THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

THE city bells have struck twelve, and the otherwise still midnight resounds with the mirthful shouts of the concourse that had gathered to welcome the new-born year, and now along all the chief thoroughfares there echoes and re-echoes the well known watchword, A happy New Year!

Right heartily wish we the same to all our readers.

In expressing this wish it will not be deemed inapposite that we offer a few suggestions conducive to the attainment of the desire expressed. Our wishes are not always realised. Their non-realisation too often arises from the non-use of the means adapted to their accomplishment. Very many who on this first of January, express and reciprocate the wish of a happy new year, shall doubtless as hitherto be sadly disappointed. This, we believe chiefly through the misuse of means. God has graciously given us the ways and means of happiness, but these are oftener refused or abused than rightly employed. Altogether false means of true happiness are resorted to, while proportionally as this is done the surest and purest channels of enjoyment are left untouched. Certain is it that all excess, all the pleasures of sin, all appearance of evil, are most false and bitterly disappointing sources of happiness. Yet are they the chief resort with the many! How incalculable is the sorrow that flows from indulgence in that draught which is a mocker, that cup which is raging, the various misrepresentations of the stage, the regretful revelry of the dancing party, and such like. We do not deny the derivation of pleasure from these fountains, but simply submit, what all participators thereat must allow, that like all the pleasures of sin, the enjoyment is but for a season, and that, in direct contrast with even the afflictions of the righteous, leaves none of the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby.

No. 1, Vol. II.-Jan. 1858.

While all excess, all sinful or lawless avenues of enjoyment are fleeting and unsatisfactory, we have also to note that even the good things of this life, those that are both lawful and expedient, things that are true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy, even they are what God intended them to be only to 'the pure in heart.' All is evil to him who evil thinks; unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled.' As no enjoyment is possible apart from the mind and conscience, their defilement is necessarily a vitiation of all that passes through them; however pure that be in itself which reaches the seat of enjoyment through an impure medium, it must be contaminated. Thus it is indeed philosophically as well as experimentally true, that those whose hearts have been purfied by the faith in Christ, those who have purified their souls in obeying the truth, are alone the truly happy-the true enjoyers of the manifold mercies of God. All that is true, and beautiful, and good, and even all that is mysterious, sublime or solemn in nature or in providence, it is their unspeakable privilege to realise as veritable through varied avenues of blessing instituted and opened for them by their all-wise, all-potent, all-gracious Father in heaven. And thus go hand in hand, the Saviour's good word to his disciples-Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God,' and the apostle's encouraging declaration, 'that godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.'

By way of practical suggestions we therefore submit,—

1. The necessity of conversion to God in order to happiness. God is himself the ever blessed, the supremely happy. He is the source of all true, lasting happiness. 'In His presence is fulness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures for evermore.' Therefore 'Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted: for Thou art the glory of their strength, and in Thy favour our horn shall be exalted; for the Lord is our defence, and the Holy One of Israel is our King.' Conversion to God, dear reader, is the one strait gate to present happiness and eternal felicity. If yet without God, this new year can only be a truly happy one to you, by your turning from darkness to light, and from

the power of Satan unto God. Such is the immediate design of the gospel, that by this joyous transition you may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among all them that are sanctified by the faith that is in Christ. In this best of acceptations may 1858 be to you a happy new year; your birth-year as a child and an heir of God, and a joint heir with His Son the Beloved.

2. The necessity of obedience to the will of God. Happiness depends on action: wrong action produces misery, right action, satisfaction. The will of God is the sum of all right action. That will is expressed to us through the Messiah. Saith Jehovah, 'This is my Son the Beloved, in whom I delight, hear ye Him!' We should not fear the task to prove, by the strictest laws of evidence, that the believer's happiness is measured exactly and uniformly by his obedience to the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory. But His word supersedes this need of such an argument, for said He to His disciples- If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. The knowledge of duty unperformed gives pain, not happiness, to the rightly regulated mind, and the truly loving heart. Most wisely therefore did the Teacher put knowledge first, obedience next, and happiness last. Believing reader, learn, obey, and be happy. Thus most certainly shall 1858 be to you a happy new year. So be it to all our readers.

ED.

HOW DID THE GOSPEL SPREAD?

THE Gospel is a thing of history, not of speculation. It is a declaration of facts. In reminding the disciples at Corinth of his first proclamation of it in their city, the apostle said'I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.' The apostolic gospel thus expressly testified of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ; that is, the Anointed of God as the Saviour of men. It declared three facts concerning Him, namely, that He died, was buried, and rose again. It affirmed His death to be sacrificial or propitiatory, or in the words of the proclamation, it was for our sins! On account of its thus proclaiming to our guilty world

the remission of sins through the Messiah, it was denominated by pre-eminence, the gospel, or glad tidings.

It was first announced in Jerusalem, the immediate scene of the Messiah's life, condemnation, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension. It was proclaimed to the very popu lace, who but seven weeks before had crucified Him. On the first proclamation three thousand persons surrendered and were saved. From that day the glad tidings were constantly preached and as constantly received. From Jerusalem the news of salvation through the crucified Jesus, spread throughout the civilized world, and this it did with such rapidity and success, that within a hundred years from the crucifixion, the number of Christians throughout the Roman Empire was held to amount to a tenth of the entire adult population. How is this to be explained?

1. Not by the personal influence of the first preachers. They were poor, unknown, and despised, the least influential of men in all the Jewish estate. 2. Not by the aid of art and learning. They possessed neither, Paul excepted; but he even in preaching to the refined Corinthians came not with excellency of speech or of philosophy declaring the gospel of Christ, but used great plainness of speech, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. 3. Not by the use of the sword. All violent means were unlawful to the evangelist. Paul could truthfully say, 'the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.' 4. Not by the aid of the State. All the constituted authorities, both Jewish and Pagan, were against the gospel. Combinedly with the people, they murdered its author, and persecuted its propagators. 5. Not by the support of the priesthood. There was no priestly hierarchy among the disciples, they stood together on the one platform of a common but heavenly brotherhood. All the hierarchies of the world, Jew and Gentile, were arrayed against them. 6. Not by yielding to the superstitions of the age. The mythologies of the heathen, and the traditions of the Jews, were alike opposed by the apostles. They warned the Christians against all the fables and endless genealogies then held as oracular. 7. Not by appealing to the evil passions of men. All sin, wrong, and excess, met an uncompromising foe in the gospel. All who surrendered to the Messiah, were expressly taught that sin was no longer to hold dominion over them; that if they yielded to it, they fell from the favour of God. 8. Not by personal flattery. With the apostles as with the Master,

weapon.

there was no respect of persons. They had but one message for the rich and poor, bond and free, patrician, and plebeian, wise and ignorant, polite and barbarian. A Felix and an Agrippa listened to the same unvarnished narrative that the common people heard gladly. Its terms of salvation were the same to all. 9. Not by inflaming national prejudice. This ever powerful argument of nationality was no apostolical The Gentile-despising Jews were told that the gospel placed them on the same level as the nations whom they proudly contemned-that all were alike guilty before God, and that his purpose was to justify both Jew and Gentile through the faith of Jesus, and only so. 10. Not by excit ing worldly expectations. The gospel offered nothing to gratify the desires of the voluptuary, the vain, the avaritious, or the ambitious. The Master's word to his apostles was, 'In the world ye shall have tribulation;' and theirs to their converts was, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 11. Not by alliance with any earthly power, party, or organization. The gospel required and produced the most marked separation from the world. Its converts were separated from all human, all existing religions; they were formed into exclusively Christian communities; they were commanded to introduce nothing in doctrine or practice from the world; to have no fellowship with the ungodly; to receive no support from without; to observe all the ordinances as the apostles had delivered them, and to reject all who refused obedience. 12. Not by any assumed sanctity or power. Unlike all religious pretenders, the apostles disclaimed all personal homage. By the name of Jesus, not by our own power or goodness, does this man stand before you whole,' was their answer to the council. 'We are men of like passions with yourselves,' were their words to the Cretans, who sought to render them religious homage. A voluntary humility in the adoration of divine messengers, in useless bodily restraints, and in subjection to human impositions, they pronounced unsatisfactory, dishonourable, and unevangelical.

Thus everything characteristic of any false or merely human system of religion was absent from the gospel. No false religion, ancient or modern, ever did or could succeed but by those aids which the religion of Christ entirely refused. Yet, without personal influence, art or learning; without the power of the sword, or the aid of the state; without a priestly hierarchy, or any appeal to popular prejudice; without