should be right within. It would be nothing to him to be applauded by the whole world, if he had not the approbation of God and his own conscience. Real religion is, therefore, a living principle. Any one may make a show, and be called a Christian, and unite himself to a sect, and be admired, but, for a man to enter into the sanctuary; to hold secret communion with God; to retire into his closet, and transact all his affairs with an unseen Saviour; to walk with God like Enoch, and yet to smite on his breast with the Publican, having no confidence in the flesh, and triumphing only in Christ Jesus-these are the life and acts

of a new creature.

for me: I will wait for a cure, and wait for it in the appointed way. I see light and hope, and liberty; and I thank God, that, if I am a sinner, yet I am a saved sinner!"

GOD hath set the day of prosperity and the day of adversity, the one over against the other-as the clouds are gathered, for rain, by the shining of the sun: and, if for a moment they are blown aside, we must expect their return.-Where, in our sky, should we look for clouds ?-where it is brightest: where our expectations are highest. Our sharpest sorrows arise out of our sweetest comforts. Rachel said, Give me children, or else I die: and in obtaining what she esteemed her highest comfort

O LORD! let me have ANY THING but thy frown: what she would have at any rate-was hidden and any thing, with thy smile !*

the cause of her sharpest grief. God gave her children; and, in bearing her second child, it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni-the son of my sorrow.

WHO is the most miserable man on earth? and whither shall we go to seek him? Not to the tavern! not to the theatre! not even to a brothel! -but to the church! That man who has sat Sabbath after Sabbath under the awakening and affecting calls of the gospel, and has hardened his heart against these calls-HE is the man whose condition is the most desperate of all others. Wo unto thee, Chorazin! wo unto thee, Bethsaida!-and thou, Capernaum, which are exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell.

It is by faith that we contemplate unseen things. GIVE every kind of knowledge its due attention To the eye of a clown, a planet appears but a twinkling star: but if he looked through a tele- and respect: but what science is to be compared to the knowledge of Christ crucified? Had a trascope, and were able to calculate, he would per- veller lost his way in some desert, where he had ceive that it was a great world, and would be astonished at its distance and magnitude. While wandered till he was fainting with hunger and the gay and the busy are moving on their little thirst, for what would he first ask?—for music?— mole-hills full of anxiety, faith thus reaches beyond paintings?-No!-he would ask for bread-for water! Any thing else offered him would be a mocking of his misery.

the world: it views death as at hand: it looks at

heaven, and catches a glimpse of its glory: it

looks at hell and sees the torments of the condemned it looks at judgment and realizes that awful day it looks at eternity, and says, Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

WHAT an oppressive burden is taken off a Christian's shoulders, by his privilege of leaving all consequences, while in the path of duty to God! He has done with "how shall I bear this trouble!"

How shall I remove this difficulty?"-" How shall I get through this deep water?"—but leaves

himself in the hands of God.

We may form some idea of the joys of heaven, by the innocent pleasures which God grants us on earth. Here is a fine situation, with wonderful prospects-every thing to delight the senses: yet all this we find in a world which is under a curse! what then may we not expect in a heavenly world, where God exercises all his power for our blessedness?

HOWEVER ill men may treat us, we should never give them a handle to say that we misbehaved our

selves. Were I to meet my most bitter adversary, ble danger. One of the most wicked men in my and know that he was come with the most mali- neighborhood was riding near a precipice, and cious intentions, I should endeavor to be so on fell over: his horse was killed, but he escaped my guard, that he could not lay his finger, with without injury: instead of thanking God for his truth, on any part of my conduct. deliverance, he refused to acknowledge the hand of God therein: but attributed his escape to chance. The same man was afterward riding on a very smooth road: his horse suddenly tripped and fell, and threw his rider over his head, and killed him on the spot, while the horse escaped unhurt.

THE motive determines the quality of actions. One man may do a penurious act, because he knows he shall be put to difficulties if he does not: another may do the same from mere avarice.The king of Edom offered up his son on the wall, and his abominable cruelty excited just indignation: but Abraham, having in intention offered up his son, is held forth to all generations for this act as the father of the faithful.

Ir is always a sign of poverty of mind, where men are ever aiming to appear great: for they, who are really great, never seem to know it.

WHAT the world calls the best company is such as a pious mechanic would not condescend to keep: he would rather say, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.

ONE way of reading the Bible with advantage is, to pay it great homage: so that, when we come to any part which we cannot connect with other passages, we must conclude that this arises from our ignorance, but that the seeming contrarieties are in themselves quite reconcilable.

YOUNG Christians on setting out in life, often mistake greatly in not sufficiently attributing events to the immediate providence of God. They are not reluctant, at the end, to acknowledge that their way has been directed: but they do not enough mark it as they go on. There is a habit of saying, "Such a thing may TURN UP," as if it depended on chance; whereas nothing will turn up, but what was ordered long before. One cause of this evil is, that the divinity of our day deals too much in common-place: certain fundamental truths are set forth and if a man professes these truths, too little account is made of the faith, dependance, and other graces of a Christian. When a man becomes a Christian he is written upon, as it were, 66 TO BE PROVIDED FOR !"--and he ought, therefore, to notice, as he goes on, how Providence does provide for him.

If a man is dead in sin, our attempting to correct his false notions is like laying a dead man straight, who before was lying crooked. The man is dead, and will remain so; though, before, he was lying crooked, and is now lying straight. It matters little what right notions we may have, while we till God awakens our hearts. are dead in sin; for we shall never act up to them,

To have too much forethought, is the part of a WRETCH; to have too little, is the part of a FOOL.

SELF-WILL is so ardent and active, that it will break a world to pieces, to make a stool to sit on.

character of God. A certain man sold a possession, WE are too little acquainted with the sacred and brought a certain part of the price. We should have thought this a generous act: but God saw that there wanted a right estimation of his chanished hereafter: but God sometimes breaks out, racter. Many sins are suffered to pass, to be puand strikes an offender dead in vindication of his own glory.

things, or they will become disgusting.
REMEMBER always to mix good sense with good

moment, but by the preparation of past moments. THINGS are not to be done by the effort of the

that is the person of whom you ought never to If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, speak.

IRRITABILITY urges us to take a step as much

MEN mistake in nothing so much, as when they too soon, as sloth does too late. resist their dispensation; for, while God shutteth up a man, there can be no opening. Resistance does but make the dispensation harder to be borne. Job says, He teareth himself in his anger: but shall the rock be removed because of thee! The man is, as it were, in a labyrinth: and the hand, which brought him in, must be the hand to conduct him

out.

WE require the same hand to protect us in apparent safety, as in the most imminent and palpa

WHEN We read the Bible we must always remember, that like the holy waters seen by Ezekiel,* it is in some places, up to the ankles; in others, up to the knees; in others, up to the loins; and in some a river too deep to be fathomed, and that cannot be passed over. There is light enough to guide the humble and teachable to heaven, and obscurity enough to confound the unbeliever.

Ezek. ch. xlvii.

TRUE religion as revealed in the Scriptures may be compared to a plum on the tree, covered with its bloom. Men gather the plum, and handle it, and turn and twist it about, till it is deprived of all its native bloom and beauty: the fairest hand would as much rob the plum of its bloom, as any other. Now all that little party-spirit, which so much prevails among men, and which leads them to say, I am of Paul and I of Apollos-is but handling the plum till it loses its bloom.

THERE are but two classes of the wise:-the men who serve God because they have found him: and the men who seek him, because they have found him not. All others may say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

PHILOSOPHY is a proud, sullen detecter of the poverty and misery of man. It may turn him from the world with a proud, sturdy contempt: but it cannot come forward, and say, "Here are restgrace-peace-strength-consolation !”

World; and the Book of Providence. Every occurrence is a leaf in one of these books: it does not become us to be negligent in the use of anv of them.

ELOQUENCE is vehement simplicty.

GOD is omniscent as well as omnipotent; and omniscience may see reason to withhold what omnipotence could bestow.

ATTEND to the presence of God: this will dignify a small congregation, and annihilate a large

one.

HAVING Some business to transact with a gentleman in the city, I called one day at his counting house: he begged I would call again, as I had so much more time to spare than he had, who was a man of business. "Án hour is nothing to you," said he "An hour nothing to a clergyman!" said I: "you seem little to understand the nature of our profession. One hour of a clergyman's time rightly employed, Sir, is worth more to him than all the gains of your merchandise."

WE hear much of a DECENT pride-a BECOMING pride-a NOBLE pride-a LAUDABLE pride! Can that be DECENT, of which we ought to be ashamed-Can that be BECOMING, of which God has set forth the deformity?-Can that be NOBLE, wnich God resists, and is determined to debase? If a man has a quarrelsome temper, let him -Can that be LAUDABLE, which God calls abo-alone. The world will soon find him employment. ninable. He will soon meet with some one stronger than himself, who will repay him better than you can. A man may fight duels all his life, if he is disposed to quarrel.

MANY things are spoken of, in the Scriptures, as good but there is not one thing emphatically called GOOD, which does not relate to Christ or his coming.

SAY the strongest things you can, with candor and kindness, to a man's face; and make the best excuse you can for him, with truth and justice, behind his back.

MANY people labor to make the narrow way wider. They may dig a path into the broad way; but the way to life must remain a narrow way to the end.

ALL extremes are error. The reverse of error is not truth, but error. Truth lies between these

extremes.

I HAVE no doubt, but that there are persons of every description, under every possible circumstance, in every lawful calling among Christians, who will go to heaven-that all the world may see, that neither their circumstances nor calling prevented their being among the number of the blessed.

GOD has given us four books:-the Book of Grace; the Book of Nature; the Book of the

ONE day I got off my horse to kill a rat, which I found on the road only half killed. I am shocked at the thoughtless cruelty of many people, yet I did a thing soon after, that has given me considerable uneasiness, and for which I reproach myself bitterly. As I was riding homeward, I saw a wagon standing at a door with three horses; the two foremost were eating their corn from bags at their noses; but I observed the third had dropt his on the ground, and could not stoop to get any food. However, I rode on, in absence, without assisting him. But when I had got nearly home, I remembered what I had observed in my absence of mind, and felt extremely hurt at my neglect: and would have ridden back had I not thought the wagoner might have come out of the house and relieved the horse. A man could not have had a better demand for getting off his horse, than for such an act of humanity. It is by absence of mind, that we omit many duties.

A WICKED man is a candidate for nothing but hell!-However he may live, if his conscience were awake, he would turn pale at this question: What shall I do in the end thereof?

THERE is a great defect in Gray's Elegy. You cannot read it without feeling a melancholy: there

is no sunshine-no hope after death: it shows the dark side only of mortality. But a man refined as he was, and speculating on the bankruptcy of human nature, if he brought not evangelical views into the estimate, COULD describe human nature only as HOPELESS and FORLORN: whereas what HE felt a subject of melancholy is with me included in the calculation. I know it MUST be so, and, according to my views, should be disappointed if it were not so-My kingdom, said our Lord, is not of this world.

REVELATION never staggers me. There may be a tertium quid, though we are not yet in possession of it, which would put an end to all our present doubts and questions. I was one day riding with a friend: we were discussing a subject, and I expressed myself surprised that such a measure was not adapted. "If I were to tell you one thing," said he, "it would make all clear." I gave him credit that there did exist something, which would entirely dispel my objections. Now if this be the case, in many instances, between man and man, is it an unreasonable conclusion, that all the unac

stop. He has not told us why he permitted the angels to fall-why he created Adam-why he suffered sin to enter into the world-why Christ came in the latter ages-when he will come to judgment-what will be the doom of the heathen nations-nor why our state throughout eternity was made to depend on such a moment as man's life: all these are secrets of his council. Where wast thou, when I laid the foundations of the earth? God urges it on us again and again, that sin HAS entered-and that we must flee from the wrath to come. Christ, in the days of his flesh, never gratified curiosity: he answered every inquiry according to the SPIRIT of the inquirer, not according to the letter of the inquiry: if any man came in humility for instruction, he always instructed; but, when any came to gratify a vain curiosity, he answered, as when one said, Lord, are there few that be saved?-STRIVE TO ENTER IN AT THE STRAIT GATE!-or, as when another inquired, Lord, and what shall this man do!— What is that to thee? FOLLOW THOU Me.

We are too ready to say in trouble, All these things are against me! but a Christian should say, "This or that may seem against me; but there is mercy for me: there is a Saviour: there is God's be more careful to enumerate what is FOR him, word: and there are his ordinances." He should

countable points, which we may observe in the providence and government of God, should be all perfection in the Divine mind? Take the growth of a seed-I cannot possibly say what first produces progress of growth in the grain. Take voluntary motion-I cannot possibly say where action than what is AGAINST him. He should look over begins and thought ends. The proportion between the list of his spiritual and temporal mercies, as a fly's mind and a man's is no adequate illustra-well as that of his sorrows; and remember, that tion of the state of man with respect to God; because there is some proportion between the minds or faculties of two finite creatures, but there can be none between finite man and the infinite God.

ONE little preacher will endeavor to prove, with a great deal of warmth, the truth of Calvinistic principles :-and another little preacher will clearly demonstrate the truth of the Arminian scheme. Good sense will go between them, and say, "There are certain things written on these subjects-Thus saith the Lord:"good sense will hesitate to push what is said to all its apparent conclusions, forIt is written again. Here ends all dogmatism with a wise man.

what things are AGAINST him are so on account of his sin. Our pilgrimage is but short:-let us make use of our helps and means. God has given us a guide, and a support to lean on: when the clouds gather, we have only to look to Jesus. We are not to expect the joys of heaven while on earth-let us be content that there is a highway for us to walk in, and a leader to conduct us in that way.

Ir is a Christian's business, as much as possible, consistently with his duty, to lessen his cares and occupations in the world. It is very common to hear Christians complain what a hinderance business is, while they are, perhaps, at the very time, too anxious to increase it! There is some fallacy, too, in the complaint: for, where there is a principle of grace, it will prevail even in a multitude of engagements. There is much difference between SEEKING busy situations, and BEING FOUND them.

A MOUSE that had lived all his life in a chest, says the fable, chanced one day to creep up to the edge, and, peeping out, exclaimed with wonder-in "I did not think the world was so large."

The first step to knowledge, is to know that we are ignorant: It is a great point to know our place: for want of this, a man in private life, instead of attending to the affairs in his "chest," is ever peeping out, and then he becomes a PHILOSOPHER! he must then know every thing, and presumptuously pry into the deep and secret councils of God -not considering that man is finite, and has no faculties to comprehend and judge of the great scheme of things. We can form no other idea of the dispensations of God, nor can have any knowledge of spiritual things, except what God has taught us in his word; and, where he stops, we must

WHAT We call "taking steps in life," are most serious occurrences;-especially if there be, in the motive, any mixture of ambition. Wherefore gaddest thou about to change thy way?

THE dispensation of grace to some, is little more than a continual combat with corruptions: so that, instead of advancing, a man seems to be but just able to preserve himself from sinking. A boat, with the tide full against it, does well if it can keep from driving back, and must have strong