thicker than before, until the fleecy shower had covered stone and tree, house and field, hill and vale. The farmer was an early riser. Before day-dawn, while the moonbeams were still glistening on the snow, and the stars were twinkling in its silvery crystals, he pept out through his chamber on the fairy landscape below. The old features of the familiar scene were changed. A new world was before him. The yard, the outbuildings, the fields, the stone-walls, stained by weather-beaten lichens, the larch-trees, the cottages, the dingy mills, the church, now clad in white, had not looked so beautiful for many a day. The path down the hill-side, every inch of which he well-knew, was gone. The dirt, the stones, rough places, ruts, turns in the road, all were covered with the snowy vesture. No trace of midnight wanderers was visible on the smooth surface; for on a snowy night who would venture abroad? Perhaps a nearer view and a better light would have shown him the toe-prints made by some hungry birds who had thus early been in search of a scanty meal. But other foot-marks they were none. No hoof of horse, or cow, or sheep, no human foot had yet been over that zigzag path, and left its print on the snow. Footprints were there, and frozen in the mud his own, others: but these the snow concealed. A few more hours, and the old path would again be trampled out. A rapid thaw might come and lay bare the ruts and stones, and make pools of the foot-prints. But now-foot-prints, stones, ruts, and dirt, all were covered up. Nothing had yet passed over the even face of the snow. was an untrodden path. night, and gazed down upon their snow covered streets whereon at present no foot-marks have been imprinted? But has the familiar sight ever conveyed any moral? Why should it not convey one? Is it not like that new year, now before us? As yet there are no footprints on its untrodden path. We have not been this way heretofore. We have no experience of its character. What kind of path will it prove? Will it be hard, or soft? safe, or slippery? Shall I find my old experience help me? What new companions shall I make? what old ones miss? Where will duty lead me? Is there trial before me, and victory? or trial and defeat? Will it be a year of new joys? Will old wells of pleasure dry up? Shall I be richer or poorer? be more confirmed in my folly or grow wiser? This year will have its mercies: shall I be more thankful for them, or less thankful? have a quicker eye to see them, and a stronger memory to retain them; or will they slip by unnoticed and be speedily forgotten? This year will have its sorrows: will they chasten my spirit, and draw me nearer to the Everlasting Friend; or shall I harden my neck under them, and think my best Friend my worst enemy? This year will have its work: will it become more pleasant, or grow increasingly irksome? Shall I do it with my might,' or let my hand grow slack? This year men will have influence on their fellowmen: what will mine be? Will men gain by my society, or lose? Will my talk be more frivolous, or be always with grace, It seasoned with salt ?' Shall I be still a wretched drone in the church, or a happy worker? Consume good things, or produce them? As little at the prayer-meeting, or more frequently there? Shall I always need, like a wandering sheep, the minister to be coming after me; or shall I myself strengthen his hands by looking not only on my own things, but also on the things of others?' I have seen many new years: what Was there anything novel in the sight? Had not the farmer seen the same winding way blotted out by the snow many times before? Have not other people in lone-houses, or by the side of pleasant English lanes, grown familiar with such a spectacle? Have not men in crowded towns and cities looked forth on some fair morning, after a wintry has been the sum-total of good if I would' of the defamer; the gained from all my former question- fussiness of the busy-body; the ings at their commencement? Have gossip of the idler; and the croaking I really profitted by my past mis- and groaning of all dolorous creatures takes and sins? Have I made a among humankind will utter their stand against the old temptations?plaint, and go on in 1862 as in the or did I, like a very coward as I was, year that has fled. shrink from offering any sturdy resistance? Have old thaws exposed old foot-prints? Have old ways become fouler by frequent tramplings? I have lived to see the end of other new years shall I live to see the end of this? If not, where shall I be when the end comes? These are some of those grave questions that now press themselves on our attention as we stand before the untrodden path. And yet the path is not altogether new. There is a history in all men's lives Figuring the nature of the times deceased: The which observed, a man may prophecy, With a near aim, of the main chance of things As yet not come to life, which in their seeds, And weak beginnings, lie intreasurëd.' Yesterdays beget to days. The present is the out-come of the past, and the future will be the issue of the present. What we are now we are very likely to be to-morrow. To very many the new year will be sadly like the old. Old habits will re-appear. Old passions will flame up from their dying embers. Old vices will crawl out from their miserable dens. Old sins, which men thought buried, will rise again, for sin dies hard. Men will show the same love for 'things seen;' the same haste to be rich, and at any cost; the same eager chase after perishable honours; the same weary pursuit for pleasures that cloy when possessed. Lonely watchers by bedsides will find no relief in the new division of time. Godless occupants of death-chambers will be conscious of no benefit in the bare fact that it is 1862 instead of 1861. The men who hew wood and draw water will have the same servile and monotonous task. Dull souls will throw their sombre fog over everything. The growl of the surly; the whisper of the malicious; the 'I could, an This is one picture. Is there not a brighter? If the new year will be twin to the old in such cases as these-how will it be with those whose hope is in Him in whose hand their breath is, and whose are all their ways? Is the new year to rob them of their love for the pure Word of God, their endeavour to profit by its teaching and example, their affection for the Son of the Highest, their efforts to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things, their relish for the services of God's house, their work in the school, the cottage, the sick-chamber, and the prayer meeting, and their onlook for present cheer to those peerless heights where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God? Will old habits good ones - re-appear in the Christian-old affections-old virtues? Will there be the same preference for things unseen?' Will the weary way of life be cheered by many of those promises which are 'exceeding great and precious ?' Will man's hard service for his fellow - man be sweetened by a patience won from the cross? Will there be love, like genius, and yet better far than any love that gilds all it touches, transmutes clay into gold, and turns the trivialities of life into bars of a grand and ceaseless psalm ? that the pleasant voice of gentle persuasion, the charity that thinketh no evil, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, and all the courtesies and graces of Christian excellence will go on in the new year as in the old? Can we hope There is only one guarantee that they will. We must place more dependence on God, and less dependence on our good resolutions. This self- centring pride it is that has marred so many fair reflections which every new year has awakened. 'Go to: I will become a shining character. I will be a saint, and an ornament to my church. I will gather strength and grace and godliness into my heart. I will not be overcome of evil. I will be as good as I know how. I will walk by my better lights. I will live only for God.' This, put into words, is the essence of that boasting spirit; and this the secret of many unprofitable new years' reflections. Ye ought rather to say: 'O Thou merciful and longsuffering Father, bear with Thy wayward child. Thou only knowest the way before me: its duties and trials, joys and sorrows, losses and gains, beginning and end; help me that I may more than ever see the value of every moment and "redeem the time." Give me strength to look my past sins in the face; and not only mourn that I ever committed them, but make them a constant chastener to my proud spirit, that I may "walk humbly with Thee." Help me to do something for my fellow-men and for Thee-some work for which Thou hast already fitted me by Thy fashioning hand. Holy Father, look on Thy ungrateful child, and let the beams of Thy love thaw my cold heart. O shelter me alway under the shadow of Thy wing. Make all changes in the coming year bring me nearer to Thyself, and to Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and so nearer to an everlasting home. And this we pray, through Him whom Thou hearest alway.' Better far to set out in the new path with such a spirit, and breathing such a prayer. More hope then will there be of good issues, and such as will endure. Our yesterdays will confront us in the future. The old foot-prints will show themselves. But entering the untrodden path with firmest trust in God, we shall look back with thankful hearts, whether our retrospect be made on this side the grave, or the other. THE DEFENCE OF THE SCRIPTURES. EVERY true Christian cannot but feel deeply grieved at the many attempts which are now being made to undermine the authority and value of the written Word of God. There is not so much to create alarm, when some pitiable man, sunk in effeminacy, the slave of vice, ignorant and illiterate, presumes to question the authenticity of certain portions of the Scriptures. It becomes us, however, to be on our guard against the prevalence of any opinions which are held by those who have not only attained considerable learning, but who have been elevated to a position of sacred trust, as the professed ministers of religion, when their opinions virtually deny the divinity of Christ, and the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. The humble Christian may weep in silence and solitude, in the sequestered shade of private life, when some members of his own family have imbibed principles which would place Christ on a level with human heroes, and destroy the purity and simplicity of the Gospel. That home upon which the Sun of Gospel Truth has hitherto shone in all its gentle splendour, and whereon the gale of spiritual health has sweetly breathed, is now overclouded by the blighting fogs of scepticism. The pious father, unaccustomed to meet the sophistries of sceptics, stands aghast at their daring effrontery, and pleads the more earnestly with the God of Truth. But recently an evil has arisen in this country of a most fearful kind. It exists in the publication of a series of sceptical Essays and Reviews,' written by men of high standing in the Church of England, celebrated for their mental acquirements, the accredited ministers of the Gospel, or the in Why now specially necessary. 5 structors of youth. Their influence | in by men of his class, he boasts of is therefore the more likely to be dangerous, and yet viewed merely as an exposition of the sentiments and opinions of their authors, the • Essays and Reviews' would scarcely have made any noise, or have been generally known. But their publication has given an opportunity to certain individuals to spread abroad and vindicate the many pernicious ideas they contain. This, therefore, calls for earnest Christian opposition. The Unitarian lecturer grasps the volume, and finding therein an embodiment of principles corresponding with his own, exultingly announces that men who have hitherto been considered as the opponents of that system of morality upon which he is relying as the necessary requirement for spiritual safety, are at length coming forward and avowing themselves in unmistakeable terms, the open advocates of the same belief. The professed sceptic takes advantage of the appearance of numerous publications written in answer to the Essays and Reviews, and points triumphantly to the difference of opinion which exists between distinguished theologians upon the subject of Bible Inspiration' as a sufficient reason why the great truths of the Gospel should be received at least with much caution; and in the midst of the excitement which is caused by the conflicting opinions of leading men, he suddenly pretends to be in possession of extraordinary powers of instruction, and by placards on the walls announces, that on a specified evening a lecture will be delivered on the subject, Is the Bible a revelation from an allperfect Deity?' and on the following evening, a second lecture on The deluge incredible, and self-contradictory.' From the titles of these lectures, many young men are induced to hear them, for whom their parents' prayers have often been wafted on wings of faith to heaven. The young men listen to the lecturer, while with that inflated self-laudation which is very often indulged thinking for himself,' and dares to call in question the inspiration of the sacred Scriptures. But what are the feelings of a parent, who receives with profound appreciation and reverence, the truths of the Gospel, when it comes to his knowledge that his child has imbibed in any degree the spirit of infidelity? He knows, and he has taught his offspring, that the religion of the New Testament breathes a spirit of boundless benevolence, of illimit able mercy, of exhaustless love, and he trusts to the fidelity of God as the answerer of prayer, for the deliverance of his child. He sorrows, but still he has a believing heart. He clings to the Word of God as his support in trial, and feels that any despondency or discouragement in reference thereto, would be unworthy of the principles he holds, and the foundation on which those principles are based. But seeing that the Christian is aware of the attempts that are being made to propagate error in the world, admitting that we know of the existence of a regularly organized body of men, who have arrogated to themselves the right of questioning the authenticity of the Word of God, can it be denied that it is our duty not only to avow and act upon our Christian principles, but also on all suitable occasions to defend them? These are days of liberty: expression may be given to every notion. Every statement may be contradicted. Every axiom may become the subject of doubt. What our fathers have believed and taught, may be openly denied; and freedom of opinion has attained to that position that no principle is held to be so sacred as not to be made the subject of controversy. It is necessary then, that we should be in earnest in the maintenance of Gospel truth, for we may have to grapple with every form of scepticism, and to debate with the powers of darkness on every question that can agitate the human mind. Let not the Christian us. be guilty of the crime of inactivity. Let us not withdraw from the opposition which the world will bring to bear upon the religion of Jesus, thinking to escape the sorrow and pain which an intimate acquaintance with the antagonistic devices of the wicked one will cause to come upon Let us face the storm that may possibly await us, and pass through a momentary trial to a certain triumph. It is not for us to stand in doubt as to our conduct, while the enemies of the Bible are exerting themselves to establish what they term a pure system of morality.' We have nothing to wait for to confirm us in our principles, or to demonstrate their value and necessity to the world. With multitudes of our young men liable, from their ignorance, to be swayed by the baneful breeze of scepticism; with the solemn plea for effort suggested by the youthful depravity constantly before our eyes; and with conviction, impelled by all the force with which the religion of the Bible can bring to bear upon our minds, be it ours to hope and labour on in the cause of Scripture truth, till a knowledge of it shall really and savingly cover the earth, as the waters the sea. Having determined to devote all our energies to the extension of Christ's kingdom in the world, let our whole life be one of antagonism to the principles of infidelity; and although there will be seasons when our pathway will be clouded, still the faith, the hope, and the spirit, that glowed within us, shall live on when the sombre lustre of the infidel's glory shall have passed away for ever. There exists among us a large body of intelligent philanthropists who are engaged on the Sabbathday in imparting religious instruction to the young, the influence of whose sentiments is already formidable. Let the voice of this class be expressed with determined strength and oneness, and the daring attempts of the infidel will be rendered to a great extent powerless. It is reasonable to expect the sympathy of this body in a cause so congenial with their avocation, but, is it not desirable that they should contemplate more seriously the enormity of the pursuit against which their efforts should be more especially directed? And should not the subject of ' Bible Inspiration' be brought more frequently, and more intelligently, and simply, before the attention of elder scholars ? Let Sabbath school teachers be more awake to their duty in resisting the encroachments of scepticism, and be encouraged by the fact that much that was bad in this world at one time, has now been swept away, and much that yet remains will as surely disappear. Let every Christian Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.' Let every Christian minister in particular, exert his influence to enlighten the understanding of the young men on the great truths which scepticism assails. Let the instruction imparted in the Bible classes of our ministers be of that kind which will strengthen and fortify the minds of its members against the attacks of infidelity, and then much doubt that at present exists will be effectually removed. J. S. C. THE MUTUAL RELATIONS OF PASTOR AND PEOPLE.* THE subject treated upon in this discourse very nearly touches every one of us. We occupy one or other of the positions whose mutual relations Mr. Nicholson very admirably unfolds; and his temperate, judicious, and Scriptural arguments, if honestly laid to heart, cannot fail *MUTUAL RELATIONS OF PASTOR AND PEOPLE. A discourse delivered on the occasion of the recognition of Rev. W. Clarkson, B.A., as minister of the IndeREV. GEORGE NICHOLSON, B.A., of Northpendent Church at Market Harborough. By ampton. |