deavour to draw from this sacred · 2nd. Sincere, heart-sprung detreasury subjects for sacred con- sires to be weaned from the world, templation during your leisure mo- and enjoy spirituality of mind, are ments; and accustom yourself to sure evidences that the good work call to mind, in the intervals of is begun in the heart. I speak not business, or when your thoughts of the degree, but of the existence are not necessarily engaged, the of grace; the former may be proved gracious invitations, the rich pro. from the strength and continuance mises, and the holy precepts of the of those desires, and the steps word of God. I shall now take which are taken to gratify them; my leave of you with three short but the latter is evinced by the reflections. faintest acts of a spiritual kind, Ist. A man is in the sight and which can arise only from a principle estimation of God (in reality), what of holiness implanted in the heart. ho would be—if he could. At 3rd. When such desires and dispresent a Christian is not what he positions are felt, the possessors would be, por what he should be, are bound to bless God, who is the nor what he shall be ; but he is, in author and giver of all holy desires the view of the Omniscient, what and delights, and they should seek he honestly, prevailingly, and heart an increase and gratification of them ily desires, aims, and prays to be in the appointed way. THEOGNIS. EXTRACT FROM BISHOP REYNOLD'S SERMON ON PREACHING CHRIST. The following extract from the the physicians beal, nor the watchconclusion of Bishop Reynold's men keep, nor the stewards provide Sermon on Preaching Christ, is for the flock; you have betrayed a deserving of serious and frequent trust, abused a Lord, exposed a perusal by all who labour in the depositum ; you shall give an acword and doctrine. count not only for souls murdered, Preach the gospel ; be instant in but for an office neglected, for a season and out of season ; reprove, talent hidden, for a stewardship rebuke, exhort with all long suffer- unfaithfully and injuriously admiing and doctrine; think not much nistered. O, therefore, studiously to further the salvation of these by and conscientiously apply yourselves your labour, whom Christ pur- to this heavenly skill of spiritual chased with his blood. Magnify preaching. Preach in good earnest, your office, not by pomp and state, as those who seriously intend their by scorn or superciliousness; these own and their hearers' salvation. things debase it; but by humble So convince of sin, the guilt, the and faithful attendance upon the stain, the dominion, the pollution of ministry which you have received it, the curse and malediction where. of the Lord. Esteem not that a unto the soul is exposed by it, that needless office which the apostle your hearers may be awakened and hath made necessary; nor a boot- humbled, and effectually forewarned less service, unto the performance to flee from the wrath to come. whereof so great a reward, unto So convince your people of the allthe omission whereof so great a sufficient righteousness and un. woe, is annexed. If Satan destroy searchable riches of Christ, the men by his suggestions, he shall “excellency of his knowledge,” not answer for them as an officer, the unmeasurableness of his love, (he had not inspection over them) the preciousness of his promises, but as a murderer only. · If you the fellowship of his sufferings, destroy them by your negligence; the power of his resurrection, the if the shepherds do not feed, nor beauties of his holiness, the easiness of his yoke, the sweetness of his them, a propitiation to reconcile peace, the joy of his salvation, the them, a treasure to enrich them, a hope of his glory, that the hearts physician to heal them, an advocate of your hearers may burn within to present them and their services them, and that they may fly like to God: as wisdom to counsel, as doves unto their windows for shel- righteousness to justify, as sanctifiter and sanctuary into the arms of cation to draw, as redemption to such a Redeemer, who is able and save, as an inexhaustible fountain willing to save to the uttermost all of pardon, grace, comfort, victory, those that come unto God by him, glory ;-let Christ be the diamond that they may with all ready obe- to shine in all your sermons, dience, and by the constraining Serve the souls, not the wills, or power of “ the love of Christ,” lusts of men. Consider the worth yield themselves up to the govern- of souls, their excellency, their ment of this Prince of Peace, by immortality, the price that bought whom the Prince of this world is them, the sin which defiles them, judged and cast out, his “ works the curse which destroys them, the destroyed,” and we for this end grace which renews them, the glory “ bought with a price," that we which blesseth them. Consider the should not be “our own,” but his vigilancy of Satan, who goeth about that bought us, nor any longer live to devour them. Is it a small sin unto ourselves, but unto him that by our carelessness to betray such loved us, and died for us, and rose souls as these, and our own with again. them, to the peril of eternal perdiPreach not yourselves, your own tion? Shall we be able to endure imagination, the devices of your the hideous cries of lost souls hearts ; set not up your reason wherewith we had been entrusted, against God's word, nor your will bowling out that doleful accusaagainst his grace; nor your interest tion against us, Parentes sensimus against his glory, nor your fleshly parricidas ? our guides have misled wisdom against the simplicity of his us, our watchmen have betrayed holy Gospel. Preach not out of us, our pastors have starved us, our ostentation, merely to the fancies stewards have defrauded us, our and wits of men, to please or to fathers have been our parricides ? tickle them, but out of manifesta. For Jesu's suke, if you love Jesus. tion of truth to the conscience, to It is the argument which he himplease God. Preach not your own self useth, John xxi. 15, 16, 17. passions and animosities, things If you would have Jesus love you, tending to widen breaches, to if you tender his sheep, if you regard foment jealousies and discontents, his command, if you fear his wrath, to kindle sedition, to cherish faction, if you value his salvation, study the to beget turbulency and disquiet; price of souls, snatch souls out of but as servants of “the Prince of the fire, forewarn them of the Peace,” preach those things which wrath to come. Be humble, faith“ make for peace," fal, diligent, compassionate towards Preach Christ Jesus the Lord. the souls of men. Commend your Determine to know nothing among fidelity, set forth Christ's excellency your people, but Christ crucified. to the souls of your hearers, that Let his name and grace, his Spirit you may be able to say to him at and love triumph in the midst of all his coming, as he to his fatheryour sermons. Let your great end “Behold me and the children which be to glorify him in the heart, to thou hast given me.” Thus doing render him amiable and precious in you shall both save yourselves and the eyes of his people, to lead them them that hear you. to him as a sanctuary to protect ZELOTES, AN ADDRESS. Delivered in the Church of St. Mary's, Kilkenny, on Tuesday, the 11th of March, 1828, at the Interment of Major Kenney, of the 73rd Regiment. By the Rev. PETER Roe. MY DEAR FRIENDS—There is something very solemn and affecting in the circumstances of a military funeral, and I doubt not, but that even upon the present occasion, serious reflections have been excited in many minds. Were our natures holy, and our desires spiritual, we should at all times feel deep serious. ness of mind we should find our happiness in the consciousness of enjoying God's favour, and we should need no other principle than the knowledge of God's will, to stimulate us to avoid every tempta tion—to resist every sin--and to perform every duty. We should recollect our mortality, if we were never to witness the death of others; and we should expect our removal from this present scene, if we were never to feel the pressure of sick ness, or the distractions produced by pain, or the decripitude attendant upon old age. But as our natures are corrupt-as we have an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, we are prone to keep earth in view, and eternity out of sight-we are satisfied to drown the thoughts and anticipation of death in the intoxicating cup of worldly pleasure-we regard the kind voice of Christian admonition, as a stern and sullen monitor —and we hail the lattering approval of the gay and the licentious, as a well-earned testimony to the refinement of our taste, and the innocence of our pursuits. Nothing can be more destructive or fallacious than this; and it will be an awful thing to discover the mistake when it will be too late to rectify it. But why should this mistake be persisted in ? Do we not possess the means of detecting the evil and the danger of it, as also, of ensuring a deliverance from it? Yes : we have all the means which are afforded by a revelation from heaven-a revelation, which, although it contains mysteries that no finite mind can solve-is yet su plain and explicit upon the great doctrines of the fall of justification by faith-of the new creation unto good works of the believer- of eternal life as the gift of God in Christ Jesus, that no man can, with any justice or consistency, plead an excuse for his ignorance. This revelation is in the Bible--it is one in every respect suited to the sinner, and worthy of its great author. Only for it, nothing but sin, misery, and disorder, could ever have been discernible in this apostate world: and if ever the mind of man is cheered in his passage to eternityif his soul is ever lighted up with hope-if he has ever learned a lesson of contentment and resignation to the divine will--if he ever longs to depart and to be with Christ, it is because He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into his heurt, and given him. the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ-it is because the word of salvation bas been believed it is because the Spirit of the supreme, almighty eternal God has caused it to be received as his word. But Oh! how many are to be found, who treat the cheering and glorious truths of the gospel as idle taleswho are very credulous in unprofitable matters, but slow to believe all that the Prophets have spoken, and to whom its messengers appear as those that mock? Yet, a day of reckoning will come ; days and nights of pain, and sickness, and sorrow, may yet oppress the ne glecter of the great salvation, to soldiers over whom he was placed, such a degree, that as he turns upon the reading of the sacred Scriptures. his bed he shall find himself unable A liberal contribution to the reto see a ray of hope, or to taste one ligious Tract and Book Society for drop of the cup of consolation, Ireland, made, without any solicitawhich is prepared for those whose tion, by him and the detachment iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is under his command, proved the covered, and to whom, for Christ's existence of a feeling, which it is to sake the Lord imputeth no sin. be regretted, is not more general. Yes, there is a day fast approaching, If a soldier have money to spare, when all the airy visions of this is it necessary he should so spend fallen, fleeting world, will vanish it as to injure his character, destroy away, and when the sinner will find his health, or demoralize his prineither to his joy or sorrow, that ciples? Why should he be denied, there is a reality only in the things or deny himself the privilege of which he despised, or the existence being a benefactor to his fellow of which, he denied. creatures ? Is the military proIt is appointed unto men once to fession so totally to absorb the die : such is the testimony of God, mind, that there shall be no place and is it equivocal ? Is it untrue ? for the love of God, for the love Look at the coffin which lies before of his service, or for the love of the you, and read the commentary of immortal souls for whose salvation God upon it. Within its narrow he gave his only begotten Jesus limits lie motionless-senseless Christ, in whom are hid, and in lifeless-the mortal remains of one, whom the true believer finds, (for who once exhibited the bloom, and the secret of the Lord is with them vigour, and activity of youth; that fear him) all the treasures whose heart beat high with all the of wisdom and Icnowledge? Is it honourable feelings, and lively to be announced to the soldier of anticipations which are generally an earthly king, that he shall never connected with the character of a enlist under the banner of the cross British officer. He sought rank, that he shall never follow the and he was permitted to possess it; great captain of salvation in his he wished to accompany his com- conflicts with the enemies of his panions in arms to distant lands, soul—that he shall never join the where British valour is renowned, armies of the living God that the and he was gratified; he was pre- shout of triumph shall never proserved abroad, he was brought in ceed from his lips, when a van. safety home, he neither perished in quished world shall submit to the battle, nor under a sun-stroke, nor sceptre of its rightful sovereign, in the fathomless ocean; but was and its kingdoms become the kingremoved at the very time that his doms of God, and of his Christ ? thoughts had been turned to some Are privileges such as these to be peaceful abode, where, removed denied to any man? No, my friends, from the din of arins, he hoped to God is no respecter of persons: the spend the remainder of his days in law which condemns our whole race, the contemplation and pursuits of and denounces a curse from the those glorious objects, which should seat of inflexible justice, has been ever occupy the first place in an fulfilled by Jesus Christ ; through immortal soul. He was cut off in him the door of mercy is open to the very city where he had not long the chief of sinners who believe in, since commanded, and where, to and thus lay hold upon pardon and my knowledge, he evinced a sincere peace. It is a great mistake to desire to check vice and immorality, suppose, that there is a being upon and to encourage, amongst the earth, who is to sit down perfectly satisfied, that because of the pe- in what perilous situation you may culiar circumstances of his state yet be placed—you cannot expect to in life, he is to bestow no care enjoy, for any length of time, the upon his immortal soul; or is to comfortable accommodation of good be regardless of his eternal con- quarters—if your lives should be dition. prolonged but for a little, you may We read again God's testimony, expect long marches, dangerous that after death comes the judgment, voyages, unhealthy climates, and and that he whose name is not found perhaps the horrors of battle. Let written in the book of life, will be then your protection be the shield cust into the lake of fire. Let this of faith, the breast-plate of rightefact dwell upon your minds, and ousness, and the helmet of salvation. may the Spirit of God enable you Carry with you the sword of the to profit by it, that when your Spirit, which is the word of God. bodies return to the dust from Regard it not as a weak, a foolish, whence they came, your immortal or enthusiastic thing to put implicit spirits, clotbed in the spotless and confidence in what your Creator, seamless garment of the Redeemer's your Preserver and your Judge righteousness, may ascend to the declares.—The Scriptures afford paradise of God, to dwell there for multiplied proofs that none ever ever. And now, once more, let me trusted in the Lord and was conentreat you to turn your eyes and founded, and if any wish for other thoughts to the object before you: testimony, I would refer them to he whose remains are before you, the coolness, the patience, the foroften conducted his men to this titude, the energy, the lively sense place of worship, but now it is by of duty, the tender commiseration the kindness of others that his body for the helpless, evinced by many is placed before you-he often of the Officers and Soldiers of the heard within these walls the words 31st Regiment, in the “Kent,” of eternal life, and upon his death Indiaman; when in a tempestuous bed told me how frequently they ocean, they found the flames burstrecurred to his mind when faring from beneath their feet, and removed, both by time and place. I when in looking up to the sun, would fain indulge the hope, that you which, to all human appearance, who are engaged in your country's was about to set upon every hope defence, and whose dangers seem -every comfort-every enjoyment to be more numerous and imminent connected with their state below than those of others, will yet be given they were enabled to direct their to see, that the fear of the Lord thoughts with the utmost composed. is the beginning of wisdom, and that Dess, to that blessed world, where those only evince a sound mind who the sun of righteousness shines in rely upon the Saviour's merits, and unclouded, everlasting lustre; and seek the rest which remaineth for where they hoped to dwell with the people of God. You know not their God and Saviour. TRANSIENT DELIGHTS. Ilow fading are the joys we dote upon, Like apparitions seen and gone : Like angels' visits, short and bright; Joun Norris, 1700. |