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I cannot believe it. Oh no!' added he, 'God is too merciful to torment his creatures thus; do you really believe, sir,' said he, 'that the Almighty will torment his creatures for ever and ever, for the sins of a few brief years?'

"I replied, that Mr. E. must refer to the argument I had repeated to him on a former occasion, respecting the reasonable insufficiency of human judgment to arraign correctly the acts of omnipotence. I repeated this argument at length; and added, that the question reasonably was, and reasonably must be, 'whether the Almighty had informed us such was his intention-that it was quite impossible for us to apportion what was the due punishment of sin, since we could not estimate fully the turpitude of sin. It clearly exceeded our calculations. Judging of its deadly character by its effects, they were clearly found in this world to expand from a small origin to circles of time and consequence we could not measure, and to produce wretchedness and misery beyond all our powers of estimation. The objection,' I added, 'that what occupied only a few years in commission was not worthy of a punishment beyond computation, was a proposition by which men were not influenced in the infliction of human justice,'-illustrating this.* I added, that if the Scriptures were to be believed, and that mankind had forfeited all claim to heaven in justice, or on account of deserving, and that redemption was purely and wholly an act of mercy -then the man or woman who lived and died

* A murder, for example, occupying perhaps but a few seconds in committal, receives a punishment in the deprivation of life, and consequences to those connected with the murderer, which are quite incalculable.

neglecting that "great salvation" could not surely have any further claim whatever on the mercy of God.'

"These and other arguments appeared much to impress Mr. E., but not until he was brought to feel the power of praying to God through Christthe sweet influences of THAT prayer-then only did he cease to arraign the judgments of the Almighty at the bar of his fallible judgment. Not until then could he say:—

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Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer
Right onward.'

Or with David: 'Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever,' Psa. cxxxi.

"To watch the progress of a human soul to a saving knowledge of Christ, from a condition of impenitence,

"The stormy winter of our discontent,'—

is surely the most interesting study on earth. It is what shall we say ?-it is as when the ices of winter burst asunder, and the mists fly upwards, and before the returning influences of the sun, the bud is on the tree, and the verdure re-clothes the barrenness that was, and one flower and then another decks the earth, until beneath the full summer shining of the Sun of righteousness, 'the heart be established with grace.'

"Mr. E. was at last happily brought to a condition of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

"He has long been bedridden, and has to read through an enormous lens, fixed in a tube, which he has himself constructed, any ordinary glass being useless to his fading eyesight. He is also excessively deaf. Shouting to him for hours has made me sometimes quite hoarse; but there are so many pleasing circumstances connected with his case, his faith is now so simple, his penitence for past neglect of God our Saviour evidently so sincere, that it is a great pleasure to visit him notwithstanding, and to converse with him, and to hear him repeat the prayers he has selected and committed to his memory, which is very vigorous and retentive, notwithstanding his extreme age. I have every reason to believe he is among those blessed ones who 'worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,' Phil. iii. 3.”

Socinianism has its origin "in the pride and folly of unsanctified intellect." When our Lord Christ is formed in the heart, "the hope of glory," then all such deadly errors flee. Rejoicing in the beatific vision already given, the soul can then say:

"Answer thy mercy's whole design,

My God, incarnated for me:
My spirit make thy radiant shrine;
My light and full salvation be.

And through the shades of death unknown,
Conduct me to thy heavenly throne."

In concluding, we remark, that although the poor of London are not found to be led away to any considerable extent by the errors of Socinianism, their ignorance and irreligion render them nevertheless pitifully the prey to various forms of the wildest and most visionary emanations of perfect folly. We had proposed alluding to several of these forms of error, and giving some particulars of the Mormon delusion among others, and of interviews and discussions with Mormonites. Interesting, however, as such statements and narratives would doubtless prove, the limits of a single volume prevent their insertion, except to the exclusion of cases of more direct spiritual result, and consequent greater interest.

CHAPTER V.

INTEMPERANCE.

Drinking usages of society-Homer's Hector-The certain guide of the Gospel-Morbid alcoholic cravings-Prison preferred to liberty-The slavery of sin-An affecting result of investigation-Facilities for drunkenness on the district-Replication of sin-Formation of Total Abstinence Society on the district-A bricklayer's oration-Narrative of a returned transport-A hopefully converted coal-heaver —Cases of benefit from temperance-Narrow escape from suicide - Extravagance and intemperance "Delirium tremens" - Testimony of the Earl of Shaftesbury-An explanation-American statistics-Drunkenness and want in old age-Pleasing narrative-Personal recollectionsSad excesses-A pleasing case of hopeful conversion—A personal observation-Joseph John Gurney.

THE drinking usages of society oppose an insuperable barrier to the moral and religious improvement of the labouring classes-and indeed, in proportion as they prevail, of all classes of society. These customs must be changed before we can possibly see the moral desert "rejoice and blossom as the rose."

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