"On another occasion this same self-denying in life, unwearied in minister set himself to work for a toil, uncompromising in principle, revival. Duty, duty, duty, in some and instant in season and out; the form or other, was the burden of guardian of youth, the counselor his sermons. He was much in earn- of the perplexed, the consoler of est, and continued his labors day sorrow, the visitor of the afflicted, after day for six weeks. An im- the advocate of the widow, the pression was made, but it is not friend of all, the enemy of none; known that any valuable permanent results were the fruit of that protracted effort."

When the churches are in such a state as at present, active in the things of this world and sluggish in regard to those of the world to come, it is natural for a minister who longs to see the work of God revived to preach "duty, duty, duty," as the writer says, to be hortatory and driving, rather than to feed the flock of God with the strong meat of doctrinal truth.

Preachers and Preaching.
THE preacher is the steward of
God, the messenger of mercy, and
the servant of the Church.

holding forth the word of light, breaking the bread of life, dispensing the healing virtues of the cross, and proclaiming to the wretched the acceptable year of the Lord.

His subjects are from heaven in their source, of heaven in their revelations, and to heaven in their tendency.

His style should be clear, his thoughts well ordered, his enunciation distinct, his manner earnest, and his language plain. Not exhibiting self, but Christ; Christ always, and Christ all in all. Not the minister of mystery, but revelation; not a perplexer, but solver of doubts; not a herald of despair, but of hope; not clad in the habiliments of sorrow, but of joy-enHis commission is from heaven, lightening the ignorant, cheering his calling from on high, his qualifi- the penitential, comforting the discations divine; the Scriptures his tressed, reproving the wayward, adarmory; righteousness his vesture; monishing the thoughtless, warning truth his girdle; salvation his hel- the reckless, and threatening the met, and faith his shield; his mes- obdurate; preaching repentance, sage, mercy; his theme, Jesus; his faith, and salvation; preaching merglorying, the cross; his aim, human cy, truth, and holiness; preaching salvation; with a heart of benev- justice, benevolence, and piety; olence, bowels of compassion, and preaching death, resurrection, a conscience of fidelity; with a judgment, and eternity; preachclear perception, a discerning judg- ing supreme homage and love to ment, a magnanimous spirit, and an enduring perseverance.

God, self-government and self-denial, worldly non-conformity, and He should be faithful to his soul, kindness and good-will to men; zealous for God, and compassionate preaching the law and the Gospel, to men; heavenly in his aspirations, grace and truth, the prophets and disinterested in his motives, gener- the evangelists; but preaching ous in his emotions, and devotional Christ as the end of all, the in his spirit; a lover of good men, sum of all, and the glory of all; a hater of iniquity; not greedy of preaching down sin, and preaching lucre, not thirsting for power, not up purity; preaching down self, eager for fame, not given to wine; and preaching up grace; preaching

down error, and preaching up truth; scarcely familiar. Our churchpreaching hope to the self-con- yards are crowded with slumberdemned, abasement to the proud, ing inhabitants; new cemeteries spirituality to the formal, and a heaven of rest and blessedness to the renewed pilgrims and sojourn ers of earth.

are formed, and are daily visited by groups of afflicted mourners; the habiliments of death are to be seen in every street, and almost in every company; and the solemn knell reminds us that another, and yet another immortal, has passed Nature

Preacher of righteousness! how high thine office, how sublime thy calling, how arduous thy work, how onerous thy charge! but if from time into eternity. faithful, how transcendently glori- lifts her voice, and cries: "All ous thy reward! For as heaven's resplendent orbs, or the brightness of the milky way, shalt thou shine forever and ever.

Monitors.

flesh is grass, and all the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the
field." Providence repeats the
mournful story,
story, and exhibits
hourly instances of the fact. The
Scriptures assure us that "It is ap-
pointed unto men once to die, and
after death the judgment." The
ministers of religion urge the ex-
hortation: "Watch, therefore, for
ye know not what hour your Lord
doth come. Experience tells us
that the seeds of mortality are
planted thick within us, and will
soon grow up, and ripen into death.
And conscience reads to us, in a
deep, sepulchral tone, the sentence.
of our speedy dissolution.

The Christian's Duty to Himself.

EVERY thing around us, indeed, assumes the character of a monitor, and reminds us that we must die. The rising and setting of the sun; the constant succession of day and night, summer and winter, seed time and harvest; the changes which are daily taking place on the surface of this our world, and on the strongest battlements of nature-are so many proofs of the creature's tendency to dissolution and decay. In the evening we retire from the bustle of the world, lay our head upon the pillow, and sink into a state of sweet repose and forgetfulness: and this is an emblem of the long sleep of death. The withering grass, the fading flower, the passing cloud, the waning moon, His heart must be examined. and the setting star, teach us that He must narrowly watch his conthe short day of life will soon be duct and his feelings. He must over that the beauty and the regard self-examination as an imstrength of man must alike fail. perious duty, to be frequently and One family removes from our faithfully performed. Seek a place neighborhood, and another suc- of retirement and explore the ceeds; houses houses are continually heart. Know thyself. No other changing their occupants; the knowledge is so important. You children of the past generation can not be useful, happy Christian, are taking the place of their without this knowledge. fathers, and a new race is spring- Secret prayer is indispensable ing up, with whose faces we are to personal holiness.

THE Christian's first duty is, to take care of his own heart, the passions must be subdued, its zeal aroused, its faith strengthened, its hope enlivened. To do this:

Go to the

He is a soldier without

He is a useless member

Friends,

closet. With great particularity folded, thought must range that enumerate those sins which self- blissful world, till the heart glows examination has revealed to you. and burns with anticipated joys. Confess them humbly. Mourn The precepts, the penalties, and over them sincerely. And in this the rewards which the Bible preintimate and confidential inter- sents, must be made the subject of course with your Maker, you will earnest attention, and of continued get purified from sin; you will get thought. Is there a member of girt with an angel's armor; you a church who does not study his will get your spirit imbued with Bible? lowliness and with love, which will armor. melt down opposition, and which of the sacramental host. will allure and win to Christ. If the day is far spent. Bind on the any member of a church is neg- Christian armor. Go forth to the lecting secret prayer, his heart is Christian conflict. in a state which chills vital religion, which discourages inquiring sinners, which deadens the consciences of those who are already stupid in sin. There can be no life in religion, unless that life is animated by secret prayer. There can be no joy in religion unless

In secret silence of the mind

Prayer in Death.

A CHRISTIAN should die praying. Other men die in different ways, according to their character and temper. Julius Cæsar died adjusting his robes, that he might fall gracefully. Augustus died in a Your God, and there your heaven, you find. compliment to Livia his wife; TiThere can be no successful effort berius, in dissimulation; Vespasian, in saving souls, unless the zeal of in a jest. The infidel Hume died, the heart be quickened and purified by sacred prayer.

with pitiful jokes about Charon and his boat; Rousseau with language of presumptuous boasting; Voltaire with mingled imprecations and supplications; Paine with shrieks of agonizing remorse. Multitudes die with sullenness, some with blasphemies faltering on their tongue. But, brethren, the humble Christian would die praying. Well says the poet :

"Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,

The Bible must be studied. It is the guide to duty. It is the stimulus to effort. To read it with a listless and slumbering mind, answers not the purpose for which this volume was given. We must come to it with our intellectual energies. We must enter deeply into its meaning. We must imbibe thoroughly its spirit. As we read, we must pause and ponder. When the doom of the finally imHe enters heaven with prayer." penitent is announced, we must meditate upon that doom till we "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" feel its terror, till emotion floods This is the prayer of faith, comthe heart, till constrained to say: mending the immortal spirit to the "Oh! that my head were waters covenant care of Jesus. The spir and mine eyes a fountain of tears, it does not die with the body. that I might weep day and night None but God, who gave it, can for the slain of the daughters of take away the soul's existence, and my people." When heaven is un- he has declared that he never will,

The Christian's native air;
His watch-word at the gates of death,

Would that bad men would think confounding, because the danger on that. You can not get rid of is boundless. It is a dark unknown, your soul's existence; you can not which threatens him. The arm that cease to be you may wish it, is stretched over him he can neither though the wish is monstrous and see nor resist. No wonder that unnatural. But there is no anni- the lonesome solitude or the midhilation for any soul of man. Oh! night hour should strike him with come to our Saviour; give him horror." your guilty soul to be justified through his atonement, washed in

his blood, regenerated by his Spirit. Singular Efficacy of Social Prayer.

Make to him now that surrender

A CLERGYMAN who was not very of your soul for which he calls. remarkable for his zeal in the cause Renew this happy self-dedication of his divine Master, while travelevery day, very specially every ing, not many months ago, in a cerSabbath, and most solemnly from tain section of this State, stopped time to time at the Lord's Supper. for a night in a place where there And then, when you come to die, it will only be to do once more what you have so often done in former days-again to commend your soul very humbly, believingly, and affectionately, into the faithful care of Jesus Christ.

Conscience.

was an extensive revival of relig ion. After resting for a short time at the inn, his curiosity to view the place, led him to stroll through the streets. He had not proceeded far on his evening ramble, before his ear was arrested by the voice of prayer. He paused and listened, and finding that the voice issued from a retired and humble dwelling by the road-side, stranger as he was, he resolved to enter. On entering, he found himself unexpectedly surrounded by a band of disciples assembled for special prayer. He cast his eye about upon the little group, in a vain endeavor to find some one whom he could recognize as an acquaintance; but all were strangers in person, though brethren in Christ. Collecting his wandering thoughts, he bowed himself in the humble attitude of prayer, and to his infinite surprise he soon discovered that himself, by name, and the people of his charge,

Of all the horrors human beings can feel, none perhaps are equal to those of a guilty conscience. It embitters every comfort, it dashes every pleasure with sorrow, it fills the mind with despair, and produces wretchedness in the highest degree. "To live under such disquietude," says Blair, "is already to undergo one of the most severe punishments which human nature can suffer. When the world threatens us with any of its evils, we know the extent, and discern the limits of the danger. We see the quarter on which we are exposed to its attack. We measure our were the subjects of ardent and strength with that of our adver- importunate supplication. sary, and can take precautions person who was leading their deeither for making resistance or votions was an entire stranger to for contriving escape. But when him, and yet he seemed to wrestle an awakened conscience places be- in spirit with God, that he might fore the sinner the just vengeance be aroused to greater faithfulness of the Almighty, the prospect is and zeal in his ministerial duties

The

and private devotions, and that God prayer, we are kindly informed in would prepare him to become in- the Bible, has great efficacy with strumental in reviving his work in God. What infinite condescenthe church and congregation over sion! The humble, feeble petiwhich he was placed as a spiritual tion of a worm of the dust, may watchman. After the meeting had have an influence in the councils of closed, being deeply impressed with the Eternal Three! In nothing, the guilt of his past negligence, and perhaps, do we see the forgiving with the responsibility of the min- love and benevolence of the Deity isterial office, he silently withdrew more strikingly manifested toward and returned to his lodgings. Not his rebellious creatures, than in the long after this event, he returned institution of prayer. Here we to his people, and resumed, with see, as it were, a communication renewed vigor, the duties of his opened between earth and heaven. office. Within a short time, a re- By this way the humble saint may vival commenced in his congrega- rise on the wings of faith and love tion, and three hundred were early to the very confines of heavenly numbered as the hopeful subjects bliss. He may almost hear the of redeeming mercy. The reviv- sound of heavenly music. He als in both mentioned places still continue.

mingles, in imagination, with the glorious company that stands around the throne of God, with crowns upon their heads and Privilege of Prayer. golden harps in their hands, sing. WHAT a glorious boon is thus ing day and night: "Holy, holy, vouchsafed to us! The Christian's holy is the Lord God Almighty, joy and hope and consolation. which was, and is, and is to come." How often and how earnestly, In the emotions of the simple, humthen, should the Christian seek ble and despised disciple of Christ, the throne of grace! He should are the loftiest examples of moral feel most sensibly that the fervent, sublimity, ever seen or felt by man. effectual prayer of the righteous But these emotions, elevated and man availeth much. He should exalted as they are, still are open long and ardently lift up his soul to all who will sincerely and earnto God in prayer that blessings estly seek them. Yet, after all, may come down upon himself and are there some still remaining, his fellow men. To call upon God, and those professing Christians is not only acknowledged as our too, who, regardless of its value, privilege, but is every where laid are now living in almost entire down in the New Testament as our neglect of this heaven-born privabsolute duty. Earnest, energetic ilege!