nestly implore its continuance with thee; "be not high-minded, but fear;" take heed lest thou quench the Holy Spirit of God. Many hindrances must arise to check the growth of grace in thy soul, from the natural depravity of our hearts, and the numerous snares of our great adversary," who goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour;" but, oh! wait upon the Lord in persevering prayer; walk now by faith, rather than sight, looking unto Jesus, "the author and finisher of faith." Never forget the mercy-seat; free, full access is given to thee, to all; and "now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

Or art thou at variance with thy God, living in open rebellion to his authority and laws, one of the giddy multitude, who have given themselves up to the dazzling pleasures of an evil world-a world that must soon pass away? Then, truly thou art in a greater than Egyptian bondage, and the captive of a harder lord than Pharaoh; for thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the very bonds of iniquity, though thou knowest it not. Thou sayest, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace.' There can be no peace apart from friendship with God. Deceive not thyself with false hopes. Though now the sun of prosperity shines on thee, remember the days of darkness, for they may be many. The hour of death will come; sooner or later it must come; then all thou lovest will be snatched from thee; those visionary dreams of earthly pleasure will pass away, as the early dew when the sun ariseth, and thou wilt be alone; thy spirit, stung with the remorse of a guilty conscience, will pass alone into the presence of thy God. A God whose laws thou hast rejected, and whose love thou hast disregarded, will be thy judge. How canst thou stand in that great and terrible day of the Lord? Oh, flee from the wrath to come!

"Life is the hour that God hath given,

To escape from death, and fly to heaven; The day of grace; and mortals may Secure the blessings of the day.' Now, whilst in the land of the living, supplicate the favour of a holy God. In the grave there is no hope; no man "can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him the redemption of the soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever," Psa. xlix. 7, 8. July 31st, 1846.

:

H. C.

EFFICACY OF PRAYER AND THE
FAITHFULNESS OF GOD.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE SINNER'S FRIEND." "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Ask, and ye shall receive," JOHN xvi. 23, 24.

HERE is a positive promise of success to the suppliant who shall pray believingly, and not faint.

The honour of the word of Christ stands engaged for the fulfilment of the promise: "Ye shall receive."

The only condition enjoined is, Ask!

God is faithful to his Son; therefore, whatsoever shall be asked in his name will most assuredly be granted.

It is utterly impossible that any penitent sinner, or a humble believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, can ever ask in vain.

The following striking instance of the mercy and faithfulness of God, in answer to prayer, came under the writer's own personal knowledge:

The beloved partner of a believer in Christ became the subject of a dangerous illness; her life given up by her physician, who had announced to the anxious husband that the object of his tender regard would probably expire within a few minutes. At this awful, soul-trying extremity, it pleased God to remind him of the promise laid up for believers; and at the same moment a voice from above seemed to say, "Now is the time to make use of it." With a trembling heart the deeply-tried husband, with thrilling emotion, ejaculated, "Lord, for the honour of the word of thy beloved Son, (that whatsoever should be asked,) O grant me the life of my wife!"

The poor man could say no more; he sank back in his chair with a heavy sigh, the very breath of his soul, and humbly awaited the answer of the Lord.

The angel of death, with his dart upwards poised, appeared ready to strike the fatal blow; but suddenly a voice from heaven, a voice of love and mercy, seemed to exclaim, "Stop! A prayer has come to the throne of grace in the name of my beloved Son; it must be answered." Instantly the hand of death was stayed; the fatal dart was turned aside; and, contrary to every expectation, the beloved wife, who had taken leave of all she held dear on earth, was restored to her affectionate husband, to unite with him many years, until the present day, in praise and thanksgiving to that gracious God whose ear is never heavy, nor his arm shortened that he

BEWARE of it! It hardens and corrupts the heart, when of a worldly sort; unless the Author of all is gratefully acknowledged, and the obligation recognised habitually to devote all to him. Many a man has passed through the deep waters of affliction, and come forth a wiser and better man; few men ever enjoyed great worldly prosperity without becoming proud, selfsufficient, and worldly. Indeed, the very man whose graces have shone like gold when stript of all earthly goods, has found those graces dimmed by the flood-tide of fortune.

The cry of "hard times!" which was wont to

salute our ears on every side, is hardly heard in all our borders. The agricultural, commercial, mechanical, and manufacturing interests of the country, were, as a whole, never more prosperous. The busy world was never busier. Thank God for it all,-but beware! A pond without an outlet will soon stagnate and spread disease and death. If real or supposed wealth is suffered to accumulate unduly in Christian hands, and the heart is allowed to rest on uncertain riches, it will be the occasion of ruin; or, if it is squandered on unworthy objects, God will bring his stewards to a terrible account. If we would not provoke a speedy succession of judgments to follow these mercies of a bountiful Providence, there must be a prompt and cheerful distribution of a liberal portion of our possessions in works of charity. Now is the time for urging forward the various schemes for evangelizing our country and the world. Let them all be abundantly sustained. And above all, let those who have an interest in the throne of grace, plead for a baptism of the Holy Spirit from on high, that while temporal blessings abound, spiritual mercies may more richly abound in all our borders, and that our prosperity be not the occasion of bitter sorrow.

When this came to hand, things were as they are here described. How changed! How far were recent convulsions the punishment of abused prosperity?-ED.

BALDNESS.

"On all their heads shall be baldness," ISA. XV. 2. To cut off the hair of the head and the beard was expressive of great grief. It is well known that the Orientals regard the beard with great sacredness and veneration, and they usually dress it with great care. Great grief was usually expressed by striking external acts. Hence they lifted up their voice in wailing; they hired persons to howl over the dead; they rent their garments; and for the same reason, in times of great calamity or grief, they cut off the hair and even the beard. Herodotus (xi. 36) speaks of it as a custom among all nations, except the Egyptians, to cut off the hair as a token of mourning. So also Homer says that, on the death of Patroclus, they cut off the hair, as expressive of grief, (Iliad xxiii. 46, 47,)

"Next these a melancholy band appear; Amidst lay dead Patroclus on a bier;

O'er all the corse their scattered locks they threw." Pupe.

The principle on which this is done is, that thereby they are deprived of the most beautiful ornament of the body-an idea which lies at the foundation of mourning in all countries and ages. The loss of the beard also was the highest calamity, and would be expressive of the deepest grief. "It is," says D'Arvieux, who has devoted

He

a chapter to the exposition of the sentiment of the Arabs in regard to the beard, "a greater mark of infamy in Arabia to cut off a man's beard, than it is with us to whip a fellow at the cart's tail, or to burn him in the hand. Many people would rather die than incur such a punishment. I saw an Arab who had received a musket-shot in the jaw, and who was determined rather to perish than to allow the surgeon to cut off his beard to dress his wound. His resolution was at length overcome, but not until the wound was beginning to gangrene. never allowed himself to be seen as long as his beard was off; and when at last he got abroad, he went always with his face covered with a black veil, that he might not be seen without a beard; and this he did till his beard had grown again to a considerable length." Burckhardt also remarks that the Arabs who, from any cause, had the misfortune to lose their beard, invariably conceal themselves from view until their beards are grown again. Compare Isa. iii. 24; xxiii. 12; Jer. xli. 5; Micah i. 16; in all of which places cutting off the hair is mentioned as a token of mourning. The idea is, that the Moabites would be greatly afflicted. Jeremiah has stated the same thing of Moab, chap. xlviii. 37: "For every head shall be bald, and every beard be clipped:

And upon all hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth."

HOWE'S REASONS FOR NONCON-
FORMITY.

DR. WILKINS, afterwards Bishop of Chester, in a conversation with Mr. Howe, expressed disappointment that the Act of Uniformity had been followed by such consequences; intimating especial surprise that Howe himself, so remarkable for the latitude of his opinions on ecclesiastical matters, should have scrupled to conform,-desiring to know his reasons. Howe replied, that they had not time then to go into the whole subject, though he would unreservedly do so at a convenient opportunity; "but one thing he could tell him with assurance, that that latitude of his, which Dr. Wilkins was pleased to take notice of, was so far from inducing him to conformity, that it was the very thing that made him and kept him a Nonconformist." The doctor then asked him, whether it was the discipline of the church to which he chiefly objected? To which Howe replied, "that he could not by any means be fond of a church that in reality had no discipline at all; and that he thought that a very considerable objection against the Establishment." Wilkins then pressed him to mention some of his principal objections. On this Howe said, "that he could not recognise, in the present constitution, those noble and generous principles of communion which, he thought, must sooner or later characterise every church of Christ; that, consequently, when that flourishing state of religion should arrive, which, he thought, he had sufficient warrant from the word of God to expect, a constitution which rested on such an exclusive basis must fall; that, believing this to be the case, he was no more willing to exercise his ministry under such a system, than he would be to dwell in a house built on an insecure foundation."-From Urwick's Life of Howe.

DYING EXPERIENCE.

WE must not lay too much stress upon what is called " dying experience." The last hours of some men-eminent in piety and usefulness, as they were in talents and labours through lifehave been overcast with gloom that prevented bystanders from recognising the glories of their departure. But the orb setting behind a bank of dense black clouds, is himself far beyond their reach. They affect not his brightness, but merely our view of it. While to us he seems to sink in darkness that extinguishes his beams, he is really rising in other skies, and gladdening the sight of other observers; and clothed in splendours, as if the Almighty had afresh, or for the first time, robed him in the reflection of his own divine effulgence. "We walk by faith, not by sight;" and when a man's life has testified that his heart is right with Christ, we know that his safety for glorification is in Christ's hands, though his enemies be in malice loading him with anathemas, or he, by morbid influence from what is animal, or what is mental, be writing volumes of bitter things against himself at the crisis of his leaving the body. Still a cloudless sunset is pleasant to witness, though, in its effects on nature, quite secondary to a cloudless day.-Dr. Urwick.

"ABBA, FATHER!"

THIS little word, "Father!" conceived effectually in the heart, passeth all the eloquence of Demosthenes, Cicero, and of the most eloquent This rhetoricians that ever were in the world. matter is not expressed with words, but with groanings; which groanings cannot be uttered with any words of eloquence, for no tongue can express them.-Luther.

EFFICACY OF PRAYER.

IT is recorded of one of the Reformers, that, when he had acquitted himself in a public disputation with great credit to his Master's cause, a friend begged to see the notes which he had been observed to write, supposing that he had taken down the arguments of his opponents, and sketched the substance of his own reply. Greatly was he surprised to find that his notes consisted simply of these ejaculatory petitions: "More light, Lord!-more light-more light!" And how fully was the true spirit of prayer compressed and illustrated in these short aspirations! Could they fail of success? "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God."-Rev. C. Bridges.

VALUE OF TIME.

"TIME is the cradle of hope, but the grave of delusion. Time is the stern corrector of fools, but the salutary counsellor of the wise. Wisdom walks before it, Opportunity with it, and Repentance behind it. He that has made Time his friend, will have little to fear from his enemies; but he that has made Time his enemy, will have little to hope from his friends." Hear this, ye young! it is high time even for you to awake; for the hours of youthful hope and spirits bear but a small proportion in "memory's backward view" to the whole of life. But be assured that they do bear to it a most important proportion, if, even now, you become formed to love and serve your God. Oh! happy-happy he, "whose yesterdays look backward with a smile!" his to-morrow brightens with a “joy unspeakable and full of glory!"—J. Bullar.

IMPORTANCE OF A FIRM RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

THIS testimony of a man of pre-eminent science deserves to be often and deeply pondered by those to whom it more especially applies. It is neither the lamentation of a recluse, nor the splenetic effusion of a mortified man. Sir Humphry Davy had been as acceptable in the world of fashion as he had been successful in the pursuits of philosophy; yet in his last days he wrote thus: "I envy no qualities of the mind or intellect in others, nor genius, power, wit, or fancy; but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and, I believe, most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing: for it makes life a discipline of goodness; creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish; and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life in death, and from corruption and decay calls out beauty and duration; makes an instrument of torture and of shame

the ladder of ascent to Paradise; and, far above all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blessed, the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the sceptic only view gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair."

SELF-REFLECTION.

OUR mind, which is naturally like our eye, is in this too like, i. e., that it can see everything but itself. It doth not, by using it, preserve its peculiar self-reflecting power; is blind towards itself beyond what naturally belongs to it. An object may be too near our bodily eye to be seen. Our mind is herein too bodily, too much carnalized, sunk too deep into flesh. It is the next thing to itself; and here, not by its primitive nature, (by which, as an intellectual sun, it could revert its beams and turn them inward upon itself,) but by depravation, it for the most part sees nothing; or doth worse, thinks itself to see what is not to be seen, certain imaginary excellencies, which make the man his own idol; an object of a sort of adoration to himself, and of scorn and derision, most probably, to every one else.-Howe.

THE LANGUAGE OF CANAAN. "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man ;" and, in a peculiar sense, it is true of those who, in the apostle's sense, have been made to drink into "one spirit." I remember, fifty years ago, when I was a schoolboy, my dear father brought home with him a stranger, with whom he sat and conversed freely about the things of God-things I then knew very little of; however, I listened to their conversation, found they agreed very well, and seemed hugely pleased with each other. When he was gone, my mother asked my father who the other was? from whence he came? and whether he had any business with him? and, finding he had none, how he became acquainted with him? I shall never forget his answer: "He spoke the language of Canaan." Dear, thought I, what is that? I did not understand it then, but have thought of it a hundred times since. Souls bound for the heavenly Canaan, as they receive a new nature and a new heart, so by degrees they acquire a new language, and ere long shall learn a new song.-J. Williams' Diary.

IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT DIRECTION OF THOUGHT.

ALL will think, some more and some less, for mind must think; and if we refuse to introduce thought into the real world which God has made, it will soar into the fictitious world of its own creation. If we will not guide it into the truth, it will of necessity wander into the regions of error. Live and act it must; for it received an impetus at its birth which will meditate and revolve coeval with eternity. In the soul we have a power endowed with " perpetual motion;" for we have a principle of action which death cannot touch, and eternity cannot tire! How much, then, depends upon putting it into the right train!! and to do this is the work of education.-Rev. B. Parsons.

PRESS ON.

THE mystery of Napoleon's career was this

under all difficulties and discouragements, to

66

press on." It solves the problems of all heroes; it is the rule by which to judge rightly of all wonderful success, and triumphal marches to fortune and success. It should be the motto of all, high and low, fortunate and unfortunate, so called: "Press on," never despair; however dark the way, however great the difficulty, or repeated the failure," press on." If fortune has played false with thee to-day, do thou play true for this to-morrow. Let the foolishness of yesterday make thee wise to-day. If thy affections have been poured out like water in the desert, do not sit down and perish of this, but " press on"-a beautiful oasis is before thee, and thou mayst reach it if thou wilt. If another has been false to thee, do not increase the evil by being false to thyself. Do not say the world has lost its poetry and beauty: it is not so; and even if it be so, make thine own poetry and beauty by a true, brave, and, above all, a religious life.

The first letters of the eight answers form the answer to "the whole."

THE WRATH TO COME. AN irreligious young man heard Mr. Whitefield without interest, until the preacher suddenly paused, then burst into a flood of tears, lifted up his hands and eyes, and exclaimed, “Oh, my hearers! the wrath to come!" "These words," said the young man, "sunk deep into my heart, like lead in the waters. I wept, and, when the sermon was ended, retired alone. For days and weeks I could think of little else. Those awful words would follow me wherever I went- The wrath to come! the wrath to come!" " The result was, that the young man soon after made a public profession of religion, and became an eminent preacher.

POWER OF GENTLENESS.

THE Hingam Gazette gives the following account of a circumstance which shows the wonderful power of kindness:

"There is a little girl, of six years of age, a daughter of Mr. David Thomas, who lives on the borders of a pond which supplies water for the furnace works at Weare river, who has a most wonderful control over a class of animals hitherto thought to be untameable. For a year or two past the little girl has been in the habit of playing about the pond and throwing crumbs into the water for the fishes. By degrees these timid creatures have become so tame as to come at her call, follow her about the pond, and eat from her hand. A gentleman went down there a few days since with his daughter, to see the little creatures and their mistress. At first the fishes were deceived, and came up to the surface of the water as the gentleman's daughter approached; but in a moment they discovered their mistake, and whisked away from the stranger in high dudgeon.

We

"Their own mistress then came up and called, and they crowded up, clustering about her hands, to receive the crumbs. She has, besides, a turtle or tortoise, which has been maimed in the leg. This creature lives in the pond, and seems to be entirely under the control of the little girl, obeying her voice, and feeding from her hand. have just returned from a visit to the pond, and have seen the little bright-eyed girl sporting with her obedient swarms of pickerel, pout, and shiners, patting them on the head, stroking their sides, and letting them slip through her hands. She has her favourites among them. A pout which has been marked on the head in some way, and the turtle we spoke of, are remarkably intelligent. A more beautiful instance of the influence of kindness and gentleness can hardly be found."

FIFTEEN MINUTES TO GO AND PRAY. LITTLE Julia was a pious girl, and only eight years of age. One morning she came and asked her mother if she might not have fifteen minutes to pray? This request was granted; but she wanted fifteen minutes more when she had done-these were allowed her. She came a third time, and asked if she might pray as long as she wanted? It was asked, why she wanted to pray so much more this morning than others? Her reply was: "My little brother does not love the Saviour; I want to pray for him!" Her request was then granted. She prayed for a long time for her brother; and Jesus Christ, who is ever ready to hear little children when they pray, heard her prayer. Her brother was brought to repent of his sins, and pray to God for pardon.

Oh! how glad was Julia when she found her What brother had begun to love the Saviour!

a blessed thing it would be if every little brother and sister would spend fifteen minutes in praying that their dear little brothers and sisters, and friends, and fathers and mothers, might be brought to love the Saviour! Oh, set apart "fifteen minutes to go and pray !"

A SHORT SERMON FOR PARENTS. IT is said that when the mother of Washington was asked, how she had formed the character of her son? she replied, that she had endeavoured

early to teach him three things-obedience, diligence, and truth. No better advice can be given to any parent.

Teach your child to obey. Let it be the first lesson. You can hardly begin too soon. One of the most successful parents that I have known said, that this point was usually settled between him and his children before they were three months old. But it requires constant care to keep up the habit of obedience; and especially to do it in such a way as not to break down the strength of a child's character.

Teach your child to be diligent. The habit of being always employed is a great safeguard through life, as well as essential to the culture of almost every virtue. Nothing can be more foolish than the idea which some parents have, that it is not respectable to set their children to work. Play is a good thing. Innocent recreation is an employment, and a child may learn to be diligent in that as well as in other things; but let him learn early to be useful.

As to truth, it is the one essential thing. Let everything else be sacrificed rather than that. Without it, what dependence can you place on your child? And be sure to do nothing yourself which may countenance any species of prevarication or falsehood. Yet how many parents do teach their children the first lessons of deception!

SCENE IN AN ICELAND CHURCH. THE scene in an Iceland church on a Sunday, is said by a traveller to be of a singular and interesting kind. The little edifice, constructed of wood and turf, is situated, perhaps, amid the rugged ruins of a stream of lava, or beneath the mountains which are covered with never-melting snows, in a spot where the mind almost sinks under the silence and desolation of surrounding nature. Here the Icelanders assemble to perform the duties of religion. A group of male and female peasants may be seen gathering about the church, waiting the arrival of their pastor, all habited in their best attire, after the manner of the country; their children with them, and the horses which brought them from their respective homes grazing quietly around the little assembly. The arrival of a new comer is welcomed by every one by the kiss of salutation; and the pleasures of social intercourse, so rarely enjoyed by the Icelanders, are happily connected with the occasion which summons them to the

discharge of their religious duties. The priest makes his appearance among them as a friend; he salutes them individually, each member of his flock, and stoops down to give his almost parental kiss to the little ones who are to grow up under his pastoral charge. These offices of kindness performed, they all go together to the house of prayer.

HOW TO MAKE A CHURCH MISERLY. KEEP out all appeals-set your face against all contributions-complain of the extravagance of missionaries-keep away from the monthly prayer-meeting, lest you should be called upon to give something for the support of missions ;and the heart of such a church will soon become as unfeeling as a rock. It is a fact worthy of being remembered, that those churches who give the most frequently, not only give the most in amount, but are the most benevolent-they love to give.