ously err. However much they may regard themselves to be envied for their prosperity; however auspicious external appearances may be; however goodly and dazzling the sight which meets the carnal eye, a thorough inquiry into their circumstances and a probing examination which, not content with appearances, seeks to bring realities to view, will prove them to be the suitable objects of no other emotion than pity. The thraldom they are held in calls for pity; the forfeiture they have incurred, the doom they have provoked, the self-deception they are practising, the false security they are indulging, the infatuation they are exemplifying, demand our pity; and, unless we shut our eyes and harden our hearts, render it impossible for us to withhold it. as one of the sons of God; a world where the tree of life was still flourishing, and bidding as fair as though it had remained in its native soil of heaven! What a happy condition! and how wretched the condition which has succeeded! more especially, when contrasted with the former felicity, how ghastly does the hue of the present wretchedness become! There are those indeed, who have obtained the benefit of a remedy for the wretchedness to which all have been reduced, but the unconverted are not among the number. This suggests to us that a farther estimate and illustration of their condition may be had by considering what they might be. They might be free; but instead of that they are slaves to Satan, to the world, to their own lusts. They might be noble princes; but, alas! they are disgraced outcasts from the divine favour. 3. "Poor." Do we count those men poor who They might be kings and priests unto God; but have no treasure on earth? How much more, then, they are dooned criminals, the branded victims of are they to be so counted who have no treasure in coming vengeance. They might have for their heaven! If those are deemed poor who are glad, champion the Lion of the tribe of Judah; but like Lazarus, to be fed with the crumbs that fall instead thereof, they are the prey of the roaring from other men's tables, how much more reason lion that goeth about seeking whom he may de- is there to apply the term to such as, in a future vour. In the Psalmist's expressive language, they world of misery, cannot have one drop of water "lie among the pots," they are prostrate in the to cool their tongue! If the tattered garment, mire, they are in all the debasement of gross and around the body, be recognised as the symbol of universal pollution; whereas they might be, as the poverty, surely we have the symbol of a deeper wings of a dove, covered with silver, and her fea- poverty, when the soul is enveloped in the unclean thers as yellow gold. Surely they are in a wretch- rags of self-righteousness! Let us be just to the ed condition. If to have the Almighty Potentate temporal poor. There is a class far lower in the of heaven and earth for their foe; to have the cup scale of poverty than they. If we would know of his wrath for their portion; and the place poverty in its most dreadful form, we must go to whence his mercy is for ever clean gone, for their those who are spiritually poor,-who possess no future dwelling-place, be wretchedness; if a dark-spiritual wealth, are without the means of spiritual ened and lifeless soul, a forfeited inheritance of eternal felicity, and a merited curse, of which the foretaste and the beginnings are already experienced, be enough to constitute wretchedness, then are they wretched indeed! nothing." maintenance, the necessaries of spiritual and eternal life. It adds to the melancholy interest of their situation, that, unlike all other poor, they neither complain of, nor feel their own wants; but with the sad marks of their destitution staring 2. "Miserable." Between this term and the them in the face, and despite the many efforts of last, as applied to the condition of unconverted their true friends to convince them of the truth, men, no distinction can be perceived, until we they fondly cling to the imagination that they are have recourse to the original text. But we find," rich, and increased with goods, and have need of upon doing so, that the word "pitiable" would more fitly represent the sacred writer's meaning, who appears to be pointing to the emotion or sentiment produced in the mind, when the unconverted state is made the object of thought. You know, my friends, that our mental emotions always correspond with the nature of the objects to which the attention of the mind is directed. Thus, one object excites love; another excites hatred; another joy; another grief; another fear; another wonder; another desire, and so on, each according to its nature. Now it is intimated here, that when the mind comes to the consideration of the state of the unconverted, the appropriate emotion is pity. Unconverted men are proud, and this will therefore be to them an unwelcome announcement. They will doubtless dissent from it, and hold by the idea that this state is an enviable one, and that the sentiments which most naturally arise in the minds of those acquainted with it, are jealousy and desire. But, if they do so, they griev 4. "Blind." Another on the dismal roll of attributes that characterise the unconverted man's condition, is his blindness. It is evident that he sees neither where he is, nor how he is situated, nor what he is doing, nor whither he is going. Sinai overhangs him, but he heeds not the frowning mountain. A tempest of wrath is gathering around him, but he seeks no covert from the storm. One fairer than the sons of men, and chief among ten thousand, appears to him; but he evinces no sense of his attractions. The deformities of sin do not hinder him from embracing it. Though it be the noon-day of the Gospel, he gropes as one in darkness. The grim messenger of death is in sight, and is swiftly making up to him; but he betrays no alarm, and makes no preparation. Tophet and the lake of fire are right before him ; yet he presses on. The road which he travels is marked for his warning, as the way to everlasting misery and ruin, and the smoke of the pit rises in a black cloud at its termination, but he slackens | wretchedness; nay, it is not in his denial of these not his pace. Can it be, then, that he sees? Is things, but it is in his going to the opposite exit the man who sees that walks over a precipice, treme, in his confident affirmation of the very advances against the point of a spear, or waits till reverse, in his preposterous fancy, that he is on a tottering edifice descends upon his head? Would the towering height of prosperity and honour, beauty have no power to draw a man, deformity when, in point of fact, he is in the depths of adnone to repel him, or dangers to dismay him, un- versity and shame. less he were blind? So then it appears, that the man whose case we are considering is blind. He could not otherwise resist the fascination of the Saviour's comeliness, tolerate the presence of sin's deformity, or remain unconcerned at the evils that encompass him. 2. It is a surprising error. It is surprising from its very grossness. Man is so prone to err, that the occurrence of small mistakes excites no astonishment; on the contrary, we look for it. But it is startling to find men calling bitter sweet, emptiness abundance, disgrace honour, and misery comfort and happiness. Though familiar with blundering, we are not prepared for such blunders as consist in thinking a hovel, a palace,—a noisome pit, a hill of holiness, or a region of gloom and death, a land of unfading sunshine and joy. The error in question is the more remarkable and extraordinary, when it is considered that there are such ample means of getting at the truth. It is not an error that has been unassailed, or against the commission of which precautions have not been used. Precautions, indeed, might have been reckoned superfluous; but, notwithstanding, precautions have been taken. Faithful pictures of an unconverted state have been multiplied by the 5. "Naked." This is the last thing mentioned, and it completes the picture of an unconverted state. It intimates a great and a shameful destitution, whereby those to whom it applies are totally disqualified from taking their places with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. Good clothing is a necessary passport to good society. They that will enter kings' palaces must be suitably apparelled. A wedding-garment is indispensable for a marriage feast. Hence it is, that the unconverted man cannot join the general assembly and church of the First-born. Saints and angels will have nothing to do with him. He nay not appear among the multitude before the throne. He will be denied admission to the mar-pen of inspiration; the oracles of God have riage supper of the Lamb. How could it be thought that angels, in their robes of brightness and purity, would endure in their company one who was not so arrayed; that access to the royal residence above, and a place among the glorified throng, would be granted to one who had not the covering of the Redeemer's righteousness; or that the king would suffer, in the marriage chamber, a guest who lacked the wedding-garment? The unconverted are naked in a two-fold respect-in that they want the garment of justification, and likewise the garment of sanctification. They lack the former, in as much as they have no true faith, and Christ's righteousness, in which it consists, is consequently not imputed to them; and the latter, in as much as their hearts being unrenewed, their persons are unclothed in the beauties of holiness, and unadorned with the graces of the Spirit of God. III. Some inferences descriptive of the unconverted man's error. 1. It is a great error. It is just as great an error as possibly can be. It is an error, of which it cannot be said that it makes the most distant approximation to the truth. It is an error that consists not in going beyond the truth by exaggerating, or in stopping short of the truth by extenuating, but in taking up a position absolutely and totally opposed to the truth. It is not, for example, the error of the man who says it is an hour before noon, or an hour after noon, when it is actually just noon; but it is the error of him who declares it is midnight, while he stands under the blaze of the meridian sun.. The error of the unconverted man lies not in undertaking and disguising his own poverty, and destitution, and spoken out in unambiguous language respecting it; and the testimony of the Creator has been furnished to guide and correct the observation of the creature; and all has been in vain. Nay, an agency has been organised by divine authority, messengers have gone forth accredited by heaven, for the purpose of declaring the truth in the matter before us, and of awakening the attention of all to the misery and danger of an unconverted state; and yet without effect. The error continues to prevail. Entreaties, arguments, demonstrations, and the evidence of indisputable testimony, are brought to bear against it; but, all together, they have not succeeded in dislodging it from men's minds, or in expelling it from the world. 3. It is a pernicious error. Perhaps there is no error that is entirely harmless. It is in the nature of error to lead to mischief. But assuredly, there are many errors, the mischief arising from which is so inconsiderable, that it were folly to devote much time or pains to remove them. The mischief here, however, is enormous. Death is the consequence of adhering to this error;-death in its most appalling form the eternal ruin of body and soul. For consider, a remedy must be applied to the sinner's condition, otherwise he is undone-totally and hopelessly, and for ever undone. But no remedy will be sought after, no remedy will be accepted, should the sinner perish in flattering himself that all is already well. This is an error, therefore, which stands between him and salvation, which stops his entrance on the path of life, and leaves no way open to him but the way that leadeth to destruction. 4. It is an error which, by human means, is incorrigible. We say not that its correction is beyond the power of God. Blessed be His name, we know that he can, and in the case of His people does, correct it. But we say at once, this is what man cannot do. Man's ability is quite unequal to the task. Man, indeed, may be, and is, employed with effect as the instrument of an almighty agent; but he can make no progress in the matter if left to himself. Where this error is adopted and cherished, we are constrained to recognise the presence of a mental disorder,-of a lunacy possessing most unfavourable symptoms. It is quite a customary thing for the subjects of a confirmed disease of the mind to take up the most extravagant ideas, and to form a fixed belief which is contradicted by every thing around them. In the cells of a lunatic asylum will be found those who imagine they are the mightiest potentates, and the happiest beings on earth. There is no hope of such persons. Medical science can do nothing for them. So neither can the wisdom or efforts of man avail to put the unconverted sinner right. We must pray to God for him, my brethren. We must implore that He would be pleased to break the fatal spell; and, while we use the means, we must take care not to trust in the but in Him who opens the sinner's understanding, casts down his pride, and melts his heart in the day of his power! means, THE JEWISH SECTS. The following account of the various sects among the Jews, tends to illustrate the meaning of various remarks and allusions in the New Testament. It is taken from the instructive work of the Abbe Fleury on the Manners of the Ancient Israelites. "THE difference of sects began in the time of the Maccabees; under Jonathan, the son of Mattathias, there were already Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. The Pharisees joined to the text of the law the traditions of the fathers, which were preserved without writing; and though the doctrine they maintained was good at the bottom, they mixed a great many superstitions with it. They believed in fate, moderated by free-will, or rather by providence, which guides it. The Sadducees, who were a sort of Deists, imputed all to free-will. They acknowledged only the five books of Moses as divine, and these they interpreted literally, and pretended that they did not oblige them to believe a resurrection, or the immortality of the soul, or that there were angels or spirits. Thus they served God only for a temporal reward, and gave themselves up much to sensual pleasures. They had little agreement among themselves, and but small authority with the people. Their number was not great; but they were the chief of the nation, and even many of them priests. The common people were more attached to the Pharisees, who kept up an outward show of great piety. Queen Alexandra gave them considerable power during the minority of her sons. "The sect of Essenes was the most singular. They avoided living in great towns, their goods were in common, and their diet very plain. They spent a great deal of time in prayer, and meditating upon the law. Their manner of life was very like that of the Prophets and Rechabites. Some of them, too, observed a perfect continence, leading a life altogether contemplative, and in such purity, that many of the fathers have taken them for Christians. They were a very simple and upright people, and are never reprehended by Christ or his Apostles. "The Pharisees lived in the midst of the world, in great amity with one another, leading a plain and outwardly strict life; but most of them were interested, ambitious, and covetous. They valued themselves on a great exactness in the outward performance of the law. They gave tithes not only of large fruits, but of the smallest herbs as cummin, mint, and anise. They took great care to wash themselves, to purify their cups, their plate, and all their furniture. They kept the Sabbath so scrupulously, that they made it a crime in our Saviour to moisten a bit of clay at the end of his finger, and in his disciples to pluck some ears of corn to eat as they passed along. They fasted often, many of them twice a-week, i. e., on Mondays and Thursdays. They affected wearing the totaphot or phylacteries, on the borders of the garments, together with their tsitsith, or fringes, much larger than ordinary. The tota phot, tephillin, or phylacteries, are scraps of writing, forehead and left arm, in obedience to the command of containing some passages of the law, fastened upon their having the law of God always before their eyes, or in their hands. The tsitsith, or fringes, were of different colours, and they were ordered to wear them on the borders of their garments, that they might look upon them, and remember the commandments of God. The Jews even to this day wear these outward marks of Religion, when they go to the synagogue, but upon working days only, for upon the Sabbath and feast days they pretend they have no occasion for these remembrancers. “The Pharisees gave alms in public, and made their faces dismal, that they might look as if they fasted For an unclean person to touch them was reckoned the highest affront; and such they esteemed much. not only the Gentiles and public sinners, but all that were of an odious profession. In short, most of them were devout only out of interest; they misled ignorant people by their specious discourses, and the women even stripped themselves of whatever was valuable, to enrich them; and, under pretence that they were the people of God, with whom the law was deposited, they despised the Greeks and Romans, and all the nations upon earth. "We still see in the books of the Jews these traditions, of which the Pharisees made so great a mystery from time to time, and which were written about a hundred years after the resurrection of Christ. It is hardly possible for a Christian to conceive the frivolous questions with which these books are filled; as, Whether it be lawful on the Sabbath day to get upon an ass to take it to the water, or whether it must be led by the halter? Whether one may walk over new sown land; because one runs a hazard of taking up some grains with the foot, and consequently of sowing them on some other place? Whether it be permitted on that day to write as many letters of the alphabet as will make sense? If it be lawful to eat an egg laid on the Sabbath, the same day? About purifying the old leaven before the passover: Whether they must begin again to purify a house, if they should see a mouse running across it with a crumb of bread? If it be lawful to keep pasted paper, or any plaster that has flour in it? If it be lawful to eat what has been dressed with the coals that remain after the old leaven is burnt? and a thousand other such cases of conscience, with which the Talmud and its commentaries are stuffed. Thus the Jews forgot the greatness and majesty of the law of God, applying themselves to mean and trifling things; and were now stupid and ignorant in comparison of the Greeks, who reasoned upon more useful and elevated subjects in their schools, and who, at least, were polite and agreeable, if not virtuous. Not but that there were always some Jews more curious than the rest, who took pains to speak Greek correctly, read Greek books, and applied to their studies, as grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy. Such an one was Aristobulus, a peripatetic philosopher, preceptor_to Ptolemy Philometor; and such were Eupolemus, De metrius, and the two Philos. Some of them wrote histories in Greek, and after the Greek manner; as Jason of Cyrene: and the author of the second book of Maccabees, who has abridged his works; Philo, and Josephus, the celebrated historian, "Most of the Jews that studied Greek lived at Alexandria. Others were content to speak Greek so as to be understood, that is, badly, and always retaining the turn of their native language; and it is in this compound Greek that the translations of the Old Testament, and the original of the New, are written. The apostles and evangelists thought it sufficient to write in a clear concise manner, despising all ornaments of language, and making use of that which was most easy to be understood by the common people of their own nation; so that, to understand their Greek perfectly, one must be acquainted with Hebrew and Syriac. "The Jews of these latter times employed themselves much in reading their law, and the Holy Scriptures in general. They were not satisfied with expounding them according to the letter: they found out several senses in them, expressed by allegories and divers metaphors: we see it not only in the New Testament, and the writings of the most ancient fathers in controversy with them, but in the books of Philo, the Talmud, and oldest Hebrew commentators upon the law, which they call great Genesis, great Exodus, and so on. They held these figurative senses by tradition from their fathers. "In one word, the manners of the Jews in those times were excessively corrupt. They were ridiculously proud of being descended from Abraham, and puffed up with the promises of the Messiah's kingdom, which they knew to be near, and imagined would abound with victories and all manner of temporal prosperity. They were selfish, avaricious, and sordid, especially the Pharisees, who were in general great hypocrites: they were wavering and unfaithful, always ripe for sedition and revolt, under a pretence of casting off the yoke of the Gentiles. In short they were violent and cruel, as appears by what they made our Saviour and his apostles undergo, and the unexampled injuries they did one another, both in the time of the civil war, and the last siege of Jerusalein." THE MIRACLE OF HOLY FIRE.* A SUPERSTITIOUS RITE OF THE GREEK CHURCH. "THIS is called the Day of Charity; the doors are open both day and night, and free and gratuitous ingress is allowed to all; so that by ten o'clock, A.M., an immense crowd was collected in the church and round the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. In this strange assemblage we recognized the complexion and costume of every description of Christian: English, French, Lutherans, Italians, Greeks and Russians, Georgians, Circassians, Tartars, Armenians, Copts, Maronites, Druses, and the various tribes of Syrian Arabs, rushed together into one mass; and to complete the universal society, we were increased by the presence of an American and an Abyssinian. "For what purpose was it that every Christian name was here collected round the Sepulchre of Christ ? How were these pious pilgrims occupied at that time and on this spot? They were collected for the purpose of witnessing either a miracle or the mockery of a miracle; either a violation of the laws of nature by God, or the greatest insult which can be offered to God by man; either a fire lighted by the immediate act of heaven, or an act which seemed to call down fire from heaven, to destroy the scene of such monstrous impiety. They were occupied during the awful interval, not in prayer or in any serious meditation, not even in crossing, or prostration, or any vain ceremony From "The Present Condition and Prospects of the Greek or Oriental Church," by the Rev, George Waddington.-London, Murray, 1829. of worship. So far were they removed from any such feeling, that they selected that particular moment for indulgence in buffooneries and indecencies far surpassing the extravagance of any Italian carnival. They ran and dragged each other round the sepulchre; they mounted on each others shoulders; they built themselves up into pyramids; they hung by their heels naked or half naked; they performed the circuit of the holy chapel, tumbling like mountebanks. shouts and the shrieks from so many voices in so many languages, sharpened with Oriental shrillness, surpassed any idea that can be formed by the languid imaginations of the West. And the spectacle was rendered still more various, and the uproar more discordant, by the violent proceedings of the Turkish and Albanian soldiers, in their vain attempt to tranquilize fanaticism by blows. The "Presently we observed two priests, a Greek and an Armenian, enter the chapel of the sepulchre; the door was carefully closed after them, and strictly guarded by a strong body of Turks. At this sight the impatience of the mob rather increased, and they rushed with more earnestness towards the walls of the chapel, every one with new torches or tapers in his hand, trimmed to receive the expected fire. There were two or three small orifices or windows in the walls, to which every eye was eagerly directed. But their suspense was still somewhat protracted; for the Turkish governor, who takes especial delight in the miracle, and always superintends its execution, was not yet arrived. "The body of the church is overlooked by a gal lery, which was occupied by Turks of distinction, by English and other travellers, by some Roman Catholics, and several women, chiefly Armenians. These specta tors contemplated the scene beneath them with great difference of feeling. The Turks merely laughed with undisguised and unmitigated contempt: a Protestant might smile or sigh, as ridicule or pity predominated; but the memory of what he beheld could furnish matter for none but melancholy reflection. The Latins were sincerely indignant against the performance of a profitable imposture in which themselves had no share, and would willingly have counterfeited contempt, if they could have forgotten the blood of St. Januarius, and similar impieties of their own church. The Armenian women sat expecting a real miracle, in unlimited and unhesitating faith and confidence. "After the despatch of more important business, the governor at length arrived and took his seat: every light had long ago been extinguished in every part of the church, and the stone beneath had been visited only by such glimpses of daylight as descended upon it, chiefly through the cupola, from a sky of the clearest blue and most heavenly tranquillity. Very soon afterwards we observed a glimmering through the orifices in the holy chapel; it increased to a flame and instantly became perceptible to the crowd. The shout which announced this event, the completion of the miracle, was the prelude to an exhibition of madness surpassing all that had preceded. The more zealous, or more vigorous fanatics pressed towards the chapel, that they might obtain a more genuine light by the immediate application of their tapers to the divine fountain; and the eagerness of those behind to participate, though less perfectly, in the blessing, brought on a struggle with those who were nearer the sanctuary, and who were anxious to carry away their own light uncontaminated; but in this they seldom succeeded; and thus the fire was communicated with extreme rapidity, and in less than five minutes the whole church presented an uninterrupted blaze of several thousand tapers and torches. In the mean time the two priests, whose entrance has been mentioned, were carried out of the chapel on the shoulders of some favoured devotees, either of them waving a celestial torch of the purest flame, which not one among the fanatic crowd either believed or suspected to be the creation of their own impious hands. This fact is made credible by the general history of superstition; that which I am about to mention is even more extravagant but not less true. An opinion is universally prevalent that the holy fire has no power to burn or injure; and experiments of this quality are every year made by almost every pilgrim on his own person; all, of course, singed, and burnt, and scarred; and yet, whether it be that the energy of their enthu siasin repels or deadens the sense of pain, or that each man believes his own suffering to be an exception, in visitation perhaps of some secret and unconfessed sin, all persist in their original belief, and continue to proclain with one voice, in defiance of truth and sense itself, the innocence of the holy flame. 66 portance of the joys of eternity. Procrastination in The Necessity of Prayer.-Many are hindered, betation, except they feel themselves brought to it by cause they refuse to give themselves to prayer or medi devotion; and except it be when these duties delight them, and go to their hearts; otherwise all seems to them unprofitable. But this kind of men are like him, that being vexed with cold, will not go to the fire experish with famine, and will not ask meat except he cept he were first warm; or like one that is ready to were first satisfied. For why doth a man give himself to prayer or meditation, but that he might be warmed with the fire of divine love? or, that he may be filled taken in thinking the time lost in prayer or meditation, with the gifts and grace of God? These men are misif they be not presently watered with a shower of devotion; for I answer them, that if they strive as much as in them lieth for this, and do their duty, and thoughts, with displeasure because they depart not, are in war, and in continual fight against their own nor suffer them to be quiet, such men, for this time, are more accepted than if the heat and devotion had come to them suddenly without any such conflict.GERSON. As soon as they were wearied by these excesses they gradually retired and dispersed, in order to preserve the remains of their tapers by melting them on fragments of linen which they destined to be portions of their winding-sheet, and a passport to a better state of existence. The Turkish governor and the other spectators departed also; and if the scene which we had witnessed was not such as to make Christianity respectable to the mind of a Mahometan, it was such, at least, as might teach a lasting lesson of moderation to a Protestant; it might teach him to compassionate the fanaticism from which he is so far removed; and, by presenting to his actual observation the wildest imaginable enormities practised in the name of Christ, it might teach him to overlook the narrow limits and scarcely perceptible shades which may happen to divide him from his neighbour; it might teach him the exercise of charity towards trifling errors and partial deviations, fit than when they think themselves most fit, and best The best Frame for Duty.-Never are men more unby shewing him how boundless is the field of super-prepared for their duty; never more fit, than when stition, and how frightful are the paths which perplex it." CHRISTIAN TREASURY. most humbled and ashamed under a sense of their own unfitness.-LUTHER. 66 The Broad Road leadeth to Destruction.-Jesus tells Certainty of Death. The certainty of death, be- us of two ways only; and throughout the Scriptures sides impressing us with a sense of humility, ought to there is no mention made of any other. He says that lead us all to be earnest in the duty of preparation for one is broad, full, because the gate is wide, easily ensuch a change. It is indeed an important event to all, tered; and because the way is wide, not easily departed since it fixes their future destiny, and launches them from without design. Some have thence concluded either into happiness or misery for ever. As this life that this path is smooth, pleasant, unobstructed. Jesus is the only period assigned for escaping the punishment does not say so; he speaks only of the largeness of the of the wicked, or attaining the joys of heaven, it be- entrance, the plenitude of space, the multitude that comes us to improve the precious season, and to sup- walk there, and the destruction in which it terminates. plicate grace from on high, that we may "work out Other Scriptures have described it. They speak of it our salvation with fear and trembling.' Abandoning as a "crooked way," a "dark way," a miry way." all dependence upon ourselves or our own righteous- David calls it a "dark and slippery way." Solomon ness, which is "" as filthy rags," we ought to come to says that "thorns and snares are in it; and Isaiah, Christ, so that we "may have life." We ought to con- that they who go therein shall not know peace." sider, that "now is the accepted time, now is the day of Add to this the testimony of those who have tried it, salvation," and that "other foundation can no man lay, and we need be in no mistake about it. For what is than that which is laid, even Jesus Christ the righte- the history of every man, but a record of the toils, the ous." When we remember how short life is, by what dangers, the difficulties, the sufferings he has found a frail tenure we possess it, that we know not what a upon this crowded path? Who walks in peace upon it? day or an hour may bring forth,-that, in this very li Who treads it fearlessly and stumbles not? Who finds mited season, our eternal salvation must be secured, it a shelter in it from the wind and storm? Who gathers is surely impossible for us to give the least indulgence on its banks the medicinal herb and ever-blooming to a spirit of procrastination. The natural works of flower? No: let not the inexperienced deceive themGod are ever in a progressive state, and all fulfil their selves about this road; it is easily found and easily fixed destiny. The sun rises at his appointed season, kept, but an easy walk it is not. It is full of difficuland knows the time of his going down. Those who ties, and there is no light to walk by; it is full of enehave been favoured with a higher place in the scale of mies, and there is no balm for the wounded; the blight being, whom God has made chief over all his works be- of sorrow is there, but no place of shelter from its low, ought not to be characterized by sloth or inacti- keenness. It is a dark way, for the light of truth is vity about what concerns their eternal peace, but ought not upon it; it is a cold way, for the warmth of heaven to be most earnestly solicitous to embrace that salva- is not in it; it is a crooked way, where no man sees tion, which has been secured by the blood of the Lord before him, nor knows whither the next turn may bring Jesus Christ, and which is offered to every one, "with-him; it is a perilous way, where no man lies down in out money and without price." All the fleeting joys safety, nor knows that he shall rise in peace. Such is of time, and the possessions of this world, sink into in- the broad road that leadeth to destruction.—CAROLINE significance, when contrasted with the incalculable im- FRY. |