spoke the penitence of the humble and contrite publican, who smote upon his breast, and, not presuming to lift up his eyes towards the throne of grace, exclaimed, "God be merciful to me a sinner ;" and ever acknowledging our utter dependence upon the "goodness of his providence" for the means of grace here, and upon his mercy for the hope of glory hereafter, we may exclaim: "Lord, I am weak, and thou art strength-sustain me. Thou art all goodness, Lord, and I all ill. Thou, Lord, art holy-I unclean before thee. Lord, I am poor, and thou art rich-maintain me. Lord, I am dead, and thou art life-revive me. Justice condemns; let mercy, Lord, reprieve me." Never was the prayer of faith unheeded. It is our Saviour's word, "Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find." We may be poor in outward circumstances; but to the poor especially is the Gospel preached; and the most destitute of Adam's race may be rich towards God, and possess that which outweighs in value all beside, even that pearl of great price, and that gem of Christian holiness, which shall one day sparkle in their Father's kingdom. Again: As once the Lord Jesus, when he beheld the sorrowing and bereaved widow, had compassion, and said unto her, Weep not;" so also to the Christian mourner does he now say, "Weep not; thy friends shall rise again, and stand upon the earth; and, with all who have departed this life in my faith and fear, shall have their perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in my eternal and everlasting kingdom: therefore sorrow not as men without hope." In conclusion, my brethren, if we have hitherto in spiritual concerns resembled the young man that was carried out of Nain, let us no longer close our ears against the oft-repeated entreaties that we would obey the call, and arise, putting off the graveclothes of our corrupt and sinful passions; let us cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light and of God, and, through his grace preventing us, go on our way rejoicing and in hope; patient in tribulation, and ever instant in prayer unto the throne of grace, that he would grant us, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; and that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge; that we may be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us-unto Him be glory in the Church by Jesus Christ, through all ages, world without end. Amen. LITURGICAL HINTS.-No. LXVI. THE COLLECT is a prayer for the guardianship of angels. The original Latin form stands thus: "O God, who dost dispense the services of angels and men in a wonderful order; mercifully grant, that [by those angels] by whose ministrations to thee in heaven service is continually being rendered,- by these, our life on earth may be defended." The collect, as it stands in the Prayer-book, is a supplication for the guardianship of angels. (1.) "O everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of angels and men in a wonderful order." If revelation had been silent respecting angels, reason would be a sufficient ground for our believing in their existence. We observe in the scale of animal beings a regular gradation of living creatures inferior to us. It is, therefore, but reasonable to believe, that in the scale of intelligences also there is a gradation of beings superior to us. But it is from the holy Scriptures that we derive whatever knowledge on the subject can be made practical, either for warning or consolation. On their authority alone do we know that appropriate duties are assigned to the angels, and that "their services are ordained and constituted in a wonderful order by the everlasting God." In Scripture this point is rendered plain, first, by the frequent mention made of angels as the inhabitants of heaven, and attendants in the courts of God; secondly, by the no less frequent instances in which angels have actually appeared, or in which they are said to exert an influence on the welfare and behaviour of mankind. At the first beginning of the world, we are told in the book of Job, these "sons of God shouted for joy." They sang glory to God and peace to mankind when Christ was born, and salvation came into the world: they still, as Christ tells us, continue to love and pity us their younger brethren: "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth ;" and, when the day of judgment shall come, and our Lord, on his return shall deliver his servants, and give up unrepenting sinners to destruction, the holy angels, we are told. shall then attend him, to partake of his triumph, and increase the terrors of his appearance. alway do thee service in heaven, so, by thy appoint(2.) "Mercifully grant that, as thy holy angels ment, they may succour and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." The Scriptures tell us much of the service which angels always do to God in heaven. "And I beheld," writes St. John in the Revelation (v. 11, 12), " and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying, with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." We read also of the angels (Rev. iv. 8), "They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." But these are not their only employments. God, we may be sure, has not such need of the praise of any created being, as to have instituted this noble army of cherubim and sera See Bp. Heber's Parish Sermons, vol. iii.; Sermon for St. Michael's Day; and James on the Collects. phim for such a purpose. They are, as we have seen, the messengers of the Almighty. The Roman centurion (Acts, x. 30) spoke of them, and without reproof, as soldiers and servants of Christ, who went where he would, and performed what he commanded. They fight their Lord's battles against Satan and the fallen spirits: the stars, the seasons, the clouds, and rain may be entrusted, perhaps, to their unseen direction. But they are also commissioned to work for us men, and our benefit; they succour and defend us on earth. If the servants of God are saved from surrounding difficulties, it is by angelic aid. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them" (Ps. xxxiv. 7). When Jacob was on his solitary and perilous journey, he had, in vision, the encouragement of angelic protection: "And Jacob dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it" (Gen. xxviii. 12). When God would deliver just Lot from the approaching overthrow of Sodom, "there came two angels to Sodom at even; and when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city" (Gen. xix. 1, 15). In like manner Daniel was rescued from the lions, Peter set free from prison, and Paul fortified against the threatening terrors of the sea, by the intervention of an angel. In accordance with all these instances, the apostle describes them as "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Heb. i. 14); they are God's domestic servants, awaiting his commands, executing his pleasure, and in a constant readiness to do his will. They have a charge of the bodies and souls of the saints while alive; and a special charge of their souls at death, to conduct them to blessedness. "Behold, then, the astonishing regard which the great God has for good men, in that he appoints all his angels to minister to them, for the safeguard of their persons, for the success of their affairs, and for the security of their eternal salvation. Lord, what is man, that thou art thus mindful of him; that when thou madest him lower than the angels, thou shouldest yet make the angels minister unto him! Behold also the impiety of the Church of Rome in worshipping of angels! Surely, if they are our fellow-servants, and minister unto us, we are by no means to worship them." The EPISTLE (Rev. xii. 7-12) is not strictly such, but is an account of the vision in which John beheld Michael and his angels combating with the dragon and his angels. There are many holy and learned men who suppose, from a comparison of the different passages of Scripture in which Michael the archangel-that is," the prince of angels"-is mentioned, that Michael (which is a Hebrew word, meaning "who is like God") is only another name for the blessed Son of God himself, who is called in Daniel's prophecy, the great Prince who was to stand up for God's people (Dan. xii. 1); whose voice all they who are in their graves shall one day hear; whom all the angels of God, as we know from St. Paul's epistle to the Hebrews, do serve and obey as their Prince and Sovereign; and who is, with great propriety, introduced by St. John, as the great Captain of the army of the faithful, in the words which begin this epistle : "There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon." Christ and his ministers fight against Satan and his cruel instruments, who are so far from prevailing, that they lose ground continually. If Michael our Prince be with us, Christ Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, our Leader, then, though the combat may be sharp, yet the victory is sure; for, if he be for us, who can successfully be against us? Burkitt on the New Testament. The GOSPEL (Matt. xviii. 1-10) begins with the question of the disciples to our Lord, who should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. But it is the latter portion which seems to have especial reference to the day, where Christ cautions the men of the world not to undervalue and neglect his members, much less injure and afflict them. The reason assigned is, "because their angels, being constantly and immediately in the presence of God," are perpetually ready to execute his will, by revenging any wrongs done to his children. We learn hence in what esteem good men are with God, that he commits the preservation of them to the holy angels, who are nearest to him, and in highest honour with him. It is not the Son of God only, whom they were to bear on their wings, lest he might dash his foot against a stone. It is not this or that great saint to whom such privilege and protection are confined; the poorest and most ignorant Christians have the like heavenly guardians. "Take heed," saith Christ," that ye offend not one of these little ones which believe in me; for I say unto you, their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." This is, indeed, their peculiar office and employment; and great, and wise, and mighty as they are, yet are they all but "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation." The Cabinet. FALLEN ANGELS.-We know that there were angels before men; for when the corner-stone of earth's fabric was laid, "the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy." We know that "they kept not their first estate." "O Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou fallen from heaven! how art thou cut down, even to the ground!" They fell, because their names were not written in the book of life; for had they been written there, they would not have fallen. We know that the devil tempts us, because he tempted Eve, and because he goes about to this very hour, "seeking whom he may devour." We know, by the very sovereignty of Jehovah, that this tempting is by God's permission; for in Job's case, nothing was done until leave was had from above; and God first allowed, and then limited, the temptation. We know, also, that these fallen beings are "reserved in chains." "Then," it may be asked, "how can they go up and down in the earth?" That expression is evidently figurative; and it must be so : not chains of iron, to bind immaterial beings, but chains of boundary, chains of imprisonment; and their prison may be this our lower world. Before that confinement, perhaps-ere heaven was lost and their glory withered-they ranged through the ethereal realms of space, messengers of good, free and unrestrained. Now they are bound, and chained down, it may be, to this world only. Our atmosphere may be the appointed limits to these evil creatures, invisible as they are; for form is not essential to spirit, as to matter. God is a spirit, unseen, though every where. "No one has seen God at any time;" and yet "he is about our bed, and about our path, and spieth out all our ways." To this earth, then, evil spirits may be, as it were, enchained; going hither and thither, and to and fro in the earth, to work out God's counsels. Here may be the boundary. "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." Of the origin of evil, we know nothing. Why we are tempted by Satan, we know nothing; and how we are tempted, we know nothing-that is, as to the particular mode in which he comes into contact with our hearts. The extent to which spirit may be enabled to act upon spirit, we are utterly in ignorance of. We know that we have good thoughts raised up in us; and we feel to our cost, and sometimes to our sorrow (God grant it may prove in the end a godly sorrow!), that we have evil thoughts; and we may be sure that they do not both come from the same principle. From Sermons on the Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness, by the Rev. E. Scobell, M.A. SCHISM.-Schism in religion is what lawlessness is in government. It is impossible, as mankind now are, to have only a spiritual standard, confined to our own souls; we want some visible one-some fence which all may see, to keep them from wandering wide in the wilderness. Were all left to their own estimate of good and evil, there would be divisions, and differences, and dissensions, without number and without end that which one person thought right another would think wrong; and the same person even might not be of the same mind a week together.* OBEDIENCE TO LAWFUL AUTHORITY. Without entering upon any refinements concerning the disputed doctrine of passive obedience, we cannot err in laying it down as a certain and Christian principle, that obedience to lawful authority is our bounden duty. And if ever we swerve from it (except perhaps in some extreme and almost hypothetical cases), we are guilty of a great offence against man, and of a great sin before God. Nor has this principle a coercive and despotic tendency; it does not destroy the rights, nor enslave the liberty of the subject. It does not forbid him to use lawful and constitutional means to protect his rights and maintain his privileges. And in our own happy and well-balanced constitution, where the different estates of the realm are so admirably blended; where we enjoy so much liberty and happiness, with so great facility for redress of grievances; where we have sovereignty without despotism, nobles without oppression, and popular freedom without licentiousness;-here disaffection and disobedience, if elsewhere criminal, must be indeed heinous and unpardonable.— Rev. E. B. Were (Sermon on the Coronation). Poetry. THE WIDOW'S SON RAISED. For Christ is in her walls. There is a crowd, there is a cry, How mournful the display! In strength and bloom, in manhood's pride, A mother's only son has died, A widow's only stay. See her the sable bier attend, And many a neighbour, many a friend, A Voice divine arrests the bier, But now, his human sojourn done, No more with Death to strive; Till, at creation's final hour, The trumpet cleaves the grave with power, And Adam's race revive. From "No Friend like an Old Friend." Pp. 46. Hatchards. 1838. BISHOP BUTLER'S ANALOGY. A friend of David Hume, the infidel, mentioned the book to him in the course of conversation. "It is a wonderful work," said Hume; "the argument has all the force of demonstration." "I am glad to hear you say so," replied his friend; " and let me add, that if you would only make this confession public, you would do more good than by all the writings you have ever published." "You mistake me," said Hume; "the argument has all the force of demonstration, if you grant the premises; but I deny the premises." These premises are, that there is a God, the Creator and Governor of the world. Hume, then, was obliged to profess himself an Atheist; but he was thus obliged to confess also, that granting there is a God, it is irrational to stop short of Christianity. The Dying Soldier, by Rev. W. Sinclair. ROBERT RAIKES.-Hardy assertors have not shrunk from the affirmation that Mr. Raikes was a Dissenter, and that the Dissenters were the first originators of Sunday-schools. Among the many obligations of the cause of truth to that noble Christian institution, the Bath Church of England Lay Association, is the refutation of this falsehood in a shape to preclude the pos sibility of its revival. Sir William Cockburn, a leading and active member of that zealous body, actually addressed the Rev. H. Raikes upon the subject, and read, at the last meeting of the association, the following reply:" Dear sir, I have great pleasure in replying to your inquiries, as I can reply most explicitly and most confidently. My venerated uncle, Robert Raikes, was not only a member of the Church of England throughout the whole of his life, but he was also a most attached and devoted one. I should much doubt whether he ever entered a single place of worship unconnected with the establishment, and he was uniform in his attendance at his parish-church on Sundays, frequent in his attendance at the early prayers in the cathedral on week-days. His memory is still cherished by some of the oldest inhabitants of Gloucester, who would remember, that though his mind overflowed with charity and good will to men of all denominations, his affections and allegiance were wholly with the Church of England. Yours truly, "H. RAIKES. "Chester, Jan. 1, 1838." This is very decisive; and it may serve as a proof of the recklessness of party, that the assertion here denied could ever have been made in the face of the facts, that Mr. Raikes's first coadjutor was a clergyman, and the first place to which the children were brought was the cathedral.-From Thompson's Life of Hannah More. PRAYERS AND TEARS.-St. Ambrose told a great emperor of the world how Christians of his time did avenge themselves. "Our weapons," saith he," are our prayers and tears; we weep for our persecutors, we pray for them; and after this manner do we fight against our enemies." LONDON:-Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND PRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE. { THE DUTY AND BENEFIT OF SEEKING so once. GOD. BY THE REV. E. J. WILCOCKS, B.A. Chaplain of the Scilly Islands. THE direction given by the prophet Isaiah, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found," and which is in accordance with many others scattered through the sacred volume, obviously implies that God is far removed from man, and man from God. It was not The Lord God was wont to walk in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day, and held converse with man, whom he had formed in his own image. There, we may suppose, the man and the woman pressed joyfully forward, to meet their God and Father, that they might commune with Him who was their Creator, and who had promised them an eternity of life, and bliss, and glory, on the simple condition of obedience. But this nearness of the creature to the Creator lasted not long; the tempter found his way into paradise, and prevailed, by insinuation and subterfuge, on our first parents to fly in the face of their God, and transgress his only command. And when, as usual, in the cool of the day, the voice of the Lord God was heard walking in the garden, the guilty pair, condemned by conscience, which God had placed as his vicegerent within man, instead of running with joy to meet him as heretofore, hid themselves. And from that time man, as a sinner, has been living in a total alienation from God, actively and passively opposed to him, hating the very thing that he loves, and cherishing and practising what he abominates. Consequently the holiness of God, and his abhorrence of sin, removes him VOL. V.-NO. CXXVII. PRICE 1d. as far from us as our iniquities separate betwixt us and him. And whilst our continued sins and wickedness prove the one, God's punishments, visitations, and afflicting dispensations, prove the other. Who can contemplate the estrangement which that accursed thing, sin, caused of man from his Maker! Look at the history of man as given in the Bible. Not far have we to go, in turning over its pages, ere we behold one brother imbruing his hands in the blood of another. And in a few years, wickedness had trod on with such giant-steps, and was careering on the earth to such a fearful height, that all flesh had corrupted his way before God - and corrupted it to such an extent, that it repented God he had ever made man. And with his anger comes his just vengeance: the flood is sent by him, to sweep all his rebellious guilty creatures, enemies to him by wicked works, away; and he could find in all the earth but one man who was upright and just before him, whom, together with his family, to preserve, when all the rest were drowned by the deluge-one grain of salt amid surrounding putrefaction. We advance a little further, and read of the unexampled wickedness of the inhabitants of the cities of the plain, the immensity of whose iniquity may be gathered from the awfulness of their punishment;-God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven upon them, and consumed them. Look at Israel, brought up out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, astounding signs and wonders having been previously wrought. Look at their history for forty years-history blackened by a catalogue of crimes which mark them as a rebellious, stubborn, stiff-necked generation,--a people whom R every fresh dispensation of mercy seems to have hardened more and more; a people whose conduct, amidst the greatest blessings and mercies, proves how vile, how unclean the heart of man by nature is, and how far removed from the holy Lord God. Then consider God's dealings with them for the same space of time: how punishment alternated with mercy; how his anger was let loose against them on account of sin; how he smote and chastened them, though his chosen people; how their carcasses fell in the wilderness; and how at last God, in the plenitude of his wrath, swore that they should not enter into his rest. Then the history of the conduct of the Jews, and of God's dealings with them on account of that conduct, throughout the whole of the Old Testament, is of the same character. I need not point out individuals who were guilty of such iniquities as to call down the summary vengeance of Jehovah, as a proof of the distance betwixt God and them; but I would refer to the conduct of Israel as a people. Consider how they gave themselves up to idolatry; how they copied and followed the abominations of surrounding heathen nations; how they preferred the worship of Baal to that of the only true God; how God punished them, both individually and nationally, and suffered them to be under bondage six times during their government by judges, and on two occasions to be carried away captive into Assyria and Babylon. It was the case when Jesus himself was on earth. Though the God of heaven was manifested in the human form of Christ Jesus, and though he came on purpose to bring nigh those who were afar off, the cry was, " Away with him! crucify him!" It is the same in the present day: the sins which we commit from day to day, the crying vices and iniquities of our guilty land, shew the distance at which we are living from God; and the punishments with which God at times visits individuals, families, parishes, towns, and nations, are a startling proof that the Lord is far from us. But though far, he may be found. Sin has caused the rupture, but we are not left in remediless ruin. God may be found; his pardon may be had; his favour may be recovered; his lost image may be restored. For through Christ, by faith in his merits and righteousness, the most alienated may become sons and daughters, the most guilty be pardoned. And there is no difficulty as to the way in which the Lord is to be sought. For four thousand years, even from the fall, it was known that God was to be approached by means of and through a vicarious sacrifice. Thus it was that Abel sought and found acceptance through the blood of a lamb, by means of, and beyond, which, by faith, he looked to a better sacrifice. Thus it was under the whole legal dispensation; its whole economy shewed that without a sacrifice none could approach God, and that without the shedding of blood there was no pardon of sin. And it matters not whether we view Him who is "the way, the truth, and the life," through whom we must seek the face of God, if we would find him,—it matters not whether we view him in promise, as the Seed of the woman, or in type as the bleeding Lamb, or in prophecy as the Man of sorrows, or in vitality of person as Jesus Christ dying on the cross of Calvary; he is still the same, the Mediator, the Redeemer, the Saviour, the Daysman who stands betwixt us and God, who brings the wanderers home, and draws the far-distant aliens nigh; he it is through whom we must seek God. We are to be convinced of our state by nature and practice; of our ruined, lost, irrecoverable condition; that we have forfeited heaven; that there needs the putting forth of some mightier energies than we are possessed of, to be recovered and restored; that they have been put forth by Him who travailed in the greatness of his strength; and that all we have to do is, to believe the heaven-sent record, and act upon it. We are, with a deep and hearty repentance of sin, with an earnest and sincere conviction of the necessity of the pardon of sin, to cast ourselves on the free mercy of God in Christ Jesus. We are to seek the face of an offended God, through the Son of his love, that through him it may beam reconciled upon us. The time, however, during which it will be serviceable and available to "seek the Lord" is limited. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found." That time is the period (generally speaking) of our probation here on earth; called in Scripture by the apostle," the acceptable time, and the day of salvation." Day after day the question is put to us, "Why stand ye here idle" in the great work of salvation? The Gospel still sounds in our ears, that Christ came to seek and to save the lost the offer is made us up to the eleventh hour; Jesus is still pleading, the Spirit is still striving, God is still waiting to be gracious. Every day that is added to our life is a fresh proof of God's willingness to be found by us. We should account his longsuffering to be our salvation. It is not too soon for the youngest; God says to them, "Give me your heart;"" they that seek me early shall find me." But it is not too late for the oldest; their being spared by God to grey hairs is a proof of it. As long as the Gospel-invitation is given, as long as its trumpet peals upon the ear, and as long as |