have not renounced the grand purpose of their soul, to live for Christ, and for the advancement of his kingdom; but they have strangely wandered from this purpose. They have become engrossed in other things. Their thoughts, their affections, their conversation, their pursuits, are more earthly than heavenly; more upon the affairs of this life, than upon those mightier interests which pertain to the soul and eternity! Christians in the state supposed have not altogether ceased to pray; but their prayers are, for the most part, cold and formal. There is but little heart in them, and of course but little spirituality or enjoy ment. They have not abandoned the forms of religion, but their religion is too much a matter of form. It is characterized by a want of interest and engagedness; by a want of enlightened fervour and zeal. They have no proper sense of religious truth, or of the obligations resulting from such truth. They do not realize where they stand, or what responsibilities rest upon them. They can look on and see the cause of Christ declining, without any deep and pungent regrets. They can see their fellow men dying and perishing around them, and yet do little for their rescue and salvation.

Such, in brief, is the state of the great body of Christians-real Christians-in a time of general coldness and religious declension. Of course, such will be, in general, the state of the church. There may be some in it in a better state-a higher degree of religious feeling and enjoyment. And there may be some in a worse condition-a state almost of apostacy-whose hopes, in the season of winnowing, have been nearly, if not utterly, blown away. But the condition of the church, in general, is such as has been described.

What now is to be done for a church, in a situation such as this? What can be done, with any prospect of promoting a revival of religion?

The Church above supposed, or the members composing it, obviously need a change; a change strongly analogous, though not precisely similar, to that which impenitent sinners need, in order to their salvation. First of all, these church-members need to be awakened. They are comparatively asleep now, and they must be aroused from their slumbers. Their closed eyes must be got open. Their dull and heavy ears must be unstopped. They must become deeply sensible of their condition, and be made

to see objects around them in something like their true light. A course of preaching, and of personal, pastoral labour, having this object in view, is first of all appropriate, and should be first attempted.

In the second place, the church supposed needs humbling. Their coldness and inconstancy, their backslidings and wanderings, their worldly conformity, their delinquencies in duty, towards God, themselves, and their fellow men, must be set before them, and urged home upon them, till they are effectually humbled and heart-broken for sin; till they begin to say with David, "Behold we are vile;" till, with Job, they begin to "abhor themselves, and repent in dust and ashes." There is little danger that this work of humiliation and repentance will be made too thorough. The ploughshare of truth must be driven deep through the stony soil of the heart. The fallow ground must be thoroughly broken up. The whole mind must be softened, the soul melted, and the tear of penitence must begin to flow.

Until a backslidden church can be brought into this state of humiliation and repentance, nothing effectual is gained. There may be noise and excitement without repentance; but it is all wind. But when a church is brought into the state described, almost every thing is gained. Whatever more remains to be done, is now easy. By deep repentance and brokenness of heart for sin, the church comes into a state of reconciliation with God. It humbly seeks his forgiving mercy, and secures it. And now the members of the church are in a

But

situation to pray. God seemed at a great distance before, and they could not pray. If they attempted to pray, their prayers were but "empty noise.' Their own hearts condemned them; and they were sure that God was greater than their heart, and knew all things. having humbled themselves, become reconciled to God, and sought and obtained his forgiving mercy; they can now go to him as children to a father. They can approach him, through Christ, with affection and confidence, and pour their requests into his faithful ear, assured that they shall not plead with him in vain.

The same humble, heart-broken state of mind, which has brought the members of a church into peace with God, will also give them peace among themselves. If there have been alienations and

divisions among them, irritations, evilsurmisings, hard feelings, and hard speeches; it will be easy now to cure these evils. Those who have thought themselves injured will cherish a tender, forgiving spirit, feeling that it ill becomes them, who have had ten thousand talents forgiven them, to take a brother by the throat because he owes them a hundred pence. At the same time, those who have committed injury will be deeply humbled in view of what they have done, and be disposed to confess their faults one to another, that they may be healed. While such a state of feeling prevails in a church, it is comparatively easy to remove difficulties; and the pastor should see to it that they are thoroughly taken out of the way. The fellowship of the church should thus be restored; that so they may pray, as it were, with one voice, and labour together for the advancement of the Gospel with

one heart and soul.

The church being prepared for so great a labour, it is proper now that their attention should be directed to the case of the impenitent around them.

The

whole church: the pastor, the deacons, the brethren, the sisters, should be, if possible, united in this thing, and should engage together in the important work of endeavouring to bring sinners to the Saviour.

But how shall they engage in it? How shall they begin? What is the first thing required to be done?

In the case of the stupid, slumbering sinners, as in the case of backslidden, slumbering believers, the first thing to be attempted is to awaken them. Their

attention must be arrested; their eyes must be opened. They must be made to see where they are, and what is before them, and what is likely to become of them. They must be made to feel that their salvation is worth something; that the religion of the Gospel is a vast concern, which they have neglected quite too long already, and which they cannot, must not neglect longer. There are a variety of subjects connected with the Gospel, which are of the most awakening character; such as the worth of the soul, the immediate and urgent claims of religion, the danger of delay, the death-bed of the sinner, the scenes of the last judgment, the final separation, the glories of heaven, and the retributions of a lost eternity. These and the like subjects should be dwelt upon, not in a cold, unfeeling, common-place way, but with

all the tenderness and earnestness of faith-with all the vividness of a near reality. Let the minister first be impressed, penetrated with them himself; and then let him bring them forth, as one who believes what he says; as one who has received his commission from above, and who cannot but utter the warnings with which God has charged him.

If this course of preaching, attended with earnest prayer, and with appropriate personal labour on the part of both minister and church, has the effect to awaken sinners, so that they begin to show some signs of feeling; then let him, in the next place, aim directly at their consciences, with a view to produce convictions of sin. Without these convictions, the awakening of sinners will do them no good. They will soon go to sleep again, and their slumbers will be even deeper than though they had not been disturbed.

In the endeavour to convince men of sin, one of the first things is, to tear away their refuges of lies, under which they cover up their sins, so that they cannot see them. We must remove their false standards of character, and hold up in prominent view the great and only standard, the strict and holy law of God. In estimating character, as in every thing else, he who judges by a false standard must always come to a wrong result. And this is the reason, or a principal reason, why so many moral, amiable men continually make a false estimate of their own characters;-they judge of them by a wrong standard or rule. For example, one makes morality his rulemere outward morality-a decent performance of relative and social duties. This is his standard; and he tries to live up to it; and perhaps, in some good degree, he does live up to it. Of course, he has no convictions of sin; and while he measures himself by such a rule, he

can have none.

Another man, in addition to outward, moral duties, includes in his standard a decent respect for the observances of religion. He must have the Bible in his house, and must occasionally read it. He must keep the Sabbath with external decency. He must go to the house of God, and aid in supporting religious institutions. Such is the standard to which he tries to conform, and to which, in the general, he does conform. Consequently, he has no convictions of sin; and with his present standard, he can have none.

As I said, therefore,-in labouring to produce convictions of sin, one of the first things to be done is to remove these false standards of character. We must show people, and satisfy them, that these are not the rules which God has given us; by which he estimates us now; and by which he will judge us in the final day;-no, nor anything like it. God's rule of judgment is written out very plainly in his word. It is written with scarcely less plainness on the tablets of every human heart. It meets us in every condition and relation of life. It binds us everywhere, and at all times, to love God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and our neighbour as ourself. It requires that we glorify God on the earth, in our body, and in our spirit, which are his; and that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, all be done with a view to his glory. This is the law by which Paul tells us is "the knowledge of sin." He was himself alive without this law once; but when the commandment came, a sense of sin revived within him, and he found himself morally, spiritually dead.

In our endeavours to produce conviction of sin, the law, in the sense here explained, must be earnestly exhibited. We must preach it in its spirituality and great extent, as reaching to the thoughts, the affections, and to the most secret springs of action in the soul; that in this view the transgressor may see the number of his sins; or rather, that he may see them to be, like the sands on the sea shore, innumerable. We must preach the law, in its inflexible strictness and awful purity; that in this view the transgressor may learn the greatness of his sins. We must preach it in its infinite reasonableness, propriety, and excellence; that in this view he may see the baseness and odiousness of sin. We must preach the penalty of the law, as well as the precept; that in this view the sinner may see himself to be utterly, hopelessly lost-with no deliverance possible, except through the Saviour.

Nor in our endeavours to convince men of sin, must we fail to set before them that greater guilt which they have incurred, and that sorer punishment to which they have exposed themselves, in not only transgressing the law of God, but in rejecting his dying Son, and doing despite to the Spirit of his grace. In the farewell address of our Saviour to his disciples, he promised to send the Holy Spirit to convince the world of sin.

John xvi. 8. But, how convince the world of sin? "Because they believe not on me;"-importing that unbelief, or a rejection of Christ, is the great sin which the Holy Spirit will set forth with peculiar prominence, in the convictions of which he is the Author. But if the Holy Spirit, in convincing men, will give such prominence to this terrible sin, then surely those, who hope to be workers together with him, should not fail to do the same.

But

In the estimation of some, there is much mystery hanging round the subject of conviction. They know not what to think of it, or how to explain it. this is all needless mystery. The subject is a plain one, and is as capable of explanation as almost any other subject. Conviction of sin is nothing more than a being convinced of sin. It is a conviction, deep and thorough, produced in the mind by the light of truth and the accompanying power of the Holy Spirit, that we are those great and guilty sinners

those justly condemned and ruined transgressors, which the Bible represents. This conviction is perhaps always accompanied with more or less of distress; as we might reasonably expect it would be. But then the distress involved is not the conviction; nor is it the certain measure of conviction. In some instances, persons are deeply convicted, without great distress; and more frequently they are the subjects of much mental distressdistress arising from various causes, when they are but slightly convinced of sin.*

It is sometimes desirable to increase the distress of the awakened sinner, in order thereby to deepen his convictions. And this may be done, ordinarily, by exhibiting in prominent view the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty;-by throwing the anxious but unhumbled rebel into the hands of an angry God-who will kill him or spare him alive, save or destroy him, as seemeth good in his sight. This view of the case will invariably arouse the latent opposition of the heart, and show the sinner to himself. In many cases, it has produced conviction and distress, when all other means have failed.

* Persons sometimes are distressed because they think themselves abandoned of God, or that they have committed the unpardonable sin. Distress arising from such causes needs to be removed, not increased. It will be removed by proper instruction. Often much distress is endured, growing out of a disordered state of the nervous system. Here the agitated nerves need to be soothed and quieted, not irritated. They must be quieted, in a considerable degree, before a saving change will be likely to be effected,

Not unfrequently, persons are anxious to know when they may regard themselves as sufficiently convicted;—when they may be satisfied that the law has had its perfect work, and that they are prepared, so far as conviction is concerned, to embrace the Gospel.-For the satisfaction of such persons, I will mention two marks of thorough conviction, which seem to me decisive. The first is, when the mouth of the sinner is stopped, and all his vain excuses for sin, and his objections against the law and government of God, are taken away. The second is, when he is prepared to acknowledge the justice of God in his condemnation. When the sinner has come to this point; when he is stripped of all his excuses and self-justifying pleas, and sees and knows that God would be just, were he to cut him off, and cast him off for ever, then is he thoroughly, sufficiently convicted. Cut off from all claim on the justice of God, he is now prepared to become a beggar for mercy. From the heart, he can offer up the publican's prayer. He feels his need of that Saviour which the Gospel reveals, and is prepared to embrace him, and trust in him, for time and eternity.

I have dwelt the longer on the subject of conviction, because I esteem it a very important matter. For the want of deep and thorough convictions, awakened sinners often fall back into stupidity and carnal peace; or they embrace a false and delusive hope; or if they are born into the kingdom of Christ, they are but just born. The lamp of spiritual life burns but feebly, and the evidences of their good estate are dubious and uncertain.

To all those who are labouring, or are expecting to labour, for the salvation of souls, I would say emphatically, Understand well the subject of conviction. Study the nature of it, and the means of producing it; and in all your efforts to bring sinners to Christ, endeavour that they may have thorough convictions

of sin.

When sinners are awakened and convicted, the next labour of a pastor and his church should be for their conversion. Mere convictions, however, important, will not save them. They must repent and be converted, that their sins may be blotted out. They must be born again, born of the Spirit, or they cannot see the kingdom of God.

When the time arrives, in the progress of a revival, that direct efforts should be

made for the conversion of sinners, it is important that the subject should be, first of all, explained. The misapprehensions of sinners in respect to conversions (for they almost always misunderstand it) should be removed. They should be taught that conversion is no physical change-no change in the substance, faculties, or constitution of their souls. It is no change which is to be wrought in them, or upon them, of which they are to be the passive recipients, and for which they can do nothing but wait. It is rather a change in their active exercises or affections, from those which are sinful, to those which are holy. It is the first turning of the sinner from his evil ways. It is the first springing up of holy exercises, of some kind, in a heart, where such exercises never existed before. These exercises may be those of love, penitence, submission, or faith. It matters not what form they assume, or by what name they are called; if they be but holy exercises, the first putting them forth, on the part of the sinner, is the act of his conversion.

In this view of conversion, which I am persuaded is the Scriptural one, it is proper to use motives with the sinner, and the most urgent motives, to induce him to turn, or to be converted. Indeed, the great business of preaching to sinners, with a view to their conversion, consists in urging motives upon them, to induce, or bring about, this important change.

It should be recollected, however, while urging motives for this end, that all the truths and motives of the Gospel are not directly motives to conversion. There are many truths which a minister must preach, which are calculated to awaken rather than convert, and which should be relied on chiefly for this purpose. For instance, it is proper to preach the terrors of the law, and the promises of the Gospel; to hold up to view the glories of heaven, and the pains of hell. But these considerations seem rather calculated to awaken, arouse, excite the sinner, than to convert him; and if he should seem changed under the mere influence of such motives, and indulge the hope that he was changed; would there not be reason to fear that his hopes were unfounded?

I would by no means be understood to say, that the considerations to which I have adverted should not be presented in the ministrations of the pulpit. They are often urged in the Bible, and should

be urged, both in private conversation, and from the sacred desk. They are just what stupid slumbering sinners need, to arouse them to effort for the salvation of their souls. But when labouring with a sinner, or with a congregation of sinners, with a view directly to their conversion, a different class of motives, I have thought, should be chiefly relied upon. We should use motives, in view of which if a sinner should turn, his conversion would not be suspected;-under the influence of which if he should repent, his repentance would not need to be repented of. For instance, the right, the duty of loving God, and submitting to him-the duty of repenting and turning from sin-the duty of an immediate trust in Christthe perfect reasonableness of these requirements the inherent propriety and excellency of them—the binding authority of God in the case-our obligations of gratitude to God-the love of Christthe sufferings of Christ for us-his infinite sufficiency, and our helplessnesshis full atonement, and our guilt;-these are some of the considerations which should chiefly influence the sinner, in the act of turning from his evil ways. Indeed, these are the considerations which must chiefly influence him, or the goodness of his hope will be suspected. These, then, are the motives on which ministers ought chiefly to rely, in labouring directly for the conversion of

souls.

When we find the heart of an individual torpid and listless, or comparatively so; or when we have reason to think that this is the case with a company of professed inquirers; other motives are to be resorted to, for the purpose of awakening and conviction-for the purpose of deepening impression, and arousing them to effort; but when we aim directly at conversion, and expect conversion to follow our labours, we should urge motives which will be likely to produce conversion-motives under the influence of which the sinner can be converted, and his conversion be genuine.

I only add further on this subject now, that in our preaching and personal efforts to promote revivals of religion to prepare the church for spiritual labours and blessings, and to bring impenitent sinners to Christ, there should be as much of system as possible. The pastor should understand, in the first place, what needs to be done. Then he

should know, as accurately as possible, what is done, and what remains to be done. By careful observation and much personal inquiry, he should feel his way

know where he stands-know what to do next, and how to do it. He will have occasion often, it may be, to go back, and repeat efforts which have once been made. For instance, a church may need to be laboured with directly and repeatedly, in the progress of a revival, that they may be kept awake and humble, united and engaged. Repeated efforts may be necessary to awaken and convince sinners, after such efforts have once been faithfully made, and numbers, who were first awakened, have been converted.

In regard to all these movements, I have only to say, what I said before; let a minister know where he stands, what is the situation of things around him, and what is incumbent on him to do. Let him give to all his movements as much of system and plan as possible. Let him not venture (if it can be avoided) to strike one stroke in the dark. It may be a fatal stroke to some poor, sinful, perishing soul.

For the want of wisdom and understanding, system and plan, much labour is lost in revivals of religion; and it may be worse than lost. Discourses are preached, which do more hurt than good. Things are done, which require to be undone. Efforts are made, and with the best intentions, to promote the work, which serve rather to retard the chariot of salvation, and to clog its wheels.

OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS.

No. I.

There are moments when petty slights are harder to bear than even a serious injury. Men have died of the festering of a gnat-bite.-ANON.

Men

THIS may be true,- we doubt not is often true, in the experience of a man of honour, of high spirit, of delicate sensibility, in the worldly or current sense and acceptation of these terms. are querulous creatures;" in proportion to their sense of self-importance, and desire of personal aggrandizement, they are so, and need not the swellings of insolence to disturb their serenity of mind for often

"Little more than nothing is enough To make them wretched."

Wounded pride, or irritated self-love, are