in Scripture as a great evil. It came at the first as the visitation of a sore chastisement; and, so long as it existed, it necessarily destroyed the unity of the covenant-people, maintained a rival interest in what should have remained an undivided brotherhood of love, interfered with the arrangement which conferred the rights of royalty as a divine inheritance on the house of David, and opened the door both for corruptions springing up within, and for the assaults of adversaries making havoc from without. Fraught as it necessarily was with such great evils, the erection of the separate kingdom could not fail to be displeasing to the mind of God; nor could prosperity in the full sense-prosperity as designed and promised by God-be enjoyed by either branch of the divided inheritance until the breach was again healed, and the people were once more united under one head of the house of David. At the same time, there can be no doubt that, in a certain modified sense, the erection of the separate kingdom had God's sanction and approval. It came expressly as a gift from God to Jeroboam, under the hand of Ahijah the prophet, and with a promise from the Lord, not indeed of its absolute perpetuity, but of its prolonged existence, if Jeroboam and his seed would walk in the ways of the Lord (1 Kings xi. 30-39). On this account, also, Rehoboam was discharged from attempting to reduce the lost tribes again under his dominion, as the Lord had meanwhile given them to Jeroboam. And for the reason of the proceeding, we must, no doubt, find it in the fact, that the house of David had proved unfit to exercise the high and responsible trust committed to it, as appointed to reign in God's name over God's heritage, and carry out the great ends of his spiritual and righteous government. The external power and glory that had come to be connected with the honour, was more than David's suc cessors-more even than his most renowned and wisest successor could properly bear and employ; even in his hands, it was abused to purposes of carnal pomp and selfish aggrandizement at home, and abroad to the rendering of Jehovah's name utterly distasteful, by the exaction upon the subject heathen of an oppressive tribute, and the enforcement of a galling ycke. Even the abominations of those surrounding heathen, which should have been striven against and lispelled by the manifestation of divine truth to their consciences, were taken by the house of David under its countenance and protection; and thus, instead of serving as a sacred lever to raise the state in all its relations into nearer contact with heaven, the elevation of that house was rather tending to depress it in condition and character to the level of an earthly kingdom. The Lord must, therefore, bring ehade over its external glory, and weaken the arm of its temporal power, in order, if possible, to check the carnalising tendency, and secure for it a higher good.

But the incompetency on the part of the house of David to bear the glory to which it had been exalted, had its counterpart among a large portion of the people, in their insensibility to the honour of having a visible representative of the Most High God reigning over them, and their disposition to view the kingdom in the light of a mere human institution. Great pains had been taken by Samuel at the period of its institution to elevate the people's notions respecting it; and David, during his lifetime, had also exerted himself to the uttermost to give the kingly government a divine aspect in the eyes of the people, and awaken that higher and fuller development of the divine life, which it was the special calling of the Lord's anointed to foster and promote among the tribes of his inheritance. This David did partly by the vigour and righteousness of his administration,

which ever had mainly at heart the interests of truth and piety; partly also by the new life and power which he infused into the tabernacle worship; and finally, by the composition and destination to public use of those divine songs, which were not more adapted to beget and nourish a spirit of devotion, than to identify in the minds of the people the peculiar glory of their nation with the royal dignity and blessed administration of David's house. Still, the people as a whole never became thoroughly adjusted to the constitution under which they were placed. They wanted spiritual discernment and faith to enter into the plan of God, and to realise their own honour in the honour of the house of David. A large proportion of them viewed its exaltation with a carnal and envious eye, and bore with impatience the yoke of its authority; for which, doubtless, the selfish and worldly spirit that so early ap peared in that house itself furnished too ready an excuse. Therefore, on both accounts-both as a necessary chastisement and humiliation to the house of David, and as the most appropriate way of adminis tering a wholesome discipline and instruction to the people-the Lord saw it needful to disturb and weaken the commonwealth for a time by the erection within it of a separate kingdom. Happy if both parties had understood that this device was sanctioned only as a temporary expedient, a grievous evil in itself, though intended to work out an ultimate good, and an evil which, so long as it lasted, inevitably prevented the full inheritance of blessing which God had promised to bestow. This, however, they failed to do. The breach, instead of leading to true repentance for sin, and from that to mutual reconciliation on higher grounds, became perpetually wider and deeper. And those who attained to power in the new kingdom of Israel were plainly bent on nothing more than on establishing their total independence of the house of David and the kingdom of Judah.

It was not against this, however, the civil aspect of the evil, that the prophets in the kingdom of Israel struggled, or were called directly to interfere. They' had to do only with the religious change, by which it was soon followed, and which had in no respect the sanction of God; but, on the contrary, his uncompromising resistance and severe reprobation. While he in some sense authorized Jeroboam to erect the ten tribes into a separate kingdom, he gave him no permission to institute within its borders a separate worship; and to throw, if possible, an effectual bar against any attempt in that direction, he caused' Ahijah twice in the original message to Jeroboam, to declare Jerusalem to be the one place he had chosen, in which to put his name.-(1 Kings xi. 32, 36.) Motives of worldly policy, however, induced Jeroboam to disregard this plain intimation of the divine" will, and to set up a separate worship; for he naturally imagined, that if the people of his kingdom should continue to go up to Jerusalem at the stated feasts, their hearts in process of time would be won back to the house of David, to the prejudice of his own family, and the ultimate overthrow of his kingdom. And so, pretending to a considerate regard for the comfort and convenience of the people-that it was too far for them to travel to Jerusalem- he consecrated two sanctuaries with their respective altars, the one at Bethel in the south, the other at Dan in the north. With these also he connected two golden calves, which were apparently designed to hold the same relative place to the sanctuaries at Dan and Bethel, that the ark of the covenant did to the temple at Jerusalem; were designed in short, to serve (after the manner of Egypt, where Jeroboam had spent many years of his life) as proper and becoming symbols of the true God. But such innovations were too

palpably opposed to the law of Moses to meet with the approval of the priesthood, who therefore, with one consent, refused to enter the sanctuaries of Jeroboam, and minister at his altars. Their refusal, however, only led to another flagrant violation of the Mosaic constitution; for Jeroboam, still determined o adhere to his wretched policy, took and consecrated for priests of the vilest of the people-men needy in circumstances, and worthless in character, entirely itted to act the part of obsequious ministers to the royal will. Thus the religion introduced into the kingdom of Israel in four most essential particularsts sanctuaries, altars, symbols of worship, and minstering priesthood-bore on it an earthly image and superscription, it was polluted at the centre by the nventions of men; and though most of the rites of Judaism were still retained in it, yet "the Lord could not smell in the solemn assemblies of the people, nor accept their offerings." Besides, the reigion being thus essentially changed in character, it ecessarily lost its moral influence on the people;itself now a grovelling superstition, moulded after the will of man, and administered by unclean and servile nands, it could raise no effectual bulwark against the tide of human corruption; a rapid degeneracy ensued in the general character of the nation; and this again nade way, as it proceeded, for further corruptions in worship, until at last undisguised heathenism, with its foul abominations and shameless profligacy of nanners, took possession of the field.*

The

Such were the inevitable results of the change introduced by Jeroboam into the worship of God, which, from being regarded as essential to the independence of the kingdom, was clung to ever afterwards with fatal obstinacy. But there were also certain attendant circumstances which contributed materially to accelerate the progress of the evil. Of this nature was the secession of the priests and Levites, who went over in a body to the kingdom of Judah-thus withdrawing from the kingdom of Israel not a little of its spiritual life.-(2 Chron. xi. 13, 14.) And not only did many in Israel continue as before to go up to Jerusalem to worship; but the growing The great evil of idolatry, even in its earliest and least offensive form-that is, when it does not set up a plurality of gods, but only an image or symbol through which to worship the supreme God-consists in its necessarily convey. ing low and debasing views of his character and glory mind contemplates God through the symbol, and rests in the ideas it suggests. Hence, as no symbol can adequately represent Jehovah, he can never be known and worshipped as the true God where idolatry is practised; for example, the symbol of the bovine form, or calf, as it is generally called in Scripture, was regarded in Egypt, the country of its birth, as the emblem of productiveness; it represented God as the great producer, the source of all life and sustenance, or material comfort-(Wilkinson's Egypt, V. p. 191.) And, no doubt, the promoters of the false worship in Israel would endeavour to reconcile men to it, by asking if the represen tation it gave of God was not a just and honourable one? It might have been such, indeed, if the God of Israel had been merely the God of nature-the source of life and production as these exist in the external world. But there is plainly nothing moral, no germ of holiness in such an idea of God; it is just what all heathenism in some form or an other always was-the deification of nature; whereas the true God is pre-eminently the Holy One and the Just and precisely in proportion as this fundamental idea is lost sight of, in any form of religion, will its influence for good be found to decline, and the bonds of morality under it become loos. ened. From what has been said, it appears, and it is not unimportant to notice, that the worshipping of God anciently under the symbol of a calf, was relatively quite the same with acknowledging and worshipping him now simply as the God of nature. Those who disown or forsake God as he is rerealed in the face of Jesus Christ, and who, neglecting his sanctuaries and his Sabbaths, go to explore him, as they say, in the works and operations of nature, are the legitimate followers of him who made Israel to sin Worshippers of a shadow! their religion wants the reality of truth for its foundation; and being at best but a nature-worship, it has no moral power to regenerate and sanctify the heart.

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evil in Israel on the one hand, and the revived zeal and prosperity of Judah and the house of David on the other, led multitudes to abandon altogether their inheritance in the kingdom of Israel, and go to reside in that of Judah.-(2 Chron. xv. 9.) Thus another large draft was made upon the life blood of the nation. So strong was the tendency in this direction for some time in Israel, that we are told Baasha, the king of Israel, set about building Ramah as a convenient fortress for preventing the intercommunion between the two kingdoms.-(2 Chron. xvi. 1.) It appears afterwards, indeed, to have almost ceased; which is easily accounted for, as Judah itself became leavened with the surrounding corruption, and alliances were even formed between the house of David and the infamous family of Ahab, who carried the apostasy to its height in Israel.

This second decline on the part of the house of David and the kingdom of Judah gave rise to a new stage in the method of God's procedure toward Israel. Hitherto he had left the testimony against the prevailing evil to be borne by the faithful still remaining in the land of Israel, aided by the salutary influence which had proceeded from Judah, and which was felt even in some of the neighbouring heathen countries.

(2 Chron. xv. 8; xvii. 9-11.) When Judah, however, also began to prove unfaithful, and the iniquity in Israel became more flagrant and atrocious, stronger and more direct measures were required to meet the evil. These were found, first, in the gigantic energy and labours of Elijah, who for a time fought singlehanded against the rampant idolatry; and then by the new organization of the prophetic order, or the re-establishment of the schools of the prophets, which he accomplished with the aid of Elisha. By these means a very considerable revival was effected in the kingdom of Israel, which reached even to the palace" of Samaria; for while Elijah, at the commencement of his career, found it difficult to obtain standingground for his ministry, the very name of Jehovah being proscribed, there were, some time before his death, four hundred prophets in Samaria who openly professed to speak in the name of Jehovah.-(1 Kings xxii. 5, 6.) And a little farther down in the history, we find Joram, the son of Ahab, professing to entertain the highest respect for Elisha, and requesting Elisha's servant to rehearse the miraculous deeds that had been done by his hand.-(2 Kings iii. 12; viii. 4.)

But, whatever abatement this might indicate of avowed hostility against the worship and service of Jehovah, the original corruption remained in full vigour; and it would even seem that, under a certain disguise, the worship and service of Baal held its place to the last. For though, on the occasion of Ahab's going up with Jehoshaphat to Ramoth-Gilead, the prophets all professed to speak in the name of Jehovah, yet there was evidently a marked contrast between the four hundred who had the confidence of A hub, and Micaiah, who alone uttered the mind of the Lord. And on another occasion, when Jehoshaphat and Joram were engaged in the war with Moab, and they went together to ask counsel of Elisha, the prophet indignantly addressed the king of Israel with the words: "What have I to do with thee? get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother;"-plainly indicating that these still were virtually prophets of Baal. Not only so, but when Jehu was executing his fearful commission against the house of Ahab, a false proclamation brought out four hundred in Samaria-an ominous number, being precisely that of those who had formerly contended with Elijah on Carmel, and were slain-who styled themselves prophets of Baal, and as such were put to death.-(2 Kings x.) And passing a few generations more, as we approach the close of the kingdom of

Mr Rodgers was called the Enoch of his day. He was wont to say, "I should be very sorry if every day were not employed as if it were my last."

When he had laboured faithfully in the ministry more than thirty years, he was silenced for nonconformity. "It greatly troubles me," said he, "that after labouring betwixt thirty and forty years in the ministry, I am now accounted unworthy to preach, while so many idle and scandalous persons enjoy their ease and liberty."

Mr Rodgers had two sons who became eminent ministers. Daniel was "a man of great parts, great grace, and great infirmities." Of him it was said by Mr Ward, "My brother Rodgers hath grace enough for two men; but not enough for himself!" Ezekiel came to New England in 1638, and, with those who

came with him, settled the town of Rowley, Mass.

A LIVING LIBRARY.-Dr Andrew Willett, who was born in 1562, and educated at Cambridge, was so familiar with the works of the learned, that he was called "a living library." His learning, however, was not his brightest ornament: he was quite as remarkable for the religious ordering of his family, and his liberality to the poor, as for his learning. His family became very numerous, but he did not regard that as a sufficient reason for abridging his liberality. "The more children, the more charity," was his motto. It is said that his property increased with his liberality. It were well, if men gave more heed to the words of the wise man, "There is which scattereth, and yet increaseth."

He wrote a work in which no less than fifteen hundred errors and heresies are charged against the Church of Rome, and most ably refuted. Said work contains upwards of thirteen hundred folio pages. The 18mo readers of the present day will not be likely to trouble it.

He was accustomed to say, "As it is most honourable for a soldier to die fighting, and for a bishop or pastor praying; so, if my merciful God will vouchsafe to grant me my request, I desire that I may finish my days in writing and commenting on some part of Scripture." God granted him his request, for he was called away while he was writing a commentary on Leviticus.-American Paper.

"O WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM!" WHO is it that is so miserable? Perhaps there are many human hearts that will answer, "It is I, most certainly. I am sure that my case is designated." But who are you? A man of pleasure? Yes, a man of pleasure. You have sought for happiness in the ball-room, in the theatre, at the card-table or bowling alley; you, like the boy, have chased the rainbow, but have never been able to overtake it. It has always been in the next valley, or on the next hill. In all your giddy round of pleasure, you have never found any substantial good; you have been repeatedly deceived, and you are conscious that you are a wretched man. This is indeed most true. have not that state of feeling that Paul had, when

But you

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He

he uttered the words at the head of this article. was never "a man about town." Your wretchedness has no sympathy with his source of anguish. The man of wealth exclaims, "My case is designated. I have for years made it my study, day and night, and used unceasing toil to accumulate wealth, and I have partially succeeded; but my desires have outstripped my acquisitions, and I am no more satisfied than I was in early life. I am indeed a wretched similar to that of the apostle to the Gentiles. He man!" But the source of your unhappiness is not never sought for the gold of Ophir or California. He learned that in whatever state he was therewith to be content.

The ambitious man says, "The caption of this article describes my case. I have sought for the honour and applause of this world, and have partially ob tained my object; but in the train of my success have followed cares and perplexities, that have far outweighed all my consolations. All my happiness consisted in anticipation, not in fruition, and I am more wretched than I was in the humble walks of life." You also greatly mistake the source of the apostle's unhappiness. He never sought to please men. If this had been his governing purpose, he could not have been the servant of Christ.

The question asked at the beginning still remains unanswered. Who is the wretched man? Not the man of pleasure, nor the ambitious man. They are indeed most miserable-consuming all things and hungry still; but they understand not the exclamation placed at the head of this article.

At a certain period in the life of Paul he had no knowledge of this source of grief. Once he was alive without the law, but the commandment came, sin ledge of sin, yea, by looking into the glass of the divine revived, and he died. By the law he obtained a knowlaw, he was taught his exceeding sinfulness. He had indeed received Christ as the end of the law for his righteousness; but there was a law in his members that warred against the law of his mind, and brought him into captivity. As he advanced in his Christian course, he still advanced more and more in a knowledge of the wickedness of his own heart. This it was that led him to cry out, "O wretched man that I am!"

"My God! I cry with every breath, Exert thy power to save;

O break the yoke of sin and death, And thus redeem the slave !"

In a

sinfulness of the human heart is essential to true We learn from this truth, that a knowledge of the piety. There are those who profess to have made great attainments in sanctification, who seem to have! very little acquaintance with indwelling sin. short time, under particular influences, they have risen very high, in their own estimation, in spiritual attainments. They are rich, increased in goods, and have need of nothing. But if their feelings are analyzed, you will not find Paul's sense of sin as its base. This is not an ingredient in its history. That religious experience which has not the essential features of Paul cannot be genuine, A knowledge of the sinfulness of the human heart is absolutely essential to true piety. This was a constituent part of President Edwards' piety. "I am," says he, " accustomed to go about from week to week, and from month to month, saying as I go, 'Infinite upon infinite, infinite upon infinite;' such is my sense of my sins."

Such a man as Edwards sympathized with Paul, and entered into his feelings when he exclaimed, "O wretched man that I am!" Reader, have you any sympathy with this spirit? Do you continually cry to God to deliver you from this bondage of sin? Will you answer these questions ?-American Paper.

SANCTIFIED AFFLICTION. WHATEVER brings us to a sense of our own ignorance, folly, weakness, sin, and wretchedness; whatever tends to break every reed upon which we are apt to lean, to pull down every lying refuge in which we are prone to trust; whatever tends to raze every sandy foundation of creature-dependence; in a word, whatever ungrasps our hold of creature-delight, empties us of all personal sufficiency, and lays the soul low, helpless, and hopeless, at the feet of the Redeemer, trusting alone in his free mercy, may, with the strictest propriety, be considered as sanctified, and to our advantage.

Ephraim had his dark and cloudy days of bemoaning himself amidst his reproach and shame, when God became a moth in his substance, and a lion in his family, rending and tearing away his dearest delights, shattering his idols, and casting down all his altars to sin. But were not these instances of the Divine conduct towards him most evidently the fruits of God's unalterable attachment to him, and the greatest blessings that could possibly have befallen backsliding Ephraim-blessings which operated in his favour even when he was as yet far from having the comfort of them-blessings all tending to bring him to that union of heart and affection to God described in Hosea, chapter xiv.?

Believers are apt to mistake in nothing more than in the effects produced by their afflictions. The ultimate issue of them most undoubtedly is, the peaceable fruits of righteousness. But their first and immediate effect is, to harrow up the soul, and bring the weeds, which grow there secretly, to open view. The wise husbandman thus harrows up the weeds in spring, which would otherwise spoil his expected crop; and when he has so done, he burns them with fire. At first view, one would suppose that the beauty of the field is entirely ruined by this operation; yet in the end it effectually secures both its beauty and fertility. There is a gracious promise delivered by Moses to Israel, which ought to be much regarded—" And the Lord thy God will put out before thee all these thine enemies by little and little"-a promise which sets before us the whole work of God in our sanctification, the agency by which, and the manner how, the work is carried on. Much beauty lies in that clause"Thine enemies shall be put out before thee." Thou shalt see thine enemies before they are put out; and as sure as they are brought to thy view as enemies, the Lord thy God will put them out, though it may be by little and little. God will bring all our inward enemies, every lurking Canaanite, to light, before he puts them out, whatever pain the awful discovery may give us; for he studies our salvation and final possession of the promised land, rather than our present inclination and pleasure. We would gladly enter into the land without so much as seeing war; but this is contrary to the purpose of God. It is the Divine purpose, that the Canaanitish lusts of the human heart must be led to execution first: in order to which, they must be drawn forth from their dark and deep recesses, and brought before us, that we may bear witness against them of the evils which we have suffered on their account and by their means.

If a man is robbed on the highway, in order to bring the villain who robbed him to public justice, he must confront him before the judge, and swear to the reality of the robbery, and identity of the person of the robber. But when our gracious Redeemer, by means of affliction or otherwise, brings forth the abominations of our heart to the view, how shocking is the discovery! how dreadful our apprehensions! as if we were in danger of being left to their power and dominion; not recollecting, that they are so many prisoners in the hands of the officers of justice, and restrained from doing us any real harm. A certain lady being robbed and barbarously treated on the highway, the ruffian who perpetrated the villany being taken, was brought to trial, and the lady obliged to appear against him at court. No sooner had she set her eyes on him when brought to the bar, than she screamed out, as under the most alarming apprehensions of danger, and with difficulty could be brought to believe that the villain was in fetters, and wholly in the power of the officers of the king. It is frequently so with the poor believer, upon any particular discovery of what is in his heart. For want of considering that sin hated is sin pardoned, that abominations loathed are abominations cleansed, he is apprehensive of the most awful and tremendous consequences of the discovery of his heart.

These things duly attended to, I am inclined to think it will appear the Lord's people are frequently afraid where there is no real ground for fear, and that we receive good very often under the disguise of evil. I shall add nothing more, but earnestly pray that our sympathizing Redeemer may bless these few remarks for the benefit of the afflicted reader.

DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION.

[The late distinguished Dr Mason thus disposes of certa popular objections to this consoling doctrine of our holy faith ]

WHATEVER have been the disputes about other doctrines of Christianity, no man can deny that it teaches the resurrection of the body. The very gates of hell, in the shape of that unhallowed philosophy which fritters away its most precious truths into Eastern metaphors and Jewish allegories, have not ventured to tamper with the faith of the resurrection. This stands confessed a Christian peculiarity.

This clay which we commit to the grave, under that universal sentence, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return," will be quickened again, organization, the lineaments, the expression of that and re-assume, even after the slumber of ages, the selfsame being with whom we were conversant upon earth-otherwise it were a new creation, and not a resurrection; and will be re-animated by that selfsame spirit which forsook it at death-otherwise it' were a different being altogether, and not the one munion in this life, and walked to the house of God with whom, under that form, we held sweet comin company. The body will be raised under circumstances and with properties suited to the new state of being and action on which the saints shall enter. God shall bring them with the Lord Jesus Christ. They shall be found in Christ's train. They shall be adorned with Christ's likeness. "Beloved! it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 99