"God hath commended his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Christ is the fruit of the Father's love to sinners. How great the Giver! How unspeakable the Gift! How worthless the objects on whom it is bestowed! Here, indeed, God is shewn to be love. Power, wisdom, holiness, and justice, shine in the cross of Christ; but above all, grace and mercy prevail there, and "reign through righteousness unto eternal life." Sinners" shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for an only son;" they shall abhor themselves and repent in dust and ashes, "Therefore also, now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." I proceed now to make some improvement of what has been said. 1. We may learn from this subject the force of those passages of Scripture in which the knowledge of God is put for the whole of religion." Know the Lord." "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." On the other hand, the wicked are described as those "that know not God." The truth is, God is either wholly unknown to wicked men, or greatly mistaken by them. None but his servants do truly see his glory, and the more they see of him, the more like him do they become. "But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2. From what has been said, we may also learn the great danger of state of ignorance,-If repent ance take its rise from a knowledge of the perfections of God, does it not follow, that those who are ignorant of him must be in a deplorable state, strangers to the power and practice of religion, and that if they die in this state, they must perish everlastingly? How inexcusable, then, are those parents who do not diligently train up their children in the knowledge of Divine things! How inexcusable, also, are those masters who fail to instruct their servants, and suffer any under their roof to perish for lack of knowledge! And here I cannot help remarking, that the more conscientiously masters perform their duty to their servants, the more honestly and diligently will servants perform theirs. We have numerous complaints of servants; but, if we consider seriously the duty of masters, there will be found, perhaps, as great faults on this side as on the other. There are some, who seem to expect in poor uneducated persons, all manner of propriety of conduct, sweetness of temper, integrity, and diligence, and are ready to shew the most violent displeasure at the least defect of those qualities, who, at the same time, shew no example in their own conduct, but of a neglect of their duty both to God and man. Let us have pity on the ignorant, and labour with all our power to teach them the things belonging to their peace. 3. We may learn also, from what has been said, the absolute necessity of regeneration, or an inward change of heart.-It is not, as has been already observed, a speculative knowledge of the nature and perfections of God that leads to repentance, but an affecting view of his excellence and amiableness. This none can have, but those who are in some measure changed into the same image. Wicked men do not cherish, but avoid the thoughts of God; they feel no desire of union with him, no cordial submission to him. The devils, also, have doubtless a clear understanding of the nature of God; yet it has no purifying effect upon them. The more they know of him, who is so directly opposite to them in all things, the more they hate him. Let these considerations excite us to pray, that it would please God to reveal himself to us by his Spirit, and give us the saving knowledge of him, as he is "in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto himself." when his wrath is kindled bot a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” And true Christians will see, from what has been said, how closely connected the right knowledge of God-in other words, true religion— is with humility and self-abasement. Even the clearest views which a believer can take of the riches of the Divine mercy through a ReAnd now, in conclusion, let me deenier, while they afford him unentreat those who are strangers to speakable consolation, tend also most true religion, whilst the Spirit of deeply to humble him under a sense God is still striving with them, to of his own unworthiness. The doclay down the weapons of their rebel- trine of the Cross is not more relion against him, and to lay hold by freshing to the broken in heart than faith on the atoning blood of Christ it is abasing to the proud; for it was for their reconciliation with God. chosen of God for this very purpose, "Acquaint yourselves with God," that no flesh should glory in his and be at peace, that thereby good may come unto you." Some, indeed, may unhappily succeed for a time in banishing every dismal foreboding. The false and flattering pleasures of life may engross their thoughts, and intoxicate their minds. But in a little time the Judge shall come "with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him." He still waits to be gracious to you, Embrace, therefore, the happy season. "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and ye perish from the way, presence." And we may be well assured we have then the best evidence that the various means of grace which we use are profitable to us, when they serve to clothe us with humility, and to lead us to adopt and relish the words of Job, in the text, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes*." Most of the readers of the Christian Observer will probably recognize the above sermon, which is only an abridgment of one that is very generally known. MISCELLANEOUS. To the Editor of the Christian Observer, THE readers of the Christian Ob. server cannot but own their obligations to the author of the luminous, acute, and discerning essay on the Principle of Emulation; and the guardians of young persons will do well to introduce the exercise of that principle, as defined and modified by Vindex, into the general system of education. The difficulty, however, will be-for difficulties CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 152. there are in the practical application of all principles-to explain the two sides of the question to common minds; that is, to the immense majority of those persons, of both sexes, to whom is entrusted the moral culture of their successors on the great theatre of life. Into their hands, and not into the hands of philosophers, you have to deliver an engine of wondrous potency; capable of effecting much good, but (if this be not begging the question) 3 T 1 far more mischief; and, after delivery, to say to the receivers, Take care how you use it, lest it recoil, and dash you and your disciples to atoms. Indeed, as to emulation in the gross or popular sense, we all know that it is the informing spirit of mankind, the true anima mundi, displaying its vivific influence in the court, the camp, the senate; and rot less operative in situations placed, according to the calculations of some theorists, out of the reach of its controul; namely, in the sphere of scavengers and scullions, in the last retreats of beggary and feculence. Yes, sir, "the glorious fault of angels and of gods" is committed, not only by those who "hold their routs in Juno's heaven," but by the sublunary deities of Wapping. Among these, the principle reigns and revels; no matter what be its object, or peculiar mode of operation. I would merely assert its existence and activity every where Being myself little conversant with the highest or lowest orders of society, I shall not venture to go into the details of my subject otherwise than as it affects the "tenants of life's middle state;" where my own tenure is to be found, and where the features both of individual and national character are generally understood to be most legible, as well as most accessible to a philosopher's examination. Every one who has lived among his fellows of the middle state for some forty or fifty years, must have read many a long chapter in the book of human manners; open as its pages perpetually are, in all the shops and parJours where business or social habits lead him. In these two favourite resorts of the British public (for we are not so exclusively a nation of shopkeepers as to seek no repose from the importunity of customers In our private apartments), it has been my lot to encounter the principle of emulation in full exercise; but especially in the parlours themselves, which may be regarded as CU the true shew-rooms of life, where the parents, their children, and their relations, visitors, or dependants combine to form one varied and instructive exhibition of the general character of our nature. Is it a libel on the partakers of that nature to say, after travelling round the vulgar circles of life, till we have seen and seen again all which these expeditions can offer to our riosity,-that the world is one ceaseless struggle for superiority, a war of extermination against our rivals; a system of decorous jealousy; and a masquerade, where all the actors are known while they think themselves concealed, and where every performer perseveres, or retires, under the hope or conviction of having outwitted the rest! I do not urge this inquiry by way of holding up a contemptuous exhibition of our fallen race; for notwithstanding the desolation inflicted on his nature, man is only "less than archangel ruin'd;" but the suggestion is made with a view to discover, whether a principle innately pure and ennobling, has not been polluted and desecrated beyond what may be called the average measure of human abuse. If so, the guards around its purity ought to be doubled, or, divesting the subject of metaphor, the mass of mankind should be distinctly warned of the unusual degree of danger attached to ambitious feelings. If I were to lead you through any given number of families taken at random out of the respectable orders, of society, I should expect, of course, to meet with individual sensualists, sharpers, blackguards, bullies, and gamesters, scattered along our line of march; and in various instances, exercising their several vocations as far as these could possibly be pursued within the usual limits of worldly decency;-but, leaving these individuals out of the question, as persons utterly disapproved or even shunned by the rest, let me ask, should we, or should we not, find the decorous remainder im pelled and impelling, according to the diversified and apparently irregular agency of what passes for emulation? Now, in the case of the insulated offenders referred to, I assume, that we should gain a knowledge of their characters, rather by witnessing certain overt acts of depravity, than by discerning a general air and mien of evil; but in the other instance, the air and mien would speak more intelligibly; or, on the supposition of the culprits being able to veil the mighty secrets of their bosoms, there would appear, in evidence of their guilt, various domestic arrangements in regard to dress, furniture, engagements, connections, projects of business or festivity, all of these things breathing, and almost enunciating articles of impeachment against the subjects of our observation. As a practical man, sir, you must be fond of practical illustrations; and, as the matter of my address receives elucidation, every day, in every village and town (and, I was going to say, in every family) in the United Kingdom, to say nothing of the universe at large; I cannot refrain from giving a little detail of the effects of emulation's widewasting pest in the town or townlet where my avocations usually detain me. I reside in one of those third or fourth rate places which has the fictitious credit of maintaining a market. It chiefly consists of a long wide street, with a dilapidated kind of town-house, and jail, standing or falling about the middle; before which, the stocks yet retain their sinecure situation, and, with the steps of the house, serve as a lounging seat for all such small tradesmen as, wearied with perpetually leaning over their shop doors, seek relaxation from that severer duty in the society of their fellowsVestibulum ante ipsum, primisque in fau cibus Orci. At the western entrance of the town, are situated, opposite to each other, " two substantial houses; inhabited by families who, in point of rivalry, are the Montagues and Capulets of the district. Whatever may be the lighter shades of character discoverable among the several members of these establishments, each party has one paramount object; which is, in explicit terms, to raise itself by depressing the other. To this object, all the resources of nature and art, as far as so powerful a mass of means is placed under the controul of the rival houses, are put into hourly requisition. The feelings of the parlour diffuse themselves, "gliding meteorous as evening mist,' over the kitchen, out-offices, and stables; imparting to every servant and underling something of those high sensations which agitate the bosom of the master; and producing a correspondent effort to elevate his (and their own) magnificence. To me, it is a propitious circumstance, that my own establishment, being obviously inferior to that of either family, not merely excites no jealousy, but conciliates both parties; with whom I pass as a person of innocent intentions, and, more than this, as one of the worthiest men in all the world;" my innocence and worth being self-evident in the obsolete decorations of my best parlour, and in the simple manners and dress of my wife and her children. I have indeed heard it whispered, that both the Montagues and the Capulets frequently hint at the gothic state of our fa mily; and even declare, that it is a sad pity we should read so much, and shew off so little; and that such sensible persons (so are they pleased to call us) might do things with effect, if they would but come out; not considering, by the way, that the effect and the coming out, however recommended rebus sic stantibus, might soon annihilate the imputed innocence and worth referred to above. However, we visit and are visited by the persons who would rub us brighter; but if they are gratified by the intercourse, I wish 3T2 I could return the compliment. What is intercourse without sympathy? And what is it, when a great man invites a little one, in order to overpower him with a display of grandeur, or to describe, in tones of mawkish triumph, the abortive efforts of a rival! I scarcely make a morning call at either house, without witnessing the deepening blushes, and hurried pulsation, produced by some new suspicion, that the opposite family are rising. No pencil of mine can paint the sensation which pervaded Mr. Pork wick's establishment, at the launch of Mr. Gabbe's new curricle. Had the curricle been a close carriage, the consequences must have been very serious indeed. Tranquillity, how ever, was restored at length; but it was only when an anti-curricle made its appearance from the rival coach-house, drawn by two unblemished bays; to the utter discomfiture of the Gabbe family, one of whose bays turned out to be a Tourer, and the other to have been down, when in possession of its former owner. In the dreary inter. val of mortification and conscious inferiority on the part of the Porkwicks, some private business of mine obliged me to wait on the lady of that house; whom, on entering the room I surprised (though my name was formally announced) in the act of nail-biting and watching, herself till then unseen, the fatal curricle, which had been standing half "the morning on the other side of the way, preparatory to its occupation by its audacious proprietor and his equally criminal wife. the most innocent intentions, I paid the compliments due to a carriage which was certainly an extremely handsome one; and I admired its abstract beauty, without any refer ence to the sensibilities of my companion. Not so Mrs. Porkwick; who, transferring the guilt of the proprietor to his carriage, poured forth such elaborate abuse of the colours of the wheels and lining, that I was at last compelled to sidle With off to a vase of flowers placed on a slab in one of the piers, and to smell away all their fragrance, in order to conceal the embarrassment occasioned by a lady's frowns. We were relieved by the entrance of her youngest daughter, who was instantly directed to exhibit her powers of elocution, by repeating her last hymn;" and this last hymn happened to be the twentysecond of Dr. Watts's, against pride in clothes. The child got through the first stanza with tolerable success; not, however, without discovering a peculiar attachment to the eighth letter of the alphabet, by forcing it to precede every initial vowel. In the second verse the performer halted about the middle, thus ; When first she put the covʼring hon, Her robe of hinno-hinno-was gone"Hinnocence," cried the mother, who partook of the child's partiality for the redundant letter, while Louisa proceeded, Hand yet her children vainly boast Hin the sad marks of glory lost;And there the performance closed; the mother declaring that the actress should go to church on Sunday in a new hat and spencer, and perhaps with her sick sister's parasol." Yes, mamma," said Louisa, "and you said, that when papa came from Hessex, he would bring me shoes of the same colour with Miss Gabbe's." Poor Louisa here touched the wrong string, was sent into the nursery, and I once more abandoned to the pelting of the storm. We managed most infelicitously to get back to the curricle; and the last thing I remember from the lady's lips, was, "Curricle indeed!-it will be well if some people are not curricled into the King's Bench;" and so forth, according to the latest improvements in the phraseology of feeble satire. I could not but wonder at Mrs. Porkwick's singular ingenuity in bringing together such a variety of wrong things into so small a compass. The child repeats a hymn |