is opposed to Him, his Son, his Spirit and his people, then it is so, let appearances be what they may.

4. If the world is opposed to God and Christ, to his people and the holy spirit, it follows that mankind before regeneration, are without moral excellence and are entirely depraved.

In what can that moral excellence consist which includes in it no love to God, no obedience to his law, no love to Christ and no obedience to his gospel, no complacency in the holy spirit and no acquiescence of heart in his influence, no love to the people and kingdom of Christ, but a hostility denominated hatred? In what corner of a heart under the dominion of such enmity to the great Lawgiver of the universe, to every cardinal point of his government and to all his loyal subjects, can moral excellence reside? And what can that moral excellence be which is consistent with opposition to the moral excellence of God, to the law of God and Jesus Christ and the holy Spirit and the people of God? To all these the world oppose a heart of enmity. But set aside the moral excellence of God, and that contained in his laws and holy subjects, and what moral excellence remains in the universe, for the world to love? What is that moral excellence which the world love while they are opposed to God? What is that truth which they love, while they are enemies to the God of truth? What is that justice which they admire, while they are enemies to the holy and Just one? What is that mercy which they love, while they despise and reject the God of mercy, in his Son? What is the benevolence in which they feel complacency while the benevolence of God guided in its operations by infinite wisdom, is in all its great legislative expressions, hated and opposed? Can the light of the sun be hated in its fountain and all its great emanations experienced on earth,and yet the same light in some few and scattered rays shining in darkness, be loved? The Vol 3-No. VI.

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eye that is so construed as to hate the light, hates it wherever it is seen. And such is the heart of man in its moral alienation from God. heart that turns away in aversion from the moral excellence of God, has no love to moral excellence in any being. Improvement.

Are any of you who read or hear this discourse unrenewed in the scriptural sense of that term? Has no work of the Spirit been experienced? No change produced in your affections towards God and Christ? Allow me then to remind you that you belong to the world, and are dead in sin. Your hearts have not been changed by the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the universal offer of pardon and eternal life upon condition of repentance towards God and faith in the Redeemer. That nominal christianity which exempts you from being called heathen, has not made you christians in deed; nor has civilization or science or refinement produced that moral change, without which no man shall see the Lord. Your social affections are not holiness, and your natural sensibilities contain no evidence of your reconciliation to God. Your speculative knowledge is the knowledge of those who know their Lord's will and do it not. Your diligence and honesty though useful to men do not change the character of your heart in the sight of God. Your tears, your resolutions, and your prayers are alike the offspring of a heart unholy and unreconciled to God, a heart in which bibles and sabbaths and sermons have produced no saving change. And now can you witness unalarmed this record of your guilt? Could I unroll to your view the evidence of treason against man, as abundant and unequivocal as that which on the inspired page declares you rebels against God, would you contemplate the record unmoved, and because it was an unwelcome disclo sure, would you disbelieve or in anger turn away your thoughts from the subject? My dear friends as God is true you are dead in sin―yon

are alienated from God, and Christ and his people. But

2. Let me assure you that your opposition to God is voluntary and inexcusable-if it were not voluntary it would not be sin. If it were not inexcusable-neither atonement, nor pardon, nor repentance had been required. And is there any thing in the character of God to justify alienation from him? or in his law, or iu his Son, or in his gospel, or his providence? You are urged by no necessity to contend with your Maker, to reject your Saviour, or to resist the holy Spirit. Your opposition to all goodness is voluntary, and its continuance is voluntary. You are dead because you will die. You are in the entire possession of all the faculties, and all the motives requisite to make it your duty, and to render it practicable to be reconciled to God. Therefore turn ye and live, for why will ye die?

I have only to add, that whatever you do to escape destruction, must be done quickly. Let spiritual death reign over you a little longer, and it will become eternal death. Protract a few days your opposition to God, and your rebellion will never cease. Delay repentance and soon no place will be found for it. Reject the Saviour a little longer and you reject him finally. Resist the Holy Ghost but a short period, and your opposition will be protracted through eternity.

Do any demand what shall we do? You know already what you must do, and are unwilling to do it. You know that you must repent or perish-must believe or be condemned. But you refuse to repent, and "will not come to Christ that ye may have life," and all short of this leaves you dead in sin with the wrath of God abiding on you. Do you repeat the demand what shall we do? I repeat the answer, repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

For the Christian Spectator.

When was the Christian Church organized?

By many it is supposed, that the present dispensation of the gospel commenced with the ministry of John the Baptist. This is said to be evident from the two first verses in Mark's gospel. "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God; as it is written in the prophets, behold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee." But what is this, more than a preamble to the evangelical history? John's message to the people was, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." This implies that the Lord was on his way, to set up his kingdom on earth; but not, that he had already come; not that his kingdom was already established. While the work of preparation was going on, which was the only work assigned to John the Baptist, it is evident, that the new, and last dispensation of the gospel of Christ was not established. As yet Christ had not made his public appearance, nor even commenced his ministry among men.

It is further asserted, that John's baptism was the christian baptism : and that this was the distinguishing token of the new and glorious dispensation of the gospel. But if John's baptism were the christian baptism, then that and the apostolic baptism were one and the same ordinance, administered in one and the same manner. Both must have baptized in the name of the sacred Trinity. But if so, how could Apollos, who was a man of learning and eloquence, and mighty in the scriptures, and one who taught diligently the way of the Lord, be ignorant of the name of the Holy Ghost? It is said, he knew only the baptism of John. In the baptism of John, therefore, no mention was made

of the name of the Holy Ghost. Nor was the baptism by Apollos considered valid. They who had been baptized with the baptism of John, were required to be rebaptized, and they were taught the way of the Lord more perfectly. Thus it appears that the ministry and baptism of John the Baptist were widely different from those of the apostles of Christ.

John's ministry and baptism appear to have been preparatory to the coming and kingdom of Christ. They could not, therefore, constitute the new dispensation of the gospel. How could they constitute parts of that, to which thay were only preparatory? The supposition is absurd.

Some may suppose, that the new dispensation of the gospel commenced when Christ commenced his public ministry. But the import of Christ's ministry was the same as that of John the Baptist; "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is drawing near, but is not yet organized and established. Accordingly, Jesus and his disciples, and doubtless John and his disciples all the time of their ministry, strictly observed the worship and ordinances of the Mosaic dispensation. Christ also required others to keep the law of Moses. To the ten lepers he said, "Go shew yourselves unto the priests."

He ac

knowledged the government of the scribes and rulers of the Jews-that the scribes and pharisees did sit in Moses' seat; and did possess a legal authority. There is not therefore, the least intimation of a change of dispensation, during the public ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pursuing the history of the transactions of the Saviour, until the evening in which he was betrayed into the hands of his persecutors, having closed his public ministry, and attended the last passover with his disciples, he established a new institution; and that was the sacramental supper.

This institution clearly indicated a new dispensation of the gospel. This sacramental supper succeeded the passover, as being of the same import;

the one looking back, and the other forward, celebrating the great atonement, by the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. This sacramental supper, being designed as a retrospective ordinance, could not be celebrated, with the best advantage, till after those sufferings of Christ, which it was designed to commemorate. This, however, was an important article in the new dispensation of the gospel. And after Christ had suffered on the cross, and arisen from the dead he most solemnly instituted the ordinance of baptism, significant of the work of the Holy Ghost in regeneration. These two, baptism and the sacramental supper, are the only ordinances, belonging to this last dispensation of the gospel.

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When these were instituted, and the commission of Christ to his apos tles was delivered, "Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" then was the church of Christ organized. Then the church was prepared for religious worship and ordinances, and for christian discipline. On the day of Pentecost, the apostles were endued with supernatural power, power from on high, and commenced the great work of evangelists. Their ministry was attended with marvellous success. They soon formed very numerous churches, both of Jews and Gentiles in Judea and all the neighbouring countries. The ceremonial law began to be abolished; and indeed the observance of it was never required of the Gentile converts.

To come now to the particular ens quiry, when the christian church was organized, under the present dispensation of the gospel; the answer may be this, that it was organized previous and very little previous to the day of Pentecost. On that memorable day, it commenced its operations. On that day, the apostles were endued with miraculous power, without which, they could not have been authorized to abolish the ceremonial law of Moses. It was not without

this testimony, that they could presume to set up the kingdom of Christ, and challenge the chief priests and rulers, from their high offices and dignified stations, to become the humble followers of him whom they had so recently and so barbarously crucified and slain.

It is to be considered, however, that the church, in its new form, might have been, and doubtless was organized before it commenced its public operations. Christ, before his sufferings, instituted the sacramental supper; and after his resurrection, he made an appointment for his disciples and followers to meet at Galilee; where he instituted the ordinance of the christian baptism, commissioned his apostles and gave to them, and their successors in the holy ministry, a promise of his gracious presence and protection, down to the end of the world: "Go ye, therefore, 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; and lo! I am with

you alway, even unto the end of the world, AMEN." At this time and place, while Jesus, with his disciples, was by special appointment at Galilee, he doubtless, organized his church, (under this last dispensation of the gospel,) but charged his apostles not to rush, unauthorized, into the ministry which they had received of the Lord: "But tarry in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." Having, on the day of Pentecost, received this power, they immediately began their ministry, with glorious success. On that day, it is said, there were added to them about three thousand souls. The phrase, added unto them, implies, that they previously existed, as an organized body. And when or where could they have been organized, if not in their retirement from the world, when convened by order of the Savior, at Galilee? Here their preparatory work was finished, and having continued a few days in prayer at Jerusalem, they were called forth to action, as the visible kingdom of the Redeemer. A. B. C.

For the Christian Spectator. The story of Lionel, in a letter from Blendon to his grandson.

MY DEAR H.

Poor Lionel has just sunk into his grave, while my tears are yet flowing for him, let me attempt to present before you the instructive picture of his life.

Lionel and myself were bosom friends from our earliest years. Born in the same village, and nearly of the same age, we acquired an attachment for each other almost before we could utter the name of friend. Both being destined by our parents for the University, we pursued our preparatory studies with equal pace, and commenced our residence at college in the

same class. The happy and endearand friend, all conspired to assimilate ing relation of class-mate, room-mate, our tempers to each other, and to produce in us a congeniality of taste. This was what my father particularly desired; for he often said to me, "My son, I hope by associating with one so mild and amiable as Lionel, you will learn to overcome that impetuous temper of yours, which if not restrained in early life, I fear will prove your ruin." If I really did succeed (as my father seemed to think) in gaining the victory over a disposition so unhappy, I must ascribe it to my admiration of that mild, uniform, and gentle spirit, which appeared so sweet and charming in my friend. Nor was it by me