selves rich, and increased in goods, and
had need of nothing; whereas they were
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and
blind, and naked; they were the victims
of the deceitfulness of sin. Now, if others
have been deceived, why may not we?
Is not this a good and sufficient cause
for inquiry? for bringing our gold to have
it weighed in the balance of the sanctu-
ary? In this very examination let me
exhort you to beware of the deceitfulness
of sin. Never has sin more windings than
when most closely pursued.
We are
aware, from the deceitfulness of sin, how
difficult it must be to break with it; if
this were dependent on man's unaided
effort, his condition might be hopeless.
He is encouraged, however, by the pro-
mise of assistance. Nothing can be more
reasonable than if any person really
wishes to be freed from the deceitfulness
of sin, that he should avail himself of the
assistance offered; that he should pray,
"Search me, O God, and know my heart;
try me and know my thoughts; and see
if there be any wicked way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting."

that God is good, and will not be severe in punishing the irregularities of which he has been guilty. Could any argument be more fallacious? any evidence greater of the deceitfulness of sin? A considerate sovereign will not exact a greater amount of obedience than his subjects are able to give; he will make allowance for difficulties and deficiencies. God knows our constitution and circumstances, and will in mercy make allowance for the frailties of our frame; but can any person deny, however strong his propensity to evil, however unfavourable his circumstances, that he could not have resisted sinful indulgences if he had wished? Did he not go into these with the consent of the will, and against his better judgment? And where would be the distinction between virtue and vice, if a person is not to be visited with the divine displeasure who wilfully disregards the divine commands? "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." A person might as reasonably sow weeds and expect to reap a harvest of corn, as to sow to the flesh, and of the spirit reap life everlasting. Yet how often is this deceitfulness practised! Balaam is an example. Lov"Five persons were studying what were the best means to mortify sin; one ing the wages of unrighteousness, disre-said, to meditate on death; the second, garding the command of God, he exclaims, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."

SIN.

to meditate on judgment; the third, to meditate on the joys of heaven; the fourth, to meditate on the torments of hell; the fifth, to meditate on the blood and sufferings of Jesus Christ; and cerIn conclusion. There is no deceit more tainly the last is the choicest and strongdangerous than the deceitfulness of sin. A est motive of all. If ever we would cast person may be deceived respecting his off our despairing thoughts, we must wealth, his learning, or his friends; he dwell and muse much upon, and apply may be less wealthy, less learned, less this precious blood to our own souls; so shall sorrow and mourning flee away." beloved, than he imagined, and after all Brookes. there may be no great harm; but if deceived by sin, the results may be ruin

ous.

The deceitfulness of sin is not only most dangerous, it is also very prevalent; for it does not follow, that because a man fancies he is not living in sin, that this is really the fact. This may be the effect of the deceitfulness of sin. What we think praiseworthy, may be very culpable. We are apt to judge too favourably of ourselves. It may be true of us, as of the members of another Church. They thought them

USHER.

The last words that Archbishop Usher was heard to express, were, "Lord, forgive my sins, especially my sins of

omission."

THOUGHTS UPON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.

God has revealed a Day of Judgment-The Design of this Appointment-The Judge. THERE is no "fact of the future" more clearly revealed in Scripture, or more certainly believed by the Christian Church, than that "God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance to all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead."

There is, indeed, among mankind a general anticipation of a coming time when the mystery of God's providence will be cleared up, and His righteousness displayed in the final judgment to be then passed on the evil and on the good. What the human race are led to anticipate, as likely to occur hereafter, from the many unsettled questions here between man and his brother, and between man and his God, Scripture reveals to us as certain.

While, however, every Christian believes in the coming of Jesus to judge the world, as firmly as he does in the fact of His having risen from the dead, there seems to us to be very inadequate conceptions in the minds of many as to the design of this day, or the ends which it is fitted to accomplish in the kingdom of God. It is hastily assumed, that the day of judgment will be short as the period included between an earthly sunrise and sunset; and that, during this brief interval, the dead shall rise, and shall be judged before the throne of Jesus Christ, along with the fallen angels. This account of judgment being assumed as a true representation of what is revealed in Scripture on this momentous subject, it is then asked, with doubt and wonder, what good can be gained, or what purpose served, by thus summoning those who have been for ages lost or saved, whose doom has long been sealed,-to appear at the bar of Jesus, and there to receive a formal sentence? If Judas goes to his own place, and Stephen to the arms of His Redeemer, if the wicked rich man departs to the burning flame, and Lazarus to the bosom of Abraham,-if

Satan and his angels have, ere the world began, experienced the horrors of a state which they know to be unchangeable, because they are themselves unchanged, what conceivable reason can there be for appointing a day, in which all the wicked and the righteous shall be assembled, only to receive their respective sentences of condemnation or acquittal?

We know not how such questions can be answered by those who suppose the day of judgment to be nothing more than a day on which Jesus Christ will publicly declare what the eternal fate of His creatures shall be, without any trial, however, beyond that which has already taken place in the court of each man's conscience, and in the presence of the living God.

We at once admit that the difficulty, or impossibility even, of answering such questions, is no adequate reason for our denying any fact clearly revealed in Scripture which may suggest them. But if these belong not to the fact itself, but to what appears to us to be a wrong interpretation of it,-if a different view is freed from such difficulties, without others, more numerous and serious, being evolved,-and if, moreover, while keeping strictly to the letter of Scripture, it is more in harmony with the grand ends to be accomplished by the kingdom of Christ, and discloses more of the glory of the great King, surely a presumption is thereby afforded in favour of its truth, though, perhaps, at first sight it may interfere with preconceived opinions.

Instead, then, of the day of judgment being a day merely for the passing of a righteous sentence upon the good or bad, it seems clearly revealed in Scripture to be a period of time-long enough for the peaceful and orderly ongoing of all its august proceedings!-when Jesus Christ will summon to His immediate presence all who have been the subjects of His mediatorial kingdom, or have been placed under His authority for accomplishing the purposes of His reign;—when each

person will be tried in the presence of the like any of us;" "who in all things was assembled universe, and his true relation-made like His brethren."

ship to his King shall be proved upon evidence minute, sifting, and unquestionable; and when thus the whole government of the Mediator, from the beginning till the end of time, over men, angels, and devils, shall be fully disclosed, and its excellence manifested to the confusion of the wicked, the joy of the righteous, and the glory of the Triune God! Difficulties will, no doubt, be suggested by the view we have thus so briefly stated, as well as by the other we have been obliged to discard. The immense time, for instance, which such a world trial must be presumed to require, will meet us as an objection at the very threshold of our inquiries. But instead of pausing to remove it, we shall at present pass it by,reserving it and others, either for future consideration, or to be tacitly and satisfactorily answered by the positive truth regarding judgment, which we shall now endeavour to establish.

THE JUDGE.

The Judge will be Jesus Christ.

But, secondly, The chief reason, as it appears to us, why Jesus Christ will direct all the proceedings of the day of judgment, arises from the peculiar relationship in which, as the only Mediator between God and man, He stands to the human race. He will judge all, because He is the Head of all for His Church. Let us dwell a moment upon this point.

We are informed in Scripture, that Jesus Christ is the Creator of this world. "All things were made by Him." "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him." "God who created all things by Jesus Christ." "All things were created by Him and for Him."

Jesus Christ is also the Governor of the world.

"God raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under His

"We must all appear before the judg-feet, and gave Him to be the Head over ment-seat of Christ,"-" Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, at His appearing and kingdom."

"The day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ."

"The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son."

And there are several reasons discern ible by us why Jesus Christ should thus "be appointed to judge the world." First, From the constitution of His person. As God, He is possessed of omniscience to discern every thought and intent of the heart; unerring wisdom and unsullied righteousness to try every case; with omnipotent power and sovereign authority to execute every sentence. On the other hand, as "the Son of man" He will appear in His human nature, for " every eye shall see Him." This 66 same Jesus," said the angels at His ascension, "who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Man shall be judged by one who is their brother; "who, in all points, was tried

all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."

To accomplish the various ends of this glorious government, He is King of nature. All the elements of nature which can in any way affect the history or destiny of the human race, are directed and controlled by Him. "The winds and the seas obey Him;" pestilence and famine, the volcano and the hurricane, are ministers of His, that do His pleasure. He is the King of providence. Armies and fleets, conquests and invasions, discoveries and inventions, migrations and settlements,-all are under the government of His wise and omnipotent sceptre. He is the King of grace. The gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit are dispensed to the persons and in the measure which seem best to Him. Finally, He is the King of angels and devils; so that their power and agency, in relation to the human family, are either controlled or guided by Him.

Now, this kingdom of Jesus Christ, which began, at least, with the history of

the world, will one day be resigned into the hands of God: "Then cometh the end," says the apostle, "when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all." But ere that end comes, the Mediator himself will, as we have already said, disclose the history of His kingdom to the assembled universe. He will make known "His ways and acts" towards the children of men. He will meet friend and foe, and disclose the real history of each person who ever lived, from the first moment of his birth to the moment of his trial; and of each family, and city, and kingdom, from their rise till their final extinction in the dust; and thus the universe shall know how Iis government over human affairs, in all ages and climes, has been conducted; and in what manner His authority and power over all things for His Church has been exercised; that it may be acknowledged by proofs undeniable, whether He was, indeed, worthy to have received such honour and power in the great and universal kingdom of Jehovah!

But lastly, there is a reason why Jesus should be Judge, from His peculiar relationship to the Church. "He created all things, that unto principalities and powers might be known of the Church the manifold wis lom of God." And He is now, in virtue of what He has as a priest, made Head over all things for the Church as a king. "Because He humbled himself, God hath highly exalted Him." The grand end of His whole mediatorial reign is, "that unto God might be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus." But the work of Jesus Christ as Mediator, will not have terminated, nor will He receive His full joy and reward, until He raises His people from their graves, and gathers His elect from the four winds of heaven; until He opens the Book of Life, and from this biographical record adduces evidence of the reality of their loyalty, and of their love to the King; and reveals the glory of all His dealings towards them in every age: -until, in one word, the Church, of which He was the Head, which "He loved," which He "purchased with His own blood," and "sanctified and cleansed

with the washing of the water of His word," shall be presented to himself, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish! His judgment of the Church will be the consummation of His mediatorial glory, and, the fulness of His reward!

As to the time when Jesus Christ shall judge the world, we are ignorant. " Of that day knoweth no man, not even the angels. We know only that it will come suddenly-" as a thief in the night,”upon the whole world, (Matthew xxiv. 36-42)-and "that we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."

No words of man can venture upon any description of the appearance of the Judge, or the accompaniments of that great and terrible day of the Lord. But we conclude our present thoughts by a few Scripture statements upon this solemn theme.

MATTH. xvi. 27.

"For the Son of man shall come in the glory

of His Father, with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works."

MATTH. XXIV. 30, 31.

"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other,"

1 THESS. iv. 15.17.

"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together

with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

2 THESS. i. 7, 8.

"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaing vengeance on them that know not God, and ven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, takthat obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

2 PETER iii. 10. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief

The two most difficult journeys any With our limbs at rest on the quiet earth's breast, man can take, are out of himself, and into And our souls at home with God!