such an one we look on, though a "child," | as of full years in Christ; and if called at once to die in him, dying as though "an hundred years old." Yet them, and all such, we would, nevertheless, most affectionately exhort to faithful perseverance. Let there be a shunning every "evil communication which may corrupt good manners," the abstaining from all which may wean from their brilliant expectations; let there be no growing weary in well-doing," no drawing back from the first love, no cessation from importunate prayer; but a continual cleaving to the Saviour, and dependence on his grace,-lest the maturity of childhood should turn to dotage in old age, and the fair morning of promise be clouded, and darken into the night of despair.

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Now these, brethren, as regards their acceptance with the Saviour, we put at once on a par with the generality of those of riper years. Not that we esteem them actually equal to the more advanced and long-persevering believer; there may be much to learn, and much to struggle through, ere they reach that eminence; but looking at their relative positions, their responsibilities, their means, their employment of the grace given, we may not pronounce the one inferior to the other. "The child" is ready" when soever his Lord shall call him ;" and what more is he who is an hundred years old?" Eternity may not see them equal; for the longer and more protracted service shall be recompensed in Jesus with the brighter crown and yet it may-because the amount of service to the Lord is not measured only by number of days, but devotedness of heart; and the few brief years of the young may have offered a sincerer and more ardent tribute than was rendered by a lengthened-out age, especially if that age were the alone period of holiness, and its youth had been a stranger to reconciliation with God.

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The Psalmist bears us witness that the young may "have more understanding than their teachers, when God's testimonies are their meditation," and "understand more than the ancients, when they keep his precepts:" and so we know there is sometimes a forwardness in piety; and instances of godliness have been displayed by our "little ones," which may not be left behind by the more matured Christian; and where thus much of grace is given and improved, we doubt not there will be thus much of recompense also. So that if the youth, whose whole ardour and energy have been devoted to the Saviour; who has swerved not from the way of his precepts, and therefore has, so to speak, lost no ground in "journeying Zionward;" if he be not permitted to see a multitude of years,

but the time, which should have ripened his strength, has wasted and consumed it,-still, we are satisfied he may die as those "an hundred years old," and wake again in as bright, or a brighter glory. Yea, as the hosts of the redeemed shall be presented before the Father's throne to receive his glad welcome to the eternal palaces, there may be conspicuous among the ranks of the ancient the head which never knew the hoariness of years; and the body, which reached here only the vigour of youth, may there wear a robe of as pure a whiteness as many which shall be seen within the New Jerusalem.

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Yet we speak of this only as explanatory of the principle of the text; nor mean we in any way to gainsay the general truth, that they who, having been godly in youth, have also proved "the hoary head" to be "a crown of glory, because found in the way of righteousness," may be more exalted for ever, if their zeal and service, proportioned to their means, have been altogether more. It is enough, we conceive, for the confirmation of that principle, if the child may attain to the level of the more advanced, or if the amount of a short-lived godliness may in any way be commensurate with the longer. And blest and happy they to whom it is so, whose infant piety lays itself an acceptable offering in Jesus at the heavenly altar! Yes, blest and happy, though premature decay destroy it, and an early grave close over it; because it shall yet live in the memory of friends, the dearest comfort in their loss; and more, it shall live in the remembrance of God, to be acknowledged in the presence of the Judge. We confess it is, humanly speaking, among the most moving of spectacles to mark youth thus withering in its bloom; and the more lovely, and amiable, and Christian that youth has been, the intenser the feeling that it shall be no more. The amount of loss is mea sured by the worth; and that whose beauty has been holiness, "and the mind seasoned with grace," is what we can least spare from its place in our regards. And yet, beloved brethren, which is the favoured year that has not witnessed ere its ending many such a scene? which, that has not borne with it the last breath of many a child of God, surrounded by the sighs of almost brokenhearted friends? O, where are some, who, when this year was young, were as shining lights in the temple of Christ's Church? their earthly lustre is extinguished; but now they illumine a temple above; and wherefore, then, the sorrow, that "hence, like a shadow, they departed?"

There is a vacancy in the family circle: it may be so; but there is another place occupied in the circles of the blest. There is a void in

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many riven affections; but why, when those affections may yet be filled yea, sublimed, by following whither that rescued soul has gone before? It may be sad to think of venerable parents left only to pensive musings on the dear departed, who "hath come up, and is cut down like a flower;" it may be anguish to hear the bereaved sister or brother recalling scenes now hallowed for ever by intercourse with the lost one; and to gaze on that newly covered grave, yet moist with the tears of weeping relations; but shall they" sorrow as men without hope," when that child of earth has become the child of heaven? Surely from that tomb there comes a voice, saying, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord," responded to by "the Spirit; for they rest from their labours." And though then it was distressing to see loveliness wither; and though it was painful to witness the tearing down the beauteous tabernacle so recently built up; and though it was misery to consign to corruption and the dust that which had never been strong with the vigour of manhood,-yet, tell us, was that youth in the manhood of Christ? were there the tokens of a matured Christianity? was there the power of the sanctifying Spirit? O, then, what though as a youth he has died, in Christ he has died as an hundred years old." His labour has been short, but his rest will be long; his trials have been brief, but his triumph will be glorious; his life has been childhood, but his manhood is eternity. In youthfulness he lay down, but in maturity he shall awake; "in weakness he was sown, in power he shall be raised," be raised with the honours of the venerable and the ancient, and the twenty or the one hundred years shall be forgotten in the countless centuries of a blissful futurity. Go, then, sorrowing parent, or relative, or friend, dry thy tears, and lift up thy head; lift it up to the home of thy beloved, and muse on the blessedness wherewith his Saviour now surrounds him. Yes, lift it up to that sinless clime, his bright inheritance; but let it be in faith, or that gaze shall be profitless; let it be with the inquiry, whether your own "redemption draweth nigh;" whether you, as he, shall be found in the Lord; whether where he is, you shall be also? And gathering thence fresh motives to holiness, and fresh fervour to thy prayers, let, O, let thy spared life and protracted years be employed in seeking, through the same Saviour, a like glorious immortality,-lest that youth, in the brightness of his resurrection-body, surpass that of thy longer but less faithful age!

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The last portion of the verse selected relates to so obvious a truth, that we shall

attempt little more than to embody its lessons in a closing exhortation, with especial reference to that period of time at which we have been permitted to arrive. And again, we shall not enter on the fact so much as the principle it contains. The fact that "the sinner," of whatever age, shall, when he dies, "be accursed," is not what men require to be taught, but which, well knowing, they endeavour to forget. The principle we conceive to be, that the longer a man lives as a sinner, the more will he be accursed; because he will have more despised the riches of God's goodness, more tampered with God's warnings, done more "despite to the Spirit," and more hardened himself in iniquity. Length of days, therefore, is no such advantage as careless transgressors too often imagine, bringing as it does so much more to be answered for. The long-suffering of our Lord is indeed to be accounted "salvation." O, that more frequently it were so! but long-suffering abused is misery increased, and the sinner of a hundred years old shall writhe beneath a curse measured by his term of existence, and proportioned to his more multiplied impieties. This then, brethren, we urge on your meditation, as the contrast to what we have already set before you. Alas! with what a sad inconsiderateness we generally go from year to year, one passing away, and another coming in its stead," without weighing as we ought the fresh accountableness each bears upon its wings. We may perchance reflect, particularly at moments such as this, when we stand at the very verge of one which can never more return, on the uncertainty and fleeting character of life, acknowledging it a vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." We turn, it may be, to take a parting look on incidents with which its course has been studded; we think once again of the void places in society, which when the year began were so well filled; we glance once more at the graves where those once dear are buried, perhaps recollecting with a sigh, that ere another round of the seasons has gone, we in like manner may be mourned: but then, having done this, turn we not back hastily to gaze again on the future, and to drown the sad recollections of the past in the prospects and pleasures just opening on our sight? Certainly we feel, and are forced to feel, we may not be allowed to outlive the new year, and that therefore it becomes us to " prepare to meet our God;" but then we feel also we may, and a thousand hopes and a thousand wishes conspire to make us count this the more probable issue; and thus powerless becomes the solitary warning we have drawn from the retrospect. But, forget though thus we may the past, and put away thus

find the blessed Jesus thus lamenting over the beloved city: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (A passage which, it may be remarked, establishes on other and unquestionable grounds the identity for which we are contending.) And further, do the prophets describe Jehovah in such terms as those of "serving with his people's sins," &c.?-we find, in Matt. xx. 27, 28, the exactest parallel: "Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." And in Luke xxii. 27: "I am among you as he that serveth."

In conducting this comparison, it must be allowed (though to those who have not considered the point before, it may appear startling), that the condescensions of the Most High are set forth in more frequent and express declarations of patience, forbearance, and long-suffering, in the Old Testament, than in the New. But the reason of this is plain. The same Being who, under the former dispensation, "spake unto the fathers by the prophets," manifests himself under the latter in living and palpable exhibition; and therefore the humility of the incarnate God appears in what he did and suffered, still more than in what he said. Nay, though he spake as never man spake, his silence expresses what no words can reach. When "the high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity," declares that he is "meek and lowly in heart," it does, indeed, "revive the spirit of the humble." But the impression is still more tender and profound, when we behold him assailed with taunts and insults, to which " 'he answered nothing;" when we behold him "led as a lamb to the slaughter;" and when, "as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."

If, to all that I have urged, it be objected, that the foregoing representatious of God, in the Old Testament, are not descriptions of what he is in himself, but mere accommodations to our weakness, I admit the objection to a certain extent. But, as far as it goes, it still more confirms the view which I have taken. It proves that Christ is identical with God; it proves that he is what the Scriptures declare, "God manifest in the flesh."

SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF CATHEDRALS CONSIDERED.*

"Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances?"

Much of the time which was formerly dedicated to God has already been alienated, and applied to other uses. The practice of week-day prayers has almost entirely ceased in our parish churches. The festivals of the Church are scarcely remembered. A portion of the nation, inconsiderable neither in numbers nor influence, is claiming the Sabbath as a day of worldly enjoyment. Where will be the end of these encroachments upon the worship and service of almighty God? The cathedral institutions present the strongest bulwark against further innovations in the national worship. They rest upon this broad principle, that it is sacrilege to curtail the worship of God. They remain as a standing protest against the modern doctrine, that man's indifference to his eternal interests may justify the desecration of holy places, and the abolition of holy ordinances. They seem to say to the fickle and impatient worshippers of the present day, Your fathers worshipped in this house of God; and not one word of their prayers, not one note of

• From Selwyn's "Are Cathedral Institutions useless ?"

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their praises will we diminish, "whether ye will hear, or whether ye will forbear." The cathedral, whether it be attended by few or many worshippers, is still the perpetual temple of the Holy Ghost-the altar of morning and evening sacrifice the oratory of daily and unceasing prayer. Can it be denied that God is glorified by the daily worship of his Church? We may further remark, on this point, that the cathedrals are almost the only places in which the word of God is publicly read on every day of the year. The framers of the calendar evidently intended to combine, in the services of the Church, the two advantages of a complete perusal of the whole Bible, and of a more particular application of select portions to certain days and seasons. The weekly order of the lessons answers to the one purpose; and the appointed lessons for Sundays and holydays to the other. The Sunday lessons are read in all churches; the lessons appointed for holydays, in the cathedrals and in a few parish churches: but in the cathedrals almost the whole of the Old Testament is publicly read once in every year, and the New Testament, with the exception of the Apocalypse, thrice. Is it, then, or is it not, the bounden duty of beings who derive all their hopes and blessings from their knowledge of revelation, to provide for the entire and constant publication of the word of salvation which God has mercifully revealed? If so, then the cathedral churches perform a service which, though it has been discontinued in most of our parish-churches, is doubtless acceptable in the sight of God, and therefore ought to be venerable in the eyes of men. The cathedral minister alone continues to read, "day by day, from the first day unto the last day, in the book of the law of God."+

Next to the duty of promoting the glory of God, by the ordinance of daily worship, the most important office of the cathedral clergy is intercession. Not a day passes in which they do not implore the mercies of God for this great and sinful nation, and for every one of the sinners of whom that nation is composed. Do the people sin? The prayer that rises continually to heaven, from within the sanctuary of the cathedral, seems to say, in the spirit of Samuel, "God forbid that I should sin against the Lord, in ceasing to pray for you." Does the great council of the nation err? Within the same walls the prayer is daily heard, that God" would be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations to the advancement of his glory and the good of his Church." Are the clergy negligent? The same unceasing voice is heard to pray, that God" would send down upon our bishops and curates the healthful spirit of his grace, and pour upon them the continual dew of his blessing." Are the laity backward? Again the same intercessor offers up his daily prayer to God, that all men 66 may shew forth his praise, not only with their lips, but in their lives." Does the sin of schism prevail? The cathedral minister never ceases to pray, "that all who profess and call themselves Christians may hold the faith in unity of spirit and in the bond of peace." In short, while the daily service of the cathedrals is maintained, the sun can never set upon any national or private sin, for which prayer has not that very day been offered up to almighty God. This is an advantage entirely distinct from that communion of prayer which is supposed by some to be essential to the effect of the ordinance. "The prayer of a righteous man," as St. James tells "availeth much." And this peculiar power of intercession is well stated by Hooker, "that it is a benefit which the good have always in their power to

us,

With the exception of such portions of Scripture as have been intentionally omitted in the calendar, viz. parts of the Levitical law, of the prophecy of Ezekiel, and of the book of Revelation.

↑ Nehemiah, viii. 18. At all events, this practice is a standing warning to remind us what was the original intention of the Church, and how much we fall short of it.

bestow, and the wicked never in theirs to refuse." There must always be least communion in prayer at the very time that prayer is most needed. Abraham stood alone when he interceded with God. A sinful world may refuse to pray, but it cannot altogether set aside the mercy which is obtained for it by the intercession of the faithful. May the time never come when a single living soul shall be able to say with truth, that prayer is not made "without ceasing of the Church unto God for him "

The Cabinet.

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST.-Adam is a type of Christ. How? In this respect: as the former was the cause of death to all his descendants, they did not (like him) eat of the forbidden fruit; so Christ is the cause, author, and procurer of righteousness to all his seed, though they have not (like him) been personally obedient-even of that righteousness which he finished for us on the cross. For this reason-to ascertain and appropriate the honour of this righteousness to Christ, as a work not wrought in us, but completed for us on the cursed tree. He insists and dwells upon that very remarkable circumstance, one. He iterates and reiterates the emphatical word, one (Rom. v.). He introduces it again and again, and can hardly prevail upon himself to discontinue the repetition," As by one man sin entered into the world. Through the offence of one many be dead. Not as it was by one that sinned so is the free gift. The judgment was by one to condemnation. By one man's offence death reigned by one. As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation. As by the disobedience of one many were made sinners. Thus the apostle again and again introduces the word one, and can hardly prevail upon himself to discontinue the repetition, that if a Jew should ask How can the world be saved by the well-doing of one, or by the obedience of Christ? you may be able to reply, on his own principles, How could the world be condemned by the evil doing of one, or by the disobedience of Adam ?→→ St. Chrysostom.

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THE DESIRE OF ADMIRATION.†-" Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised" (Prov. xxxi. 30). The desire of admiration may originate in that instinct which leads us to seek the approbation and good-will of our fellow-creatures, and which was probably implanted in the human breast to unite mankind in the bonds of social amity; but as it ceases to be a virtue when it takes a wrong direction, I beg leave to place it on the list of those subjects which very properly demand a serious investigation preparatory to receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. To lay snares in order to captivate the affection of others, merely as a tribute to vanity, without any disposition to return that affection, is most dishonourable and unworthy of a Christian; it betrays artifice, falsehood, want of charity, an unfeeling disregard to the happiness of our fellow-creatures, and a want of that religious principle which enforces the acting towards others as we desire they should act towards us. Can such conduct be deemed innocent? Can the fairest form be any thing but deformity in the sight of God, in which a vain, callous, and false heart is lodged?

From "The Life of Christ: illustrated by choice passages from one hundred and thirty-eight eminent British and foreigu Divines; and embellished with seventy wood-engravings after celebrated masters. London: Ball, Arnold, and Co."-This is a beautiful book, splendidly got up. It contains the sacred text digested into several heads, and annotations or explanations by a variety of writers. The wood-engravings are very good, and from well-known pictures: for instance, the Crucifixion, and the Descent from the Cross, after the famous works of Vandyke and Rubens, with many others of the same class. This illustrated Life of Christ would make a most appropriate Christmas present.

+ From Mrs. Cornwallis's "Preparation for the Lord's Supper."

That this crime, for such it ought to be called, is confined to the female sex, cannot be asserted, for every day affords instances of the same conduct in men, and many an amiable girl sinks into the grave a victim to their dissimulation and vanity. The misconduct of one sex will not, however, justify error in the other; both must be amenable to God, and by their motives they will be judged. It is possible that a woman may be so unfortunate as to please, where she has never sought to do so; in such a case she is certainly blameless; but, on perceiving a growing partiality, she should do more than not seek occasion to increase it, she should do every thing in her power, consistent with good manners, to check it. Is there not danger that she, who in single life practises coquetry to attract homage and attention, may follow the same course when married; and by so doing endanger the peace of her husband, and expose herself to the consequences of jealousy or wounded affection? No worthy motive can be attributed to a married woman who seeks to be admired by any man but her husband, and for him she ought to render her person and manners as pleasing as she can. A sensible woman, however, will never expect the same sort of attention from him after marriage that she received when single; both engage in cares and duties before unknown; his expenses are materially increased; his time must be devoted to his profession, or his private concerns; and in his wife he now naturally seeks a kind and faithful friend, to whom he can confide his cares and his most secret thoughts; who will manage his family with propriety, and render his house a retreat in which he may find peace, order, and rational conversation. To fulfil such expectations, should be the ambition of every wife, and she will find the confidence reposed in her more flattering than any homage that could be paid to her charms; for "the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, her children rise up and call her blessed." The desire of admiration is generally accompanied by dissipation. A vain female chooses to be seen; she can have no satisfaction but when she is attracting notice; mental pleasures are, therefore, unknown; and the faculties with which she is blessed are suffered to rust, or to be exercised only on the shape of a cap, or some such important trifle. Will such a life bear self-inquiry? how then will it bear the scrutiny which we must all stand at the last great day? Let the young, while they are yet uncontaminated by the world, accustom themselves to try its fashions and manners by the standard of religion: she is not an austere task-mistress; she demands no sacrifices that do not tend to our happiness; "her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Moderate and virtuous pleasures are not prohibited, nor healthy exercise, nor social intercourse; excess only renders any of these things sinful. Let them recollect how short the season is during which personal charms will attract admiration; and when this is past, what is to be done if the mind has been neglected, and if the taste is lost for useful and profitable occupation? A frivolous woman in the decline of life is an object indeed of compassion; and heavy must be the years she has to drag on in weariness and neglect, not to mention self-reproach, if her time has been devoted only to vanity and folly. But the young woman who cultivates her mind, who shares in the innocent pleasures of life without setting her heart upon them, who practises her religious duties without austerity or ostentation, who displays neither affectation nor vanity in her manners and dress, who does all the good she can, without being obtrusive or too officious;-such a woman will be beloved by her relations, and esteemed by all who know her; and when the graces of youth are passed, she will neither regret them nor miss them, for her lovely well-cultivated mind will shine forth in her countenance, and her well-spent life will secure her permanent esteem.