but it is otherwise when he justifies his offence, and seeks occasion to repeat it, and shows that his principles of action are unchanged. In the latter case, it is necessary to call to mind all his injustice and bitterness, that measures may be taken to defeat his machinations.

These observations may be common place, they may set forth a truth so self-evident as scarcely to require being stated at all; but there are peculiar times and seasons when we require to be reminded of the plainest duties.

Years have rolled onward towards eternity, and ages have been added to those which preceded them, since popery in its palmy days swayed the sceptre of its deadly influence over Britain's land. Whatever had been its body-torturing and soul-deceiving errors, even papists themselves must admit that protestant excitement had greatly subsided, that a spirit of toleration had gone abroad, and that the past, if not forgotten, was at least but " dimly descried."

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In such a state of things it was consistent that Christians should abstain from angry recollections, and strive as much as possible to dwell in peace and charity with all men. was desirable that the past evil should be only sufficiently kept in mind to prevent its return.

But when popery once more gives evidence that its slumbering activity is awakened; that it is the same in principle as it has ever been, and desires to be the same in power; when it stretches its cords and strengthens its stakes; erects its temples, with all the pride of architecture; forces its services upon the notice of all around, and extends its influences, re-urging every plausible though oft repeated argument, and dealing forth all manner of misrepresentations, then it is indeed time to stand upon our watch, and to act upon the defensive.

Protestants should know what popery is, and though this information ought not to be given in a tyrannical, exulting, or unchristian spirit, yet it ought to be given faithfully. The short description of popery contained in the following remarks by a talented Christian-minded minister of the gospel are well worthy of observation and reflection.

"The greatest difficulty in contending with popery is its extreme adaptation to the corruption of our fallen nature. It has that wherewith it can meet every desire of the natural man, and soothe every anxiety about the soul: for

the literate it has prodigious stores of learning; for the illiterate it has its images, pomps, and shows; for the selfrighteous it has its innumerable ways of external service; for the most devout it has its unceasing prayers; for the musician, it has the most exquisite chaunts and anthems; for the painter, the most splendid efforts of human art; for the imaginative, all the visions of fancy, its gloomy cloisters, lights, and processions, and incense, and beautiful churches with painted windows; and priests with splendid. garments and varied dresses. To quiet the conscience, it has doctrines of human merit and works of supererogation; to alarm the indifferent, it has fears of purgatory; to raise the priesthood, they can make a little flour and water into a god, and will themselves worship what they make; to give ease to the conscience of the man of the world, and the lover of pleasure, each sin has its indulgence and penance. All men at times are under fear of God's wrath; their conscience is touched, they are in anxiety, and at such times popery comes in and gives them a sop, that satisfies for the moment, and sends them into the sleep of death. It covers every lust, it calms every fear. It is the devil's cunning device of twelve hundred years' growth, for leading countless myriads to perdition. Let us not be ignorant of his devices."

ON THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST.

"UNTO you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." This was the joyful intelligence of one of the shining hosts above, to a company of shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks by night. These, my friends, are such glad tidings, which, if you have ears to hear, and a heart to understand, you will scarcely be able to refrain from bursting out in the exclamation of Mary, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." Behold he comes, the everlasting Son, he comes incarnate, to redeem our apostate nature from the wrath of God, the curse of the law, the tyranny of Satan. Through his infinitely meritorious obedience, we, who are by reason of sin less than nothing in the universe of the creation, and fit for nothing but the society of devils in the bosom of hell,

are lifted up to a state vastly better than everything which mortal tongue can describe, or mortal heart conceive. We are raised from the horrible abyss of hell, to the boundless height of heaven; from a dungeon to a throne, from consummate wretchedness to supreme blessedness, from obscurity to honour, from pollution to purity, from death to life. In the contemplation of the great mystery of godliness, a mystery hid for ages in the all-comprehensive mind of uncreated Deity, unfolded in the fulness of time, in the person of the Son; unveiled to the astonished eye of faith, in the day of the Spirit's power, God manifest in the flesh-we see all the perfections of the Eternal Three in One, and One in Three, glorified to the highest degree; the Godhead receiving all its glories, the law all its honours, man all his happiness, heaven all its inhabitants. In the view of God manifest in the flesh, what eye but must glisten with ineffable delight! what heart but must expand with adoring love! what life but must be reduced to obedience! May God the Spirit glorify the Emmanuel, God with us-in us, in his person and nativity, in his work and offices, in his saving names and endearing characters. May he be Jesus to us, to save us to the uttermost stretch of eternal duration, in the uttermost crisis of extreme necessity, from the uttermost abyss of a never ending hell! for the uttermost bliss of the highest heaven. Amen.

R. L.

THE CERTAIN CONDEMNATION OF THE WICKED

WHILE the Scripture notes the patience of Christ towards his enemies, so it notes likewise that there are fixed bounds and limits unto that patience, beyond which he will no longer forbear. There is an appointed day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, Acts xvii. 31. There is a year of vengeance, and of recompences for the controversies of Sion, Isa. xxxiv. 8. The Lord seeth that the day of the wicked is coming. It is an appointed time; though it tarry, yet if we wait for it, it will surely come, it will not tarry, Psa. xxxvii. 13. Hab. ii. 3. Well then, let men go on with all the fierceness and excess of riot they will, let them walk in the way of their heart, and in the sight of their eyes, yet all this while they are in a chain,

they have but a compass to go, and God will bring them to judgment at the last. When the day of the drunkard and riotous person is come, when he hath taken so many hellish swallows, and hath filled up the measure of his lusts, his marrow must then be down in the dust; though the cup were at his mouth, yet from thence it shall be snatched away, and for everlasting he shall never taste a drop of sweetness, nor have the least desire of his wicked heart satisfied any more. A wicked man's sins will not follow him to hell to please him, but only the memory of them, to be an everlasting scourge and flame upon his conscience. Oh then take heed of ripening sin by custom, by security, by insensibility, by impudence and stoutness of heart, by making it a mock, a matter of glory and of boasting, by stopping the ear against the voice of the charmer, and turning the back upon the invitations unto mercy, by resisting the evidence of the Spirit in the word, and committing sin in the light of the sun; for as the heat of the sun doth wither the fruit which falls off, and ripen that which hangs on the tree, so the word doth weaken those lusts which a man is desirous to shake off, and doth ripen for judgment those whose hearts hold fast and will not part with their lusts. When was Israel overthrown, but when they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his word, and misused his prophets, and rejected the remedy of their sin? And when was Judah destroyed, but when they hardened themselves against the word, and would not take notice of the day of their peace? Alas, what haste do men make to promote their own damnation, and to go quickly to hell, when they will break through the very law of God, and through all his holy ordinances, that they may come thither the sooner, as if the gate would be shut against them, or as if it were a place of some great preferment; as if they had to do with a blind God who could not see, or with an impotent God who could not revenge their impieties! Well, for all this the wise man's speech will prove true at the last, "Know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgment." REYNOLDS.

LOVEST THOU ME?

WE make a profession of Christianity, and go along from day to day, and perhaps from year to year, supposing that

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we are Christians, and that all is well with us; that we are equipped for the encounter of death, and prepared to meet our Judge, and take our place in heaven, when, it may be, we are not able to answer till after long consideration, and then with not a little doubt and misgiving, so simple a question in Christian experience, as Lovest thou me?" Peradventure the utmost we dare say, after all our reflection and self-research, is, “I really do not know how it is. I hope I love him." This will never do. The question, "Lovest thou me," is one which every person, making any pretensions to Christianity, ought to be able to answer affirmatively at once. Indeed we ought not to give our Saviour any occasion to ask the question. It is very much to our discredit, it should make us blush and be ashamed, that our manifestations of love to him are of so equivocal a character as to leave the very existence of the affection doubtful, and to render it necessary for him to interrogate us in reference to it. There are many less lovely beings than Christ that have not to ask us if we love them. We act in such a manner towards them that they cannot for a moment doubt the fact of their being dear and precious to us. They do not want our words to assure them. They have our uniform conduct and deportment making the silent yet most forcible, declaration. Has your parent to ask you if you love him, or your child? Have husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and friend, to ask this question of each other? O no, none but Christ has to ask us if we love him! And he has not only to ask the question, but to wait, sometimes a long while, for an answer. We have to consider and go into an examination, and call up our conduct to the. bar of judgment, and dissect our very hearts, before we can venture an answer. This is strange. It is not so in other cases. If a relative or a friend, more for the gratification of a renewed expression of our love, than from any doubt of its existence, ask us if we love him, do we keep him waiting for an answer? Do we say, "Well, I must consider. I must examine myself. I hope I do." No, indeed. We are ready with our affirmative. Nor is it a cold "Yes" we return; but we express our surprise at the question. “Love you!" And we assure the person in the most emphatic and ardent language that we love him, and all our manner shows him that we speak out of the abundance of the heart.

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