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period to go, when he is brought near, and we habituate ourselves to act as in his very presence, under his eye, while we are most affectionately desirous to act as he would wish; when the feelings of parents and child are maintained and there is a daily flowing of feeling to God and from him a longing for his love, an intense delight in the reception of it, mourning and sorrow in its absence, when we gain that confiding trust in him which leads us daily and hourly to open all our feelings to Him, express our wants, state our trials, and seek comfort and advice,then we have a devotional frame of mind.

All Christians ought to have it; all Christians may have it. It is the easiest life, where one is fully bent upon it-the pleasantest-the most useful. From end to end, the Bible enjoins it upon God's children. Christ expected it of his followers, and God expects it of them still, to the end of time. But what do we see in its place? What is the devotion of Christians? Some who profess themselves children of God are supremely devoted to the world; we say supremely, for what can be more supremely than an entire absorption of one's thoughts and actions in any thing? When we see a professor, alive to business, thinking, planning, attempting, executing; prompt to converse on business-conversant with all its facts, willing to give time and strength and money to it, but who has no words to converse of religion, no love of meetings for social prayer, who is inattentive at church, who forgets what little he does hear, who can spare no time for private devotion, and who seldom has a thought about the great love of God, who entirely forgets that he is always present with him when we see such an one, shall we say that he is devoted to religion or to the world?

Others we find vibrating between two extremes, both of which are bad. To-day, they are thoughtless, prayerless, careless ;-neglect social and private re

ligious duties, enter into the actions of religion slowly and reluctantly-but to-morrow, we see these same persons starting from this coldness, and outrunning the bounds of moderation, the other way; praying a great deal, talking a great deal more, and at all the meetings which can be found, and wishing for more, blaming lukewarm Christians, warning sinners, &c. But is this true devotion? Is the love of God operative only periodically? Is heaven bright only by flashes at long intervals? Is prayer necessary but now and then, and is praise and love, and faith and communion, only to be relished occasionally? Constancy is an element to true

devotion.

But another class are always talking about religion, are running hither and thither to perform duties, are constant at meetings, are always ready to deplore the state of Zion, and spare no pains in labouring; but we find that they exhibit very little real spirituality, little heavenly mindedness; they say much about religion, but little of God;-they push forward religion as if it were a worldly matter.

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Another class are devoted, by being zealous for their church; no labour, night or day, no anxiety, no cost, is spared to build up their church, in numbers, in wealth, and they are extraordinarily devoted to making their church superior to any other, except in a holy, humble, spiritual frame of mind. It is physical strength that constitutes their prosperity -not moral purity and force.

Another class are devoted by labouring much, and by self-denial in many things; yet at the same time we find them encouraging in their families, a love of dress, of balls, of theatres even, which strikes a fatal blow to all hope of spiritual improvement.

But we see humble individuals, whose very faces beam with a calm serene joy-whose prayers are the gushing out of a full heart, whose love is un

broken by jealousy or anger, who seem to desire nothing, so much as to resemble God-who make their very business subserve the ends of religion, who live in the atmosphere of holy, humble feeling, who grow more and more devoted every year, both in action and feeling, more and more like Heaven, and gradually yet steadily progress in a likeness to Christ; are not these the really devoted Christians?

A HOLY MINISTRY.

Ar a recent meeting of a Society for the Promotion of an Educated Ministry, at Boston, in the United States, the Rev. Mr. Ide offered the following resolution :

"That the peculiarities of the age demand an eminently holy ministry," and added some remarks which appear to us as important in this country as in that. He said it was proper that the resolution now presented should immediately follow the one last offered, because in urging the importance of an educated ministry, we should be careful never to put asunder what the requirement of God has uniformly combined,-viz., education and piety; the man who should present this resolution ought himself to be an example of the influence of the sentiment it enforces. He could not lay claim to any fitness for the present duty in himself. He could only contemplate the subject of a godly ministry as some bright land of which he had heard, by the hearing of the ear, but which his eye had not seen; or as he would gaze, through the dim atmosphere of earth, upon the splendors of some remote star. Yet so important a ministerial requirement, though it was not, and might never be his own, might perhaps be made the theme of not unprofitable remarks.

That piety was indispensable to the gospel minis

ter, he said, no man who studied the Bible and the Providence of God, could doubt; there were none present who had any difficulty in their minds on that point; and he would not labour to prove what all so readily admitted. His object, at the present time was to point out some peculiarities of the age, which rendered it especially important at the present period that ministers should possess deep and ardent piety.

In the first place, the outward prosperity of the church of the present age made, necessarily, a large measure of piety requisite in her ministers. Piety is a plant of hardy growth-often best nurtured in the storm, and blooming in the hurricane. Such was the piety of the first age of the church, when the professor of religion often abandoned caste, friendship, property and life-when he gave every thing to God -and when an apostle could count all things but loss for Christ. But when, in process of time, persecution ceased, religion gained a foothold in society, and its professors were considered by the world respectable, piety languished, the ministry sought popularity among men more than the favour of God, and the Church, revelling in outward prosperity, was shorn of her spiritual strength.

Such was, in some degree, the condition of things at the present time. It was scarce half a century since persecution for Christ's sake had been suffered in our own country; and but a century and a half since persecution in England had been carried to the forfeiture of life at the stake. But now the scene is changed. Christianity has become respectableshe is now clothed in fine linen, and fares sumptuously every day. She is to be seen in the high places of the earth-in the pursuits of business, in the councils of legislation-in the circles, and dressed in the trappings, of fashion. Now under these circumstances, unless ministers are deeply pious, there is great danger to the church. Prosperity will ruin her. This

is one of the peculiarities of the times demanding an eminently godly ministry.

Another reason why an eminently godly race of ministers is now required, he said, was the peculiar spirit in which the enterprises of the present day are conducted. Society seems to be fast dividing itself into two classes-the conservative and the radical. The latter class were assuming a high and exclusive tone, denouncing as enemies of their race all who would not receive with an implicit faith their dogmas; while the former, alarmed at their excesses, seemed anxious only to prevent the changes which the growing intelligence of the age demanded. Between these extremes the minister must pursue a middle course, which was the only safe one-and to preserve him in this calm and moderate course, deep and heartfelt piety was alone adequate. Unless he were actuated by this principle, he would be in constant danger of being drawn aside, either to the right or to the left; he would be in danger either, on the one hand, of being led by those who would hold in check all efforts of public benevolence, or on the other of being drawn into a career which, like that of the fabled child of the sun, would result in a conflagration which could be quenched only in blood.

Another characteristic of the present age, he said, was its intense activity. The whole community seemed to be awaking from the slumber of ages, and starting, with an unheard-of activity, into a new and wide career after improvement and happiness. That it was the province of the minister to act a high and important part in giving the direction to these activities; and especially that it belonged to him, within the pale of the church, to meet great responsibilities and labours, with reference to this state of things, is on all hands acknowledged; and how could the minister impart this direction, how could he meet these responsibilities, how could he perform the ardu

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