pious effusion, which the near approach of his own end suggested to the author, enraptured, as it were, by gazing on heavenly prospects, possesses the strongest attractions to an enquiring soul. He seems to enter into the feelings of a wayward heart resisting the work of meditation, as if he were acquainted with the precise experience of his reader, There is a holy fire about the language with which he strives to rouse the soul from its cold apathy, and a most touching persuasiveness in the motives drawn from a Saviour's love, by which the obdurate affections are sought to be drawn up to heaven.

Again, we are so well furnished with volumes of Christian biography, that the force of numerous examples is calculated to assist our efforts in learning to tread the path of life. In almost every position where Providence may have placed us, we can recall to memory some one who has adorned the same sphere, and turned its temptations or privileges to spiritual advantage.

Histories of the great and learned who laid down their honours and worldly fame at the foot of the Cross, may guide such as aspire to be the leaders and instructors of society. Ministers have a goodly array of predecessors in the work, from whose memorials they may draw encouragement and guidance. And "the short and simple annals of the poor" possess a charm for the largest class of all, those who form the majority in every congregation and parish, to whom, in a special degree, the Gospel message is sent.

Some of the rules laid down for his own observance by the pious Lavater, so eminent as a physiognomist, are well worthy of notice and imitation. Such are the following:

"I will neyer, either in the morning or evening, proceed to my business until I have first retired, at least for a few moments, to a private place, and implored God for his assistance and blessing.

"I will neither do nor undertake anything which I would abstain from doing if Jesus Christ were standing visibly before me; nor anything of which I think it possible that I shall repent in the uncertain hour of my certain death. I will, with the Divine aid, accustom myself to do everything, without exception, in the name of Jesus Christ; and as his disciple to sigh to God continually for the Holy Ghost; and to preserve myself in a constant disposition for prayer. "Every day shall be distinguished by at least one particular act of love. Every day I will be specially attentive to promote the benefit and advantage of my own family in particular.

"I will never eat or drink so much as shall occasion me the least inconvenience or hindrance in my business.

"Wherever I go, I will first pray to God that I may commit no sin there, but be the cause of some good.

"I will never lie down to sleep without prayer, nor when I am in health sleep longer than eight hours.

"I will every evening examine my conduct through the day by these rules, and faithfully note down in my journal how often I offend against them."

The words with which he concludes this series of excellent resolutions, point out that his success in performing them was derived from the Divine help, which he did not seek in vain :

"O God, Thou seest what I have here written. May I be able to read these my meditations every morning with sincerity, and every evening with joy, and the clear approbation of my conscience."

The biography of this good man, whose private meditations are thus disclosed, illustrates the beneficial influence which they produced on his life, and the name of Lavater may be added to those of the departed just, who, while on earth, "walked with God."

Very similar to the above, although more numerous, are the seventy resolutions of the American President, Edwards, all of which were formed before he was twenty years old. Among them we may notice two, which may be usefully added to the foregoing :

"21. Resolved, never to do anything, which if I should see in another, I should count a just reason to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.

"34. Resolved, in narrations never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity."

In the diary of a young man of nearly the same age among our own countrymen, we find these three rules of daily life. Two of them seem to point at the besetting sins of the writer, and indicate his desire to guard against temptations by which he was most easily

overcome.

"1. To endeavour each day more practically to realize what is meant by loving God with the whole heart.

“2. To make an effort each day to practice at least one act of self-denial, not with any idea of pleasing God thereby, but in order to exercise myself in a habit to which the feelings of my nature are violently opposed.

"3. To bear in mind, and act upon the Divine saying, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," Matt. v. 8.

In the course of religious studies, we often find, both in Scripture and elsewhere, passages that arrest our attention, from seeming to point especially at ourselves. They may be familiar to us, and yet for the first time become applied in a signal manner to our con

sciences. It appears as if the Spirit of God had designed them expressly for us. There is an inward voice that cries out, "Thou art the man." Such impressions are too valuable to be disregarded. They are the favourable gales of the Spirit, that seem to be breathing upon the dry bones, and awakening in them a new life. It may prove a serious omission to neglect. such opportunities of fastening holy truths as nails in a sure place of our hearts.

There are many verses in the Bible to which persons have attributed their sudden conversion, from the manner in which they laid hold upon conscience with a grasp that could not be shaken off. Doubtless the numerous anecdotes of this kind that are recorded, contain but a few of the apparently miraculous triumphs of the Word which will be revealed hereafter. Like the Pilgrim described by Bunyan who was driven to forsake all his worldly comforts, and escape from the city of Destruction, with the words ringing in his ears, "Flee from the wrath to come," so the arrows from the quiver of the Spirit come occasionally into our hearts with the most piercing influence, when we are in search of light.

In the hope, then, of obtaining such impulses of spiritual force, let us be found carefully imbibing knowledge from the ordinary sources of Christian instruction. A resolution to devote a fixed period of each day to reading and meditation, is among the most profitable which can be marked out for our plans of progress for the new year. The increase of private devotion is another means of keeping our spiritual faculties lively that should be more earnestly sought after with each returning season of pious reflection. When we consider how small a portion of our time it is that at best can be employed in this manner, we are led to cherish every plan that may tend to its better improvement. On this and other duties of Christian watchfulness, the advice of Jeremy Taylor deserves a place in our recollection:-"What you would choose to be found doing when you die, that do daily. For things must come to this pass, that you will either rejoice that you have done so, or wish that you had."

H. C. N.

A HANDFUL OF CORN FROM OLD FIELDS.

THE GOODNESS OF GOD.

THIS is the difference between God's mercies and his judgments that sometimes his judgments may be plural, complicated, enwrapped in one another; but His mercies are always so, and cannot be otherwise.

Donne.