many a soul is terrified upon the bed of death, and few converted. There is but one solitary instance of a dying penitent recorded in the Scriptures, and that under the most peculiar circumstances: it is of him whose death-bed was the Saviour's cross. That one is recorded to protect the dying sinner from despair: and but that one, to warn the presumptuous sinner against hardening his heart, and saying to conscience, "Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will call for thee."

Remember, too, that the fact of some having been called, even at the eleventh hour, furnishes no encouragement or hope for you, if you wilfully refuse the calls of conscience, and delay your repentance. When conscience, long resisted or silenced, awakes upon a dying bed, and the terrors of the Lord compel your affrighted soul to cry out for mercy; and when the Searcher of hearts, while at a glance He views your past conduct and your present fears, demands, Why do you thus stand upon the brink of perdition, unsanctified and unredeemed ? Why have you wasted your day of grace, idle and unoccupied in the great business of life? Can you with truth reply, "Because no man hath hired me?" Can you say, with the ignorant and unconverted heathen, who, upon a dying bed, has for the first time heard some missionary tell of a God and an eternity: who has listened with deep attention while he proclaimed the terrors of the Lord and the tender mercies of our God: who has trembled as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come; or rejoiced, with joy unspeakable and full of glory, when he preached Jesus and the resurrection, can you answer as he would to the messenger of God, You bring strange tidings to my ears? No ambassador of Christ ever warned me of my danger, or besought me, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God. No ordinances of religion set forth Christ crucified among us. No Sabbath bell summoned me to a house of prayer. No pious parent, or friend, or minister trained up my iufant mind in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Revelation spread not her golden pages before mine eyes. No key of knowledge oped for me the treasures of eternity. No spirit that could guide into all truth illumined my dark and dangerous course. Even conscience seldom spoke; or, if it spoke, but called me to some senseless superstition, some cruel sacrifice. - Can you say this?

Nor deceive yourself with a hope that when it comes to the final issue, and your eternal destiny depends, as you falsely imagine, upon the arbitrary will of God, his mercy will prevent the exercise of his justice, and pardon you, in despite of his holiness and truth, without repentance, without faith, without holiness. Are not the agonies and the death of Christ an unanswerable proof that the hands of mercy are fettered by the bonds of justice, truth, and holiness? But God's own words are, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." "He that believeth not shall be damned." "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." These are the words of God: and "God is not a man that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Hath He spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Observe that none are called at the twelfth hour. The call is, "Work to-day in my vineyard." Now is the accepted time: now is the day of salvation. To day, while it is called to-day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart: for the night is fast coming when no man can work. There is no repentance in the grave. As the tree falleth, so it lieth. Then, he that is unjust shall be unjust still; and he that is filthy shall be filthy

still.

But if the consideration that the time for working in the vineyard is limited to a day, be an awful warning to the ungodly and impenitent, it is full of consolation and support to the people of God. Their work is but for a day: their reward for eternity. If man be born to trouble as the sparks fly upward: if even the children of God "in the world shall have tribulation," and, if needs be, shall be in heaviness through manifold temptations: if our corrupt nature has imposed even upon that God who is love, and who does not grieve or afflict willingly the children of men, this general law, that "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth :" if poverty, or pain, or sickness oppress us: if friends torn from our arms rend the heart, or live but to sting it with ingratitude, and to freeze the warm flow of its affections with apathy and alienation: if, mourning over the remainders of indwelling corruption, we would say with the Psalmist, "Oh that I had wings like a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest:" or, mourning over the weakness of grace, and hungering and thirsting after righteousness, we would cry with the beloved Apostle, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," it is cheering to the soul to think that he who testifieth these things saith, " Surely I come quickly:" that the dark and stormy day of this troubled life is fast drawing to its close: that the shadows of this day of toil are lengthening: that the night of rest, when no man can work, is setting in: that the morning of eternity will shortly dawn, and a new world burst upon the emancipated and enraptured soul, -a world where there is no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither any more pain, but where God J. М. Н.

himself shall wipe away the tears from off all faces.

TRANSLATED EXTRACTS FROM THE PREFACE TO THE MONS

TESTAMENT.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

I HAVE translated a few more passages, as I last month proposed, from the Preface to the Mons Testament. Your readers will not be surprised to learn that the Testament, having such a Preface, finds a place in the Prohibitory Index of Rome; though they may, perhaps, be at a loss to understand in what manner St. Augustine can be adduced (as he has lately been) as advocating "reserve in communicating religious knowledge." Certainly the Port-Royal divines do not appear to have considered him in that light.

S.

A repugnance to apply ourselves to Scripture, because of its being obscure in many places, would also be a disposition capable of causing us to lose all the fruit which we might gather in such holy reading. St. Augustine, the most enlightened of all holy Fathers, does not hesitate to acknowledge that Scripture is full of wisdom so sublime and so profound, that there are in it many more things which he does not comprehend, than there are which he understands. After this, shall we be astonished, that, what has happened to the saints happens to us? and that we cannot penetrate that which remains hidden from the most enlightened?

Holy Scripture, says St. Gregory, is like a mighty river, which has been always CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 51.

T

flowing, and will flow on till the end of time. The great and the small, the strong and the weak, therein find that living water which springs up even to heaven. It offers itself to all, it proportions itself to all. It has a simplicity, which stoops itself to the simplest souls, and a sublimity which exercises and raises the most exalted. All indifferently draw thence, but far from being able to exhaust it in filling ourselves with it, we always leave there unfathomable depths of knowledge and of wisdom which we adore without comprehending.

But, according to St. Augustine, that which ought to console us in this obscurity, is, that Holy Scripture sets before us, in an easy and intelligible manner, all that is necessary for the conduct of our life; that it explains and illustrates itself, by clearly declaring in some places that which it speaks obscurely in others; and that even the obscurity which is there, is very profitable to us, if we consider it with the eye of faith and of piety. For, as pearls and precious stones are so much the more esteemed in proportion to their rarity, and because they are not found but with great difficulty, and that, for this very reason, silver, in the time of Solomon, as the Scripture informs us, was thought no more of than stones, because it had become common, -so, also, it is useful, according to St. Denis and St. Augustine, that the majesty of God, and the sublimity of his wisdom, should be, as it were, environed with a cloud, and concealed under shadows and figures, that it may not be penetrated, but with much meditation and labour, in order that it may impress more vividly upon our minds that holy fear, and that profound reverence which is due to it.

It was even necessary to man, in the state to which sin had reduced him, that God should set before him his truth in this manner, in order to humble his pride, by the difficulty he would experience in penetrating its mysteries and its secrets; to rouse [him from] his indolence; to oblige him to ask that he might receive, to search that he might find, and to knock long at the door that it might be opened unto him; to shew him that it is only the Spirit of God who knows the things of God, and that it is by this spirit, and not by our own, that we must learn what God teaches us: to cure him of the weakness which makes him easily despise that which costs him no trouble to comprehend; to renew in him, continually, admiration and love of the wisdom of God which causes him to behold it under different forms and by images and figures ever new and, lastly, to make him taste ajoy, when he has learned some one of those hidden truths which the prophet calls diamonds, so much the greater, the more obscure that truth at first seemed, and the greater the pains he took to discover it. For St. Augustine assures us, that this joy is so lively and so pure in a soul which fears God, and which only seeks to know him in his Scripture, in order to obey and love him, that there is no joy on earth which approaches to it, and that it is the greatest consolation of those who are still living in this state of exile. It is this which that holy teacher has comprehended in these excellent words, which well deserve our consideration: "There are," says he, "in the Scripture, profound mysteries which God keeps concealed, in order to render them the more estimable; which he suffers us long to search for, in order to exercise us and to humble us by this labour; and which he discovers to us, when it pleases him, to the end that they may be the joy and the nourishment of our heart."

This same saint, whose spirit, as humble as exalted, has penetrated with more clearness than any other into the spirit and the heart of Scripture, which St. Gregory calls the heart of God, adds to what we have just said another very important truth, and which is very consolatory even to the least enlightened souls. It is, that this multiplicity of precepts and mysteries scattered, in so many different ways, through the sacred books, have all a reference to this single commandment "to love God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves." The Scripture, says this great teacher, "forbids only one thing, which is covetousness, and the love of the creature and it commands but one thing only, which is, charity and the love of God. It is on this double command that all Christian morality is established. It is on this, according to the word of Jesus Christ, that the whole of the ancient law and all the prophets depend; and, it may be added, all the mysteries and all the instructions of the new law. For love, as St. Paul says, is the fulness and the compendium of the whole law. This love, adds St. Augustine, is, as it were, the root, and all truths are the branches and the fruits of it. If you cannot, says he, comprehend all the branches, which are so extended, content yourself with the root which contains them all. He who loves, knows every thing; for he possesses the end to which every thing refers itself. Say not, then, that you cannot comprehend the Scripture: love God, and there will be nothing that you may not understand. When the Scripture is clear, it clearly shews the love of God; and when it is obscure, it shews it obscurely. He who knows what it is to love God, and who rules his life by this love, understands what is clear and what is obscure in the Scripture. It is with this disposition that we ought to read the word of Jesus Christ, and this love, purifying our hearts, will dissipate, by little and little, all the obscurity which we shall find therein, and cause us to become more and more enlightened; as the same Father assures us when he says, "It is love which asks; it is love which seeks; it is love which knocks at the door, and causes it to open; and it is by this love that we shall remain firm in the truths which the Spirit of God has revealed to us."

The New Testament is the treasure of the Church; and thus any translation which may be made of it, if it be such as should be desired, is a common blessing. Therefore there is room to hope, that all will take a part in that which may be useful to all, and that there will be found humble souls who, seeking only their edification in this work, will ask of God for those who have had any share in it, that he would not impute to their temerity the service which they have endeavoured to render to the Church, without sufficiently considering that it was beyond their powers; that he would cover and repair the faults which they may have committed in consequence, in not having laboured with all the reverence, all the attention, and all the piety with which they ought to have laboured; that he would accompany it with his blessing and with his Spirit, and that he would not permit anything foreign or human to mingle therein which might in any way turn aside or alter the impression which ought to be produced in souls by these words of grace, of truth, and of life."

ON THE REVIVAL OF THE ANCIENT OFFICE OF READERS. To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

It is asked with much deference, whether it is not advisable, under the present circumstances of the Church of England, to revive an ancient office in the Church which is mentioned by Tertullian, Cyprian, and others. It is that of Lectors or Readers, and is treated of by Bingham in the 32nd Book and 5th chapter of his Antiquities. These persons appear to have been employed in reading the Scriptures in church under the superintendence of the minister. They were accounted an inferior order of clergy, and were ordained to their office. The following decree was made respecting them in the Council of Carthage: "When a Reader is ordained, let the Bishop set forth to the people the good opinion he has of his faith, life, and disposition. Then let him deliver the Bible into his hands, and say, 'Receive this book, and be thou a Reader of the word of God, which office if thou fulfil faithfully and profitably, thou shalt have part with them that minister in the word of God." The age at which this office might be entered was fixed by one of Justinian's Novels It forbade any one to be ordained Reader before he was completely eighteen years of age. The office was considered one of great respectability, and was occasionally filled by persons of the highest rank. From it individuals were frequently called up into the higher orders of the Clergy.

Persons of piety might be ordained to such an office as this, without having provision made from the Church funds for their maintenance, as they might be left at liberty to follow any respectable profession or business : "For in the first ages both the laws of Church and State allowed the inferior Clergy to work at an honest calling, to provide themselves a maintenance when the revenues of the Church could not do it." (Bingham.) They need not be confined to discharging only the duties of the ancient Readers, but might fulfil those of some of the other inferior orders, such as Catechists, Sub-deacons, and the like.

Among other reasons that might be given for the revival of this ancient office, are the following:-We have a population increasing beyond all means of finding funds for the support of clergy sufficient for their wants. It will be some years, even should the Government make a grant for the purpose, and the Ecclesiastical Commission employ their resources to the best effect, before a decent maintenance can be secured for the many poor incumbencies which now exist. In the mean while the new masses of population which are continually forming, ought not to be left to fall either into schism or irreligion. Not one immortal being ought to be left to perish, if thought and exertion can do something for him. The revival of such an office would do much to strengthen the hands of the present clergy, and to supply their lack of service. These readers might save the officiating minister's strength, by reading the lessons in church, and by superintending his Sunday schools. They might visit in a given district, inquiring after absentees from church and school, and calling upon the careless to attend the means of grace. They might read the word of God to the families they visited, and converse with them on its momentous truths. They might give private instruction to candidates for confirmation and other persons standing in need of elementary instruction. And perhaps in cases where a poor population had sprung up at some distance from the Parish church, they might be employed to read the prayers and catechise the school children publicly, and so make some provision for the infirm who might not be able to attend the Parish church.

It may be said the clergy can now avail themselves of such assistance as this where they can find men of piety resident in their parishes. A few clergymen may do so; still several never think of obtaining such assistance, and some would scruple about receiving it, even if placed within their reach. An authoritative recognition of such an office, on the part of our Church, would suggest it to all clergymen, and remove the objections which at present would keep several from employing the laity in such ways. It would also lead to a better selection of persons. Individuals could not be put into the office in the hasty way in which they are sometimes now employed as District Visitors and the like. It would be needful they should have good testimonials to their character, and give proof of their possessing a fair knowledge of the Scriptures and of the doctrine and discipline of our Church. They would have a better prospect of enjoying the Divine blessing on their labours, as they would be commissioned to their office by proper authority and with prayer. There would also be a safeguard against their becoming insubordinate to the incumbent, or falling off into an erratic course, by their being amenable to ecclesiastical discipline and control. The credit of the office could encourage men of piety to seek it, and would keep them attached to the Church, especially if a good discharge of this office for some years were considered an equivalent for an university education, and formed a ground on which they might present themselves as candidates for the order of a deacon. Our Church loses much at present from the fact that no authorised employment is to be found in it for a pious layman, and that the way into the ministry is made so inaccessible to multitudes. Should a young tradesman imbibe strong religious convictions, and become desirous of serving God by calling his neighbours to repentance, he