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so by his ever-watchful providence he preserves all things, according to the good pleasure of his will. In condescension to our imperfect understandings, he is pleased to describe himself as viewing with anxious care the vineyard which he has planted; as interested in its fertility, and disappointed when it is either barren or brings forth evil fruit. Nothing is wanting on his part, that his vineyard may be productive: he prepares the stubborn soil, he sows the seed, he watches over the tender plant, he waters it with the dew of his blessing, he fertilizes it with the life-giving influences of the Sun of Righteousness. In a word, as he justly demanded of the people of Israel, "What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?"

2. The vineyard of God is his universal creation. From the highest archangel to the lowest work of his hand he has exercised his creative power, and continues to exercise his providential care. But the portion of his vineyard which is chiefly alluded to in the sacred Scriptures, is that in which we are more immediately concerned-namely, the human race, and more especially his church in every age. For his universal church, like the Jews of old, is the object of his peculiar care. "He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine." The goodness of God was

exerted for the fallen race of mankind, in a way which surpasses all his other acts of bounty. The angels he created, and preserves, and renders eternally happy; but for mankind he has done more; he has added long-suffering and tender mercy to his other acts of beneficence; he has borne with our provocations, he has provided pardon for our sins, and a remedy for all our sorrows. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso believeth in him should CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 295.

not perish, but have everlasting life." He takes, as it were, a more than ordinary interest in this his vineyard; he watches over it with tender solicitude. "We are God's husbandry;" and "every branch," says our Saviour, that "beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples."

This householder is represented as going out to seek for labourers for his vineyard. Who, then, are these labourers? What is the service in which they are to engage? What is the period of their service? And what is the remuneration which they are to receive? These particulars will open before us the chief remaining circumstances of the parable.

3. We have seen then, first, that God is the householder; and, next, that the world, and more especially the church, is his vineyard: our third inquiry is, Who are the la bourers?-Alas! truly speaking, they are lamentably few. All mankind ought indeed to be the willing servants of God; for He has made them, and has a right to their obedience; but, instead of engaging actively in his service, the great majority of them stand, as it were, idle in the market-place: they are ready to lend themselves to the first master who can tempt them to his service: neglecting their duty to God, they become slaves of sin and Satan; they live in willing subjection to their own sinful desires; they toil for that which is of no value-nay, worse, for the wages of sin, which is death. Even if they shrink from some of the more openly disgraceful badges of this servitude, they do not shake off the servitude itself: they try to obey two masters; they would serve God with a few marks of outward worship, but the world with their heart. But such are not the labourers he requires. He will have us make a decision: he addresses us 3 F

with the command, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve ;" and he expects from us the reply, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Unprofitable servants we are at the best; but sincere and willing servants we must be; serving him in the Gospel of his Son with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and accounting it our greatest honour that we are admitted to the privileges of this high and holy vocation.

own dear Son, that we might live to his glory all the days of our life.

5. What is the period of this service? It is the day of human life.

4. The service in which we are to engage next claims our considera. tion. The command of God to us is, "Go ye into my vineyard." Every individual of mankind has a work to perform, a post to occupy; he has talents entrusted to him, for the improvement of which he is to render a strict account: his great business in life is to serve God, and to make his calling and election sure. If these be neglected, however active he may be in secular concerns, even of a lawful kind, he will appear at the last day as having lost sight of the great purpose of his existence. To "fear God and to keep his commandments, is the whole duty of man." And what renders the folly of neglecting this service as great as is the criminality of so doing, is, that it is perfect freedom; for his yoke is easy and his burden light. The way of transgressors is hard; the service of the world is full of vexation and disappointment; but the ways of heavenly wisdom are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. To be the servant of Jesus Christ, justified by his merits, sanctified by his Holy Spirit, and living to his glory, is the highest honour, the greatest happiness, to which we can aspire. Angels themselves know of no privilege more exalted than their devotion to the service of their Almighty Creator; who has an added claim to the obedience of mankind as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Iraving redeemed us from the slavery of sin and Satan by the blood of his

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From the first dawn of intelligence, the first moment in which we are able to discern right from wrong, to the close of our earthly existence, our Creator calls us to labour in his vineyard. "Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth; are not his days as the days of a hireling?" The night is coming, in which no man can work. It is but a short, though a sufficient, period that is allotted to us for the great work of making our calling and election sure; of providing for the interests of an eternal world. Part of this day-perhaps, with some of us, far the larger part-is already spent. The Lord of the vineyard has frequently called us to his service, and we neglected his invitation. By his word, by his ministers, by the checks of conscience, by the secret warnings of his Holy Spirit in our hearts, he has addressed us again and again, "Why stand ye here idle ?" Early in the morning" of life we were dedicated outwardly in baptism to his service; at the sixth and the ninth hour, in youth or manhood, the invitation is repeated; and even to the eleventh hour, the closing scene of life, it continues to be repeated. Some happily enter this vineyard in the morning of their existence, as John the Baptist, who was sanctified from his birth; Timothy, who from his childhood knew the holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation; and Obadiah, who feared God from his youth. Others enter it at mid-day, as St. Paul, who "obtained mercy, that in him first Christ Jesus might shew forth all long-suffering;" and others, though rarely, as the thief upon the cross, at the eleventh hour. our duty, and, rightly considered, our privilege also, is, to be the servants of God during our whole lives, " to bear the burden and heat of the day." God is not obliged

But

to receive us at all; and if we put off our obedience to him to a future period, we have no just ground to hope that the favourable period which we expect will ever arrive. Having "hardened our neck," we may be "cut off suddenly, and without a remedy," when we least expect it. We can have no excuse to offer for our neglect: we cannot plead ignorance, or want of invitation; we cannot urge in our defence that "No man hath hired us." Our duty was plain; the call was given early, and repeated long and often; and the influence of God's Holy Spirit was promised to convert us from the error of our ways. Let us, then, no longer neglect, if hitherto we have neglected, this merciful command of our Creator. Let us enter his service without delay; let not our past negligence deter us from at length listening to the invitation of our Redeemer. If young, we cannot serve him too soon; if older, it is not yet too late; provided only we determine, by his grace assisting us, to give ourselves wholly, body, soul, and spirit, to his blessed service.

6. To induce us to make this wise and happy choice, we are, lastly, to consider the remuneration which those shall receive who devote themselves to the service of God.-True it is that God is not our debtor; and this very parable shews us, in the case of the labourers last hired, that the reward was of grace, and not of merit. But, still, the command to devote ourselves to the service of God is accompanied with the promise, "Whatsoever is right that shall ye receive." The blessings included in this promise, and freely bestowed on every true servant of Christ, in virtue of the merits of his all-sufficient Surety, are such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived. We do not serve God for nought. The service itself is its own reward; and the issue of it will be "an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour

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Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

THE writer of the excellent paper, in your last number, on the Evidence in favour of the Gospels, adopts a sentiment very generally found in similar arguments, but which ought not to be admitted without much caution and considerable limitations. In speaking of the internal evidences of Christianity, he calls in "our preconceived notions of the nature of God and the fitness of things," in order to help us to decide whether the record, already accredited to us by external argument, is in truth to be admitted as the word of God. But is not this making human reason the supreme test of Divine revelation? And can we, after all our previous researches, undertake to say what it befits or does not befit God to reveal? The limits of human reason, in matters of revelation, are not easy to be explicitly defined; but we cannot go far astray in adhering to the maxim that reason is to be employed in judging of the external evidence, and ought to be superseded by faith in receiving the declarations contained in the record which reason has pronounced true. Take an illustration from human affairs. A Judge, we will suppose, is administering the law, in obedi ence to an Act of Parliament; and let us suppose that the Judge thought the provisions of the Act contrary to "our notions of" justice and "the fitness of things." Still, would it be allowed that he should say,

"True, there is every external evidence in favour of its being a genuine Act of Parliament, but the internal evidence is against it: it does not comport with my sense of what the legislature ought to have enacted; I therefore conclude it did not enact it." Yet this argument is virtually used by various writers on the evidences of Christianity; fully and avowedly by every class of "free-thinking Christians," and in a measure by many others.

The internal evidences of Christianity, it is true, corroborate most powerfully the external: there is nothing in the doctrine which contravenes the idea of God being its author; there is nothing that can revolt right reason, or that opposes what we may judge to be the "fitness of things." But, still, we are not entitled to lay down as a preliminary certain tests of internal evidence by which to try a professed revelation. We may, and ought, carefully to weigh every part of its disclosures; but we are not to determine, beforehand, what God ought or ought not to reveal. To ask whether a revelation was possible or probable, is to no purpose; we have proof that one has been given, and our duty, and privilege also, is, to obey it as we find it,

Y. X.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

As many of your readers may not have seen the Rev. Robert Hall's funeral sermon for Dr. Ryland, I transcribe for their perusal a splendid passage from that highly interesting discourse. Whether Christians will or will not recognise each other in heaven, is a point which has often been disputed; but there can surely be no impiety in indulging the delightful anticipations exhibited in the following passage, and which may well animate us to renewed exertion in the race which is set before us in the Gospel.

J.

"If the mere conception of the re-union of good men in a future state, infused a momentary rapture in the mind of Tully; if an airy speculation, for there is reason to fear it had little hold on his convictions, could inspire him with such delight; what may we be expected to feel, who are assured of such an event by the true sayings of God! How should we rejoice in the prospect, the certainty rather, of spending a blissful eternity with those whom we loved on earth; of seeing them emerge from the ruins of the tomb, and the deeper ruins of the Fall, not only uninjured, but refined and perfected; ' with every tear wiped from their eyes,' standing before the throne of God and the Lamb, in white robes, and palms in their hands, crying with a loud voice, Salvation to God, that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever!' What delight will it afford, to renew the sweet counsel we have taken together; to recount the toils of combat, and the labour of the way; and to approach, not the house, but the throne of God, in company, in order to join in the symphonies of heavenly voices, and lose ourselves amidst the splendours and fruitions of the beatific vision !

"To that state all the pious on earth are tending; and if there is a law, from whose operation none are exempt, which irresistibly conveys their bodies to darkness and to dust, there is another, not less certain or less powerful, which conducts their spirits to the abodes of bliss, to the bosom of their Father and their God. The wheels of nature are not made to roll backward: every thing presses on towards eternity: from the birth of time, an impetuous current has set in, which bears all the sons of men towards that interminable ocean. Meanwhile, heaven is attracting to itself whatever is congenial to its nature; is enriching itself by the spoils of earth; and collecting within its capacious bosom whatever is pure,

permanent, and divine; leaving nothing for the last fire to consume, but the objects and the slaves of concupiscence; while every thing which grace has prepared and beautified, shall be gathered and select ed from the ruins of the world, to adorn that eternal city, which hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God doth enlighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.' Let us obey the voice that calls us thither; let us seek the things that are above;' and no longer cleave to a world which must shortly perish, and which we must shortly quit, while we neglect to prepare for that in which we are invited to dwell for ever. Let us follow in the track of those holy men, who have

taught us by their voice and encouraged us by their example, 'that, laying aside every weight, and the sin that most easily besets us, we may run with patience the race that is set before us.' While every thing within us and around us reminds us of the approach of death, and concurs to teach us that this is not our rest, let us hasten our preparations for another world, and earnestly implore that grace, which alone can put an end to that fatal war which our desires have too long waged with our destiny. When these move in the same direction, and that which the will of Heaven renders unavoidable shall become our choice, all things will be ours; life will be divested of its vanity, and death of its terrors."

MISCELLANEOUS.

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1. REPORT OF THE BISHOP OF
JAMAICA.

"The general result," his Lordship observes, in a letter, dated 16th September 1825, of his and his Archdeacon's observations, "is a hearty desire, on the part of the proprietors, and their representatives, cheerfully to promote, as far as their limited means will allow, any measures which I have thought it my duty to suggest for the benefit of the church. Public meetings have been called in many parishes, and private subscriptions entered into to promote the same desirable object."

"With respect to the instruction of the Negroes," his Lordship adds, "I have proposed, by way of experiment, that the children of three or

four contiguous estates should, with sembled twice in the week, at some the consent of the proprietors, be asgiven point most convenient for all,

there to receive oral instruction from

any clergyman or catechist properly

licensed. From the best considera

tion I can give the subject, and from experience, I know of no method, in the present state of public opinion here, liable to so few objections, or better calculated, from its probable effects on the adults, to lay the foundation of permanent good."

In this communication, two points are particularly noticed by the Bishop

what has been done for the benefit of the church, and what has been done for the instruction of the Negroes. On the first point, something appears to have been done. The Bishop expresses great satisfaction in being able to announce that a bill, for placing fully and effectually in his hands the ecclesiastical regimen over the clergy, had passed into a law. By this act, his Lordship adds, the clergy are exempted from the interference of parish vestries,

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