his people individually by his Holy Spirit. Paul refers to this when he says that, "when That heavenly Teacher makes plain their the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by way before them in both instances. I nature the things contained in the law, said he makes plain their way before these, having not the law, are a law unto them; but yet, while he does so, it is still themselves; which show the work of the possible for them to refuse his guidance, law written in their hearts, their conscience or to shut their eyes to it, so that they do also bearing witness, and their thoughts the not see his hand, and consequently do not meanwhile accusing or else excusing one benefit by it. The Israelites, for all that another." they had the pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, did not always follow where these led. They could not help seeing them indeed; for they were constantly before their eyes; but familiarity with them made them count them cheap; and there were times when, though God pointed in one direction, they set their faces in another. And our case is of like sort. It is true the Holy Spirit is given to us, given to the church collectively, given to Christians individually,-still it remains for us in both capacities to avail ourselves of his guidance. We may neglect to notice the hints and directions which he gives us; or, what is worse still, we may refuse to follow them, even when we cannot help seeing them; and thus we may deprive ourselves of the benefit which belongs to us. But the benefit is ours notwithstanding,-ours to use if we choose to use it, and ours, too, to rise up and condemn us if we refuse to use it. But the question occurs, and it is a very important one, How may we know God's guidance when yet we cannot see it? If he goes before us to guide us in the way wherein we should walk, and to conduct us along the road that leads to everlasting life, how may we discern his footsteps? This question I shall endeavour to answer; and it is a question which amounts to neither more nor less than this, How are we to know God's will? how are we to know the way wherein God would have us walk? God has given us various means of knowing; though still it is by the Holy Spirit's teaching that we are enabled effectually both to discern and to use those means. 1. One is the light of reason; and this we have in common with all men, whether they are Christians or not. There are many cases so plain that there needs nothing more than an ordinary share of what is called common sense to discover in what way we ought to act on this, however, I need not dwell. 2. Another is the light of conscience. Every man has that within him which, in some broad cases at least, tells him what is right, what is wrong, what course ought to be followed, what ought to be shunned. St. Still, it is too evident, that, where man has been left to himself, the light of natural conscience has invariably waxed fainter and dimmer till it has been either almost or altogether extinguished. Judging by the accounts we have of the heathens, whether of former times or of our own day, it would seem as though, for the most part, conscience had lost the whole, or almost the whole, of the little light which it originally possessed; and thus, the light which was once in them having become darkness, how great was that darkness! The apostle's account of the heathens of his day is a very deplorable account, and it tallies exactly with the statement now made. Deep and dark as was the ignorance in which they were plunged, they were themselves to blame for that ignorance: they might have known better; it was their own fault that they did not: they wilfully shut their eyes against the light; and God suffered them to keep them shut, and gave them over to the darkness they had chosen. Conscience then, natural conscience, is a guide in some measure; but it is a guide which in almost every instance men have deserted, and so lost the benefit of it, where they have had no better guide. And thus it is that it is not enough for a man to be able to say that he obeys his conscience, that he acts as his conscience directs him; conscience may herself have become perverted, and then, even though she does direct, she directs wrong. Conscience is like a clock which a man sets his watch by: if the clock is wrong, the watch which is set by it will be wrong too. A man is answerable not only for obeying his conscience, and acting as it directs, but also for keeping his con science rightly informed. The heathens, of whom St. Paul speaks in the passage just now referred to, might have said that they followed their consciences; but he says of them, notwithstanding, that they were without excuse. Their consciences had got a wrong bias; but it was their own fault that they had. 3. But have we the means of setting our consciences right, and keeping them right? Is there a sun-dial, as it were, to which we may resort, to regulate our consciences by? Yes: God has given us his word; and this word answers the same purpose to us which the pillar of the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night answered to the Israelites: it shows us the way wherein we should walk, and the path wherein we should go. If we will but keep our eyes fixed upon it, and guide and direct our footsteps by it, we cannot err. Our ears shall hear a voice proceeding from it, saying: "This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." This will keep our consciences right, and will regulate that by which we are to regulate our conduct. But yet even this will not serve us for this purpose unless we take pains to make it available; and, for our assistance and help in doing so, we have the promise of God's Holy Spirit to be given to those who ask in Christ's name, and who, while they so ask, bring honest and teachable minds, minds willing to know the truth and ready to obey the truth. Let us look into these matters more narrowly however. God's word contains, in a general way, all the great points, both of belief and of duty, which it concerns us to know, insomuch that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man to be believed or practised as of necessity to salvation. Some matters are plain upon the very surface of scripture, so plain that one would think it next to impossible for any one to mistake them; though yet, such is the deceitfulness of the human heart, men have contrived to pervert and explain away some even of the plainest, and, if not to justify themselves from the bible, at least to persuade themselves that the bible does not forbid what it does forbid. But the cause of this is not any real doubtfulness in the word of God, but their own want of truthfulness and honesty. I said that God's word contains, in a general way, all the great points both of belief and duty which it concerns us to know. It is for us to apply them to our own particular circumstances; and it is in the application of them that we stand in need of honesty and truthfulness on our own parts, and of the Holy Spirit's guidance and teaching on God's. But, where these are present, there we shall most surely be led aright, at least in all material points. God will take care that we shall not greatly err. Indeed, if we could be sure that the requisites just now mentioned were entirely present, it might be said, without qualification, that we should not err at all. What ever measure of error there is in Christians is to be ascribed to some want or deficiency in respect of these. ye The great point is that we be willing to be taught, that we be willing to know the truth. We read of persons who came to the prophet Jeremiah, and intreated him to intercede with God for them, that he would show them the way wherein they should walk, and the thing that, they should do; and they called God to witness that, whatever the answer might be, whether what they might call good or what they might call evil, still they would obey the voice of the Lord, and act accordingly. Jeremiah complied with their request, and received God's answer, and delivered it to them. But it was not an answer according to their minds; and they therefore refused to act as God directed them. Upon which the prophet was charged with the following message to them: "The Lord hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah, Go not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day. For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God; and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it. And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor anything for which he hath sent me unto you." I am afraid there was nothing singular or unusual in the course pursued by these Jews. It is still common for men to ask God to guide and direct them, when yet they seek no more than, if possible, to obtain God's sanction for the plan which they have already resolved upon. Where such is the case, they do but provoke God to leave them to themselves, and to suffer them to follow their own devices. It is incredible how much a man's course is simplified where he is enabled to keep his eye single, and to look sincerely and honestly at the will of God. "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Where this question is asked with a true heart, God will take care that he is not left in ignorance. 4. The bible, as has been said, is the prin cipal means which God uses for instructing us in his will; and by this our consciences are enlightened and our natural reason assisted. Yet to those who are really in earnest in seeking to know how God would have them walk, there is another help, though it requires to be used with great caution, lest, through the unfaithful or unskilful use of it, it mislead us instead of leading us aright,-this is the intimation of God's providence. I say it requires to be used with great caution; for no doubt it may very easily be perverted and twisted, so as to fall in with our own wishes, instead of being made an instrument for showing us | aid, and make all the other means effec the will of God. tual. And now, my brethren, do we desire God's guidance in our course, that we may be taught how we ought to walk and to please God? Then let us use these helps; and, though we have not visible tokens of the divine presence, as the Israelites had, yet we shall be directed surely all along the These rules, among others, may be of use in enabling us to employ this help: First, nothing can rightly be interpreted to be a leading of God's providence which contradicts the teaching of God's word. A man may fancy that he sees what he would call providential openings inviting him to take this course or the other. All the circum-way of our pilgrimage, and brought in safety stances in which he is placed may seem to at length to the land of heavenly rest. lead in the direction he has in view. But sup- And, even when we are not aware of God's pose that the course contemplated is a course guidance, still we may rest assured that he which he could not enter upon without neg-is guiding us notwithstanding. He will not lecting some duty which scripture enjoins, or without adopting some line of conduct which scripture forbids,-in any such case it would be plain that, whatever he might be disposed to call it, whatever it might appear to be, it could be no real leading of God's providence. God's word cannot lead in one direction and his providence in another. As a rule we may with God reason conclude, that the opening before us is of God when the circumstances which have fallen out have fallen out while we have been pursuing the path of duty with a single eye to please God and fulfil his will, when we have not turned aside or gone out of our way to care for ourselves, but have simply sought to follow where God has led. In such cases we may well believe that, whithersoever those circumstances beckon us, thither, provided that they do not lead us to act contrary to God's word, we may safely follow. These, then, are the principal guides which God has given us to direct our course through the wilderness of this world and to bring us safely to the promised land of heaven; and they are guides which will not fail us, we may rest assured, if we do not fail them and ourselves. Some of them we have in common with all men, our own reason and common sense and natural con take away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night. While we strive to serve him, while it is the desire of our souls to do his will and to be accepted of him, he will guide us, he will keep us, he will never leave us nor forsake us till he has done for us all the good pleasure of his goodness, and placed us in that region of everlasting rest, where there is no possi bility of erring, no possibility of losing our way and wandering from the right path. CLAUDE BROUSSON. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. LOUIS XIV., proud of his skilful manœuvres in It has been computed that one hundred thou science: others are proper to us as Chris-sand persons were sacrificed by Basville, the tians-the holy scriptures and the leading intendant of Languedoc, alone; and of that of God's providence, interpreted and ex- number the tenth part perished in the flames, plained by the Holy Spirit. All these we by the gibbet, or, on the wheel*. A wondrous may surely reckon upon, as surely as the subject for exultation in a Christian king most Israelites did upon the guidance of the truly! cloudy pillar by day, and the fiery pillar by night. Other helps there may be besides, such as the counsel and direction and advice of God's ministers or of godly friends, who are themselves anxious to serve God, and walk in his ways. For no one who is really in earnest to find out the way wherein he should walk and the thing that he should do will neglect this help. And then over and above, and what is indispensable, is earnest prayer for guidance and direction: this will procure for us the Holy Spirit's settled in Holland, removed thither, taking In 1695 Dr. Brousson, having a brother with him his wife and son, who had resided at Lausanne ever since they left their native country in 1683. Soon after his arrival in Holland, he received intelligence of the martyrdom of Papus, a young man who had assisted Vivens, and sometime also Brousson in the ministry, and, since the retirement of the latter, had en deavoured to his utmost to supply his place in the desert, and, be it added, with considerable success. reflections upon that sad event are recorded in The sentiments of Brousson and his *Boulanvilliers, pref., p. 56. the following letter of condolence forwarded to an associate in France: “The Hague, March 29, 1695. "Your last letter, my brother, in which you inform me of the death of our dear brother Papus, has very greatly afflicted me; yet I am much comforted in considering some circumstances of his martyrdom. I had always a presentiment that he would at length fall into the hards of our enemies; but, as I knew the depth of his piety, I never doubted but that God would strengthen him to the last, and give him grace to glorify him. The iniquitous judges who condemned him to barbarous torments imagined they had a pretext for so doing, because our late brother Vivens, whom he accompanied, defended his own life against those who would massacre him and his companions. But that fact excuses them before neither God nor man. It is our opponents themselves who have violated treaties of pacification: it is they who at tack and oppress the innocent, and who rush, armed, upon them, whilst they only pray to God. There is no authority greater than that of a parent over his children; but, if a father could be so unnatural as to send villains to massacre his offspring, none would think it strange did they defend their lives against villains charged with an order so barbarous. It is better, however, that we suffer as lambs. Our enemies are fast filling up the measure of their iniquities. God even now menaces them with judgments more dreadful than they have ever endured. Yet, like the Egyptians, they harden themselves against him, and will still do so until he makes them an example of his wrath unto succeeding ages. Another consideration arising from this subject is this-that, as all things work together for good to them that love God, even so hath he shown his mercy and grace in the instance of our dear brother. Put into the furnace of affliction, he was so far from being overcome by the trial that his faith became more lively and distinguished. The Lord sent him into the conflict, and enabled him to make a glorious victory. By faith he overcame the world: he was more than conqueror through Christ who loved him. He sang a hymn of triumph in the midst of his sufferings; and to such a degree did he experience the consolations of the Holy Spirit that they overcame in him the feeling of the bitterness of death. O what happiness is now his! He must have died some day; and, as he could not have prolonged his life beyond the term appointed, how could his end have been more happy or more glorious? His constancy, his sweetness of temper, his patience, his humility, his faith, his hope, and his piety affected even his judges and those false pastors who endavoured to seduce him, as also the soldiers, and all that witnessed his execution. He could not have preached better than he did by his martyrdom; and I doubt not but that his death will produce abundance of fruit. The blood of the martyrs has always been the seed of the church; and it is to be hoped that the blood of this faithful servant of God, and of all who have suffered in like manner, will be fruitful seed in the church of God. "To this end I exhort and conjure, in the name of our Lord, all our brethren to profit by these numerous examples which God has set before them. Martyrs are God's witnesses. They not only testify to the truth, but, as they renounce the world and all its allurements, to do the will of God, and so glorify him, they thereby exhort all men to detach themselves from the world, to consecrate themselves to God, from henceforth to obey his holy commandments, and to be willing to lose and to suffer all things, to prove their fidelity to him, and to give glory to his holy name. Hence it is that, one day, those faithful witnesses will rise up in judgment before the tribunal of God to condemn all worldlings, all profane persons, all the unclean, all drunkards and debauchees, all the unjust and impious blasphemers, all the ungodly, all those who, to preserve an interest in this world's goods, persevere in apostasy, and partake of the sins of Babylon. Ah! all those miserable sinners who, notwithstanding all these examples, continue to harden their hearts may expect even in this life to be consumed together with those who, drunk with the blood of the saints, shall be destroyed by the floods of wrath with which God will overtake this cruel Babylon. "But with respect to them who fear the Lord, who turn from their evil ways, who profit by the divine chastisements, who tremble at his word, who deplore their infidelity, who acknowledge that their sins have incensed God, who sincerely repent and turn to him, who renounce the vanities of the world, who hate the abominations of Babylon, who confess the truth, who are prepared to sacrifice their possessions, and even their life, for the truth, these need not lose courage; yet a little while; and he that shall come will not tarry. You, my dear brethren, dwell in the modern Egypt, over which the angel of the Lord is about to pass to execute his judgments. Humble yourselves therefore before God: get sprinkled with the blood of the true paschal Lamb, that the angel of the Lord may pass over you without destroying you. "And for yourself in particular, my dear brother, who are constantly exposed to dangers whilst employed in the vineyard of the Lord, be not dismayed. The good God, who to this hour has given you so many testimonies of his mercy, and of his love, and of his paternal care, will not abandon you. He causes you to look at death that you may humble yourself before him, that you may engage in his work with holy awe, that you may detach yourself more and more from the world, submit to his will, and place all your confidence in him, and that your temperance, your constancy, your zeal, and your piety may tend to the edification of your brethren. Be persuaded that God will work of his good pleasure in and by you. He has loved you, and will love you even unto the end. "If what I design to do here for the cause of God's kingdom did not appear to me to be more important than engaging in France, I would again go and expose myself with our colleagues to the fatigues and dangers which you now endure for the consolation of the people of God, notwithstanding the bodily infirmities that my former labours have induced. But it is needful | that I remain at present where I am. Pray to the Lord continually, with all our dear brethren, that he may please to strengthen me more and more by his Holy Spirit, and to bless my endeavours, even as I pray without ceasing that he may fill you with his grace and consolations of his Spirit, that he may listen to your cries, that he may cover you with the cloud of his presence, that he may bow the heavens and come to save you from the floods that surround you. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you and all the Israel of God. I beseech you to salute on my behalf all our dear brethren and sisters, whom I much desire again to see, and whom I always commend in my prayers to the mercy and grace of God." church, Dr. Brousson hastened to publish the sermons he had composed and preached in the desert during the five years he had ministered there. The terms in which the imprimatur was expressed convey incidentally the high consideration in which the author was held by his refugee brethren, being ministers and elders, which was as follows: "We, the undersigned deputies of ecclesiasti Devaux, pasteur de l'Eglise de Haarlem. Louis du Chesne, ancien." Having arranged for the comfortable settlement of his family at the Hague, Dr. Brousson determined upon visiting London. The nation was at that time mourning the decease of queen Mary II.; and few were more sincere in their sorrow for the departed lady than the refugees A few months afterwards, Dr. Brousson pub. of France and Piedmont, to whom she had lished a book of five hundred pages, entitled proved herself a generous friend. Her remains "A brief Account of the Wonders which God were interred in Westminster abbey, March 2, has wrought in the Cevennes and Lower Lan 1695; and in April of that year Dr. Brousson guedoc, for the Consolation and Instruction of arrived in England. This visit was not insti- his desolate Church;" also a book entitled gated by curiosity alone. Brousson, knowing The Confession raissonnée of those who preach the condition to which the protestants in France in the Desert." All his writings treat of the were reduced, became anxious that they should persecution raging in France; and, wheresoever every one emigrate from their native land; and placed or howsoever circumstanced, Dr. Brous he desired that room should be made for their son seemed to labour only for those in whom his reception in the evangelical states, and, judging sympathies were intensely interested. Imme from the noble manner in which the immigrants diately after the publication of these books, were treated in England after the accession of Brousson determined upon visiting again his William and Mary, he supposed that here the afflicted brethren in France, finding no rest for industry of his fellow-countrymen would be his spirit in the affluence of his position at the handsomely remunerated, and, flourishing colo- Hague, beloved and caressed as he was by the nies once established, the English and French whole church, regarded less as an ordinary pas artisans would derive mutual benefit; which ul- tor than a holy evangelist of our Lord Jesus timately proved to be the case. Writing to the Christ. His colleagues in the ministry endea protestants in France, he urges their universal voured to dissuade him from undertaking emigration: "You must abandon all, and re- perilous a design; to whom he replied: "I tire to foreign countries; there to work out have no rest in my bosom for delaying obe your salvation, there to enjoy peace of mind and dience unto the call of God; I must go the consolations which God gives his children preach, under the cross, in my native country, when he feeds them with his word and the sa- the gospel of our Lord, and visit those poor craments of his covenant. Cast yourselves, afflicted churches in the Cevennes and Lower dear brethren, upon the providence of God; and Languedoc, and I shall have no peace till I am he will care for you and your families." And to gone." A parallel case occurred in the Acts of ascertain by actual observation how far he the Apostles (xxi. 13): "What mean ye to should be justified in recommending an exten-weep, and to break mine heart ?" For, in like sive further immigration into England consti- manner, when these good men witnessed his tuted the chief object of his visit to London. stedfast determination, they likewise "ceased, During his sojourn in England, Dr. Brous- saying, The will of the Lord be done." son was chosen one of the ordinary pastors of the Walloon church at the Hague, which obliged him to return thither somewhat hastily that he might be solemnly ordained to the pastoral office. The Walloon church was situated within the court of the palace; and the stadtholder (William III. of England), when there, regularly attended the Sunday-morning services. Installed now in an important sphere in the *In this church it was that James Saurin afterwards delivered his eloquent sermons, which have been translated into English, and Dr. Brousson spent twelve months in France, comforting and exhorting the faithful. His fame, together with the desire for religious instruction, brought such concourses to his as semblies that his life was often greatly im perilled, but, through the vigilance of his faith ful companion, James Brunen, he escaped capture, and arrived in Switzerland in 1696, when so surely traced that in another hour he would probably have been arrested. Many members of his congegations suffered severe punishment. One case deserves particular |