was this word " now.

Whoever prayed (and it appears some four or five persons were so engaged) every one without exception used the word now ;" and the gentleman thought it was going rather too far; that this was not merely prescribing to the Divine Being what he was to do, but when he was to do it: he thought the Word of God had told men what he intended to do for them, and therefore they were authorized to ask only what God had promised to give: but this word " now was carrying it rather too far. If that gentleman had been, after all, as familiar with his Bible as I am sure, from the account I heard of his character, he is with books of science and general literature, he would have found that this word "now" is a favourite word in the Inspired Writings: he would have found that it occurs oftener in the Bible than in the prayer-meeting. “Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord." We read of "Save now, O Lord." "O Lord I beseech thee send now prosperity," says David. And we read of those who were sent forth to say, Come, for all things are now ready." And again, says God, "Now is the accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation." What! two nows in the same sentence? Perhaps that was more than occurred at the prayer-meeting. Then he might have read the text, "We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." My fellow sinners, do not your wants, do not your desires, do not your prayers, say now?" Does not your Bible say 66 now ?” Does not the Holy Ghost say 65 now "Let then your faith say now," and you shall (God grant you may!) you shall receive the atonement.

Then lastly, we that have realized this divine, life-giving, and heavenly religion, will not wish to monopolize it ourselves. What, monopoly in religion! Why monopoly in religion is the worst monopoly of all. Religion is not the less to me because you receive it also: the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not the less good news to me because it is also good news to you. The sun in the firmament is not less valuable to me because he gives light and heat to thousands of millions of my fellows, as well as myself: and if there be any difference here it will be in our favour: in giving we shall receive; in blessing we shall be blessed. Have you received the atonement, and proved its efficacy; and do you not wish your fellow men to receive it too? Do you "joy in God" on this behalf; and do you not wish the millions of the human family to rejoice with you? I am sure your Christian feelings prompt you to this. Therefore it is you are come here this morning in such numbers: and what a cheering and interesting spectacle do I behold! Such a number of human beings-such a number of bloodbought, deathless, human beings, who must exist for ever and ever, concerned to know, and love, and live the truth themselves, and concerned to make it known to others! Is not this a spectacle worthy of angels to behold? And do they not behold it? And if some poor sinner in this assembly has received the conviction that he is such, and is beginning to heave the sigh, and to shed

"The tear that from repentance flows,"

has not the angel who witnessed it carried up the glad-tidings; and is not the joy now circulating around the throne? And don't you wish to give angels joy? Don't you wish that your fellow-creatures may have joy? Then do all you can to send them that shall go and exhibit the great atonement, who shall take up this great gospel scheme, and hiding themselves behind it, not wishing

people to see them, and admire their eloquence their zeal, and their learning— hiding, like John the Baptist behind the great Victim, and crying out, “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world." There are many

willing to go, and there are multitudes willing to receive them, and waiting for them, and looking out for them, saying, "Come over and help us." And what is our reply? Why, "We are coming; or, if we cannot come ourselves, we are willing to help those who can come.”

Are you weary in well-doing? Are you going to abandon the cause? Not you. You have put your hand to the plough; and are you going back? No; you are looking onward and upward. It is the interest of Christ, and therefore it is your interest.

But why speak I thus? Do I forget where I am? Do I forget before whom I stand? Have so many years gone by since the existence of the Society, when, with one or two exceptions, I have been permitted on those annual occasions to bear my humble testimony in behalf of this great cause, and have so often witnessed your liberality: and do I suspect you now? I do not: no surmise of the kind has any existence in this bosom. Your hearts are open, and your hands will be open too. Then "whatsoever your hand findeth you to do, do it with your might."

THE END OF LIFE.

REV. J. A. JAMES,

SURREY CHAPEL, MAY 3, 1835.

Seek

ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness."-MATTHEW, vi. 33.

RELIGION-including its incumbent duties and its inestimable privilegesis the great end of life. I repeat the expression, and then make a momentary pause, that you may take in, and revolve, the entire subject of the evening's discourse Religion is the great end of life.

To illustrate and sustain this proposition is my aim on the present occasion. It is infinitely momentous, and it pertains to us all. There is, there can be but one supreme end of existence. If we miss or mistake this, we shall have lived in vain; and as life is continually drawing to a close, and may close at any future moment, it discovers brutish ignorance, or brutish apathy, or both, never to stop, as we are hurrying through existence, to ask the questions, "What am I? Whence did I come? Whither am I going? What is the design of God in sending me into the world? What is to be my destiny when I go home?" And yet how many are there that never ask these questions! Some are sauntering away existence; others are entirely mistaking the design of it; for Religion is the great end of life.

I will explain the terms of this proposition. I say the great end of life; for there are many subordinate and inferior ones. It is the design of God in sending us here that we should keep up society and improvement; that we should provide for our own comfort during our sojourn in the present world, and for the comfort of our families. These are ends, and legitimate ends of life; but they are not the supreme purpose of God in creating us. This is announced in the text: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness"-the blessings of the Christian dispensation bestowed by God in a way of righteousness. Seek these first as the objects of greatest importance-as those which are to be supreme in your desires, pursuits, and engagements.

Religion, I say, is the great end of life. By religion I do not mean the adoption of a creed, however orthodox; nor the performance of a round of ceremonies, however scriptural, decent, and proper. By religion I mean a supreme, habitual, practical regard to the Word of God as the foundation of our hope as sinners, the rule of our conduct as creatures and as Christians; an habitual living in the fear of God, the love of Christ, and the hope of heaven; a life of "repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ”—a life of holiness, and prayer, and watchfulness, and benevolence. Such a religion is the great end of life.

I shall sustain this proposition by the four following proofs: the testimony of Scripture; the revealed design of God in all his dispensations towards men; the nature of religion; and the brevity of human life, in connexion with the life that is to come.

In the first place, I prove this proposition by reference to THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.

It is scarcely needed to quote particular passages; the whole Bible supports the sentiment. The Word of God stands at the very centre of human society and human affairs, to correct the mistakes, to reprove the follies, and to guide the conduct of mankind in reference to the life that is to come. All its doctrines, all its precepts, all its promises, all its prospects, may be summed up in substance in the sentence which I have already frequently repeated: Religion is the end of life. The Bible is a heaven-kindled beacon, to guide the voyagers over the stormy ocean of human life to the haven of eternal rest. It is placed on the high road to another world, to direct its travellers, and bears this inscription as its finger points to eternity-" TO IMMORTALITY." It is ever saying to the children of men, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money; come ye, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." The man who for a moment doubts whether the supreme end of existence be vital godliness, places himself in direct opposition to the testimony of Scripture, and does not so much mistake it, as contradict it.

But perhaps many will be struck more with particular passages than with the substance of the whole. Take, then, the text: what can be more explicit? This is the language of Christ: "Seek ye first," as that which is of most importance, as that which should be most desired, as that which you should be most anxious to possess, as that without possessing which you should feel that you are poor, or in the possession of which you should account yourselves rich, though you had nothing else: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness."

The context is equally explicit. In the nineteenth verse we read thus: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." This language is not intended to stop the current of human affairs, to paralyze the arm of industry, to abstract man altogether from his connexion with society, to enclose him within the walls of a convent or a monastery; but it is intended to teach him that every thing earthly is to be subordinate to that which is heavenly; that all things temporal are inferior to those which are eternal; that Religion is the one great end of life.

In the latter part of the chapter our Lord tells us to "take no thought "— no anxious thought, no supreme solicitude, about what we are to eat, or drink, or wear. Not that these things are to be utterly and entirely banished from the human mind, but they are all to be brought into subjection to higher and nobler pursuits. We find in the Gospel of John this language: "Labour not

for the meat which perisheth;" that is, Labour not so much for the meat which perisheth; "but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." The Apostle Paul teaches us the same lesson when he says, "To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek"-as the end of life-" for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life." Our Lord's words on another occasion are equally important: "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" We are in another place admonished, "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do it all to the glory of God:" "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth :" "Look not at the things which are seen and temporal, but at the things which are unseen and eternal." Certainly as God knows the end for which he sent us into the world, and as he has thus so explicitly made known that end, we are guilty of a contempt of divine authority if there be one single object, however important in other respects it may be, that we set above religion, and those blessings which are included in it, and insuperably connected with it.

Secondly, I support this proposition by reference to THE REVEALED DESIGN OF GOD in all his dispensations toward the human race.

For what purpose has God created this world? Not to be our abiding place, not to be our inheritance, not to be our perpetual possession. It is only a place of transit, where we have no continuing city, and are not permitted long to abide-through which we are passing to some other world beyond it. What is the design of all the dispensations of Divine Providence? If he give us prosperity, it is not to rivet our affections to the world; it is only to remind us of the goodness of Jehovah, and how much better blessings there are that he is waiting to bestow if we ask him in the right way. If he should place us in adversity, it is not to sport with our distress, it is not to take pleasure in our affliction; but it is to wean us from the present state, to lead us to seek that sorrowless world which he has promised to them that love him.

But I especially refer you to his great work, the work of redemption-to the incarnation, sufferings, and death of his Son. Upon the summit of the cross may we read this inscription in legible and bright characters, " Religion is the great end of man :" for "God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The Son of God became not incarnate-gave not his tears, his blood, his life, his death, for objects so mean, so comparatively insignificant as wealth, as fame, as literature, as science, as pleasure. No; the agonies, the tears, the blood of the Son of God, were given for the salvation of the soul, that man should be a partaker of true religion; that we should be brought to repentance towards God, and faith in Him who is able to save to the uttermost. The cross is the exponent of God's designs towards us: and that man alone can be in harmony with God in the end of his existence, who is making the salvation of his soul through faith in Jesus, the great purpose of life. This is the only way in which he can be brought into fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. The man who opposes, by the habit of his life, the career of his conduct, the design of the Son of God in coming into our world, that man is defeating the end of his existence; he cannot be agreed with God; he