fength, will be their thankfulness for this second one, no matter how long continued.

As to the most suitable time for your visit, I feel at a loss to speak definitely. The present fall is too far spent-that of 1852 is too far off. Perhaps, every thing considered, a more convenient time than next spring could not be selected. I admit there are objections against the spring; but perhaps the distance off, of any other time, would render it still more objectionable. As, however, your time, owing to your numerous duties, is not wholly at your own disposal, we will endeavor to make the period which may suit you best, suit us best. We will, therefore, hear you speak upon this subject. MOSES E. LARD.

Once more, truly yours,

I CAN only, at present, say, that I will give the above very acceptable communication a very special consideration. On the endowment of Bethany College more depends, for the advancement of the cause of Reformation, than on any other object within the horizon of our brethren. I would thus express myself, as at present advised, did I apprehend that I should be called hence the day after it was so endowed. The first college in the Union founded on the Bible, as the only firm foundation of moral science, of religious humanity— alias, Christian civilization—and by a community founded upon the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. In the name of reason, why do a Christian population of some 200,000, linger in this cause, and fear to launch away? Why divide their means, and scatter them on State, and local, and transient institutions! But I will not give way to my feelings, lest perchance I should offend against those who think that three or four abortive efforts are better than one successful one. A. C.

CHRISTIAN KNOCKINGS-No. V.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me.

The AMEN, the faithful and true WITNESS, the Beginning of the creation of God.-Rev. iii. 14, 20.

As the revelation of Christianity has both its external and its internal evidences, so the possession of Christianity by the individ ual, is denoted, not only by outward forms, but by inward proofs. To use a scholastic and precise, but, perhaps, less intelligible expression, we may say that Christianity has its external and its internal evidences, both objectively and subjectively considered.

And of the two kinds of evidences here mentioned, we may further remark, that, while in each case, the external are most convincing to the unconverted, the internal afford the greatest assurance and consolation to the believer. For, while the latter recognizes the entire weight of the proofs which analogy and testimony furnish of the divine origin of the Christian system, he finds in the divine spirit which it breathes; the heavenly wisdom which it imparts, and the innumerable marks of purity and truth which every where abound, far more convincing evidences that it has come from God. So, also, on the other hand, while he presents to the world a formal and consistent profession of this religion, and attaches due importance to the outward ordinances and institutions of the gospel, he himself relies upon his own internal perceptions of the truth, and those inward workings and spiritual consolations and monitions of which he alone is cognizant, as the real and substantial evidences of his interest in the salvation of Christ.

Among these internal, and, as we might say, personal evidences of renovation, there is no one more worthy of confidence than a sensitiveness to the spiritual presence of Christ. It has been ever, indeed, the great end and aim of all true religion, to secure fellowship with God-a fellowship which is enjoyed just in proportion as He is seen, and known, and felt in His word and in His works. It is especially, however, the purpose of that gospel, which is the concentration of all divine truth, and the consummation of all divine love, to induce the nearest possible approach to God, and establish the most intimate, heartfelt and permanent relations between God and that human soul which has been reconciled through Christ. It will be, accordingly, in proportion as these relations are felt and appreciated; as this fellowship is realized and enjoyed; as His presence is perceived and recognized, that the believer will have an assurance of his personal interest in Christ's redemption.

It is a common error among men to mistake an admiration of virtue for virtue itself, and to imagine, that a mere verbal or theeretical admission of the principles of morality entitles them to rank with those who both admit and practice them. It is an error equally common, at least in Christendom, for men to think themselves deserving of credit as Christians, because they admit the force of the external evidences of Christianity, and consent that it is true, although they have never made, and have no intention of making, a public profession of this religion. So, also, it is lamentably true of many who have made the profession of Christianity, that they rest their confidence and their hopes upon the mere external forms and

ceremonies of the gospel, and have not the slightest perception of those true spiritual relations which it was designed to establishthat heavenly fellowship which it proposes-that inner life which it is its express object to impart and cherish. Such are they who secularize spiritual truths; who spin out all within them into a rectilinear web of theory, and seek to nullify, by a frigid system of human philosophy, the purest joys and highest privileges which human beings may possess.

It is, however, the part of the true Christian, ever to recognize a spiritual fellowship with God, as the great object and end of the gospel call, and so to live, in all holy conversation and godliness, that no cloud may intercept the life-giving beams of the Sun of Righteousness, or obscure the bright heaven, which, even while on earth, he is permitted to enjoy. And he, very naturally and justly, learns to estimate his own spiritual condition by the amount of his spiritual enjoyment, and especially by the acuteness, if we may so speak, of his spiritual sensibilities. If his perception of divine truth is blunted, and his consciousness of the divine presence enfeebled, he rightly judges that the perishing things of time have too much occupied his attention, and he hastens to seek, with renewed earnestness, the presence of his Redeemer. "I know my sheep," says the good shepherd, "and am known of mine." "The good shepherd calleth his sheep by name and leads them out, and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice, and a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers." How beautiful a picture is here presented of that undoubting confidence; that familiar intercourse, and that mutual and unerring recognition which ever exists between Christ and his true disciples!

The perception or sensitiveness on the part of the true believer, of which we speak, is a spiritual one. It is not merely lexical, intellectual, or even moral. It may be based upon such perceptions, but it rises above them, and affords to the believer clearer, loftier, and more extended views of spiritual things than can ever be reached without it. The believer is himself spiritual. The kingdom of heaven, which consists not in outward show, but which is within him, is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." It belongs to his renewed nature to possess spiritual sensibilities; nor is it without meaning, that the scripture says that the things of the spirit are “spiritually discerned;" and that, for this very reason, the "natural man" does not receive them, and cannot know them. And this "natural man" is not one with no other means of information

than those afforded by his senses-one without divine revelation or a proper presentation of religious truth. On the contrary, he is one to whom the things of the Spirit have been presented, but who, for want of this spiritual dicernment, has refused to receive them, and who, after considering them, has adjudged them to be "foolishness." It is not to be doubted, however, that spiritual sensibility exists in various degrees in different individuals, and that it may be highly cultivated and exalted by the means divinely provided--the indwelling of the word of Christ; the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; habitual prayerful communion with God, and the keeping of his holy commandments. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom," says an apostle to the brethren at Colosse, "teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Again, says the same apostle to the Ephesian disciples, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." These passages are cognate, but not identical in their import, and we must not imagine that because the Colossian is exhorted "to let the word of Christ dwell in him richly, in all wisdom," and the Ephesian to be "filled with the Spirit," that, therefore, the injunctions either nullify each other by a mutual incompatibility, or that the apostle designed to intimate thereby that the Spirit is the word, or the word the Spirit. The word of Christ is, indeed, the expression of the divine will, and the source of all divine wisdom; and the apostle has very appropriately associated this idea with the exhortation to the Colossians; while, on the other hand, to the Ephesians, he contrasts with the excitement and inebriation produced by wine, the pure and holy emotions which it is the office of the Spirit to cherish. Both the word and the Spirit are undoubtedly, in every case, necessary to the Christian; the former to communicate a knowledge of the divine philanthropy, and the latter to shed abroad in the heart that revealed love of God, and to excite to the production of those precious fruits of love, joy, peace and holiness, which are the true indications and appropriate graces of the Christian character. And, through these heavenly influences, how greatly is the spiritual sensibility of the soul exalt ed! How sensitive it becomes to that indwelling Presence! How quick to hear the accents of that precious word! How prompt to detect the intrusion of deceitful spiritual foes, and unveil their hideous features in the radiant sun-light of celestial truth! van

For such a result it is byn o means difficult to account. It is the

natural result of long-devoted attention to a particular object, that this shall engross and be ever present to the thoughts. How familiar, by long acquaintanceship, we become with the gestures, the voice, the modes of thought and action of those with whom we are intimate! How easily we recognize them at a distance! How quickly we distinguish their voice in the darkness! We are told that the operators with the telegraph, who are obliged to fix their attention night and day upon its movements, become so thoroughly versed in them, that they can determine almost by their practised ear alone, without reference to the writing, the nature of the communication, and that the one who sleeps, can always hear amidst his slumbers the slightest click made by the instrument when in action. How expressive, in this connection, is the language of the spouse in Canticles: "I sleep, but my heart waketh; it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me"! It is in this beautiful passage we find presented a chief source of that peculiar delicacy of perception of which we have been speaking. It is the effect of attention; that attention is commanded by love; that love in the Christian is one of the fruits of the Spirit!

How, indeed, is it possible for us to imagine a human soul imbued with the divine word; familiarized with the divine presence, and accustomed to constant spiritual intercourse, and yet attaining no higher degrees of spiritual sensibility, and gaining no deeper insight into the mysteries of the spiritual world? It is the natural and necessary result of such communion to enlarge the soul; to expand its powers; to refine and renovate its nature; to quicken all its energies, and exalt to the highest degree its spiritual susceptibilities. Nor is it surprising that the individual who is thus renewed, and "strengthened with might in the inner man," should ascend to loftier views of heavenly truth, and have a more enlarged vision and a more accurate knowledge of spiritual things. That very assimilation to the divine character; that very conformity to the divine mind, which are here implied, and which are themselves progressive, must necessarily lead to truer and more sublime conceptions of the divine nature, and to a clearer and fuller comprehension of the divine word. How dear, then, to the heart, thus animated by this inner life, the gracious promises of Christ: "Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one thst asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will ye give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will ye for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will ye