God wrought!" He has been giving occasion for the encouraging inference, What cannot the Lord do? He has been inviting us to prayer, as if He said, “What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?" He has been inciting us to ask, "Lord, what wilt thou have us to do." By what He has already done, He is reminding us of the "glorious things that are spoken of the City of God,”—of the great and precious promises which He has made concerning the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. He is calling upon us to plead with confidence, that He may do yet greater things, for ourselves personally, for the Church, and for the world.

But while there is thus reason to "thank

The Doings God and take courage," do we not also of Mr. find abundant cause for grief and humiliation when we survey the condition of the nations, and even of the Lord's professing people among them? there not much need to cry mightly, for the awakening, convicting, converting, and reviving influences of the Holy Spirit?

The aspect of the world is still, to a great extent, one of wintry desolation. Dreary wastes of moral barrenness stretch over vast regions of our globe, embracing in their wide expanse every variety of natural climate and soil and circumstance,-from the frigid to the torrid zone, from the bleak shores of Lapland to the teeming plains of India. Even in those lands where the processes of spiritual husbandry have been most assiduously prosecuted,-where the good seed has been most abundantly scattered, how scanty is the fruit that has been produced! how thickly is the ground still covered with

weeds and overspread with thorns and briars, that defy every effort for their extirpation,-that impede the labours of the husbandman, and repress the springing and mar the fruitfulness of the plants of righteousness! Of the wide area over which the thousand millions of our race are scattered, how small a part has ever been brought under any kind of effective culture! And even in those portions for which most has been done by the use of means, how meager and unsatisfactory has been

the result!

If we look to the lands of the Heathen, how pestilential and poisonous is the moral atmosphere! how noxious the mists and exhalations with which it is charged! How rank and hideous is the growth of those gigantic falsehoods that cast their blighting shade upon the earth, and insult the heavens with their foul and flaunting exuberance!

If we look to the dominions of the Papal Antichrist, what do we see but, for the most part, a vast chaos of corruption, over which broods the darkness of mingled superstition and infidelity;-a darkness unalleviated, save by the few faint stars which the envious clouds of bigotry and despotism are striving to blot from the face of the sky? Other lights indeed there are, which men boast and rejoice in; but they are only the sparks of man's kindling, which shall soon expire, leaving those who had walked in their light to "lie down in sorrow.' They are but flitting meteors,-fitful emanations of fermenting rottonness and decay,-the phosphoric gleam of putrescence, the lurid and ill-boding burst of volcanic fires," wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever."

If we look to the southern portion of our own kingdom, while we find in many quarters the evidences of true and practical godliness,—while, even amidst abounding idolatries we see proofs of the Spirit's power to reserve many "thousands who have not bowed their knees unto Baal," -and while in the general condition of the country, as compared with that of continental states, we find an example of the influence which even a mangled and deficient Protestantism may exert in producing peace, prosperity, and moral decency ;-yet, on the other hand, do we not see how assiduous and untiring are the efforts of Popery to regain its ascendency? Do we not find a large body of nominal Protestants (if indeed they will accept the name) led on by blind guides who are striving by every means to undermine and subvert that very Protestantism to which the country owes whatever peace and whatever purity it can boast; and to assimilate the National Church, in all but the name, to the doomed and accursed system of Popery? And do we not see to how fearful an extent the men of the world are there (though not there alone) banded together to overthrow the holiest and most blessed institutions of our religion; -to seize and appropriate to their own selfish purposes the sacred hours of Sabbath rest, and to convert the whole body of the people into a festering mass of earthliness and heathenism, the one half being condemned' to uncheered, unblessed, and ceaseless drudgery, that the other half may indulge, on God's holy day, in unhallowed revelry and sensual gratification? Do we not see that in all the great towns, and most of all in the proud metropolis, it is but a small minority of the people who pay any regard to the duties and observances

of religion; so that the great bulk of the population, especially of the labouring classes and of the poor, are living in practical heathenism, making their belly their god, and sacrificing their souls to the lusts and appetites of their animal nature. Such, at least, is the picture which recent statistics present; though we trust that the efforts of city missionaries, and the multiplication of Sabbath evening services in cathedrals and halls, may be greately blessed for the removal of so enormous an evil.

And, again, if we look to our own highly favoured Scotland, do we not see, amidst abounding privileges and much profession of religion, a fearful amount of immorality and ungodliness? Have we not cause to blush for the extent to which many, amidst the pure light of the gospel, abandon themselves to those "fleshly lusts which war against the soul?" Do we not see multitudes, in our towns and villages, even while invited by the church-going bell, prowling about the streets, in sullen and reckless obduracy, defiant of every attempt to draw them within hearing of "the joyful sound?" and does not the harsh din of coarse, profane, and ribbald mirth often pollute and trouble the Sabbath air, which should be calm and pure and redolent of the incense of praise, as the inner court of the temple?

Even among the members and office-bearers of our British Churches, how much lukewarmness, how much apathy and inconsistency is too often manifested! How much of diluted and perverted doctrine has been, in many quarters, disseminated among them! How much unfaithfulness has been exhibited by many of them in maintaining the claims of Christ, as King of saints, and

King of Kings,-as Head of His Church on the one hand, and as Head over all things to the Church on the other?

And can we say that all who have received the letter of the truth have "received the love of the truth," and that, by the influence of the Spirit, they have been made to "walk in the truth?" Can we say that all who have testified for the right of Christ to reign supreme in His own house, have practically acknowledged His right to reign without a rival in their own heart? Can we even say that they who have been brought into the liberty of the children of God have at all times "stood fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free," and that they who "have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, have so walked with Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith as they have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving?" Can we say that their conversation has always been as becometh the Gospel; and that they have not often, by slothfulness, by remissness, by worldliness, caused the face of God to be hidden from them, and deprived themselves of that blessing by which they might have been made a blessing to others?

While we have cause to mourn that God has been so much " a stranger in our land," have we not special reason to lament that in the Churches of our land he has been but "as a wayfaring man, who has turned aside," indeed, to visit us, but only "to tarry for a night,”— leaving us again to mourn his absence. Have we not cause to be humbled because the Lord has been among us as a man astonied ;”- as a mighty man," indeed, who has given evidence of the great things which He

66