parent's call; but sinful man, engaged in some favorite pursuit, refuses to hearken to the invitations of his Gol; and awfully verifies the complaint in the text:-'How often would I have gathered thee under my wings, but ye would not.' This interesting subject may, by God's blessing, be improved, in the way of Enquiry, Admonition, and Encouragement. 1. The subject suggests an Enquiry. Have we ever felt our danger of perishing, and fled from it to the shelter afforded by our Saviour's wings? Have we imitated the conduct of Noah's dove, who found no rest for the sole of her foot,' till she alighted on the ark? Has our behaviour been thus in regard to Christ? We can be at no loss in answering these important questions, if we consult the records of our conscience. The necessity of fleeing to Christ is plainly intimated in the text, and is attested by innumerable other passages in Holy Writ, and if we have not yet complied with this invitation, we are exposed to the wrath of God. May He make our hearts tremble at the thought, and give us grace to flee without farther delay to the refuge set before us in the Gospel. 2. The subject suggests wholesome Admonition-It is to little purpose to deny our danger. Should the helpless brood disregard their parent's call, under an idea that it proceeded from ungrounded fear, would their denial of the danger deliver them from it? Would it not rather bring the very evil upon them which they were warned to shun? Thus will it be with those who despise the Saviour's voice. Their security will be their ruin! Nor will they be any safer, if they content themselves with coming nearer to Him in the ordinances, while they defer hiding themselves al together under the shadow of His wings, where alone they can find protection and be safe from the impending ruin. 3. We may also derive from the subject great encouragement. Who does the Saviour invite to take refuge in Him?—The innocent-the virtuous? O no, but those whose hands were stained with the blood of his martyred prophets, and who were about to dip them in His own precious blood: these He calls with the tenderest compassion, declaring, that He had renewed his invitations to them times innumerable, and that if at last they perish, they will be the sole authors of their own destruction. How often would I have gathered you, but ye would not.' Learn from this, beloved brethren, that your former sins, however numerous er heinous, will be no bar to your acceptance, if you flee to Christ without delay, and throw yourselves wholly upon his sovereign mercy. To you he again declares, that all who come unto Him for pardon, peace, and protection, shall by no means go empty away. Remember then, that if you perish, it will not be through any want of willingness in Christ to save you; but merely because you would not go to him for life;' and that very consideration which is now so encouraging, will one day fill you with inconceivable anguish-' Christ was willing, but I was not.' O let not that reflection be suf fered to embitter your eternal state; but now let your reluctance be overcome, accept at once the divine invitation, and seek after those things that belong to your peace, before they are for ever hid from your eyes.' αμαρτωλός. THE CONTRAST. From the French MS. of the late Rev. C. De Rieu. Christians are known by their fruits; every thing is different between them and the people of the world. These last never speak of the Saviour, or if they do speak of him, it is with such coldness and indifference, that we soon perceive that they are not his, and that they love him not; they say it is very well for Theologians. Christians would desire to speak of him without ceasing; it is to them a continual subject of rejoicing to remember that they are saved by faith in his blood. They speak of it as the most signal deliverance as the greatest of benefits. Their souls are so filled with love and gratitude, that these feelings overflow in all their words and actions; it is a refreshment to them to pour out their souls in communicating their sentiments to their brethren. People of the world speak much of worldly things-of what other men are doing -of their worldly society-their own projects and temporal hopes. Christians, being persuaded that all these things will pass away in the twinkling of an eye, that all flesh is as grass, and the glory of the man as the flower of the grass, love rather to speak of their eternal hopes-of the glory that awaits them; they speak of these as of a great inheritance, of which they are soon to take possession; they discourse together of the promises on which their right to such great privileges are grounded. People of the world are seldom disquieted about how they spend their lives, provided they enjoy a continual round of pleasures; they attach but little importance to obeying or acting contrary to the Gospel; they hardly ever examine into their own conduct as those who 6 have to render an account, and yield without difficulty to the dictates of their passions, provided they can do so without compromising their Christians watch reputation in the sight of men. continually over the smallest actions; knowing that their master will come at an hour which they know not, and at a moment when they are not aware; their life is a continual conflict against all their passions; they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, Gal. 5, 24. Many who have been struck with the incompatibility of the practices of the world with the principles of Christianity, have thought it right to withdraw themselves altogether from it, and take refuge in solitude and cloisters, in order to serve their Saviour at a distance from its contagion; but this is not the life which the Gospel prescribes; it commands us, on the contrary, to make our light shine before men, so that we may glorify our Father which is in Heaven. Jesus Christ calls us to the combat. It is surely in this that our warfare consists, that we must remain faithful to him in the midst of the unbelievers and adversaries. I am no longer in the world,' said the Saviour, when he was about to leave the earth; but these are in the world; I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the world.' At present the one and the other are mingled together under the general name of Christians, this confusion lasts as long as they are on the earth; the time of separation approaches. The Saviour likens himself to a man who winnows his wheat after the harvest, Then shall he which is the end of the world. gather his wheat into his garner, and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF HENRY Who Died March 3rd, 1818. Henry Abrahams, the subject of the following Memoir, was born of Jewish parents, in the year 1799; but, by the pious exertions of the Society for the Promotion of Christianity among the Jews, was brought to a real knowledge of a need of a crucified Saviour. Nothing of any importance occurred from that time till 1811, when he was, at the age of twelve years, baptised according to the rite and ceremonies of the Established Church, at the Church of St. Bride, Fleet Street. He was then admitted into the schools of the above named society, where he continued till 1812, when he was bound by the institution to the printing office, on the roof of the Jews' Chapel, Spitalfields, (now the Wesleyan Chapel), at which place he continued till his death. For the last five years he attended the ministry of the Rev. J. C. Hawtrey at the Society's Chapel, Bethnal Green, and occasionally at Bishopsgate Church, on Sunday evenings. He was a teacher in the Sunday School of the above chapel, where his conduct was very satisfactory. In January 1818, he was visited by a very wasting and painful illness, during which, he confessed that the atonement and righteousness of a divine Redeemer, were the only ground of his hope of pardon and acceptance; or, to use his own words, "he was by nature a poor helpless sinner, who, but for the infinite mercy of God in Christ Jesus, might have been cast into the lake, which never is quenched." Many pleasing fruits were visible in his temper and conduct; and his patience under acute F |