sighted worldly politicians imagined, by arrangements of compromise and expediency,—they are to be canvassed anew as keenly as before, and to convulse society, it may be, as severely. Nor is there any help for it. It would seem that the march of events is beyond the reach of human contrivances and plans of adjustment; that men are no more masters of themselves; that principles, whether right or wrong, of commanding power have obtained the mastery over them; and that the struggle is transferred from the arena of mere secular politics, to a field where it can be less easily controlled or managed by human skill, -even the high field of a spiritual awakening.

And what, in these circumstances, are the prospects and duties of the true Church of the living God,-the really apostolic society, which, amid all its outward divisions, is one in the acknowledgment of sovereign grace, and of that great truth of God-the free justification of the sinner by faith alone? Surely, amid the thickening gloom, this ray of hope may cheer us, that the exigencies of the times will bring all who are thus like-minded closer together, and compel them better to understand one another. The perils of a common warfare, the pressure of a common persecution, the calls of a common duty to preach the Word, -to preach it freely, widely, every where, and at all seasons, as the only antidote to Antichristian poison, the only salt that can save the earth,—and, above all, the longings of a common hope, even the hope of the coming of the Lord, for which the souls under the altar cry, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge thy saints?"-these com

mon ties will surely draw nearer to one another all who hold the Head, which is Christ, and whom Antichrist would fain destroy! The true Protestant Churches, separated, perhaps against their will, from connections to which they cleave, driven into the wilderness, and stript of secular influence, may yet be strong in the Lord alone, having his own assurance, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

But, whatever may be the prospects of spiritual Christianity in the contest which is manifestly thickening, one thing is clear, that these are not times for indecision and neutrality. They are not the times for waverers. They demand a mind made up and a heart established. They are not to be encountered by men driven about with every wind of doctrine-unfixed, unsettled, uncommitted. The adversary, to be met in these days, is not a spirit of careless doubt, but a spirit of earnest belief. The age of indifference, which would let the world pass, and take all things easily, as they happen to fall out, is past and over. Days of greater seriousness and intensity, both of feeling and of action, are at hand,

How the present pause in public affairs may end,in what quarter the smouldering fire may burst forth through the treacherous ashes on which we tread,— what new and strange revolutions await the chosen land, again becoming so marvellously the centre of the world,-what issues hang on those wild Syrian raids, of which rumours reach us daily,—and to what the intrigues and quarrels of the neighbouring potentates tend; and again, in the west, what sudden sound is

to break the stillness, or where the muttered thunder of the overhanging clouds is to burst-such questions it were idle to entertain. It is enough that all men may see, on every side, materials of combustion ready, such as a single casual spark,-a monarch's death, or a popular tumult,—may in a moment kindle into a wide-wasting flame. In religious affairs, also, there may be unexpected turns. A crisis, apparently imminent, may seem to be, for a time, averted; breaches seemingly irreparable, may be more or less slightly healed; contentions may be prolonged; schemes of adjustment may be tried; delays may intervene, and vicissitudes of hope and fear; and men may begin to flatter themselves that it has been a false alarm which has been given, and that things are somehow to right themselves after all. It is the common delusion, "All things continue as they were; the Lord delayeth his coming.”

But be not ye deceived. The Lord is at hand. Satan, knowing that his time is short, will ply his most insidious arts, if by any means he may seduce the very elect; and many, it is to be feared, even of those who shall be saved,-" yet so as by fire," may be entangled in his snares. But let those who are on the Lord's side be prompt and firm: let the heart be distracted by no doubtful choice: let the trumpet give no uncertain sound: let the present pause be improved to the utmost let the Gospel be widely and purely preached let countries, now open for missionary effort, be visited: let fields, white already unto the harvest, be occupied let the youth of every profession be up and doing: let professional fame be postponed to Christian usefulness, and professional skill be turned to spiritual account: let selfish thoughts of ease and

aggrandizement, such as suit quiet times, give place to self-denying zeal in the cause of God and truth. Assuredly the hour is come when there can be no halting between two opinions. "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." And do so, with this saying of the Lord himself full before you,-a saying peculiarly applicable in critical seasons: "He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad."

CHRISTIAN UNION.

PART FIRST.

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD.

THAT "union is strength," is a maxim universally admitted; with which, however, "the children of this world are, in their generation," more familiar—or at least they act on it more faithfully-" than the children of light." The god of this world claims the principle as his own; and in his policy this feature of the wisdom of the serpent is peculiarly conspicuous; presenting too generally, in this respect, a melancholy contrast to the disorder reigning in the opposite ranks. Our Lord gives the great enemy full credit for this wisdom, when he speaks of Satan as too sagacious not to know "that a house divideth against itself falleth," and that internal division, therefore, must be fatal to his kingdom; while, in reference to his own followers, it might almost be thought that the law, as well as the explanation of their present state, was to be found in that ominous oracle, "Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered."

This element of weakness in the Christian cause is