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dence, and the pale of his kingdom of grace," My kingdom is not of this world." But it is a kingdom of which Satan is styled "the prince "-and "the God”—which lieth in the embraces of the wicked one: whose wisdom is foolishness with God: whose friendship is enmity with God whose love is incompatible with the love of God: and which, if any man love, the love of the Father is not in him: according to whose course the unregenerate walk and to deliver us from which Christ gave himself for us all whose temptations, and allurements, and difficulties, and trials, our blessed Lord himself encountered and triumphed over, "I have overcome the world :" and which every one that is born of God overcometh, because greater is he that is in him than he that is in the world: from whose habits, tempers, principles, tastes, and enjoyments, all God's people keep themselves unspotted: which "is crucified unto them, and they unto the world."

Such then is "the world" which the Apostle commands us not to love. It is the society; the principles and practices; the interests and enjoyments, of all but the people of God.

In expanding and applying this fruitful topic, I might at once call upon you to "Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth : " and tell you that the Christian's life-not only his future hopes, but his present happiness" is hid with Christ in God." But into these deeps of spiritual truth it is not my present intention to launch. I would rather coast along the shore, and seek some straggler along the bounding line of time and eternity-of man's and God's world. I would simply, in the present paper, use the Apostle's precept as a shield to guard the strictness, the purity, the holiness, of religion, from the deteriorating contact of law and compromising profession. And I would do this, by briefly noticing a general ground of argument, or rather a specious train of self-deception, in which the will first bribes conscience to give a false verdict; then produces this verdict at conscience's own bar, as a plea of defence in arrest of judgment; then makes these extreme and extorted concessions of conscience but a scaffolding, on which to climb to still steeper and giddier precipices until in running the interminable rounds of this circle of self-delusion, the head grows giddy, and the heart grows sick : and "because they like not to retain God in their knowledge, God gives them over to a reprobate mind:" because they have "put away a good conscience; concerning faith they make shipwreck."

In the observations which I am about to offer, I do not speak of one class or order of society more than of another; I do not particularize the amusements of any class, that I may address myself equally to all. All, from the highest to the humblest, have their amusements, equally reprobated by the more serious of their own class and rank. Now many plead in their defence, while participating in those worldly amusements which are reprobated by the more serious of their own class, and from which they perceive that those persons have wholly separated themselves who are most frequent in the study of the word of God, and have drunk the deepest into its spirit, that they do not, in their consciences, believe those amusements to be inconsistent with their Christian profession: and that, therefore, however improper they may be for those who view them in a different light, to them at least they are innocent. But let us consider the awful extent to which this principle might be carried: a principle which constitutes our own

fancies, and prejudices of self-love, and not immutable truth, the standard of our duty. In fact, there is scarcely any sin which it might not be-indeed has not been, brought to justify. The gambler, or the spendthrift, in the very jaws of a ruin which he has dragged down upon his own devoted head, pleads the reasonableness of doing as he wills with his own: forgetting that he has nothing of his own; that he is but the steward of God; and that his wealth has been given him in trust for the use of his own family, and the relief of the distresses of his poorer brethren. The drunkard, or the sensualist, while tottering to the grave, in all the embecility, mental as well as physical, of a premature old age, satisfies his conscience with this excuse, false in point of fact, but even if true insufficient, that it is himself alone that he injures: forgetting that his time, his faculties, his life, are not his own, but God's: forgetting too the numbers that by his society, conversation, and example, he has drawn down with him into ruin. The very rebel, who at midnight fires your house and murders its inmates, proceeds to the place of execution impenitent, and has his excuse to plead; which, however invalid in the eyes of God, or of the human tribunal which condemns him, is yet fully sufficient to silence the alarms of his own conscience.

The truth is, that there has never, perhaps, existed the man who could dare to lift, as it were, an arm of bold defiance against a recognised God. All sin essentially consists in closing the eyes of the soul against the honest testimony of conscience, and thus quenching the light and the spirit within us. Hence throughout the whole catalogue of sins, from that which the world deems innocent levity, to that which Scripture pronounces to be the chief and damning sin, unbelief, every descent of the soul in the scale of Christian faith and moral practice must, necessarily, be preceded by a darkening of the spiritual understanding, either through a successful conflict with opposing convictions, or a rejection of spiritual light. Man is not so constituted as that he could recognise and defy God. If such a faculty be within the range of creation, it marks the diabolical not the human nature, however perverted and depraved. No man could continue to live in principles and practices which conscience continued to testify were obnoxious to the wrath of God. But when men "receive not the truth in the love of it;" and thus "like not to retain God in their knowledge, God gives them over to an undiscerning mind." But "if any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God."

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To all those who mingle in the vanities of the world, and sympathize with its peculiar engagements who refuse the gospel call, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate ;" and the gospel promise of Divine adoption connected with that call,-" and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty:" and who plead, in excuse, that their consciences do not recognise the necessity of a compliance with it,-to such, the spirit and letter of the Divine word justify us in declaring, that this very incapability of spiritually discerning their duty,-of discerning the nature and privileges of their Christian calling, is, at once, their sin, and its punishment. And if it be then asked, What must we do to be saved, while our conscience justifies us in practices which are said by others to be inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity, and the word of God? the answer is plain: "Examine yourselves

whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves." Examine whether you are not deceiving yourself as to what conscience really testifies; and if not, whether you have made use of adequate means to enlighten your conscience. Come to the consideration of that vitally important question, What is my duty-to believe—and to do? in an unprejudiced, uncompromising spirit; in a spirit of unfeigned humility; of entire submission and self surrender; of simplicity and godly sincerity. Pray with the psalmist, "Try me, O God, and seek the ground of my heart: prove me, and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me; and lead me in the way everlasting." Do this and be assured that your conscience will soon cease to present an anomaly in the spiritual system. It will soon be called back from its eccentric wanderings; in which it has been darkened, and chilled, by its distance from the Sun of gospel light and gospel righteousness. It will soon be taught to move in harmony with the consciences of all those who know God, and revere His word, and are taught of his Spirit, and guided into all necessary truth.

That "the world lieth in wickedness,"—that "the friendship of the world is enmity with God,"—and that "if any man will be a friend of the world he is the enemy of God," are plain declarations of Scripture. And both the compromising professor, who, in deep distrust of the safety of "the broad way," vainly seeks to blend religion and the world—and the mere man of the world, who shuns the society of the religious, as uncongenial to his tastes,-both of these, by their practice, admit that the holy and self-denying, the meek and recollected spirit of the decided Christian, is totally opposed to the levity of manner, the dissipation of mind, the heedlessness of spiritual and eternal things, of the men of this world.

But let us come to a plain and practical test. Let us estimate wordly amusements by their bearing upon the due discharge of the positive duties of social life. For that each of us has such duties, bound, by God, upon his conscience--as parent or child, husband or wife; as influential in society by means of wealth, of rank, of station, -none can possibly deny. Let us then inquire, What influence do worldly amusements exert upon a due discharge of the relative duties ? I do not indeed here inquire, whether parents can plunge themselves and their families into scenes of idle amusement and dissipated pleasure, and yet keep a single eye upon the promotion of their temporal interests, and advancement in the world; because I have no doubt that the temporal advancement of their family is, frequently, the sole motive which has led them into those scenes of gaiety, and turned them aside from the narrow path of life, in which, to all human judgment, they should otherwise have run well. But I would ask of all those who profess to believe in a God and an eternity, have they, in consistency with that belief, any mercy for the souls of their offspring? In their estimate of plans and pleasures, are the spiritual interests of their children even taken into the account? In their domestic arrangements, or public amusements, do they bestow a single thought upon the consideration of that awfully important question, whether this idol of their hearts, whose temporal interests they would cheerfully promote, even by the most painful exercises of self-denial; and whom, in the overflowings of a merely animal affection, they would thus, like the pelican, feed from their own bowels,

whether this loved idol shall wear an unfading

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crown of glory," amid "the spirits of just men made perfect," when all the cares, and pleasures, and interests of this transitory life shall have passed away for ever; or shall then be banished " from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power ;" and be doomed to lie down amid "everlasting burnings," in company with those lost spirits whose intimacy they courted for it, and to whose habits they conformed it, upon earth; whose worm dieth not, and whose fire is not quenched,—Is this, I ask, a question, which ever occupies the mind of those parents who lead their families into scenes of worldly amusement?

Neither do I ask, whether the man of pleasure may obtain from the world a high character for amiable suavity of manner, generous feeling, and honourable principle, as regards his intercourse with the world; because none can deny that many such exist. But what I would inquire is this; whether that amiable suavity of manner is genuine, or artificial: the fruit of solid permanent principle, or of mere arbitrary convention? Is its exercise confined to the votaries of pleasure, or does it extend itself to the votaries of religion? Would the man of the world sometimes note, in his own demeanour, the restlessness and uneasiness; the absence of ordinary courtesy; nay, often, the lowering look, and scowl of aversion, with which he meets those, of whom his own concience, in despite of every effort to suppress it, testifies, that they are the faithful disciples of a meek, and despised, and crucified Master; he would find "the witness in himself," "what manner of spirit he is of :" and for what society, alone, his tastes and habits qualify him. He would perceive the fatal aspect and bearing of worldly pleasures upon his "meetness to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light."

I would ask again of the man of pleasure, while his "debts of honour," as they are styled, are satisfied with scrupulous punctuality, does no tradesman repeat his call for the hard-earned pittance of his time, and labour, and scanty capital; upon the regular receipt of which the subsistence of a struggling family, and the succesful prosecution of his trade or business, mainly depend? I would ask, while in his voluntary subscription to some public amusement, or in clearing off in the private account with his acquaintance the balance of entertainments given and received, he meets every call in a spirit of liberality, of generosity, of profuse emulation, which has perhaps already led him into imprudent extravagance and consequent embarrassment; does he " visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction?" Does his presence often cheer the cottage of the poor, or the chamber of the sick? Is he "as feet to the lame, and eyes to the blind;" a father to the orphan; a husband to the widow? Or if an unavoidable call of imperious duty sometimes compels his attendance, the sickness, the pecuniary distress, the affliction, of some dependant, or relative, or friend, is it, on such occasion, his joy "to bind up the broken-hearted: to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound?" Or are these errands of mercy tedious, irksome, and uncongenial to him? How much has he subscribed to lessen the sum of human wretchedness that surrounds him? Which of the various institutions for sending the Bible and the missionary, God's best gifts, to heathen lands, meets his zealous and liberal support? Or if this be deemed visionary and enthusiastic: if his conscience objects the prior demands

of his own country upon his exertions: which of our societies for educating the poor, and evangelizing the ignorant: for rescuing the perishing orphan: for feeding the hungry for clothing the naked : for healing the sick: for promoting habits of cleanliness, industry, and morality, among his debased fellow-countrymen, meets his zealons co-operation and generous support? Which of them, in fact, has more from him than an extorted mite, evidently yielded, not to the cause, but to the urgency of its advocates;-not to God, whose expressed will continually solicits it; but to the present tide of popular opinion which bears him along; and, under pain of its censure, compels him to it?

I would ask too, does the "man of honour," and "of sentiment," never steal, like another Satan, into some paradise of domestic happiness; in the wantonness of uncurbed desire, pluck its fairest flower from this cherished enclosure; then fling it, in the disgust of satiety, to be trampled upon by a hard-hearted and unfeeling world: thus stabbing to the heart the unsuspecting brother, or parent, or husband, of whom he called himself the patron or the friend? And is not this murderer of happiness, and of souls, outlawed from the pale of that society which he has so deeply outraged? Does its agitated surface quickly close upon the poor victim which he has plunged beneath its waves? Does her place in society know her no more? Has her memorial perished: her name been clean forgotten: or remembered with scorn, or with anguish? And does he, the prime culprit, resume his place in the gay pageant of worldly pleasure, glittering in the trophy of a new conquest: receiving, with the affected modesty of a decent and becoming penitence, the raillery which his fame has drawn upon him: drowning those sobs of despair which ascend from the guilty conscience of his wretched accomplice, and those sighs of anguish which rend the hearts her sin has widowed, in the music of the tabret and the viol: the loud laugh of revelry; the soft accents of some, so called, modest female,—or the groans of a new victim? Is this horrid and disgusting picture a grouping of mere fancy? or is it a real and not unfrequent fact in the history of man's world? If so, need I but appeal to the hearts of parents, of brothers, and of husbands : to the delicacy of female innocence: to the sensitiveness of female purity," Love not the world?"

J. M. H.

A FORTNIGHT IN ENGLAND:-BY A FRENCH PROTESTANT.

(Concluded from page 79.)

CHAPTER V.

St. Paul's-Westminster Abbey-Style of Churches and Chapels-Manners of People-Shopkeepers-Acquirement of Knowledge-" Useful" Knowledge"Christian" Knowledge-the Record-Mr. O'Connell-Infidels-Church and

State.

HAVING fixed my day of departure, I endeavoured to catch a sight at every thing notable in London. I was like an Anglo-American at a railroad ordinary, gulping down all within my reach at twenty mouthfuls a minute. Happily the means of rapid communication are very plentiful in London.