and crisis of your eternal fate. Now is by one degree; and were it to be the the ultimatum of Gospel remonstrance means of averting the whole catastrophe and solicitation with you. This is the of your immortal doom, time would not solemn and momentous juncture, when you stop for you one wave of its unstaying and must secure or lose your everlasting inter- resistless tide. est in the great redemption; when your Oh! flee, then, to the sovereign and answer to the grand question must be infallible refuge set before you in the clear and categorical, affirmative or nega- Gospel. Avail yourselves of the noble and tive for yet another hour and the high all-efficient remedy instituted by God for game of time is up with you, and the last your deliverance from wrath, and restorastake will be played for good or evil, for tion to his friendship and moral likeness; life or death, for two worlds, of ecstacy improve and apply for your perfect salvaor of agony, through the utmost range tion, the admirable and inexhaustible proof an unbounded existence. You have visions of infinite wisdom and everlasting gone too far now to recede. The passes grace. "And what thou doest do quickly." of flight are insuperably barred. You Put not the question of heaven or hell, are too deeply and personally implicated bliss or misery, salvation or destruction, in this matter ever to retract. You are one hour longer in quarantine, but bring shut up, and all your destinies, spiritual it to a summary and solemn bearing. and eternal, are concentrated within this Give in, this very instant, your submission narrow verge. Escape is impossible; you to the overtures of reconciliation and are hemmed in on every side, and your peace; expedite your escape to the broad last retreat is cut off. Either, then, you and imperishable Rock of Ages, that rears must immediately, and on the spot, sur- its head aloft, far above the surrounding render at discretion to the proposals of surges, for the protection and security of amnesty and tenderest clemency; consent exposed, shipwrecked sinners. Return like to be pardoned and redeemed, to reign in the dove, after wandering over the face of life, to flourish in renown, and to be the earth, seeking rest and finding none, crowned with endless felicity; or to be to the ark of your salvation. Throw condemned as renegades, taken with the yourselves into the everlasting and outweapons of rebellion in their hands, and stretched arms of the once suffering and adjudged to never-ending shame and slain, but now the ascended and life-giving punishment. And let the truth be branded Redeemer, who is beseeching you by all into your inmost heart, that at whatever the pains and agonies he ever bore for you, conclusion you arrive in this case, and by all the immortal hopes he has built for whether you make your option this day or you-by all the overflowing compassions not, the circumstance will assuredly not he has manifested for you, and by the ten prevent the transit of this day into the thousand claims which he has established womb of the past. However lightly you upon your admiration, confidence, and may hold, and however wantonly you obedience, that ye come to him, that ye may riot away, the successive winged may be justified, renovated, and glorified. hours of this poor mortal span, the loss of And let the trumpet of gospel mercy, each hour is an important abstraction from as it vibrates with thrilling transport the scanty remnant of a most fragile through your frame, be cordially and and fugitive life. Your hesitancy and joyfully responded to; and let its tenders delay will not retard for one moment of love, and oblivion of all guilt, be the sun, which has mounted the heavens more grateful to you, than the proclamathis morning, from going down at his tion of life to the condemned malefactor appointed time; your dreaming and yawn- on the scaffold; its purifying and refreshing away of this brief term of grace will ing fountains, more welcome than streams not preclude its rushing to its conclusion in the desert to the parched and proswith equal and portentous speed; even if trate caravan; and the discovery of its the very existence and happiness of the splendid heritage of rest and glory, more whole universe were suspended on the delightful to your eyes, than the sight of phenomenon, the shadow upon the dial- harbour to the sea-sick and tempest-beaten THE OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIANS TO INTEREST THEMSELVES IN THE PRESENT A Sermon preached in behalf of the Edinburgh Young Men's Society on Sunday, 30th Dec., 1832, (ABRIDGED.) "Am I my brother's keeper?"-GEN. iv. 9. THERE is nothing of which men, even of hope, mar every tone of harmony within with the light of revelation, have formed the limits of creation; it would dethrone so false and so defective an estimate as the Supreme Ruler, and establish malignity sin. The definition of sin is indeed short and anarchy. This is not speculation. and simple-"the transgression of the We appeal to the visible and palpable divine law"-words which, though men consequences of sin that come within the can repeat and hear with unbroken tran- observation and experience of every one. quillity of mind, and undisturbed repose of Look to the constitution and course of the feeling, are felt, by all who have any just material world, and contrast the present conceptions of the divine character and system of things with the fair machine government, to be of tremendous import. as it came from the hand of its divine Various are the principles by which we author. Look to Paradise, the home of may estimate the malignity and demerit our first parents, and in what fair and of sin. How dark and revolting does it immortal charms was nature there arrayed? appear when His character is considered, There never did the bloom disappear on of whose law it is the violation! He the approach of winter; the soft breath whose will the sinner tramples under foot is of perpetual spring was never disturbed infinitely the greatest and best of beings, by the agitation of the storm. No marvel necessarily possessed of every perfection, that there nature should shine in her fairest of all that can command our admiration and most attractive charms, for there sin or secure our love, the fountain of all had not shed its polluting influence. Now, that is good and fair in the moral and the contrast this scene with any that now material universe; for what is all that we surrounds you. Where can you turn admire in nature and in man, but an without seeing inanimate nature groaning emanation from Him who is their uncreated and travelling in pain under the curse source-all is the result of his transcen- of the Almighty-the earth dreary by Ident excellence. How strikingly the winter's desolation, broken and deformed deformity of sin appears when we consider by the earthquake, scorched by the thunderthe relation in which the human being bolt, and scathed by the volcano. Look at stands to his Creator and Benefactor! for the effect of sin on the character of man has not the Being who forms, sustains, as a moral being. Look at that fair and upholds him, a right to his love and character in Paradise, reflecting in every obedience? Must not that be odious, in faculty and affection, and in almost every every sense, which is an insolent rejection feature, the image of his Maker. Look at of the authority, and violation of the will, him, again, when he had become subject of him who is his bountiful and indulgent to sin, and how awful the change! And parent, whose whole conduct towards him how soon did the plant of depravity, in the is a melting illustration of the infinite bosom of fallen man, reach its maturity, benignity of his nature? The odious and yield its bitter fruits! How soon did nature of sin appears also when we view murder, in its most hideous form appear! it in relation to the law itself, of which Cain rising up against his brother Abel it is the transgression, which is itself and putting him to death-for what? essentially true, and is just the shortest Because his own works were wicked, way in which the Supreme Ruler could tell while those of his brother Abel were his offspring how they could be happy; righteous. The atrocious offender was for happiness and obedience to the law summoned into the presence of his God, are bound together as by an adamantine probably on the Sabbath after the perchain. How strikingly, too, the infinite petration of the crime, and the question malignity of sin appears in the amount of was put to him, "Where is Abel, thy misery and mischief which, if unchecked brother?" With hardened indifference by a superior power, it would produce in to the authority, and omnipotence, and the universe. It would poison every omniscience of Jehovah, he retorted, source of happiness, blight every blossom I my brother's keeper?" The question "Am of the Almighty, and the answer of Cain, to extend. This the parable of the good imply, I apprehend, the following impor- Samaritan shows, in which our Lord so tant principles: first, That every human beautifully replied to the question, Who is being is bound, by the most powerful my neighbour? It matters not who the considerations, to interest himself in the person is brother, neighbour, stranger, present and future well-being of all around or enemy-the obligation to the duty is him; second, That every human being has the same; the spirit of the precept remains means and opportunities, less or more unaffected by any peculiarity in the object available, for the discharge of this duty; of our benevolent regard, in urging us to and, finally, That, in the improvement of do good to all, as God may give us opporour youth, for these means and oppor- | tunity. By a regard to this duty, every tunities every one must give an account genuine Christian is in a greater or less to God. That an enlightened regard to the spiritual and eternal interests of others, is recognised as a duty by nature and revelation, none of you, I trust, is disposed to question. You have only to look into the law, written by the finger of God, to know, that six out of the ten requirements are based upon this very principle. That this is the principle into which the requirements of the second table are resolvable, is attested by God himself, who tells us that the law is summed up in sincere love to God, and active love to man. The spirit of that requirement, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," is diffused through the whole of revelation, and is exemplified in the life of the faithful in every age. If we have any just conceptions of the nature of the divine law, especially as it is exhibited in the Gospel, we will feel, that, in a great degree, every one of us is his brother's keeper; that in a most important sense, we are intrusted with the interests of all who are within the sphere of our influence, in whatever form, or by whatever means, our interest may be extended to them; and that we are bound to take a deep, lively, and sincere interest in the spiritual and eternal well-being of those around us. For this we must consult and provide by all the resources within our reach; and to the accomplishment of this, we must devote ourselves with all the zeal, activity, and perseverance which a profound sense of our duty requires. He who denies this, professes himself a stranger to that blessed temper in relation to others, which it is the grand aim and design of the Gospel to form in all who believe. Nor must this interest in the well-being of others be confined to the narrow circle of relatives and friends. No! They have the first and highest claim upon our affection; yet within the boundaries of this circle it must not terminate, but embrace all to degree distinguished. It may be less developed in genuine Christians than we could wish; but wherever godliness is found, there will also be found a portion of it. It is to this we owe the benevolent institutions which are the glory of our country, and which throw their refreshing influence over the parched wastes of agony and wo. How different is the world-contracted, selfish, and reckless of the misery of others, inasmuch as it does not regard the sufferings it may produce, provided its own imagined interests are secured! Need I say of the person whom a cold and heartless selfishness has severed and withdrawn from his fellow-men, freezing every sympathy, which even the instincts of humanity might have awakened in his bosom, that the language of his heart is, "Am I my brother's keeper ?" Turn we from this revolting character to the affecting considerations, by which every child of Adam is urged to interest himself in the well-being of all around him. shall not now refer you to the general good-to the great and lasting advantages that would result to society universally, were all its members acting on benevolent principles, and promoting the well-being of others. I pass to those sublime motives which should actuate the Christian-the charity of God, and the example of the Saviour The moment you admit that an enlightened regard to the spiritual and eternal interests of others is recognised and enjoined by the divine law, not only revealed in the Gospel, but confirmed and enforced by many additional motives, that moment are you constrained to the discharge of this duty by all the considerations of divine authority-considerations which, in all rational and religious minds, will be quite decisive as to the mode that is to be pursued. The example of the Saviour is extremely touching. Where is there a word or action during his whole history that has Was not the sublimest benevolence, in union with perfect piety, the very soul of his character? Did he not breathe, and live, and suffer, and die for others; and is he not at this moment appearing in the presence of God, not for himself, but for us? Can the Christian contemplate this sublime manifestation of the highest benevolence, without feeling the force of the glorious example, and being constrained to cultivate and exemplify the same blessed temper? But this brings me to the second division of the discourse-That all are furnished with means and opportunities less or more available for the discharge of this duty. This duty, as enjoined on human beings, presupposes many evils to be removed, many wants to be supplied, much suffering to be mitigated and relieved. The benevolent principle must embody itself in anxious solicitude, in judicious arrangement, in painful and persevering exertion, in much self-denial in the cause of others, ere their real interests can be effectually promoted. And where is the individual to whom God has not, in some degree, imparted the means of promoting this great end? Is it the heathen who are to be enlightened abroad, or the ignorant who are to be instructed at home? Who may not do something to effect this? Do not the treasuries of the Bible, and Missionary, and Tract Societies, lie open to receive the least contribution that even poverty may spare? And how many have it in their power to become personal instructors of the ignorant, by conducting Sabbath schools, or by circulating tracts? How many are there in this opulent city who have it in their power to search out the retreat of virtuous poverty, and minister to its wants by private bounty? Are the afflicted to be solaced? Where is the man that may not enter the chamber of the sick?-where is the person that may not pour the balm of consolation into the wounded spirit? Is it the rich, whom profligacy has reduced to the very lowest stage of depravity, destitution, and misery, who is to be reclaimed? Even he is not to be left forsaken; for though there are who may shrink from such characters, they have only to lend their aid to the refuge of the destitute, and their purpose of love may be effectually secured. When the disposition to do good exists, marvellous is the power of devising new modes of benevolence. Can I point to a more beautiful illustration of this remark than to the Young Men's Society? One would have thought that the field of benevolent enterprise had been completely preoccu pied. But no. The young men here, and elsewhere, feeling the importance of per sonal virtue, and knowledge, and improvement, and fully persuaded of the necessity of adopting some system of intellectual and moral training, and convinced of the advantages that would result from union and co-operation, have formed themselves into an association for these enlightened and laudable purposes. Nor is this the only, or even the more important, object at which they aim. Perceiving the danger to which young men are often exposed when withdrawn, in the pursuit of business or education, from parental direction and control, and exposed, it may be, to the contagion of bad example, they have constructed their Society so as to bring, by all prudent means, within its hallowed bounds these young men, that they may be saved from the evil, perhaps from the perdition, to which the force of fashion or the power of temptation might hurry them, and be rendered in future life not only useful, but ornamental to society. A nobler aim, I hesitate not to say, the most enlightened Christian philanthropist could not propose to himself. I honour from my soul these young men. They are, in a most impressive sense, their brother's keeper, and the eternal well-being of all within their reach is in a manner intrusted to their care. Having glanced at the character of this Society, may I not be permitted to ask, Is it not the duty of all to lend it their countenance and aid? Let an enlightened public see to it, that amid the various claims presented to them, many of them seasonable and urgent, the Young Men's Society be not overlooked. To give effect to any institution, funds are in some degree necessary, and who are to supply these but a benevolent and discerning public? GLASGOW:-W. R. M'PHUN, PUBLISHER, 86, TRONGATE, To whom all Communications should be addressed. KDWARD KHULL, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY. No. 43. SCOTTISH PULPIT. SATURDAY, 19TH JANUARY, 1833. SERMON by the Rev. JOHN ROXBUrgh, A.M. Price 21. THE ANNUAL SERMON AGAINST THE ERRORS AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME; PREACHED IN THE TRON CHURCH, GLASGOW, ON NOVEMBER 2, 1832, By the Rev. JOHN ROXBURGH, A.M. "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts."-2 Peter i. 19. In order to that peace and unity which Christ bequeathed to his Church, and which all Christians expect ultimately to prevail, it is necessary that there exist some rule of faith and manners; nor can the diversity of sentiments that obtains amongst us ever terminate, and all men become of one mind and one way, till it be determined who is the Judge of controversies. Thus, the first means to be adopted in order to put a stop to growing errors, is to settle what is the standard of truth. This inquiry must take precedence of every other. As travellers, also, to a future world, where we hope to inherit eternal life, it is indispensable, to sustain our faith and patience by the way, as well as to the attainment of our ultimate object, that we should possess an unerring guide, in whom we may repose implicit confidence, to direct us in our pilgrimage-that, amid the clouds and darkness which at present Surround us, we should have some sure word of prophecy, to which we may do well to give heed, till its light is quenched and its assistance rendered unnecessary by the dawning of the eternal morning, and we can salute the rise of the day-star in the distant horizon. It being admitted, then, by both parties on the Roman controversy, that, in order to the harmony of the Church on earth, and the attainment of salvation hereafter, some rule of faith is necessary, it is agreed that such a rule exists somewhere, and also that it is sufficient to answer all the And, ends designed by it. But when we come to inquire what that rule is, we find them widely at variance; and it is with the view of considering on which side the truth lies, that we have selected the text we have just made,-not, you will observe, for the purpose of exposition or illustration, but because we humbly conceive that it strikingly describes the certainty and authority of that standard to which we confine ourselves, compared with the dark and devious paths into which the members of the Latin Church have been led by those supplements which they have framed to supply its imagined defects. while in such a discussion, we would seek, as our first aim, the promotion of these great and fundamental principles on which we hold all pure and undefiled religion to be based, we would study to maintain a spirit of kindness toward those from whom we differ, and a respectful deference to their opinions and judgment. Truth needs not the aid of raillery or bitter invective in order to win its way to the understanding and heart; and as a disposition to indulge in these is particularly apt to be generated by an examination of the artifices which the Roman priesthood have employed to delude their votaries, it is the more necessary to guard against an inclination so natural. For it will be allowed by all, that the state of mind produced by a violent and irritating assault on long cherished errors, is not that in which we are most ready to adopt the opposite truths; and that even confutation the |