more than, in truth, in truth. Jesus who is the Truth, is called Amen by St. John, i. e. the faithful and true witness; and in him the promises were yea and in him Amen, i. e. certain and true. So at the end of the Creed, when we say Amen, it is not to express our wish or prayer that the articles of it may be true, but our stedfast belief that they are so.

And so in like manner, when the people of Israel in Joshua's time, and we here in imitation of them, say Amen after the reading of the divine threatenings, we do no more than acknowledge that God is true, and his vengeance to be feared, because it will most certainly fall upon the sinner. Nor doth this agreeing to the truth of God's word, bring any curse on the penitent, nor so much as express any desired vengeance on the impenitent. It doth but shew to these the curse and the wrath before them, whilst they are at a distance from it, and charitably warns them to fly from it by repentance; being like our Saviour's woes, of which the gospel is so full, not wishes of evil and wrath, but compassionate declarations of it, in order to men's avoiding and escaping it. You would think it no unreasonable nor uncharitable thing, to beseech the nearest friend you had upon earth to fly from eternal wrath, which you would not stick to tell him he must needs inherit, if he continues obstinate in his iniquities—and in the present case you do the very same thing. It is certain that sinners, whilst they remain such, are really accursed; to make them sensible of this, is the kindest office surely you can do them, whilst to deal otherwise by them, were to deceive them to their everlasting ruin-this would be to

curse them indeed. Upon the whole, Amen here is no more than a declaration that he whom God blesseth is blessed, and he whom the Lord curseth is cursed; and if we believe this with our hearts when we have it in our mouths, it will shew us our danger, and may bring us to repentance. By this time, I can make no doubt all objections to this office are removed, and that none of you will think yourselves any longer obliged to absent yourselves from the service of the day, which is exactly fitted to bring on a more solemn observance of the season it begins, being so weighty and important, that it cannot but alarm the sinful, quicken the pious, and engage us all to humble ourselves before God-the ungodly to begin, and the godly to hasten the work of holiness in the season before us, by a humble, pious observance of this time of humiliation."

In this way did Mr. Walker attract the attention of his flock to the seasons appointed by our church, endeavouring to make them occasions of arousing slumberers, and quickening the awakened to increased activity. In addition to his preaching, he lent his sermons, always carefully written, for circulation among the educated part of the congregation, and they were read again in the society, and often copied out and kept by the members. Many of these still remain as monuments of a pastor's diligence and a people's earnestness.

As in the beginning of Lent, this good man called the attention of his flock to personal repentance, so on the 30th of January he made a solemn reference

to their duty, with respect to sins more peculiarly to be denominated national. Were this last subject adverted to constantly, on that or any other appointed day, by the clergy of our land, the custom would probably be attended with a visible blessing, and perhaps give a powerful check to any notorious vices practiced by a large part of the community, such as drunkenness, profligacy, gaming, and sabbath breaking. Two causes however concur to prevent the adoption of this custom-a want of due inquiry on the part of ministers into the nature, causes, and effects, of the sins of the country; and on that of the people, a lack of humility, and an unwillingness to sit in the dust under a sense of national sin. The evil of selfishness preys insensibly on the hearts of Christians, who think they do enough in caring for their own souls: the holy seed of the nation strive not sufficiently to become the substance thereof. Viewing this subject in all its fulness of importance, Mr. Walker spoke thus from the pulpit of Truro, on Jan. 30, 1756.

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"We have not taken any measures to turn away God's wrath: for we have not returned unto the Lord

our God. But you will say, why will not the people return? The rulers, and governors, and nobles, why will they not stand up in their places? Alas, my brethren this is but excusing ourselves, but making excuse for our doing nothing. If those in If those in power should do nothing, would this discharge us from our duty? While the great are blaming the little, and these in their turn are blaming them, there is but a sort of consenting on the one part and the other, to do nothing. But if you say, what can we do? I answer you can in your

own persons return unto the Lord, and then you can mourn for, and pray over, and cry to God for all estates of men in the realm; and this be assured will be doing much. Why, Sirs, it is because of a few righteous up and down that we are not consumed. God loves his people, and is rather willing to spare their ungodly neighbours, than to mix them in a common ruin with the wicked. Then also he heareth their prayers; these stop his indignation, and withhold that hand which is half drawn out of his bosom to consume. Also ye know that repentance is the gift of God; men cannot repent without God's grace. The continued instant prayers of the saints must go up to the throne, that God may not utterly take away, but plenteously pour out his Spirit upon us. Now all this we can do-we can return ourselves; we can lament the sins of the people, and the share ourselves have had in them; we can humble ourselves in fasting and prayer as Daniel did for his people."

To these searching exhortations he added also the important consideration of individual connivance at, if not participation in public sins. "Instead of hating and opposing all evil ways, have not the best of you too often sided, yielded, and complied with them? No man knows what hurt he does to God and others, while he doth but not act up to the strictness of a Christian's religious behaviour; how the bad are unreproved, the good not encouraged, if not discouraged, and the lukewarm left at ease by it. If deficiences do so much mischief, how much more then, actual sin in the face of the world? The world cannot but know it, and which of you hath not done this, one

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way or another-by vanity, idleness, indulgence, anger, evil speaking, sabbath breaking, lightly using God's name? By one thing or another all have sinned, and so deserved public judgment, as by their sins they have augmented and encouraged the common transgression. For what are the sins of a people, but the sins of every particular man put together? He therefore who had never sinned in his own person, would have incurred nothing of the public guilt; but as we all have, we ought all to be sensible of it, and humbled for it; else we can neither set ourselves to return to the Lord, or offer up penitential supplications before God."

It is one part of the excellency of the ceremonial of our church, that nothing having a wholesome tendency to impress the mind, escaped the penetration of its framers; the reason it has not been more powerful in its effects, is a want of full comprehension of the scheme as a system, and the consequent neglect to use it skilfully. The strong personal application of the topics of each season, to the hearts of Mr. Walker's hearers, was with divine assistance, one of his great secrets of efficiency. In this way, all subjects connected with Christian doctrine, practice, and experience, came in regular succession before his people, enforced by an authority they respected, recommended by an establishment they loved, and elucidated by the word of God, from whose exhaustless treasures the church alone has received her true riches. The great duties of repentance for our own sins, and those of our fellow-countrymen, were most strongly urged on the occasions just referred to,