Christian warrior with this powerful enemy. He is only safe by looking to Jesus, by waiting on him, by cleaving to him, by sitting at his feet, by watching unto prayer. The pathway to glory is full of perils, and he who is taught by experience the wiles and subtlety of his powerful adversary will learn to trust only in the Lord, to wait only upon his God. Thus the Christian, in his pilgrimage on earth, will best apprehend invisible and eternal things by adopting as his daily rule the language of the Psalmist, "On Thee do I wait all the day." F. S. G. Tiverton, August. doubtful whether he would not oppose the plan, and gave this as a reason, "He delights to be contrary." I had known him well and long, and a more correct description of the man, in so few words, could not be given. Often, since that time, have I thought of the remark, and of the singular satisfaction one must have from such a source. What a peculiar taste a man must have, especially a Christian man, who finds his delight in being contrary! Good men may differ among themselves in judgment about certain plans or measures proposed for adoption; may differ sometimes from their brethren in the church, and express their opinions kindly, yet decidedly; “HE DELIGHTS TO BE CON- and we may honour them for doing TRARY." so. They are honest and conscientious, and their opinions, though differing from ours, are entitled to consideration and respect. But I have noticed that such persons seem always to be grieved to find themselves differing from their brethren. It is productive of sorrow rather than delight; and, unless some principle is involved, they are ready to waive all objections they have, and find delight in coinciding with others. So said a lady not long ago, when speaking to me of one with whom we were mutually acquainted. It was not a case of slander, in any sense, but a statement bearing directly upon an important question under discussion, pertaining to the interests of Zion; and what makes the remark more strange is the fact that it was made in respect to a person who is a member of a Christian church, and who professes to learn of Him who is "meek and lowly in But the man to whom I have reheart." The subject under discus-ferred delighted to be contrary. It sion at the time was what a certain church would probably do in regard to a benevolent enterprise which had been proposed; and in looking over the list of members, and forming an opinion in respect to what might be expected of them individually, we came to the name of this man. My friend hesitated, and said it was was not with him a difference of opinion growing out of the decisions of his own judgment, nor a matter of principle, but something pertaining to his very nature; if not that, it is the result of a long cherished and deeply rooted habit. Whether he descended from Ishmael, of whom it was predicted, "his hand shall be against every man, and every man's same propensities which are the against him," I cannot tell; but cause of our errors make us very certain it is that he rarely agrees adroit in concealing them from ourwith others in opinion, and when he selves and the world. Self-love does, he seems to be uneasy and would be overwhelmed with shame dissatisfied. Even projects of his and vexation if compelled to recogown proposing he would be tired of nize itself. When we detect it lurksoon if others favoured those pro- ing in some obscure recess, we enjects. I really believe the man deavour to comfort ourselves by never was happy when his views placing it in a point of view which corresponded with the views of conceals its deformity. So long as others. And how he could read the there are any remains of self-love, passage, “Behold, how good and we shall not cease to form false how pleasant it is for brethren to estimates. The love of self must be dwell together in unity," and believe destroyed, and love to God imit inspired, I never could conceive. planted in our hearts, before we can see ourselves as we really are. Then the same principle which exhibits our faults will become their remedy. Until then, we know ourselves but in part, because we have not given ourselves entirely to God, but are still fulfilling our own will to a greater extent than we believe, or are willing to discern. When we are filled with the Spirit of truth, our perceptions will be just; and, loving ourselves from a purer principle, we shall judge our own conduct in a manner as disinterested and candid as we now employ towards our neighbour. In the meantime, God is compassionate to our weakness, and exhibits to us our deformities only as we have strength to bear the sight. He shows us our defects one by one, as he requires that they should be subdued and amended. Without this merciful arrangement, which gives us strength in proportion to light, the view of our guilt would drive us to despair. But the influence of such a man in a church is most trying and mischievous. The religious effect of many a church meeting, that otherwise would be pleasant, is destroyed, for his objections to what is introduced are not founded upon reason, or made with a Christian spirit, but for the most part are mere whims, and presented in an unamiable manner. I hope other churches have no such among their members. If they have, I hereby extend to them my heartfelt sympathy. I do not expect Christians to be perfect in all respects, and have much charity for their imperfections. Upon the whole, I can get along peaceably with those who have only the ordinary frailties of our humanity, but I pray that I may not have any church connection with one who delights to be contrary. Z. PATIENCE TOWARDS THE FAILINGS OF OTHERS. We can never, on account of our imperfections, obtain a complete knowledge of our own hearts. The Those who are the guides of others should point out their defects only as God prepares the way. We must be patient towards their faults, and solicit the co-operation of the Holy Spirit in correcting them. We must imitate the dealings of God, whose rebukes are so gentle that the individual supposes that his own heart is his accuser. When we administer reproof impatiently, because we are irritated by the imperfections of men, we act from the critical spirit of the world, and not from the spirit of grace. Imperfection cannot endure to see others imperfect, and self-love makes us penetrating and shrewd in detecting the same feeling in our fellow-men. The more it predominates, the more severe are our judgments. When we are the sport of our own passions, those of other men become insupportable. Christian charity, on the contrary, makes every allowance, and is patient, considerate, condescending, and willing to accommodate itself to all. The less regard we have to ourselves, the more compassionate we are to the failings of others, and the more gentle in correcting them. Love, when compelled to use the knife, pours oil upon the wound, and never ventures on an operation unless sure that it is perfectly safe for the patient. It is willing to wait for years, until the Spirit and providences of God prepare the way for a necessary reproof. It does not gather the fruit until it is fully ripe. F. LIFE A PROBATION. LIFE all of life, except unconscious infancy, the ravings of delirium, the stupefactions of disease, when the mental powers refuse to per form their office, and perhaps some forms of old age, second infancy, when there is no memory, no judgment, or sense-is a season of probation for eternity. It has indeed other objects, for there are duties growing out of our relations here; and, if man is to be himself the expounder of the design for which he lives, it has many other objects, and probation is the least and the last. But whatever other objects there may be for which man is to live, he is in all things a candidate for another world, and all other things are to be subordinate to that. He is here with reference to a changeless state of being. He lives and acts for that, whether he is conscious of it or cares about it or not. Each word, thought, deed, sends on an influence beyond the present life; the account is closed at the end of each year, nay, each moment; and he will meet everything which he has done, registered with unerring accuracy, the moment he crosses the line which divides one world from another. If this be so, then a single month of human existence has an importance which is not attached to it by the great body of men, for the results of conduct during one month may be multiplied beyond our power of computing now, into the joys or sorrows of eternity; and if this be so, then the fact that a single month is wasted, or, which is the same thing, mis-improved, in regard to this great purpose of being, has an importance which claims the attention of every traveller to another world. To the great mass of mankind, it is a sad fact that the month which has just now passed has been thus a wasted month in regard to the great purpose for which God sent them into the world. They may have improved it for other purposes, but not for this. They may have gained much, but they have secured nothing of that purity of heart without which no one shall see God. They may have won many conquests, but they have secured no victory over the "lusts which war against the soul." Nay, to human view, so far from making advance in preparation for heaven, they are receding while life wears away. At the close of the month, they were, so far as we can see, less likely to be saved than they were at the beginning. They had less tenderness of feeling, less susceptibility of impression, less disposition to attend to religion, less respect for the Gospel; and they were more under the dominion of worldliness and sinful affections, more engrossed in the cares of life, more proud and unteachable, more tenacious of their opinions, more under the influence of companions and associates who cause to err," and who lead the soul away from God. MONITOR. 66 THE LAMB OF GOD. THE most significant and remarkable type introduced into the Divine ordinances, as well as into Israel's history and ritual, was the lamb. It even meets us at the threshold of Paradise in the sacrifice of Abel, as an object particularly acceptable in the sight of God. Later on, the lamb with its blood consecrates the commencement of the history of the Israelites. The sprinkling of the doorposts with the blood of lambs was the means of Israel's preservation in Egypt from the sword of the destroying Angel, and the departure of the people from Pharaoh's house of bondage. From that time the lamb continued to be the most prominent figure by which God typified the future Messiah to the children of Abraham. Henceforward it acquired an abiding place in Israel's sacrificial rites in general, and in the yearly passover in particular. In the latter, each house was enjoined by the Mosaic law to bring a male lamb, without blemish or infirmity, to the sanctuary, there solemnly confess their transgressions over it, then bring it typically burdened with their sins to the court of the temple to be slain; and after it was roasted, consume it entirely, in festive communion, with joy and thanksgiving to Jehovah. That which was prophetically typical in this ceremony was so apparent, that even the most sinful mind could not mistake it. Every one who was only partially susceptible of that which was divinely symbolical, felt impressed with the idea that this Divine ordinance could have no other aim than to keep alive in Israel, along with the remembrance of the promised Deliverer, confidence and hope in him. John the Baptist appears in the wilderness; and the first greeting with which he welcomes Jesus, which was renewed whenever he saw him, is, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" thereby directing the attention of the whole world to Jesus, as if there were thenceforward no and shrieks and shouts, hung out their signals of distress-very long before this, God had been calling an impenitent world to repentance. Had they no warning in Noah's preaching? Was there nothing to alarm them in the very sight of the ark as storey rose upon storey; and nothing in the sound of those cease thing else worth seeing in heaven or on earth than this Lamb of God; and by so doing he certainly directs us to the greatest and most beautifying of all mysteries, and to the pith and marrow of the entire Gospel. For if Christ had been only the "Lion of the tribe of Judah," and not at the same time "the Lamb," what would it have availed | less hammers to waken all but the us? As "the Lamb," he is the desire of all nations, the Star of hope to the exiles from Eden, the Sun of righteousness in the night of sorrow to those whom the law condemns, and the heavenly Lamp to the wanderer in the gloomy isle of death. EXPOSITOR. dead? It was not till mercy's arm grew weary ringing the warning bell, that God "poured out his fury' on them. I appeal to the story of this awful judgment. True, for forty days it rained incessantly, and for one hundred and fifty days more "the waters prevailed on the earth;" but, while the period of God's justice is reckoned by days, the period of his long-suffering was drawn out into years; and there was a truce of one hundred and twenty years between the first stroke of the bell and the first crash of the thunder. Noah grew grey preaching repentance. The ark stood useless for years, a huge laughing-stock for the scoffer's GOD'S LONG-SUFFERING. WERE there but eight, only eight, saved? There were thousands, millions sought. Nor is it justice to God to forget how long a period of patience, and preaching, and warning, and compassion, preceded that dreadful deluge. Long before the lightning flashed from the angry hea-wit; it stood till it was covered with vens; long before thunders rolled along dissolving skies; long before the clouds rained down death; long before the floor and solid pavement of this earth, under the prodigious agencies at work, broke up, like the deck of a leaking ship, and the waters rushed from below, to meet the waters from above, and sink a guilty world; long before the time when the ark floated away by tower and town, and those crowded hilltops, where frantic groups had clustered, and amid prayers and curses, the marks of age, and its builders with the contempt of the world; and many a sneer had those men to bear as, pointing to the serene heavens above, and an empty ark below, the question was put, "Where is the promise of his coming?' Most patient God! Then, as now, thou wast slow to punish, "waiting to be gracious." Reader! how stands the matter with you? Have you received the grace? Are you now "in Christ?" 0. |