be God, this sin-abhorring holiness, acting and re-acting, repelled, while it shrunk back from, the communion of polluted man.

The obstacle which these conflicting attributes of the all-perfect and immutable God opposed to the exercise of his mercy, appears, indeed, as nothing in the eyes of men in their natural state, who would make God such an one as themselves, a man that he should lie, the Son of man that he should repent: who, at the cry of their misery, however deserved, would at once annihilate the truth, the justice, the holiness, the very nature of God; and entomb his spiritless and mutilated corpse in the convenient sepulchre of an universal and indiscriminating mercy. They would magnify this one monstrous and disproportioned feature, until it obliterated all the perfections of God's image, and swallowed up his whole nature. But in proportion as the light of truth shines into a soul, and reveals to it the real nature of God, this obstacle appears vast, and, without the Gospel, would appear insuperable.

That mercy then might be extended to man in full harmony with these conflicting attributes; that God might be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly; that, in restoring him to the Divine favour and to the communion of God through the Spirit, mercy and truth might meet together, righteousness and peace embrace each other, Infinite Wisdom taxed all the resources of created being,—and in vain! No creature, however holy, could possess merit, in the sight of God, with which to atone for sin; nor dignity, however great and glorious, with which to repair the breaches of offended Deity. God, in the language of man, looked, and there was none to help, and wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore his own arm brought salvation. In the infinitude of his wisdom and his love, he took upon Him that nature which had broken the order of His universal government, with all the infirmities and miseries which sin had entailed upon it; yet in immaculate purity, unsullied by that sin. He bowed the heavens and came down to earth-yea, descended to the deepest hell—that he might snatch us as brands from the burning, and cause us to re-ascend with him to heaven. He kept perfectly that law which man had broken, so that not one jot or one tittle passed away unfulfilled, and thus magnified the law, and made it honourable: then, as our representative, placed to our account his perfect righteousness; as our substitute, bore our sins in his own body on the tree, and gave his life a ransom for many. He made upon the cross a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world; conquered death, and him that had the power of death, the devil: ascended up on high, leading captivity captive; pleaded, as our one Mediator, ever living to make intercession for us, his own merits and sufferings; and, as the token of their acceptance for our justification-as the pledge of our re-adoption into the family of God-as the means of our re-admission into communion and fellowship with the Father-and as the earnest of our everlasting inheritance, sent down upon his people the promised Comforter, the Spirit of grace and peace, by whose omnipotent energy the reigning power of sin is put down in the soul; the flesh, with all its affections and lusts, is crucified; the will and affections are spiritualized, and assimilated to the Divine Mind; we are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,

and enabled, in the confidence of faith, of hope, of love, to cry, Abba, Father.

If such be the history and nature of redemption-if such be the necessity for the indwelling of the Divine Spirit in the soul-if such be the transforming energy of that Spirit, that it renews the soul in righteousness after the image of Him that created it; surely no question can be proposed of deeper importance than that with which I would now make a practical application of our present subject to each reader, individually, Have you the Spirit of Christ?

"The

If you answer, as is the privilege of the believer in Christ, Spirit itself beareth witness with my spirit that I am a child of God," I would guard you against the delusions of that adversary who sometimes transforms himself into an angel of light: I would not alarm but cheer; I would not shake but establish your faith, by exhorting you to try that spirit whether it be of God; and I would remind you, that by its fruits ye shall know it.

They that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Are your affections set upon things above, and not on things on the earth? Has a marked and radical change passed upon you in this respect; and can you point to the time when it was far otherwise › for thus it is with every man who has "passed from death unto life."

Whatever may be the varieties which the characters of natural men exhibit; though some may be amiable and benevolent, others hateful and hating one another; though some, of a more refined temperament, may be constitutionally free from strong temptation to those grosser sins to which others are naturally enslaved; though some, cast in a more intellectual mould, may soar throughout created being in philosophical speculations-speculations which a fever may thoroughly dissipate, and which, based on matter, death must close for ever; while others develope scarcely more of intellect than do the beasts that perish; though some, the wise and prudent of this world, in the cool calculations of selfishness, may maintain an honourable name; and walk in the self-denying, narrow path of soberness, temperance, and chastity; and obey the commands of God at the bidding of man ; while others, gross and carnal and reckless, delight to wallow in the filthy mire of sensuality; still all, however amiable, and benevolent, and refined, and intellectual, and wise, and prudent, in their natural state walk by sight, and not by faith, and have their conversation in earth and not in heaven. The objects and pursuits of all are palpable to sense, and enclosed within the material horizon; the principles and motives of all tend to and centre in self. Are your hearts then, and your treasure, in heaven?

But if this be to speak in terms too vague and general, are, I would ask, the objects which principally occupy and interest your mind those which are impalpable to sense, spiritual, invisible, and eternal? Are you, with the great majority of professing Christians, but practical heathens, around you enquiring with covetous and anxious heart, what shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed? How shall I increase my wealth, add field to field, and house to house? How shall I advance my station in society, aggrandize my family, gratify the propensities of my nature? Or have you the testimony of your own conscience-for remember that you

plead not at the bar of human judgment; that your cause is to be tried by the heart-seeing God, and your own conscience the accuser and the evidence-have you then the testimony of conscience, that in simplicity and Godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, you have your conversation in this world? that you are sincerely and earnestly seeking, first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness; the pardon of sin; the regeneration of your soul, dead, as it naturally is, in trespasses and sins; the salvation of your never dying spirit? Does the daily crucifixion of your corrupt nature, the increasing deadness of your soul to the allurements and distractions of the world, to the tyranny of opinion, to the disturbing excitement of evil tempers and passions, to the solicitations of sense, evidence the indwelling of that Holy Spirit, through whose operations alone we can mortify the deeds of the body-for " he who hath wrought us for this self. same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit?" Does the constant development and maturing of the several graces of the Divine life-of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance-unequivocally indicate the root from which alone such fruits could spring?

But to enumerate, in detail, the various marks of the indwelling Spirit, were impossible. They are infinite as the operations of mind; for every thought is animated and impregnated by the Spirit of the living God, or by that spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. To sum up all in one, contemplate Christ! Contemplate the rays of Divine glory which beamed, in softened lustre, through the veil of his humanity. Contemplate his humility and meekness, his temperance and purity, his deadness to all the gratifications of sense, his crucifixion to ambition, to vanity, to fame: who, while he wielded the power of omnipotence, and reversed the laws of nature in some miracle of mercy, forbade that they should make him known; or, when for a brief space he resumed his native robes of heavenly majesty, and clothed himself with light as with a garment; and, crowned with a diadem of glory, and accredited by the voice of essential Deity, received the homage of the invisible world, commanded that they should tell no man! Contemplate his meek submissiveness to the brief authority of constituted powers, his patience of offences, his forgiveness of injuries, his love even of his enemies; his days of active and unwearied beneficence, his nights of fervent, solitary prayer; his meek, unearthly Spirit, moving with self-denying punctuality to fill up the circle of providential duty, yet wholly abstracted from the sympathies of the world, and deeply centred in the contemplation and enjoyment of the Divine presence. Contemplate this brightness of the Father's glory, and express image of his person, and ask-I will not say whether your own soul, as a pure mirror, reflects back, unbroken, this perfect image of the invisible God-but ask your conscience whether this transcript of the Divine nature-this personification of the eternal law of righteousness, viewed as the archetype of all God's children, as the model to which you yourself are to be daily more and more conformed, and which you are perfectly to resemble when you shall see Him as he is-whether this, as your own image, faithfully depicting the character of your soul, and of your enjoyments, throughout eternity, awes, and depresses, and repels, or cheers, and elevates, and attracts you? Let but conscience speak the truth, and you have

here the most unequivocal and infallible evidence what manner of spirit you are of.

In fine. To seek the attainment of the Divine Spirit there is every motive, and every encouragement. To possess it, is to possess "al good things:" to want it, is to want life, or peace: for there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked: to be carnally minded is death, and inevitably conducts downward to the blackness of darkness for ever to be spiritually minded is life and peace; its fruit holiness, its end everlasting life. That Spirit, indeed, was the hard-earned, dearbought purchase of the humiliations of Deity-of the agonies of an incarnate God. To you it is free as the light of heaven, as the allpervading, all-sustaining air, as the tender mercies of our God. Ask and it shall be given you, liberally and without upbraiding: for if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him. J. M. H.

ON THE PUBLIC MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

As many of the benevolent and religious institutions are about to hold their annual meetings, I have thought that some of the great ends which the conductors of the Christian Observer have in view, might be promoted by the admission into your very valuable pages of a few remarks upon the use and abuse of such occasions. The large number of institutions which are constantly being established, the moral grandeur of the objects they are designed to secure, and the fresh and widening spheres of operation which are continually opening before them, combine to invest this question with much of interest and importance.

Some very estimable persons speak of these public assemblies as unmixed evils, and are not only unwilling themselves to take any share in their proceedings, but use their utmost influence to induce others to abstain from attending them.

I cannot coincide in this opinion, but still there is ample room for improvement in the mode of conducting our public meetings. They are frequently protracted to an unwarrantable length; and among the speakers some are dull, others are too facetious; a few may be too brief, but not a few are by far too long. Some will sermonize instead of speaking; whilst others will launch forth into the troubled ocean of politics, when they should rather confine themselves to tracing those silent but fertilising streams which the institutions they plead for so frequently provide. But notwithstanding such defects, these periodical meetings are productive of great benefit, and are absolutely necessary. It would be unjust to the public to ask them to contribute for a certain object, without explaining its nature; stating the means we propose to employ; and shewing that those means are calculated to secure the end proposed. And when contributions have been obtained, those who have supplied them have a right to know how they have been employed, whether untoward circumstances warrant the abandonment of the undertaking, or the measure or prospects of success call for continued and renewed exertions.

It may be said, that information upon these points may be circulated by means of the press: but public meetings are the best of all the means that can be employed to interest the public mind upon any subject, whether political, benevolent, or religious; and it consists with my own personal observation to state, in reference to religious objects, that when this mode of proceeding has been objected to, and printed instead of oral appeals have been adopted, a signal failure has been the result. Many persons who will not take the trouble to read a printed paper, or make themselves acquainted with the merits of the cause which it recommends, will nevertheless repair to a public meeting, and listen with attention to the details which may be brought before them, just because they prefer this more popular mode of obtaining information.

There is something in the very nature of such assemblies which tends to rally the friends of the cause they are convened to promote ; a wholesome measure of excitement is produced; a spirit of inquiry is awakened; and all must feel, that by the unequivocal approval which their attendance involves, they are casting the weight of their influence into the right scale, are openly ranging themselves on the right side, and thereby are easing each other's labours, strengthening one another's hands, and cheering each other's hearts.

If public political characters wish to advance the interests of the party or section to which they have attached themselves, they are not content with setting the press in motion, thereby diffusing their principles, and publishing in newspapers and periodicals the arguments by which they endeavour to sustain them; but they avail themselves largely of public assemblies; and discussion, with all the animation that naturally belongs to it; poetry, with all its bewitching sweetness; and oratory with all its fire and energy and grandeur, are put in requisition on behalf of their cause, or in defence of their clan. So also men of science are not satisfied with perusing treatises, but they pursue their inquiries as opportunities offer, and then meet together to be informed of the success of each other's researches, to discuss the opinions they have severally formed, and to avail themselves of each other's experience: and thus, by the results of their collective judgment, they greatly promote their common object.

Now the Christian has a far loftier end to attain, and is actuated by nobler motives; he serves a better Master, and looks for a richer and an enduring reward. The politician may laudably seek to improve his country's constitution, and endeavour to confer civil liberty upon those who he thinks possess it not; but Christians desire to look into the constitution of heaven, and to secure that liberty with which Christ has made his people free. The philosopher may make valuable discoveries, whereby the comforts and conveniences of mankind may be multiplied; but he promotes their welfare only during the first budding of their existence, whilst Christianity affects the whole duration of their being the benefits it confers not being limited by time, but stretching into eternity.

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What reasonable ground can Christians have for objecting to the public meetings of religious societies when properly conducted? It can be satisfactorily shewn that such meetings are perfectly Scriptural; før although we ought not, like the Athenians, to spend our time in nothing else but to tell or to hear some new thing, yet we should meet together, and (Acts x. 33) "be present before God, to hear all CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 17. 2 M