great day of the wrath of God, that the infinite love and mercy which wrought out redemption for us will then not only acquiesce in, but pronounce, the condemnation of all who continue to despise the riches of the Divine goodness and forbearance, and to harden themselves in impenitency and unbelief. Let us then be persuaded to avoid this dreadful end. Favoured as we have been with religious privileges beyond the lot of so many of our brethren, let us see to it that they do not aggravate our final ruin, by our barren and unproductive use of them. Let us submit ourselves to the inspection of God's all-seeing eye, that he may discover to us where we really stand. And if our conscience should tell us, that while we have had a name to live we have been spiritually dead before him, let us now at length turn to him, repenting of our sins, and imploring his grace. He will not upbraid us with our past ingratitude, if we now submit ourselves to him. He will not spurn from his footstool even the vilest sinner who prostrates himself there in humility and contrition. He will receive us graciously, and rejoice over us to do us good. It is of his mercy that we have not been long since consumed, and that we are spared to see the commencement of another year. Let an affecting sense of that mercy draw us to Him, that we may receive of Him the grace and the wisdom that we need to guide us through the wilderness of this world, and to bring us to his presence, where is fulness of joy, and to his right hand, where are pleasures for evermore. Then will the year which has opened upon us be in truth a year of genuine happiness. It may indeed, and doubtless will, bring with it many cares and sorrows, many changes and disappointments; but all these will but work together for our good; the events which are the most contrary to our wishes will be found in the

end to have tended to our profit; if we live, we shall live unto the Lord; if we die, we shall die unto the Lord; so that living or dying, we shall be the Lord's. That such may be our blessed portion in both worlds may God of his infinite mercy grant, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Divine Saviour, and all-prevailing Intercessor. Amen.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

IN reading your Family Sermon for November, I was pleased with the simple description given of faith, in its elementary principle, as "the influential belief in testimony;" which you correctly amplify, by stating it to be according to St. Paul's own definition, (Heb. xi. 1), so strong and vivid a perception of the truth and infinite moment of what God has revealed as renders our belief the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." This faith is doubtless to be considered as having an especial reference to Jesus Christ, and particularly to the doctrine of his atonement; but not to this point exclusively, but to all that God has revealed, especially his promises and his threatenings, his prohibitions and commands.

To this definition of scriptural faith, as the influential belief in testimony, it is customary with divines to add, that it is not such a belief as we exercise in admitting any proposition of human science. Certainly in many important respects it is not; but as far as a belief in a proposition of science affects our conduct, more is lost than gained in disclaiming the parallel. I could wish that the faith of the great body of professed Christians in the Gospel were but more similar to their faith in the propositions of science. For example: Mercator has heard on good authority that the tradewinds blow, in certain latitudes, in a certain direction at certain seasons of the year: he has never ve

rified the fact by personal experience, but his "belief in testimony" is so "influential" that he would not on any account think of fitting out his vessel at such a season as to have to encounter the inconveniencies which he knows must arise from prosecuting a voyage in a direction adverse to these alleged periodical breezes.-Prudentia had never witnessed the power of the Galvanic battery, or the gas blowpipe, to consume the diamond: indeed, the fact seemed to her at first quite as difficult of belief as any mystery of Scripture can possibly do to the infidel; but having heard it affirmed on undeniable authority, her faith in testimony was so strong and "influential," that no persuasions could induce her to submit a ring of brilliants, which she greatly valued as the legacy of her dying mother, to the experiment.-Rusticus had never studied the laws relative to conveyancing; but his belief in the testimony of his professional adviser was so influential, that he voluntarily sacrificed several present advantages which he might otherwise have derived from his copyhold, because he was instructed that such a liberty would vitiate the whole of his tenure.-Sciolus had never demonstrated beyond the first proposition in Euclid, but so "influential" was his conviction, grounded on the strongest concurrent testimony, of the truth of the celebrated fortyseventh proposition, that he refused to risk a sixpence on the chance of its being false, though with an alternative of winning a thousand pounds if it could be proved so.

Such is faith in matters of human testimony; and will not your readers concur with me in earnestly wishing that all who profess and call themselves. Christians had a similar faith in the declarations of God? Oh that men thus influentially believed the truth of their own fallen condition, the infinite demerit of their sins, the judgments of God against them, their need of a

Saviour, the efficacy of faith in his atonement, and the obligations which belong to the Christian character!

I am not, however, putting the two cases on a level: for they differ, as before remarked, "in many important respects;" and, among others, in these, that faith, in a religious sense, must have GOD for its Author; that it is supported and confirmed by the operation of the Holy Spirit on the mind; that it is nourished not by a merely ratiocinative process, but by the appointed

means of grace;" and that it produces moral and spiritual effects, exciting the affections, acting upon the hopes and fears, and producing love, joy, gratitude, and holiness in the heart and conduct.

X.

To the Editor of the ChristianObserver.

IN a volume of Letters from the pen of Lady Rachel Russell, recently given to the world from the original manuscripts preserved in the Devonshire Collection, occur the following remarks on a future state and the blessed effects of true religion. Those of your readers who have been interested in the celebrated published letters of this eminent woman, will peruse with pleasure these reflections written in her old age; and will be led to contrast her delightful hopes for time and eternity, with the chill prospects of that infidel system which has been revived in our own day, with new absurdities; and which, quitting the schools of a proud philosophy where it once sought shelter, is extending its ravages among the poor and illiterate who are totally incompetent to disentangle its delusions.

LADY RUSSELL TO HER SON THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.

"Stratton, July, 1706. "When I take my pen to write this, I am, by the goodness and mercy of God, in a moderate and

easy state of health-a blessing I have thankfully felt through the course of a long life, which, with a much greater help-the contemplation of a more durable statehas maintained and upheld me through varieties of providences and conditions of life. But all the delights and sorrows of this mixed state must end; and I feel the decays that attend old age creep so fast on me, that, although I may yet get over some more years, I ought to make it my frequent meditation that the day is near when this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved, and my immortal spirit be received into that place of purity, where no unclean thing can enter ; there to sing eternal praises to the great Creator of all things. With the Psalmist, I believe that at His right hand there are pleasures for evermore:' and what is good and of eternal duration, must be joyful above what we can conceive; as what is evil, and of like duration, must be despairingly miserable.

"And now, my dear child, I pray, I beseech you, I conjure you, my loved son, consider what there is of felicity in this world that can compensate the hazard of losing an everlasting easy being; and then deliberately weigh, whether or not the delights and gratifications of a vicious or idle course of life are such that a wise or thoughful man would choose or submit to. Again, fancy its enjoyments at the height imagination can propose or suggest (which yet rarely or never happens, or, if it does, as a vapour soon vanishes); but let us grant it could, and last to fourscore years, is this more than the quickest thought to eternity? Oh, my child! fix on that word, eternity! Old Hobbs, with all his fancied strength of reason, could never endure to rest or stay upon that thought, but ran from it to some miserable amusement. I remember to have read of

Lady Russell was now more than seventy years of age.

some man, who reading in the Bible something that checked him, he threw it on the ground; the book fell open, and his eye fixed on the word eternity, which so struck upon his mind, that he, from a bad liver, became a most holy man. Certainly, nothing besides the belief of reward and punishment can make a man truly happy in his life, at his death, and after death. Keep innocency, and take heed to the thing that is right, for that shall bring a man peace at the last-peace in the evening of each day, peace in the day of death, and peace after death. For my own part, I apprehend I should not much care (if free from pain) what my portion in this world was,

if a life to continue, perhaps one year, or twenty, or eighty; but then, to be dust, not to know or be known any more,-this is a thought has something of horror in it to me, and always had; and would make me careless if life were to be long or short: but to live, to die, to live again, has a joy in it; and how inexpressible is that joy, if we secure an humble hope to live ever happily; and this we may do, if we take care to live agreeably to our rational faculties; which also best secures health, strength, and peace of mind, the greatest blessings on earth. Believe the word of God, the holy Scriptures, the promises and threats contained in them and what most obstructs our doing so, I am persuaded, is fear of punishment. Look up to the firmament, and down to the deep, how can any doubt a Divine Power? And if there is, what can be impossible to Infinite Power? Then, why an infidel in the world! And if not such, who then would hazard a future state, for the plea. sure of sin a few days? No wise man, and, indeed, no man that lives and would desire to see good days; for the laws of God are grateful. In his Gospel, the terrors of majesty are laid aside, and he speaks in the still and soft voice.

of his Son incarnate, the fountain and spring whence flow gladness. A gloomy and dejected countenance better becomes a galley-slave than a Christian, where joy, love, and hope should dwell. The idolatrous heathen performed their worship with trouble and terror; but a Christian and a good liver, with a merry heart and lightsome spirit: for, examine and consider well, where is the hardship of a virtuous life? (when we have moderated our irregular habits and passions, and subdued them to the obedience of reason and religion.) We are free to all the innocent gratifications and delights of life; and we may lawfully, nay, further, I say, we ought to rejoice in this beautiful world, and all the conveniences and provisions, even for pleasure, we find in it; and which, in much goodness, are afforded us to sweeten and allay the labours and troubles incident to this mortal state, nay, I believe, inseparable, by disappointments, cross accidents, bad health, unkind returns for good deeds, mistakes even among friends, and, what is most touching, death of friends. But in the worst of these calamities, the thought of a happy eternity does not alone support, but also revive the spirit of a man; and he goeth forth to his labour with inward comfort, till the evening of his day, (that is, his life on earth,) and, with the Psalmist, cries out, I will consider the heavens, even the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained. What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou shonldest so regard him? Psalm viii. Thou madest him lower than the angels, to crown him with glory.' Here is matter of praise and gladness.

The fool,' as the Psalmist expresses it, hath said in his heart, there is no God.' Or, let us consider the man, who is content to own an invisible power, yet tries to believe, that when man has done living on this earth he lives no

more: but I would ask, if any of these unhappy creatures are fully persuaded; or that there does not remain in those men, at times, (as in sickness, or sober thoughtfulness,) some suspicion or doubt that it may be other than they try to think. And although they may, to shun such a thought, or be rid of such a contemplation, run away from it to some unprofitable diversion, or perhaps suffer themselves to be rallied out of such a thought, so destructive to the way they walk in; yet, assuredly that man does not feel the peace and tranquillity he does, who believes a future state, and is a good man. For, although this good man, when his mind may be clouded with some calamity very grievous to him, or the disorder of vapours to a melancholy temper-I say, if he is tempted to some suspicion, that it is possible it may be other than he believes-pray observe, such a surmise or thought, nay, the belief, cannot drive him to any horror: he fears no evil, because he is a good man, and with his life all sorrow ends too; therefore, it is not to be denied that he is the wisest man who lives by the scripture rule, and endeavours to keep God's laws. First, his mind is in peace and tranquillity; he walks sure who keeps innocence, and takes heed to the thing that is right: 2dly, he is secure God is his friend, that Infinite Being; and He has said, Come unto me, ye that are heavy laden, my yoke is easy:' but guilt is, certainly, a heavy load ; it sinks and damps the spirits.

A wounded spirit who can bear?' And the evil subtle spirit waits, I am persuaded, to drive the sinner to despair; but godliness makes a cheerful heart.

Now, O man! let not past errors discourage: who lives and sins not ? God will judge the ob stinate, profane, unrelenting sinner, but is full of compassion to the work of his own hand, if they will cease from doing evil and learn to do