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nomy of the world to the exertions of virtue, rather than to those of talent, less manifest, when we colltemplate the necessities of men. That the human race has produced such splendid rarities as Homer and Virgil, Tasso and Ariosto, Spenser and Shakspeare, is beyond all question matter of legitimate boast. They are an honour to their species. Their labours have often soothed the pain of distress, charined many a weary hour away, and administered much delight to cultivated minds. Yet, perhaps, on a large view, the stock of human happiness would not have been very greatly impaired, had such characters never come into existence. Society would have sought out different sources of pleasure, and would have found them. But surely the same observation could not be applied with truth to Moses, Confucius, Socrates, Lycurgus, Solon, Numa, Alfred, Penn, Fenelon, Wilson, Howard, or Hanway; considering their virtues abstractedly from their wisdom. Even in ancient mythology, we may distinctly trace an acknowledgment of this predominance and superior utility of virtue. The heathens had, it is true, their thundering Jove, because superstition is founded in terror: but it was because their corn, and wine, and oil abounded, that altars were erected to Ceres, Bacchus, and Minerva. In like manner, the softer sex have had their Sapphos and their Staels; their Savignys, their Cravens, and their Montagues: but is not the order of the world so constituted, that mankind have derived less benefit from the labours of such writers, than from those of some individual, far inferior in capacity, whose very name may excite the smile of superciliousness? How many have experienced the soft influence and amiable example of a mother, to have been infinitely more instrumental in forming their bearts to principle, and promoting their best interests, than all the intellectual discipline CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 147.

and rigid philosophy of the sterner and more intelligent parent!

5. In recommending a dure subjection of the intellectual to the moral part of our nature, let it not be forgotten that there is a certain sense, in which they are one and the same; and that the inspired penmen, in extolling wisdom, may in part be conceived as alluding to that plain reason, that natural sagacity, which is common to the scientific and the unlettered. A good man is a wise man, in this acceptation of the phrase, because he has manifested a sound judgment in the most interesting of all concerns, and on a subject on which the learned and the unlearned are alike competent to pronounce a wise decision. In preferring eternal happiness to earthly gratification and advantage; what is noble to what is vile and debasing; what he is sure of attaining to what accident may intercept; what is permanent to what is transient; what confers the highest conceivable enjoyment to what affords only inferior and imperfect satisfaction:in making this wise choice, the poor man may say with David, "I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation; I have understood more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts."

Not (let us repeat, to avoid being misconceived), not that the cultiva tion of the intellect, as it respects human science, is forbidden in the Gospel of Christ; or that it is not even expressly enjoined, when the wise man recommends the getting of understanding and knowledge. Whosoever hath power and opportunity ought to improve the gift of reason, and sedulously to enlarge his stock of intelligence. The power thus acquired, if exerted to the glory of God, and to the good of the creatures of God, will assuredly not lose its adequate remuneration.

Let us beware, however, in this matter, of deceiving our own hearts;

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of measuring the approbation of God by the applauses of men. There is a philosophical pride, which of old spoke of elysium, and which still, in modern times, makes mention of paradise, as invariably the abode of the wise, in conjunction with the good. And even the higher orders of Christians are too apt, in our own days, to merge the private in the public character; to imagine that crimes are absolved by dexterity, and immoralities lost in the splendour of extraordinary talents, like the spots on the disk of the sun. There is a mixture of gratitude, wonder, and adulation, which, without pausing to scrutinize the ordinary moral conduct of celebrated men, who have in their generation performed some splendid feat, gazes on them as on the eagle that hath towered to an height at which the specks in her feathers become imperceptible; enrols them among an army of saints and martyrs, with whom many of them will probably never be worthy to mingle; and identifies the immortality of their happiness with the immortality of their fame.

Cæsar, the enslaver of his country; Cromwell, the murderer of his king; the Macedonian and the Swedish madmen; and the robber, the tyrant, the murderer of Ajaccio, have all, in their day, had their stupid and extravagant admirers. Nay, there are professing Christians, who, without hesitation, assign thrones in the Christian heaven to Anacreon, the debauchee; to Virgil and Horace, the sensualists; to Michael Angelo, who, it is said, assassinated one pupil, and conceived an unnatural passion for another; to Rafaelle, who died a martyr to bis vices; to Voltaire, Rousseau, Hume, who all lived but to ridicule and to destroy our dearest hopes. Nay (for I will utter truth, whatever may be the cost), bave not our pulpits resounded with somewhat too fuisome and unqualified eulogiums on a Russell, who met his death when violating the Sabbath; a

day he ever disregarded and profaned; and on a Nelson—but I forbear. For the utility and mental strength of these two characters, let a nation's fervent gratitude be poured; but let them not be removed from their proper sphere of fame. And let the moralist be permitted to warn the rising votaries of ambition against the dangerous, but, it is to be feared, the too prevalent opinion, that if they can only contrive to achieve what is splendid and useful, the complexion of their morality is of about just as little moment, as the complexion of their countenance or the colour of their coat. Surely it is a kind office to remind such heroes of the truth, that they may move on to glory with their Bibles in their hands; that they may prepare for a scene where degrees will be taken in moral improvement, and where honours will be awarded, not to the bravest, not to the wisest, not to the most eloquent, but only to the best. If their mental powers have been exerted in the service of falsehood, of dishonour, of oppression, of injustice; or even if it have been directed towards useful and good ends, from the low and selfish motives of avarice, love of fame, pride, vanity, voluptuousness, it will hereafter stand them but in little stead. The deliverer of his country, who has been the tyrant of his household; the general, who has needlessly sacrificed lives to his ambition; the magistrate, who has regulated a district in peace, yet could never regu, late his own breast; indulge themselves in a most contemptible and deplorable vanity, if they hope for triumphal columns, or civic crowns, among the bowers of paradise; or think that even devils will console them with the flatteries of men. To them will the well-intentioned rustic be preferred, who carried away the palm in no race, who commanded the applause of no senates, who sought reputation at the mouth of no cannon, and whose name was never recorded, save in the register

of his parish. Thus will God once more, emphatically, choose the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Far better than volumes of misapplied wisdom, is a single good action, springing up from the heart of plain and honest piety. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, yet, if I have not charity" (greater than faith and hope), "I am become as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.”

Even in spiritual wisdom there is a spiritual pride and assurance, against which men should ever stand vigilantly on their guard. Nothing so easy as to discourse eloquently, and to reason clearly, on the theory of religion; nothing so difficult as the practice. "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." To correct a habit, to controul an inclination, to calm the temper, to guard the thoughts, to take up a cross of selfdenial, to make sacrifices of pleasure to duty; these, O Christianity! are the trophies of thy renown; these the labours thou hast promised to reward.

J. G.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

IF you think it worth a place in your valuable publication, I would offer, through its medium, a few words on the expression DOUBLE, as we meet with it in some places in the Old Testament. My reason is, because I apprehend its true meaning is not understood, in general, in those places; it being considered adjectively, whereas I conceive it is really a substantive, and of material consequence to be considered as such for the due understanding of those pas sages, and the comfort they are designed to afford. It signifies remission or forgiveness; and is taken from a custom among the ancient inhabients of eastern countries (Jews and

others) of doubling down the leaf in their books of account where debts were paid. This interpretation [ had more than forty years ago from a very eminent and learned divine, who said he collected it from Vitringa, of whose learning and knowledge in divinity (and in the Hebrew especially) the late Bishop Lowth speaks with the highest respect. The places of Scripture to which I particularly refer, and in which the word double is so to be understood are, Isa. xl. 2; Isa. xi. 7; Zech. ix. 12. In all these, comfort and mercy, not anger or vengance, are the subject; and as in the first of these it would argue harshness or even injustice on the part of God to have rendered double to the desert of his people's sins, so, considering the nature of sin and its infinite evil, it should seem impossible so to do. But what supports this conjecture or mode of interpretation not a little is, that in the repetition of the word double in Isa. Ixi. 7, in the latter part of the verse it is evidently translated substantively, the double, which would seem to refer to the very mode of interpretation I have suggested.

I would be far from presuming to offer the above from any authority or conjecture of my own, or from any desire to enter into a controversy on the subject; but as thinking it may be useful, and to bring it forward for the consideration of those who are more equal to determine a the case, and hoping it may be for the benefit and comfort of those who read the Scriptures with attention and desire of improvement.

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I am, Sir, yours, &c.

S. J.

If my memory is right, it suggests to me that something on this subject is treated of in a sermon (or note in that sermon) by the Rev. Henry Venn, preached at the Assizes at Kingston in Surrey.

EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF

LUTHER.

(Continued from p. 11.)

I have the keys of hell and of death. -Rev. i. 18.

WHO can injure us, when we have such a Lord, who has death and every life that opposes us in his band? They threaten us with death; but if they knew all, they would rather threaten us with life. It is a foolish and mean attempt to terrify Christ,and Christians who are united to him, with such a punishment, since they are lords and conquerors of the grave. It is as if I would frighten a man by preparing his horse and assisting him to ride on it! But they believe not that Christ is risen from the dead, and is Lord of the dead and living. With them, He is yet in the grave, yet in hell,

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Secure, false, Christians, who glory much of faith, must take heed lest they deceive themselves with the vain boast, I have been baptized and am a Christian, therefore need I nothing more, &c. But in addition to that they must strive, that their faith be rightly rooted and grounded, and they must examine and prove themselves whether it stand fast, and can endure the storm and tempest of terror. Otherwise this boasting and security will sink under them and disperse as smoke in the air; and it will avail them nothing that they trust to it, and think that if they have only a spark of grace and faith they have enough for salvation. For if they have nothing more than such a spark, and they let this lie covered in the ashes, let them fear lest the devil should be there and pour some water on it, and their faith and all be put out together.

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth -Rom. x. 4.

The Law says, Thou hast sinned. I am therefore lost, I answer. If I say No, I must have a firm ground the Law, and maintain that No. And to stand upon, that I may contradict how can I do this, since the Scripwhence then can I bring out that ture says I was born in sin? From NO? In my own bosom certainly shall I not find it, but in Christ. Thither must I go, in order to overhe who says No to the Law, has also come the Law, and to say, Behold, a reason for what he declares: he

is pure and without sin. This No Though I must confess, when I view gives me also a further benefit. myself, that I am a sinner, and canbut feel therein nothing pure in not compare myself with the Law, me, and perceive the wrath of God, yet have I this further to say, His righteousness is mine; I am therefore no longer in my sins.

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.-James ii. 17.

those who praise the Gospel, who How many are there now among will not give up the least interest for the sake of it, or renounce their covetousness and obstinacy? There is no farmer who will willingly sell his corn at the market a penny cheaper, though it is reasonable for him to do so; but if he can make it a crown dearer, he does it most cheerfully. And the citizen makes no conscience of putting off his beer for ale, if he can do it, though a man should drink himself to death. In like each labours to overreach the commanner is it with all trades and arts; mon people, and only scrambles, covets, and injures. God grant that the Gospel and conscience may remain where they can!

God is love and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him.-1 John iv. 16.

We are truly called to the highest aim by this admirable praise and ex

altation of love, strongly enforced by the highest and most perfect example. If a man should describe love at great length as the most valuable and most perfect virtue, it would be nothing to his saying, God is himself love. Indeed, if any one should attempt to represent and describe God, he would only be able to draw a pic ture of a vain, transitory,human love; for the Divine Nature is nothing else than a furnace and flame of love that fills heaven and earth. On the other hand, if any man would draw and paint love, he must raise himself to the forming of such an image as nothing earthly ever was, nothing human, nothing angelic, nothing beavenly, but only God himself.

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THE doctrine of man's sinful and lost estate is one of the leading truths of Christianity; and it is only by rightly feeling this truth that we are brought to place any value on the Gospel. It is a doctrine, doubtless, which is very offensive to our pride, and which we are therefore very un willing to admit: but that is no argument against the doctrine; nay, if it should be proved, as I think it will, that all men are indeed sinners, then their being ignorant of this fact, or their denying it, will only shew the more strongly how much their eyes are blinded, their consciences hardened, and their minds deceived by sin.

1. The expression "all have sinned" plainly means, that all men bave been guilty of disobeying the commandments of God. "Sin," we are told," is the transgression of the law;" namely, of that law which God hath given us, and which, like himself, is holy, and just, and good. The sum of this law is, to love God with all our hearts, and our neighbour as ourselves. Our obligation

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to obey it arises from God's right to our love and service; which obligation is strengthened by considering the consequence of not obeying it, viz. God's wrath and curse. Apostle, therefore, in saying "all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God," plainly meant that all men had broken God's law, which they were bound to keep; that they had come short of his glory, which ought to have been the end of their conduct; that they had sinned against him, and thereby deserved his wrath; in short, that they had turned aside from the way of holiness, which alone leads to happiness, into the ways of sin, which are ways of certain misery and destruction.

2. Having, therefore, explained what appears to be the Apostle's meaning, I would go on to prove, that "all have sinned." The Bible is very world had long existed, we are told Before the clear on this point. that "all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth; and that God saw the wickedness of man, that it was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." But were men better after the flood had swept away the world of the ungodly? By no means. On the contrary, we find them still represented in the same light. "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." Isaiah complained, "All we like sheep have gone astray. We are all as an unclean thing." And Jeremiah declares the human heart to be" deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." And to come to the New Testament, the Apostle John says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us: we make God a liar, and his word is not in us." And again, "the whole world lieth in wickedness." And indeed what can be more express than St. Paul's testimony in the text, which he repeats in chap. v. ver. 12, " for all have sinned."

But besides these direct proofs, many more equally strong might be

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