I

T is observed by an eminent writer upon practical
Christianity, that, "if we were under the hands of a

wise and good physician, that could not mistake or do

any thing to us, but what certainly tended to our benefit; it would not be enough to be patient, and abstain from murmurings against such a physician; but it would be as great a breach of duty and gratitude to him not to be pleased and thankful for what he did, as it would be to murmur at him.

Now this is our true state with relation to God: we cannot be said so much as to believe in Him, unless we believe Him to be of infinite wisdom. Every argument, therefore, for patience under His disposal of us, is as strong an argument for approbation and thankfulness for every thing that He does.

Whoso murmurs at the course of the world, murmurs at God who governs it. Whoso repines at seasons and weather, repines at the Lord and Governor of them. It sounds indeed much better to murmur at the course of the world, or the state of things, than to murmur at providence ;-to complain of the seasons and weather than to complain of God;-but if these have no other cause but God and His providence, it is a poor distinction to say, that you are only angry at the things, but not at the Cause and Director of them."

Now as these remarks are consistent with reason and Revelation, it would be well to bear them in mind under the scarcity and want that now afflict so large a portion of the world.

There is a growing expectation of an abundant harvest, and a consequent hope that these times of dearth, may be succeeded by "plenty and cheapness." But if it should please God to afflict us still further, and again to blight the fruits of the earth, are we prepared to submit to His dispensations with humility and resignation? Is our condition as a nation such as would lead us to anticipate mercies or judgments? True it is that pure and undefiled religion still distinguishes our Land from every other quarter of the globe. But, at the same time, are not heresy, superstition, profaneness, and deadly sins, prevalent amongst us in an awful degree; and is it not consistent with all that we know of God's moral government of the world, to "visit for these things," and to "be avenged on such a nation as this?"

Far-sighted statesmen can, at present, discover nothing but clouds in the political horizon, while every devout student of the Sacred Scriptures is led to the conclusion, that times of trouble and distress may be near at hand, preparatory to the dawn of that glorious period when the Church shall be completely delivered out of the hands of all her enemies, and those hideous forms of infidelity and vice that now stalk abroad at noon-day, be overwhelmed in darkness for ever.

POPERY.

We cannot look without the most serious apprehension at the retrograde steps we have lately made as a Protestant nation, and at the rapid development of the powers and pretensions of the Papal Antichrist. If any thing could, humanly speaking, provoke God to withdraw the sunshine of his favour from us, it must surely be these overtures of "peace with Rome." Nothing but ignorance of the real nature of Popery, or a judicial blindness, could lead men to tamper with a system whose aims are so utterly subversive of corporeal and intellectual freedom, and adverse to the best interests, and dearest rights of mankind. Popery is only another name for despotism of the most absolute order. Wherever it reigns, slavery the most abject hangs upon the necks of the people.

"It has often been asserted (says the late learned Bishop of Salisbury) that religion has nothing to do with the question of granting political power to the subjects of the Pope in this country.

On the contrary, we may affirm that religion embraces the whole of the question. For why does a Papist acknowledge the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Pope? and refuse to acknowledge that of the King? He does so on account of his religion. And however Christian charity may tolerate the idolatry, blasphemies, and superstitions of conscientious dissidents from the Established Church, yet Christianity is intimately concerned in resisting the grant of political power, which must inevitably be employed for the advancement of antichristian doctrines and worship, and for the overthrow of the Protestant faith."

How alarming then is the consideration, even in a political point of view, that Popery, by means, more especially, of its reckless agent Jesuitism, is, at this moment, undermining in every direction the British Constitution, and openly avowing its determination to bring once more this land of liberty beneath its feet! England has always been the great barrier to its absolute dominion, and therefore England has always been the object of its envy and its hate. Even at this moment, when every class in society in England is submitting to privations in order to relieve the wants of our suffering fellow subjects in Ireland, what is the language with which we are hourly assailed? What is the return which we receive for our efforts of self-denying charity? Popish Prelates, unable to restrain the rancour of their hostility, overwhelm us with the grossest abuse; and while, with the one hand, they grasp the millions that are poured out to save their vassals from starvation, with the other, were it in their power, they would plunge the dagger to the heart of our national existence.

But Popery (cries some deluded political economist) is no longer what it once was. In ruder times it might have partaken too much of the character of the age. In this more enlightened period, it breathes nothing but the spirit of peace and gentleness.

For the benefit of such we will transcribe one of the awful forms of excommunication, used in the Church of Rome, omitting only such portions of it as are quite unfit for publication. Let the reader ponder it well, for it is right he should know the nature of a curse which, if he be a Protestant, hangs over his own devoted head.

66

By the authority of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and of the Holy Canons, and the undefiled Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and of the Heavenly Virtues, Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Cherubims and Seraphims, and of all the Holy Patriarchs, Prophets, and of all the Apostles,

and Evangelists, and of the Holy Innocents, who, in the sight of the Holy Lamb are found worthy to sing the new song of the Holy Martyrs, and the Holy Confessors, and all the Holy Virgins, and of all the Saints, together with the Holy and elect of God-we excommunicate and anathematize him; and from the threshold of the Holy Church of God Almighty, we sequester him, that he may be tormented, disposed, and delivered over with Dathan and Abiram, and with those who say unto the Lord God, depart from us, we desire none of thy ways. And as fire is quenched with water, so let the light of him be put out for evermore, unless he shall repent, and make satisfaction. Amen.

May the Father, who created man, curse him! May the Son who suffered for us, curse him! May the Holy Ghost, who was given to us in baptism, curse him! May the Holy Cross, which Christ, for our salvation triumphing over his enemies ascended, curse him!

May the holy and eternal Virgin, Mother of God, curse him! May St. Michael, the advocate of holy souls, curse him! May all the Angels and Archangels, principalities and powers, and all the Heavenly Armies, curse him!

May St. John the Beloved, and St. John the Baptist, and St. Peter, and St. Paul, and St. Andrew, and all other of Christ's Apostles together, curse him! And may the rest of his Disciples, and the four Evangelists, who by their preaching converted the universal world, and may the holy and wonderful company of Martyrs, and Confessors, who by their holy works are found pleasing to God Almighty, curse him! May the holy choir of the Holy Virgins, who for the honour of Christ have despised the things of the world, damn him! May all the Saints, who from the beginning of the world to everlasting ages, are found to be beloved of God, damn him! May the heavens and earth, and all the holy things contained therein, damn him!

May he be damned wherever he shall be, whether in the house or in the field, in way or in the path, in the wood or in the water, or in the church! May he be cursed in living, dying, eating, drinking; in being hungry, in being thirsty; in fasting, sleeping, slumbering, watching, walking, sitting, lying, working, resting. May he be cursed in all the faculties of his body!

May he be cursed inwardly and outwardly! May he be cursed in the hair of his head! May he be cursed in his brains, and in the crown of his head; in his temples, in his forehead, in his ears, in his eyebrows, in his cheeks, in his jaw bones, in his nostrils, in his fore teeth and grinders: in his lips, in his throat, in his shoulders, in his wrists, in his arms, in his fingers.

May he be damned in his mouth, in his breast, and in all his inward parts, down to his very stomach! May he be cursed in his veins, in his hips, in his knees, in his legs, in his feet and toe-nails! May he be cursed in all the joints and articulations of his members; from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot may there be no soundness in him!

May the Son of the living God, with all the glory of his Majesty, curse him! And may heaven, with all the powers which rejoice therein, rise up against him to damn him, unless he repent and make satisfaction. Amen. So be it. So be it So be it. Amen.

Such is the language which can be solemnly used by those who claim to be considered as alone the ministers of the gospel of peace !

AND what shall we say of the Miser? The Latins have indeed afforded us this term which is expressive of his real character,―miserable, abject, pitiful, mean. And who, after gazing upon man, noble man, in all the fulness of his moral and intellectual dignity, despite the past and primeval wreck of his heavenly character, still bearing impress of the fingers of divine workmanship; who can turn from man the dispenser of blessing, the contriver of a thousand schemes of melioration, and the delighted agent in carrying them out;—who I ask, after gazing upon such a personification of excellence, and feeling himself however humble and unworthy, enlisted in the same phalanx, and aiming at the accomplishment of the same and kindred purposes, who can revert to the contemplation of the drivilling Miser without a generous blush of shame, that a being so unworthy assumes to himself our own common nature.

Love is the first thought of our life, benevolence the earliest emotion of our existence. We are nurtured under the glancing eye of maternal tenderness, and the pure stream of affection, rising with the youngest gush of being, would run on and increase, deepenning and widening with our years, and throwing out its streams of fertilizing blessings as means might be furnished. Men must cast in many obstacles to prevent its swelling tide, and now and then when we think the sluice gate is barred and closed, the impulses of this heavenly passion defy all resistance, carry off every contending disposition, and men become liberal in spite of themselves. To be a true Miser, the soul, so to speak, must have been warped and straitened, served like the foot of a Chinese lady, put into a mould to contract its size, hinder its growth, and prevent its developement. The Miser's heart has been so compressed by some iron-like and unnatural process, commencing one would even think with the first warm flood from life's fountain, that no further full and irrigating streams have ensued. Now and then it may have been aroused to feeble activity, but the narrowed streamlets have refused to become its agents, until more minified and bound, the mind has been left to sterility and barrenness. I look at the Miser's soul as a St. Helena-a lonely unvegetative rock. It cannot produce. You cannot graft on it-the branch dies. You can produce no sympathy or feeling, by all the galvanism of stern argument, or the seduction of soft persuasion. You speak to a soulless creature, and it is reasonable that you should find no communion. His utmost, very utmost skill is cunning, evidenced in the employment of covetous designs and fraudulent intentions. Of all the vocabulary, there is but one favorite word-MONEY! This is the tripping easy dissyllable, the beginning and end of all his harangues, the spirit of all his designs. This Plutus is his god by day, his fearful, though invoked guardian-spirit by night, filling his brain with torturing and avaricious desire, the posts of his bed into midnight assassins, and the tick of his watch into a robber demanding admission at his door.

But lest you deem us guilty of hanging without evidence, and condemning without an impartial hearing, we will take the anatomy of his character, and judge the wretch according to his desert.

Here he comes! Stand aside.-A nervous, fearful man, prematurely old, misery throws out all her horrid ecstacies in his features, and self-imposed starvation, would, if he invited their aid, bother all the tailors in the empire to produce a fit. His hose are full a world too wide, and the vinegar aspect and hatchet visage, cry loud enough wherever he goes "make way." So much for his poor penance begone trunk,—but what of his mind? Mark his doings! The chill region of his heart like