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of God? or do I think lightly of sin, and imagine that I can, by contrition and reformation, easily obliterate its stains? Do I cherish worthy and ennobling sentiments in reference to the Saviour? He is the beloved Son

of the Father, adored by angels, and admired by all His redeemed people. Do I believe in Him as my Saviour? Am I depending on His merits for my acceptance now and at the last day? or do I neglect His salvation, and undervalue the gift and grace of His Divine Spirit? "What think ye of Christ?" is a question He Himself proposed to some who surrounded Him when on earth, and it is one by which I may test at once my character and my state.

Again I would ask myself as it regards the Supper of the Lord, are my views in harmony with the teachings of the written Word ? Let me not view it as a species of propitiation for my sins, but as an ordinance which furnishes an appropriate method of testifying my love. and gratitude to the Lord Jesus, my hearty obedience to His will, and my delight in fellowship with His people.

But forasmuch as the creed we hold may be correct, while the heart is unrenewed; as there may be light in the intellect, clear but cold as that which shines on the eternal snows of Greenland, it becomes us to enquire into the affections we cherish. Let there then be great searchings of heart with me on this solemn occasion. Do I love Jesus, who loved me and gave Himself for me? Do I hate sin as a thing excessively unclean and eternally hateful to the Holy God? Do I indulge in emotions of affection toward my fellow-communicants, and

to the whole Church bought by the blood and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ? Do I pity and forgive, and pray for my enemies? Am I putting away all bitterness and wrath, and am I cherishing the dispositions of Him whose death I am about to commemorate? He prayed for His murderers, He wept over a guilty city, He died for an apostate world— am I like-minded with Him? "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts;" shed Thy love abroad in my heart, and "lead me in the way everlasting."

Let

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. In vain, therefore, I come to the Table of the Lord, if I do it with defiled lips and unclean hands. me then search and try my ways, and turn again unto the Lord. Does my conduct in the family, in the Church, and in the daily public walks of life, harmonize with my Christian profession? Is the motive and rule, and end of that conduct such as to glorify God and to commend the Gospel to the acceptance of my fellow-creatures? or am I unhappily becoming a stumbling-block and. a barrier to others in the way to the kingdom? Very candid and careful should be the enquiries we thus make into our real state before God.

Let a man thus examine himself, making the Word of God the criterion by which his judgment is to be guided, and depending on the gracious assistance of the Holy Spirit promised to all who seek it, and he will be led to a true apprehension of his real state and character. If the result shall be a conviction, as it most probably will be, that with all his imperfections,

he is a true disciple and humble follower of Christ, then let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup in penitence and faith, so will he discern the Lord's body, and realize the encouragement and comfort which this ordinance is adapted to convey. Blessed is he that shall thus eat bread in the kingdom of God.

The exercise to which we are thus called should be wisely and well con'ducted, or it may become a discouragement to the timid and conscientious Christian. We cannot come to the light of the written Word, and have its noontide rays thrown upon our thoughts and principles, our words and actions, without discerning an amount of defectiveness and disorder truly appalling. If our final views rested here, we should shrink back from everything involving a solemn profession of love to Christ and devotedness to Him as our Master and Lord. But conscious imperfection is compatible with sincere piety, and the very discovery and acknowledgment of our deficiency becomes one evidence amongst many, of an interest in that salvation which our Saviour died to procure, and is gone into heaven to impart.

It was not for perfect, but for imperfect Christians that the Supper of the Lord was instituted. It is eminently adapted to nourish our faith, to confirm our hope, and to promote our increasing devotedness to Christ.

Herein He is evidently set forth as crucified for our sins, and we become as familiar with the event as though we had been actual spectators of His death. the evangelical records, and it forms the subject of the Gospel ministry on which we wait; but here it is presented in palpable forms, is written in large and legible characters, and in most affecting figures is impressively exhibited to our wondering gaze. In the death we celebrate, we find the means of pardon, and the only method of redemption. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" "His blood cleanseth from all sin." "We have redemption in His blood, the forgiveness of all our sins." The truth thus presented to our contemplation may well subdue our fears, and excite our faith and hope. We may then, notwithstanding our unworthiness, take and eat the bread in remembrance of the death of Christ and drink of the cup of blessing, remembering that He shed His blood for us; thus feeding on Him in our hearts with thanksgiving, that we may be nourished in truth, and be trained up for the perfect service and rest of heaven, this ordinance will prove a blessed means by which we shall grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We read the account of it in

ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA.
BY THE REV. T. BINNEY.*

ANANIAS and Sapphira were among the early fruits of the Apostolic ministry after the descent of the

;

Spirit, and were numbered among the disciples who constituted the first Christian Church. They might have

* From Mr. Binney's new and most valuable work on "Money."

been present on the Day of Pentecost, and been witnesses of its wonders ;they saw, perhaps, "the cloven tongues like as of fire" which sat on the heads of the Apostles, and heard the words of Peter and were "pricked" by them in their hearts. Or they might have been in the temple, and seen the " impotent man❞—to whom they might sometimes have given alms after being healed by Peter, "walking and leaping and praising God;" and, there, drawn towards the Apostle when he addressed the multitude, they might have listened to his exhortation, and felt his word come to them in power. Or they might have been induced to accept the new truth, from being brought into personal contact with it through the influence and persuasion of relatives or friends, and so were among one or other of those accessions of disciples whom the Lord" daily added to the Church." But however this might be, in the Church they were. They had professedly accepted the Apostolic message; had been baptized probably by Apostolic hands; and might have occasionally received the Apostles under their roof, as they were then in the habit of "breaking bread from house to house." Ananias and Sapphira were in the Church when there broke out that extraordinary and affluent gushing of affection that utter forgetfulness of self-under the new feeling of Christian brotherhood, which "made them that believed of one heart and of one soul," so that "neither said any of them that the things which he possessed were his own; but they had all things common.' This went so far,

that "

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as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and

brought the prices of the things which were sold, and laid them down at the Apostles' feet."

Now the precise point to be noted here is, that this relinquishment of property, this scale of contribution to the common fund, involving all that a man possessed, was no Divine appointment; it rested on no new revelation, nor on any Apostolic law; it was binding on no one; and might have been disregarded without sin. From Peter's words about it we learn that a man's property 66 was his own" to keep or sell, devote or not, as he pleased; that even if he went so far as to turn lands into money with a view of giving it to the Church, if he repented of his purpose, or altered his judgment, he was at liberty to do so; the money like the land was "in his own power." All was voluntary ; no one compelled. Here, however, comes out the very pith of the lesson with which the incident is fraught. There was no law imposing payment and specifying amount; but there was a public opinion and a general practice that took its place. There was an impulse and an enthusiasm, which you would be singular if you did not obey and share. There was a fashion, so to speak (using the word without prejudice), which you would be marked or talked of, if you did not conform

This was a severe test to weak natures;-especially if there were combined in such a wish to stand well in the society with a desire to retain their wealth; or a perfectly allowable difference of judgment as to the mode or amount of contribution. This mixed feeling indeed is what constitutes the weakness of the weak. Ananias and Sapphira were affected by it. They were swayed by contra

dictory impulses, and in trying to but storing away as their visible con

obey both, they fell. The probability is, that both the motives that influenced them were bad, and that their characters would not have been bettered, though their exposure would have been prevented, had they entirely yielded themselves to one;-that is, had they either given up their property, all, absolutely and without reserve; or if they had retained it, and given nothing—or given openly and professedly a limited donation and

no more.

They had not strength to follow out either the one or the other of

these courses. Attempting a compromise--a middle path by which they were to get more reputation than they deserved, and to part with less of their property than they pretended they of course fell into "the snare of the Devil, and were taken captive by him at his will." They sold their property, and got the credit of doing so; it might be a public act, or they took care to let it be publicly known. But they could not bring themselves to part with all the purchase-money; they did not like to leave themselves without some reserved pecuniary stay. But their professions had committed them, and they were ashamed to draw back; or rather, indeed, they wished the repute of magnanimous liberality without paying the price at which it was to be bought. Either way, they agreed together" together" to act to act a lie, and to tell one if necessary. They made the attempt "to serve God and Mammon ;"-to honour the one and yet to hold with the other; to seem to sacrifice everything to the Church as an act of love, henceforth professedly to live by faith;

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fidence a cruse of oil and barrel of meal that should not fail. It was the "uprighteous Mammon" that whispered the promise; they gave Him the trust which they withheld from God; the consequence was such as evinced at once the "deceitfulness" of the idol and the folly of his worshippers.

The manner in which Ananias and Sapphira were detected and punished is striking and admonitory, not so much for its display of apostolic power, as for its revelation of the greatness of their sin. That sin consisted in their pretence and hypocrisy, in their wish to secure reputation on the ground of great liberality and personal sacrifice, without either the one or the other; in their want of faith, evinced by their conforming, or appearing to conform, to a high standard of pecuniary contribution, while their secret and concealed provision for themselves gave the lie to their outward acts, and developed into an open and uttered lie to God. And these people were professed Christians,-fellow-communicants with evangelists and apostles -witnesses of the miracles, and attendants on the ministry of inspired men! They were under no obligation, as we have already intimated, to do what they pretended to have done. They were not bound to follow the example of others,-to imitate the zeal and equal the donations of their fellow-disciples, if they could not do so with all their heart, with the approval of their reason, and as the expression of a spontaneous and spiritual impulse. They not only had not moral courage enough to follow their own judgment,-which might have exposed them to remark, though

it might have been no sin; but they were tempted to aspire to a reputation for liberality, while their love of money, as an object of trust, led them to try to deceive men and to dissemble with God. Their fate is recorded as a solemn warning for all time;— as an eloquent admonition to every Christian man to be true and transparent, upright and conscientious, especially in professed sacrifices for God. Their sin was their own; their punishment was for us. were struck down "before all," that others also might fear. They seem to say to us, "be not deceived; God is not mocked; he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption." God loveth an upright, as well as a "cheerful giver." "The cup of cold water," in the spirit of a disciple, is of more

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They

value than houses and lands in the spirit of the world, the offering of ostentation, or the extorted gift of an unwelcome necessity,-especially so, if, while professing to give all to God, you keep a reserve as a sacrifice to Mammon and to self.'

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People look for the proof of human depravity in the world at large. The most flagrant and fearful proofs of it are to be found in the Church. Responsibility is in proportion to advantage; sin is aggravated by privilege and profession. Children of the light, if their deeds are evil, are worse than those who are still wandering in darkness. "If I had not come a light into the world, ye had not had sin, but now ye have no cloak for your sin." "If ye were blind ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see,

therefore your sin remaineth!"

EPISCOPACY, PRESBYTERY, AND INDEPENDENCY: THEIR FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES.

"Not for a favourite form or name,
But for immortal souls we care;

Bless, Saviour, our Jerusalem,
That millions may our blessings share."

WITH all our hearts do we adopt and echo the words of Charles Wesley. "Forms" and "names" are nothing to us, but so far as they bear the superscription of Christ, and are identified with the best interests of "immortal souls." And we hope never to discuss their merits in these pages in a spirit of bigotry or sectarianism. Even when we use the strongest words which strong convictions may dictate, we shall be prepared to say at once with no bated breath, "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth."

We do not propose in this brief

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