wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Address to the Canadian Conference. It has afforded us great consolation to learn from the Minutes of your second Conference, that you are labouring on successfully in the great work, of "turning men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God;" and we most heartily congratulate you on the encouraging prospect of future usefulness which lies before you. We sympathise with you in regard to the defects over which you have cause to lament; and likewise in the difficulties with which you have to contend; and trust that with the blessings of a gracious Providence, you will be enabled to rise superior to all oppos ing influences, and be rendered a more abundant blessing, in the important colony which is the sceneof your labours. We have listened with great interest to the Minutes of your late Conference, and rejoice at your adoption of the various regulations contained in these Minutes; as they indicate a disposition to carry out the system on which our affairs are conducted at home, so far as the varying circumstances will admit; and we trust that in all future Conferences the proceedings will shew, that though for the convenience of conducting the affairs of the Church in Canada, you have been formed into a separate Conference, yet that the Bible Christian Connexion is one, both at home, and in Canada. You, dear Brethren, have a large field of labour-a field that greatly needs cultivation. In it you have been successful. We sincerely rejoice in your success, and fervently pray that it may increase a thousand fold. Let us however fully devote ourselves to God, as all success in his work is the result of his blessing upon the endeavours of his people. A careful survey of the past will deeply impress us with the obligations we are under to God, for the good which he has enabled us to effect. Let us by prayerful, believing endeavours, secure his blessing, and our future will be a brighter day. That our prosperity from year to year may increase, let us practically remember the precept, "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." As we are sure that you will heartily rejoice in our prosperity, we inform you-with gratitude to the Giver of all good-that the increase to the number of those who meet in Church-fellowship with us is the largest we have realized for years; that although we have large demands upon the various funds, they are in a healthy, and encouraging condition; and that the piety and activity of our friends have increased during the year. The connexion was never in a more pleasing and promising state than at present. To God's name be all the praise. We, rejoice, Dear Brethren, that though the ocean rolls between us, we are one-one in warm affection and deep sympathy-one in the Lord. Of some of you we have recollections of the most pleasing kind-for you all we cherish most tender and fervent affection-and our union appears to be delightfully increasing. In England-in Canada-in Prince Edward Island-in the United States-and in Australia, the Bible Christians are increasing, and yet still emphatically ONE. DIED, at Southcott, Frithelstock, in the Shebbear Circuit, on July 17th, 1856, after a short illness borne with examplary patience, MISS SUSANNA SMALE, in the 76th year of her age. From the period of her conversion to God, which occurred many years ago, she rested on the merits of Christ for salvation, and adorned the doctrine of God our Saviour; and she died reposing on the same sure foundation." Her removal is felt to be a loss by the extensive circle of her relatives and christian friends; but their loss, it is confidently believed, is her eternal gain. JAMES THORNE. t DEPARTURE OF MISSIONARIES.-The Brethren, JoSHUA FOSTER & CHARLES HODGE, with their wives, sailed from Liverpool for Australia, on board the Royal Mail Packet, the "White Star," on Wednesday, the 20th of August. We commend them to the prayers of our friends, BIBLE CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE. OCTOBER, 1856. DIVINITY. JEHOVAH'S VOICE TO THE WICKED RE-ECHOED. Dear Brother, To the Editor. I have been advised to publish the following sermon, the preaching of which I have reason to believe has been attended with much good to some souls; and praying that the reading of it may also be made a blessing, I have forwarded it to you for publication in your interesting Magazine, if you deem it worthy a place therein. I am dear Brother, W. FURSMAN. "Say unto them. As I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, Ŏ house of Israel ?" Ezek. xxxiii. 11. The reader will see that our text forms a part of a most solemn charge delivered by God to the prophet Ezekiel, whom he had made "a watchman to the house of Israel." In the East, “a watchman ” was a person who took his stand upon the walls of a city, and whose duty it was to see that the city was kept in a state of peace and safety-to give the alarm if the city became exposed to danger, either from internal or external influences, and especially to warn the inhabitants of the approach of an enemy. Every heaven-born minister of the glorious gospel of the blessed God is "a watchman." To him, as to the prophet, God has spoken, saying, "O son of man, I have. set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel !" God himself places him on the walls of Zion, and delivers to him his orders, to which it is his delight strictly to adhere. "Thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me." His responThe sibility is great. No neglect of duty can be tolerated. city is not to be exposed to danger without his giving the alarm. The truth, the whole truth is to be faithfully proclaimed by him, so that the sinner, the profligate, the hardened, the flagitious, VOL. XXI. THIRD SERIES. F and those who "are at ease in Zion," may hear his voice; and if they regard not the sound of the watchman's trumpet, and die in their iniquity, their blood"-their guilt-will fall upon their own heads, but the watchman will have "delivered his soul." ver. 8, 9. "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night." Isa. lxii. 6. Believing, as the writer does, that as he has been placed on the walls of Zion, it is his duty to raise his feeble voice to assist in giving the alarm, he would gladly, though tremblingly, attempt to do so by considering : I. THAT IT IS AN UNALTERABLE LAW OF GOD THAT ALL WHO LIVE AND DIE IN THEIR SINS SHALL BE DAMNED. 1. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Gen. i. 1; and gave the finishing stroke to the stupendous production of his wisdom and power by forming "man out of the dust of the ground, and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life," whereby "man became a living soul." Gen. ii. 7. By the calling forth of man into existence, the earth was honoured in having on her surface, and in her most lovely garden, the brightest gem of all with which the new made worlds were studded. Man was made to be a "partaker of the divine nature"- —a receiver of heaven's richest benevolence-to be consummately and eternally happy. Hence upon his creation every thing calculated fully to carry this design into execution was put within his reach. Heaven and earth smiled on him and favoured him with inexpressible delights; but a law was given to him as the test of his obedience to his Creator. Walking in conformity to this law, he would have secured and possessed, in its fulness, the riches of divine love; but its violation was to incur the displeasure of God-extinguish the light of heaven that shone so resplendently in his mind-quench the fire of love that burnt so blissfully on the altar of his heart-thrust a dagger through his own soul, and thus by suicide slay "the image of God" in his soul, and cause "righteousness and true holiness" to bleed to death. He did this-he disobeyed the divine command—broke through the sacred prohibition, and the fearful consequences thereof like a thunderbolt came down upon his head. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen. ii. 17. Adam sinned and died. God is holy and just he is absolutely "the Holy One." Job vi. 10. "Glorious in holiness." Exod. xv. 11. "The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." Psa. cxlv. 17. "Just and right is he." Deut. xxxii. 4. Deut. xxxii. 4. He cannot sanction the transgression of his law under any circumstances; this is morally impossible. He must defend unsullied the purity and rectitude of his government among men, and therefore "the soul that sinneth," and "dieth in his sin, shall be damned." : 2. Under the Patriarchal dispensation this "law" was promulgated by Oral tradition. The Patriarch being the priest of the family, upon him devolved the sacred duty of teaching his children the fear of the Lord. When officiating at the family altar, he would of course give his children an account of the creation of the world, of man's original state, of the fall of man and its consequences; and we cannot see how he could explain the fearful sentence, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," without referring to the law under consideration. For the wicked to be deprived of the life and image of God on earth, would be a strong intimation to their minds of a deprivation thereof in eternity. A banishment from the presence of God by being excluded from the earthly paradise, would appear to their minds a prelude of "everlasting banishment" for the wicked. It appears more than probable that this law was also taught by "the ministry of angels," on the occasion of their visits to the patriarchs. The information of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and other cities of the plain given by the angels to Abraham and Lot, was evidently associated with the inculcation of this law; for Jude, writing of those who were burnt to death by the fire that destroyed those cities says, that they" are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 7. Noah taught this "law" to the antediluvians during the "long-suffering of God;" but they regarded it not-died in their sins-and are now suffering the penalty of this law in the "prison" of hell. 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. Under the Mosaic dispensation this law was taught by direct revelation from heaven, committed to writing, and promulgated by the written law, as well as by preaching. It was introduced in the spirit of the ten commandments which were written by the finger of God, and delivered to Moses amid the thunder that rolled, and the lighning that blazed around Mount Sinai's brow. It was taught by David when he wrote "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God"-" Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup." Psl. ix. 17; xi. 6. By Solomon, "When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish and the hope of unjust men perisheth." Prov. xi. 7. By Isaiah, "Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hand shall be given him. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? Isa. iii. 11; xxxiii. 14. By Daniel, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." And doubtless Malachi had an ultimate reference to this "law" when he wrote, "For behold the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the : proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Mal. iv. 1. Thus it appears that those of our race who lived between the fall of man and the christian era were not altogether ignorant of this "unalterable law." 3. But this "law" has been more clearly revealed since the dawn of the gospel-since Jesus "the Son of God" came into the world to justify the ways of God with man. Although he "brought life and immortality" forth into broad open day "light," yet he solemnly declared that those who died in their sins should taste the bitter pains of eternal death. "He brought" the "law" under consideration forth into the same open day"light" as that in which he placed "eternal life." "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." John iii. 19. Of the future state of the wicked he says, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment." Matt. xxv. 46. "He that believeth not shall be damned." Mark xvi. 16. And Paul says, "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 2 Thess. i. 7-9. Peter testifies of this doctrine saying, “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men," 2 Pet. iii. 7. And John has penned the following, as having been revealed to him from heaven, "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: And they have no rest day nor night." Rev. xiv. 10, 11. Thus Christ, with the Angels, Patriarchs, and Prophets on the one hand, and with the Apostles on the other, has in all ages made a revelation of this "unalterable law." 4. But notwithstanding the clearness and decisiveness with which divine revelation has spoken to man on this subject, there have been, and lamentable to state there still are found, men in great numbers, who stand up in the face of high heaven and contradict the existence of this law-hide it from the people-explain it away, or alter it in some other way to invalidate it; to the insult of its Author, and the ruin of souls. number of men of this stamp who are found among infidels, atheists, and other sceptics, is not to be compared to that of those who are found among the ranks of professed believers in The |