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sincere designs may be frustrated: but the Friend of sinners has an almighty arm, and an unchanging heart; therefore, of all that he hath promised, not one word can fail. The immutable attributes of grace, as they are displayed in the fulfilment of the promises, are the stability of our comforts, and the security of all our expectations. Because there is an immutable efficacy in the grace of Jesus, no believer, as such, can walk in darkness with respect to the certainty of his salvation. As a believer, he is superior to the terror of the law, the afflictive changes of the world, the temptations of hell, and the fears of death. Being confident of this very thing, that the good work of grace shall be carried on until the day of Jesus Christ, he holds on his way, rejoicing in the omnipotence of grace as his security, and in the immutability of grace as his only consolation.

The God of grace glorifies his sovereignty in our predestination, his infinite power in bringing us to believe in Christ for justification, and his faithful unchangeable love in conducting us to glory. He calls, he justifies none whom he does not predestinate, nor does he call and justify any whom he does not finally glorify. Take away this truth, the sovereign immutability of grace, and the gospel ceases to be good news: Christianity becomes a mere shadow; our confidence has no foundation; our hope no certain object; and, as a natural consequence, our joy may be all delusion. Where would be the efficacy or the immutability of grace, were it even possible, that in one period of life we might be the children of light and the heirs of eternal life, and at another period the children of wrath and the heirs of hell? Where would be the glory of grace if those who are the subjects of it this hour, might in the next hour be lifting up their eyes in torment? But this certaraly would be the case did our salvation depend upon the precarious foundation of our own faithfulness to grace received. If salvation depend upon our ability to keep and improve grace, who then can be saved? And if it depend upon the unchangeable, the almighty grace of Jesus, who, that believes in him, can ever be lost? Let us then examine the foundation of our confidence: Is it sand or is it rock? In the Deluge there was no safety, no salvation bat in the Ark. The sinners who despised and rejected the doctrines of Noah, when the flood came, fled to the highest hills, they ascended the loftiest trecs; but all in vain: refuge failed, and their doom was fixed. Even so now there is no security, no shelter for us but in the Lord Jesus. He is our only "Hiding-place from the wind, our only covert from the storm." And let the proud and the prophane sinner remember, that the day is at hand, when he will lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and when the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow every other hidingplace.

P.

I''.

ADDRESS TO CHRISTIANS RESPECTING THE JEWS.

Two great events are rendered certain by the unerring voice of prophecy, the conversion of the Jews, and the gathering of the fulness of the Gentiles to Jesus Christ. The means of accomplishing these, is the preaching of the gospel. To the Jews it was first sent; and myriads believed on Jesus as the promised Messiah : the mass of the nation, however, remained still in unbelief. that time, their situation is changed only for the worse; and it may be doubted, whether, during the last ten centuries, so many Jews have been brought to embrace Christianity, as during the first ten years after the death of Christ.

Since

So remarkable a thing should not pass unobserved. Multitudes of the most abandoned of the human race, in every other country where the truth has been preached, have submitted to Jesus, and taken his yoke upon them: but how seldom has a Jew been prevailed on to deny himself, to take up his cross and follow Christ? Are we to ascribe this to the wrath of Jehovah, and to the manifestation of his awful justice on the devoted nation for rejecting the true and promised Messiah, and to hold up before the eyes of every other nation the heinousness of their crime? It must be at the same time acknowledged, that in consequence of the wicked lives of men, calling themselves Christians, and their cruel treatment, age after age received from them, the Jews may be supposed to have the most inveterate prejudices against Jesus, his religion, and his disciples.

Now and then, indeed, an individual of the Jewish nation is converted to the faith of Christ, as a proof that God has not finally cast off his people; but that he will gather them in again. Of these persons, how surprizing is it that we do not read of one who ever devoted himself to the service of the Jewish people, and who spent his days in seeking their conversion!

But such a person has now been raised up: Joseph Samuel C. F. Frey of the seed of Abraham, born in Germany, having learned of the Father, and been brought to believe in the name of the Son of God, studied for some time at Berlin, and was afterwards upwards of three years in the Missionary Seminary at Gosport, receiving instruction, with a view to preach the gospel to the Jews. He has since settled in London with this view; and he has laboured not without encouragement, as "he does not despise the day of small things.'

As the work is so very important, and at the same time so very arduous, it becomes every true disciple of Jesus to enquire, "What is my duty in respect to this great object?" A kind and affectionate deportment to the posterity of men, is certainly incum bent on you. The miracles wrought in the world hy love, have been greater and more numerous than those performed by power. Prayer for them, and for the success of God's dear servant's la

ADDRESS RESPECTING THE JEWS.

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bours among them, is indispensably requisite. Too frequent has the neglect of this been, both in public, in domestic, and in secret devotions; and when it has not been forgotten, how often has it been the prayer of Custom, not of Faith! Consider the obligations which lie upon you. The divine command and the exainples of the saints in Scripture, unite in enjoining you to offer your heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, that they may be saved. Gratitude likewise pleads powerfully in their behalf! From whom did you derive that salvation through Jesus, in which you greatly rejoice? Were not Moses and the Prophets Jews? - were not the Apostles of the Lamb Jews? was not your Saviour himself, as to his human nature, of the seed of Abraham? Surely, then, whoever is forgotten by you in prayer, it should not be the Jews. Prayer is God's appointed means of bringing the predictions of Scripture into accomplishment; and whoever has heard God say that he will give birth to some auspicious events, by the instrumentality of men, should immediately begin to pray that it may be fulfilled; and the nearer the season of the fulfilment arrives, the more frequent and fervent should his supplications be. The influence of this glorious event on others, in which we are nearly concerned, while it adds to its importance, should increase the fervency of our prayers. How many profess an earnest (and it is a laudable) desire for the conversion of the Heathen! But the calling of the Jews will, according to the unerring decision of the sacred Scriptures, contribute in the highest degree to this desired issue; and should not this consideration - give additional energy to our supplications? Your own personal benefit is likewise involved in the act. Not one prayer of faith ever ascended to Heaven without bringing down a blessing! Every supplication, therefore, which you offer for the Jews, will return with a tenfold benefit into your own bosom! I may add, The Redeemer will be glorified thereby; and "though Israel be not gathered, you shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord."

Weigh these considerations, brethren, in the balance of the sanctuary. The result, I trust, will be a spirit of more frequent and fervent prayer for God's ancient people; and for his ministering servant, who has devoted himself to them for Jesus' sake. Do you feel grief of heart that you have not attended more diligently to this important duty, and the poor forlorn Israelites have been so often passed by in forgetfulness? Henceforth let them never be forgotten, either in the services of the sanctuary, in the devotions of the family, or in the exercises of the closet. If the hundreds of thousands of God's saints in this kingdom were to be found crying to him day and night, for the conversion of the posterity of Abraham, his friend, we might soon have the pleasure to hear that the Deliverer was come out of Zion, and had begun to turn away ungodliness from Jacob; and churches of Jewish believers in Christ, would be heard offering up their songs of praise to God, and to the Lamb, not only in Britain, but in the other countries where they are scattered abroad.

THE CASHELOT, OR WHALE,

(From which the Spermaceli is prepared)

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE HISTORY OF JONAH.

THERE are many sorts of whales, of which, one of the most usual is the Greenland Whale; this enormous fish has a swallow not more than four inches broad; from which circumstance some people have rashly concluded that it was impossible Jonah should have been swallowed by a fish of this description. This has led some to discredit and reject the sacred history in which that event is recorded; while others justly observe, that the original word, translated whale, only signifies a great fish; and indeed is so rendered in the book of Jonah.

But I do not remember to have read in any Biblical Critic that there is another species of whale, called the Cashelot, Catodon, or Pott-fish, from the huge head of which the unctuous substance called Spermaceti is derived, whose throat is so very large, that he could swallow an ox. This fish is described in a book of unquestionable authority, where it is affirmed, that one of these whales being struck by a harpoon, in his anguish threw up a shark whole, and four yards in length: at the same time there were found in his stomach, some fish-bones a fathom (two yards) long. The author adds, that in the year 1729, seventeen of these singular fishes were stranded near Ritzebuttel, in the mouth of the Elbe; and some have been lately stranded in Holland. A further account of them may be seen in Anderson.

This description of the whale fully justifies the Scripture account of the prophet Jonah, who was enclosed in the belly of such a fish; and it shews how extremely rash is the judgment which the enemies of revelation sometimes form of the sacred history. A fuller knowledge of nature, and of facts, would probably render the most obscure passages of the Bible plain and easy.

* Mr. Crantz's History of Greenland, Vol. I. p. 112,

BIBLICUS.

&c.

THE MEDITATION OF AN INTERESTING MOMENT.

DECEMBER 31, 1805, shall I call it? or January 1, 1806? The clock strikes twelve; the bells, with sudden peal, ring out the old year and usher in the new. While the different periods of my life loudly resound, as they turn upon their hinges, I involuntarily exclaim, "Thus passes Time!-thus Eternity advances!" I feel myself at this moment as on the isthmus, where,, standing between both, I contrast Eternity, on which I am entering, with Time,

MEDITATION OF A MOMENT.

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when it is decreed to last no longer. Time then appears as a glass, which has poured forth its rapid stream, and now stops exhausted: Eternity presents an ocean of infinite expanse, which knows no shore nor ebb.

In Time I see the abode of Ephemeræ, the passing creatures of a moment. There all things are born but to die; appear only to vanish. Brass corrodes, marble crumbles, and the whole scene passes as the figures of a magic lantern: but Eternity I confess the residence of durability, the dwelling-place of Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, the "I AM." Around his throne, or crushed beneath his feet, are myriads of beings, who know no change; but feel their doom for ever sealed.

Through all the shifting scenes of Time, I contemplate crowds of probationers, some wishing, others dreading, and all expecting to change their fortunes. I see the colour of unknown ages, depending upon the moment which is now upon the wing. In one spot,. I observe a few who feel the awful ground on which they stand, and anticipating the infinite consequences of this truth, bear on their countenances the serious impression: but on every other side, nothing is seen but a drunken oblivion, which swallows in the immediate draught, all thoughts of the impending future. How different Eternity! There nothing hangs in suspense, each knows his doom. Religion no longer trembles with anxious fears, nor guilt tastes any more delusive hopes! All are occupied in gathering what they have sowed. In Heaven they recall their former faith and hope, joys. and sorrows, prayers and hymns, and now taste the sweet fruits of grace exercised in long past ages! In Hell they feel again stings which they thought blunted, and are haunted with recollections for which they hoped to have found Lethean draughts. Time, though such an evanescent drop, has dashed with gall of bitterness the cup which eternity shall not exhaust.

Time, as he flies, seems to recall the pleasure he brings; and says to the righteous, "Ye must only taste of the brook by the way; I am bearing you on my wings to that fountain whence you may drink immortal draughts!" With equal force he says to the boly sufferer," Each pang diminishes the tale, and every throb becomes more tolerable as it announces the approach of ease. It is Eternity which makes pleasure pleasure indeed; for no bitter expectation of reverse harrasses the mind; but the thought that an unalterable futurity of bliss is all my own, gives the exquisite taste of Eternity to every sensation of delight. But in the stagnant lake of endless woe an unknown aggravation is thrown into each pang, from the consideration, "This must last for ever.", - An eternal tooth-ache only would be a Hell!

Will Time thus deeply affect Eternity, and should not Eternity influence Time? Let me "now in the accepted time," believe in hin who will freely bestow on me eternal life. Let me begin this

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