in at the Arait gate. And you in a degree hope that you fhall arrive to heaven. What prefumption is this!. You are, in fact, hoping that God's word will not prove true. How criminal is this! The prefumptuous hope of the unregenerate is in itself highly criminal and pregnant with deAtruction. They are hoping for a way to enter in which God has declared fhall not take place ;— thus hoping that he will falfify his word. This is the guilt of every one who does not ftrive to enter in at the ftrait gate. And is it not heinous? What would you think of the man that was continually wishing and endeavoring that you might prove yourself unfaithful to your folemn declarations? Dear fir-may you, and all in like circumftances, think and tremble. Let me then intreat you to be earneft about your falvation. Give way to thofe ferious impreffions which I have known to begin to rife in you, upon reading the narratives in the Magazine. Do not feek to be rid of them on any account. Apply to your Bible, and to the throne of grace, nor fear to have it known that you are ferious about a cafe for which Jefus did not difdain to come from heaven and die upon the crossa cafe which employs the concern of angels, and to accomplish which the Holy Spirit condefcends to take up his abode in the hearts of believers. In the view of God and angels it is of infinite importance, and they, doubtlefs, give it no more than its juft eftimation. To trifle with it, is to charge God with folly as well as falfehoodwith placing an unjuft, an infinite eftimation upon a thing fo trifling as not to merit your ferious notice. -How full of wickednefs is the human heart! But Rand and wonder! Jefus } fays come unto me and I will give you reft. Never, Oh! never let it be faid of you, that at the laft you would not come unto Chrift that you might have life. Soon the writer of this and yourself will have paft the day of hope. We muft ftand before the judgment bar of that Jefus whom finners reject. And how fhall we appear? I write to wake up your attention. Unless you roufe to diligence, how can you escape the wrath to come? May you review that piece and others in the Magazine; and if they contain God's truths it is no matter who wrote them. May you feel them. You are infinitely interested in them. And you have no reafon to expect thofe neceffary and facred influences, unless you are in good earnek engaged about them. That you may experience them to a faving degree, and thus become one of the heirs of glory, is the fincere prayer of Your friend, &c. Religious Intelligence. Extract of a letter from a perfon in Weft-Rutland, Vermont, to a friend in Connecticut, dated Sept. 25th, 1803. "THE awakening here we hope is not at an end yet; but there is not that vifible engagednefs which there has been. We have conftant additions to the church. More than 100 have joined this year. In Dorset there has been great attention the fummer paft. In Benfon there is a great work now going on. neighbor of mine, who was there the last week, fays there appears not to be a careless perfon in the town. I am informed that about 4 months ago they had a town meeting, and appointed a committee to defire their minifter to leave A the among the town. Very foon after this, I have been hopefully fnatched from the Lord's hand was vifible of Satan and united to power them." Christ. Forty-three have been added to our communion-twen "At Caftleton, there is a promifing beginning. Numbers are un-ty-fix are propounded; and there der deep impreffions, and fome have obtained hopes." Extract of a letter from a perfon in Dorfet, dated October 20, 1803, to a Clergyman in Connecticut. "It is now about a year fince there firft appeared an unufual attention to the things of religion in this place. But nothing very extraordinary took place 'till laft fpring, when a folemnity, awful as judgment, feized the minds of almost all claffes of people in the fociety. Since that time we have witneffed a scene truly aftonishing and glorious! The mighty Redeemer has rode forth conquering and to conquer. Almighty power and grace have been glorioufly triumphant. Such a day I never before witnessed. The friends of Jefus have been all life and engagedness. Thro' the moft bufy feafon of the year, they have pretty uniformly attended a religious meeting every day in the week. Their hearts and their mouths have been full. To them indeed it has been a remarkably refreshing time. The work has been diftinguishingly still and reg. ular. Nothing that an enemy could call enthufiaftic, has appeared. Perfons of almost every age have been fubjects of the work; but the principal harveft has been from among the youth. In one family, fix young perfons are not lefs than fixty who have manifefted hopes, but have not come forward. There is a marvellous work in Benson, 40 miles north of this, and in several towns in that vicinity. Alfo in Sannings in gate-and fome hopeful beginRupert, Manchester, Winhall, &c. These things will no doubt gladden your heart. We much need your prayers that God would not take from us his holy fpirit."- Extract of a letter from Rev. Samuel Leonard, one of the Connecticut Miffionaries, dated Poultney, Vermont, Oct. 4th, 1803. "REV. SIR, "WITH pleasure I affume my pen to give you fome account of the ftate of religion in this quarter. The awakening at Benfon, a town about eighteen miles north of this, is very powerful indeed. There is scarcely a family in the town that escapes the shower. In the north part of the State the wilderness appears to bloffom. God is pouring out his fpirit in fome towns and awakening finners to attend to the great concerns of eternity. eternity. Poultney is not wholly left. God is here manifefting himfelf to be fuperior to the craftinefs of Satan, and the pride and ftubbornefs of the human heart. Laft fabbath we received fourteen into the church, and fome more are to be examined next week." Donations to the Miffionary Society of Connecticut. 08. 25th. A female friend of Miffions, being a part of a fortunate ticket, 27th. A friend of Miffions, appropriated to the purchase of books. Nine doz. Teftaments from feveral friends of Miffions, D C. 2 121 11 16 .31 50 A REVIEW of times paft, and con- | templations on future profpecs, humbly attempted for general in ftruction, and to excite pious meditations, q. or the Editors' NEW-YEAR'S GIFT, to their generous readers.. (Contin. from Vol. III. p. 249.) A Yes, irrecoverably gone. refpect to themselves. No one can determine that he fhall not be the firft who fhall be called to mourn for the lofs of his dearest enjoyments, or whofe days fhall be numbered and finished. For man alfo knoweth not his time. The eternal happinefs or mifery of every man beyond the grave, depends wholly on the manner in which he employs the fleeting, precarious moments appointed to him upon the earth. Every day and hour will either increafe his treasure in heaven and eternally enhance the glory and bleffednefs of his future reward, or add to the magnitude of his guilt, and forever increase the feverity of his punishment. In this view how fhould every mind be impreffed with the propriety and force of that apoftolic injunction; See then that ye walk circumfpectly, not as NOTHER year is gone. Yes, irrecoverably gone. Millions are gone with it to the grave, and to judgment. All the living, folemn thought! have been wafted on one year nearer to eternity and their final doom. With millions this will be the last year, Great numbers will live but a fmall part of it. Every portion of time, each month, and day, and hour, is pregnant with great events. There is not a minute in which there are not more perfons exchanging worlds, and going to judgment, than there are fec-fools, but as. wife, redeeming the time, onds in it.* All begin their new because the days are evil? The year, with an entire uncertainty words import, that the wifdom of what will be the events of it with man confifteth in the redemption and right ufe of time, and that to embezzle, or mifimprove it is the moft egregious folly. But what According to the common eftimate of mortality, about thirty five, or thirty fix millions die annually; and about feventy or eighty every minute. VOL. IV. No. 7. of his enemies, and to the judge ment of the world. This, according to the common courfe of providence, may be accomplished in a few centuries. As the divine Spirit hath termed it, a little fea fon, and as no events are affigned to it, but the fudden and great apoftacy, and the gathering together of the wicked to compafs the camp of the faints about, and the holy city, it is reasonable to believe, that the time will be short. is time? What is it to redeem time? May not an answer to these inquiries lead us to fuch a view of times paft and times to come as fhall furnish us with meditations fuitable for the New Year's day? Meditations calculated to make us wife and useful while we live, and honorable and bleffed when time with us fhall be no more? TIME in a general fenfe is the meafure of the earthly creation in its prefent manner of exiftence. When the Creator faid, Let there be light and there was light; and the evening and the morning were the first day, time began. When the trump of God fhall found, the dead arife, and the earth and the works that are therein fhall be burnt up, time will be no more. The elect will be gathered in, and the mystery of God finished. The duration of time, probably, will be, between feven and eight thousand years. About 2,514 elapfed before the giving of the law at mount Sinai. From that time to the birth of Chrift, was about 1,486 years, making in the whole 4,000 years. The term from the advent of our Saviour, to the millennium, or thoufand years of light, purity and peace to the church, is generally computed from the prophetic repreTentations at 2,000 years more. This glorious Sabbath of a thou-fin; in which he would fupport fand years will make the complete term of 7000 years. It is written, After that fatan must be loofed for a little feafon, and fhall go out to deceive the nations, which are in the four quarters of the earth and to gather them together, to compafs the camp of the faints about. Chrift is then reprefented as coming to the complete deliverance of the church, the total overthrow *Revelation xx. 7, 8. THE whole duration of time, be it longer or fhorter, is laid out to a moment, in the divine purpofe, with all its different periods and events. He hath appointed the time of the rife, duration, and fall of kingdoms and empires, the countries in which they were to flourish, and the time, place and circumftances of every man's exiflence. And hath made of one blood, all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.* He hath laid out all the great periods of time: That from the the creation to the deluge; from that to the giving of the law; and thence to the coming of the Meffiah. He determined the period from the incar nation of the Saviour unto the rife of Mahomet, and the man of the church under the heathen beaft; and the 1260 years of the reign of the man of fin, that monfter of iniquity, who exalteth himfelf above all that is called God. He devifed and laid out the thousand years, which is to be a glorious Sabbath of reft and joy to the church, the judgment of the great day, and all the fmaller periods of which those *Acts xvii. 26. grand divifions have been or will be compofed; and all the events with which they have been, or fhall be filled. They are all times which he hath put in his power, and the events of which he has governed and will govern according to his purpofe; for his own glory, and the perfection and bleffednefs of his moral kingdom. THE times of men are all in his hands. Man's time is that period which God hath appointed him, in the prefent world. All but this, to him, is eternity, be it ever fo fhort. Is there not an appointed time unto man upon earth? His days are determined, the number of his months are with thee. thou haft fet his bounds that he cannot pass. There is a particular hour or moment which is termed This is the hour, or moment of his diffolution. For man also knoweth not his time. This is emphatically his time, as it is to him the end of all time and opportunities, the commencement of eternity, and determines his endlefs condition. man's time. the fhame, and punishment of the finner through interminable ages. Of time no man can boaft. No, not of tomorrow, not of an hour, not of a moment: For it is written, In a moment he fhall die. Of time no man knows the worth. This is a defcriptive sketch of time. Well hath the poet faid, "On all important time, through every age, Though much, and warm, the wife have urg'd; the man Is yet unborn, who duly weighs an hour."+ BUT what is it to redeem time? To redeem is to recover, or ranfom by paying a price, or by extraordinary exertions and diligence. The term is metaphorical, alluding to merchants, who watch all opportunities for commerce; deny themselves fleep, eafe and pleasure, and fpare no pains to get gain. Sometimes it means, the making up of loft time, by uncommon activity and diligence afterwards. At other times it implies extraordinary exertion and double diligence, by which as much is accomplished in one day or year, as otherwife would have been done in two days or years; by which one half of the time is redeemed for fome other employment. In either of these views, it implies a careful avoiding of all mifpenfe of time, and employing the whole of it, with activity and diligence, for the best purposes. PARTICULARLY it implies a ftudious recovering it from all unneceffary fleep and drowsiness from floth, idlenefs, eafe, paftimes, and fenfual pleafures; from gaming and all unlawful diverfions, exercifes and employments. It implies the most cautious guarding against all mispense of time. It implies fome proper fenfe of + Night Thoughts, p. 18. |