Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found; call ye upon him, while he is near-Receive these friendly hints in love; and may the God of love and peace be with you!

Knockando, April 16. 1819.

J. M.

REFLECTIONS ON PSALM XC. 12.

THIS Psalm is entitled, A Prayer of Moses the man of God.' He begins it by expressing his confidence in God, as the dwelling-place of his people in all generations, and adoring the eternity and unchangeableness of his character. God had called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. He was his dwelling-place when he sojourned in a strange land. He was also the dwelling-place of Isaac and Jacob in all their wanderings. When their seed was carried down into Egypt, he was their dwelling place there; and in the wilderness, after he had redeemed them with a strong hand, and with a stretched out

arm.

These views of the Divine character imparted peace and satisfaction to the mind of Moses; but, when he reflects on the return which his people had made, he is led to consider the weakness of human nature, and the shortness and uncertainty of human life. He had witnessed the death of three thousand, for their sin in making and worshipping the golden calf; he had witnessed the punishment of Korah and his company, for their sin in aspiring at the priesthood; and the carcases of the whole congregation doomed to fall in the wilderness, because they murmured against the Lord, upon the report which the men brought who were sent to search out the land. Well might Moses, after having seen all this, describe the frailty of human life. This he does in very brilliant colours, by employing the most striking figures. He compares life to a sleep; and to the grass, which is green and flourishing in the morning, but cut down and withered before the evening. Much of the original force of this figure is lost in this comparatively cold climate. The strong heat of the sun in the warm climates of the east, must have withered the grass very rapidly. Apt emblem of the frailty of human life! How frequently does it happen, that a person fresh and blooming in the morning, is cold and lifeless before the evening! How seasonable then the petition of Moses, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom!"

1st, This prayer is suitable to the young. In youth, the influence of novelty is very strong; the animal spirits are ardent, the affections warm, and the imagination vigorous and lively.

Every worldly pleasure presents an alluring appearance. The young person eagerly grasps at one, and, having experienced its bitterness, turns to another; but, before he has become acquainted with the bitterness of all the pleasures of sin, his youth is over and gone. How seasonable then is the prayer, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom!"

Young persons are exceedingly apt to flatter themselves that they shall live long in the world. Hence, they imagine, that they may spend many days in walking in the ways of their hearts, and in the sight of their eyes, and think of becoming good and pious when they become old; but, were they to number their days, they would see how uncertain their days upon earth are. It is true, my young friends, you cannot look forward and count your days; but you can look backward. Where are the first years of your life? They are with the years beyond the flood! Where is yesterday? It is gone; it is numbered with the days of other times! And, when a few years are come, you must go the way whence you shall not return. What a call to remember your Creator in the days of your youth! O! what if death should find you unprepared! Reflections upon death are always salutary; and, although you should live threescore years and ten, you will never have cause to repent that you began in early life to prepare for death. Think on the many examples of early piety we have in the Scriptures, and be encouraged to imitate them. How amiable was the conduct of Joseph when a young man! Joseph began to seek the God of his father when he was only sixteen years of age. Timothy knew the Scriptures from his childhood; and you must recollect the example of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who, when only twelve years of age, was employed in his Father's business.

2d, The prayer is suitable to the old. Strange, as it may seem, old men are in danger of becoming covetous, and, even when tottering on the brink of the grave, of setting their hearts on the present world. The prayer in the text is fitted to guard against this.

To aged disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we would appeal for a testimony to the goodness and faithfulness of Jehovah. "Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom." You can bear witness to the faithfulness of the Lord in the fulfilment of his promises. Spend the remainder of your days in encouraging the youth who have early taken upon them the profession of the religion of the blessed Jesus. Warn those who are going on in the ways of sin and Satan, of their folly, their guilt and danger. The grey head may, perhaps, procure you a willing and an attentive hearing. By the gravity, and dig.

nity, and consistency of your conduct, endeavour to maintain the respect of all around you. "The hoary head is a crown of glory, when it is found in the way of righteousness." Your remaining days may perhaps be trouble and sorrow; but wait with patience till God shall call you to his heavenly kingdom and glory. There are two extremes into which we are apt to run, either, on the one hand, to loath life altogether, or, on the other, eagerly to pursue the things of time, to the neglect of those of eternity. The prayer in the text guards against both these extremes. It delivers from a peevish fretfulness, and sourness of temper, and leads us to spend our allotted time with cheerfulness, to pursue the duties, and sustain the trials of life with patience and perseverance.

What can be said to the old who have not yet applied their hearts unto wisdom? who have spent a long life in the service of sin and Satan? The Scriptures declare that the sinner an hundred years old shall be accursed. old shall be accursed. Your health and strength are now gone; the powers and faculties of your mind are impaired; and you are on the verge of an eternal world. Death may terminate all your troubles here, but it may be the introduction to inconceivable misery in the world to come. Mercy is proclaimed to you even at the last hour. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

3d, The prayer is suitable to the rich. Death places all men upon a level. Your riches will not profit you in the day of wrath. O beware of setting your hearts on that which is not! Seek after the true riches which are to be found in the gospel. "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." I Timothy vi. 17-19.

4th, It is suitable to the poor. Daily reflection upon your latter end will teach you contentment with your condition. We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out of it. Remember Him who, though he was rich, yet, for your sakes, he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich." Let us all flee to him daily, that we may be cleansed from all sin; that we may obtain mercy to pardon, and grace to help us in the time of need.

NIBIL

337

-W

ON THE NATURE AND TENDENCY OF HOLYDAYS.

UNDER the Levitical economy, public worship, in a great measure, consisted in the religious observance of holydays; "which," says Paul," are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ." The "body" being come, the "shadow" (typical representation) is laid aside as useless. Accordingly, the New Testament never refers to holydays, except to oppose and condemn them. "I am afraid of you," says Paul, why? because, "ye observe days, and months, and times, and years." What! says an advocate for holydays, could any thing be a greater indication of eminent piety, or better calculated to nourish devotion, than days voluntarily set apart for religious exercises? So thought not Paul. Such will-worship and voluntary humility may have "a shew of wisdom," but it is not "the wisdom that cometh from above." That piety which cannot be indicated, but by adding to the ordinances appointed by God,-that devotion that cannot be nourished, but by adding to the provision divinely appointed for the saints, is, to say the least of it, very suspicious. "The mystery of iniquity" that began to work in the apostolic churches, consisted, not only in attempts to improve on the doctrines of revelation, but also in attempts to alter, modify, and increase the public institutions of the gospel. Accordingly, as real religion declined, these human improvements advanced, till, at length, the whole of the public worship of the Greek and Latin churches * became a mass of childish ceremonies and senseless holydays.

When the churches of the Reformation withdrew from Rome, they brought away with them too much of this holy furniture. Hence unscriptural observances, less or more, cleave to them

It must be remarked, however, to the honour of the Scotch Reformers, that they left the Pope in possession of all his ceremonies and holydays, and adopted a mode of worship sufficiently simple, and well adapted to the ends of instruction and edification.

Nothing can, therefore, more clearly shew the tendency of the human mind to improve on the plans of Divine wisdom, than the parade of holydays with which the Lord's Supper is now set off among Presbyterians in this country,-appendages of which, neither the inspired apostles, nor the Scotch Reformers ever dreamed; and which have contributed, not only to put it out of its proper place, but also sadly to profane it!

VOL. IV.

U u

*The word church, is here used in its popular, not in its scriptural acceptation.

These holydays have put the Lord's Supper out of its proper place among the ordinances of the gospel. That the Lord's Supper made a part of the public worship of the primitive churches on every first day of the week, is what will not admit of rational doubt. What else would any man, unfettered by system, infer from the following passages? Acts ii. 42. xx. 7. 1 Cor. xi. 20. The Reformers were all of this opinion, although, from the untoward materials on which they had to work, they were obliged to temporize. Calvin says expressly, that the Lord's table ought to be spread for the Lord's children every Lord's day. The Scotch Reformers appointed, that the Lord's Supper should be observed once a-month, or as often as the congregation would incline. Besides, in the end of the eighteenth, and beginning of the nineteenth century, Presbyterians, both in and out of the Establishment, whose praise is in their respective churches, have advocated the cause of weekly communion by arguments that cannot be refuted. But with the present preaching appendages to the Lord's Supper, it is impossible to make any thing like an approach towards the primitive practice. Thus a set of unscriptural holydays, the mere inventions of men, have put the Lord's Supper out of its proper place among the institutions of the gospel-have driven it into a corner! But this is not all; these holydays have put the Lord's Supper out of its proper place, in point of solemnity and importance.

The Lord's Supper is a very solemn, a very important ordinance; but that it is so in manner, or in a degree peculiar to itself, is without any evidence from Scripture. What Paul says to the Corinthians (1 epistle, chap. xi.) respecting this ordinance, arises, not from any peculiar solemnity in it, but from the way in which they prostituted and profaned it. All the ordinances of the Lord are solemn and important, and to profane them is highly criminal. The ordinance of Baptism, for instance, is instituted by the same authority, and designed, though by a different figure, to represent the very same truth -the salvation of sinners by the death of Christ; must it not therefore be equally solemn, and equally important, and the abuse or profanation of it equally criminal? Yet how few are there, even among Christians, who view the subject in this light; who would not tremble at the thought of setting baptism on a level, in point of solemnity and importance, with the Lord's Supper? Now, whence does this imaginary disparity arise? Not from any thing said in the Bible on the subject: for the form of words in baptism is as impressive and solemn, as any thing that the human mind can conceive. Not from the nature of the institutions for they are both instituted by the same authority, and both represent the same truth. It must arise