hodie, in monte Jehovæ providebitur." Amstelodami 1669.

"Et Abraham apella le nom de ce lieu là, l'Eternel y pourvoira; c'est pourquoi on dit aujourd'hui, il y sera pourvu sur la montagne de l'Eternel." A Amsterdam 1747. Perhaps, however, the most simple rendering of the passage would be as follows:-And Abraham called the name of that place JEHOVAH-JIREH, (the Lord will provide); as it is said this day in the mount JEHOVAH-JIKEH, (the Lord will provide.)

S. M.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE term Charity is so frequently misapplied; it is so often appealed to as an indefinite principle of action, while its genuine influence is but little understood and exemplified; it is so vaguely, unreasonably, and unscripturally extended by some, and so narrowed and constricted by others, that I trust I shall be forgiven for attempting to review the limits which should define its influence on the heart of the Christian.

Real charity will ever be found active, exactly in proportion as the great truths of Christianity exert their prevailing tendencies on the character of the individual. Our Lord instructs his disciples in the duty of cultivating this loveliest of Christian graces; not as an occasional act, or as the natural impulse of excited feeling, but as the constant disposition of a truly renovated heart.

Since, however, the truths of the Gospel are destined to pass through media so differing as the minds of men, we cannot expect a perfect coincidence of opinion. In different individuals, the habits of thought and action are so dissimilar, that we must not be surprised when we observe those who think at all often forming conclusions the most opposite from nearly the same premises. The object of the present remarks is to ascertain how far the

principle of Christian charity may and ought to be extended in such cases, so as to preserve a perfect standard of rectitude on the one hand, and yet not destroy the unity of Christian society on the other.

The exercise of charity does not require, and certainly must not involve, a dereliction of principle. This would be to destroy at once uprightness of character, and to blend the prominent and distinctive features of truth in one indiscrimi nate mass of confuted and heterogeneous opinions. In principles so important as those which regulate our affections and direct our conduct, it is necessary that our views be precise and well defined, and that our judgment be duly informed on those points which coucern our own and our neighbour's welfare. We must be enabled to appeal with confidence to the standard of truth, the holy Scriptures, for the rectitude of our mo tives, and the consistency of our practice. At the same time, we must be careful not to confound prejudice with principle. We are too frequently disposed, from partial consideration and hasty reflection, to form erroneous conclusions: and from the constant habit of acting upon these determinations they are so interwoven with all our ideas, they are so perpetually awakened by a thousand different associations, and they become at length so congenial with our feelings, that we readily mistake what is, in effect, the offspring of prejudice, for the logical deductions of the most correct principle. Besides this, we are so much the creatures of circumstance and association, that we are perpetually liable to confound our impressions and feelings with the results of deliberate judgment. Weimbibe many prejudices during the progress of education; some of which, doubtless, may prove essentially useful, and become most properly permanent and stable principles of conduct; but since our education is

conducted by those who are

themselves far short of perfection, and are exposed like others to the influence of prejudice, it is manifest that some useless bias, some hurtful obliquity, will almost necessarily be impressed upon the character. Against this effect we should sedulously guard, and carefully avoid mistaking its silent influence for the dictates of reason and reflection.

But though charity does not involve a dereliction of principle, yet it surely requires that even our principles, those secret motives of our conduct which ought to be uniformly acted upon, should not be rendered ostentatiously prominent, so as to disgust where they can do no good. I do not say we are to keep our sentiments out of sight: far from it; we must be ever ready to inculcate and defend them; but charity demands that we should avoid that narrow spirit which cannot endure the slightest difference of opinion. We should even, I conceive, cheerfully make those little sacrifices of feeling which will induce us sometimes to be silent, and to bear with the prejudice, the ignorance, and the intolerance of others, rather than suffer charity to be wounded in an angry and hopeless contest against inveterate obstinacy and bigotted prepossession.

In these remarks I allude only to points of confessedly minor importance. There are some grand prin. ciples of Divine Revelation which charity cannot allow to be compromised: there are some cardinal truths, the very soul and substance of religion, which we cannot for a moment yield without depreciating them; which we cannot overlook, without tacitly questioning their importance; and which we dare not abandon, unless we are prepared to admit the perfect indifference of that momentous inquiry, "What is truth?" But the mischief is, that even those who agree in their interpretation of the principal doctrines of Christianity-because

they chance to differ on some minuter points, the reception or rejection of which has been identified with the well-being of a party-too often make the latter their standard of real piety, and contend for them with more vehemence than for those truths which are allowed on all hands to be necessary to salvation. Thus it often happens, that men who quarrel with a test, under other circumstances, ereet a test of admission to their own little society, -a test not of belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only propitiation and satisfaction for the sins of his people, but of implicit adherence to the peculiarities of a sect. I have often admired the candour of our church, whose doctrinal views, though clear and scriptural, are yet so charitably framed as to include and reconcile many of these zealous disputants: indeed on this very subject of church discipline, Christian charity, I imagine; demands a kind of tolerating spirit. It happens not unfrequently, that those who coincide in their views of Divine Revelation, will still differ about the peculiar form of ecclesiastical government and regulations. Certainly, candour requires, in this case, the subserviency of individual prejudices to the paramount claims of our common faith. Our opinions on such subjects, even though correct, must not be erected into principles upon which it would be criminal to be silent. Something, surely, must be left to every man's conscience; especially as the church of Christ has undeniably existed under different external forms; and it is probable (I speak at least my own sentiments), that the point was left indeterminate, in order that ecclesiastical discipline might be variously modified, according to the existing circumstances of the civil governments with which Christianity should become connected. Other persons may and do think differently; and I can readily "agree to differ" with those of my

brethren whose views on such subjects may be opposed to my own.

Humility, as well as charity, requires that we should tolerate the opinions of others; for we should recollect, that man is a fallen creature, and that on this side the grave his views are obscured, and his perceptions rendered inaccurate, by the influence of his alienation from God, and his natural bias to evil. He is not perfect; nor can we wonder, therefore, if his perverted judgment should frequently hurry him into error. Remembering our own weakness, and liability to misconception and prejudice, we should learn to retain our opinions with gentleness, though with firmness, and to combat what we conceive to be the prejudices of others, with decision as to our own views, but with a tender regard to the feelings of our brother.

Charity demands the exercise of love to those who differ from us. We must not look on them with a jealous eye; we must not be captiously disposed to question their sincerity; we must not blazen their follies, or hold up to ridicule their prejudices. We must go with them so far as we can tread on common and scriptural ground; and when our opinions diverge, supposing the divergency not to be of a fatal kind, we must still "wish them God speed;" assured that though in nonessentials we disagree, we have yet the same Saviour for our confidence, we are engaged in the service of the same Master, and hope to arrive at the same heaven hereafter. If our neighbour be a true Christian, we are bound to love him as such, by whatever name he may be named.

FAMILY SERMONS.No. CII. Psalm civ. 34.-My meditation of Him shall be sweet.

Of all the duties which become professed Christians, there is none more usually neglected among men

in general, than that of calm and deliberate reflection upon the concerns of religion. We observe persons constantly frequenting the house of God, and seeming for the moment to have some knowledge and enjoyment of those things which relate to their eternal peace, yet forgetting almost instantly what they have heard, and suffering the sacred impression to be effaced almost as soon as it was formed. While we pray that we may read, mark, and learn" the holy Scriptures, we too often forget so inwardly to "digest" them that they may conduce to our spiritual nourishment, and strengthen us for our heavenly warfare. If we have any pretence to the name of Christian, the neglect of an outward duty, the omission of our customary devotions, or of attendance on public worship, the breach of the Divine command "to do good and to distribute," the indulgence of unhallowed tempers, or the stirring of worldly or sensual desire, will be followed by proper feelings of sorrow and repentance, accompanied with prayerto God for pardon and assistance; yet amidst all, perhaps, we neglect that especial means of grace which, in many cases, is one of the most useful of all for preventing a recurrence of the evil; we mean religious meditation. And assuredly if it be a sin not to read the Scriptures, and attend public worship, it is a sin also not to treasure up and revolve in our hearts those sacred truths which we have received; not to endeavour, by serious reflection, when in private, to turn them, by the blessing of God, to a practical account.

For the purpose of impressing upon our minds the duty under consideration, let us view

I. The proper objects of spiritual meditation.

11. The benefits resulting from it. III. The best method of promoting and conducting it.

I. The proper objects of spiritual meditation are the truths re-

considered frequently and habitually those things which we are too apt to suffer to glide from the memory almost as soon as they die away upon the ear. Religion was with them, and has been with good men, in every age, a concern of such importance, as to engross the heart in the hours of retirement, and by silently producing there the "peaceable fruits of righteousness," to render the deportment of its professors indicative of their holy vocation, and worthy of that sacred name by which they were called.

Meditation, in one view of it, may be regarded as conversing with God, and with our own hearts. Enlightened by his presence, and guided by his wisdom, we are enabled to understand more clearly our real condition, and to plead his cause with our own hearts; we learn to see the vanity of our false excuses and “refuges of lies;" and as the defects of our religious character become clearly unfolded to our view, we are incited to more urgent and unwearied supplications for the renewing influences of the Spirit of grace. While we trust to outward impressions, we are too often ready to deceive our own souls, and to mistake the mere stirring of natural affection, or what are merely social feelings in religion, for genuine piety; but the moment we begin to commune with ourselves, no eye seeing us but the eye of God, if our hearts be not right with him, and if they be not truly actuated by religious principle, we shall be likely to discover the defect in our character, and the consequent peril of our situation, We shall learn to value at its true rate of worthlessness whatever pleasure we may feel in discharging the public duties of religion, while our tempers and affectious are not brought into subjection to the obedience of Christ. And on the other hand, where the heart is sincere, though the affections are languid, earnest meditation on heavenly things will kindle a brighter flame, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 186.

and raise the mind to something of a right feeling of the unspeakable glories of the Gospel. Thus it appears that reflection and communion with our own hearts are of high importance to all descriptions of characters;-to the sinner, the hypocrite, the careless, and the uninformed, in order to bring them to the knowledge of their awful condition; and to the true Christian, in order to elevate his hopes. and desires, to increase his spiritual knowledge, and not only to open new truths, but to make him enter with more interest into those which he already believes, but which he wishes to understand more fully, and to embrace with more ardour and affection. In circumstances especially of trial or temptation, a few moments' serious reflection, with earnest prayer to God, will oftentimes have an influence of the most beneficial kind in convinc ing us of the vanity of the world, and in leading us to Him who is the only refuge for sinners, and the only fountain of true comfort and repose. When the mind is most distressed, and the prospect, either for this world or the next, most gloomy and appalling, the Christian who can retire to his closet, and lift up his heart to his Father which seeth in secret, meditating upon the love of God, and the grace of Christ, breathing after the influences of the Holy Spirit, and pleading the promises of the Gospel, will have a source of Divine consolation far above all that earthly prosperity can bestow. Whether, therefore, we study our best solace and enjoyment, or our spirituality of mind and "growth in grace," we shall see the propriety of accustoming ourselves to meditate as well as pray, and to drink deeply in private into those important truths of which we do not, perhaps, neglect the public acknowledgment.

III. Spiritual meditation being thus shewn to possess so much im portance, it becomes necessary to

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