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kingdom of Christ is described, it is said at the 25th verse, " And I will make a covenant of peace, and will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land; they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods." See also Job 5,23-Isaiah 11,6 to 9, chap. 65,25-Ezekiel 34,25-Hosea 2,18-Psalms 91,13 -and Isaiah 35,9.

Hoping that I have satisfactorily answered "Our John's" queries, and that the Defender's open page will be the means of creating a thirst among the people for more biblical knowledge, I am, dear Sir, yours truly,

Hyde, April 23rd, 1855.

DELTA.

LECTURE ON SECULARISM.-On Thursday evening, the 29th March, the Rev. Mr. Rutherford, of Newcastle, delivered a lecture in the Town Hall, East Hartlepool, to a crowded audience, many of whom were artisans of the town, on the antecedents and distinguishing principles of Secularism. The lecture was distinguished, beyond many other exercitations of the rev. gentleman which it has been our lot to hear, by trenchant and forcibly expressed arguments, clearness of arrangement, and a temperate spirit in debate. An opportunity for discussion was offered, but no advocate of Secularism encountered the lecturers views; and before separating a cordial vote of thanks was, on the motion of Mr. G. Blumer, seconded by the Rev. J. Kneebon, unanimously accorded by the meeting. The Rev. Mr. Howson, in awarding the vote, expresse a hope that another opportunity of hearing Mr. Rutherford enlarge on this subject would be secured for the people of Hartlepool.-Sunderland News.

EARLY OCCUPATIONS OF EMINENT MEN.-Columbus was a weaver; Franklin was a printer; Arkwright was a barber; and Ben Johuson was a bricklayer. Let every body remember that. Yes; and certainly one of the greatest writers of the present day spent his youth as a bricklayer's labourer, and now he might fairly mark A 1, and add D. D. to his name. Go a little further. Cary was not a shoemaker, but a "mender and repairer." Then there was John Williams, whose life the present Archbishop of Canterbury said he would call the twentyninth chapter of the Acts of the apostles: he was an artisan in a dock yard. I was going to say that all the great men in the history of the world were labouring men. What was the apostle Paul? a tentmaker, a preacher, and a fisherman. And what was the master of them all? In the sixth chapter of Mark, the Redeemer of the world is actually spoken of as being a carpenter. May not working men be proud, and feel the dignity of their position, if their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was actually spoken of as a carpenter!

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a Weekly Magazine,

OF CHRISTIAN EXPOSITION AND ADVOCACY.

Who knows not that truth is strong, next to the Almighty; she needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings to make her victorious, those are the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power.-MILTON.

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CHRISTIANITY A RELIGION OF LOVE.

Christianity, as might be expected of a divine religion, makes its appeal to the entire man-to his sense of safety, of truth, of duty, of beauty, and, above all, to his sense of gratitude. All are influential principles, but gratitude has a power to move, and melt, and constrain the soul, far above all the rest. The fear of danger and the love of life may lead a man for a season to put forth almost superhuman effort, his love of truth may lead him pursue it at any cost, his sense of duty may lead him to steer through a very ocean of trouble, with a directness and an energy in which its wildest storms can produce no deflection, his sense of beauty may make him the subject of every lovely thing, material, mental, and moral, that can be brought within the sphere of his attention; but it is the sense of gratitude in the Christian which controls, and moulds, and masters his entire nature, which leads him to serve with a heartiness which time cannot abate, and a heroism which opposition cannot conquer. Dark clouds may cross his path, calumny may hang heavy upon his heart, and with all the sensibilities of a man, he may cry, "O! that I had the wings of a dove that I might flee away and be at rest;" but soon the higher principle of his nature will bear him above all, and make him manfully to remain at his post of

No. 19, Vol. I.

duty, until his Master calls him away. Gratitude will bind him to the service of God as self-interest never can.

"We love him because he first loved us," is the key to the Christian life. Not, indeed, that God's love to us is the sole reason of our love to him; for he is to be loved not only for what he is to us, but for what he is in himself for his perfect, infinite moral loveliness, as well as for his boundless beneficence and mercy to us individually. But his love to us awakens the first response of affection in the soul-an affection that will never die, so long as the mind intelligently and willingly holds to the wondrous exhibition of it in the cross of Christ. Love found, where there was supposed to be hate; compassion, where coldness was expected; mercy, where indignation was merited, takes the heart by surprise, and holds it fascinated by a moral spell. It is not our love that wins his, but his that wins ours. It is not man overcoming by his tears and entreaties a reluctant God, but God overcoming by the supplication of love reluctant and rebellious man. It is a reconciliation affected not at man's instance, or by man's perseverance, but by God's. Jehovah is "in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses." The propitiatory sacrifice furnished not the cause, but the ground-the honourable, the righteous occasion of the reunion. It proved, but did not purchase, divine love. That love was as free to man as the canopy of heaven which embraces us all. Benevolence, which knew nothing of decay, nothing of change, which was from everlasting, shone forth in the "accursed death.” The knowledge of this benevolence, allaying the fears, and annihilating the despair of the soul, gives it freedom for the undivided contemplation of the divine character; and thus delight, admiration, veneration, adoration, and reverence follow in the train of gratitude.

The manifestation which we have of God's moral character in his works and word is proof that the religion of heaven is a religion of love. Religion is the subjective of theology; and, whatever may be the case with human systems, the soul and centre of the theology of the Bible is love. It may be, and has been, misunderstood, it may be, and has been, misrepresented, but still love is its base and its culminating point, its inbeing and its forthshadowing. In varied tone, but with one voice, it declares that "God is love."

Why have we existence at all but that God is good. He could have done without us. But he would communicate his own happiness to other beings. He would give them himself as a treasure and portion. He would satisfy them with living water welling up from the inexhaustible fountain of his own friendship. He would make them partakers of the divine nature. He would fill them with his own eternal fulness. He would bless them and make them a source of blessing to all their fellow-beings.

But it is not alone in the fact and the purpose of the creation of man that we perceive the divine goodnees; it is still more fully displayed in the capacities with which he has been created. He is capable of knowing, loving, worshipping, and revering the All-Perfect, and of serving and benefiting his fellow-men. His mind can grasp the sublimest truths. His heart can love with an ardour which no calamity can impair. His soul can aspire after and enjoy the Infinite. His will with supreme and deci

sive authority can choose the good and reject the evil, though interest plead, and temptation fascinate. In a word, his entire nature may be a temple of truth, of purity, of goodness, of God-majestic in moral strength and filled with the incense of praise. God has given man's will supreme control of his choice and conduct, and mournful it is, when the will is made the slave of ambition, of selfishnesss, of hatred, or of lust.

Though man's will has thus become corrupted and depraved, though his life has been an almost constant violation of the moral law, though "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," divine interest in man's condition has neither died nor diminished. He did not turn to be our enemy, though we had rebelled against him. He did not at once spurn us from his presence, nor condemn us to endless ruin. He pitied us in our lost estate. His compassions were deeply moved. "He thought upon us" in our self-caused accursedness. The penalty of the law was not at once inflicted. Justice stayed her hand. Respite was given. From behind the thunder-cloud, which our iniquities had gathered over us, grace shone refulgent. Kindness was shown where wrath was merited. Loving-kindness spoke of deliverance, when righteousness might have uttered a sentence of doom. Our treatment of the divine benefactor was not meted out into our own bosoms. The just sentence was not swift in its execution. Indignation lingered. The heavens did not become as brass nor the earth as iron. There were dews, and rains, and sunshine. God gave his enemies fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with gladness; and continued his kindness when it was met by more than ox-like or asinine stupidity. When all availed not to remove human suspicion and enmity, as well as human guilt, his love took a still higher form, and became mercy. God's thoughts toward man were thoughts of peace and of forgiveness. He had no wish to condemn, he sought to save. His desire for man's salvation became a purpose, and his purpose a plan, and his plan a series of stupendous acts for the recovery of the race from the ruins of the fall. Nothing was spared, nothing forgotten, nothing omitted that could be done. Love that seemed only to rise in proportion to the obstacles it had to surmount, gushed forth upon the race in the plenitude of its strength and purity. He loved the world: he "so loved it that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." What could he more? If among the cognitions of angels or men there is a loftier height of moral blessedness to which man can be raised than that which God contemplates, or if there is a greater sacrifice which can be made for the attainment of an end so transcendent and sublime, let them be named. But heaven, and earth, and hell give no answer to the challenge which proceeds from the throne of the Eternal, What more could I have done for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? And it remains for the whole race to prostrate themselves in lowly adoration and grateful confidence before the throne of God, saying: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins:" "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us:" God like unto thee!"

"Who, who is a

Now, if such representations of the moral character of God, in any

system, as are fitted to win confidence, affection, and gratitude, furnish proof that that religion is one of love and not of slavish fear, then such proof is furnished in abundance by the religion of the Bible. It teaches that God is love. It points out benevolence in all his wishes, beneficence in all his ways. It represents him as kind and gracious to the miserable, merciful to the wrath-deserving. Yea; it declares that "his tender mercies are over all his works." Why should infidels endeavour to darken the picture by turning to other passages as if they were inconsistent with these explicit statements? Can they not understand a "wrath" that has no feeling of personal vindictiveness, and a "vengeance" that is only a manifestation of governmental displeasure at sin? And are not such acts and processes of government as are described in the Bible proofs that, in true benevolence, God regards the greatest possible good of all his intelligent creatures? He who came to reveal God to man presents him in the endearing character of a Father, and a Father, too, whose interest is not confined to those of his children who obey and love him, but reaches the most wayward, rebellious, and prodigal. Will any one read the fifteenth chapter of Luke's Gospel, and tell us that there is nothing in that admirable portraiture of the compassion of God to move and thrill the soul of man ? And is not the Bible full of such representations of the heart of God? "He sent his Son not to condemn the world, but that the world though him might be saved." "He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."

"God

And Christianity presents these facts as the highest conceivable motives to obedience. "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice; holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." The highest and most heroic of lives have been formed under the influence of these sublime facts. The self-denying devotedness of Paul's life, the unwavering zeal of his efforts for the salvation of the world, his ardour and energy in prosecuting the enterprise with which he was entrusted, led many to look upon him as insane, to brand him as a fanatic. And what was his defence? "The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves." Here, then, we are shown the mainspring of religion. It is gratitude. The Christian works not for pay, but from love. His service is not that of the slave, but of the child. He moves not from the rod of terror held over him, but from the mighty magnetism of love. If he fears, it is because he loves. There is a principle within him restraining him from sin, constraining him to holy obedience. Love dwells within him, and he dwells in love. He is made free, and he will work. Truth has broken his fetters, and he will defend it. No fear crushes him, and he will praise his deliverer. He lives, he thinks, he loves, therefore he works. His whole nature is moulded after the divine model-ACTIVE LOVE. To cease to love would be to die morally and spiritually; therefore he lives by faith; for faith kindles love. "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

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