THE Apostle Paul teaches (Rom. iii. 2), that the chief privilege of the Jews was that "to them were committed the oracles of God." In numerous discourses and publications, and especially in charity sermons for the Jews' Society, I have observed this text quoted as referring exclusively to the written canon of Revelation. But it appears to me that this was but one particular, though a most important one, of the privilege intended to be specified by the Apostle; who, under the phrase "the oracles of God," includes, I conceive, all that the expression elsewhere implies; such as direct revelations, speaking " face to face," prophetic dreams, visions, voices, and the mysterious Urim and Thummim. His argument would thus be as follows: "What peculiar advantage then hath the Jew; or what profit is there of circumcision? Much, in a variety of respects, but especially in this, that while other nations were left in pagan darkness, to this favoured people, during a long succession of ages, God was pleased to make known his will, having at sundry times, and in divers manners, spoken to them by dreams, by visions, by his prophets, from the mercy-seat, or from the pontifical breastplate."

Well might the Apostle say "chiefly," on the review of this long catalogue of Divine manifestations, all the permanently important parts

ON PREACHING THE GOSPEL.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

YOUR correspondent E. H. inquires, what are the legitimate subjects of public preaching; whethe Gospel only, or all that our Saviour and his Apostles taught? To this you have given what appears to me a perfectly satisfactory answer; but as you invite communications upon the subject, I venture to offer the following remarks.

E. H. says he had been accustomed, without much consideration, to suppose all the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles to be proper matter for the public instructions of his ministers, till his attention was called to the fact that they are commissioned to preach the Gospel only. Now it is true, that the command reported by St. Mark (xvi. 15) is simply, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature;" but neither in the parallel passage of St. Matthew, nor in the commission given by our church to her priests, does even the word Gospel occur. The former (Matt. xxviii. 19) runs thus: "Go ye, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you;" which is evidently a command to teach all the doctrines and all the precepts of Christ; and although "teaching may sometimes be spoken of in contradistinction to "preaching;" the one

to describe private, the other public, ministrations; yet it is clear that our Saviour uses the word "teach" in this place in its most general

sense.

Our own church has justly taken this view of the subject; for the words of the bishop in the ordering of priests are these," Take thou authority to preach the word of God;" that is, all things which the word of God teaches to be profitable unto salvation. What, then, are we to learn from the practice of St. Paul? In his memorable address to the elders of the Ephesian church (Acts xx.) he says, "I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you; but have shewed and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Does not this comprehend the sum and substance both of the Gospel and of all that our Saviour and his Apostles ever taught? I say, of both; though in truth I do not understand the distinction which E. H. makes either between these two, or between the subjects proper for public, and those adapted to private instruction.

In respect to the first point, the Gospel is indeed, as he describes it, "the glad tidings of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ:" it is the message of reconciliation to God, and this proposed by the love of the Father, procured by the death of the Son, partaken of by faith, implanted, and made effectual, through the renewal of our nature wrought by the operation of the Holy Spirit, which last is the perfecting of repentance. Now what did Christ ever teach, or what ought we to teach in public or in private, not bearing upon these points? And do not the words of St. Paul embrace every thing necessary to enforce them? For it is easy to perceive, that in "testifying repent ance toward God," we must set forth his existence, his character, and his laws, together with the state

of man, as a fallen creature and an actual transgressor, and the state of holiness in which he must be established in order to salvation. Again, in order to build up our hearers in "faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," we must set forth "the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh;" the purposes for which the Son of God came, and the means by which those purposes have been in part, and in part remain to be, fulfilled: we must shew how Christ died for our justification, and how he ascended into heaven to intercede for us, and to send thence his Holy Spirit for our sanctification: we must explain how, by faith, we become interested in all that he hath done, and all that he hath promised; not, however, by a dead, but by a living faith, even that "which worketh by love" toward God and toward man. Here, therefore, then is room for the most minute detail of Christian duties, and the most exact description of Christian motives and principles. In short, I conceive that those ministers only do faithfully preach the Gospel, who lay down clearly all the doctrines of Scripture, enforce strongly all its precepts, and carefully exhibit the necessary connexion which exists between the two, as between the foundation and superstructure of a building.

As to the second distinction of E. H. between the subjects of "preaching and teaching," St. Paul's testifying of the same things, "both publicly and from house to house," sufficiently shews that his successors should do so likewise.

Σ.

Matt. xxvi. 41.-Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.

THESE were the words of One, who, at the moment they were uttered, was himself watching and praying,

The following discourse is from the pen of that highly gifted young man, the late Rev. C. Wolfe; a retired and unobtrusive, but truly exemplary and laborious, minister of Christ, whose name, written on high, was unknown to the world till after he who bore it had arrived where earthly smiles and earthly censures are of equally little importance. Yet with that name are connected in the public mind, independently of its highest claims, associations that will long rescue it from forgetfulness; for it was a posthumous statement of the opinion of the most highly endowed, and one of the worst principled, of modern poets respecting the extraor dinary poetical felicity of a copy of verses which Wolfe had thrown upon the world almost in his boyhood, and without his name, that led to the disclosure, when the lauded as well as the applauding poet had for ever quitted this mortal scene, that the genius which had enshrined the memory of a warrior "in the grave where a Briton had laid him," had been consecrated devoutly and humbly to the service of that Redeemer whom his gifted and titled eulogist had, alas! lived but to outrage by his private vices and his pestiferous writings. The discourse has been recently given to the world from the press of the sister kingdom; and we feel the greater pleasure in naturalising it on this side of the channel, because it enables us to name, with honourable testimony, the publication in which it appeared (The Dublin Christian Examiner and Churchof-Ireland Magazine), whose labours are conscientiously and ably devoted to promote the cause of true religion in the United Church, of which in common we are members. The following discourse is not modelled upon the usual plan of family sermons: but it is so full of striking and important reflections that we have hoped it would both interest and benefit

our readers.

that he might not enter into temptation. He was not then sitting, as was usual, upon the Mount of Olives, surrounded by his disciples, where he taught them as one having authority, like a king giving laws to his subjects; nor was he then speaking parables and dark sayings to a countless multitude along the seashore, where he perhaps appeared like some being of another world, using a language which they did not fully understand. When he preaches "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation," it is from no lofty seat, and with no words of authority; but he preaches, with his face to the ground, he preaches with watching and fasting,-with agony and drops of blood. Here there is no mistaking him; here we know him to be one of ourselves; it is not the command of a king; it is not the dark saying or the paraand affectionate warning of one who ble of a prophet: it is the mournful was our brother in sorrows and infirmities. It was that night when the cup was mixing of which he was not to leave a drop behind: it was the hour of his enemies, and of the power of darkness; when Judas was on his way, and the feet of the high priest's servants were entering the garden;-when the work for which he came was to be accomplished, and his soul was giving way under the pressure of our iniquities. The only being that was ever tempted like as we are, and yet was without sin-who shared our infirmities, and yet knew nothing of our transgressions, but their punishment-watched and prayed that he might not enter into temptation.

In the mean time his disciples were sleeping. Their Master indeed found it necessary to watch and pray, that he might not enter into temptation; but, they were sleeping. Temptation was on its way; it was entering the garden, and their Master warned them of its approach: and, they were sleeping. And when it came, what was the consequence?" They all for

sook him, and fled." Before they slept, they said to him, "Though we should die with thee, we will not deny thee:" but they did not watch and pray, that they might not enter into temptation.

Thus comes this precept, with all its proofs along with it; its proofs both from the Master and the dis ciples. From the Master-for it shews us, that such is the weakness and the danger of our state, that even when our nature was united with the nature of God, in him who had the power and the holiness of the Almighty, it struggled even with the strength of God; it clogged and hung upon him like a dead weight; it threw him upon his knees, and forced him to use the same humble means of escaping temptation, that he prescribes to us, the sinners who have no one else to look to in the wide world but him, for mercy and for strength. From the disciplesfor this same guilty nature of ours made those same men forsake him, who had already forsaken father and mother, and all that they had, for his sake; and led them into a sin, against which they thought it unnecessary to watch and to pray. To convince us of the truth of all this, it is these men themselves who have published, and handed down from age to age, the history of their own ingratitude and disgrace. One would have thought that this was too much, and that we ought to have watched and prayed, without this fearful agony of the Son of God, and the desertion of his disciples, to convince us of its necessity. It appears tolerably plain to common sense, that this life must be a state of danger to any being who has a soul to be saved or lost, and that any man, who ever thought of the difference between eternal happiness and eternal misery, must be in a state of perpetual alarm, and anxious watchfulness against the enemies of his peace-the temptations that are lying in wait to destroy him. Surely, one who never looked into the world, his heart, or his Bible, might have

thought this; but how much more does he learn from one glance at any one of them?

The only thing to which men do not appear to be naturally alive and awake, is the state of their immortal souls. They are in the midst of temptations every hour of their lives; and they appear at home when they are surrounded by their enemies. There is no alarm, no anxiety, no watchfulness. They watch against other things-against poverty and sickness and robbery. This state the Scripture describes to be a kind of frightful sleep, and when the word of God summons the world to salvation by Christ, it says, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light !" and again, " Awake to righteousness, and sin not." How many of those who call themselves the disciples of Christ are sleeping this day in security, as if they had noMaster that watched, and prayed, and bled, and died, for them all?

Where is temptation not to be found? in what shape does it not appear? under what disguise does it not present itself; and, what means does it not employ to ruin our salvation? It meets us in the marketplaces, and thrusts itself into our bargains; it offers gold, it offers silver; it leads us into the house of riot and intemperance; it brings wine and goblets, and says, "Eat and drink, for to-morrow you die :”

it turns us from men into beasts; and, after having deprived us of our senses and our reason, it puts the weapon into our hand, and bids us commit violence and murder; it sits by our side at our meals, and joins in our conversations; it creeps into our minds, and poisons our thoughts; it puts venom and impurity upon our tongue; it hides our Bibles from us, or it shuts them when we open them. Sometimes it crosses our path like a serpent; sometimes it steals upou us like a thief; sometimes it comes muffled like a friend; sometimes it rushes upon us like an assassin. "It is about our path and

about our bed, and spieth out all our ways:"-how then shall any man pretend to say, that he is to sit still and asleep, and that every power of his soul is not to be up in arms, with such a spectre as this following him at his heels through life?

But is the necessity for our own watchfulness all we should learn? Alas! do we imagine that we should be able, of ourselves, to overthrow this terrible enemy? Alas! if we were only watchful, and went no farther, what would it avail? It would only prove the ease with which we could be conquered. How then shall we attempt to make war upon this fearful adversary that is every where, and seems to possess all the means of destruction? How-but by going to One, who is also every where, and can meet it wherever it dares to appear ;-to One, who is also" about our path and about our bed,and spieth out all our ways;"-to Him, who can say, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." And thus when we have added prayer to watchfulness, and gained the Spirit of God on our side, we shall be able, either to escape, or to encounter him" who goeth about seeking whom he may devour," and we shall walk through the flames of the burning, fiery furnace, with the Son of God by our side.

There seem to be two fatal causes that still blind men to their danger -that still lull them in this dreadful slumber.

The first is a confidence that there are a thousand temptations that are not dangerous to them, which, in fact, would be no temp tations to them, to which they would not feel any inclination to give way. Therefore they conclude, that they are so sure of their power of resisting in such cases, that it is not necessary to be on their guard; or either to watch themselves, or to pray to a higher Power, to prevent them from entering into these temptations. Alas! they "know not what manner of spirit they are

of." The disciples thought so too, and they were dreadfully deceived. You can do nothing of yourself— your sufficiency must be of God. But, just to conceive this :-there are, perhaps, few of us that cannot remember some time of our lives, in which we would not have believed any one who should have foretold us many of the sins we have since committed; there are, perhaps, few of us who cannot recollect when they would have turned away, with disgust, from things which they have since done;-when they were free from guilty habits in which they have since indulged. We thought, perhaps, then of those things of which we have since been guilty, as we do now of those of which we have not yet been guilty. Nothing is more easy than to imagine to ourselves some certain situation in which we should have given way to those temptations, against which we now conceive ourselves so secure. To what do we owe it, that we have not been put in that situation? To the mercy of God; and to nothing else. There is no one that can tell what he would do in a totally new situation; or in one to which he has not been accustomed.

But the second, and a much more fatal cause, that contributes to blind us, and to prevent us from "watching and praying that we enter not into temptation," is one exactly the opposite of the former. The former was an impression that the temptations were such as we were sure we could overcome: but this is such a fond and doating attachment to our favourite temptations that we cannot bear to part with them; on the contrary, we embrace them desparately, even at the peril of our souls. We either willingly sleep on and take our rest, with a kind of mad hope that there may be no danger, because we do not allow ourselves to see it; or, we flatter ourselves that we may yield to these temptations, because we do not give way to others, for which we have little or no inclination. Alas! this