"THE DAY COMETH."-MAL. iv. 1.

"FOR, behold!" says the prophet Ma- ciful; He will not condemn those whom lachi. Mark it well! You may trifle He has made. I'm all right." Test upon other subjects, but you cannot his pride further by telling him that, if upon this. Pause, and consider. "The saved at all, he can only be saved by the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven: sovereign grace of God; and pride of and all the proud, yea, and all that do heart will manifest itself again in his wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day rejecting the simplicity of the Gospel. that cometh shall burn them up, saith Test him furthermore by telling him the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave that Jesus Christ receives notorious sinthem neither root nor branch." "BUT" ners, but rejects the self-righteous Pha-oh precious, encouraging, soul-ani-risee; and his pride will again be manimating "But" "unto you that fear fest in disclaiming a Christ who receiveth my name shall the Sun of Righteousness and eateth with sinners. And a third arise with healing in His wings; and ye sign of the unrighteous is given in the shall go forth, and grow up as calves of expression, "all that do wickedly the stall." In these important words we have

3rd. The consummation of bliss-the happy liberty of heaven in reserve for those who fear the Lord given us under the striking figure, they "shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall."

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by their fruits ye shall know them." Now, "all that serve not God," "all that are proud," and "all that do wickedly," are to be burnt up as the stubble which is cast into the oven. By the stubble we understand that which is separated from the precious grain, and is left on the field only to be burned. So shall the tares and the wheat be separated in the great day of account; the former tied into bundles, and cast into everlasting torment; the latter carried home in Jehovah's garner, not one precious grain falling through the sieve. We say eternal torment! Yes, some foolish men have dared to argue, from such expressions as "the stubble burnt up," and the "chaff blown away," that after death the wicked will be totally annihilated. A fatal refuge, indeed, this, when the Bible declares "their worm dieth not." And in the striking parable of Lazarus and the rich glutton, the latter is graphically described as

1st Solemn judgments in store for the wicked-they shall be burnt up as stubble; cast into the heated oven. And who are the wicked? How shall we know them? This Scripture and its context answers the question. In the last verse of the previous chapter they are described as, first, those who serve not God. This is a faithful test of a wicked man. Such an one may be indignant at being called a wicked man, and may respond, "Indeed I am not: I owe no man anything, and live uprightly and at peace with my neigh-being in torments. bours." But here's the point-who do you serve, God or Mammon? You can't serve both. There is no difficulty in arriving at who is your earthly master; nor any, surely, in answering the question, Who is your spiritual master? And then, the wicked are described, secondly, in this passage, as all the proud. A man, again, may say, "I am no proud man.' But test such an one thus:-Tell him he is a poor, hell-deserving sinner, worthy only of eternal condemnation, and his pride will rise directly, while he replies, "No, I am not; what have I done? God is mer

Well, we may turn from this solemn side of the subject to one more pleasing to those who do serve the Lord, who are walking humbly in His sight, and who are bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit to the glory of the name of Jesus. And we repeat, precious, hallowed "but "-the Christian's turning point. -"But unto you that fear my name." How simple and yet how certain the test of true discipleship. Not those who fear God as a consuming fire, but those who fear Him, that is, manifest a holy affection and reverence for Him; that leads them ofttimes to say, "Well,

LOVE NOT THE WORLD.

HEREBY many deceive their own souls: | world and the things that are in it in goods, lands, possessions, relations, trades, with secular interest in them, are the things whose image is drawn on their minds, and whose characters are written on their foreheads as the titles whereby they may be known. As believers, beholding the glory of Christ in the blessed image of the Gospel, are changed into the same image and likeness by the Spirit of the Lord; so these persons, beholding the beauty of the-Owen.

THE MANIFESTATION OF THE LOVE OF GOD TO HIS PEOPLE.

"The Lord hath appeared from afar unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."-Jer. xxxi. 3.

Person and perfect Work were more honoured by the pulpit, the press, and the tongue, in this day of His administration!

WHAT a divine beauty in the Hebrew | preserving it through all our wilderness marginal reading here-from afar! way. Oh that His blessed Majesty's How far? Ah, who can tell? So far into the depths of a past eternity, that angel minds are swallowed up; therefore the writer of this article would not dare to attempt a description of God's love to His people, but only dilate a little upon its manifestation. John, the beloved, shall help us to the first idea here-"In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Here, beloved, is the first breaking forth of the water of life that shall flow for ever and for ever. Here is laid the groundwork for all the after-displays of God's love to His people. Here is an Almighty Saviour for the vile and the helpless. Yes, and provided before we existed, in full foresight of all our vileness and helplessness.

The next note I shall take of the manifestation of God's love to His people is, our adoption. John ushers it in with his usual exclamation-" Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." And well might he do so, for consider our wretched condition, in the open field of justlydeserved wrath, polluted in our own blood; the very life we had was the matter of our pollution. No eye to pity, no hand to save. Look at the love that took us into the arms of mercy, washed away all our filthiness in atoning blood, clothed us in a spotless righteousness, fed us with the bread of life, refreshed us with heavenly wine, and called us the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. All this faith embraces; but the most sensible manifestation of God's love is the saving operations of the Holy Spirit, quickening us when dead, baptizing us with fire, communicating a new and holy life, and

Another most important manifestation of the love of God to His people, which is very often misconstrued, is His correcting rod; for, whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth: it is therefore a token of His love, and a proof of our sonship. The writer has recently experienced some of the blessedness of chastisement, which suggested this article; and oh, may the sons and daughters of affliction gather some drops of consolation therefrom. Who of the adoption would not cheerfully bear the light afflictions which are but for a moment, to reap the peaceable fruits of righteousness which they afterward yield?

But God manifests His love to His people by building them a magnificent school-house, where many an OLD JONATHAN has been taught lessons of heavenly wisdom. Yes, beloved, time is our pupilage, this world our studyroom, the Holy Spirit our Teacher, the wicked our bread (Numb. xiv. 9); and our hardest lesson to learn to believe that all things are ours, and working for our good. Yes, this world-this ruined world-that still bears so many glorious foot prints of its Maker's power and wisdom, was made for Christ and His people; the theatre where He should display the wonders of redeeming love, and train them up for citizens of the New Jerusalem.

And this brings me to the crowning point of the rich display of Divine love to a chosen, redeemed, and saved people. The time is near when we shall receive a kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world; a kingdom which cannot be moved; a palace in the skies, that needs no solar blaze to give it light. "And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the

FORGIVENESS.

"Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?”—Job xxxviii. 22. Read Psalm li. 7; Isa. i. 18; Lam. iv. 7; John x. 9.

A FRAGMENT.

Che Protestant Beacon.

ROMISH FAITH AND ROMISH
ERROR.

1. The Church of Rome admits the Bible to be the Word of God; but she alleges that Word to be imperfect, for we can only in part learn from it our salvation; and she has, therefore, added to it certain Apocryphal Books and Traditions.

2. She admits that God is to be adored with a supreme worship, for the Bible is explicit on this; but she divides the honour with Him by giving an inferior quality of worship-a religious worship nevertheless to the Virgin Mary and supposed Saints, for which she can show no other authority than her Traditions.

to a daily propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead. This she does by a perversion of the whole Gospel scheme of the ONE Atonement and Redemption.

6. She admits that God is a Spirit, and is to be worshipped in spirit, for the Bible is also plain on this point: but she also declares that He is to be worshipped under the form of a consecrated piece of bread, made by men's hands, an invention of Priests to increase their dignity and consequence, but degrading to the Deity.

7. She admits that God can and does pardon sin, teaches that His clemency is reserved for the truly contrite; while it is left to the Church, by her Priests, through the (so-called) sacrament of Penance, to make up what is wanting in the penitent who brings only an imperfect repentance: and thus she would save those whom God would reject—a modern invention which has not even the advantage of Tradition to support it. She takes upon herself to anticipate the judgment of God by absolution of the penitent in this life.'

8. She admits that God is a dispenser of graces and mercies, but she pretends to share in this power by having at her disposal "Ecclesiastical Treasures" of supposed accumulated merits of departed saints-a modern invention to make money.

9. And for this purpose, while she admits that the merits of Christ are infinite, she also declares, contrary to the doctrine of Scripture, that the justified not only can be saved by their works, or rather thereby increase their right to acceptance before God, but that they can do more than is sufficient for their own salvation, which surplus can be applied for the benefit of others who may have come short of the required standard.

10. She admits that God can pardon the punishment due to the sin committed, but she takes it upon herself to anticipate that pardon, by remitting the punishment due to sin in this life, as well even the punishment sup