t; who has learned from that sight, that it would n nothing if he gained the whole world and lost his

remember, in estimating this foolish bargain, that n sell their souls for what cannot long, in the nature , continue to give them any satisfaction; for wealth er, which after the first rapture of enjoyment they even know they possess; which confers pleasure only hort time they are enhanced by novelty. Nothing mon, than to see men wearied and disappointed by they have received, by the inadequate value given oul. All men love good principles, just thoughts, lings, wise resolutions, steady perseverance, power sent impressions, the blessed fruit of the soul and of t. A man may foolishly and rashly imagine he may ething better by the exchange, but no man ever I that his being was not ennobled and dignified by tributes-that they were not eminent parts of the character, that they were not pleas for salvation,

No

t imagine that you can sell your soul partially, that bargain to go a certain length in evil doing, and no -it is not impossible, but it is improbable. being ought to expose his eternal salvation to so a risk; if you begin, you answer the sneers of the nd the contempt of the world, by advancing still and you justify the contract you have made by ostenwickedness. Many men who begin with slight innts of the law of conscience are provoked to go or become callous, and careless, and ignorant, whether advancing or not. If you keep your soul, you must wholly and entirely. I do not wish to lessen in your real difficulty. It must be kept with diligence, with

uncompromising integrity; it must be kept with unyielding courage. It is no idle possession, it is no office of recumbency and ease, but you know that God sees it, and that Christ rewards it; that no labour has such a recompense, no toil such a reward, no race such a goal, no other exertions which Omniscience witnesses, no other service which Omnipotence repays.

ON ANXIETY IN WORLDLY MATTERS.

[SYDNEY SMITH.]

No disposition has been more powerfully or more successfully satirised than the sanguine temperament of some men, which prevents them from ever learning a lesson of caution and prudence; men who are never daunted by disappointment, nor delayed by defeat; who trust implicitly in a fortune which has so often deceived them, and believe in the continuation of a success which has met with so many interruptions: but, bad as this is, it is infinitely better than the opposite extreme. The man who cannot be taught to despair, is better than the man who cannot be taught to hope, whom no success can ever inspire with confidence, no blessing ever teach to enjoy, who is dark in the blaze of noon, dead in the fulness and freshness of life, dwelt in by bad tormenting spirits, who dry up the sources. of joy, and use all the activity of an immortal soul to make him more wretched than the beasts that perish.

To show so deep an anxiety about the affairs of this world, is hardly consistent with the feelings and opinions of those who consider it as a passage to a better. There are men whom this may become, in whom it is consistency; but not you, not the zealous disciples of Christ, not men in whose hearts are deeply rooted the promises of the gospel. If you

u shall live again, and do not feel it, then I can that intensity of hope and fear which you exerworldly objects; but if you are touched by the God, if you are broad awake, if the scales have n your eyes, if you see the redeeming Cross, and Man suffering upon it, what have you to do with iserable trepidation for the things of this world? you contrive to make them so large? what means ke to render them so important? Not that I reenthusiasm or fanaticism, but I say, that an enthuivious of this world is much more explicable, and pre consistent, in a candidate for immortal life, than velling care for all the trifles of the world, that abof all its evils, that immense and overweening att to all its goods, that real and practical disavowal 3 providence, which characterises the lives of many, of many very sincere Christians.

pleasant sight is, to see a man who neither thinks the of too much nor of too little consequence; who thinks ortant enough for care, not for perturbation; for pre1, not for anxiety. The man who so hopes, that he presumptuous, so fears, that he is not pusillanimous, eves in the superintending providence of God, that he s no human efforts, and then only looks to God, when s honestly and strenuously exerted all the faculties that as given him.

in the knowledge of God! We believe that he is; eve that he alone can satisfy us, alone can give us e are told that we must pray to him, we are assured hears prayer; and thus, amidst ignorance, and perand much misgiving, we utter those words, or we e those thoughts of longing desire, in which he who the heart recognises the mind prompted by his and assigns to them, in his unspeakable mercy, that 5, that earnest and prevailing power, which, in themnd to us, they as yet had not.

egrees, endeavour gives courage, and experience hope. Then we scarcely dared to expect it, an answer came. we were doubting whether any one heard, behold, we e petitions which we desired of him. God waited a maturity of faith and of confidence; but, desiring è should be saved, desiring (in other words) that we acquaint ourselves with him, and be at peace, he on our way, he anticipated our words, he interpreted cely articulate cry; and thus strengthened our feebled enlightened our darkness, and made us know that he is not far from any one of us; that whosoever seeks d him.

it is-by a process of which we need not further he steps-that the faith of the understanding passes Faith of the heart, and he who once (to use the lanof the patriarch) had only heard of God by the hearing ear, is enabled to say, "But now mine eye seeth thee." hen once that knowledge which comes by love is in the heart, it is of its very nature to live and grow It is only the want of that knowledge which keeps an from intercourse with God. Where it exists, a ould exchange it for nothing else. There is in that edge which is acquaintance with God-that knowledge was described, in the case of one of his earliest ser

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