56 UNBELIEF AND ATHEISM. ready. And Morier also informs us, that having been engaged to dine with a Persian Khan, he did not go till his entertainer had sent to the English ambassador and his train, to say that supper waited. After the same manner, the invitations to the great supper described in the parable seem to have been issued a considerable time before celebration; and as the after invitation was sent according to Eastern etiquette, to the guests invited, they must be understood as having accepted the engagement, so that the apologies they severally made were inadmissible, and could be regarded in no other light than as an affront put upon the generous entertainer, and an ungrateful return for all the splendid preparation he had made for their reception. DOMESTIC HAPPINESS. AH! what so refreshing-so soothingso satisfying-as the placid joys of home! See the traveller; does duty call him for a season to leave his beloved circle? The image of his earthly happiness continues vivid in his remembrance-it quickens him to diligence-it makes him hail the hour which sees his purpose accomplished, and his face turned towards home-it communes with him as he journeys, and he hears the promise which causes him to hope, "Thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin." Oh! the joyful re-union of a divided family-the pleasures of renewed interview and conversation after days of absence! Behold the man of science; he drops the laborious and painful researchcloses his volume-smooths his wrinkled brow-leaves his study, and, unbending himself, stoops to the capacities, yields to the wishes, and mingles with the diversions of his children. Take the man of trade; what reconciles him to the toil of business? What enables him to endure the fastidiousness and impertinence of customers? What rewards him for so many hours of tedious confinement? By and bye the season of intercourse will behold the desire of his eyes and the children of his love, for whom he resigns his ease, and in their welfare and smiles he will find his recompense. Yonder comes the labourer; he has borne the burden and heat of the day; the descending sun has released him of his toil, and he is hastening home to enjoy repose. Half way down the lane, by the side of which stands his cottage, his children run to meet him. One he carries and one he leads. The companion of his humble life is ready to furnish him with his plain repast. See his toil-worn countenance assume an air of cheerfulness! his hardships are forgottenfatigue vanishes—he eats and is satisfied. The evening fair, he walks with uncovered head around his garden, enters again, and retires to rest; and "the rest of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much." Inhabitant of this lowly dwelling, who can be indifferent to thy comfort? Peace be to this house! UNBELIEF AND ATHEISM. He who thinks most deeply, and has the most intimate acquaintance with human nature, as exhibited in his own heart, will be the most apt to resolve all unbelief into Atheism. Especially will this be the case at a time when physical science, in league with a subtle pantheism, is everywhere substituting its jargon of laws, and elements, and nebular stardust, and vital forces, and magnetic fluids, for the recognition of a personal God, and an ever wakeful, ever energizing special Providence. Theism, we admit, is everywhere the avowed creed, but it wants life. It is too much of a mere philosophy. There are times when the bare thought that God is, comes home to the soul with a power and a flash of light which gives a new illumination and a more vivid interest to every other moral truth. It is on such occasions the conviction is felt that all unbelief is Atheism, or an acknowledgment of a mere natural power clothed with no moral attributes, and giving rise to no moral sanctions. We want vividness given to the great idea of God as a judge, a moral governor, the special superintendent of the world and all its movements, the head of a moral system, to which the machinery of natural laws serves but as the temporary scaffolding, to be continued, changed, replaced, or finally removed, when the great ends for which alone it was designed shall have been accomplished. Just as such an idea of God is strong and clear, so will be a conviction of sin, so will be a sense of the need of expiation, so will be a belief in a personal Redeemer, and so will follow in its train an assurance of all the solemn verities of the Christian faith, so strong and deep, that no boastful pretension of that science which makes the natural the foundation of the moral, and no stumbling-blocks in the letter of the Bible will for a moment yield it any disquietude. There is a want of such a faith, as is shown by the feverish anxiety in respect to the discoveries of science, and the results of the agitations of the social and political world. This timid unbelief, when called by its true name, is Atheism. The next great battle-ground of infidelity will not be the Scriptures. What faith there may remain will be summoned to defend the very being of a God, the great truth involving every other moral and religious truth-the primal truth, that HE IS, and that he is the rewarder of all who diligently seek him. THY KINGDOM COME. ENLARGE thy kingdom, O God, and deliver the world from the dominion and tyranny of Satan, that the kingdoms of the earth may become the kingdoms of Jesus Christ. Hasten the time which thy Spirit hath foretold, when all nations whom thou hast made shall worship thee and glorify thy name. Bless the good endeavours of those that strive to propagate the gospel of thy kingdom, and prepare the hearts of all men to receive it. May all such as own thee for their king become thy faithful subjects! Vouchsafe to reign in our hearts, and subdue our will entirely to thine; prepare us by thy good Spirit for the kingdom of glory. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.-Dispose me and all thy children, O Lord and Father, to submit cheerfully to whatever thy providence shall order for us; hearken not to the corrupt desires of our hearts, but to the voice of thine own wisdom, goodness, and mercy. Give us a true knowledge of our duty, with an heart disposed to close with thy will, whenever it shall be made known to us, and to perform it with pleasure. Subdue in us whatever is contrary to thy holy will, that through thy grace we may at last become perfect, as our heavenly pattern is. Lessons by the Way; or, Things to Think On. "THEY ARE NOT OF THE WORLD.” I SUPPOSE that what was true of the early disciples of our Lord is true of all his real disciples in every age. If this is so, what proportion of those who now profess to be such are really his followers? In what respect are the masses of pleasure-seeking, fashionable, and gay professors of the present day, "not of the world?" they not pleased with the same amusements, and do they not mingle in those scenes of gaiety where the religion of Him whom they profess to love would be considered altogether out of place if they should introduce it? Are These are plain questions, but I think not altogether out of place at this time, when so many professing Christians are endeavouring to show, both by precept and example, that dancing parties and other scenes of fashionable amusement are altogether consistent with their profession, as tending to exert a good influence on their impenitent friends, by showing them that religion is not necessarily a gloomy thing. Let me ask such, in a kind spirit, Are you certain that this is the best way to "let your light shine?" Will you be very likely in such circumstances to exert such an influence as shall lead others to say of you, "They are not of the world?" I think not. Is it right or wrong? PAYING LIKE A SINNER. SEVERAL years ago, in North Carolina, where it is not customary for the tavern-keepers to charge the ministers anything for lodging and refreshments, a preacher presumingly stopped at a tavern one evening, made himself comfortable during the night, and in the morning entered the stage without offering pay for his accommodations. The landlord soon came running up to the stage, and said, "There was some one in there who had not settled his bill." The passengers all said they had, but the preacher, who said he had understood he never charged ministers anything. "What! you a minister of the gospel-a man of God!" cried the innkeeper. "You came to my house last nightyou sat down at the table without asking a blessing-I lit you up to your room, and you went to bed without praying to your Maker(for I staid there until you had undressed)-you rose and washed without prayer, ate your breakfast without saying grace; and, as you came to my house like a sinner, and eat and drank like a sinner, you have got to pay like a sinner." DEEDS OF THE FATHERS. WHEN God's word is by the fathers expounded, construed, and glossed, then, in my judgment, it is even like unto one that straineth milk through a coal sack, which must needs spoil the milk and make it black; even so likewise God's word of itself is sufficiently pure, clean, bright, and clear, but through the doctrines, books, and writings of the fathers, it is very sorely darkened, falsified, and spoiled.-Luther. GRATEFUL RECOLLECTIONS. An Address to the Church assembling in the human race. TEMPORAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. It is now almost a century since this religious society was formed by a body of Christians who separated from the congregation assembling for worship in the Old Meeting in this town, because an Arian minister was by the majority introduced to the pulpit of that place; so that you see our church had a noble and honourable origin. It was not the offspring of faction, nor of unseemly schism, but was formed by a band of witnesses to what we consider the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead-the incarnation of the Son of God-the atonement of the death of Christ for the sins of mankind-the justification of the sinner by faith alone-the conversion and sanctification of the soul by the Holy Spirit— and the sovereignty of God in the salvation of The first pastor of the newlyformed church was the Rev. Gervas Wilde, a devoted, energetic, and popular preacher, who, after discharging the duties of his office with exemplary fidelity and great success, died, and was buried on these premises. He was succeeded by Mr. Punfield, who, though a blameless Christian and sound divine, was a dull and uninteresting preacher; and as a natural consequence, the congregation was much reduced during the three-and-twenty years of his ministry. After him the pulpit was filled by Dr. Edward Williams, one of the greatest theologians of his age, and the author of many profound and valuable works on divinity, who removed after little more than three years to preside over the Dissenting College at Rotherham, in Yorkshire. The names of these first three pastors of the church are recorded in the marble monument on the walls of our Zion, which was erected by the present trustees to replace the tablets lost in the erection of the former chapel, and to preserve a memorial of men worthy to be held in grateful recollection, either for their virtues, or their success as ministers of Christ. Mr. Brewer succeeded Dr. Williams, and upon his removal, after seven years' labour, to Livery-street, with a large portion of the congregation, he was succeeded for a short time by Mr. Joseph Berry. The congregation had their attention then directed to a young man studying for the ministry under the late Dr. Bogue, of Gosport, who, by the advice of his tutor, and at the recommendation of Mr. Bennett, of Romsey, Hants, now Dr. Bennett, of London, was invited to spend the midsummer vacation of the year 1804 with the congregation, and to occupy for four sabbaths their vacant pulpit. Being then only little more than nineteen years of age, and having a year and a half of his term of academic study to complete, he came to this town without the remotest idea of appearing here as a candidate for the pastorate. His preaching appeared to give satisfaction, and before he left to return to Gosport, a deputation, consisting of the deacons and some other venerable personages, waited upon him from the church to request him to accept a unanimous and cordial invitation to become its pastor, and to enter upon the duties of his office so soon as, in the judgment of his tutor, it might be deemed expedient for him to leave college. It was certainly a rather hasty procedure, and although, by God's grace, it has turned out far better than might have been expected, neither party can be quite justified for the part they took in the affair; not the church for inviting so young a man, nor he for accepting the invitation to so important a sphere. Results have showed that the hand of God was in it; but it ought not to be drawn out into a precedent either by this church or any other. After another year the young minister came, and in September, 1805, was cordially welcomed by a united and affectionate people to his pulpit, and was ordained on the 8th of the following May. In that service, which was one of peculiar solemnity, Drs. Bogue, Williams, and Bennett, Messrs. Jay, Moody, Steill, and others, bore a part. Having obtained help of God, the young pastor, as he then was, now stands before you, expressing his adoring wonder and gratitude for all the way in which the Lord his God has led him these forty years in the wilderness. Forty years are a large portion of one man's life, comprehending the vernal bloom, the sunny months of summer, and the season of autumnal fruit all that remains must be looked for in decline and wintry decay. What changes have taken place during the flow of these forty years of our union-I do not say in our national affairs, though here what an eventful era of European history has occurred; nor in the denomination to which we belong; nor in the progress of the universal church; but in our own town and in ourselves! When I commenced my ministry, Birmingham contained a population of eighty thousand inhabitants, now of two hundred thousand; in the place where we worship, then a comparatively small one, capable of seating hardly eight hundred persons, now nearly two thousand; in the church, then numbering little more than forty members, now nearly nine hundred; in your pastor, then a youth of twenty, now a man of sixty; in yourselves, then sprightly persons of twenty, thirty, or forty, now bending under the infirmities of sixty, seventy, or eighty; in your families, for the fathers and mothers, where are they? and even the children, are not many of them slumbering in the grave with their parents? There is but one pastor of any denomination, either in the Established Church or out of it, that is now officially connected with the same congregation as he was when I came here, and only two that are connected in this manner with any one. It is every way proper to comprehend in this historical survey what you and your fathers have done in the way of enlarging the boundaries of our Zion and the appurtenances thereof. The first work in which they engaged after my settlement was the erection, at a cost of eight hundred pounds, of the rooms lately occupied by our Sunday-schools, and used for our weekly religious meetings. After the lapse of about seven years, when some of the aged men, ever to be had in remembrance by us, but somewhat timid, cautious, and too little adventurous, had fallen asleep in Jesus, a few of greater public spirit suggested an improvement in our place of worship, which was cold, comfortless, and somewhat repulsive in its appearance; for Dissenters at that time thought too little of the decoration of architecture, just as those of the present day are in peril of thinking too much of it. The cheerlessness of our chapel, uniting with some other causes, operated very much for some time to the disadvantage of the congregation, so that the first seven years of my ministry were a season of considerable discouragement, so much so, that had another sphere been presented to me at that time, it is not improbable I should have accepted it. A saint now in glory, whose memory, at the distance of more than a quarter of a century from her decease, is still fresh and fragrant, lent all her gentle yet powerful influence to keep the pastor to his post; and, blessed be her name, and more blessed be her God, that influence was not in vain. With a zeal and liberality which I have ever admired, and for which I feel grateful even to this day, my generous friends, though by no means wealthy, laid out two thousand pounds in improving our place of worship. During the time of the alterations we worshipped in the Old Meeting House, from which we had originally come, and which was most readily and kindly granted to us, the congregation altering the time of their own morning service for our accommodation, and allowing us to have it in the evening. This circumstance lifted us out of comparative obscurity, and together with the greater attractions of our improved chapel, brought us on our return to it an overflowing congregation, so that the very sittings in our table-pew were let, for want of others, to meet the applications for seats, for which we could not otherwise provide. The tide which then flowed in upon us has never ebbed. the timely expenditure of the two thousand pounds just mentioned I trace up, under God's blessing, all the prosperity of our church which has since followed. To In a few years the demand for further accommodation for those who wished to join the congregation of this place became somewhat urgent, and with a magnanimity of public spirit bordering on imprudence you determined on the erection of this spacious edifice, at an expense of between eleven and twelve thousand pounds. This cost so far exceeded all we had calculated upon, that had we foreseen the outlay which would have been required, we never could have undertaken the work. Notwithstanding the liberal contributions of the people, and the splendid collection on the day of opening, in September, 1820, amounting to six hundred pounds, we entered upon our new place with a debt upon it of between six and seven thousand pounds. Since then, by the untiring generosity of the congregation, the debt has been reduced to about five or six hundred pounds. During all this time we have not stayed our hands from the work of helping to provide for the neighbour hood. We have erected chapels at Smethwick, the Lozells, at Yardley, Minworth, Garrisonlane, and Palmer-street, in two of which separate and, in great part, self-supporting churches have been formed, with pastors of their own choice set over them. With our last erection, I mean the building of our new school-rooms and lectureroom, at an expense of much more than two thousand pounds, you are too well acquainted to need that I should do anything more than merely advert to the fact. During my pastorate I calculate that my congregation have spent three or four and twenty thousand pounds in the erection of places for worship and scholastic instruction in this town and neighbourhood. SPIRITUAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.. If I now turn to our spiritual history, we shall find equal cause for delightful retrospection. God has given testimony to the word of his grace, and granted to us abundant evidence that he has been among us, both by the ministry of the word and the power of his Spirit. Not only has the congregation increased, but the communicants have advanced in an equal ratio. Sinners have been converted, believers have been edified, and multitudes, having finished their course with joy, have entered into rest. The parents have departed to be with Christ, and instead of the fathers have risen up the children. What a goodly host of spirits now made perfect encircle our imagination who were once our fellow-worshippers in God's house on earth! How precious are their names, how fragrant their memory, how instructive their example, and how encouraging to us the recollection of their composed and even triumphant death! Gratitude is due from us one to another, and from both parties unitedly to God. You will not, I am confident, deny that something is due for forty years' service to him who during that period has lived and laboured for the good of your immortal souls, and the promotion of your eternal welfare. To many of you he has been, through God's grace, the instrument of your own conversion and that of your children; to others, of your establishment in the truth of the gospel, and of your sanctification; and to all, of consolation amidst the cares and sorrows of this vale of tears. It is his felicity, however, to be spared the necessity of logically proving the justice of his claim, and of being compelled to urge with importunity his due upon a hard, unfeeling people, backward to own, and still more backward to acknowledge it. Opportunities have not been wanting, during the middle part of his life, had he chosen to embrace them, for transferring his services to other places; but from the time when God so signally blessed us, he never, except in one instance, and then only for a very short time, entertained for a moment the idea of quitting a people endeared to his heart by so many reasons for attachment. As regards my own sense of obligation towards you, it is deep and tender. Your conduct from the time of my settlement among you has been one uniform exhibition of affection, respect, and deference: a series of kind acts, never broken or interrupted, has left me scarcely anything to lament, or anything more to wish. In the various and somewhat opposite characters which I have borne among you, I have received appropriate expressions of kindness, and the most delicate attentions to my feelings. During a long and dangerous personal illness many of you ministered by night at my bedside, and watched with solicitude the flickering lamp of life, when its extinction was expected, and thus helped to keep it burning: when I stood among you a rejoicing bridegroom, you shared my joy, and thus increased it: and when, on two occasions, I lifted up my voice and wept, as a man bereaved and desolate, you shed your own tears, and endeavoured to wipe away mine. Though I have been blessed by a bounteous Providence with more of this world's goods than many of my brethren, you never took advantage of this circumstance to withhold what you deemed my due as your pastor, and as such entitled to your generous support. You have in all things consulted my wishes, and studied both my personal and official comfort; you have ever listened to my counsel with deference, yet not with servility; and when at any time you have not thought as I did in practical measures, your reasons have been stated in a manner rarely to pain me, and not unfrequently to convince me. I have had as much influence in the pastorate as any man could desire, or ought to possess. There has never been any unseemly struggle for power between us. Whatever executive authority I have exercised has been conceded by you, rather than exacted by me, and was readily conceded, because you saw it was all employed for your benefit, and not to gratify my own vanity. I can, therefore, now adopt, as far as disparity of years will allow, the language of an American pastor, who, on the eightieth anniversary of his birth, preached to his flock from Barzillai's words, "This day thy servant is fourscore years old." In the course of his sermon he thus addressed his audience: "Your fathers and grandfathers bore with the indiscretions of my youth; you and your children, with equal patience, have borne with the infirmities of my age. I thank you for all your kindnesses-injuries I have received none." One part of this beautiful effusion is yet to be realized in our case; for though the shadows of my evening begin to lengthen, I am thankful to say the infirmities of age do not yet oppress me but should our wise and gracious God extend the term of my existence among you till the remaining strength of my days is but labour and sorrow, the forbearance which you have manifested towards me in my youth is a sure pledge of its extension towards me in my old age. I can look to the future without the shadow of a shade of apprehension of my living long enough among you to be felt a burden. I believe I shall be welcome to my pulpit, and to your houses, as long as I have strength enough to bear me to either: and that when nothing but the wreck of what I was shall be left, even that will be guarded from contempt by the recollection of my better days. If there were strangers in our assembly on the day when this was delivered from the pulpit, they must have gone away and reported that whatever strifes and divisions exist between some Dissenting ministers and their flocks, they had heard one pastor declare that at the end of forty years' residence among his people he had nothing to forgive or to forget, and that he was more attached to his church, as he believes they are to him, at the end of that period, than at its |