mating act. In the generation man was the last link, but in the regeneration he is the first. In the former he stood forth the lord of creation without one to call in question his right, the sovereign of the earth; beautiful in its virgin freshness; joyful in its waking melodies; and delicious in its firstfruits. One thing was lacking. Society was wanting. One to walk about in his own image was necessary, to awaken in his own bosom an harmonious chord to all without. This was granted, and thus the new and finished creation, physical, moral, intellectual, and social, moving in perfect concord is by its uncreated Author pronounced very good. Sin soon enters the human constitution; the soul of creation and all her members are paralysed. Previous to this, our first parents were united to God by obedience to his whole law. Cain becomes self-willed; wishes to modify the law; is rejected of God; stains the ground with human life, and goes forth wearing his badge.

Iniquity abounds until the earth is purified in baptism. But in order to check the tide of corruption a second order of things is instituted; the Author of the Faith is introduced, and after the lapse of many centuries, is pronounced the finisher thereof. All that was to be done to counteract the disorder of creation is now done, and a new family out of all the families of the earth is being created in Christ Jesus, the second Adam. The name of this family is-"The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." It knows

no other name, and those who have assumed another, whether it be mason or antimason, evenfellow or oddfellow, have indulged in the language of Babylon and raised a standard in opposition to the cross. The constitution of this family in the words of our text furnishes all things " necessary for life and godliness," and its members are known as disciples, saints, brethren, &c. It imposes benevolence, temperance, justice, and virtue, with all that adorns human character, by thehnostisdemand serious considerationsubsethings came broenjoyed and practised in the chumbitos stimuly An into dheyneduld hotine any other ensneciosista je fomenti and to make any other effort thesandesbleekt ject is virtually saying that God has failed to save. us, t

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many of the practices of the societies under consideration are directly in opposition to the Scriptures. Take for instance their initiatory oath. Have we forgotten that we gave ourselves away to God, to devote ourselves to his service under the most sacred vow? If we have not, then it certainly is not necessary to renew it unless we have believed in vain. Moreover to have the Bible carried by aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, in solemn procession with Aaron's rod, the candlestick, the wands, &c. with all the paraphernalia of heathen superstition, these certainly are not rites and ceremonies of the church and must be looked upon as silly and unbecoming. For my part I do not wish the Lord and Saviour to find me engaged in them. The secrecy of these societies also is objectionable. The apostle affirms in reference to the most important event in the whole system of redemption, that "it was not done in a corner," and its Divine Founder says, "This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light." These and other things connected with all human societies, are certainly opposed to the wellbeing of the family of God, and its prosperity. No difference, how good and benevolent the object may be, it will not do to separate the truth into fragments. The Bible, like nature, is only very good in its unity and perfection. I observed not long since, a prospectus for an anti-gambling society. What a thing for a professing Christian! We will soon have a moral reform for each day in the year. Brethren keep yourselves from idols. Happy will we be with one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Happy will we be in the practice of virtue, independent of everything but our union with God in his own institutions. This alone is a universal adaptation. Whether in prosperity or adversity, life or death, it is like the source that inspires it, a constant, unchanging, refreshing consolation.-Christian Journal.

THE CHEERFULNESS OF RELIGION.

THERE is a certain lightsomeness and cheerfulness of mind, which is in a manner peculiar to the truly religious soul, that above all things sets off our pleasures, and makes all the actions and perceptions of human life sweet and delightful. True piety is the best cure of melancholy in the

world; nothing comparable to it for dispelling the lumpishness and inactivity, that renders the soul of man incapable of enjoying either itself, or any thing else. It fills the soul with perpetual light and vigour, infuseth a strange kind of alacrity and gaiety of humour into us. And this it doth not only by removing those things that hinder our mirth, and make us languish in the midst of our festivites, (such as are the pangs of an evil conscience, and the storms of unmortified passions,) but even by a more physical efficiency. It hath really a mighty power to correct and exalt a man's natural temper. Those ardent breathings and workings wherewith the pious soul is continually carried out after God and virtue, are to the body like so much fresh air and wholesome exercise; they can feed the blood, and keep it from settling; they clarify the spirits, and purge them from those grosser feculences which would otherwise cloud our understandings, and make us dull and listless. And to these effects of religion doth Solomon seem to allude when he tells us, that wisdom maketh a man's face to shine.— Eccles. viii. 1.

MISPRINT IN THE BIBLE.

How comes it that so palpable a typographical error as that which occurs in the 24th verse of the xxiii. chapter of the English version of St. Matthew's Gospel, should be perpetuated in every edition that is printed of the English Bible? It reads thus: "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel." And in hardly any English Bible do we find it otherwise. I never saw it otherwise but once. Yet this is known and universally confessed to be an error of the press. It should be, "which strain out a gnat," a very different thing from straining at it. The original is diulizontes, a word which signifies filtering or separating, by straining; but never conveys the idea of gagging at any thing, as the erroneous reading would indicate. Here is an undeniable error, of a gross kind, running through almost all our Bibles. Why will publishers thus print it wrong? And why will the clergy in reading the passage not correct the blunder, and read it properly, "strain out," and not as most of them do, say "strain at," when they know that it is not the true word?

It is well known, that this corrupt reading is not to be found in the old editions of the English Bible. In an edition published in the first year of King Edward VI. reign, 1547, it reads correctly, "which strayne out a gnat and swallowe a camel." In Becke's edition, published 1549, at London, and in several old copies of other editions still extant, it reads the same. And the error seems to have first occurred in an edition printed in 1611, from which it has been copied and continued ever since.

EXPOSITION OF JOHN IJI. 3.

THE proposition contained in this verse, is one of fearful and sublime import, and of immense magnitude.

If abstractly considered, it is one of the most astounding and difficult to be understood, the world ever heard; but when examined in the light of its connexion—the entire scheme of human redemption-it becomes one of the most plain and interesting ever contemplated by the human mind. I remark :

First. John the Baptist, the Saviour, the twelve apostles, and seventy disciples, all proclaimed to the Jewish nation, the near approach of the kingdom of God. Doubtless the kingdom predicted in the second chapter of Daniel.

Second. It was an entrance into that kingdom, of which the Saviour spoke.

Third. That kingdom not having been established when the Saviour held this conversation with Nicodemus, it follows, that the baptism of John had no connexion with the birth spoken in this place.

The proposition submitted by the Saviour is this: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus, who had no conception of a spiritual institution, supposed the Saviour spoke of a fleshly birth; and hence in the fourth verse asks, how a man can be born when he is old?

Now be it observed, that the fifth verse is an answer to the above question, and consequently, an explanation of the proposition contained in the third.

Thus we see that a birth of water and spirit in the fifth verse is just equivalent to being born again in the third; and hence it follows that those who contend for two births,

one of spirit and one of water, mistake the meaning, and lose the beauty of the whole proposition.

But the main question now arises, In what does a birth of water and spirit consist?

To this I reply-The language is highly figurative, but the literal import is, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."

Those who deny the above position throw themselves into a difficulty, from which they cannot easily extricate themselves to wit, that a person may be saved and not born again; for the Saviour says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," and if that is not the new birth, then truly a man may be saved and not be born again, and it does not matter whether he be born again or not. Hence our opponents would make the new birth a non-essential. I use the term, saved, as synonymous to pardon.

In view of the facts now presented, I lay down three propositions, one of which must be taken by all in reference to the question in hand.

First. To believe and be baptized is to be born of water and of the spirit.

Second. A person may be saved and not be born again. Third. A baptized believer is not a saved person.

The last position contradicts the inspired writers, who addressed believers as saved persons. See 1 Cor. i. 18; Eph.

ii. 8; Titus iii. 4, 5.

The second will scarcely be admitted by any, and consequently we are driven to the first, which is our position, for the maintenance of which we have been sneered at, by an opposing and self-styled orthodox world. But the truth is mighty and will prevail.

May God speed the day when his truth shall be disengaged from the rubbish by which it has been so long obscured, and pour its radiant beams of life and light, upon the benighted minds of our fellow-men. R.

KEEP Christ's life and temper before you as the great examplar, the great and powerful instrument of making you benevolent as he was. Faith in the truth of the gospel, unwaivering confidence that those things recorded of Christ are true, gives the life and example of Christ the greatest power over you, to make you benevolent like himself.