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beauty is lost, though it be not dashed in pieces." "He that, without any end of charity or institution, shall tell lies, only to become ridiculous in himself, or to mock another, hath set something on his doom'sday-book, which must be taken off by water or by fire-that is, by repentance or a judgment."-Presb. Quarterly.

The Salvation to be Prayed for.

disease," so that the very picture itself was made to "sigh and groan." Not a few sentences we meet with, in which a sound philosophy or a striking thought takes the form of a proverb. Here are a few specimens: "A sacrifice without a heart, was a sad and ominous presage in the superstitions of the Roman augurs; and so it is in the service of God." "Although a little wound upon the finger is very curable, yet the smallest prick upon the heart is mortal; so is a design and purpose NOTHING more true than if man of the smallest disobedience, in its really wills the thing he prays for, formality as malicious and destruc- and if the thing be agreeable to the tive, as in its matter it was pardon- will of God, he will certainly obtain able and excusable." "High specu- it. Now, God, on the one band, willlations are as barren as the tops of ce- eth all men to be saved; and if any dars, but the fundamentals of Christ- one of these men, on the other, will ianity are as fruitful as the valleys for his salvation, every barrier, apor the creeping vine." Vice, grown pears to be done away, and the sinner into a bad habit, is a tyrant; but is on the eve of a great and glorious Taylor illustrates the truth by say- enlargement. But be sure that you ing: "He that feeds a lion, must obey understand what this will for salvahim, unless he make his den to be tion means. It is not merely that his prison." Setting forth the spirit the hand of vengeance shall be lifted of the law, he says: "There is a off from you. It is also that the homicide in the tongue as well as in spirit of glory and of virtue shall the heart; and he that kills a man's rest upon you. It is not merely reputation by calumnies or slander that you shall obtain a personal exor open reviling, hath broken this emption from that lake of living commandment." 66 Felicity," he agony into which are thrown the tells us, "is not a jewel that can be outcasts of condemnation. It is also locked up in one man's cabinet." that you shall obtain a spiritual exAgain: "All our trouble is within emption from the vice and the voNo men sleep so sound- luptuousness and all the worldly ly as they that lay their head upon affections which animate the passions nature's lap." "He that despiseth and pursuits of the unregenerate his preacher, is a hearer of arts and upon earth. It is not alone for some learning, not of the word of God." vague and indefinite blessedness in "God hath opened no gate to heaven future. It is for a renovation of but the narrow gate, of which the taste and of character at present. cross was the key." prosperous The man, in fact, who desires aright iniquity is the most unprosperous and prays aright for the object of his condition in the world." "Fame salvation, is not merely on the eve or honor is a nice thing, tender as a of a great revolution in his prospects woman's chastity, or like the face of the purest mirror, which a foul breath, or an unwholesome air, or a watery eye can sully, and the

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for eternity; he is on the eve of a great moral revolution in his heart and in his history at this moment. His prayer to be saved embraces, it

is true, the transference of his person the strength of manhood, or the wison the other side of death, from the dom of age? Wait on the Lord in torments of hell to the transports of the diligent use of his appointed paradise; but without a transference means, and he will strengthen your of character on this side of death, the hearts, so that you shall mount up thing is impossible, and so there is as on eagle's wings; you shall run enveloped in the prayer this cry of and not be weary; you shall walk aspiring earnestness: "O God! cre- and not faint.-Payson's Thoughts. ate in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me."-DR. CHAL

MERS.

Never Distrust God.

The True Test of Piety.

If it be a matter of doubt with you whether you be truly converted, far be it from me to endeavor to persuade you that you are so. Your

IF we would wish to discover whether there were any particles of steel in a large quantity of rubbish, ABOVE all, I would say to the it would not be the wisest way to Christian, never distrust the kind- search for them, and especially in the ness, the love, the wisdom and faith- dark, but to hold a large and effica fulness of your Saviour; but confide cious magnet over it. And this, if it in him who has promised that all be there, is the way to discover true things shall work together for your religion in our souls. The truths good. Though you may not now and promises of God are to a princiknow what he is doing, you shall ple of religion in the mind, that know hereafter. You will see the which the magnet is to the steel. reason of all the trials and tempta- If there be any in us, the proper extions, the dark and comfortless hours, hibition of the Gospel will ordinarily the distressing doubts and fears, the draw it forth. long and tedious conflicts with which you are now exercised, and you will be convinced that not a sigh, not a tear, not a single uneasy thought was allotted you without some wise and doubts may be well-founded for gracious design. Say not, then, like aught I can tell, and supposing they Jacob of old, All these things are should be so, the door of mercy is against me; say not like David, I still open. If you leave obtained shall one day perish by the band of mercy, the same way is open for Saul; for all these things are for your obtaining it again; and if not, your good, and you shall never there is no reason why you should perish, neither shall any pluck you not obtain it now. The Gospel supout of Christ's hand. Why should per is provided; all things are ready, you, who are sons of the King of and the King's servants are commisheaven, be lean and discontented sioned to persuade and, as it were, from day to day? Remember that compel them to come in. If you if you are in the path of the just, accept this invitation, all are yours. you are the heir of God and joint I ask not whether you be willing to heir with Christ, of an inheritance incorruptible, eternal, and that fadeth not away. Be not discouraged at the small progress you appear to make, or the difficulties you may meet with. Why should the infant be discouraged because he has not

be saved in God's way, in order to determine your right to accept spiritual blessings-the message sent you in the Gospel determines thisbut in order to ascertain your interest in them. If you cordially believe the Gospel, you have the promise of

ance.

eternal life. If its blessings suit “Awake, thou that Sleepest !" your desires, they are all your own. If, for example, it does not offend WILLIAM WILBERFORCE Wrote, you, but accords with your very some time after his conversion, to heart to sue for mercy as the chief a former friend, a collegiate acquaintof sinners; if you be willing to occuYears had passed since they py that place which the Gospel met-years of gayety and fashionassigns you, which is the dust, and able amusement to the young statesto ascribe to Jesus that which God man-but now, reviewing them with has assigned to him, "power and a Christian scrutiny, he declared that riches and wisdom and strength and they seemed to him like a dream, honor and glory and blessing;" if from which he had but just awaked you can unreluctantly give up all to the realities of actual existence. claim to life on the footing of your Is not this necessarily the characown worthiness, and desire nothing ter of a life "without God in the so much as to be found in Christ, not world"? Is it not a dream of fancy, having your own righteousness; if the bewilderment of existence? And the salvation you seek be a deliver- is it not from this that the Gospel ance from the dominion of sin, as seeks to arouse men, crying out, well as from its damning power; "Awake, thou that sleepest"? Again finally, if the heaven you desire be and again in the lifetime of the sinthat which the Scriptures reveal, a ner the call is made. Every time, state of pure and holy enjoyment, if he resists it, the call is more unthere can be no just cause to doubt welcome, until at last he is either your interest in these things.-REV. given over to fatal repose, or death ANDREW FULler. itself shakes his now frighted soul to a startling consciousness of its hastening doom?

Not the Sinner, but Satan.

Ir is a notable passage in Anselm, who compares the heretic and persecutor to the horse, and the devil to the rider. "Now," saith he, "in battle, when the enemy comes riding up, the valiant soldier is not angry with the horse, but horseman. He labors to kill the man that he may possess the horse for his use." Thus we do with the wicked. We are not to bend our wrath against them, but Satan, that rides them and spurs them on; laboring by prayer for them, as Christ did on the cross, to dismount the devil, that so these miserable souls, hackneyed by him, may be delivered from him. It is more honor to take one soul alive out of the devil's clutches, than to leave many slain upon the field.Gurnall's Christian Armor.

A sea captain was once wrecked, and for eighty days, with his companions, was tossed in a little boat upon the waves. Before they were rescued they had nearly perished with famine. Their hunger became intense, and as drowsiness crept over them each dreamed of an ample table richly spread with luxurious and tempting food. Again and again was this experience repeated, and at each awakening the disappointment and the horror were more intense. Is it not thus with the sinner's awakenings, while he puts from him the bread of life offered in the Gospel? His life is a series of dreams, each setting before him its table of promise, and every time that he is disturbed by the admonitions of conscience or the appeals of truth, the agony of his awakening, the sting of conscious misery, is the more in

tense, until resorting to the opiates of worldly indulgence and vain delight, he dooms his soul to the slumbers of the second death.

too solemn a work, to be toyed and played with, as is the usage of some who make a sermon but matter of wit and fine oratory. Their sermon Who would indulge in dreams is like a child's doll, from which if that must end in disappointment? or, you take its dress, the rest is worth to escape the sting of conscious mis- nothing; unpin the story, take off ery, will rush upon the guilty means the gaudy phrases, and nothing is to prolong his repose? Dreams may left in the discourse. If we mean to spread before you an ideal bliss, but do good, we must come, not only in their unrealized hopes must finally word, but with power. Satan moves mock your agony. For the time of not for a thousand such squibs and waking must come. It may be put wit-cracks. Draw, therefore, the off-sometimes long-by the arts of sword out of thy scabbard, and sin, but at last the vision will fade, strike with its naked edge: this you the bubble will burst, the soul will will find the only way to pierce your awake to the realities of its condi- people's consciences, and draw blood tion. When shall that waking be? of their sins." In time or eternity? What shall produce it? The still small voice of mercy now, speaking in tones of love, or the thunders of the final judgment?

"Not with Enticing Words."

Youth given to the World.

THOSE generous and noble youth, whose loveliest distinction is their sensibility to virtue, and to a Saviour's compassion, who engage us so by their confidence, their warm and "Nor with enticing words of man's unsettled affections, their inexperiwisdom :" this was the negative char- ence of sorrow and the dangers of acteristic of the preaching of the great deception, all beautiful as they are, Apostle to the Gentiles. How often we see them giving their hearts to is this forgotten by many who pre- the world; we cry, but can not make sume to deal with the heart and con- them hear; we look on and see them science of the sinner? It is not the as trees already in 66 yellow leaf;" pomp of words, nor profuseness of the angel that was in them has disillustration that can accomplish the appeared, gone in all but his visage; work which the preacher has in a blight has fallen on the religious view. It is not "the feather that delicacy of the mind, and wings the dart" that does the execution, but its barbed point. Truth may be overloaded with imagery. Even an exquisite picture may be We see them yet; their hearts beat hung in so gaudy a frame that atten- only for worldly pleasure and adtion shall be diverted from it to that miration; none of their associates which is merely secondary. The feel surprise, or attempt to turn them solemn weight and importance of to better things; their simple feelthe message should never be ob- ings are acquiring the vigor and scured by tawdry ornaments. Forc- hardiness of a worldly maturity, and ibly and pertinently does a quaint they are moving on a wonder to old writer say: "The word of God all but those who are going the same is too sacred a thing, and preaching way, yet no wonder to themselves

"Like the crushed flower, no time, no art, Can make it bloom again."

numbers falling into the grave, num- language of the Apostle, in 2 Cor. bers wasting with disease, numbers 12, declaring, in the second verse, bowed down with anguish and dis- he knew a man caught up to the third appointment, numbers consuming heaven, and, in the fourth, into parawith envy and pride, numbers find- dise. The assumption that the Aposing pleasure ceasing to please, num- tle intends different places, seems enbers acknowledging that "all is van- tirely gratuitous. ity," with no heart to seek for sub- The Apostle was caught up. The stance, and numbers looking back on creed says, Jesus descended. The a life gone through, and a world tried termini ad quem are manifestly dif and emptied, and forward to an eter- ferent. Not that Jesus did not go nity just at hand, yet having no to paradise, as he promised the peniheart, no resolution to prepare for it; tent thief; but the paradise to which we see them no more, but the world he went was the presence of "Alis going on as before; their places mighty God, with whom do live the are filling up, and ceasing to know spirits of those who depart hence in them, none the better that they have the Lord, and with whom the souls lived, nor the sadder that they are of the faithful, after they are deliverdone.-REV. HERMAN HOOKER. ed from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity."-Episcopal Recorder.

Where is Paradise ?

1. PARADISE is where the tree of life is; for the tree of life is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Rev. 2:7.)

2. The tree of life is where the river of the water of life is; for the tree of life is on either side of that river. (Rev. 22: 2.)

3. The river of the water of life is where the throne of God and the Lamb is; for that river proceeds out of it. (Rev. 22: 2.)

4. The throne of God and the Lamb is in the city, where shall be no more curse, no night, no need of candles, of moon or sun to shine in it; where there is no temple, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. (Rev. 21: 22, 23, and 22: 3, 5.)

5. This city is heaven. my throne.

34.)

Heaven is

(Isa. 66:1; Matt. 5:

The conclusion is that where heaven is, there is paradise.

A Perverted Conscience. REMEMBER, too, that your conscience is not a sure guide. It is liable to be perverted by bad company. Conscience with the malign passions is devilish. Conscience with selfishness and pride is infernal. And if your conscience is to be to you a benefactor and a guide, it must keep company with the Christian emotions and sentiments; it must daily stand in the light of God's countenance. Do not think, then, that because you are conscientious you are of course right. You may conscientiously believe in that which is not true. You may conscientiously believe that a course is safe which ends in death. The only true way is to follow a conscience that is governed by the law of love and charity. I beseech of you, look well to your conscience, and see not only that it is instructed and intelligent, but that it acts coincidently with the will of God.-REV.

To this conclusion conforms the II. W. BEECHER.

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