REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW YEAR. From Dr. Spring's "Fragments from the Study of a Pastor." CAN it be that another year has fled ? With all its joys and trials, all its sins and duties, all its instructions and privileges, is it fled? Yes, it is gone. It has terminated the lives of millions, and, like an irresistible current, has borne them on to the grave and the judgment. It has gone. Like a dream of the night, it has gone! Amid the rapids of time, there are few objects a man observes with less care and distinctness than himself. To one standing on the shore, the current appears to pass by with inconceivable swiftness, but to one who is himself gliding down the stream, the face of this vast extent of waters is unruffled, and all around him is a dead calm. It is only by looking toward the shore, by discerning here and there a distant landmark, by casting his eye back upon the scenery that is retiring from his view, that he sees he is going forward. And how fast! The tall pine that stands alone on the mountain's brow, casts its shade far down the valley; while the huge promontory throws its shadow almost immeasurably on the plain below. It is but a few years, and I was greeting life's opening day. But yesterday, I thought myself approaching its meridian. Today I look for those meridian splendours, and they are either wholly vanished, or just descending behind the evening cloud. I cannot expect to weather out the storms of this tempestuous clime much longer. A few more billows on these dangerous seas, perhaps a few days of fair weather is the most I can look for, before I am either shipwrecked, or reach my desired haven. Why fly these years so rapidly? It is in anticipation rather than reprospect, that men put too high an estimate upon earthly things. I have been wandering to-day in the grave-yard. I have trodden softly on the place of my fathers' sepulchres. I have been playing with the willow and the cypress that weep over their dust. The generations of men dwell here. Yes, here they are. Those whom I have loved, and still love, and hope to love, are here. "The fashion of this world passeth away." The fair fabric of earthly good is built upon the sand. It rocks and falls under the first stroke of the tempest. "Man, at his best estate, is altogether vanity." It is well that it is so. Were it otherwise, we should put far off the evil day, and live as if we flattered ourselves with immortality on the earth. When the Doge of Venice showed Charles the Fifth the treasury of St. Mark, and the glory of his princely palace, instead of admiring them, he remarked, "These are the things that make men so loath to die." On what rapid wings has this last year sped its course! How sure and certain an approximation to the close of this earthly existence! Every year adds to what is past, and leaves less to come. "What is your life? It is even as a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." What is it, when compared with the amount of labour to be accomplished, and the magnitude of the interests at stake? What is it, compared with the facility with which it may be interrupted, and the ten thousand causes of decay and dissolution it is destined to encounter? What is it, compared with the ever-enduring existence to which it is an introduction? How fugitive! how frail! Hardly has the weary traveller laid himself down to rest, when he is summoned away to pursue his journey, or called to his everlasting home. "We spend our years as a tale that is told." The flying cloud, the evanescent vapour, the arrow just propelled from the string, the withering grass, the flower whose beauty scarcely blooms ere it is faded, and whose fragrance is scarcely perceptible ere it is gone, are apt similitudes of the life of man. I am but a wanderer, a pilgrim, a sojourner on the earth. Though every thing is cheerful about me, I feel to-day exiled and alone. A thousand recollections crowd upon my mind to remind me of the past, to premonish me of the future, and to lead me to some just conceptions of the present. This world is not my home. I have made it my restingplace too long. I hear a voice to-day, in accents sweet as angels use, whispering to my lonely heart, "Arise, and depart hence, for this is not your rest!" I am away from my Father's house. I have felt vexations and trials. I have expe I rienced disappointments and losses. have known the alienation of earthly friends. I am not a stranger to dejected hopes. I know something of conflicts within. But now and then I have a glimpse of the distant and promised inheritance, which more than compensates me for all. It is no grief of heart to me, that I have no enduring portion beneath the sun. I am but a passing traveller here. I would fain feel like one who is passing from place to place, and going from object to object, with his eye fixed on some long-wished for abode beyond; while every successive scene brings me nearer to the end of my course, and all these earthly vicissitudes endear to me the hopes of that final rest. To live here, however happily, however usefully, however well, must not be my ultimate object. I was born for eternity. Nay, I am the tenant of eternity even now. Time belongs to eternity. It is a sort of isthmus, or rather a little gulf, with given demarcations, set off and bounded by lines of ignorance; but it mingles with the boundless flood-it belongs to eternity still. A great change indeed awaits us. We must drop this tabernacle and go into a world of spirits. But we shall be in the same duration. I must live for eternity. In entering on another year, I know not from what unexpected quarter, or at what an unguarded hour difficulties and dangers may come. Oh that I could enjoy more of the favour of God, more of the presence of the Saviour, more of the sealing of the ever-blessed Spirit! Oh for more of a calm, approving conscience, and more of the delightful influence of the peace-speaking blood of Jesus Christ! From some cause or other, I begin this year with a trembling heart. I fear I may lose my way. I am afraid lest I should turn aside from the straight path; lest I may repose in the bower of indolence and ease; lest I may sleep on enchanted ground; lest I should be ensnared, if not destroyed by an unhallowed curiosity; lest I should be betrayed by my own presumption and selfconfidence. I can remember some who have forsaken the way and fallen into snares; and the sad memorials of their folly are strewed along my path. Why should I hope to pass unwatched or unmolested? The enemy is not asleep. Many a time have I been baffled by his artifices. Rest where I will, and rise when I may, he is always at my side. And shall I dream of peace? Shall I not watch and pray? Will not presumption and sloth cost me dear? Blessed God, hold thou me up, and I shall be safe! Pity thy erring creature. Forgive thy wandering child. Keep, and with the bounties of thy grace, bless thy poor suppliant. Preserve him another year. Let him not be conformed to this world. Give him a warm and humble heart. Let nothing interrupt, or retard his progress toward the Zion above. I would live another year, if it be my heavenly Father's will. And yet I would not live to sin, and fall, and reproach my Saviour and his blessed cause. Better die than live to no good purpose! I would live till my work is donecheerful when it is most arduous, and grateful for strength according to my day. But I would not be afraid to die. Shall the child desire to be away from his Father's house? Shall the traveller, already weary, choose to have his stay in the wilderness prolonged? It were a sad sight to see a Christian die with regret to see him go home as if he were going to a prison! Oh let me think much and often of my heavenly home! "Jerusalem, my happy home! Name ever dear to me! "Jerusalem, my happy home! My soul still pants for thee; Let me then often climb the mount of contemplation, and prayer, and praise, and there try to catch a glimpse of "the glory to be revealed," and get my cold heart affected with a view of its yet distant endearments. Love to God-communion with God-devotedness to God, these are the foretastes of heaven. If through the cares and duties of secular life, I cannot preserve an invariable tendency of mind toward that holy world, -let it be a more habitual and frequent tendency! I feel the sorrows of this guilty insensibility, this languor of spiritual affection, and long for those hallowed moments when the meltings of contrition, the fervours of desire, the vividness of faith, and the hope full of immortality, shall shed their sacred fragrance over my spirit, and make me pant for heaven. Nor let it be a transient emotion, kindled by some momentary excitement, or awakened by some im pulse of the imagination; but marked by all the ardour of passion, and all the constancy of principle. Spirit of the Redeemer! shed abroad thine own love in this poor heart of mine, and thus seal it to the day of eternal redemption! Let me greet every truth, every providence, every meditation that shall invite me to more intimate intercourse with heaven. Let me dwell upon the communications sent down from that blessed world to cheer my fainting spirit and revive my courage by the way. Let me welcome those messages of Divine providence that are designed and adapted to intercept my constant view of earth, and bring the realities of eternity near. Let me grieve at nothing that makes me familiar with heaven. Let me never mourn when some little stream of comfort and joy is dried up, and I am driven more directly to the fountain. Let me take a fresh departure for the land of promise from the beginning of this new year. I would fain look upward with a more steadfast eye, and march onward with a firmer step. Nor would I lose sight of "the cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night," but go where it goes, and rest where it rests. And who-who will remain behind? Who will be content to have his hopes bounded by the narrow scenes of earth? Go up, fellow traveller, to eternity, go up to some selected eminence of thought, where the splendours of the holy city shall break upon your view. This world is not your home any more than mine. It cannot comfort you, more than it has comforted me. You may be called away from all its scenes as soon as I. Your journey to the grave may be shorter even than mine. Nay, this year, thou mayest die. PROFITLESS ATTENDANCE ON THE MEANS OF GRACE, A SUBJECT FOR CONSIDERATION AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR. To be surrounded with privileges is a great mercy, but it may also prove a curse; it may prove a mercy or a curse for ever. Religious privileges, if rightly used and improved, constitute an invaluable source of enjoyment and blessing; but if they are neglected, or attended to with mere formality, the consequences of such conduct can neither be described nor conceived. God reminds us "that we are but stewards;" that the termination of our stewardships will be followed by "the day of reckoning ;" and that the righteous decisions of judgment will perfectly accord with the number and value of the means and opportunities of moral improvement with which we are favoured. The Jews were distinguished above every other people with religious privileges; they possessed the lively oracles of God, and the visible symbols of the Divine presence; prophets were raised up among themselves to be their instructors, and of them, as concerning the flesh, "Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." Though these great and invaluable blessings were continued among them for a long succession of years, yet, in the days of Christ, they were in an awful state of moral ignorance and depravation; and because they continued to resist the light, and to rebel against the authority and goodness of God, they were abandoned to their own hearts' lusts. While Christ tabernacled and laboured among men, the spirit and character of many of his hearers very much resembled that of their guilty ancestors; and profitless attention to the means of grace is still an evil much to be deplored. How important, then, at the commencement of another year, we should all most earnestly desire and pray, that more extensively than in the past year, the means of grace may be rendered effectual to salvation. The first object contemplated in this paper is, to glance at some of the probable reasons why the means of grace are so frequently attended without any real profit. That many individuals who are constantly favoured with abundance of the means of grace still remain in a state of spiritual darkness and death, is a humiliating and affecting fact that cannot be questioned-a fact which all true Christians constantly and deeply deplore a fact which calls for the most vigorous and united prayers and efforts of the church, that its baneful tendency may be counteracted, and that its awful consequences may be avoided. What is the occasion of this state of mind? How is it that so many individuals, for a long series of years, regularly attend the means of grace, and yet remain uninstructed, unprofited, and unblessed? It is not because God, irrespective of their sinfulness, has decreed that they shall not be saved, nor is it because he is unwilling to save them, for he has declared that he "willeth not the death of the sinner," that "he delighteth in mercy;" and that "he is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," 2 Pet. iii. 9. It is not because there is any inadequacy in the means of salvation; for "God so loved the world, as to give his only and well-beloved Son to die for the guilty;" and with him also he has given the assurance that "whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life." Seeing, then, that this awful fact exists, and that the occasion of the evil does not exist in God, or in any inadequacy in the provision of mercy made for the guilty; where are we to look for the cause?-where, but in the perverseness of the creature; the dread development of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the human heart. Profitless attendance on the means of grace is the result of corrupting and debasing prejudice. Because Christ did not appear as a temporal deliverer, and because he did not exalt the people to worldly pomp and dignity, the Jews were so strongly prejudiced against him that they contemptuously rejected his authority, disobeyed his laws, and ultimately subjected him to the awful and ignominious death of the cross. The baneful influence of this unhallowed prejudice was handed down from one generation to another, and by this means many were fatally deceived and ruined. The spirit of the same evil that existed among the Jews still prevails to an awful extent among all classes of individuals. We find persons cherishing certain sentiments concerning religion because they were accredited by their parents, or because they accord with the customs of country in which they reside, without ever examining whether or not they the agree with the word of God. By this means many individuals are frequently deluded to their utter ruin; but, should their religious sentiments be found to be right, the manner by which they come to this conclusion is evidently wrong, for their faith is not founded on conviction, or on evidence derived from revealed truth, but on mere prejudiced regard for custom. When individuals act thus, we feel no surprise that they do not know the truth, and that they remain unblessed under the means of grace. But further, This state of mind is also the result of moral indifference. Without diligence we cannot expect improvement either in temporal or spiritual knowledge; but such is our natural and unhappy aversion to the things of God that almost any subject is preferred to religion, and while individuals live under the influence of this prevailing and unholy bias, and discover such marked indifference to the things which belong to their peace, we cannot be at a loss to know why they are altogether unprofited under the means of grace. Such individuals may regularly occupy their places in the house of God, whilst their minds are engaged with the transactions of time; they are often found in God's house, but it is to sit in judgment on the preacher and on others, rather than en themselves; and instead of giving diligent, prayerful, and personal attention to the word of truth, to the claims of religion, and to the interests of the soul, they are glad when the service of the sanctuary is ended. When individuals continue to manifest such marked indifference to all the sacred obligations of religion, we cannot feel surprised that they neither perceive nor understand the spiritual import of the truth. Moreover, it cannot be concealed that this state of mind is the result of inordinate love of the world. Immoderate worldly attachments are inimical to the acquisition of holy knowledge, and are expressly forbidden as dishonourable to God, injurious to the soul, and evidential of the lack of true religion. "Love not the world," &c. 1 John ii. 15-17. The mind is often so engrossed with the cares, and business, and pleasures of the world, that the things which are revealed in God's word are neglected, and that the interests of the soul are treated with indifference; but all such individuals will be left with out excuse at the last, when they find that the world to which they have given their hearts cannot save them, that the means of deliverance through the blood of Jesus Christ are utterly lost, and that they are actually beginning to sink under the full weight of God's awful and everlasting displeasure. Once more it may be remarked, that this state of mind is the result of a haughty and unbelieving spirit. All Pride and unbelief are the two great sins which people the regions of the lost with multitudes of inhabitants. The reception of the kingdom of heaven, or of the blessings of the gospel, is the effect of the humbling grace of God, and is inseparable from a docile and believing state of mind, Matt. xviii. 3; Mark x. 15. If individuals, in the haughtiness and self-sufficiency of their spirits, exalt human reason above Divine revelation, or in opposition to the gracious records of the gospel, they grievously err, and may err fatally, with the means of salvation in their hands. that is revealed in the Bible demands our credence, and if we are constrained to acknowledge that there are some things in the Scriptures which we cannot comprehend, we only acknowledge that God is wiser than we are, and that infinite knowledge surpasses that which is finite; but if any individuals resolve to reject what they cannot understand, they need not wonder if, at the last, they find those who were but mere babes in knowledge entering the kingdom, whilst they themselves, through the pride of intellect and secret unbelief, are eternally shut out. Such being some of the causes of profitless attention on the means of grace, the writer would further entreat the reader's attention to some observations on the danger of continuing in this state of mind. "take The Scriptures admonish us to guard against moral insensibility, when they counsel us to "give heed to the things which we have heard," &c., Heb. ii. 1.; and also, when they charge us to heed lest we be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin," Heb. iv. 13. If the public ordinances of religion were a mere means of mental improvement, we could not neglect a divine appointment with impunity, but when we consider that God has promised his special presence and blessing in connexion with the means of grace, in order to promote the moral improvement of the mind, and to prepare us to serve and enjoy him, both in this world and a future, our guilt must be awfully aggravated if we wilfully or carelessly neglect them. But the design of the writer is not so much to admonish and warn those who neglect the means of grace, as to endeavour to search and probe the consciences of such as continue to attend the means of grace, and still remain hardened against all admonition and entreaty. It is not sufficient that we are regularly found in God's house, nor that we discover some interest in the ordinances of the sanctuary; the word must be heard and received in the exercise of faith, and it must be reduced to practice, otherwise we are resting in the means only, whilst the end for which the means were appointed is unanswered. The word of God is compared to seed, but it must be sown that it may yield produce; it is also compared to light, and then it is afforded to guide our steps, Psa. cxix. 105; but if we hear the word of God, and know the will of God, and still continue to neglect them, our guilt is fearfully aggravated, and our danger is tremendously awful. The longer individuals continue unprofited under the means of grace, their evil habits frequently become the more confirmed. The faithful preaching of the gospel, like afflictive providences, either softens or hardens the heart; it either draws men nearer to God, or drives them farther from him, and it will either prove a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. Practical indifference to sacred things is natural to men as fallen creatures, and so long as they live in this state evil habits gather strength, they take firmer hold of the mind, and they produce such confirmed and habitual insensibility to the voice of conscience, of providence, and of God, that all hope of their being ever overcome is greatly diminished; for there is no resistance of this disposition, nor is there any prayer for the grace of resistance. To this state of mind the prophet Jeremiah seems to refer when he says, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" &c., Jer. xiii. 23. The benumbing and carnalizing influence of sin increases, if the grace of the gospel, as the only counteracting remedy, is received or heard in vain; and formalists, and practical unbelievers, continue to reject God's mercies until |