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attention; but introduce this, begin to discourse upon the love of God in the gift of his only-begotten Son, to become our Saviour; upon the grace of God, in pardoning sin, renewing the heart, and promising us a world of bliss beyond the grave, and immediately his heart begins to burn within him, his countenance is lighted up with holy interest, his tongue becomes as the pen of a ready writer, and, in the overflow of strong feeling, he exclaims, Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul." When, then, we afterward find the same individual destitute of all taste for spiritual conversation, when you can interest him more by conversing upon any other subject than upon religion, when he designedly avoids the company of the pious, and seeks that of the worldling, because he takes a greater delight in their conversation, the evidence is too forcible to be resisted, that he has declined in religion, he has become the subject of religious declension.

If an individual really love Jesus Christ, we believe he will desire to display that love by joining his Church, and uniting himself to his disciples; and, when in the Church, he will feel it to be not merely his sacred duty, but also his highest privilege, to obey his Saviour's dying request, who, having instituted the sacred ordinance, said to his disciples, 66 'Do this in remembrance of me.' ." However much our opinions may vary as to the way to the table of the Lord, we are all agreed as to this, that it is our duty to assemble there; we know who hath commanded, "Drink ye all of it." And the Christian's experience tells him, that there is no means of grace more sweet to the pious mind, or more calculated to improve his religious character. There we all meet as brethren and sisters in Jesus Christ. By the bread and wine, the emblems of his broken body and precious blood, our meditations are thrown back to the tragical scenes of

Calvary; there we "behold Christ, our passover, sacrificed for us;" and, by faith, we eat of his body and drink of his blood, and our souls become fat and flourishing in the courts of our God; and the more flourishing our souls are, the more anxious shall we be to come to this heavenly feast. I remember to have heard a revered friend, now in glory, say, that, in his youthful days, even aged fathers and mothers, in our own denomination, walked the all but incredible distance of twenty miles to come to the table of their Lord, and in many cases did not arrive back home before two o'clock on the Monday morning. O, what a cutting reproof does this pass upon many of us who profess to be their offspring! Surely we are mistaken when we say, that "instead of the fathers have come up their children." If a professing Christian be in a sound state of spiritual health, he cannot be indifferent to this means of grace, but will regard it as one of the most important and precious. Like the primitive believers, he will continue steadfast in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers. When, then, we are called to see them who once indulged this feeling, and adopted this conduct, now wilfully neglecting the table of the Lord for one month after another, and, (as is the fact in some cases,) for more than a whole year together, we think we are authorized to conclude that they have greatly declined in religion, they have left their first love.

Love to Jesus Christ and to his holy cause are inseparably allied, the one cannot exist without the other. If we love him, we must love his Church, and be anxious for its prosperity. Hence it is that so much zeal generally characterizes the new convert. His first love is exceedingly ardent, and can only find expression in a life of great activity. The prosperity of the Church is the object of his continual solicitude; and, to effect this,

he is anxious to employ all the scriptural means within his reach; he esteems no labor too arduous, nor any sacrifice too costly to offer upon its sacred altar; the united language of his heart and life is, "I am determined that Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death." All you have to do to secure his active and efficient cooperation is simply to direct his energies to a proper point, to place him in a suitable sphere of labor; then will he " come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." And if such be the feeling of the new convert, surely such, only in a much higher degree, ought to be the feeling of those who for a longer period have professed attachment to the Lord Jesus; their obligations to him have been greatly increased by the reception of many spiritual blessings; consequently, if they possess but the proportional amount of gratitude and love, they will be even more consecrated to his service. If, then, such be not the case; if, on the contrary, they manifest an affecting amount of indifference about the Church's prosperity; if they can see the ways of Zion mourn, and not feel; if they can withdraw from her their influence and support; but especially if, (as we sometimes see,) they can raise up and head a faction against her, because they suppose that some within her bosom have not treated them in a Christian-like manner; whatever high and dignified stations they may occupy in her dominions, we are constrained to believe that such have become her enemies; they will sacrifice her interests at the shrine of their own pride or ambition. They must, therefore, have awfully declined in religion; with them "the gold has the gold has become dim, and the most fine gold is changed."

The means of grace have been established for our spiritual improvement, 66 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they

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shall mount up with wings, as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." And in themselves they are so perfectly congenial with the pious mind that no Christian can fail to love them; " Lord, I have loved the habitation of thine house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth," One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple." This has been the feeling of the godly in all ages of the world, and it is precisely the feeling of the Christian now. Religion is the same in all ages and in all countries, and its influence upon the heart remains the same. The good man ever loves to go with the multitude to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the multitude that keep holy day. And when by the stern hand of affliction he is deprived of this privilege, still his heart is there, and with consuming anxiety he waits for the time to come when he shall be there in person, his language is, "As the heart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God; my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" In proportion to the strength of our religious feeling is our attachment to the means of grace, and, circumstances permitting, our attendance upon them; if we be spirtually-minded, we shall hail with holy delight the opening Sabbath morn, when with grateful hearts and cheerful feet we make our way to Zion. "I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord."

"I have been there, and still would go, 'Tis like a little heaven below."

When, then, we see those in our Churches whose attendance at the house of God is exceedingly irregular and uncertain, who can come once

On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year after the departure from Egypt, Moses began his final exhortation to the people, and continued his theme every day, perhaps for three or four days, until he had said and done all that is recorded in the book of Deuteronomy. He first reviewed the past, and then proceeded to exhort and direct as to the future; urging them to holy and constant obedience to God, and a religious training of their children. He forbade all communion with idolaters, and told them, that, for idolatry and sin, the Canaanitish nations were to be cast out of God. He reminded them of the laws which God had given them, how excellent and good they were; of the various ways in which he had proved them; and of the blessings he had already bestowed, and was about to confer on them. He taught them that their only strength was God, and the means of securing God's blessing was obedience. He enjoined on them a strict observance of the sacred seasons, and of the sacrifices; a due regard to the priest, the Levite, the poor, and the stranger. He inculcated the virtues of justice, mercy, and humanity, and the love of God; warned them of the evils of sin, and gave hopes to the penitent; and, finally, set life and death, blessing and cursing, before them. He then called Joshua, and exhorted him to be strong and of good courage, and trust in God. He gave a copy of the law, which he had written, to the priests and Levites, and the elders, and commanded that it should be read at stated periods to all the people, young and old, and to the stranger that was among them. Being afterwards called with Joshua before the Lord, and instructed as to the future perverseness of the people, as a warning to them, he wrote the song which chiefly constitutes the 32nd chapter, and taught it the people. He then pronounced his blessing on the twelve tribes, and said in conclusion, “Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thine excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places."

The book of the law which Moses had written was then put in the side of the ark of the covenant, there to keep it; and then, perhaps early in the morning, VOL. 6.-N. S.

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that the sun might be behind him, and throw its tints on the distant prospect, and that he might long look around him, he ascended up to mount Pisgah, to behold the land, and to die! "And the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, 'This is the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes; but thou shalt not go over thither."

Though his sight was not dim, and the elevation was very great, so that the prospect to any one on a clear day would be beautiful and extensive, it is reasonable to suppose, as the Lord shewed him the land, that his vision was specially and miraculously assisted and strengthened; and O, what a splendid scene was now before and around him! To the right lay the mountain pastures of Gilead, and the romantic district of Bashan; the windings of Jordan, now swollen, might be traced for fifty or seventy miles, along its broad and level valley, from the mountains of Lebanon, where it rises, through the sea of Galilee, until where, almost beneath his feet, it flowed into the Dead Sea. To the north spread the luxuriant plains of Jezreel, or Esdraleon, the arena of a thousand battles, and the more hilly and yet fruitful country of lower Galilee. Right opposite stood the city of Jericho, embowered in its groves of palms; beyond it, the mountains of Judea, rising above each other until they reached the utmost sea. Gazing on this splendid landscape, which had Lebanon, Carmel, and the Great Sea, for its background, the mountains of Tabor, Ephraim, and Moriah, rising in its centre; itself beautifully varied with hill and dale and brooks and rivers, and thickly-studded with towns, and castles, and vineyards, and trees;-calling to mind, as he gazed, the events he had recorded of the patriarchs who had wandered there-beholding, in prophetic anticipation, his great and happy commonwealth, now camped near the foot of the mountain, as occupying its numerous towns and blooming fields, and contemplating the whole glorious land, now clothed in the

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gaiety and grandeur of an oriental spring, as a type and figure of the "better country" above:-amid these scenes, and with these emotions, the man of God breathed his last, left his earthly tabernacle to enter the Paradise of God, and was gathered to his fathers. How splendid his last scenes, both real and mental! How sublime and happy his death! Well might Balaam, from the summit of a neighbouring hill, exclaim, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!"

Moses was 120 years old when he died, and "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." The people felt his loss, and, that they might not worship at his tomb, the place of his burying was concealed. They would doubtless have been as much perplexed as those who follow after him, justly to portray his character, his greatness, his self-denial, his faith, his devotion, his solicitude for the good of the people, his fear of God, and the high honors God conferred upon him. Succeeding writers and prophets bore testimony to his excellence; the Great Redeemer honored his name; apostles speak of him as " a faithful servant, who was faithful in all the house of God;" the Church recognizes his goodness; the world, his greatness; heathens, philosophers, and princes, acknowledge the wisdom of his laws; and poets and critics applaud the splendor and sublimity of his compositions; and we only add, that the wisdom and excellence, and authority, of his laws, were from God, and that "there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face."

The Israelites mourned for him thirty days. The forty years of their wanderings were now ended, and here, for the present, we suspend our observations, that we may review the past, and deduce from it some lessons of practical instruction.

1. We have a painful illustration of human perverseness. This people had been led through the desert, and edueated under the signs and wonders of the Almighty; they had seen, as in the case of their fathers, the evil of distrust and disobedience, and yet they seem perverse and refractory still. As their fathers murmured, so did they; and as they lusted, so did their sons.

"Let us

not tempt Christ, as some of them

tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. These things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come."

2. The miraculous care of God for the people, during their whole pilgrimage, deserves our admiration. Though the whole company could not be less than 2,000,000; yet there was not one died of hunger. Day after day the manna fell: when in arid places, water sprung from the rock; and, in all their course, God was their protector. "Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years." So does God preserve his spiritual Israel while travelling through this wilderness world. He keeps them, and feeds them, and protects them, while they trust in him, and are willing to follow where he leads.

3. The great benefits of obedience are also set before us. Who were the most happy and honored of this people, but those who were the most obedient, as Joshua, Phineas, and Caleb? It was the vile and filthy abominations of this land that brought the wrath of God upon their inhabitants; and it was on the condition of obedience, free, cheerful obedience, only, that God assured to the Israelites its quiet possession. Blessings innumerable were promised to them; wealth, happiness, honor, and strength, if they were obedient; but they were forewarned of a strange reverse, if they forsook God. So it is with us. We have joy, and hope, and the consolations of God, if we live to him; but, when we listen to the seductions of the destroyer, and follow the paths of folly; conscience, reason, God, all are against "Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

us.

4. In Moses we have an acknow. ledged and remarkable type of Christ. He himself said, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet, like unto me; him shall ye hear." Moses, for example, fled from the wrath of the king, that his life might be preserved; Christ was taken from Judea, from Herod, who sought his life. Moses was filled with wisdom, meekness, and zeal; so was Christ. Moses established the authority of his mission by miracles; so did Christ. He led his people from bondage, sustained them miraculously