CONTENTS:-A Sermon by the Rev. R. Burls, Maldon: -Paul's Prayer for Onesiphorus-Historical Account of the Congregational Church, at Bocking, Essex; from the Congregational Magazine. Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Shepherd, M. A.--(ECCLESIASTICS) Extracts from a paper by Mr. Locke on Civil and Ecclesiastical Power-(MISSIONS) Native Speech-(SUNDAY-SCHOOLS)-Sunday-school Clothing Fund.

SERMON

THE LORD GRANT THAT HE MAY FIND MERCY OF THE LORD AT THAT DAY.—2 Timothy i. 18. THESE words, while they express a grateful sense. of obligation for favors received, appear in the form of a parenthesis, by which they are rendered more strikingly affectionate. We gather from them the wish of the Apostle's heart, his prayer to God, for one whom he remembered as his friend and helper. How finely does his petition come in between the different actions of his friend which he was careful to record. He prayed for his family, "The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my

chain: but, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me." Then he prayed with renewed fervor, "The Lord grant unto him that he may find merey of the Lord in that day:" adding, "and in how many things he ministered to me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well." The intrepid affection of Onesiphorus may be best understood by noticing the circumstances of his attention to Paul. The Apostle was a prisoner at Rome, a condition highly disgraceful in the eyes of men; and when this was the case, few cared to recognize the dishonored individual. Some of the Apostle's professed friends forsook him, and he singles out Onesiphorus for his fidelity, "He oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain."

Now the way in which the Apostle evinced his gratitude, respected no common or trifling objects, but the best interests of his friend and of his family. He directed his view to a period of solemn import in which every one has a deep personal concern, the day of final account; the day which will witness the crowning acts of mercy; the glorious rewards of the righteous! Let us then consider the language of the text as showing, that the exercise of mercy towards us, especially in the proceedings of the final day, is an object of highest desire and hope.

1. The very nature of the occasion shows it to be so the day of the end of the world. This will differ from all other days. We are taught to view the present life as transitory: we find it is fleeting and uncertain; that it soon comes to its close. But while one man dies and another fills his place; while one generation passes away and another commeth, time continues. Nature performs her re

volutions regularly and constantly, although the human race by succession departs from the face of the earth. Hence, the same days of time, are of very different concern to persons as they live in different ages, or as their peculiar circumstances may vary. On numbers of the days that are past, our eyes were never opened; they appeared to our forefathers, but fled away ere we had our being; while the days which we behold, they do not witness, for the darkness of death and the grave overshadows them. Thus different in their importance, ordinary days may be to different persons. The day of one man's death may be the day of another's birth. The day of one man's prosperity, may be the day of another man's adversity. For ancient days we are not responsible, and yet those days were concerned in the accountability of millions, who have no concern with our own. But the day referred to in the text will be common to all the sons of Adam, a day which all will behold being summoned by the judge, a day of general assembly for the world, when appearances will be awfully grand and proceedings decisive.

If then we consider the period which it occupies, both as to what it follows and what it precedes; how manifest the need of mercy at that day. What recollections of time; what apprehensions of eternity will fill the mind! There will be a consciousness of guilt or of pardon: of a happy, or of a sorrowful interest in its affairs, which will render it a day most desirable or dreadful : for it will gather into itself all the consequences of living in this world, and these will also determine the prospect of living for ever in that which is to come. O what a juncture! what a period in

our existence ! If the view be retrospective, it surveys time and its concerns brought to an end, the present system completed; if it turn to the scene in prospect, then no end can be seen of all that may be bright or gloomy. Thus it will be a day distinguished from all other days, by its peculiar position and solemnities.

2. As it will be the period when God will display the effects of his probationary dispensations, the worth of mercy will then particularly appear. Such effects will be strictly discriminative of character and condition. Events will have reached their issues; moral consequences will be brought together in vast accumulation, and will bear with all their weight upon the mind. Fruits will be reaped in kind and in degree, according to what we have sown. And while these effects will be so concentrated at that day, they will also be looked upon in their character of perpetuity. We shall then contemplate things which will not fade away, nor give place to change, but which will endure long as the soul shall live.

We can illustrate by taking a few representations from ordinary life. Seed time and other preparations, which come before the season of harvest, have their importance; but how do we estimate the one by its connexion with the other, and think of the final consequences which the latter season involves. If there be early changes and disappointments, still hope comes in to cheer by pourtraying the future as better than the past, and "he who sows in tears may reap in joy." But when the time of harvest comes, fraught with all the effects of past endeavours, how joyful if the gain of the year's labor be realized! how dejecting if no fruit for the garner be found! So when a country pre

pares for its defence against the attack of a powerful foe, the days employed in collecting and marshalling troops and in arranging things to the order of battle; these days will have their anxieties and forebodings as well as hopes; but O! the momentous importance which will gather into that day which will decide for victory or defeat. In like manner, how does the solemnity of the administration of human justice clothe itself with terror on the day of assize, when the force and sanction of the law appear in their most searching and decisive application. This is the day to evince the need of mercy, to make its worth appear, seeing it combines all the importance of the prisoner's apprehension and confinement and future destiny.

It is thus, on the grander scale of man's immortal interests, that the day of judgment will show the unspeakable importance of divine mercy, for it will be the season fraught with the effects of Christ's mediatorial administration. Now, under a dispensation of forbearance, mercy is objectively exercised towards all men. The most wicked receive many bounties, and have within reach, wherever the gospel is known, a rich plenitude of means adapted to secure their eternal salvation. "His sun shines upon the just and the unjust;" while the word of his grace exhorts and invites that repentance and faith may be produced in the soul. True christians are not entirely freed from sufferings, nor are the ungodly driven from all their pleasures. But that day will discriminate, and through the exercise of mercy to a glorious consummation, his faithful servants will be free from every sin and every sorrow. At the same time his enemies will be destroyed, judgment will no longer be suspended over their heads; it will be executed in