Poetry. THE CALL. How long the time since Christ began To call in vain on me! He called me, when my thoughtless prime I passed from folly on to crime, He called me, in the hour of dread, I trembled on my feverish bed, Yet could I hear Him once again As I have heard of old, Methinks He should not call in vain O Thou, that every thought dost know, My struggling will by grace control, ON A FAIR HOUSE HAVING A BAD A HOUSE to which the builders did impart I wonder'd at (as, who could not but do it?) Poor Daniel through his den; and Shadrach's driven, Miscellaneous. CHARACTER AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE DOCTRINES OF POPERY.-How destructive to holiness are these doctrines! They lower the standard of duty, by divesting it of its spiritual character: they cover over the loathsomeness of sin, by nice distinctions between venial • One of the poets of James the First's reign. and mortal; and generate an indifference to it, by providing, in penances, indulgences, and purgatorial sufferings, certain "refuges of lies," by which its eternal consequences may be evaded, and commuted for a penalty far less tremendous. They neutralise the supreme influence of the love of God in Christ, which is the only essential principle of holiness, by fixing our hopes on other mediators, and putting our own duties, or forms and outward observances, in the place of the Saviour. They cherish self-righteousness; they tolerate sin; they supersede true holiness and the consecration of the heart to God. And the natural fruits of such a system were abundantly exhibited in the general state of morals at the period immediately preceding the Reformation, at a time when the system itself had attained its highest stature, and had liberty to expatiate in the fullest and most unrestrained development of its character. Through all ranks, both of the clergy and the people, the polluting influences of a secularised religion had generated every kind and degree of impiety and gross wickedness; so that the demand for a reformation of manners was heard even from those whose conduct had contributed more or less to promote the evil, but who yet felt the danger from it, and the necessity of a speedy remedy.-Professor Scholefield. MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT, OR LEVEL. Matthew, iii. 3.-This is in allusion to the custom which eastern monarchs had of sending messengers to announce their approach, and to prepare the way before them, whenever they entered upon a journey or expedition. Roads in those days were far from being either numerous or good; and therefore these messengers or forerunners were of great use, particularly in desert and unfrequented places, by opening the passes, levelling the ways, and removing all impediments. Hence John the Baptist is called the messenger or forerunner of Christ. DYING COUNSEL.-Sir Walter Raleigh, equally celebrated for valour, genius, and learning, addressed his wife, in the view of approaching dissolution, in the following pious strain:" Love God, and begin betimes. In him you shall find true, everlasting, and endless comfort. When you have travelled, and wearied yourself with all sorts of worldly cogitations, you shall sit down by sorrow in the end. Teach your son, also, to serve and fear God whilst he is young, that the fear of God may grow up in him; then will God be a Husband to you, and a Father to him,-a Husband and Father that can never be taken from you." NON-EXISTENCE OF MATTER. Whatever purpose was intended to be served by such a tenet, surely its real consequences must be detrimental to the cause of Christianity. If all about us is mere mockery and illusion, the very foundations of all evidence, all faith, and all practice, are undermined; nor will it be possible to determine which position most contradicts my senses, or offers most violence to my conceptions, that which avers the non-existence of matter, or that which maintains the transubstantiation of it in the holy sacrament.-Hawkins's Bampt. Lect. NOTICE. Vol. I. is now completed, and may be had, handsomely bound in ornamented cloth, price 5s. 6d. Those Subscribers who wish to have their copies bound in the same manner may have them done up by the Publishers, price 1s. 10d.; or the embossed covers may be purchased separately, price 1s. 6d. 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 FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE. CHRISTIAN CONVERSION. BY THE REV. E. JACOB, D.D. APRIL 15, 1837. Vice-President of King's College, Fredericton, New Brunswick; and late Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. AMONG the causes which the celebrated historian of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" has thought fit to assign for the rapid and extensive propagation of Christianity in the world, "the doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important truth," justly occupies a distinguished place. "When the promise of eternal happiness," says Mr. Gibbon, "was was proposed to mankind, on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing the precepts of the Gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer should have been accepted by great numbers of every religion, of every rank, and of every province of the Roman empire." It was indeed "no wonder ;" and I know not if this reason alone, supposing only (what the historian himself professes to admit) the revelation itself satisfactorily attested, were not adequate to the mighty effect. The only wonder is, that a religion capable of such a progress should ever cease to proceed-that any of those whom it had once reached should cease for a day to be powerfully affected by it-that an individual, professing himself a believer in Christianity, should be contented to remain at rest, while there remains " soul" which may be "saved from death." a It is not my intention, however, to account for the apathy or inactivity sometimes to be observed; but merely to offer a few plain considerations, calculated, I trust, by the help VOL. II.-NO. XLVII. PRICE 14d. of God, to impress the mind with the affecting truth, that such a deliverance is actually to be effected by the "conversion of the sinner from the error of his way." Need I then say, that, according to the plainest statements of Jesus Christ and his apostles, every man who lives in this world is destined also to live in another and an eternal state? We have not here the fables of a Pluto and a Rhadamanthus; we have not the ingenious conjectures of a Pythagoras or a Plato; we have not the dubious anticipations of a Cato, a Cicero, or a Tacitus: but we have the solemn declarations of one who raised others, and himself triumphantly arose from the dead, that "the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves will hear his voice, and shall come forth;" and we have the clearest testimonies of those who were witnesses of his resurrection, that "it is he who is ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead." As little necessity can there be to assert that "the sinner," living and persevering in sin, has no hope of the happiness of the life to come. The same voice which declared the final revivification of all men, proclaimed the purpose for which they will 66 come forth;" the same witnesses who attested the resurrection of their Lord, announced, that when he shall " come to be glorified in his saints," the wicked shall "be punished with everlasting destruction." Nor can there be much occasion to dwell on the well-known doctrine of the Gospel, that "the sinner" who is "converted from the error of his ways" shall be "saved"preserved from that tremendous doom, and admitted into paradise. The whole volume of the New Testament is fraught with testi Q monies to this consoling truth; all sects and parties of Christians acknowledge and believe it; and the danger would now seem to be, not so much, lest any, like some of the early Christians, should pronounce great and notorious apostates incapable of recovery, as lest men of a totally different character, forming too slight notions of the repentance which is requisite, and indulging too vague and general a persuasion of the placability of the Divine nature, should" cry peace, where there is no peace, and strengthen the hands of the wicked by promising him life." The questions, therefore, which appear to be of most importance to ourselves are these: Who is the sinner needing to be "converted from the error of his way?" and What is that conversion which shall save his soul from death? The reply to the first of these questions will occupy the remainder of the present paper. Now, in search of the character that needs conversion, it is quite unnecessary to go among men who have never yet heard the Gospel, or to whom it may have been defectively or corruptly imparted. Both these classes of mankind are, indeed, proper objects of Christian compassion, and of missionary exertion; not as if "the Judge of all the earth" could "do" otherwise than "right;" not as if, at the great day of account, the maxim of Christ could be disregarded, "Of every man it shall be required according to that which he hath" received: but for this reason, that the happiness of a rational being requires certain moral qualities; and that they, who have not learnt to live according to God's holy will, cannot be prepared for the enjoyment of his presence. On this ground, perfectly justifiable has been the zeal of a Swartz or a Martyn in one hemisphere, and of an Elliott or a Brainerd in another, who have made the conversion of the heathen the prime object of their labours; nor are those pious missionaries or societies worthy of any thing but commendation and encouragement, whose labours are directed to the same object which the Divine will proposes to itself—that "all men" may "be saved, and may come to the knowledge of the truth." But sin and sinners, alas! are nearer home. They are found under the clearest light, the most abundant means of Christian knowledge. Let any man take up the ten commandments; let him take the two great precepts of supreme love to God and equal love to our neighbour, which contain the substance of these commandments; or let him take our blessed Lord's spiritual exposition of his Father's law, as it is contained in the sermon on the mount,-let any one, I say, take these for his rule, and he will find transressors almost without number among the professors of the purest form of our religion, Instead of "loving God with all the heart, and mind, and soul," he will find many who appear almost utterly regardless of the Divine Being, carelessly profaning his name or his day, seldom if ever studying his word, and living as if they had well-nigh "said in their hearts, There is no God." Instead of "loving their neighbour as themselves," he will find them almost indifferent to the welfare of others, unless they can be made subservient to their own advancement, interest, or pleasure; perhaps positively indulging in envy, or malice, or revenge, or uncharitableness; perhaps acting the tempter's part, and alluring to evil rather than seeking their good. Instead of "poverty of spirit," "mourning" for the sins and miseries that overspread the world, "meekness" under injury and vexation, "a hunger and thirst after righteousness" rather than all secular advantages, that "purity of heart" which qualifies for the sight of God, and readiness to suffer "for righteousness' sake," which ascertains the title to "the kingdom of heaven;"-instead of these Christian tempers and dispositions, he will find too, too great a preponderance of the very reverse of them all. In childhood, he will find the inclination strongly set towards that which is evil; in youth, the passions headstrong and impetuous, threatening to overleap all bounds, and carry their unhappy victim to precipitate destruction; in maturer years, the love of this world grown indeed mature, while regard for another seems hardly yet to have taken root; and in old age, when hoary hairs should at least remind men that their day is far spent, and that they have but a little time remaining to prepare to meet their God, he will find them caring for every thing, talking of every thing, busy about every thing, rather than that, their near-approaching, and most awful account. It is impossible for me to enter at length into particulars; for, as the great master of ancient reason has observed, sin and error are infinite; but if we look at the characters who surround us in life, perhaps I should rather say, if we reflect upon ourselves, we shall be at no loss to discover "the sinner" who needs to be "converted from the error of his way." Every one requires such a conversion, who does not live as if he believed the word of God; who does not lead that "sober, righteous, and godly life," which would shew that he entertains a serious and constant expectation of a judgment to come; who does not, in a word, spend this day as if he might to-morrow 66 appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." [To be concluded in a future Number.] the men." Another said, "Ah, sir, I wish this Sunday THE SABBATH AMONG WATERMEN. A PERSON who has been for twelve years a lockkeeper of one of the most frequented canals of Great Britain, states, "That the boatmen, who almost, without exception, work on the Sabbath, are of such abandoned conduct, that they generally shorten their lives by it, and that scarcely any men are living who were in the employ when he came to his situation. That their language is very profane; that they are generally given to intemperance, and ruin their constitutions by these and other vices; that they are very generally in the practice of robbing the wine and spirits in the boats. That though there are a few solitary instances of sober men, yet he does not know a boat's crew, consisting of three or four, who are so.".... The witnesses referred to, as having given their evidence before a committee of the House of Commons, trace the evils existing among watermen principally to their habitual neglect of the Lord's day. One of them stated, that a respectable company of canal-car-happy to hear that Sunday traffic was put an end to. riers, finding that the men, not having had proper instructions, had become so demoralised that they could not be trusted with any thing, determined to give up carrying on a Sunday. He also stated, that "if reproved for any sin," the men replied, "What is the use of leaving off one sin? we are obliged to break the Sabbath; and if we break one commandment, we will break the whole:" thus yielding to a sort of desperation in wickedness. . . . Judge Blackstone, after having remarked, “That the profanation of the Lord's day is punished by the municipal laws of England," proceeds to speak of the advantages resulting from the religious observance of one day in seven, and describes "the permitting of any secular business to be publicly transacted on the Lord's day, in a country professing Christianity, to be notorious indecency and scandal ;" and "that corruption of morals usually follows the profanation of this sacred day." He also states, that "he considered the Sabbath, even as a civil institution, to be most important, as tending to humanise the manners of the lower classes, which would otherwise degenerate into a sordid ferocity and savage selfishness of spirit."... I will mention a few instances which have come under my own knowledge, where watermen have expressed their sentiments respecting following their occupation on the Lord's day; and they speak often with such evident sincerity and feeling, that it is really affecting to hear them. One man declares, "that every step he takes when at work on a Sunday "that he goes to his very heart:" his wife also says, is very vexed; he does know good from bad; he makes himself very miserable about Sunday work." Another says, that when he is talked to about his soul, it tears him to pieces; but adds, "our masters will make us work on a Sunday, and what can we do?" Another, who has a wife and seven children, has twice suffered himself to be thrown out of employment rather than wound his conscience by working on the Lord's day; but the craving wants of a large family have compelled him to resume his occupation. The struggle which agitated the mind of this honest fellow calls for sympathy and relief. Another stated, that "he had been employed on the water thirty or forty years, and that from his youth he had always been in much trouble about working on a Sunday; but being brought up to the water, he felt obliged to do as others did." This man, there is reason to hope, is becoming quite a different character from what he once was. An old man remarked, "the Sunday work is a great oppression to Extracted from a Lecture delivered at the Guildhall, Worcester, on Monday, November 7, 1836, by the Rev. John Davies, A.M., rector of St. Clement's, in that city, on the State of Religion and Morais among that class of his Majesty's subjects who gain their subsistence by working upon our Rivers and Canals; and on the Duty of Exertion to promote their Spiritual Welfare. London, Seeleys. 1837.-A pamphlet which we earnestly recommend to our readers. 66 Why, sir, last Sunday we all three refused to work, and had words about it: it is a hard case for men to be forced to work on a Sunday." Another, who had worked fifty-three years on the water, stated to me his belief, that "Sunday work might be done away, with little or no injury to trade." When I observed to him," the human soul is of more value than all the vessels in his majesty's dominions," he was deeply affected; and when I added, that "Christ died for the poor watermen as well as for others," the old man burst into tears! A waterman recently observed to a respectable individual in this city, we hardly know one day from another," intimating he scarcely knew the Sunday from the week-day. When spoken to upon preparation for eternity, another said," it will be a year or two before I shall hear again so much about my soul-concerns." Another remarked to a 66 clergyman residing in this city, that "he thought the watermen in England were worse off than the negroes in the West Indies, because the negroes had never known better than to work on Sundays, and were all in the same situation; but it was not so with the watermen; they know better, and have relations who keep holy the Sabbath, and who grieve to see them work on the appointed day of rest." Another, who has a boat of his own, remarked to the same clergyman, "if this Sunday traffic is put an end to, I will subscribe to your Sunday-school; and, what is more, I will become a Sunday scholar myself, if you will have me.".... The deaths of some of this class of men have been truly affecting. A youth recently departed this life under bitter convictions of conscience, imploring all the men who came to see him never to have any thing to do with working on the water. The Sabbaths he had broken, and the evils consequent, stung him with keen remorse at an hour when he most of all needed the consolations of the Gospel. A poor lad, who had been in my own Sunday-school, being taken ill, felt anxiously solicitous about his future state; he confessed his sinfulness, and implored mercy with many tears; he observed, "Our way of life, sir, is sadly against us poor barge-boys-so much cursing, and swearing, and Sabbath-breaking, and such like." One day he expressed to a clergyman, who visited him, his deep sorrow for having once, in company with another boy, snatched some fruit from the stall of a poor woman: this shewed his tenderness of conscience. He continued in a penitent frame of mind, supplicating forgiveness for his sins through Jesus Christ the righteous, till he was removed from this world by the hand of death. In the year 1835, a petition signed by six hundred men, working on the river Severn and the Worcester and Birmingham canal, was presented to each House of Parliament; and this year a similar petition was presented, signed by more than nine hundred, praying for the privilege of the appointed day of rest. Another petition from the men who navigate the river Trent, signed by nearly four hundred, is too affecting to be overlooked; it is as follows: "That your petitioners are compelled, much against their will, to break the Sabbath, by hauling and sailing upon the said river, instead of worshipping Almighty God. They humbly beg to state, that they firmly believe that they could do quite as much labour in the six days, well employed, as by adding labour on the Sabbath-day; as they are fully convinced that it is entirely in vain to expect the blessing of the Lord of the Sabbath upon the labours of those who thus dare to break his law, and profane his holy day. They therefore beg humbly to request that your honourable house would take their case into your consideration, and enact such laws as may prevent them, and others in the same situation, from being obliged to do that which is so great a sin against God, and consequently so great an evil to themselves. That your petitioners will ever pray, that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon the labours of your honourable house for the welfare of this nation, so as that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations.' 6 A petition from the great body of flatmen and bargemen employed on the Mersey and Irwell navigation, addressed to the company of proprietors, has been handed to us; and it is with unfeigned satisfaction, and under a deep sense of the importance of the object, that we are authorised to announce that the petition has, in a manner highly honourable to the proprietors, been most favourably received; that a suspension of trade on the Sabbath has already, in consequence, taken place on these navigable rivers, with the prospect of there being ere long a total cessation of labour on that day throughout the whole extent of the line; and what is not the least satisfactory, as concerns the facilities and interests of the trade of the navigation, is, that such is the ardour and gratitude of the poor men for the privilege conferred, that, by their extra exertions to redeem the time hitherto expended on the Sabbath (by working up to the latest hour on Saturday night, and proceeding on their passage at the earliest possible hour on Monday morning), no delay whatever ensues in the despatch of business: whilst the benefits conferred on a numerous and interesting class of men, long excluded from the public ordinances of religion and means of Christian instruction, is inconceivably great, and must prove nothing less than a public blessing. I find upon inquiry that those individuals who, much to their honour, determine not to employ their men on the Lord's day, have to contend with severe competition, and that other carrying companies are too often ready to take advantage of their resting on the Sabbath-day; they are therefore convinced, that in order to put down the evil of Sunday traffic, some protective and prohibitory legislative enactment must be passed upon the subject; that nothing but a legislative measure can introduce a complete change in the habits of trade. I am informed, on the best authority, that the large mercantile and trading establishments are the chief authors of Sabbath desecration on our rivers and canals. They entrust goods to carriers with a positive injunction that they shall be delivered at a particular time, which, if complied with, necessarily violates the Sabbath. Hence, at the wharfs in many of our large manufacturing towns, goods are being taken in by carriers all Saturday night. At six or seven o'clock on Sunday morning the work of loading is not over; while others are unloading and discharging their vessels during the whole of the day boasts of her liberty as well as her religion. Ought these things to be?... As a nation, we profess" to honour the Sabbath;" yet, practically, have we not said," although we must admit that to violate the sanctity of the Sabbath is highly offensive to Almighty God, and in the greatest degree injurious to our fellow-creatures, yet, when our worldly interest or convenience may require it, we will dispense with shewing the honour we acknowledge to be due to Almighty God-we will sacrifice the souls of our fellow-creatures?" When the Israelites acted thus, what was the consequence? The Most High made this awful declaration-" My Sabbaths they greatly polluted; then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness to consume them." Let us not attempt to screen ourselves from the performance of duty, by deceiving our souls with subterfuges respecting the relaxation of the strictness of the Sabbath under the Christian dispensation. It is universally admitted by all "who name the name of Christ," that the peculiar characteristic of his Gospel is love. Can it be for a moment supposed that when, under the Mosaic dispensation, it was added, after the command to rest on the Sabbath," that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou," under the Christian dispensation, the men employed upon our rivers and canals should be doomed to the drudgery of Sabbath desecration, to the dishonour of the Most High, and the destruction of their own souls? Impossible!.... Let all ranks unite in this work as one man, and thus glorify God, and benefit their fellow-creatures; let it be seen that this great nation feels for the wants of all its subjects," that if one of the members suffer, all the members suffer with it." It was well observed by the Bishop of London, in a public address to the friends of the Sabbath Society, that "it is the duty of Christians to come forward and proclaim aloud their attachment to Gospel truth, and to promote by all means in their power the spread of God's word, the maintenance of his ordinances, and the observance of the Sabbath." Let not this exhortation be offered in vain: let us sacrifice, at the foot of the cross of the divine Redeemer, all petty interests which may interfere with obedience to the commands of the Most High, and the eternal welfare of our fellow-men. The work of Sabbath reformation is commenced,-" let us thank God and take courage;" "let us not despise the day of small things." The work will, through the Divine blessing, most assuredly be accomplished. Every thing must have a beginning; the noble rivers which adorn our land, which fertilise our fields, and bear on their bosom our commerce, diffusing wealth all around, had their origin in apparently insignificant brooks. ON CIRCUMSPECTION OF WALK, REDEMPTION OF TIME, AND GENERAL TRANSPARENCY OF CHARACTER.* I. ADHERE most scrupulously to truth, and labour to preserve the strictest integrity, simplicity, and sincerity. 2. Engage in no pursuit in which you cannot look up unto God, and say, "Bless me in this, O my Father!" 3. Strive to be as kind, forbearing, and forgiving, as you can, both to friends and foes. 4. Never speak evil of any one, on any pretence whatever. 5. Strive to recommend religion by the courtesy, of sacred rest: thus are the poor watermen compelled civility, and condescending character of your conduct. to toil to their sorrow during the season set apart by the Most High for man's spiritual improvement, as ll as bodily repose, and that, too, in a land which From Memoir of Rev. Legh Richmond. |