Immediately after we left her at Gräfenberg, she accompanied a lady, a beloved friend, on a tour, to see the beauties of the neighbourhood, for nearly a fortnight. This lady, after her death, sent over a request to us to allow her to have Selina's Bible, as a memorial of her, stating that the Book had become precious to her, and completely associated with her memory, because it was the only volume Selina took with her on the journey, which, at all suitable opportunities, she found her reading. This is the more gratifyiug, as a friend had presented her with a volume of Byron's best pieces, the beauties of which she was capable of relishing in a high degree, but the book was left at home, and never touched by her afterwards. Her dear mamma, jealous over her with a godly jealousy, and fearful that her reading of the Scriptures had not been so regular at Gräfenburg, wrote to her on the subject; her reply was, "Though I have avoided reading the Scriptures in your presence, Ι can most conscientiously say, before God, not a day has passed over without perusing the Book of God in secret with prayer." Her love to the people of God was also evidenced in a remarkable manner. I believe it would have been a greater pleasure to her for me to invite missionaries or devoted Christians to our house, that she might listen to their conversation, than to offer her to see any exhibition, or to give her any temporal gratification. During the anniversaries of the great religious societies of the metropolis, and especially of the London Missionary Society, she would earnestly remind me to bring home from Exeter Hall as many as possible of those self-denying labourers, who had carried the Gospel to the heathen. On one occasion, when at a friend's house, she met two gentleman from America, one of whom, before others, and in a way not likely to gain the affections of a young person, addressed her on the concerns of her soul. When we returned home, she said, "Dear Papa, I wish you would invite those gentlemen to come and stay with us. Expecting that her powers of mimicry had had great occasion for exercise, I expressed my astonishment at her request, and stated, that I was sorry the good man had made his appeal to her in so coarse and ludicrous a manner: but she instantly replied, "Oh! that is nothing to me; he is a man of God, and tried to do me good, and I should like them to stay with us very much." It appears, also, that on no occasion, however fatigued or suffering, would she retire to rest without communion with God. 66 Oft," says Mr. Stewart, "did she entreat me to pray for her, and my wife to read precious portions of Scripture to her. We could not give her greater delight than to be so engaged. She appeared in this, as in all her conduct, to act from principle, believing its value and importance to her eternal interests." A She mentions in one of her letters her unfitness for Sunday-school teaching. friend on one occasion overheard her addressing her class, and knowing our anxiety about her spiritual state, was induced to listen more attentively. She afterwards told us how interested and struck she was with the spiritual and affectionate appeals which Selina made to the hearts of her young charge, and the concern she manifested for their salvation. Knowing that her remarkable sincerity of character, and abhorrence of hypocrisy, would lead her to utter that only which she really believed, we could not help receiving this intelligence as an omen that we should soon see her in association with the Church of Christ. These traits in her conduct, which have been elicited by circumstances, have put hope and joy into a father's heart; and I cannot but conclude, in the sentiments of a friend who had most enlarged opportunities of knowing her character, and with whom she was in the habit of frequent correspondence, "the gleams of light under this dark cloud, have appeared to me to be, the high standard she set up for her government-the spirit of self-depreciation and self-renunciation she uniformly exhibited before it her jealousy lest the honour of God, by any inconsistency in herself or others, should be tarnished-and the reverence and love with which she always spoke of the Saviour." This testimony, with many others of a similar description, connected with the details I have already given, more than intimate that she was "a disciple of Jesus," though "secretly," and give us the blessed and all-consoling hope, that after a few years we shall meet her in glory, and be in company with our Saviour, world without end. A SERMON, BY THE REV. HENRY MELVILL, B.D. PREACHED AT CAMDEN CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, ON SUNDAY EVENING, OCT. 11, 1835. "God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth."-John iv. 24. It is a great peculiarity of the Christian feel no particular emotion, as he trod the religion, and a great evidence of its being land where Jesus walked, and stood where from God, that it is fitted to be the reli- Jesus died; we would not give much gion of every age and of every country. for the warmth of that man's feeling, There is nothing in its institutions, which which burst not into an unwonted flame confines it to one place rather than to on spots, and amid scenes, which may be another; nothing in its requirements, said to be yet peopled with the memory which makes its exercise easier at this of the Mediator; but this is nothing but time than at that. And herein does the sacredness, which we naturally attach Christianity differ widely, not only from to places, where events have occurred in heathenism, but also from Judaism. The which we have the deepest interest. The heathen attached a special sacredness to place where a friend has died, the place some shrine or some grove: and those where a friend lies buried, are hallowed who could not travel to the favoured spot, places: we never hear the names uttered, were supposed to be destitute of benefits, and, still more, we never visit them, gained by others who could undertake the without having the mind filled with journey. The Jews could perform the images of the past, and remembrances of solemn acts of their worship, nowhere those, whose memory is perhaps dearer but at Jerusalem; and at the appointed to us, than the affection of all who survive. time in every year, must all the males go And this kind of sacredness must always up to that city. This was enough to be attached by every true Christian, to the prove, that the Mosaic dispensation was scenes in which Christ passed His life. not designed to be permanent; and it But it is not (if I may use such an expres was clearly impossible, that Judaism sion,) a religious sacredness. A temple could become the religion of all men, for built on Calvary, would be no holier than it was clearly impossible that all men a temple built on any other land; and could comply with its injunctions, as to the rites of Christian worship would not sacrifice and worship. The Jews had a be performed with greater fitness and mode of worship, which in itself was con- greater acceptance, on the spot where the structed only for a narrow land, and an cross was erected, than in any valley, or inconsiderable people. We acknowledge, on any mountain, the most remote from of course, that Judaism was introductory Judea. This is one of the great evito Christianity, so that the one contained, dences of the Divine origin of Christiathough in contracted form and indistinct nity. Christianity is adapted to the being colouring, the mysteries and solemnities the universal religion; and this can be of the other; but if Christianity be Ju- affirmed of no other system; no other has daism at all, it is Judaism with the whole made a Church of the whole globe, placworld for its Jerusalem. Christianity at- ing the Deity every where, and everytaches no particular sacredness to a cer- where the mercy-seat, so that the most tain land, or a certain temple. However solemn ordinances have no restriction as we may call Palestine, by way of distinc- to time, and none as to place. There is tion, "the holy land," and however we no longer a solitary holy of holies, hidden may regard the scenes associated with the by a mystic veil: that veil has been life of our Saviour as hallowed by the rent; and now, wherever there is faith in miracle, and the passion, and the cross; Christ Jesus, God may be approached the Bible does not represent Bethlehem, and addressed, and moved to as graand Calvary, and the Mount of Olives, cious a manfestation, as when, in as holier ground than other parts of the earlier days, His brightness rested on globe. Undoubtedly that were a man, the ark, which was full of sacramental whose heart could have never throbbed at types. the tidings of redemption, who should| Now there is a clear reference in our VOL. XIV. 2 к Christ immediately referred. "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor shippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." text, when examined in connection with ger a special sacredness attached to one the context, to the substitution of Chris- land, or one mountain. "The hour tianity, as the universal religion, for Ju- cometh, when ye shall neither on this daism, which was necessarily confined to mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship a solitary people. We need hardly tell the Father." Of course he did not mean, you, that the words occur in that most in- that Samaria and Jerusalem were to cease teresting portion of the New Testament, to be places, in which God might be the narrative of Christ's conversation with served; He could only mean, that all disthe woman of Samaria, who came to draw tinctions of privilege were on the eve of water from the well. We may suppose abolition, so that the Father might be you all so well acquainted with this nar- worshipped without respect of places. He rative, that we need only glance at the takes occasion hence to declare, that the parts which refer immediately to the sub- Jews had hitherto been right in mainfect of our discourse. By referring to taining the sanctity of their temple over events in her own life, with which, as a that of Samaria. "Ye worship ye know stranger, He could have no acquaintance not what; we know what we worship; had he not been a prophet, Christ had for salvation is of the Jews." It was convinced the woman that he was an ex-enough thus briefly to allude to the point traordinary Person, and had induced on which the woman, moved by feelings her to ask His opinion on the controver- of curiosity and national pride, most desies, which divided the Jews and the Sa-sired information. Christ's wish was to maritans. The Samaritans, though in-promulgate the great truth of the abolition habiting the land of Judea, were not, as of distinctions; and to this therefore you know, of the posterity of Abraham, but a mixed company of several nations, transplanted thither by the king of Syria after he led captive the ten tribes. They had at first been only idolaters, and then associated the worship of the true God with the false deities of the land whence they came. In the time of our Lord they had renounced idolatry, and built a temple on Mount Gerizim, and claimed for it a sanctity beyond that of Jerusalem. Abraham had built an altar in this place, and so had Jacob as he re- course,)-'Heretofore there has been on turned from Shechem; so that they had the earth an introductory dispensation, a high authority to plead for the spot dispensation beneath which the Father which they held specially sacred. But the has but imperfectly discovered Himself; Jews could appeal confidently to their and as He has commanded observances, sacred writings, and prove by the most adapted to the obscure notions which He explicit statements, that God had chosen has furnished of His nature and His will, the hill of Zion, and that "Jerusalem was so long as this dispensation continues the place where men ought to worship" the Jews are especially His people; Thus the relative sanctity of their tem- and therefore are the Samaritans wrong ples was the subject of contention; and in exalting their temple above that of controversy produced, as it too commonly Jerusalem. But the introductory dispendoes, a total want of charity; so that the sation draws fast to a close; it is to be Jews and the Samaritans had no dealings, succeeded by the Antitype, and shadow but regarded each the other with the by substance: and when God shall have most bitter hostility. It was to obtain the made a full and clear revelation of Himsentiments of one whom she perceived to self to His people, He will no longer be a prophet, on a point so long and so choose one place rather than another in fiercely discussed, that the woman said which to be worshipped; it will be "in to Christ, "Our fathers worshipped in spirit," and not with legal ceremonythis mountain; but ye say that in Jeru- "in truth,” and not with symbolical instisalem is the place where men ought to tutions, that He will look to be approachworship." The Saviour did not imme-ed: and therefore, the observance of a diately deliver His decision on the controversy, but declared the time to be approaching, when there should be no lon The "spirit" and the "truth" here declared essential to acceptable worship, are, probably, opposed to the ceremonial and figurative rites, with which God had been hitherto served. It is as though Christ had said, (for in this manner we must connect the several parts of His dis temporary ritual being all at an end, national distinctions will terminate, and the world in its every section be equally fit for the solemnities of acceptable worship.', cribe to Him characteristics, which cannot Such, we think, is evidently the scope belong to the Infinite and the Eternal. of the Redeemer's address. He contrasts And therefore it is with good reason, that the Jewish dispensation, which was typi- our Church thus begins her Articles : cal, with the Christian, which would know "There is but one living and true God, nothing whether of ceremonial figure or everlasting, without body, parts, or pasnational limitation. And having stated sions." That Deity differs immeasurably that the Father would henceforward seek from ourselves, is a truth which lies at the worshippers who should worship Him "in foundation of all true religion; for it is spirit and in truth," Christ proceeded to impossible we should entertain a due reassign generally a reason why this kind of verence of God, and yet invest Him in any service would be sought. This reason is degree with our own feebleness and imadvanced in our text: "God is a Spirit; perfection. Yet the ascribing a body to and they that worship Him, must worship the Creator, is an absurdity, against which Him in spirit and in truth." You may men need to be guarded; for though this see, at once, that there is something very be to bring God down to our own level, striking in the assertion, "God is a the difficulty (as we before stated) of imaSpirit,' "when this follows immediately onegining a purely spiritual being is likely to a statement as to the universality of the Christian dispensation. Think you, (the Saviour seems to say,) that it is only in Jerusalem, or on this mountain, that God can be worshipped? What is this, but to suppose that God has a body, and therefore can be present only in one place at one time? I tell you, on the contrary, that God is a Spirit, and that therefore there is no reason in His nature, why His service should be limited to one land or one temple.' induce us to attribute what is corporeal to our Maker. And indeed so unavoidable is it, that the representations furnished us of Deity, if adapted to our powers and conceptions, should draw their terms from our own nature and condition, that the Bible often speaks of God as possessing both the parts and passions of a man. Thus we read, as you know, of the arm, and the eye, and the mouth of God; and God is said to be grieved, to be angry, to repent; just as though the Divine Being and the human were similarly constituted, and similarly affected. But it is admitted by all, that, in using such expressions, the Bible condescends to the weakness of our capacities, and that the terms fare not employed because of their accuracy, but because our imperfect faculty of comprehension renders it necessary, that we be addressed in language derived from the finite and material. Now having thus briefly adverted to the connection between our text and the other parts of the narrative, and shown you that there is a clear reference in the text to the approaching change of dispensation, we shall find abundant materials of thought in the passage itself, though it was necessary to introduce our chief subject of address by a slight examination of the reasoning, (if it may be so called,) which the Redeemer pursues. In our text itself And it is worth observing, that the frewe have, first, a statement with regard to quently ascribing to God the parts of the the nature of Deity; and, secondly, an human body may, in all probability, be inference with regard to the nature of traced to the fact, that Deity was actually worship. We desire to direct your atten-invested with like faculties; and that the tion successively to this statement and this inference the statement, that "God is a Spirit," the inference, that "they who worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth." I. Now composed as we ourselves are of matter and spirit, and accustomed to be acted upon through the medium of our senses, it is no way surprising, that men should have formed improper notions of God-head, and pictured the Divine Being under images derogatory to His nature. We are confessedly so unable to form ideas of a purely spiritual being, that it may easily happen, that, in labouring after conceptions of our Maker, we should as inspired writers may be directed to repre- show, that the chief properties which distinguish the Divine Being presuppose Him to be a Spirit. Could God, for example, be omnipresent, if He were not a Spirit? You must all perceive, that if God had a body, it would be impossible for that body to be present in different places at the same time. A portion of this body might be here, and another portion there; but it is evidently inconsistent with the nature of a body, that the whole should be everywhere: so that we could never speak of the omnipresence of God, if God were not a pure Spirit. A part of God might be everywhere, but a part of God is not God; and therefore God in the integrity of His divinity could not be present in all places alike, if God had a body, or were not altogether a spiritual Being. and what is made up of parts depends upon each part for its perfection. The perfection ceases with the removal of any part, however minute, and is therefore dependent on that part. We can scarcely call that being independent, in the full sense in which we apply the term to God. Could God be infinite, if He had a body? We may not perhaps say there may not be an infinite body, though when we speak of a body we always suppose it has limits and boundaries. But when we are told, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain God, it is evidently meant that God is too large to be included within the limitations of space; and however we may imagine a body occupying the whole height and length and breadth of immensity, we know not how to imagine a body which more than fills the universe. So that the scriptural representations of God as infinite as well as unchangeable and independent, seem to require us to believe that God cannot have a body, but that God must be pure spirit. Thus if we take certain of the leading characteristics and properties of the Divine nature, we derive from them the truth announced in our text, that "God is a Spirit." It is utterly inconsistent with attributes, which even natural religion teaches us to ascribe to Divinity, that we suppose that any thing of matter enters into the constitution of Deity. There may not be many express declarations in the Bible as to the spirituality of God; but if God be omni Could God, again, be necessarily and by His nature unchangeable, if He were composed, like ourselves, of body and spirit? We ask whether, on such a supposition, it would be impossible for God to change; whether He could be so constituted, as to possess that immutability, which is certainly ascribed to Him in the Bible-an immutability by nature as well as by will? We reply, without hesitation, in the negative. God might never have changed, but God would undoubt edly have been capable of change, had He had a body, in place of being pure spirit. Whatever is compounded must be capable of change, even if it never be changed. Whatever is made up of parts, may mani-present, if He be immutable, if He be infestly be divided into parts: there is no natural impossibility, that is, against the division-though every probability that such division shall never take place. So that God might ever have continued the same, by an act of His own will, even though He had been compounded of body and spirit; but it could not have been declared, that He was in His nature incapable of change; for it were absurd to say, that what is compounded is incapable of being dissolved. And yet this is what we understand by the Divine immutabilitya necessary and entire incapacity of change. So that to ascribe a body to God were to deny His unchangeableness as exhibited in Scripture; and to say that God is immutable, presupposes that God is pure Spirit. We think we may add, that God could not be independent, and that He could not be infinite, if He were not pure spirit. Could He be independent, if He had a body? He must then be made up of parts; dependent, if He be infinite, then we have evidence enough, even if direct proof were wanting, that God must be a Spirit. The ascribed properties are such as cannot belong to a body; and therefore, in ascribing these properties, the Scriptures sufficiently declare, in the words of our text, that " God is a Spirit." But then it is to be observed, that God is not the only spirit. The angels are spirits, and the souls of men are spirits; so that in merely saying that "God is a Spirit," we do not broadly distinguish the created from the uncreated. And unquestionably we must do more with those properties of which we have spoken, than use them as proofs of the spirituality of the Divine nature. They are properties, which cannot in any case be ascribed to what is material; but neither do they of necessity belong to what is spiritual. You will readily perceive this distinction. We argue that an omnipresent being must be necessarily a spiritual being; but of |