danger, that we are in agony to obtain the pardoning, fructifying, satisfying and delivering mercy of God-then we cannot rest till we take hold of God and prevail.

If we would take hold of God, we must stir up ourselves and be more diligent in the use of the public and social means of grace. How can we expect God to manifest himself unto us, to come unto us and make his abode with us, if we seldom attend the social means of grace, and are frequently absent from "the place where his honour dwelleth ?" Christ has promised to meet us "wherever two or three are gathered together in" his "name." Jehovah says, "In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." But how can we expect to take hold of God if we forsake "the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is?" Then, certainly, we are not in the place where Christ has promised to meet us. Or if we neglect the public worship of God, saying, in effect, "It is vain to serve God," we are not where God has promised to come unto his people and bless them therefore it is not likely that we can take hold of God. The Holy Spirit quickens men by his word, by his ordinances, by the prayers and conversations of his people. We are altogether out of the way of being stirred up "to take hold of God" when we neglect the public and social means of grace. The means of grace, when rightly used, will ever have a tendency to quicken us in our pursuit of God and godliness. Stir up yourselves to attend the means of grace, and then there will be some probability of your being stirred up to take hold of God; but if you will frequently neglect these means, know of a surety that God will forsake you utterly and cast you off for ever.

If we would "take hold of God," we must stir up ourselves and "lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us." Worldly cares and besetting sins are weights too heavy for the soul to bear in its wrestlings with God; and ever will prevent us from prevailing with him. Jacob, before he wrestled with the angel and prevailed, prepared and sent forth a princely present to his brother Esau, whom he had deeply injured by depriving him of his birthright in his extremity, and by fraud, at his mother's suggestion, robbing Esau of his father's blessing: he, moreover, sent over the brook all that he had: "And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." Then, with tears and supplications, which lasted till the breaking of the day, he wrestled with God and prevailed. He obtained a new nature and a new name. We must go and do likewise. While our hearts are overcharged with the cares of this life-while we indulge some secret sin-or while we refuse to make all the reparation in our power to any we have injured, we cannot "take hold of God." In such circumstances our consciences upbraid us, our affections remain cold, hard and dead to everything good, our thoughts are distracted, our determinations for God will be very weak: and hence, in our efforts to obtain God we shall be as unstable as water, and shall never be able to pray the prayer of faith, which takes hold of God and secures his blessing.

If we would "take hold of God," we must cease to be triflers with religion, and make it our "chief concern"-our great business. We must believe, with all our hearts, that time is nothing-eternity everything. We must be fully persuaded that we have more to do with God than with all besides, not excepting our own families. We must be convinced that God's smile is life-that his frown is death. In a word,

we must come to the conclusion, that it really will profit us nothing if we gain the whole world and lose our own souls-that we have but “ a point of time, a moment's space," to prepare for endless bliss or we never shall stir up ourselves aright "to take hold of God." Until these sentiments permanently occupy a place in our hearts we shall be mere triflers in religion. We may occasionally call upon God's name, but we shall never stir up ourselves to take hold, and keep hold, of God.

This is

Oh, the importance of our taking hold of God! Upon this depend our wisdom and holiness, our usefulness and joy in time, and our glory and bliss in eternity. Yet there are many, even among Christians, who do not stir themselves up to take hold of God. Bad as the Church is, generally speaking, it is in a much better state than it was in Isaiah's day. He said, "There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee." We are not in so deplorable a state now. Many now call upon the name of the Lord sincerely and daily, and some even stir themselves to "take hold of God," do get hold of God, and will not yield their grasp. In answer to their prayers Jehovah blesses them abundantly and makes them a blessing; for out of their hearts flow "rivers of living water," which refresh, and cleanse and fructify many of the famishing, polluted and barren children of men. It is delightful to come in contact with such Christians. They are the glory of Christ, an honour to themselves, a blessing to the Church and the world. May the blessed God greatly and speedily increase their number! But alas! many professing Christians, though they call upon God's name, do not stir up themselves to "take hold of God." evident from the absence of fervour and importunity in their prayers. They pray, but where is the wrestling, pleading, agonizing spirit of prayer which takes hold of God, and will not let him go except he bless? The man that stirs up himself to "take hold of God" cannot and will not be satisfied until he feels his prayers have power with God and prevail. Instead of desisting before he secures the blessing he prays for, he wrestles on till his suit is gained. So it was with Jacob; so it is with all who stir up themselves to "take hold of God." That many do not stir up themselves to "take hold of God" is evident from their constant complainings. They are ever complaining of the littleness of their light, their faith, their purity, their love, their zeal, their joyconstantly crying, "My leanness, my leanness !" Why is this? "Ŏ thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to them that walk uprightly?" The fault is not God's. We are straitened in ourselves. Our sins withhold good things from us. There is a fulness of grace and truth in Christ, and out of that fulness we may all receive, and grace upon grace. We are commanded to "be filled with the Spirit." God "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us?" Why, then, are some Christians so lean in their souls? Surely because they do not stir up themselves to 'take hold of God." That many do not stir up themselves to "take hold of God," is evident from the little good they accomplish. They do little to encourage their fellow-Christians to go forward-they accomplish but little spiritual good for their own families-and hardly ever think of attempting the conversion of their ungodly acquaintances and neighbours. They are so weak in grace that they can seldom summon up courage enough to reprove the openly profane, or even to ask a neighbour who

is living in utter forgetfulness of God to accompany them to a place of worship. Surely all such are not stirring up themselves to "take hold of God." We need say no more on this point. We are all too well acquainted with the fact that many who call themselves Christians, and who would be sadly offended if others did not call them so too, are not found stirring up themselves to" take hold of God."

We should immediately stir up ourselves to take hold of God to prevent him from departing from us. If God depart from us, darkness, desolation and death will overspread our souls. We shall lose all that we have wrought, again become "children of wrath, even as others," heirs of perdition, and our last state will be worse than the first. Have not some of us too much reason to fear this? Have we not, by our worldly-mindedness, by our negligent performance of religious duties, by our non-enjoyment of religious privileges, by our apathy in God's cause, by our unconcern for the glory of God and the salvation of men, and by grieving the Holy Spirit of God through not attending to his monitions, provoked God to depart from us? Is he not crying to some of us as he did to Jerusalem of old, "Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem! lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee a desolate land not inhabited!" Oh, there is great need for us to stir up ourselves to "take hold of God" lest he depart from us. We ought instantly to cry, "Leave us not, O Lord!" and, while we thus pray, we should instantly put away all evil from us that he may continue to abide with us. Some, indeed, have need to stir up themselves to bring God back to their hearts; for he has already departed. They have forsaken God and he has forsaken them. He has withdrawn the Comforter from their souls; they are now without light, without love, without peace, without hope; they are "going down to the pit." Surely it behoves such to stir up themselves to "take hold of God," or they will shortly be "cast into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

We should immediately stir up ourselves to take hold of God for the sake of the Church and the world. It is our duty to pray for the peace and prosperity of the Church. We may have peace in our borders, but, oh, we want prosperity in our palaces! We have but little prosperity; we sce few sinners converted, few backsliders reclaimed, few people added to the Lord. Before we can see great prosperity in our Churches we must all of us stir up ourselves to "take hold of God." We must plead with God for this specific object. We must get into the spirit in which Isaiah was when he cried, "For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth." If ever there was a time in the world's history when it was needful for the Church of God to "look forth as the morning, fair as the noon, clear as the sun and terrible as an army with banners,' it is now. Never has there been such a commotion between truth and error, light and darkness, Christ and Belial, since the world stood as The trumpet calls to war: "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion! put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem!" Stir up thyself and take hold of God that thou mayest vanquish all the powers of darkWe live in eventful times. Changes have of late taken place among the nations of the earth with the rapidity of lightning. During the last few years the Papal nations, on the continent of Europe, have been convulsed from their centres to their circumferences. The head of

now.

ness.

the great apostacy has been driven from his throne; has wandered as an exile, his power broken, his glory departed; and, for a period, the followers of Christ, the friends of humanity, the lovers of civil and religious liberty, were looking forward to the complete and speedy emancipation of the human race from the chains of darkness and misery in which Antichrist has for ages held the miserable devotees of the Papacy. But our ardent anticipations, our high and fondly-cherished hopes, have for the present been deferred, if not blighted. The Pope has been brought back to Rome, forced upon Italy, and is supported and protected on his throne by a nation that has ever been fighting for liberty, but has never attained the desired good. Since his return to the seven hills he has turned his special attention to England, the land of the brave and the free, the noble and the good; and in the excess of his zeal has sought our conversion from light to darkness, from Christ to Antichrist, from God to Satan. He has furnished us with Jesuits, with bishops, with archbishops, and even with a cardinal, to secure our conversion; but he has failed. Our statesmen, our lawyers, our preachers and our press-men, have all resisted the encroachment. Our gentry, our middle-classes, and even the masses of our mechanics and labourers, have been unequivocal evidence of a determination to resist even unto blood, if need be, the designs of the arch-impostor "who exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." Popery has yet to be overthrown. Our public men are arming themselves for the contest. In many of our cities and towns skirmishes have already taken place. We have had specious lectures in favour of Romanism; and counter-lectures, full of solid arguments, honest indignation, keen satire and mirthful ridicule. But, alas! we have witnessed at these public lectures the want of that reliance upon God which alone can secure the victory. At all the Protestant lectures we have attended prayer has been omitted, God has not been acknowledged, his assistance and blessing have not been implored, the people have not been urged to stir up themselves "to take hold of God." Therefore we have reason to fear that Popery will remain unimpaired in vigour till a better state of things obtain among the professed followers of Christ. Until they acknowledge God in all their ways, and stir up themselves to "take hold of God," Popery will not be destroyed; for this gigantic system of evil, this mighty rival of Christ, "the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." From what we have witnessed we fear that the majority of the would-be destroyers of Popery have yet to learn the truth taught us by Zechariah in these words, "Not by might," (or an army) "nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it." When the people of God cease to trust in an arm of flesh for deliverance from Popery, when they stir up themselves, one and all, “to take hold of God" and bring the infinite wisdom, power, and resources of the Godhead to bear upon this mountain of iniquity, then it will speedily become a plain; and the joyous cry will be heard, "Babylon the great is fallen-is fallen! Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her."

Atheism, Deism and Socialism, we believe, are on the wane amongst us; but we are told by high authority that, "The transcendental phi

losophy prevalent in Germany has extended its influence to Britain. According to the testimony of the most competent witnesses, the writ ings of its advocates-Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel- having found a place in many of our public libraries, are eagerly read by great numbers of our youth, among whom are some of the most active minds, and are exerting in some cases a pernicious influence-an influence which is enlarged in extent and augmented in power by lectures delivered in our public institutions, in which the doctrines of that philosophy are either openly or more covertly inculcated." Pantheism is its prominent feature. It teaches that "God and nature are identical. There exists one substance only, though under diversified appearances, and that substance is God; that is, God is not properly the producer and sustainer of nature, but he is nature; the universe is not properly his work, but merely a modification of his being a form under which he exists." This miserable system leaves us without a personal God to love and fear, adore and serve. It destroys-as the Rev. Thomas Allin, from whom we have quoted above, clearly shows, in his preface to the second edition of his invaluable work on "Modern Atheism," &c.--it destroys all individuality, all moral responsibility, and opens the way for idolatry under every conceivable form. There is need, therefore, for the saints to stir up themselves to "take hold of God," that they may be prepared to withstand this subtle system of error; that they may ever have "the witness in themselves" of the personal existence of the one living and true God, and be prepared, by the full enjoyment of the grace of Christ, of the love of God and of the communion of the Holy Ghost, to speak of God and for God with "a mouth and wisdom which all" the "adversaries" of truth "shall not be able to gainsay nor resist."

On every hand, too, iniquity abounds. Ungodliness in every form is rampant. Men have other gods beside Jehovah. Graven images and imaginary deities are adored and served. God's holy name is blasphemed. His Sabbaths are broken. Disobedience to parents is prevalent. Murders are frequent. Adultery is practised. Theft is common. False witnesses are numerous. Covetousness is well-nigh universal. But how few "sigh and cry for the abominations that are done in the land!" How few can say with the Psalmist, "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. Horror hath taken hold of me because of the wicked that forsake thy law!" How few can fully sympathize with Jeremiah when he cried, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people;" or with Christ who, "when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thy eyes."

The things which belong to the present and eternal peace of our fellow-men are not yet hid from the eyes of the living. The members of the Church, by vigorous effort, may yet enlighten, purify, and save millions, if they would only "call upon the name of the Lord," and stir up themselves "to take hold of God." We must, if we would benefit our fellows, cease from man and look to God; we must trust, not in an arm of flesh, but in the living God, who is the saviour of all men. There must be attained by the professors of religion a loftier elevation of character, a more enlightened, sincere, ardent, active piety than what