and go to his father. No criminal likes to face his judge. No malefactor wishes to hear his sentence of condemnation. Neither does a guilty sinner feel anxious to approach unto God, until he is assured that with him there is abundance of mercy and free forgiveness.

Thirdly, Notice the Prodigal's resolution, "I will arise and go to my father." (1) Two things induced this resolution; there was a conviction of mind that he would perish without it, and there was a conviction that by returning to his father's house, he would be saved. His resolution was, "I will arise, and go to my father." In this there was no delay-there was no preparation. The resolution

was no sooner formed than it was accomplished. He might have reasoned with himself thus: "I am not fit to go; I have no clothes to go in; I am dressed only in filthy rags; I will try to find better if I can, and then I will go.' But there was one thing which checked all this. He said, "I perish! I perish with hunger!" This consideration did not allow him to wait for better preparation. And so it is with an awakened sinner. His sense of danger admits of no delay. It will not do for him to wait till he is better, or try to improve himself in the expectation that he will be more fit for the notice of his Father. No, no! destitution is before him; misery, eternal and unutterable, will be his doom, if he remain in his present state. What, then, must he do? What! Arise, and go to his Father.

(2) There is the confession which the Prodigal resolved to make"Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants." It is as if he had said, "I have acted a part so base, and have pursued a line of conduct so disgraceful, that I have no claim upon thy affection, but let me be a servant." Such was his confession. In like manner the true penitent will approach the Divine throne, confessing his guilt. Like the Psalmist, he will say, "Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight." There will be no disposition to hide, or palliate, or apologise for his sins. Their enormity is too obvious, and his mind is too deeply impressed with them. His sins in all their aggravated character stand before him, and he is humbled and abased in the sight of God.

(3) Observe the humility there is in the Prodigal's request," Make me as one of thy hired servants." He does not ask to be restored to his original station in his father's house. This he had forfeited. He confessed he was not worthy of being called his "son," and he only asked to be admitted as a "hired servant." Contrast his present condition, his feelings, and his language, with his former conduct. Departing from his father's house, haughty, and in all the pomp and splendour of pride and sensuality,-now he returns humbled and self-condemned. He implores his father's forgiveness, and asks for admission among the number of his servants. This is a lovely feature, the accompanying mark of true repentance. The penitent does not approach God like the proud Pharisee, but like the humble publican. His language is "God be merciful unto me, a sinner." All he wants is pardon, not distinction; forgiveness, not honour ;

salvation, not renown. His wishes rise no higher than that of a servant. He feels as though he could be content with any station, happy with any lot, blessed with any employment, only that he may be taken under the roof and admitted into his father's house. Repentance cannot exist without such a feeling as this. The more deep our conviction of sin, the more clear and defined our conception of the claims of God's holy law, the more shall we be humbled in his presence. Our constant feeling and our constant expression ought to be, "We are not worthy to be called thy sons, make us as thine hired servants." Such is a brief outline of the condition of the Prodigal in his return to his father's house.

(To be continued.)

COVENANTING WITH GOD.

AT the commencement of the New Year, Wesleyan Methodists hold a very solemn service, designated "the Covenant Service." Deeply impressive are the feelings, which become, and are usually produced on those occasions. Many of our readers have often engaged in those solemnities, and many of them will take a part in such at the commencement of the coming year. We hope that they will duly consider the nature of the engagement thus entered into, and by watchfulness, and prayerfulness, labour to fulfil their covenant engagements.

Some persons privately and solemnly dedicate themselves to God in a formal covenant, written and signed by their own hands. We have recently met with a very interesting account of a pious female, who nearly fifty years since thus "subscribed with her hand to the Lord." The document which follows these remarks was found among her papers after her decease. After she thus covenanted to be the Lord's, she became the wife of a Missionary, and accompanied him to a foreign land, where she died in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been much pleased with reading the covenant into which she so solemnly entered and subscribed, and commend it to the prayerful attention of our readers.

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"On the on full consideration and serious reflection, and I trust becoming reverence, I came to this happy resolution, that whatever others might do, I would serve the Lord; therefore, in humble reliance on his Divine assistance, I would here make a solemn dedication of myself, my soul, my body, and all I call mine, to the Almighty, and to his service for ever.

"Eternal and unchangeable Jehovah! thou great Creator of heaven and earth, and adorable Lord of angels and men! I desire, with the deepest humiliation and abasement of soul, to fall down at this time, in thine awful presence, and earnestly pray that thou wilt penetrate my very heart with a suitable sense of thine unutterable and inconceivable glories! Trembling may justly take hold upon me, when I, a sinful worm, presume to lift up my head to thee,-presume

to appear in thy majestic presence on such an occasion as this. Who am I, O Lord God, or what is my nature or descent, my character and desert, that I should speak of this, and desire that I may be one party in a covenant where thou the King of kings and Lord of lords art the other? I blush, and am confounded, even to mention it before thee. But, O Lord, great is thy majesty, so also is thy mercy. If thou wilt hold converse with any of thy creatures, thy superlatively exalted nature must stoop infinitely low. And I know that in and through Jesus, the Son of thy love, thou condescendest to visit sinful mortals, and to allow their approach to thee, and their covenant intercourse with thee; nay, I know that the scheme and plan is thine own, and that thou hast graciously sent to propose it to us; as none untaught of thee would have been able to form it, or inclined to embrace it, even when actually proposed. To thee, therefore, do I now come, invited by the name of thy Son, and trust in his righteousness and grace. Laying myself at thy feet, with shame and confusion of face, and smiting upon my breast, I say, with the humble Publican, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner.' I acknowledge, O Lord, that I have been a great transgressor; my sins have reached unto heaven; and mine iniquities, more especially those of a spiritual nature, are lifted up into the skies. The irregular propensities of my corrupt and degenerate nature, have in ten thousand aggravated instances, wrought to bring forth fruit unto death and if thou shouldst be strict to mark mine offences, I must be silent under the load of guilt, and immediately sink into destruction. But thou hast graciously called me to return unto thee, though I have been a wandering sheep, a prodigal son, a backsliding child. Behold, therefore, O Lord, I come unto thee: I come convinced not only of my sin, but of my folly. I come from my very heart ashamed of myself, and with an acknowledgment in the sincerity and humility of my soul, that I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly. I am confounded myself, at the remembrance of those things. But be thou merciful to my unrighteousness, and do not remember against me my sins and my transgressions! Permit me, O Lord, to bring back unto thee those powers and faculties which I have ungratefully and sacrilegiously alienated from thy service; and receive, I beseech thee, thy poor revolted creature, who is now convinced of thy right to her, and desires nothing in the whole world so much as to be thine,—at least it is my wish to have this desire. Blessed God! it is with the utmost solemnity that I make this surrender of myself unto thee. Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! I avouch the Lord this day to be my God; and I avouch and declare myself this day to be one of his covenant children and people. Hear, O thou God of heaven, and record it in thy book of remembrance, that henceforth I am thine, entirely thine. I would not merely consecrate unto thee some of my powers, or some of my possessions, or give thee a certain portion of my services, or all I am capable of for a limited time,--but I would be wholly thine, and thine for ever. From this day do I solemnly renounce all the former lords which have had dominion over me, every sin, and every lust; and bid, in thy name, an eternal

defiance to all the powers of hell, which have most unjustly usurped the empire over my soul, and to all the corruptions which their fatal temptations have introduced into it. The whole frame of my nature, all the faculties of my mind, and all the members of my body, would Í present before thee this day as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which I know to be my most reasonable service. To thee I consecrate all I have of this world's good; in thy service I desire to spend all the remainder of my time upon earth, and beg thou wouldst instruct and influence me, so that whether my time here be longer or shorter, every year and month, every day and hour, may be used in such a manner as shall most effectually promote thine honour and subserve the schemes of thy wise and gracious providence. And I earnestly pray, that whatever influence thou givest me over others, in any of the superior relations of life in which I may stand, or in consequence of any peculiar regard which may be paid to me, thou wouldest give me strength and courage to exert myself to the utmost for thy glory, resolving, not only that I will myself do it, but that all others, so far as I can rationally and properly influence them, shall serve the Lord. In this course, O blessed God, would I steadily persevere to the very end of my life, earnestly praying that every future day of it may supply the deficiencies and correct the irregularities of the former; and that I may, by Divine grace, be enabled not only to hold on in that happy way, but daily to grow more active in it. Nor do I only consecrate all that I am and have to thy service, but I also most humbly resign and submit to thine holy and sovereign will, myself, and all that I can call mine. I leave, O Lord, to thy management and direction, all that I possess, and all I wish, and every enjoyment, every interest, before thee, to be disposed of as thou pleasest; continue or remove what thou hast given me; bestow or refuse what I imagine I want, as thou, Lord, shalt see good; and though I dare not say I will never repine, yet I hope that I may venture to say, that I will labour not only to submit, but to acquiesce; not only to bear what thou doest in thy most afflictive dispensations, but to consent to it, and to praise thee for it; contentedly resolving, in all that thou appointest for me, my will into thine, and looking on myself as nothing, and on thee, O God, as the great Eternal All, whose word ought to determine every thing, and whose government ought to be the joy of the whole rational creation. Use me, O Lord, I beseech thee, as the instrument of thy glory; and honour me so far as, either by doing or suffering what thou shalt appoint, to bring some revenue of praise to thee, and of benefit to the world in which I dwell. And may it please thee from this day forward to number me among thy peculiar people, that I may no longer be a stranger and foreigner, but a fellow-citizen with the saints and of the household of God. Receive, O heavenly Father, thy returning prodigal: wash me in the blood of thy dear Son; clothe me with his perfect righteousness, and sanctify me throughout, by the power of thy Spirit ! Destroy, I beseech thee, more and more the power of sin in my heart! transform me more into thine own image, and fashion me to the resemblance of Jesus, whom, henceforward, I would acknowledge as

my teacher and sacrifice, my intercessor and my Lord! Communicate to me, I beseech thee, all needful influences of thy purifying, thy cleansing, and thy comforting Spirit; and lift up that light of thy countenance upon me, which will put the sublimest joy and gladness into my soul. Dispose my affairs, O God, in such a manner as may be most subservient to thy glory and my own truest happiness; and when I have done and borne thy will upon earth, call me from hence at what time and in what manner thou pleasest; only grant, that in my dying moments, and in the near prospect of eternity, I may remember these my engagements to thee, and may employ my latest breath in thy service; and do thou, Lord, when thou seest the agonies of dissolving nature upon me, remember this covenant too, even though I should be incapable of recollecting it! Look down, O my heavenly Father, with a pitying eye, upon thy languishing, thy dying child; place thine everlasting arms underneath me for my support, put strength and confidence into my departing spirit, and receive it to the embraces of thine everlasting love! Welcome it to the abodes of them that sleep in Jesus, to wait with them that glorious day, when the last of thy promises to thy covenant people shall be fulfilled in their triumphant resurrection, and that abundant entrance which shall be administered to them into thine everlasting kingdom, of which thou hast assured them by thy covenant, and in hope of which I now lay hold on it, desire to live and to die as with mine hand on that hope.

"And when I am thus numbered among the dead, and all the interests of mortality are over with me for ever, if this solemn memorial should chance to fall into the hands of any surviving friends, may it be the means of making serious impressions upon their minds ; may they read it not only as my language, but as their own; and learn to fear the Lord my God, and with me to put their trust under the shadow of his wings, for time and for eternity! And may they also learn to adore with me that grace which inclines our hearts to enter into that covenant and condescends to admit us into it, when so inclined; ascribing with me, and with all the nations of the redeemed, to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that glory, honour, and praise, which is so justly due to each Divine person, for the part he bears in this illustrious work. Amen."

MINISTERIAL DELINQUENCIES.

GREATLY it is to be deplored, that gross cases of moral delinquency occur among professors of religion, and also even among those who sustain the office of the Christian ministry. The exercise of church discipline in such cases is absolutely requisite, but its proper employment demands much wisdom, prudence, firmness, and fidelity. Without these, there is great danger of injustice being perpetrated towards the accused; or of allowing offenders improperly to retain their ecclesiastical position, and escape from just condemnation and punishment. Recent events, which have occurred in one of the Methodist