3. For the manifestation of the divine glory. "Man's extremity is God's opportunity." The deeper the darkness, the more light is required to dissipate it. If the law is in the dust, and iniquity abounds, if apathy and formality pervade the church, and everything wear the aspect of gloom and desolation, the power and wisdom and grace of God are peculiarly manifest in raising up the decayed foundations, in quickening the conscience, in bringing men to repentance. When we see the rigour of winter dissolving, the earth which had been desolate and frost-bound, teeming with life, the verdare of spring take the place of barrenness, we are filled with admiration of the grandeur and greatness of the Author of Nature. So when we witness the transformation of moral character, consequent upon a work of grace, see men who were possessed of every evil spirit, vile, licentious, abominable, clothed in their right minds, pure, teachable, obedient, benevolent, we are still more affected by the display of power and grace. A regard for the divine honour, no less than a spirit of benevolence, would lead us to desire a revival of pure and undefiled religion.

4. Nor should we overlook the interest of the Church.

When men make void God's law, it is evidence of the low state of religion in the church. If there is gross wickedness without, there is criminality within; if in one community iniquity abounds in the other there must be much that is wrong. Hence we find in seasons of declension, jealousies exist, divisions take place, selfishness triumphs, Zion languishes; the current of evil sets in deep and strong; nothing can save a church thus fallen into sin but a revival of religion; nothing else will heal the divisions and sooth the jealousies, nothing else will dissipate the despondency, and render effectual the efforts of the pious.

Jesus promised his Spirit to the Church, as the sum of all his blessings; the promise of the Father is the crowning gift. Who can enumerate all the benefits of an outpouring of the Spirit? It is to the church what the warmth of the Sun and the influence of the showers are to the earth. Its value is learned in two ways, by receiving, and by being deprived of it. A church that has been visited with a season of refreshing resuscitating its graces, expanding its charities, reviving its hopes, swelling its joys, multiplying its capabilities of usefulness, can never forget the favour; such a bright spot in its history, will be referred to with gratitude, while any of its precious fruits remain to bless the world.

And when a season of darkness ensues, in which zeal declines, the word preached does not profit, the pulse of piety beats feebly; the spiritual parts of the Church, remembering the days departed in which the arm of the Lord was revealed, will weep in secret places; they know, by its loss, the value of the blessing, and cry, Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy saints may rejoice in thee?"

Thus I have attempted to explain the terms used in this text, to illustrate the sentiment it contains, "that God often interposes at a time of great sinfulness," and have assigned some reasons for the divine conduct, or why such an interposition is desirable.

REMARKS.

1. We learn the duty of a church, in a time of declension. Some vainly imagine that nothing can be done. Influenced by their feelings, yielding to apathy, rather than to the word of God, they say, the time has not come that the Lord's house should be built. Such only seek an excuse. As well might the husbandman say that the season of harvest is the only time for him to labour, that at other seasons of the year he may fold his hands. Every season has its appropriate duties.

Surely when men make void God's law, it is not a time to slumber. The danger is too great for the Church to sleep at her post.

1. We ought to ascertain the extent of the evil. When Nehemiah went up to Jerusalem, to repair the house of the Lord, before he commenced active operations, he went out by night and surveyed by the light of the moon the extent of the desolation, that he might ascertain what was to be done. The responsibility of the Christian is too great, and life is too short to allow him to recline in ease. If God withholds his blessing from the word preached, if the ways of Zion mourn, something is wrong, and all who are attached to her interests, and seek her prosperity, should lose no time in searching for the cause. Each member should be visited and be urged to self-examination and repentance.

He is

2. It is our duty to call upon God in a time of declension. the only hope of the church at such a time. If we have forsaken the Lord, and he has withdrawn the tokens of his favour, we must return to him and humble ourselves under his mighty hand. Seasons of humiliation should be appointed. As all our help must come from God, he has taught us that he will be inquired of by the house of Israel-special prayer should be offered. The low and languishing state of Zion should be spread out before the Lord in the closet, at the family altar, in the social circle, as well as in the public sanctuary. "There shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

3. We ought to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. While all eyes should be directed to heaven, we must

remember that a blessing is to be expected only in the performance of duty. The very fact that God giveth the increase renders it indispensible that Paul should plant and Apollos water. The great duty of "working out our salvation," is predicated upon the assurance that "it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Some render the text, "It is time to work for thee, O Lord." When many are at ease in Zion, settled upon their lees, when iniquity abounds, and the authority of the law is disregarded, it is time for christians to awake to righteousness, to put on the whole armor of God; regard for the divine glory, sympathy for the mourning ways of Zion, compassion for perishing sinners should lead the friends of Christ to summon every energy and engage in the work of the Lord with zeal.

When

2. This subject furnishes a solemn test of character. all are excited, in the midst of stirring scenes, it is difficult to discriminate, but when the love of many waxes cold, when men make void God's law, there is no room for sympathy, then we may ascertain the strength of principle, the depth of attachment; we sce how real christians feel in a time of declension-they mourn in secret, they are concerned for the honour of the law, for the institutions of the gospel; like Esther they cannot endure the thought of the destruction coming upon their kindred-they weep before the Lord, confess their sins and humble themselves in dust. If you would learn the feelings of true christians, read the 9th chapter of Daniel, the 9th of Ezra, or the language of the weeping prophet; "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!" Says David, "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy law."

But the former believer, who has only a name to live, manifests no anxiety, the apathy of the church occasions no distress; if places of temptation are opened, so dangerous to the young. if the ways of Zion mourn because few come to her solemn feasts, he is not affected-he consults his ease and convenience; he has no faith in the efficacy of prayer; special efforts are looked upon with suspicion; every appeal is met with the reply that "God will carry on his own work." What a contrast to the feelings and con

duct of the true christian.

What are our feelings? Men now make void God's law; it is a time of darkness and gloominess in Zion, the word preached does not take effect, circles of prayer are neglected. Death is carrying on his work-multitudes are living without God. How are we affected? Are we prepared to call upon God to begin to work? Does the condition of the church and the exposure of sinners so press upon our hearts that we have no rest? Does continual sorrow fill our bosom? I do not see how a christian can be happy when Zion mourns.

BY REV. SAMUEL W. FISHER,

ALBANY, N. Y.

PROVIDENCE AND ITS TEACHINGS

"I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace and create evil; I the Lord do all these things. For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness."-ISAI. xiv. 7.—xxvi. 9.

THE providence of God is co-extensive with his works. It is operative wherever there are beings to be controlled or material orginizations to demand its powerful aid. Such is the doctrine of the first part of our text. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. The same omnipotent energy that of old gave birth to light, and by the revolution of the orbs, created darkness, is still at work originating and controlling the prosperity or the adversity that attends on human action. Light and darkness are figures beautifully expressive of the prosperity and the adversity that here brightens and darkens around us. Peace and evil are terms equally significant of the absence or the presence, on the one hand of desolating temporal judgments, as war and pestilence and famine; on the other of those spiritual trials which destroy our mental serenity and make the soul sad. In reference to all these things it is the emphatic meaning of the text that the divine providence extends to them either a direct supervision or a positive control. It is not intended that their authorship is in all respects divine; for a thousand free agencies may have co-operated in their production; minds by the myriad may have thrown their purposes in this direction, and hands without number have labored for this effect. But it is asserted that through all the seemingly chaotic mass of volitions and acts and events, there runs the silver cord of the divine purpose, along which flashes the divine energy, and around which, by an unseen law, the shapeless materials are crystallized into order and beauty. It is asserted that he who was great enough to create, is great enough to govern, and that where he has deigned to act the part of author and architect he will not fail to play the sovereign and

maintain the direct forces he has quickened. It is asserted, not indeed that sin is his creation, since that-the free product of a creature's will-is beyond the creative energy of a holy omnipotence, and involves a moral impossibility; but that no being lives in his wide domain, from Gabriel down to the tiniest form beyond the revelation of the most potent lens of the microscope, on whom his eye is not fixed, in whose actions he has not some concern, and over whom he does not exercise either a wise, moral or physical control; that over all the vast and countless events that occur on this footstool, God has his hand, and that only as he permits do they even manifest themselves. Against this doctrine of a universal providence,even when so stated as to acquit God of the authorship of sin, and yet maintain his supremacy unimpaired, there are many and specious objections. But whenever we have a clear "Thus saith the Lord" on which to rest, we have little concern respecting the adverse conclusions of any merely human intellect. They are to the word of God when faithfully expounded, as the ravings of insanity to the established facts of science.

By some, the whole subject of providence is resolved into fixed natural laws; and when they have hidden themselves and the events of life behind some law of the natural world, they dream of having escaped the immediate overruling providence of the Almighty. They do not consider that a law is only a mode of operation; that the laws of nature are nothing less than Jehovah putting forth in various forms his own omnipotent energy; that as he has constituted them, so he must support them; that it is just as senseless to talk of a self-sustaining and a self-operating law of nature, as it is to speak of a self-sustaining man or bird; and that the moment you introduce the idea of God as ever present, holding up the world from annihilation, and preserving all its forces in action, then you have at once and fully before you the idea of that sublime providence, which, from a point infinitely elevated, surveys the wide field of matter and mind, and holds in his own hand the final links of those countless chains of causes that reach down to all the events of this terrestrial sphere. What if we cannot trace the mighty chain of causation directly up to Jehovah, we can follow it far away until it is lost to us in the darkness that encompasses the throne, and it needs only a christian faith with purged vision to discern behind the cloud the hand which grasps and wields it to effect his sublime purposes.

Others again, in their anxiety to vindicate the character of Jehovah from the authorship of sin, do practically surrender up the world to the reign of chance, and sweep away the very idea of an efficient providence above us, without whose permission or agency, no event ever transpires. Because they cannot solve the problem of free agency and divine sovereignty, harmoniously operating in the production of the various scenes of time, they will save the