excessive toil of his journeyings, but the joy he will feel when he finds himself safe at his journey's end. Not the joy the soldier feels when he stops for a temporary rest amid the strife and labours of the battle-field, but the joy that will swell his bosom when he shall have returned from the scene of conflict, crowned with the honours of victory.

2. The joy of being at home.- Who has not witnessed the joy of friends, when, after a long and painful separation, they find themselves safe in the embrace of their kindred? The Christian, though once a wanderer in a strange land, amid enemies and dangers, subject to weariness and faintings, exposed to a great variety of evils, finds himself at last at home, amid the happy greetings of his father's family.

3. The joy of friendship.-Christian friendship on earth, though sweet, is often mixed with sorrow.

The heart is

wrung with anguish, and tears of deepest grief are profusely shed by some, the painful circumstances connected with our stay below. Friends are often called to separate :

"Friend after friend depar's!

Who hath not lost a friend?
There is no union here of hearts
That knows not here an end;
Oh! were this world our only rest,
Living or dying, none were bless'd."

No sundering of ties in heaven; no partings experienced there! No evils there to mar or disturb our friendship. There our union will be delightful, perpetual, and perfect. All are kindred spirits there. How delightful to meet with those we loved on earth. Transporting thought!

"And if our fellowship below

In Jesus be so sweet,

What height of rapture shall we know
When round his throne we meet!"

4. The joy of beholding the fruit of our labours.-The Christian is promised with bearing in triumph the sheaves which he has gathered in the gospel field, to the heavenly Garner. Sheaves denote the fruit of his labours. What greetings and rejoicings in heaven! How the faithful servants of Christ rejoice as their spiritual children come home! The thought of beholding the countless multitudes redeemed, and saved in heaven through his sufferings and death, no doubt constituted a part of that "joy which was set before" the Saviour, which led him to endure the cross and despise the shame. -American Pulpit.

THE SUM OF RELIGION.

BY THE LATE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE HALE.

HE that fears the Lord of heaven and earth, and walks humbly before him; and thankfully lays hold of the message of redemption by Jesus Christ, and strives to express his thankfulness by the sincerity of obedience; that is sorry with all his soul when he comes short of his duty; that walks watchfully in the denial of himself, and dares not yield to any lust or known sin; he that, if he fails in the least measure, is restless till he has made his peace by true repentance; that is true in his promises, just in his dealings, charitable to the poor, sincere in his devotion; that will not deliberately dishonour God, although with perfect security from temporal punishment; that has his hopes and his conversation in heaven; that dares not do anything unjustly, although never so much to his advantage; and all this because he so firmly believes him that is invisible, and fears him because he loves him; fears him as well for his goodness as his greatness;such a man, whether he be an Episcopalian or a Presbyterian, an Independent or Anabaptist; whether he wears a surplice or wears none; whether he kneels at the communion, or for conscience sake stands or sits, he hath the life of religion in him; and that life acts in him, and will conform his soul to the image of his Saviour, and go along with him to eternity, notwithstanding his practice of things indifferent. On the other side, if a man fears not the eternal God, commits sin with presumption, can drink to excess, lie, swear vainly or falsely, loosely break his promises, such a man, although he can cry down bishop, or cry down presby tery; although he be re-baptized every day, or declaim against it as heresy; although he fast all the Lent, or fast not out of pretence of avoiding superstition: yet notwithstanding these, and a thousand more external conformities, or zealous oppositions of them, he wants the LIFE OF RELIGION!

TAKE AND GIVE.

ISA. Iviii. 11.

THE sentiment is, those whom God waters should water others; not a single act, but a continual spring. It is our honour, duty, and interest.

1. Abraham." In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Laban blessed for Jacob's sake; Potiphar and the Egyptians for

Joseph's sake. Favourites of heaven should be blessings to others.

The Israelites were chosen for a blessing to other nations. The Holy Land in the centre: "Come thou with us, and we will do thee good." God gave his only begotten Son, that his ministers might go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. What you have freely received, freely give. Planting a church is like setting up a golden candlestick. Certain branches of a family are called; they are to go home and tell what great things God hath done for them: "When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren."

2. God has watered you with a saving knowledge of himself: diffuse this knowledge-husband to the wife, father to the children.

3. God has blessed us as a country with the gospel, with religious advantages; disseminate this gospel. No nation that can water others BO well as ours.

4. God has blessed the present generation, that they may be concerned to communicate the blessing to the generations that are to come. We should exercise gratitude for the past and kindness for the future.-Life of T. Wilson, pp. 127, 128.

THE WORK OF CHRIST.

As there is so much power ascribed to the Truth in Scripture, let it be my frequent exercise to summon this one and that other truth into my

mind, and with care to have a correct apprehension of it-dwell upon it simply as it is. And let me hence record my experience, that of all the Bible truths taken together, there is none which tells more pleasurably or more powerfully upon me than the work of Christ in the room of sinners, as their substitute and their surety— and that not only in the way of peace; but sure I am that when thus occupied I feel on the firmest vantage-ground for the vigorous and cheerful and prosperous prosecution of the service of God. This experience remarkably accords with the pre-eminence given to Christ in his mediatorial offices through the whole of revelation, and justifies the saying of Paul, "I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified;" and so also of the expressions, "Christ the power of God," "Christ the wisdom of God," "the cross of Christ, through glorying in which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." Let me conform myself more and more unto the mediatorial economy of the gospel. Let my fellowship be with the Son of God, and test the efficacy of Bible sayings by acting faith upon them, or cherishing the apprehension of these sayings along with a sense of their greatness. O my God, let the Word thus raise me above the world! Let it dwell in me richly in all wisdom! Above all, let me be sanctified thereby; and may I realize the living evidence of its perfection and its power, that I am thoroughly furnished by it unto all good works!-Chalmers' Sabbath Exercises.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

IF a man of one form will be trampling on the heels of another form; if an Independent, for example, will despise him who is under baptism, and will revile him, and reproach and provoke him; I will not suffer it in him.

If, on the other side, those of the Anabaptist judgment shall be censuring the godly ministers of the nation who profess under that of Independency; or if those who profess under Presbytery, shall be reproaching or speaking evil of them, traducing or censuring of them; as I would not be willing to see the day when England shall be in the power of the Presbytery, to impose upon the consciences of others that profess faith in Christ, so I will not endure any reproach to them. But God give us hearts and spirits to keep things equal; and if it shall be found to be the civil magistrate's real endeavour to keep all professing Christians in this relation to one another, not suffering aby to say or do what will justly provoke the others, I think he that would have more liberty than this is not worthy of any-Cromwell.

CROMWELL'S DYING WORDS.

ALL the promises of God are in him; yes, and in him, Amen to the glory of God by us-by us in Jesus Christ!

The Lord hath filled me with as much assurance of his pardon and his love as my soul can hold. I think I am the poorest wretch that lives; but I love God, or rather am beloved of God. I am a conqueror, and more than a conqueror, through Christ that strengtheneth me. (Died 3rd Sept. 1658.)

OMNIPOTENCE.

THE power which upholds, moves, and rules the universe, is also clearly illimitable. The power which is necessary to move a single world, transcends all finite understanding. No definite number of finite beings possess sufficient power to move a single world a hair's breadth; yet God moves the great world which we inhabit 68,000 miles in an hour-260 times faster than the swiftest motion of a cannon-ball. Nor does he move this world only, but the whole system of which it is a part; and all the worlds which

replenish the immense stellary system, formed of suns innumerable, and of the planets which surround them. All these he has also moved from the beginning to the present moment; and yet "he fainteth not, neither is weary."

EXTENT OF THE CREATION. OUR system, great and wonderful as it is, is a mere speck compared with the real extent of the creation. Satisfactory evidence exists, that every star which twinkles in the firmament is no other than a sun, a world of light surrounded by its own attendant planets, formed into a system similar to ours. Forty-five thousand such stars have been counted by the aid of the Herschelian telescope in so small a part of the heavens, that, supposing this part to be sown no thicker than the rest, the same telescope would reach at least seventy-five millions in the whole sphere. By means of new improvements in the same optical instrument, they have been found to be numerous to a degree still more astonishing. Every one of these is, in my view, rationally concluded to be the sun and centre of a system of planetary and cometary worlds. Beyond this, I think it not at all improbable, that were we transported to the most distant of the visible stars, we should find there a firmament expanding over our heads, studded in the manner with stars innumerable. Nay, were we to repeat the same flight, and be again wafted through the same distance, it is not improbable that we should behold a new repetition of the same sublimity and glory. In this manner immensity appears, in a sense, to be peopled with worlds innumerable, constituting the boundless empire of Jehovah. How amazing, then, must be the power and greatness of Him who not only "telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names," but with a word spoke them all into being!

same

OUR COUNTRY AND HER CLAIMS. As in the light of cultivated reason you look abroad, you see a wealth of beauty, a profusion of goodness in the works of Him who has strewn flowers in the wilderness, and painted the bird, and enamelled the insect. In the simplest and most universal of his laws you can read this lesson. An uneducated man dreams not of the constituents of the common sun-light, which now in its splendour floods the firmament and the landscape. He cannot comprehend how much of the loveliness of the world results from the composite character of light, and from the reflecting properties of most physical bodies. If, instead of the red, yellow, and blue, which the analysis of the prism and the experiments by absorption have shown to be its constituents, it had been homogeneous, simple white, how changed would all have been. The growing corn and the ripe harvest, the blossom and the fruit, the fresh greenness of spring, and autumn's robe of many colours, the hues of the violet, the lily, and the rose, the silvery foam of the rivulet, the emerald of the river, and the purple of the ocean, would have been alike unknown. The rainbow would have been but a paler streak in the gray sky, and dull vapours would have canopied the sun, instead of the clouds, which, in dyes of flaming brilliancy, curtain his rising up and going down. Nay, there would have been no distinction between the bloom of childhood, and the flush of health, and the paleness of decay, and the hectic of disease, and the livid

ness of death. There would have been an unvaried, unmeaning leaden hue, where we now see the changing and expressive countenance, the tinted earth, and the gorgeous firmament.

POOR OLD MAN!

ON inquiry of a very aged man, whom we found suffering with a painful disease, which, in all probability, will soon terminate his life, about his prospects for eternity, he shook his head, saying that he had no hope of happiness beyond the grave. I exhorted him to flee to the Saviour, even at the eleventh hour; and gave him an account of "Poor Joseph," hoping that the truth thus conveyed to his dark mind might find a lodgment there, and result in his conversion. I gave him a Testament and "Baxter's Call," for his son's wife to read to him. wife is a member of the church, and told me that she had been praying for her husband a long time. Neither he, nor his wife, nor his son, can read a word. His son's wife can read a little. We gave her a Bible and some tracts, which she seemed glad to receive.

His

A MAN WITHOUT A HOPE. JOSEPH C. NEAL, the charcoal sketcher, in his limning of "Tribulation Trepid, a Man without a Hope," thus admirably hits off that class of people who are never so happy as when they are miserable:

"How are you, Trepid? How do you feel today, Mr. Trepid?"

"A great deal worse than I was, thank'ee; most dead, I'm obliged to you; I'm always worse than I was, and I don't think I was ever any better. I'm very sure, anyhow, I'm not going to be any better; and for the future you may always know I'm worse, without asking any questions; for the questions make me worse, if nothing else does."

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"Why, Trepid, what's the matter with you?" 'Nothing, I tell you, in particular, but a great deal is the matter with me in general; and that's the danger, because we don't know what it is. That's what kills people, when they can't tell what it is; that's what's killing me. My great grandfather died of it, and so will I. The doctors don't know; they can't tell; they say I'm well enough when I'm bad enough, and so there's no help. I'm going off some of these days right after my grandfather, dying of nothing in particular, but of everything in general. That's what finishes our folks."

GOOD-BYE.

THERE is hardly a greater perversion of the meaning of a phrase in the English language than is contained in the words so often used at parting with friends, "Good bye"-words which in themselves have no signification whatever. In olden times it was customary among pious people, when parting from those they loved or respected, to commend them to the protection of God. The phrase in French was " à Dieu"to God; Anglice-"adieu," and used by thousands without a knowledge of its meaning. And the old English form of expression, God be with you"-a most beautiful phrase when taking leave of a friend-is altogether discarded. "Goodbye," a corruption of this phrase, has usurped its place.

QUESTIONS FOR SOLDIERS. A CERTAIN Scotchman being solicited to enter the army and fight for his country, said to the

officer who was desirous of enlisting him, "I would ask you, Sir, two questions, which, if you answer to my satisfaction, I shall have no hesitation to take up arms. The first is, Can you tell me if I kill a man that he will go to heaven? or, Can you say whether, if I am killed myself, I shall likewise go there?"

To these two questions, so very important and solemn, the officer could not reply. "Well, then," said this brave Scotchman, "I dare not send a fellow-creature unprepared into eternity, neither dare I rush thither unbidden."

CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. "SHOULD the Empress," says Chrysostom, in his Epistle to Cyriacus, "determine to banish me, let her banish me; 'the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.' If she will cast me into the sea, let her cast me into the sea; I will remember Jonah. If she will throw me into a burning fiery furnace, the three children were there before me. If she will throw me to the wild beasts, I will remember that Daniel was in the den of lions. If she will condemn me to be stoned, I shall be the associate of Stephen, the proto-martyr. If she will have me beheaded, the Baptist has submitted to the same punishment. If she will take away my substance, 'naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return to it.""

A PARSON IN A PREDICAMENT. A GOOD man and his wife, for the benefit of the health of the latter, who was an invalid, a short time ago, took up their residence in a village a few miles distant from London. The church minister, not seeing them at church, called at their house, and was received by the wife, of whom he inquired as to their going to church. She, having been much confined to the house, said, with much simplicity, that the sitting-room was her church; that there she read God's word, prayed to him, and had communion with him, &c.; and also added, that they went to chapel and not to church. The minister, however, urged that it was their duty to go to church but the good woman answered, that she had been in early life with her parents, and derived little advantage; but when she got amongst the Methodists, the Lord was pleased to convince her of sin, and convert her soul, and she was now happy in a sense of his favour. All this appeared strange to the minister, who, still urging her to go to church, was about to leave, when the good woman, looking at him very significantly, said, "Oh, sir, but you must pray with me first." On which he asked for a prayer-book, at which she, who was a woman of prayer, expressed her surprise, and saying that they did not need books to pray with, knelt down; but not hearing the voice of prayer, looked up, and saw the minister still standing, apparently in confusion. She, however, again urged him to pray with her, when he repeated two collects, and took his departure!

"I DON'T SEE IT."

THE late Rev. Robert Hall, when discussing one day the necessity of Church reform with a clergyman who, after having been educated by the Dissenters, obtained a conviction of the purity of the Established Church, and a lucrative living within her pale at the same time, illustrated this kind of logical process in the following manner. This gentleman's constant refuge, when hard driven by the arguments of Mr. Hall, was, "I

can't see it," "I don't see it ;" "I can't see that at all." At last Mr. Hall took a letter from his pocket, and wrote on the back of it with his pencil the word "God." "Do you see that, Sir?" "Yes." He then covered it with a piece of gold. "Do you see it now?" "No." "I must wish you good morning, Sir," said Mr. Hall, and left him to his meditations.

MAN ALWAYS IN WANT.

I HAVE heard of one who began low; he first wanted a house: then, said he, "I want two;" then four; then six; and when he had them he said, "I think I want nothing else." "Yes," said his feend, "you will soon want another thing; that is, a hearse to carry you to the grave;" and that made him tremble.-Whitefield. MISSIONARY ANECDOTE.

A MINISTER of the gospel travelling in Wales was called to attend a missionary meeting. A Welsh minister who was present preached from these words: "Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." He illustrated his subject in the following manner: "When I was a soldier, in the time of truce we used to lie in ambush, under several generals; but when called to fire against the enemy, we always rallied under one general. First, we place the cannon against the fort; then we charge her, then we prime her, then we put fire to her, and then down goes the fort. Now let us inquire, What is this fort? it is idolatry. Who is the great general? it is Jesus Christ. Who are the soldiers? all Christ's faithful disciples. What is the artillery? the word of God. What is she charged with? the doctrines of the cross. What is she primed with? bank-notes and sovereigns. What is she fired with? the Holy Spirit applied to all, and down goes the fort; and then, Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou art become a plain.""

WHILE we are "breaking up the fallow ground" of heathen lands, sowing the good seed, planting the lily and the rose in some wilderness, it behoves us to be earnestly solicitous that our own soil does not lie uncultivated, overgrown with briars, thorns, and noxious weeds.-Mrs. Taylor.

SENTENCES FOR WORLDLY PROFESSORS. Ir any sin is fashionable, Christians should be out of fashion.

If you wish merely to be amused, employ not the gospel to do it, but the pipe, timbrel, and dance. God has never promised to render his people what the world can admire.

The only reason why a man should wish to live is, that he may be useful. This was that which reconciled Paul to live: Phil. i. 24.

The greatest honour some men could do the Christian name would be to disclaim it.

The experience of almost six thousand years hath testified the incompetency of every worldly thing to make men happy. But the practice and course of the world are such as if this were some late and sure experiment, which (for curiosity) every one must be trying over again. Every age renews the inquiry after an earthly felicity.

The sensual man's happiness lies in colours, tastes, and sounds.