the social influence of the Gospel, it is impossible to say what may be the vagaries of half-cultivated minds,-of minds rich in knowledge, but poor in discipline, or to what extent they may push independency of the fear of man, and of the authority of precedent, when there is not the restraint of HIM "who seeth not as man seeth, but who looketh at the heart." France, in the history of her late revolutions, written in blood, furnishes an affecting proof of the hazard of a partially enlightened and infidel nation. Had that people not mistaken popery for Christianity, or atheism for liberty Yet the butchery of a revolution is nothing, compared with the horrors of soul destruction and eternal ruin. ! Since, therefore, Christianity excites and improves the social intelligence, and since it only can give a safe and effectual direction to its exercise, and make wise unto salvation, we maintain that it is the greatest blessing which God bestows on the human mind, and that it claims both the devout attention and the zealous recommendation of all who favour intellectual improvement; and for a man to promote human knowledge, however useful, and to frown on that which is divine, to be a scientific unbeliever, is contradictory and humbling. And he who yields to the claims of Christianity, in penitence and faith, receives its great doctrines, trusts to them, and works them out in his daily practice. Knowing, and feeling, and deploring that he is a guilty, helpless sinner, he renounces all dependence on personal merit, and on the mercy of God, without respect to a Mediator, and anxiously, prayerfully desires to be found in Him, "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Do you obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ? And he who recommends the truth as it is in Jesus, deeply interested in its principles and privileges himself, and estimating the value of other souls by that which he forms of his own, exerts his influence with his family and friends, and with all on whom it may, under God, be likely to tell, to bring them out of darkness into "marvellous light"-to flee from the wrath to come, and to lay hold on eternal life. "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing." THE ENGLISH MONTHLY TRACT SOCIETY, 27, RED LION SQUARE. J. & W. Rider, Printers, Bartholomew Close, London. A NEW YEAR'S ADDRESS. ANOTHER year has passed away, never to return! Who can tell how rapid has been its flight, or how momentous its history! If the history of one human being, during that short period, exceeds our comprehension, when viewed as a commencing link in an endless existence-how much more the myriads which inhabit the world! It seems like yesterday since it was begun. Like a wave in the stormy sea it has carried us impetuously forward many degrees nearer to the end of our life; where, prepared or unprepared, we must meet in judgment "that God, with whom we have to do." How many has this brief period ushered into that world, where years are never counted, and where the stamp of an unchanging eternity is seen on every one of its inhabitants ! Yes, they are gone!-and every spirit, as it hastened from its body with the quickness of a sunbeam into the presence of God, proclaimed afresh that warning to us all, "Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh." Another year has fled :-and while the records of our character and history have gone with it to the throne of God, they have left an awful transcript on our souls, which no created power can efface! Startle not when we tell you that throughout that space of time, an effect has been produced on you, more important and imperishable, than on the whole earth besides, when regarded in a temporal point of view. For when the ever-shifting scene of time shall have fulfilled its last appointed movement-when this world, which is now waxing old, shall have fully answered the purposes which it was created to subserve;-then shall it be burnt up with all its adornments, and the collected industry of a thousand ages;-while your precious soul shall stand forth, throughout eternity, with the grand predominant features of your spiritual history inscribed upon it :-either a pillar in the temple above, where all shall read the wonders of the love and grace of God to you-ward through Jesus Christ, and the nearness of your advance while on earth to his blessed image, or a beacon in the regions of woe, inscribed with "shame and everlasting contempt!" Not a day has passed, not an hour has been spent, but your neverdying spirit has advanced to one or other of these final and unchangeable results, even according to your state and character in the sight of God. Do you doubt this, because you may not have been conscious of it, even though the awakening fact is borne out by the history of all ages, as also by the infallible Word of God? As well may you Know doubt the incessant changes in the natural world, or the growth or decay of the human body, because we are unconscious of these operations at the moments of their occurrence. Look at the waves of the sea, beating on a rock! you that every succeeding wave produces on that rock a certain change? If any one denies this statement, because we are unable to point out, at the receding of the wave, the amount of change effected, we leave him for a time, and return again, after the lapse of years;-and there we find the rock altered in its form! With what? Evidently with the beating of the waves. We ask, when was this done? -at once? No: but imperceptibly, gradually, incessantly. The result of one stroke, or one hundred strokes, was not perceptible, but the aggregate result of many thousands of waves is now visible and incontrovertible. The application is obvious. Whatever be your character, there is, and has been going on in your soul, an incessant preparation for your final abode. Every thought, every feeling you have cherished, has left its impression, and weakened or strengthened your habitual character! No day has left you as it found you! And oh ! if you are not, through faith in the alone merits of Jesus, and through obedience to his will, laying up treasure for eternal life; if you are not seeking the Lord habitually as the friend of your heart, the Saviour of your soul, and your hope for time and eternity;—if you are not continually having recourse to his blood to cleanse you from all sin, and desiring that frequent intercourse with God, which is the true mark of genuine affection, what can we conclude in regard to you from the infallible Word of God? If we look to that standard, and the account which it gives of those who are on the road either to eternal glory, or destruction, we have too much reason to fear, that in place of laying up for yourself the "treasures in heaven," you have really been, in the sight of God, gathering the materials of your future and everlasting sufferings. We pity the deluded heathen who desires for herself the funeral pile, and when it is lighted, rushes recklessly into the flames. But wherein do you differ-(if what we have now described is your character,) except in the awful aggravation of your guilt, and the exceeding fearfulness of your doom, while you continue "unreconciled" and "unsanctified?" She, to obtain an imaginary heaven, lies down on those materials which burn and expire in a moment; while you, O unconverted reader, for the perishing enjoyments of time, shall inevitably lie down (if you die as you are at the present moment,) on that "pile of fire and much wood," which is "deep and large," which the "breath of the Almighty like a stream of brimstone shall kindle," and which shall never cease to increase in intensity of anguish. In these eventful times, we see the fate of empires, cities, communities, hastening to a crisis, and the eyes of the world are fixed upon them, while on every side are to be seen joy and sorrow, fear, hope, and anxiety strangely commingled! But what then! these, all these events, concern us less, far less, than the future, the everlasting destiny of our own souls: for "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" What will it avail us, though all the earthly changes and fluctuations which our imagination could conceive, were to occur, not only in our beloved country, but throughout the whole world, if, while we are drifting from them all by the stream of time, into the world of spirits, our own souls are perishing, and a weight of accumulated, unpardoned guilt is lying on them? Do we require to prove that the first and nearest concern of every human being is with the salvation of his own soul; and that if this is not secured, nothing will, nothing can, be a compensation for the tremendous and eternal loss? Had any of us been the absolute sovereign of the world throughout the longest monarchy which ever existed, and had all its government been conducted by consummate skill, and our wishes accomplished incessantly to the very letter; yet, if we at length descended to the realms of eternal woe, where would be our profit? O! if you die without being in friendship with God, through faith in the sacrifice of the Redeemer, will the remembrance of any earthly circumstances be a drop of peace to your agonized existence? Will they cheer your mind under the fearful recollection that you gave your heart to the things of time, and despised or neglected the love of God, and the infinitely precious gift of his beloved Son? What say you to these things? We meet you on the threshold of another year, and hastening to the gates of |