the construction which is sometimes put on the striking phenomena of a revival of religion, or on individual instances of signal conversion.

For myself, I dare not disparage the evidences of true piety, lest my own works be arraigned as witnesses against me; nor forbid others to cast out devils, lest I convict myself of a greater regard for my own authority and influence among men than for the welfare of perishing souls. I dare not resolve the most benign and glorious effects which religion has ever produced, into fanaticism, lest, with the infidel, I confound God's work with the work of the Evil One; or, with the Pharisee, incur the guilt of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost!

But, however presumptuous it would be in us to say of any one, that he has committed a sin which God will never pardon; and however difficult, or rather impossible, it is to prove that some particular word or act constitutes the unpardonable sin, (though no one has any Scriptural reason to conclude that he has committed this sin, so long as he feels his need of a Saviour, and has a heart to believe on Christ, acknowledging his dependence on God's holy Spirit,) yet certain it is, from the teachings of Scripture, that "there is a sin unto death," a sin which hath never forgiveness!

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If there is not, why should Christ's ambassadors so often set forth the evidences of Gospel truth, and aim to convince men of their guilt and danger; so often call on them to repent and believe, and solemnly warn them against the imminent hazard of delay; so often tell them, weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ," and beseech them, "in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God?" All who are still out of Christ must be exposing themselves to tremendous risk: or the Gospel is without meaning, and all preaching worse than a solemn farce. The sin, then, to which we allude, is that of final unbelief: into this all other sins may be resolved; all modes of scepticism and formalism, all covert as well as open opposition to the truth; all enmity or indifference to the Redeemer's kingdom, all preference of self and the world to the love of souls and the glory of God; all neglect of opportunities, all resistance of conviction, all trifling with the word and the Spirit of God: this necessarily involves the sin of resisting, and of affronting, and of grieving away the ever

blessed Spirit of God, whose province it is to convince of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come, and without whose influences, working faith, and love, and purity in the heart, no one can enter the kingdom of God.

Hence it is that he who has ceased to feel on the subject of religion; whom no entreaties, no warnings, can move; who intentionally dismisses serious thoughts whenever they are brought to his mind, may have already committed this sin. The Spirit of God may have withdrawn from him! and if so, he can never be brought to repentance. His peace is a false peace. He has built his house on the sand. He will die as he had lived. In consequence of his resistance to the truth, or his endeavours to explain it away in accordance with his heart's lusts, having stifled his own convictions, or having closed his eyes against the miracles of conversion wrought by an omnipotent Spirit, God may have given him up to strong delusions, to believe a lie to his own destruction. Hence the danger, not only of falsifying and of perverting or obscuring the mind of the Spirit as revealed through the sacred oracles, but of trifling with sacred things and serious convictions; and, by consequence, of grieving the Spirit!

Unbelief! this is the sin of sins; the deadly, damning sin; for Christ himself has said: "He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned." Hence the unutterably solemn force of the apostolic injunction, "Grieve not the Spirit!" He who has often by turns shuddered and wept as the solemn thoughts of death, judgment, and eternity came over his mind, may banish all serious reflection, and stifle his convictions; but why should God's Spirit ever return, when once deliberately resisted?

THE WAYS OF THE WORLD.

IT is remarkable that, previous to John's execution, Herod had not heard of Christ's miraculous works. The supposition that he had been for some time absent from his domain, might be admitted in explanation of the fact, were it not that the intelligence of Christ's miracles was as strange to his courtiers as to himself. Nor is it any more reasonable to suppose that, as Christ had then endowed his disciples with miraculous power, and sent them forth to act in his name, Herod was induced for the first time to attend to the report. His exclamation implies that he had never heard of our Saviour's doings before, or even known that such a personage existed; while the fact itself serves to prove, not that the commencement of Christ's ministry occasioned but little excitement through Judea, but simply that the worldly great men of those times stood aloof from the people, and that they did not voluntarily avail themselves of any opportunity for receiving religious intelligence. 1

Even now, men of this rank, especially if they are occupied with the affairs of civil government, are apt to be regardless of all religious movements; perhaps indifferent to the spiritual operations of the Church with which they are nominally connected. Some man of God may appear in their immediate vicinage, preaching in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, to listening thousands; while they are as uninterested, it may be as ignorant of the event, as though they dwelt in a different planet. They do move in a different world: it is the world of fashion, of convivial pleasure, of politics, or of speculation; that world to which Herod and his court belonged.

1 Matthew, xiv, 1-12.

At last the intelligence of some great religious movement is forced on their hearing; and if it be not possible to deny the facts, they are immediately resolved into the force of enthusiasm or of fanaticism, some shrewd design for defrauding the multitude of their gains, or enlisting popular applause! So, when

Herod heard of the fame of Jesus, and was constrained to form a judgment of his mighty works, he could account for them in no other way than that the recently decapitated Baptist had risen from the dead!

But this is not the only particular in which Herod will serve to illustrate the ways of the world. Because Salome had danced before him, thus ministering for a brief hour to the gratification of his eye, he promised her the half of his kingdom! But John, who had so long and faithfully aimed to promote his best interests, is thrust into prison; nay, the head of that holy man is not too great a recompence for the pleasure of seeing Salome dance!

Thus Socrates, who "passed his whole time in inciting the young and the old to care for neither body nor estate in preference to, or in comparison with, the excellence of the soul," was rewarded by imprisonment and death! We need not add, thus was a greater than Socrates repaid for a life of unparalleled self-denial in the cause of ruined humanity.

So now, he who aims to correct the views and reform the habits of worldly men, incurs their displeasure; while he who contributes to the gratification of their passions, may enjoy their favour. To be regarded as their friend, it is simply necessary to encourage, or rather not to molest them in their ruinous courses. Of what account to such is any opportunity for receiving religious instruction, compared with an evening of convivial pleasure? What are the teachings of the greatest and best of men, compared with the fascinations of the stage, the antics of a dancer, or the jokes of a clown? Hence it is that places of worldly amusement are thronged, while the sanctuaries of religion attract but few; that the praise of an actor may be on every lip, while a faithful preacher of the Gospel is too often spoken of only to be maligned; that it is so much easier to raise money for a theatre than a Church; to further some political project than to advance the cause of Christianity.

Wherever his own selfish gratification is concerned, there man may be all liberality; but in matters which respect God's glory and the great ends of life, he betrays his niggardliness, if not his malignity. Whenever the triumph of party demands the sacrifice of all self-respect, he can extol the most unsuitable candidate for office; and, in like manner, he may praise and sustain the prophet who prophesies falsely, or utters "smooth things," and "plays skilfully upon an instrument;" but all his feelings will gather into acrimony against the prophet who, in fidelity to his soul, tells him of his sins, and kindly essays to disrupt the ties that bind him to a souldestroying world.

We can hardly recall, without a tear, the sad fate that genius has often encountered; but what are the so-called "calamities of authors" who toiled to enlarge the views and refine the sentiments of society, compared with the occasional trials of Gospel ministers? It is their lot, at times, not merely to struggle with want, but with obloquy; to be reviled even when they come forth to bless!

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A wicked man can have no cordiality toward a faithful miniHe may profess regard: like Herod, he may do many things gladly, attend the preached word, and assume the posture of devotion; but let the minister of the sanctuary designate his besetting sin or unhallowed pursuit, and, revealing his true character, convict him before the bar of Heaven, as well as of his own conscience, of deliberately violating the principles of truth and duty, sacrificing the moral interests of others for the sake of his own selfish ends, and he goes away, not to repent in secret places, but to give vent to angry and embittered feelings. Seldom is it that any one will bear to be told his sin, be it only some foible of character; much less if that sin be of a heinous nature, and the guilty man has prided himself on his standing.

Is it contended that no offence can be taken where none is intended, or where zeal has not degenerated into acrimonious rashness? What judgment, then, must we pronounce, not only on such men of God as Hanani and Zechariah, to whom we have referred, but on John Baptist, and the Apostle Paul, and even Christ himself?

In doubtful matters, one cannot be too slow to speak; but