said of their fathers, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship." Far from acknowledging her as a sincere though ignorant worshipper of his heavenly Father, he denies that she possessed the first elements of religious knowledge; and affirms, in terms equally strong, that the Jews, notwithstanding all their delinquencies, had that correctness of religious doctrine of which the Samaritans were destitute. In fact, as soon as the controversy was broached, he entered into it with zeal, and decided it in favour of the Jews.

The nature of the decision, and the harshness of the language in which it is couched, may cause a transient emotion of surprise or difficulty; but even if we did not know that the Lord Jesus Christ was free from all the sinful infirmities of our nature, we might safely infer from his universal benevolence that this judgment was not the effect of prejudice or bigotry. On other occasions, he made manifest even to the world, that he did not participate in the national injustice towards this people. When the Samaritan leper applied for help, he healed him as readily as the nine Jews, and particularly noticed him to his disciples as an example of devout gratitude. When he drew a picture of real charity, and a perfect fulfilment of the second great commandment, he held forth a Samaritan, even in preference to a priest and a Levite, for the imitation of mankind. The woman of whom we speak was astonished at his courtesy, and softened by his benign condescension; and, when the men of the city besought him to tarry amongst them, far from exhibiting any Jewish prejudice, he abode with them for two days. Our Lord's general conduct, therefore, as a man,-not now to speak of him as the co-eternal and co-equal Son of God, leads us to believe that the reasons on which his judgment was founded were much higher and holier than those which would have led an ordinary Jew of that or of the present day to coincide in it. Those motives were, the love of God and the love of man, religious zeal and fervent charity. The question proposed to him, in fact, was, whether the religion of Israel, or that of Samaria, was most acceptable to God, and more in conformity with his will. Truth compelled him to answer as he did; for, whatever the similarity between the two religions, it was certain that the Samaritans were old and obstinate schismatics-corrupters of the law, and rejecters of the prophets. He could not have passed by or palliated Samaritan guilt, without denying the authority of the Divine commands, nor without confirming this poor woman in an error that must have proved fatal to her eternal interests. The declaration might

seem harsh for the moment, but true charity required him to be faithful. He had before him a poor wretched woman, who had passed her life reckless even of the dictates of morality, awakened for the first time to a sense of her guilt and her danger, anxious to know the way of salvation;-was it not the highest and the truest charity to warn her against mistake; to tell her in language the most energetic that perseverance in the systematic disobedience of her nation would lead to eternal ruin; that the religion she had hitherto professed was a mere delusion, an imposture, a Satanic lie; and that the truth was to be found with those whom hitherto she had hated and despised? The words might have grated rudely on her ears at first, and inflicted even a momentary wound upon her heart; but they were recognised ultimately as the reproof of a friend; and now, in the eternal world of truth and love, are remembered with humble gratitude, as having contributed to her deliverance from death. It is remarkable, however, that our Lord, though by his supernatural knowledge of her life, he had convinced her of his prophetic office, did not rest his decision simply upon his prophetic authority, but employed an argument such as she could appreciate. She believed in a Messiah to come; and to this faith therefore he referred her, to prove that the Jews were right, and the Samaritans wrong, "Yeworship ye know not what: we know, what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews;" as if he had said, You look for a Redeemer and a redemption from amongst the Jews: learn, then, at present to acknowledge their superiority. Such was our Lord's mode of dealing with the religious error of this Samaritan woman; and, as adopted by one who was himself charity incarnate, most important for our guidance in similar circumstances.

The words of the text teach us, in the first place, that charity does not compel us to wander about in the twilight of uncertainty, or prohibit us from believing, on sufficient evidence, that our religion is the true one, lest we should thereby come to the conclusion, that the religion of those who differ from us is false. A more ridiculous and palpable falsehood has rarely been proposed to the credulity of mankind than that which the mockcharity of the present day attempts to circulate, namely, that man has no right to judge the religion of his brother, inasmuch as he cannot certainly know that he himself is not in error. This is a proposition which men may find it convenient to enunciate, but which no one can believe. Every man who has got a religion at all, believes necessarily that it is the true one, to the exclusion of all others; and he who has no religion believes

his dignity. But Christ turned, and rebuked them, and said, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; for the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." The religion, therefore, that destroys men's lives, under the pretence of maintaining the truth, is not the religion of Christ. The devil is the being who is described as a liar and murderer: his religion, therefore, is easily tracked through the world; for the lie is every where detected by the murder. Christ would not even adopt the supercilious contempt and unfriendliness which his Jewish contemporaries practised. He was kind and courteous to the Samaritan woman; and such ought the deportment of Christ's disciples to be towards all who differ from them. Their hearts ought to be full of tender compassion for those who are ignorant and out of the way; and their manner should make known the feelings of their hearts: but with this kindness and courtesy, they must fearlessly and boldly denounce error and maintain truth. Our Lord's example proves that it is altogether a mistake to suppose that the assertion of truth makes the reprehension of error unnecessary, or that the exposure of error is an unkind and needless irritation of the feelings. Our Lord uniformly took the opposite course. To the Pharisees he proved the absurdity and wickedness of human tradition; to the Sadducees he pointed out the ignorance of Scripture, which led them to deny the resurrection; and to this Samaritan woman he declared the total erroneousness of her whole religious system. And such is the course to be pursued by those who wish to tread in his steps. "Ye know not what ye worship: we know what we worship," is the language we must employ as soon as a question is made respecting the relative value of truth and falsehood. To admit the possibility that we ourselves may be in error, or that we, and they who differ from us, may both be in the right, is to depart from the example which Christ has left in the text; and to do so, to avoid man's censure, or to gain man's approbation, is to deny Christ and to peril our salvation. He is as weak in reason as in faith, who concedes that conflicting systems may both be true

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sarily presumption, nor arrogance, nor want of charity, that leads men to assert the purity of their own faith, nor to denounce in the most unequivocal language the errors of those who differ from them. It may be, as it was in Christ, the love of truth and fervent charity. No honest man can silently acquiesce in the maintenance of error, or the disparagement of truth; much less can he lend his assistance, his substance, or his influence, to the propagation of false doctrine, or the suppression of the true. He cannot divest religions of their essential differences; nor discover, by any process of abstraction, that idolatry and the worship of the true God, light and darkness, truth and falsehood, are only different modifications of the one principle of religion; nor can he, by any stretch of conscience, hope that they are all equally efficacious for the salvation of man, and equally pleasing in the sight of God. He can therefore make no profession of the kind, to gain a false reputation for charity, nor to avert the odious charge of bigotry. He feels kindly towards those who differ from him; but he shews that kindness as Christ did, by seeking their conversion, and warning them of their error and their danger. The example of the Samaritan woman teaches him that an approximation to the true faith is not a sufficient warrant for acknowledging a religion to be true. He learns, on the contrary, that as this woman, notwithstanding her belief in the God of Israel, in the law of Moses, and in the coming of the Messiah, was by our Lord pronounced to be ignorant of the object of worship; so it is possible for those who profess the Christian faith to be ignorant of the first principles of Christianity: and wherever he finds those who corrupt or mutilate the Scriptures, or lightly separate from the Church of Christ, he dare not flatter them by a careless approval of their religion, but is constrained, by truth as by charity, to bear witness against their corruptions.

Lastly, these words remind us of the earnestness, the solicitude, and the fear, with which we should endeavour to preserve the truth, which by God's goodness we possess. Time was when the Saviour of the world was able to say of the Jewish people, "We know what we worship;" but that season of glory has passed away. The Jews knew not the day of their visitation; and so the kingdom of God was taken from them, and given to other

God in his mercy has made us partakers of the gift. He sent us the light of the Gospel when we were sunk in the darkness of heathenism; and when we had permitted its glories to be obscured by human inventions, he cleared away the gloom, and

caused our eyes once more to behold the light of life. Let us, then, be thankful for God's goodness; but let us not vainly imagine that our present possession of the truth is a pledge of its perpetual continuance in the midst of us. Truth is a celestial visitant, that remains only where she is prized and her instructions hearkened to. Worldliness, zeal for human traditions, and careless indifference, combined to drive her from the Jews; and the same causes produce every where the same effects. If we as a people prefer wealth to truth, display more zeal for the commandments of men than the word of God, and take the same pains in the propagation of error as the extension of truth, we cannot expect that God will long continue to us the possession of the pearl of great price. The truth which we disregard may be removed, and the falsehood which we have ceased to abhor be allowed to recover its ancient dominion. If we would retain it ourselves, or have it to hand down as a goodly inheritance to our children, we must learn to love and value it above all things, to maintain its interests, uphold its rights, and diminish the power of its rivals and its enemies. In a word, we must possess the certainty of which our Lord spoke, when he said, "We know what we worship;" and having that certainty, we must be ready, as he was, mildly, but firmly and uncompro misingly, to oppose the errors of those who worship they know not what. Let us, however, not be satisfied with a sort of national assurance that our faith is correct. When our Lord spake these remarkable words, and spake them truly of the faith of the Jewish Church and nation, there were multitudes of Jews, who knew what they worshipped just as little as the Samaritans. They had not made use of the religious advantages which God had vouchsafed them; and therefore, as individuals, lived and died, and went to eternity, without any certain knowledge of Him whom they professed to worship. Let us take care that this be not our case: the only way to prevent it, is conscientiously to employ the means within our reach. Let us diligently study that word in which God has revealed himself. Let us by earnest prayer seek the guidance of that blessed Spirit, who is promised to guide us into all truth; and above all, by steady obedience, let us seek the fulfilment of that promise which says, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."

THE MAN OF GOD.*

How great, how wonderful, is the power of a name !— It is recorded in history that a Roman general quelled general destruction, by simply changing the title a mutiny in his army,-a mutiny which threatened under which he addressed the mutineers. They were accustomed to be addressed as soldiers: he dropped the appellation which they were wont to hear, and when they rushed to his tribunal shouting for redress of imaginary grievances, and demanding indulgences inconsistent with discipline, he opened the harangue with which he was to answer them by calling them citizens. They heard the word, and they sank under the sentence it conveyed. They heard the unusual appellation, and like men benumbed and thunderstruck, they turned from the violence of their former conduct to deprecation, to entreaties, and submission.

The

Nor need we wonder at the effect produced, however sudden and extraordinary it may seem. alteration of the name changed in a moment the character, the position of the men whom he addressed. It took from them all the proud distinctions in which they used to rest, and levelled them with the class they had been accustomed to despise. The change of that single word obliterated the memorial of past victories, and the hope of future triumphs; it left the veteran bereft of the glory for which he had endured the labours and perils of the field; and cut off from the young aspirant all expectation of renown. It was but a word, but it carried with it the conviction of disaffection and revolt; and sounded to their ears like the voice of their country denouncing her rebellious children, and casting them off for ever.

We see, therefore, that it is in the power of a name to produce effects which could hardly be expected. A name given, a name withheld, may supersede a long chain of reasoning and reproof; may anticipate conviction, may overwhelm the mind by the declaration of a fact which had been the secret object of fear or hope; and may raise or sink a man in his own estimation, as well as in the judgment of the world. Nor is the process by which this mysterious effect is produced difficult to trace. A name describes a character, a condition; and wherever the relations implied by that character or condition are understood; wherever a man knows what is meant by or included in the words applied to him, the conclusion to which he comes follows with the quickness of thought; and he feels the elevation or the degradation he is called to, almost as soon as he perceives the sound by which his denomination is expressed. And we may add, that just in proportion as there is no time given in this process for reasoning or consideration, there is no time given for losing the force of the impression. There are cases where reflection will be found to diminish the effect of such a charge, by introducing other and collateral subjects. The mind has leisure to argue against conviction, when argument is employed to produce conviction; and he who might have sunk before the sudden shock conveyed by the name under which he was addressed, may resist the charge, if he is allowed to have time to meet it, and to consider the means by which it may be disproved or extenuated.

But we are not called to discuss at present the means by which conviction may be effected. We are directed by our text; we are called by the service of the day to contemplate elevation, privileges, honours, rather than the opposite; and if I have endeavoured to shew by this example the power which a name possesses, it is, my brethren, that you may feel that power more deeply when used for the purpose of quickening, of sanctifying the spirit of man.

"Thou, O man of God, flee these things."

From an admirable Sermon, on 1 Tim. iv. 11, preached in the Cathedral of Chester, Sunday, Feb. 24, 1839, at the Bishop's Ordination. By the Rev. H. Raikes, Chancellor of the Diocese, London, Seeleys; Hatchards; Nisbet.

If ever there was an appellation addressed to man capable of raising man above himself; calculated to produce great and extraordinary results, it surely is that name which I just have uttered. Man of God! what a name for man to bear! What a connexion for poor fallen man to find himself included in! Man of God! Compared with this, what are the titles of worldly distinctions, what are the appellations which men have imagined for themselves or others!

If the tide of feeling in a Roman army was turned by the substitution of the term of citizen for soldier, so that the hardy veterans, who seemed afraid of nothing, sank under the degradation which the change of name implied; how should the child of Adam feel, when he hears himself addressed as "man of God!"

O, my brethren, what shadows of distinction, what empty bubbles, are being followed by the people of the world, if compared with these which may be yours; and how deep the infatuation, how great the deception of self-love, when man can be found courting the praise of his perishing fellow-creatures, and neglecting that honour which cometh from God!

But great, pre-eminent, as the honour now contemplated is, it need not be taken in exclusive application to those who, like Timothy, to whom it was originally addressed, are called to the work of the ministry, and who as such may be regarded in a peculiar sense as men of God. There is no such partiality in God as this would seem to imply. His gifts are bestowed on all. All who are in Jesus Christ are his equally and alike. There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. And though one member may differ from another member, they are all parts of the same body; for as the apostle says (1 Cor. xii. 13), by one Spirit we are all baptised into the same body, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

If Timothy, therefore, is here called "man of God," there are other places where all are addressed as the people of God and each individual child of Christian parentage, at the moment it is added to the Church of Christ, is addressed as a child of God; and as soon as man begins to speak by the Spirit of adoption, he cries, Abba, Father!

There are many, then, present, even in this congregation, to whom this appellation may be addressed; many who are capable of feeling its force as applied personally to themselves. There are many, who, as children of God, have promised to renounce the pomps and vanities of the wicked world, the sinful lusts of the flesh, and the works of the devil; who, under these conditions, were admitted into the Church by baptism; have borne the Christian name; who, as such, and in right of this denomination, claim to themselves a share in the promises of the Gospel; and who may, as such, be with all propriety exhorted to flee those things which are forbidden. And yet are there not those here present whose ears may tingle, if reminded of their first profession; and who have cause to tremble when they mark the inconsistency between the name they bear and the life that they are leading? Yes, my brethren, there is many a one in the world, who, if he were addressed as man of God, might wonder at the appellation-might wonder at what was meant by applying such a term to one in whom there were such slender marks of godliness appearing, and who, if serious, might shudder at a call which met with no fitness or disposition to reply to it within. Alas! alas ! that such should be the case. Alas! that the glory, the highest glory of man, should be rejected and refused; that he who might be walking with God in the dignity of holiness, should prefer walking with men in the debasements of the world; that the child of God, the inheritor of heaven, should, like a degenerate child, be ashamed of his relationship and his prospects, and should barter away the glories of eternity for the pleasures that beasts enjoy in equality with himself!

Man of God! O, what a keen and cutting irony would this word appear, if we went to the scenes of this world's amusements, and addressed each individual of the assembled multitudes by this title! Man of God; occupied in all that is vain and frivolous in appearance, and filled with all that is corrupt and debased within. Man of God, but forgetful of God, wasting his precious gifts, doing defiance to his will, despite to his Spirit. How are the mighty fallen! how is the pure gold become dim! There was a time when the children of God knew the value of their connexion, and asserted it in practice. There was a time when a broad distinct line was traced between the children of God and the sons of men, and the one came not near the other. But the line is broken through. Connexions are formed which have debased the one, without elevating the other. The carnal mind has influenced the spirtual decisions of those who were partakers of the heavenly calling; and of the many who may be addressed by the title, how few will be found walking as the children of God!

The Cabinet.

BURDEN OF THE CONSCIENCE. There is one remarkable consideration, that is fully sufficient of itself to convince us that we have a load, and a very heavy one, hanging upon our hearts and our consciences; it is simply this, our unwillingness to examine them. There is not one of us who does not feel it to be a loathsome, a disgusting, a most painful, and a most humiliating task. Only observe with what eagerness we avoid it; how many excuses we make in order that we may escape an acquaintance with our own hearts, and an inquiry into our own consciences. Now this is a positive proof that we know full well the inquiry would turn against us. It is the testimony of our hearts against themselves at the very outset. Why should you be afraid of examining yourself, if you did not know well that you would find a heavy burden within? Just consider what a delightful occupation would self-examination become, if we had any reason to suppose that our hearts would make a favourable report. Every man loves to hear his own praises, if he believes them to be true. O, if we had any idea that our own heart would praise us, there would not be a more delightful task upon earth than that of examining ourselves. How eagerly should we steal away to our closets and our Bibles, if we thought that we should come away satisfied with ourselves, approving ourselves, assured that all was safe within! How happy should you be in weighing your heart, if you thought you should find it really a light and an easy one! How happy should you feel in looking at it over and over, and again and again, if you thought you should find it good, and pure, and holy! What a luxury would it be to start a new virtue at every step of our inquiry, to indulge in the contemplation of our own goodness, and the applause of our own consciences; and what a beautiful thing would the Bible appear to us, if we thought that at every page we turned we read our own salvation! O then, what must be the real state of the case, when we would study any thing rather than the book of God, and would plunge into any society rather than the company of our own hearts! Is it not a proof that, in the one, we know we should find the evidence of our guilt, and, in the other, the registry of our condemnation? This plain and simple fact, that we would do any thing rather than examine our own hearts, is a sufficient evidence of the corruption of our nature-we are afraid to look at it: a sufficient proof of the heavy burden withinwe are afraid to weigh it.-Rev. C. Wolfe.

SOFTENING INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.-Even war has lost much of its natural cruelty; and, compared with itself in ancient times, wears a mild and