for a soul to find itself safely landed in the world of perfection, among "spirits of just men made perfect;" freed from all imperfections, natural and sinful; returned to their native soil, having left that foreign country where they were 'pilgrims and strangers," and got home to their Father's house, "where there are many mansions;" in the best society and company, as well as the best place; reviewing past dangers and labours; admiring the wisdom of God, and his goodness that has brought them thither; and especially the goodness of that stroke we are mourning over here? Their worship must needs be spiritual, who are all spirit; without weariness, failure, or interruption. They have glorious scenes at present before them, and pleasing expectations of greater and more glorious things, such as the accomplishing the number of the elect, and all that shall be saved; the fulfilling the great periods of prophecy that remain; the downfal of Antichrist; the glorious appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ; the resurrection of the body; the abolition of death; and the solemn coronation of all the conquerors through "the blood of the Lamb," to a kingdom that can never be shaken.

One

Is this a condition to be lamented with incessant tears? Is it for people who are in such a case as this that we go up and down in black, with downcast looks, and weeping eyes? What one article of this happiness aforesaid is not worth more than the longest life of pleasure and honour in the world? would think that these things only wanted to be believed and thought on. Would we fetch them back from this condition if we could? I am afraid we are so selfish, that if the resurrection power were lodged in our hands for one day, we should immediately run to the graves of our dear departed, and fetch them back again. To stop our own sorrows for a while, we should begin theirs afresh, and bring them back to misery. They no sooner enter heaven, but they wish they had been sooner there. And the next wish is, that we may be with them too as soon as may be; and yet we wish a quite contrary way.

Of immoderate grief we may say, as Solomon does of extravagant mirth, "What doth it?" What doth it for them who are gone, or for you? It may do us much hurt, but can do them no good. It may weaken our bodies, and damage our health; it may sadden our spirits, deprive us of the comforts of life, and indispose us for the duties of it. And what then? What advantage to the departed from so costly a sacrifice to their memory? Do they need your tears, who have for ever taken leave of weeping? Could your cries call back the departed spirit, and awaken the body into life; could you water the plant with your tears till it revived, you might weep like a cloud, and call nothing excessive that was likely to prove successful. But there are no Elijahs now, who may stretch themselves upon the child, and bring back the soul. It is more reasonable to conclude with David: "Now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." (2 Sam. xii. 23.)

How many mercies and comforts are continued to thee, that might also have been taken away; and how many troubles prevented, that might have befallen you? You have lost some children; it might have been all. You have lost all; it might have been your husband, too, or wife, at the same time. You have lost husband or wife; it might have been also estate, and all the means of subsistence. Or suppose that gone too; you have liberty, health, peace, and friends. Or suppose they are also gone; you are out of hell, and within reach of heaven,

which, I will say, is a greater thing than any you have lost, or all these put together. Pardon of sin, and peace with God, may still be yours. "These, I fear, are not mine."

Nay, then, it is time to mourn over something else than a dead friend. To mourn over a dead soul of your own, to mourn over a lost God, to sorrow for sin-these are infinitely more to your purpose than sorrowing for the dead. And there is at least this room to rejoice, that all these spiritual blessings ma be had. You may be pardoned, accepted, sanctified. and saved. And it is matter of great comfort that these things are possible, and within reach.

How soft a name is given to the Christian's death; and how lovely a notion of their present state! "They sleep in Jesus."

"They sleep." Why do you mourn as if ther were extinct; as if they were annihilated and utterly lost?

"But they are lost to me."

Not for ever; not for a very long time. "Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." When they were alive, sleep and absence separated your relation for a great part of the time.

"But I knew then they would awake from sleep, and return from absence; but now."

And do not you now believe that they will awake from sleep, and return from absence? But when yo say you knew that they would awake from sleep, and return from absence, you speak in terms too strong. You might expect, indeed, and hope, that they would awake and return; but that they would certainly de so, is more than any one could insure who "knows not what a day may bring forth." But this we cer tainly know, that "they who sleep in Jesus will Ge bring with him," as surely as we believe that "Jesus died and rose again from the dead."

"But it will be a great while first." What if it be? Is it not worth tarrying for? And it may not be so long, neither, as you imagine. "But what must I do in the meantime?" Do but these two or three things, and all shall be well. See that your own soul is safe; secure your happy meeting, that your separation may not be eternal; give due allowance to the passion of nature. and refuse not the help of grace. Time will do something, reflection more, and religion will complete the work of resignation.

They that are asleep in Jesus are as truly alive as you, and in a thousand times more excellent sense, and to more excellent purposes. For He who died for us, did it for this end, that, "whether we slep or whether we wake, we should live together with him." (1 Thess. v. 10.) For "God is not the God c the dead, but of the living." (Luke xx. 33.) Living, at present, as to the soul; and who shall live hereafter in the body again.

We live together with him, whether we wake or sleep. They who sleep in Jesus, live together with him, in his presence and enjoyment. In this respect it is that Christ says, "He that believes in me shall never die"-never die totally. But when the body sleeps in Jesus, the soul "lives together with hir and proceeds in a life that death cannot discontinue, nor eternity exhaust.

Sleep is a rest from weariness--from the cares an labours of the day. Such is the death of the Chris

tian.

"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; ther rest from their labours" from the labours of their calling as men-from the labours of their duty as Christians, because all the duty that follows in the

separate state will be without labour and weariness -from the labour of opposing sin, and temptations to it from all the troubles of life, and the sorrows attending it. It is not merely farewell husband, wife, and children; but farewell sorrow and sin; farewell suffering; farewell corruption, weakness, temptation. Welcome rest from all these troubles! Sleep is a refreshment, and a reparation of spirits; and to the better part death gives a refreshment that amounts to a satisfaction. "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness" (Ps. xvii. 15), which some have understood of the soul's awakening to a nobler life upon the body's falling asleep.

Sleep is but for a while, and then we wake again; and death is but for a while, and we awake in the morning of the resurrection. What David says of his lying down in his bed and rising, we may say of our lying down in the grave and rising: "I laid me down and slept; for the Lord sustained me." "So man lieth down, and awaketh not," as to the body, "till the heavens be no more." "If a man die," says Job, "shall he live again?" Shall he indeed? If so, then I acknowledge there is consolation in the thought, and wonder in the work, to support and stay my mind; and therefore, "all the days of my appointed time" that I have to lie in the grave, there "will I wait till my change," by the resurrection, "come." "For thou shalt call," by the sound of the last trumpet and voice of the Lord, "and I will answer." "Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine own hands," to restore and improve it, and 'not suffer it always to lie there in rubbish. Sleep is but a short death, and death a longer sleep to the body. "The hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they who have done good unto the resurrection of life."-John v. 28, 29. May they sleep sweetly, may they wake joyfully! They were Christ's friends as well as yours. Allow him to have his friends about him, as well as you have had them so long. It may be, before Christ has had them so long with him as some of you have had them here below, you will be with them again, and Christ, and you, and they, be all together.

Moderate sorrow is allowable on account of our own loss, even of those who sleep in Jesus. The apostle does not say he would not have them sorrow at all, but not "as others." He does not say, I would not have you sorrow at all, but not as "those who have no such hopes" as you have. It is the regulation of sorrow that he aims at, and not the total suppression of it. Grace doth not destroy nature, but refines it; it doth not extinguish the affections and passions, but rectifies and moderates them. To be altogether unconcerned is unnatural. To be so overmuch is unchristian. They are both hurtful extremes to any soil, either to have no water at all, or to have it overflow and drown the land round

about.

SCRIPTURES RECONCILED.
(From Andrew Fuller's Works.)

I please all men in all things."-1 Cor. x. 33.
if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of
Christ."-GAL. i. 10.

THOUGH both these kinds of action are expressed by one term, to please, yet they are exceedingly diverse; no less so than a conduct which has the glory of God and the good of mankind for its object, and one that originates and terminates in self. The former of these passages should be read in connection with what precedes and follows it. 1 Cor. x. 31-33: "Whether

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therefore, ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God: even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved." Hence it appears plain that the things in which the apostle pleased all men require to be restricted to such things as tend to their "profit, that they may be saved;" whereas the things in which, according to the latter passage, he could not please men, and "yet be the servant of Christ," were of a contrary tendency. Such were the objects pursued by the false teachers whom he opposed, and who desired to make a fair show in the flesh, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. 1 Cor. vi. 12.

The former is that sweet inoffensiveness of spirit which teaches us to lay aside all self-will and selfimportance; that charity which "seeketh not her own," and "is not easily provoked;", it is that spirit, in short, which the same writer elsewhere recommends from the example of Christ himself: "We then, who are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification; for even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me."

But the latter spirit referred to is that sordid compliance with the corruptions of human nature of which flatterers and deceivers have always availed themselves, not for the glory of God or the good of men, but for the promotion of their own selfish designs.

"While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest shall not cease."-GEN. viii. 22.

"There are five years in which there shall be neither earing nor harvest."-GEN. xlv. 6.

The former of these passages contains a general truth or rule, which, as is common with general rules, has its particular exceptions. And yet it hardly amounts to an exception; for there never was a year since the flood in which there was no harvest throughout the world. To understand the promise of God's engaging never to afflict any particular nation, or number of nations, with famine, is to make it universal as to place, as well as uninterrupted in respect to time; and this would go to insure a harvest to the sluggard who refuses to sow.

"Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him."-PROV. xxvi. 4.

"Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise în his own conceit."-PROV. xxvi. 5.

A "fool," in the sense of Scripture, means a wicked man, or one who acts contrary to the wisdom that is from above, and who is supposed to utter his foolishness in speech or writing. Doubtless, there are different descriptions of these characters; and some may require to be answered, while others are best treated with silence. But the cases here seem to be one; both have respect to the same character, and both require to be answered. The whole difference lies in the manner in which the answer should be given. The terms "according to his folly," in the first instance, mean in a foolish manner, as is manifest from the reason given-"lest thou also be like unto him." But in the second instance, they mean in the manner which his folly requires. This also is plain from the reason given "lest he be wise in his own conceit." A foolish speech is not a rule for our imitation; nevertheless our answer must be so framed by it as to meet and repel it.

Both these proverbs caution us against evils to which we are not a little addicted the former, that

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CONVERTS FROM POPERY IN MADEIRA.

1. NICOLAU TOLENTINO VIEYRA.

THE Valley of Machico, debouching on the ocean on the north-east side of Madeira, is one of the most lovely spots of that beautiful island. Far up the valley, near where it opens out to the base of the mountains, lie a number of sequestered cottages, called the Lombo das Fayas. These are inhabited by a portion of the best peasantry of Madeira; distinguished by their industry, their superior intelligence, and what may be called their humble wealth.

The parents of Nicolau Tolentino Vieyra possessed a small fazenda or farm in the Lombo das Fayas. They belonged to the better class of the peasantry, and were in comfortable circumstances. His mother was sister to Maria Joaquina, who, in 1844, was condemned to death at Funchal, for denying the doctrine of transubstantiation, the lawfulness of worshipping images, and some of the other dogmas of the Popish Church. Nicolau's parents destined their son for the priesthood. With this view he was put under the tuition of the priest of a neighbouring parish, and thus acquired the rudiments of a somewhat better education than is usually enjoyed by boys of his rank in life. Indeed, with the mass of the peasantry in Madeira, education there is none. Four or five years ago, scarcely an individual of the lower classes could read, and such solitary individuals as could, were ashamed to own it. Matters are now considerably changed for the better in some districts of the island. Considerable numbers were taught to read in the schools established and supported by Dr. Kalley and his friends; and though these schools have been suppressed by a bigoted and persecuting Government, their fruits remain-a general and strong desire of learning to read has been awakened, and the people are quietly and extensively teaching one another.

Nicolau was an active, spirited lad, and became a favourite of his teacher, as much from joining and aiding him in the sports of the field-hunting and shooting-as from diligence in his studies. One of the duties which devolved on him was to sweep and keep clean the parish church, and to dust the images with which it was stored. Whilst thus engaged alone, he would sometimes examine the images with great attention, turn them round on every side, place them in different attitudes, and look at them from different points of view, wondering how it was that they which were destitute of life, and of all power to move themselves, should yet be able to confer benefits on those who worshipped them. This problem he found himself utterly unable to solve. Something like scepticism would involuntarily arise in his mind, but he hastened to suppress it as impious.

the strong power of his Church, was at work. He found himself drawn on to more perilous questionings than those which demurred to the worshipping of images, and the possession of power by the images for good or evil. Doubts sometimes arose as to the reality of the transformation of the consecrated wafer into God. From such involuntary doubts, however, he recoiled with the utmost horror, as the height of blasphemy and wickedness. He sought to turn away from the subject as one which it would be deep and daring sin even to investigate. And this is the way that Popery maintains her dominion over many whose faith has been shaken, and whose doubts have been awakened. She strictly forbids investigation. She tells her victims that the doubt must be silenced and expelled, not examined or solved; that what the Church says must not be called in question; that what the Church demands from her children is implicit, blind obedience, not intelligent belief and attachment. And she would frighten men from inquiry, by representing inquiry as a sin of the deepest dye. It was thus that Popery met the misgivings of Nicolau, and attempted to oppose a barrier to the first movement of his mind towards the truth. And for a time Popery succeeded. Nicolau shrunk from the doubts and suspicions which had been forced upon him, and trying to turn his thoughts wholly away from the subject, he sought to give himself up to a blind, implicit faith.

But other circumstances soon occurred to shake this blind faith, and revive the questionings and scepticism of Nicolau. His father died, and his mother behoved to part with a gold chain to purchase the services of the Church for the repose of her husband's soul. Nicolau was struck with this. Could the priest really do anything for the good of his father's soul, and was he so unfeeling and cruel as to refuse, unless his services were purchased by a large portion of the little property of the widow and her fatherless children? In the state of mind in which he was, several other things happened which stumbled him, and raised his suspicions that all was not right; and these occasional doubts he found it impossible to banish from his mind.

About this time he heard of Dr. Kalley, and was much surprised at what was told him of the doctor's disinterestedness and liberality. He felt a considerable curiosity to see him; and as a young relative was going to Dr. Kalley to purchase a Bible, Nicolau determined to accompany him. The distance between Nicolau's house and Funchal, where Dr. Kalley was living, is about sixteen or eighteen miles. On this occasion he got a Bible from Dr. Kalley, on condition that he would read it to his relations and neighbours. Nicolaas delighted with