to lodge with an uncle of his by the name of Cavender: when bed-time came on, the boy, seeing the family about to retire, said, Uncle, are you not going to pray with us? Why,

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child,' said he, I cannot pray; I never prayed in my life:' 'Well,' said he, if you will all kneel down, I will pray for you.' They did so, and while he was praying the old gentleman, sixty years of age, was awakened; and he, and almost the whole neighbourhood, have since joined society. I saw the boy myself, and he seems to possess the power of religion.

A

The following I received from brother William Holman. gentleman in county, Kentucky, owned a black man, who experienced religion, joined our society, and became a speaker among the coloured people. His master whipped him, to make him desist from serving the Lord, and engaged the patrollers to whip him whenever they caught him out holding meetings. All this was unsuccessful. His master then procured a cowskin, and tied him up, and told him he would kill him, except he would promise to desist from praying. He began, and when tired, said, "will you pray any more?" "Yes," replied the black man. After becoming desperate in anger, and finding his cruelty unsuccessful, he cut the rope, and ordered the ne gro to quit the farm, and never return. He did so: but in a few hours after his master was struck with a pain over his eye, ad in dreadful delirium he was quickly driven away in his Wickedness. saw the man working on the streets in Paris: the heirs receive his wages, and he is faithful to God; but has not since returned to the farm.

Should you think any part of the above worthy a place in our Magazine, you may forward it for that purpose; and if any good is done thereby, the praise shall redound to God alone. Yours in love,

ALEXANDER CUMMINS.

Obituary.

To the Editors of the Methodist Magazine.

DEAR BRETHREN,

You will confer a favour on me, and many of your readers, by inserting the following notice in the next number of your Magazine.

Respectfully yours,

New York, January 21, 1820.

DIED,

FRANCIS HALL.

At Montreal, on the 4th inst. the Rev. Aurora Seager, aged 24, Methodist Missionary, Mr. Seager was a young man of uncommon piety, useful as a Preacher of the gospel, and one whose labours have been greatly blessed.He has been called from us in the midst of these labours; the church of Christ will long mourn the loss of a valuable member.-He rests from his labours; his works will follow him.

THE

METHODIST MAGAZINE.

FOR MARCH, 1820.

Divinity.

A SERMON ON COL. III. 1, 2, 3, 4.

(Continued from page 45.)

HAVING briefly noticed the duty enjoined in our text, and offered some directions for the performance of it, we will

Secondly, consider the arguments by which it is enforced. In arranging these arguments we may find it necessary to invert the order in which they occur in the text, that the essential connection may more clearly appear.

1. Ye are dead.' Whether we consider the Apostle here speaking of that death to sin which takes place when the soul is converted to God, or the death of the body, the sentence of which is gone forth upon all flesh, the argument is strong and conclusive. We shall be perfectly safe if we embrace both. In the first sense our crucifixion to the world is urged as a reason why our affection should not be set upon it. Conversion to God produces as great a change in our moral state, as temporal death does in our animal nature. Previous to this change we are alive in our desires and pursuits of earthly riches, honours, and pleasures, and in our hopes and expectations of happiness in the possession of them; but in conversion these desires, pursuits, hopes and expectations, find one common grave; hence, every Christian should have this motto written on his heart, "I am crucified to the world." Let him forever urge this in opposition to every claim which the world may present on his affection. Let him write it on the door of the Theatre, and every place of worldly amusement and gratification. Let him inscribe it on the altars of the temples of fame, and on the ensigns of honour and royalty. Let him engrave it on the engines of commerce, and the coffers of wealth. If we consider it in the latter VOL. III.

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sense, the force of the argument is increased. The sentence of death is gone forth, and the time is so short before it will be executed, that we should act as in present view of it. I am passing through the world with the swiftness of an arrow, and death is in quick advance to meet me. Distracting cares, fond desires, ardent affection, pleasing hopes, actual possessions, will neither retard my progress, nor cause the king of terrors to halt in his rapid march. In this rapid career I have just time to read this inscription, which I perceive engraved in capitals on the objects pass, "Set not your affection on things on the earth." 2. "Ye are risen with Christ." This is the second argument. Conversion to God is variously expressed in the holy scriptures. It is called a new creation, being begotten again, born of God, &c. But in this, and several other passages, it is considered in the light of a resurrection from the dead; and the resurrection of Christ is noticed, not merely as a figure or representation of it; but as the efficient cause. In this much of the force of the Apostle's argument consists. As if he had said. Christ being quickened, and raised up from the dead by the power of the Father, has opened the gates of life, and quickens whom he will. By virtue of this power ye have been raised up, and made to set together in heavenly places in him. In this spiritual resurrection you have put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righte ousness and true holiness.

So great is this change that every power of the soul is affected by it. The understanding is enlightened, the conscience purified, and the heart replenished with heavenly tempers and affections. In short, it is a resurrection from a death in trespasses and sins, to the life of God and of Christ. This is represented by baptism, as the Apostle shows in the preceding chapter. The sum of the whole is this, every Christian is united to Christ as the federal head and representative of the whole body of believers, and through the faith of the operation of God, who raised him from the dead, partakes of a new and spiritual nature. Hence our obligation to set our affection on things above, and pursue them with a uniform zeal. Being quickened together with Christ, we become fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; we live in a spiritual world, converse with spiritual objects, and derive our happiness from spiritual sources. And shall that heart which has felt the resurrection power of the adorable Redeemer, and been made the temple of the Holy Spirit, become the seat of creature love? Shall those affections which have been caught up to God, and transported with the glories of his throne, and the joys which are at his right hand forevermore, be suffered to relax the ardour of their attachment, and again to fasten on this poor per

ishable earth? Shall Christians, who in rising with their victorious Lord, received the pledge and foretaste of an eternal and incorruptible inheritance, permit the little interests of time and sense to come in competition with the immunities of the children of the resurrection? Our solemn profession, our sacred obliga. tions, forbid it.

3. "Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." If we would perceive the use which the Apostle designed to make of Christ's exaltation, we must consider it in a light very different from that of an abstract truth. The relation in which Christ stands to believers is kept in view from first to last-from the cross to his second appearance in Glory, and motives to heavenly mindedness are derived from every office which he sustains in the great plan of reconciliation. Seated at the right hand of the Father, he remains the head of his church below, and by a continued energy, gives life to the whole body, and draws every member to himself. Hence those remarkable expressions, in reference to the militant state of the church, "For our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ" and "Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son."

Our Lord assured his disciples that it was needful that he should go away-that otherwise the great objects of his mediation would not be accomplished. That he went to prepare a place for them; and that, as the effect of his ascension and advocacy, the Holy Spirit should be given to carry into final ef fect the counsels of eternal wisdom, manifested in the economy of redemption. Hence, when the Apostle urges the exaltation of the Saviour on the right hand of the Father, he embraces all. which appertains to the offices of Christ, as our mediator, in that exalted state. As if he had said, Jesus the captain of your salvation, and spiritual head of all believers, has ascended into heaven, that he may draw the affection of all his people thither. His errand is to prepare a place, a permanent and eternal habitation for all who follow him in the regeneration. His business is to make intercession for the saints, and as an advocate to appear in the presence of God for us: Therefore set your affection on things above; rise to heaven with your ascended Lord. Let the contemplation of a mansion in that house which is not made with hands-of your purchased possession in the heavenly Canaan, continually inspire you with holy ardour. Esteem, love and pursue the joys of heaven in infinite preference to all the earth can afford.

4. "Your life is hid with Christ in God." Christ is said to be the life of every believer. This is true in every sense. Cur natural life is derived from him. Our very being is bestowed in consequence of his mediation. Our spiritual life is purchased

by his death, and effected by his influence. St. Paul was so deeply convinced of this truth, that, speaking of his spiritual state, he appears to think it more properly expressed by "Christ liveth in me," than by "I live." The reason is obvi3; for whatever appertains to spiritual life, is by faith in Christ. And even that faith which takes hold of Christ, which receives him, and which is the medium or channel of life to the soul, is derived from Christ as its author.

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But in the passage under consideration, the Apostle has special reference to the eternal life of the saints which is treasured up in Christ Jesus. This is a hidden life. The children of this world have no conception of it. It is far out of their sight. It is not perceptible to sense. Faith alone can perceive it; and the clearest perception which the believer can have of it, in the present life, is very imperfect. We see through a glass darkly.' But there is here a beautiful allusion to the practice of laying up, concealing or hiding treasures for security, or safe keeping. We may consider the Apostle as reasoning thus, Earthly treasures are fading in their nature, and short in their duration; they are liable to be corrupted by rust, or purloined by thieves. Deposits the most secure, have not proved suffi cient to save them from the grasp of avarice, the violence of elements, and the wasting hand of time; but the life, the eternal inheritance of the Christian, is secure in a heavenly place. Hs treasure is laid up in that city which knows no corrosive principle, suffers no violent assault, and is far removed from the rage of elements and the wreck of time. It is as permanent as the foundations of that city;-as lasting as the eternal covenant, and as secure to every believer as the immutable counsels and promises of God;-therefore set your affection upon it with that strength, ardour and constancy, which its nature and its duration demand.

5. "When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." With this argument our Apostle completes the grand climax in the text. Hitherto he has been urging the Colossians, and with them all professing Christians, to set their affection on things above, from the consideration of what Christ had done for them; of the relations in which they stood to him; of the obligations under which they were laid, and of the excellency and safety of the heavenly inheritance. But he now ushers in the grand period when the believer shall come into the actual possession of an eternal weight of glory, and be a joint heir with his exalted and glorified Lordwhen he shall appear with him in his glory, and in the glory of his Father.

The second appearing of Christ is justly incorporated with those great and precious truths on which the Christian grounds