how, by point and emphasis, every sentence is made to tell; but of this we are certain, that the hearers, who, when hearing, may have been excited and delighted, will, when reading, scarcely believe it possible that the sermon was the same.

It is insignificant; as a schoolboy theme, it would be barely passable; as an exposition of scripture, it is empty, lean, and meagre. It is a mere collection of bones, of shells, of husks. Spirituality there is none, deep experience there is none, and hungry and unsatisfied must the congregation remain who can assemble under such moistureless fare.

There are one or two features, deficient features, which, if the sermon were published by the author, we should dwell upon; but, for the reason given above, we enter not into these at the present.

The Shepherd of Israel and his Flock, a Sermon, by J. A. Wallinger, Minister of Bethesda Chapel, Bath. 12mo., pp. 12. Bartlett.

We take up now another of these tract sermons; but the present is one of a series issued by the author himself. There is in this none of the show, the glare, and the tinsel of which Mr. Evans' sermon consists.

It is a plain proclamation of gospel truth, in unadorned language, suitable for plain christians. In illustration of a deficient feature in Mr. Evans' sermon, as well as in commendation, and for a fair specimen of the present sermon we will give

one brief extract:

"It is the work of the Spirit that is denied, or not honoured, in the socalled churches of the present day. Many who live in a profession, seem to think, and talk, and act, as if faith, and hope, and love, were self-acting principles. But, friends, this is only speculative religion, intellectuality, a cheat. If you have true faith, you

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can, nevertheless, no more put out and exercise it at will than you could move this chapel, or turn the moon from its course. It needs a fresh impulse, a fresh touch from the Spirit of God, before we can exercise the graces he has given. If this be true, then we can have no more faith then God is pleased to give us; as saith the word, (Eph, iv. 7,) “According to the measure of the gift of Christ." And again, (Rom. xii. 3,) “ According as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." The genuineness of the faith is the point after all. It is the reality and not the quantity. The quantity may make you more happy, but not more safe; "He that believeth hath everlasting life;" "Lord, I believe," said the poor man in the gospel. Can you say that? And what is it to believe? Seeing Jesus, looking to his cross, flying to him for refuge, as a poor broken-hearted sinner, a bankrupt with nothing to pay. Nothing to pay! were you ever brought there? O what fears, then, of hell and damnation for a broken law. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Without this sight and sense of your lost and a law-work upon the soul, without ruined state by nature, you can know nothing rightly of an entrance into Zion's ways. Your religion is a mere profession, that will be laid down as it was taken up. Whereas, that which God gives shall be kept; for he says: "I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." The greater part of the religion of the day is

man's work, not God's; it is not the religion of the Holy Ghost, therefore it cannot stand. It is too easy a religion by far. Whereas the real called child of God goes through many sorrows, sins, temptations, terrors, fears, torments, troubles, falls, and yet is sustained, recovered, delivered, restored, comforted, sooner or later."

THE DAY OF DEATH.

My day of death! Oh, do not say,
It is a day of gloom!

A pilgrim in a land of care,

A traveller sharing traveller's fare,
And burdened more than I can bear,
Think ye I grieve the time draws near,
That I shall reach my home?

My day of death! It is the day

I bid farewell to school; The master often seemed severe, His lessons harder every year, His stern rebukes awakened fear, So that with many an angry tear,

I often spurned his rule.

My day of death! The teaching done,

The desert changed for heaven; Moses no longer will affright, Sinai be fearful to my sight, But my credentials, clear and bright, Vacation time will then delight,

And the reward be given.

My day of death! It is the day

When 1 shall come of age;

A minor on a foreign shore,
My loved companions gone before,
My blissful home I oft deplore,
Anticipating, more and more,

My finished pilgrimage.

My day of death! It is the day
I enter on my estate;

I prize the earnest of it now,
It may be seen from Pisgah's brow:
Its crystal rivers as they flow,

Its fields where fadeless flow'rets grow,
And its admission gate.

My day of death! Delightful time,

It is my wedding day;

And would ye have it stained with tears,
With apprehensions, doubts, and fears,
Encircling all the coming years:
Go, miserable comforters,

And take your glooms away.

My day of death! Whenever I muse,
Bright prospects I would crave:
Give me to see my Saviour's face,
To feel I rest in his embrace,
Arrayed in his own righteousness,
And I shall die in perfect peace,

And triumph o'er the grave.

Impersonating what he preached alone,
To shew its excellence, and by his death
To seal its truth. Far higher, nobler ends
Brought from the middle throne the Son of
God;

He came a voluntary Substitute,

To heal the hurt of his sin in his redeemed;
He came to pay their penalty, and bear
The weight of all their punishment. He came
For them fulfilling all the holy law,
To weave a robe of spotless righteousness,
So that in him, beheld completely pure,
And clad in this white robe, the elect of God
Stand without fault. This was an enterprise
Fit for a God, and to his many crowns
This adds a chaplet for Immanuel,
Which, 'mongst the crowns of heaven, well
pleased he wears,

Acknowledged there the Mediator-King;
And this through all eternity shall fill
The song of heaven with never-dying praise.

THE SABBATH.

REZENEB.

Welcome, sweet Sabbath day!
When Christ we meet,
Within his house of prayer,
At mercy's seat;
And read his holy word,
Taste joys it does afford,
Sing praises to the Lord,
Praises so sweet.

We hear the sound of bells

Float on the wind, Which seems to bid us leave

Earth's cares behind; Attend the means of grace, Seek the Reedeemer's face, His deeds of mercy trace, Seek till ye find.

May Jesus' ministers

Be faithful found, May they the word of truth

Rightly expound; May they with courage bold, Doctrines of free-grace hold, What is revealed unfold, .In love abound.

Dear Jesus, in thy house,

Meet us we prayMay thy blest Spirit be With us alway;

For when thy presence, we With greatest joy shall see, Darkness at once shall flee, Flee far away.

E. R.

Now all the wheels in order run,
And Jacob's household, old and young,
To Egypt came, where Joseph's hand
Plac'd them all safe in Goshen's land.
In Egypt they're with welcome blest,
Anon made slaves, and sore opprest,
Yet all was ordered, and decreed,
Their years to stay, and day when freed.
At the fix'd time, that very day,
Th' Egyptians urg'd them all away,
Again their ruin seem'd design'd,
The seas before, their foes behind.
But God, their friend, the sea divides,
And stops the current of the tides,
'Till Israel passed, then Pharoah's host,
Sinks in the deep, for ever lost.

Thro' desert lands he guides their way,
By night a fire, a cloud by day,

With manna fed, as homeward bound, 'Till forty years revolved round.

O'er Jordan's streams, they onward pass, To take possession of the place,

Where being come, the land possest, Type of that place where saints shall rest.

WHEEL OP PROVIDENCE.
Gen. xv. 13; Ex. xii. 32-42.

Abraham saith God, thy seed shall be,
Four hundred years in slavery;
From Isaac's birth, the event began,
And rolling years fulfilled the plan.

Th' Eternal formed each moving wheel,
His secret counsels to fulfil:
Joseph, old Jacob's chief delight,
Now, by his dreams, his brethren spite.

But, by his dreams, God's will is wrought,
Joseph is sold, to Egypt brought;
What small appearance now doth seem,
That Jacob's house should bow to him.

Yet ev'ry scene he passed through Accomplished all God had in view! In prison cast down, thence set free, Now next the king, all bow the knee.

In state affairs he's made the chief,
Both to direct and get relief,
Against the famine which drew nigh,
That Jacob's house might have supply.

Now Jacob's sons to Egypt came,
To buy them corn, (they bow to him,)
He called them spies, at last made known,
That he was Jacob's youngesr son.

CHRISTIAN FELICITY.

How precious the moments believers enjoy, Beneath the sweet smiles of the Lord! When nothing of earth their spirits annoy,

And they feast on the truths of the word. When joy in their souls, God's Spirit imparts,

Which the world cannot give or destroy-
When pleasures serene encircle their hearts,
Those pleasures that bring no alloy.

Dear Jesus, we ever would dwell in thy love,
Which only true pleasure will give,
And when, by thy grace, we are taken above,
With thee for ever shall live.

A SACRAMENTAL HYMN.

E. R.

Dear dying friend, we look on thee,
And own our foul offences here-
We built thy cross on Calvary,

And nail'd and pierc'd thy body there.
Yet let the blood, our hands have spilt,
Be sprinkled on each guilty heart,
To purge the conscience well from guilt,
And everlasting life impart,

So will we sing thy lovely name,

For grace so rich, and freely given, And tell thy love, and tell our shame, That one we murder'd bought our heav'n

J. B.

THE

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.-Rom. viii, 1.

Those of you who were here this morning remember these words. We took a little notice in the morning in shewing what it was to walk after the flesh. This afternoon for a short time, we propose considering what is understood by being in Christ. The characters here referred to, and the declaration concerning them, those who walk after the Spirit. The declaration concerning them is, there is no condemnation, but they are said to be in Christ. It is those in Christ for whom there is no condemnation, a very important point; not only an important point, but a solemn, weighty truth. When the apostle speaks about being in Christ, it implies as much, that there are those February, 1848]

who are not in Christ, because, if all the human family were in Christ, why make use of the expression? This being the case, it certainly implies such a thing as not being in Christ, it is a solemn matter, it is no trifling thing, depend upon it; in thinking and meditating upon this subject I have certainly trembled, at the same time my heart has leaped for joy, at the consideration that there are some in Christ, and when I for one have been sweetly led into the solemn realities, having had a firm hope and confidence, I was one of the highly favoured few. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." Oh, what a solemn weighty matter it is, when we think of the church of God from all eternity, being given to Christ by God the Father, loved with an everlasting love, committed into the hands of Christ to be redeemed, to be saved, and that with an everlasting salvation. The dear Lord accepted the gift at the Father's hand, he undertook the cause of the church of the living God, he saw from all eternity what would be the condition of this world when fallen, before an individual came into existence. Our glorious Christ had his eye upon his church, and knew what would be her state

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of degradation and misery, through her awful fall from her God. He knew the greatness of the sufferings he himself must endure, seeing the end from the beginning, he accepted the gift from the Father's hand, he undertook to care for, save her, redeem her, bless her, and eventually bring her to glory. He looked at her in her worst form, and knew what she really would require, and in consequence of what he himself has done in her behalf, the church is complete in him. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Now what is it to be in Christ? some will have it, to be in Christ is only to make a profession of his name, to receive him as the promised Messiah, to walk according to the precepts of the Bible, that is all that is required, say they; only believe in him, merely as the Saviour of the whole world. This is the belief of many, who therefore say, we believe it, when at the same time they do not know what it is to be in Christ. The apostle speaks of that life of which a child of God is the possessor. He says, "Your life is hid with Christ in God." Our Lord speaking of his church, his disciples, his people, compares himself to the vine, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." Here then is the great head of the church with the members, Christ himself the vine; here are the branches spreading themselves through being united to him by eternal union. I must have this union to begin in eternity, because I find it written so clearly in the word of God, "loved with an everlasting love," the cause is eternal union, the effect, "with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Our Lord says to his disciples, "Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.' There is the consequence of being united to Christ, the living and true vine, he being the head, we the members; and in the

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fulness of time God sends forth his Spirit to convince of sin, of righteteousness and judgment to come, breaks up the fallow ground of the heart, takes the hammer of his word, sends it home with divine power to the heart and conscience of poor sinners dead in trespasses and sins, and communicates life-giving power to the soul, creating him anew in Christ Jesus, by the power of the Holy Ghost. Now by faith, which is the faith of God's elect, and the operation of the Holy Ghost within him, he goes out from himself to the Lord Jesus Christ for life, sap, nourishment, support, and for grace. now knows the truth of these words, "From me is thy fruit found." Here then are the characters described in the text, no condemnation to those in Christ. It is by faith we apprehend our union, our oneness with Christ Jesus. Without faith we cannot lay hold of Christ, we cannot apprehend him, we can neither apprehend Christ nor understand any thing concerning him or his great salvation. But the Lord having undertaken to save his church and done it, sends forth his Spirit, who gives his dear people an understanding in these divine realities, so that they may know for themselves that they belong to Christ. That individual who is called and instructed by the Holy Ghost, to say, I am one with Christ as Christ is one with God, is not presumptuous in so doing, it is no act of presumption. But it is presumption in a man, who is living in all manner of sin, who is turning his back on Christ, for such to talk about his interest in Christ is presumption and blasphemy. But in walking according to the rules laid down by the Spirit in the word, there is no presumption in laying claim to an interest in Christ; it is good to do so in a solemn manner, not speaking lightly or in a trifling inconsistent way and manner: while we speak firmly and confidently upon this subject, with deep humility and godly