Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THIS little work was commenced in the hope of furnishing to the Inhabitants of two Villages in Northumberland, some counter-action against the moral evils arising from the temporary settlement of Railway Labourers in the immediate neighbourhood.

Rennington, 1st February 1847.

E. F.

(1). CIRCUMCISION. DEUT. X. 12, 13. And now, Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

It is greatly "for our good" that we should at stated periods review our spiritual state, and, in the strength of God, form resolutions for the future. The beginning of a new year is a time when the question of the text may very fitly be put to each of us, as Moses put it to his countrymen. They were in covenant with God; but he intimates to them in this same chapter that although they have the outward and visible sign of belonging to him, yet it would avail them nothing unless they had the inward and spiritual grace. Can a more profitable meditation be presented to us at this season? and at a period when unauthorised value is set on outward observances, and too little is said of worshipping in spirit and in truth. What St. Paul declares of circumcision (Rom. ii. 28, 29) is equally applicable to baptism: "He is not a christian which is one outwardly, neither is that haptism which is outward in the flesh: But he is a christian which is one inwardly; and baptism is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."

(2). GEN. i. 31. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

WHO could say this of his works except the All-wise, the Almighty alone! That every thing was without fault, exactly adapted to its purpose, and calculated to perform its intended work without hindrance or mistake. And so it continues to the present day with those things that God made, and with which man has nothing to do. The sun and moon, the stars of Heaven, the wandering Planets, the revolutions of light and darkness, all keep their appointed courses as on the day when they were first created. They and they only, of all the preparations for man's existence and happiness, have not been affected by his fall. The earth was cursed for his sake, and through his sin came death into the world, to rule over animal life. Yet still we see enough amongst the ruins of the world's perfection to shew us the goodness and wisdom of God, how wonderfully good is brought out of evil, how mercifully the good is permitted to outweigh the evil. And although man's sin has for a time dimmed the brightness of the great

« PreviousContinue »