the letter, but God's will in the spirit. We might say, that these comprehensive vows include all that could be demanded of a Christian. The Church of the mediæval ages, however, was not satisfied with these expressive vows. They required of those, whom they considered to be candidates for a higher perfection than ordinary Christians could attain, the three vows of celibacy, poverty, and obedience to the laws of the Church. They did not remember that the vow of celibacy might be, or ought to be, cancelled at any time by the honourable affection which esteems marriage to be the preferable condition to celibacy; that the vow of poverty might be cancelled by accession to wealth, to be honourably devoted to the glory of God and the good of man; and that even the vow of obedience to the laws of the Church might be cancelled by the conviction that the Church demanded the homage of the Christian to doctrines which God had not revealed, or to observances which neither God had commanded nor reason sanctioned. We may believe, therefore, that in the case of promises and vows, the Christian is left to the guidance of his own conscience, enlightened by the knowledge of the commandments and will of God, directed and governed by the Divine power; and that, though we do not presume to say that vows are actually forbidden, yet the solemn surrender to God by the Christian of his life, by his actions; of his property, by its dedication to usefulness; of his talents, by their surrender to the promotion of Christ's kingdom; and of his powers, by their devotedness to the common cause of God and of His Church, is sufficient, without any solemn declaration by the Christian of his intention or resolution to perform any specific service to the glory of God. Our peculiar and especial vows, if they are ever made, should result from the circumstances in which the Providence of God has placed us, and not be formed independently of or in anticipation of those circumstances. This only, we may say, may safely be regarded as the right vow of the Christian-that he will give, devote, dedicate, and surrender the actions of his life, the affections of his heart, and the thoughts of his soul, to God; and that he will observe the Sabbaths, the Sacraments, and all the means of grace which uphold that holy influence of religion within the soul. He will vow that he will give to God the affections of the son, and the obedience of the son; for such vows and promises are only solemn prayers strengthening faith, and conducing to obedience, as the general and universal duties demanded of all Christians; while the vow and promise to abstain from or to do the things which God has neither commanded nor prohibited, change the obedience of the son into the bondage of the slave, and introduce the fetters of the Jewish law into the liberty and freedom of the Christian dispensation. It was not so, however, with the Jewish ordinances. The people of Israel were permitted to dedicate themselves by especial vows to the service of a visible theocracy. They surrendered themselves, therefore, to the service of the sanctuary. Because the services of the sanctuary were filled up by the administering priests, and the assistance, therefore, of these voluntary devotees was not required, they were permitted to redeem themselves; and when they dedicated to the service of God, not themselves only, but also their goods and their possessions, they were permitted to redeem them also at a price fixed upon by the priests, to be devoted to the service of the tabernacle. A man, for instance, was valued at fifty shekels of silver; that is, fifty shekels were to be paid to the tabernacle in lieu of the continued services of the man who was devoted to the performance of those services. These vows related to things animate, and inanimate. The things animate were men and beasts. The men might be redeemed at a fixed price; the clean beasts were to be sacrificed. The unclean beasts were not to be sacrificed, but to be sold, and the price was to be given to the priests. The first-born of clean animals were not to be sold; because they were already, as the first-born, consecrated to God. The first-born of unclean animals were to be redeemed or sold, as unfit for the sacrifice of the altar. The inanimate things vowed were houses, fields, or things devoted. Houses were redeemable under the condition of adding a fifth part to the priest, as a compensation for the trouble of valuation (xxvii. 14, 15). Fields were redeemable, unless they were forsaken by the original proprietor, and sold to a stranger (16-21). And things devoted to God, which did not appertain to the above nor to the commonwealth of Israel, such as the nations of the Canaanites, were never to be redeemed, but were to be wholly devoted, either to the service of God (as the Gibeonites, Josh. ix. 3-27), or to utter extirpation (as the other Canaanites, Exod. xxiii. 31; xxiv. 12; Lev. xxvii. 29; Numb. xxxiii. 50; Deut. xx. 16). All these regulations were peculiar to the laws and people of Israel. There was, however, one regulation which was not peculiar to Israel, but which seems to have been ordained from the beginning. This was the ordinance that the tenth of the produce of the land should be devoted to God. All the tenth was declared to be holy': whether the tenth was redeemed or not redeemed, it was declared to be devoted to God. We have sufficient evidence to prove that this custom prevailed from the remotest antiquity: and from the general statements of the word of God, which we invite the Christian reader to study at his leisure, the general inference may be drawn, that the tenth of every man's substance, and therefore the tenth, not merely of his silver and gold, but, to those who have neither silver nor gold, as well as to those who possess them, the seventh of our time, our possessions, the produce of our labour, the tenth of the fruit of the toil of our brain or of our hands, should be devoted, surrendered, and dedicated, to the service, the glory, and the cause of God. I do not limit this appropriation of the tenth of all things to the priesthood, to their honour or support; these would be, generally speaking, included. But I declare it to be the unavoidable conclusion, deduced from the study of the will of God, so revealed in His written Word, or handed down from the period which preceded the writing of His original revelation, that the tenth of all we possess should be given up to God, to the extension of His word, the enlargement of His Church, the benefit of His priesthood, the alleviation of the sufferings of His poor, or to some other part of the service which God may require of His people. "The tenth of the flock," says Moses, "shall be holy to the Lord" (Lev. xxvii. 32). The tenth of the possessions of the spiritual Israelite should be holy to the Lord Christ. 1 Tithes. LEVITICUS XXVII. Memorandum.-Omit from ver. 14-22. BEFORE CHRIST 1491. 1 And the LORD spake vowed shall the priest value unto Moses, saying, him. 2 Speak unto the chil- 9 And if it be a beast, dren of Israel, and say unto whereof men bring an of• Numb. 6. 2. them, a When a man shall fering unto the LORD, all 30, 31, 39. make a singular vow, the that any man giveth of such 1 Sam. 1. 11, person shall be for the unto the LORD shall be LORD by thy estimation. See Judg. 11. 28. holy. 3 And thy estimation 10 He shall not alter it, shall be of the male from nor change it, a good for twenty years old even unto a bad, or a bad for a good: sixty years old, even thy and if he shall at all change estimation shall be fifty beast for beast, then it and Exod. 30. shekels of silver, after the the exchange thereof shall be holy. 13. b shekel of the sanctuary. 4 And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. 5 And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 11 And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the beast before the priest: 12 And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be. all 6 And if it be from a 14 And when a man BEFORE CHRIST 1491. 8 But if he be poorer 15 d And if he that sanc- ver. 13. than thy estimation, then tified it will redeem his he shall present himself house, then he shall add before the priest, and the the fifth part of the money priest shall value him; ac- of thy estimation unto it, cording to his ability that and it shall be his. BEFORE CHRIST 1491. of an homer, 16 And if a man shall the year of the jubile: and sanctify unto the LORD he shall give thine estisome part of a field of his mation in that day, as possession, then thy esti- a holy thing unto the mation shall be according LORD. BEFORE CHRIST 1491. Or the land to the seed thereof: || an 24 m In the year of the ch. 25. 28. homer of barley seed shall jubile the field shall return be valued at fifty shekels of unto him of whom it was &c. 16. silver. 17 If he sanctify his field from the year of jubile, according to thy estimation it shall stand. bought, even to him to 25 And all thy estima- 18 But if he sanctify to the shekel of the sanchis field after the jubile, tuary: n Exod. 30. 13. Numb. 3. 47. & 18. 16. born, &c. twenty gerahs ch. 25. 15, then the priest shall reckon shall be the shekel. unto him the money ac- 26 Only the +o first- Ezek. 45. 12. cording to the years that ling of the beasts, which Heb. firstremain, even unto the year should be the LORD's first- Exod. 13. 2, of the jubile, and it shall ling, no man shall sanctify Numb. 18.17. be abated from thy esti- it; whether it be ox, or Deut. 15. 19. mation. sheep: it is the LORD'S. 27 And if it be of an f ver. 13. 12. & 22. 30. 19 f And if he that sanctified the field will in any unclean beast, then he wise redeem it, then he shall redeem it according shall add the fifth part of to thine estimation, Pand P ver. 11, 12, the money of thy estima- shall add a fifth part of it tion unto it, and it shall be thereto or if it be not assured to him. 20 And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more. redeemed, then it shall be 13. Josh. 6. 17, 18, 19. 28 Notwithstanding nover. 21. devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the LORD 21 But the field, when of all that he hath, both of it goeth out in the jubile, man and beast, and of the shall be holy unto the field of his possession, shall LORD, as a field devoted; be sold or redeemed: every the possession thereof devoted thing is most holy shall be the priest's. unto the LORD. h 2, 3. 22 And if a man sanc- 29 None devoted, which Numb. 21. tify unto the LORD a field shall be devoted of men, which he hath bought, shall be redeemed; but which is not of the fields shall surely be put to death. BEFORE CHRIST 1491. t ver. 13. LORD. t LORD's: it is holy unto the whether it be good or bad, 31 And if a man will it 32 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever See Jer. 33. " passeth under the rod, Ezek. 20. 37. the tenth shall be holy unto Mic. 7. 14. the LORD. 13. u 33 He shall not search BEFORE CHRIST 1491. * ver. 10. 34 These are the com- y ch. 26. 46. mandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai. PRAYER. LET US PRAY, that we give to God the affections, the energies, the motives, and the actions. That we be enabled to vow and pay the vow of the dedication of our time to the private prayer, the public worship, the observance of the Holy Sacrament, and the study of God's Word; and that we devote and dedicate to God the tenth of our possessions to the setting forth of God's glory, the extension of His Word, the enlargement of His Church, and the usefulness of His ministry. ALMIGHTY and merciful God, who hast been graciously pleased to command and to accept the services of sinful man; we Thine unworthy servants come before Thee, to pray Thee to enable us to present and offer to Thee ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and acceptable service unto Thee. Grant us Thy grace, that we may devote and dedicate to Thee the affections of the heart, the energies of the understanding, the motives of the conduct, and the actions of our lives. In all our thoughts, words, and works, may we be ever devoted to Thy honour and glory. Here we offer and present to Thee the being Thou hast created, and preserved to this hour. Sanctify us to Thy service. Accept our burnt-offering. May the lifting up of our hands be unto Thee as the morning and the evening sacrifice! May the words of our mouth, and the meditations of our heart, be always acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer! And to the end that we should always remember this our bounden duty and service, we pray Thee to accept the solemn vow and covenant which we here make before Thee, that we resolve and promise from this time forth to observe the means of grace which Thou hast granted us here, that we may welcome more earnestly and more deeply the hope of glory which Thou hast revealed as our blessing hereafter. Here, O Lord, we devote and dedicate to Thee, more fully than we have yet done, the seventh part of our time, and the tenth part of our possessions. We devote to Thee the seventh part of our time, entreating and imploring the strength of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may keep Thy Sabbaths holy, as the sign, between God and our souls that we are the people of God, and that God is the Lord of our souls. Here we devote and dedicate to God the Creator, who sanctified the Sabbath by the rest from creation, to God the Son, who sanctified the Lord's Day by His resurrection from the dead,-to God the Holy Ghost, who sanctified the Lord's Day by His coming down from heaven upon the Church of God,-here we devote and dedicate to Thee, O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, the seventh portion of our time to study Thy holy Word, to partake of Thy holy sacraments, to unite |