say, that the mad enterprise of the middle ages did not add one subject to the kingdom of God. They may have stormed the holy city, so as to plant upon its battlements the standard of Christendom; but they did not storm a single human heart, so as to plant within it a principle of holiness. The citadel of the heart must be plied with another engine; and the strong man who reigns and who occupies there, may smile and may sit in secure defiance to the warlike preparations of a whole continent. No external violence of any kind can force the will and the principle of man to its subserviency. Whatever effect it may have on the territory of earthly princes, it cannot add a single inch to the territory of the kingdom of God; and that whether the instrument of religious frenzy be an army or a parliament, after expending all its force, and doing nothing, it is at length, by the working of another instrument, and the silent but powerful efficacy of another expedient, that we make a way for the establishment of God's Living Temple in the world.

This brings us to the question, What is this instrument? The Spirit of God is the agent in every conversion of every human soul from Satan unto God. He is the alone effectual worker in this matter, but He worketh by instruments; and it is our part to put them in readiness, and to do those things to the doing of which He stands pledged to impart the efficacy of His all-subduing influences. It was the Spirit, and He alone, who gave the apostles all the enlargement they got on the day of Pentecost: but they put themselves in readiness,

by obeying the prescribed direction to go to Jerusalem; and there they waited and they prayed for the promise of the Father. Had they not been at their prescribed post, they would have obtained no part whatever in the promised privilege; and in like manner we, with every sentiment of dependence on the power of the Spirit, should, both for ourselves and others, do those things, in the doing of which alone we have reason to expect that He will come down with all that energy of impression, and all that richness of gift and of endowment, which belong to Him. The apostles were the human instruments for the dispensation of the Spirit in those days; and we cannot do better than to take our lesson from them, and observe what they had to do, that the Spirit of God, working along with them, might turn the hearts of men, and extend the proper kingdom of God over the proper ground which that kingdom has to occupy. They laid before those to whom they addressed themselves the word of God, and they prayed for the Spirit of God, that He might take hold of His own instrument, and make it bear with effect upon the consciences and the understandings of men. The lesson is a short one, but it comprises all that we have to do in the work of extending Christianity through the world. Be it on our own behalf, and with a view to bring down upon our own souls the benefits of the gospel, and the best thing we can turn ourselves to is to read diligently the Bible, and to pray diligently for that Spirit, who pours the brilliancy of a warm and affecting light over all its pages. Be it on behalf of others, and with a view to secure to them the

benefits of the gospel, then, if they are immediately around us, the best thing we can do is to ply them with the instructions of the Bible, and to pray for the coming down of that power which can alone give these instructions all their efficacy. Hence the stationary apparatus of a country where Christianity is established-consisting of schools, where the reading of the Bible is taught; and churches, where the meaning of the Bible is expounded; and official men, whose business it is to pray themselves, and to press the exercise of prayer on others, to that God who orders intercessions in behalf of all, because He willeth all to be saved. But should it be in behalf of men who live in a distant country --and the precept of "Go and preach the gospel to every creature," gives a legitimacy to the attempts of Christianizing them, which all the ridicule and all the wisdom of this world cannot overthrow then the stationary apparatus becomes a moveable one; and the word of God, translated into other languages, and human messengers to carry that word and to expound it-and Christians abroad to spread around them the message of salvation, and Christians who stay at home praying to the God of all influence, and giving Him no rest till He pour such a blessing on other lands that there shall be no room to receive it. This lays before us the godly apparatus, which we rejoice to observe is in growing operation among the men of the present day; and while Bible Societies, and Missionary Societies, and Praying Societies, have the full cry of ridicule discharged upon them by the men of the world-while the disgrace of an

obscure and contemptible fanaticism is made to lie upon all these operations-while the affairs of temporal kingdoms, and the fluctuations of their ever-veering politics, fill up the columns of every newspaper, and form the talk of every companythere are holy men now dealing with the hearts and the principles of the people in our own country, and of savages in distant lands; and amid all the noisy contempt and resistance they have gathered around them, with the sanction of apostolical example, and the persevering use of apostolical instruments, are they working their silent but effectual way to the magnificent result, and the final establishment of the kingdom of God in the world.

And thus it is, that men become themselves living temples of God, and that God's living temple, his spiritual kingdom, is extended and established throughout the world. And we cannot better reply to the question, What is the best instrument for promoting and extending the kingdom of God in the world? than by referring our readers to the following Treatise of JOHN HOWE, "The Living Temple, or a Good Man the Temple of God." This Treatise, which we have introduced to the notice of our readers, is less known to the Christian public than some of the other productions of this celebrated author. It is not because that, either in itself or in its subject, it possesses less worth or less importance than those pieces of this author, which are better known and have acquired greater popularity-for, in respect to both, it holds a high rank among the numerous and valuable

productions of this much-admired writer. But we apprehend the reason of its not obtaining such general circulation, arises from the circumstance of the main subject of the Treatise the formation of God's Living Temple in the world-being intermingled with his lengthened and elaborate demonstrations of the existence of God-and from his profound and metaphysical controversies with Spinoza and the French infidels, respecting the uncreated Being, and the eternal self-existence of the Deity, extending through nearly half the original Treatise. And, though we hold this profound and erudite exposure of atheism, to contain the most perfect and unanswerable demonstration of the existence of a God with which we are acquainted yet the deep and metaphysical character of his argumentation, renders it too occult and abstruse to be easily apprehended by ordinary readers; and thus is it fitted to repel them from entering on a piece of superlative excellence. was under this conviction, and to render the Treatise more acceptable and useful to the Christian public, that we have divested the present edition of those elaborate disquisitions, into which he had been drawn by the French infidels, and which were extraneous to the specific design of the work, and have only presented our readers with what relates to the author's main subject the method by which the reign of truth and holiness is established in the hearts of men, in order to their becoming temples of the Living God.

It

To those who desiderate a full and comprehensive exhibition of the gospel scheme, for the restoration