Remember, that agents must give an account of their agency. And certain, most certain it is, that there are but few churches, and few Christians, who, in regard to the above agency, feel ready to render it up with joy. May the Master shew mercy to the agents of the past, and may they shew mercy to the perishing heathen for the future. Amen, and amen. J. G. REPENTANCE. TRUE repentance implies a thorough hatred and detestation of sin, and a godly sorrow on account of its ruinous and polluting effects upon the heart, with an earnest desire to avoid it, even in its most insinuating, alluring, and delusive forms. Repentance, according to the original word, μɛravoia, indicates a change of mind, and consequently a change of affections, of desires, of hopes, and of expectations; and being produced alone by the agency of the Spirit of God, is as it were the immediate precedent of a conversion from sin to holiness, from bondage to liberty, from carnality to spirituality, from darkness to light, and from Satan to God. The individual upon whom this kind of repentance is produced, becoming sensible of his condition as a sinner, can no longer frame those excuses for his guilt which he has been accustomed to do; he now views sin as that abominable thing which the Lord hateth, and as a fatal enemy to the prosperity of the soul; and whilst mourning on account of his guilt and inbred corruption, and determining to forsake and watch against every sin, he is led by the Holy Spirit to the scene of Calvary, where he beholds the incarnate Son of God nailed upon the accursed tree, atoning for the sinner's guilt by the shedding of his own precious blood. He flees to him as his only refuge; he embraces him as his only hope, and rests his soul's salvation upon the merits of his blood, anticipating that happy period when sin shall have no more dominion over him; being made complete in Christ his Head, he exclaims "Sin my worst enemy before, Shall vex my eyes and ears no more; Highgate. A. A. D. REV. DR. COLLYER'S CHAPEL, PECKHAM. [With an Engraving.] OUR engraving this month presents the view of a chapel in which many thousands feel a very deep interest. The society meeting in it forms the continuation of an old presbyterian church. When the present amiable and able pastor first preached to them, the church was reduced to about a dozen members, and the congregation to a little more than twenty. For very many years, the communicants have numbered several hundreds, and the congregation has exceeded a thousand. Many will unite in our prayer for the confirmed health, and the longcontinued life, of the Rev. Dr. Collyer. SCRAPS FROM THE EDITOR'S PORTFOLIO. SIN. We must ever remember that sin is the abominable thing which God hates, and against which the whole of his word is directed; and though penitent sinners are so gladly received by him that there is joy in heaven over their conversion, presumptuous sin is a L L great gulf, out of which few who fall into it are restor. ed.-Bp. J. B. Sumner. A REBUKE.-A Christian minister having perceived an uncommon languor in some of his hearers, as he came to the last head of his discourse, remarked, that if those who had been sleeping would now give him their attention, they would find that he was about to enter on a very important branch of his subject, and that, for the special benefit of such, he would now recapitulate the heads of the former part of his discourse. The rebuke was well received, and secured to him, during the remainder of his discourse, an undivided attention. A CONTRAST.-In holy writ we read of those who are "raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." The lips of man may not apply these terrific words to any whose doom is yet to be disclosed; but there is a passage which none can fear to apply:-"Those that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as stars for ever and ever!" A SUBLIME THOUGHT.-We have lived in times of darkness and confusion, with only a few gleams of heavenly light to cheer us; but we are not to argue against the result. "The counsel of the Lord shall stand; and the thoughts of his heart unto all generations." So we have seen a gloomy morning followed by a bright and joyous day. We have seen dark clouds gather around the morning sun, as if to extinguish his beams; and fogs condense themselves, as though to shroud the earth from his influence; but we have seen too the glorious bursts of splendour, the light subduing the darkness; we have watched the progress of the heaven-directed orb, till, after having scattered life over the world, he has closed the day amidst the homage of the same clouds, gorgeous in his splendour, and heightening his original glories with floods of molten light, and richest forms of reflected lustre.-REV. R. WATSON. |