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your friend: there is nothing but your own determination which can keep you at enmity. By the terrors of the last judgment, by all the hopes, by all the fears of eternity, do I conjure such of you as have not made peace with their God, to turn at once to the mediator Christ: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself;" and now he beseeches you through us, "Be ye reconciled unto God."-Melvill.

CHRISTIAN UNION.

If nonconforming churches would hope to stand in the breach, in the evil times upon which we have fallen, they must be true to the avowed principles on which they are founded—viz., THE

SOLE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST IN HIS CHURCH,-THE WORD OF GOD, THE ONLY SAFE AND SURE GUIDE IN RELIGION,HOPEFUL CONVERSION, THE ONLY VALID TITLE TO CHRISTIAN COMMUNION,-DISCIPLINE, THE ONLY PRESERVATIVE AGAINST ERROR IN DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE, AND THE FERVENT LOVE OF THE BRETHREN, THE ONLY SURE BOND OF CHRISTIAN UNION.

These principles, brethren, fully carried out, will protect ourselves from the plague-spot of deadly heresy, and will make our little communities, wherever planted, centres of light, and warmth, and holy influence to the regions round about. Oh, brethren, when we see the baneful and rapid progress of error in other communities, let us "look well to ourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward." Our churches need greatly a more copious effusion of the Holy Ghost. Our piety is susceptible of a much loftier tone. Our zeal may be better directed, and far more ardent and self-sacrificing. Our spirituality may rise to a brighter and more ethereal region. Our charity may be more concentrating among ourselves, and more expansive towards others. Our deadness to the world, and conformity to Christ, may read a sterner lesson to those who would spy out our christian liberty, but who, amidst many prejudices, may not be altogether insensible to the beauties of holiness. Oh, my brethren, let thè formidable defection of the establishment, at the present moment, arouse us to new energy in the christian life, that we may become witnesses for God's neglected truth,

and that we may be found worthy to take part in that mighty contest with antichristian powers, which we believe to be rapidly approaching.

I should regret, for my own part, anything like an attempt to stand alone in that onset with the enemies of the reformation

which has come upon us. The interests of protestantism are wide as the limits of christendom-they reach even to the heathen world; for everywhere antichrist is attempting to plant his foot, and, by force or fraud, to propagate his soul-destroying doctrines. Let us seek union, then, with all right-minded christians, who are anxious to stem the tide, which is now setting in against apostolic truth. Combination among protestants, sufficiently well defined, and energetically plied, would carry confusion and dismay into the enemy's camp. We have a power to rouse and concentrate public opinion, on the side of great principles, which we little know, because we have hitherto but slenderly called it into action. But "the signs of the times" call loudly upon us to muster our forces, and to shew a determined front to those who would lead us captive. Let union in the truth of Christ be the motto inscribed upon all our banners; -let the doctrine of the cross be the sign by which we hope to conquer ;-and let all be invited to join our standard who have resolved that popery shall never regain its dominion in England.

In entering upon this glorious battle-field, let all interested in preserving the integrity of the protestant reformation be prepared to merge their minor differences; and, like the various regiments of a combined army, let them forget the adventitious circumstances of their particular dress and accoutrements, and press onward, in one mighty phalanx, against the common foe. Our union will be strength; and representing, as we shall then do, the various denominations of evangelical christians, we shall be better prepared to rouse general indignation against tractarian doctrines.

And, first of all, I would entreat my nonconforming brethren to seek earnestly the cooperation of the sound portion of the church of England, lay and clerical, in the struggle to preserve great and precious truth. Though the tractarians have attempted to prove that church-of-England principles are in unison with its own, let us not forget that the episcopate has

ranked within its pale some of the ablest advocates of protestantism that ever lived; let us not be so unjust as to obliterate from our recollections the great service rendered to the cause of the reformation by the English church; and let us not indulge in the rash opinion, that the tractarians have the mastery over the evangelical clergy in the controversy which is now pending. The work of such a man as Mr. Goode is worth all the trash that has issued from the tractarian press.

Granting that we, as nonconformists, may see many things in the ritual of the church of England, which seem to look with a friendly eye towards certain of the peculiarities of the Oxford heresy, let us believe that the evangelical clergy are honest in interpreting them otherwise, and let us rejoice to find them on the side of scripture, if they should be pronounced, from high quarters, to be at variance with their clerical subscriptions. It is not our business to widen the breach among sound-hearted protestants, but rather to do what we can to heal it. If the evangelicals of the church will not recognise us, nor unite with us, the sin of disunion will not lie at our door; and rest assured they will be the first to pay the forfeit of their own bigotry in refusing to act with men of like spirit with themselves. I believe the time is fast approaching when all sincere protestants will have to unite in defence of their common rights. Happy will it be, if, by timely union, they can prevent the growth of principles which, if once in the ascendant, it will be difficult again to humble. It is easier far to prevent an enemy from gaining a vantage ground, than to dislodge him from that position when once he has reached it. Let all protestants determine to act on these tactics; and if ministers and members of the establishment cannot or will not unite with orthodox nonconformists in maintaining, defending, and propagating the spirit and doctrines of the reformation, then let all enlightened nonconformists unite amongst themselves, irrespective of all their minor shades of peculiarity, and adopt a systematic, wise, and determined course of action tending to enlighten the whole mass of English society as to the ulterior designs of the tractarian school. Let their pulpits echo from week to week to the grand truths by which Luther vanquished Rome, in the day of her proudest glory,-let their periodical press demonstrate that every movement of the tractarians is watched with an eagle

eye, let thousands and tens of thousands of tracts be poured in every town and village, and rural district, into the houses of the people, denouncing the errors of Puseyism, and especially their purpose of unprotestantizing England,-let the worst specimens of the heresy be held up to public reprobation, with the names of their respective authors,-let earnestness for truth and zeal for the salvation of men's souls, be seen breathing in all their movements,-let a really protestant feeling be generated among the people, divested of all political virus,―let frequent meetings for prayer and conference be held for the sole object of preserving to this land the blessings of the reformation,—and I cannot doubt that such hearty union and cooperation will be more than a match for all the learning, jesuitical skill, and indomitable activity, now enlisted on the side of opinions, which put bishops in the place of Christ, antiquity in the place of scripture, and outward rites in the place of the Redeemer's sacrifice, and the Spirit's renewing grace.

But I have already drawn too largely on the time and patience of the auditory. The case, however, is urgent, and the times demand of us that no honest friend of the reformation should be found slumbering at his post. The length of this service will not be matter of reproach to the preacher, or regret to his hearers, if a chord has been struck in any bosom, which may vibrate when the present service has closed, and when we have severally retired to the spheres in which providence has destined us to move. We have each of us a duty to discharge to our country and to posterity; for, rest assured, the present revival of popish doctrines in England is not a thing that will pass away without a struggle-long, and prayerful, and determined. At present, we are feeling nothing but the bitterness of contempt from a class of men who represent our pastors as deceivers of the people, and presumptuous obtruders on the sacred office. But the wide-spread inculcation of these doctrines may lead on to organic change; and if we are unfaithful to our trust, the time may not be far distant, when contempt may be followed by coercion, and when those who proved themselves unworthy of the blessings of the reformation may be left without the shield of its protecting power.-Dr. Morison's Signs of the Times.

WESLEY AND FLETCHER.

Never since the days of Paul, was a man more assiduous in labour than Wesley. Not a day was given to repose, not an hour to unnecessary leisure. For more than sixty years, he rose at four in the morning, preached at five, and frequently in the evening. In his eighty-fifth year, he speaks of that day as a day of rest, in which he preached only twice. Before the latter years of his life, he usually journeyed on horseback, and read poetry, history, and philosophy as he rode, having no other time for such employments. "Leisure and I," he said, "have taken leave of one another. I propose to be busy as long as I live, if my health is so long indulged to me," and fortunately he was always well. For seventy years, he did not lose a night's sleep. He attended the conference; he directed the preachers; he kept a steady eye on Scotland and Ireland, on the West Indies and America; he founded schools; he inspected the circuits; after his eightieth year we hear of him in Holland, in Guernsey and Jersey, in Wales, in Scotland, in Ireland, and every considerable town in England; he systematized the rules of his order, and established that discipline which shows his foresight and energy and wisdom; he purchased ground and erected chapels; he wrote sermons, and essays, and tracts, treatises on Primitive Physic and on Theology, memoirs of good men, and notes on the New Testament, besides his numerous letters and copious diary. Sixteen octavo volumes of his works were published some time after his death. Always calm and cheerful, curious and acute, he read new books, and looked upon novel and strange things to the very last with all the interest of youth. At the age of eighty-five, we find him criticising new works in his brief and acute manner, visiting the wax-work at the museum in Spring Gardens, and "the man who played so wonderfully on the glasses.”

Amid these complicated labours the solemn drama of that earnest, cheerful, and laborious life drew to its serene close. Already had one and another of his earliest and best friends lain down to his eternal rest. The affection of Charles Wesley for John was most sincere and profound. It never lost the freshness of youth. "My heart is as your heart," were his

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