gether with some recent revivals, were designed to rebuke our unbelief, and to encourage in us the hope of more copious blessings. This is the manner of God with his people, as may be seen in many parts of Scripture. Thus he said to the Jewish Church, "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Thus, too, when by examining the prophecies of Jeremiah, Daniel, then a captive in Babylon, learned that God had purposes of mercy to his people, and was about to deliver them, he was greatly encouraged, and "set his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes."

In like manner, we live in a time when there is much to deplore, and yet much to hope for. The very dispensation under which we live, is by inspired men called "the ministration of the Spirit.' Under it the church may well pray in hope for blessed effusions of the Holy Ghost, who is by Christ himself called "the promise of the Father." Many large prophecies concerning the latter day glory are now fulfilling, and others yet more ample must soon be fulfilled. After a long period of coldness, a renewed warmth of love and zeal and activity has been granted to some.

We

hope it will soon be extended to many. For God has said, "I will assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted." It was specially to the Gentile Church that God said, " Thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee." In view of these things we now address you.

You will not misunderstand us as exhorting you to do anything by which a spirit of fanaticism should spread among us. Nothing is further from our wishes. A wild enthusiasm, just so far as it prevails, will mar or ruin the interests of vital piety. It begets the very worst state of things. It finally induces scepticism, laxity of morals, a forsaking of the house of God, and general irreligion. We therefore hope that you will do and seek nothing inconsistent with the sobriety of the Gospel, the decorum of public worship, and the gravity and gen

tleness which the word of God everywhere enjoins. We seek to promote, not confusion, but order; not blind and bitter, but wise and benevolent zeal. A pure revival will always be marked by "the wisdom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. If the King, most Mighty, shallride prosperously " in the earth,

it will be "because of truth and meekness and righteousness."

Having thus guarded against misconstruction, we beseech you, brethren, to remember that a state of indifference to spiritual things is a great offence in the sight of God. It is, indeed, the very core of depravity. Not to be greatly affected by Divine things may be consistent with a decent profession of religion in a low state of the church; but it is a great sin against God. How terrible are the rebukes of the Almighty to the lukewarm! He says he "will spew" them out. He says, "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion." All persons who promote this state of things in the church, are very offensive to God. He says: "Woe unto the women (certain prophetesses) that sow pillows to all armholes." Deplorable indeed is the state of any people, whose watchmen cry peace, peace, when there is no peace. Deadness, negligence, earthly-mindedness, and vanity in ministers, elders, deacons, or private Christians, are extremely abominable to God. A supine carelessness, and a vain, carnal, worldly spirit in ministers or people, is the worst madness and distraction in the sight of God. Sound, sober, discretion is always to be sought, but worldly policy is the bane of godliness. Carnal prudence is the plague of any church into which it gains admission. When there is none that "stirreth himself up to take hold of God," he hides his face and consumes us because of our iniquities. Proper means are therefore to be used, and in a proper spirit too; especially,

Prayer. How full are the Scriptures on this point! "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee; and thou shalt glorify me." "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." It is as true now as in the days of Elijah, or of James, that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man

availeth much." "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." Here "the Holy Spirit," the very blessing which we need in all our bounds, to enlighten, renew, sanctify, and comfort, is sweetly and assuredly promised to them that ask. Let us humbly, fervently, importunately, and in full assurance of faith, cry to God for so great a mercy. Yea, let us all thus pray. The Apostles devolved the actual distribution of alms on deacons chosen for the purpose, but they no more thought of giving up prayer than preaching. Indeed, the very reason they assign for wishing to be relieved from serving tables is that they may "give themselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." If any man ceases to pray fervently, he ought to lay aside all other functions in the Church of God, for he is wholly unfit for any of them. We do not deem it for edification to designate any particular days or times when special prayer shall be made, but we beseech you in your ejaculations, in your closets, in your families, in your social meetings, and in your large assemblies, to make unceasing prayer to God for seasons of merciful visitation. Should any times of special prayer, in addition to those already agreed upon, be deemed proper, you will appoint them yourselves. But we entreat you not to permit anything to prevent your daily and earnest cries to God for mercy and salvation to descend on all our churches. "Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." To prayer it is proper to add,

Fasting. When our Lord was yet with us, he said, that when he should be taken away, his disciples should fast. Pious men in every age have united fasting with prayer in times of distress, even if speedy deliverance was hoped for. So did Daniel in the case already cited. So did Ezra and all the Jews at the river Ahava, on their return from Babylon, and just before the great revival of God's work among them. Like prayer, fasting has been a part of every system of religion known among men. Some, indeed, even in Christian countries, have carried it to the length of superstition, and have thereby impaired their health. Others, who pretend to fast, only exchange one kind of sumptuous eating for another, and thus

mock God. We commend not, but rather reprove, all such practices. Yet we fear that some among us, seldom, if ever, fast at all. We trust this matter will be inquired into, and if there has been a departure from Divine teachings, there will be a speedy return to this scriptural duty. The nature of an acceptable fast, and the blessings attending it, are clearly stated in the Scripture, and especially in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. To prayer and fasting add,

Almsgiving."The poor ye have always with you, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good." If they need not shelter, they may need fuel, or food, or clothing, or medicine. If they have all these, they or their children may need instruction, warning, or encouragement. If there be no poor near you, think of those who are perishing elsewhere, if not in a famine of bread, yet in a famine of the Word of God, whether written or preached. Help them. Be both liberal and systematic in your charities. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." It was when the prayers of Cornelius were united with his alms that they came up for a memorial before God. Separate not prayer and fasting from almsgiving. God has joined them together. One benefit of fasting is, that it affords or increases the means of giving to those who are more needy than ourselves. Beware of covetousness. Beware of the spirit of hoarding. Many, in our day, think they do well if they give even one-tenth of their increase. But the ancient Jewish Church gave far more than that. The Gospel settles nothing as to the proportion to be given; but it says: "As ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also." The motives it urges are of the highest kind. Every believer must feel their force. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich." Surely with superior privileges, Christians should have a higher standard of liberality, than those who lived under a darker dispensation. Yet even to the Jewish Church, God said: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house; and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and

THE LOSS OF THE SOUL.

IT is irrecoverable. It cannot be repaired in the cycles of eternity. If I lose health, I may recover it; if riches, I may retrieve them; but if I lose my soul, the loss is irreparable. No gunbeam shall penetrate the abyss, to guide the lost soul back to happiness; no rainbow shall bespan the great gulf, an arch of transit to the ekies. There will be no opening of those prison doors for ever.

It is also an irreparable loss. There can be no compensation adequate to its magnitude and value. If one lose the sense of sight, an equivalent is frequently realized in the increased sensibility of the ear; or if health forsake us, friends and books may diminish, by their presence, the evils of the catastrophe; or if the riches we have accumulated in the course of years, take to themselves wings and fly away, our industry may retrieve the ruin, and our latter days may become more prosperous than the first.

There is no earthly loss for which there is not, in some degree, compensation. But there is and can be none in the whole range of infinity, or in the cycles of eternity itself, to compensate for the loss of an immortal soul. Its ruin is beyond the reach of equivalent or recovery. Its fall is for ever; misery must and will be its unmingled element, and fallen spirits its only company, and a perpetual and unanswered miserere its only cry. The message addressed to it now will be addressed to it no more. The echoes of its departed accents will alone endure, and fill the vacant conscience with unutterable remorse; and the recollection of misused mercies, and neglected opportunities, and rejected overtures, will occasion agony, of which the fire that is never quenched, and the worm that never dies, are but the faint types and symbols.

A lost soul is a thing so awful, so peculiar, that nothing in the annals of the universe can parallel it. The fall of Satan is scarcely less calamitous. The curse must cleave to it for ever, corroding and wasting, and yet never utterly destroying it. Eternal existence will serve as the pedestal on which it is sustained amidst everlasting woe; and life, so ardently desired on earth, will be deprecated as the sorest judgment.

THEIR LIGHT DID NOT SHINE.

"A professor of religion, say you? But I have known her these two years, and she never once mentioned the subject in my presence." So said a lady who was herself a professor. It brought to mind the words of Jesus to his disciples"Let your light shine." Here were two professed followers of Christ, neighbours for two years, and conversing often with each other, without either discovering that the other was a professed Christian. And what was the reason? Their light did not shine. Instead of putting it upon a candlestick, it had been hid under a bushel. How many pleasant and profitable hours would those two years have afforded, had these individuals spoken often to each other of God's mercies! How much more brightly would have glowed the flame of Christian love in their hearts! How much more strength might they have acquired to resist the adversary! Their light did not shine. What opportunities for doing good passed away in those two years! How many happy influences might they have exerted upon those around them which were not improved! What an opportunity was there for the powers of darkness to work! many tares the enemy must have sowed during that long night of two years!

How

Their light did not shine. He who purchased them with his own precious blood commanded them to let it shine. It was a duty they owed to Him, their Saviour and Redeemer, to let it shine. It was a duty, for the neglect of which they will have to give an account in the day of judgment. In contact with one another for two whole years, and not know that each other were professors of religion ! How little did they feel for the temporal and eternal welfare of each other's souls.

THE following account of a leper, from the pen of Mr. Counter, a late traveller in the East, will afford our readers a pretty correct notion of the appearance of the sufferers by that strange disease:

"One evening, while strolling along the seashore, I saw such an extraordinary object before me, that I could not take my eyes off of it. It was a man, whose clothing, like that of all the lower orders of India, was a piece of cloth, wrapped around the body, from the waist downward. His skin was perfectly white, and seemed glazed, as if seared with a hot iron. His head was uncovered, and his hair, which was precisely the same colour as the skin, hung

He

down in long strips upon his lean and withered shoulders. His eyes, with the exception of the balls, were a dull, murky red, and he kept them fixed on the ground, as if it were painful to him to look up, which I found to be the case. walked slowly and feebly, and he was so frightfully thin that he seemed to stand before me a living skeleton. I moved towards him, but he walked farther from me, beseeching me to give the smallest trifle to a miserable man-an outcast from his home and friends. He told me not to come near to a polluted creature, for whom no one felt pity. He told me he had, during many years, suffered dreadfully from the leprosy, and though he was now cured, the

corpse-like whiteness of his skin gave unmistakable evidence that he had once been a leper."

THE INDIAN PREACHER.
"Thou shalt find it after many days."

IN former times one of the preachers of the Mohegan Indians, situated on the Thames, between Norwich and New London, America, was preaching on the language of Solomon, "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days," Eccles. xi. 1. To illustrate his subject, and enforce the duty of benevolence, he related a circumstance connected with his early days, as follows:-A certain man was going from Norwich to New London with a loaded team; on attempting to ascend the hill

where Indian lives, he found his team could not draw his load; he came to Indian and got him to help him up with his oxen. After he had got up, he asked Indian what there was to pay. Indian told him to do as much for somebody else. Some time afterwards, Indian wanted a canoe: he went up Shetucket river, found a tree, and made him one. When he got it done, he could not get it to the river. Accordingly, he went to a man, and offered him all the money he had, if he would go and draw it to the river for him. The man said he would go. After getting to the river, Indian offered to pay him. "No," said the man, "don't you recollect so long ago helping a man up the hill by your house?" "Yes." "Well, I am the man; there, take your canoe and go home." So I find it after many days.

THE REV. ROWLAND HILL ON THE

EFFECTS OF DRUNKENNESS.

IF you wish to be always thirsty, be a drunkard; for the oftener and more you drink, the oftener and more thirsty you will be.

If you seek to prevent your friends raising you in the world, be a drunkard; for that will defeat all their efforts.

If you would effectually counteract your own attempts to do well, be a drunkard, and you will not be disappointed.

If you wish to repel the endeavours of the whole human race to raise you to character, credit, and prosperity, be a drunkard, and you will most assuredly triumph.

If you are determined to be poor, be a drunkard, and you will soon be ragged and pennyless.

If you would wish to starve your family, be a drunkard; for that will consume the means of their support.

If you would be imposed on by knaves, be a drunkard; for that will make their task easy.

If you would wish to be robbed, be a drunkard, which will enable the thief to do it with more safety.

If you would wish to blunt your senses, be a drunkard, and you will soon be more stupid than an ass.

If would become a fool, be a drunkard, you and you will soon lose your understanding.

If you wish to unfit yourself for rational intercourse, be a drunkard; for that will render you wholly unfit for it.

If you are resolved to kill yourself, be a drunkard, that being a sure mode of destruction.

If you would expose both your folly and your secrets, be a drunkard, and they will soon run out as the liquor runs in.

If you think you are too strong, be a drunkard, and you will soon be subdued by so powerful an enemy.

If you would get rid of your money without knowing how, be a drunkard, and it will vanish insensibly.

If you would have no resource when past labour but a workhouse, be a drunkard, and you will be unable to provide any.

If you are determined to expel all comfort from your house, be a drunkard, and you will soon do it effectually.

If you would be always under strong suspicion, be a drunkard; for, little as you think it, all agree that those who steal from themselves and families will rob others.

If you would be reduced to the necessity of shunning your creditors, be a drunkard, and you will soon have reason to prefer the bypaths to the public streets.

If you would be a dead weight on the community and "cumber the ground," be a drunkard; for that will render you useless, helpless, burdensome, and expensive.

If you would be a nuisance, be a drunkard; for the approach of a drunkard is like that of a dunghill.

If you would be hated by your family and friends, be a drunkard, and you will soon be more than disagreeable.

If you would be a pest to society, be a drunkard, and you will be avoided as infectious.

If you do not wish to have your faults reformed, continue to be a drunkard, and you will not care for good advice.

If you would smash windows, break the peace, get your bones broken, tumble under carts and horses, and be locked up in watchhouses, be a drunkard, and it will be strange if you do not succeed.

If you wish all your prospects in life to be clouded, be a drunkard, and they will soon be dark enough.

If you would destroy your body, be a drunkard, as drunkenness is the mother of disease.

If you mean to ruin your soul, be a drunkard, that you may be excluded from heaven.

Finally, if you are determined to be utterly destroyed, in estate, body, and soul, be a drunkard, and you will soon know that it is impossible to adopt a more effectual means to accomplish your-END!

COWPER'S CONVERSION.

At the age of thirty-two, Cowper's ideas of religion were changed from the gloom of terror and despair to the brightness of inward joy and

peace. This juster and happier view of evangelical truth is said to have arisen in his mind while he was reading the third chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. The words that rivetted his attention were the following: "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God," Rom. iii. 25. It was to this passage, which contains BO lucid an exposition of the Gospel method of salvation, that, under the Divine blessing, the poet owed the recovery of a previously disordered intellect, and the removal of a load from a deeply-oppressed conscience; he saw by a new and powerful perception how sin could be pardoned and the sinner saved-that the way appointed of God was through the great propitiation and sacrifice upon the cross-that faith lays hold of the promise, and thus becomes the instrument of conveying pardon and peace to the soul."-Grimshaw's Life of Cowper.

ANECDOTE OF BISHOP DAVENANT.

This learned and excellent prelate being once summoned to attend the king (James I.) at Newmarket, refused to travel on the Lord's-day; and, upon arriving a day later than required, he assigned the simple cause; and James, much to his credit, gave him a cordial welcome, not only accepting his excuse, but "commending his seasonable forbearance."- (Memoir of Bishop Davenant.) A noble example to all who serve either sovereign kings or sovereign people. Their acceptance with neither of these can ultimately be damaged by their unswerving loyalty and obedience to the King of kings.

GOOD ADVICE TO EMIGRANTS.

A young Irishman called upon me, who came to Van Diemen's Land a few months ago, with a small sum of money, and soon after his arrival got into a situation; but giving way to dissipated habits, and making a mock, as he said, of temperance, he found many of his own stamp who were willing to seek his friendship while his money lasted. This was not long; and as he soon incapacitated himself by intemperance, he lost his situation. When his money was gone, his friends were gone also; and some that he had helped were unwilling to help him in return, and he was at his wit's end to know what to do. Many young men who come out with fair prospects, ruin themselves in this way, and then find fault with the colony. Without persons have capital, and conduct to take care of it, they should not emigrate to the Australian Colonies.--Backhouse's Australian Colonies.

PRYING.

Don't pry into the secret affairs of others. It is none of your business how your neighbour gets along, and what his income and expectations may be, unless his arrangements affect you. What right have you to say a word, and protrude your advice? It is no mark of good advice, good breeding, or good manners, to pry into the affairs of others. Remember this.

KNOWLEDGE.

Knowledge is not a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort

or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or sale; but a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of man's estate.-Lord Bacon.

THE THRONE OF GRACE.

If you are a Christian, the throne of grace is yours. Your Father is seated on it. Your Saviour has sprinkled it with his own blood. The Holy Spirit draws you secretly to kneel before it; and the promise, when there, is, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it."-Newton.

HOW TO AVOID ANXIETY.

Payson, on his dying bed, said to his daughter "You will avoid much pain and anxiety, if you will learn to trust all your concerns in God's hands. 'Cast all your cares on him, for he careth for you.' But if you merely go, and say that you cast your care upon him, you will come away with the load on your shoulders."

PATRICK HENRY'S LEGACY.

The following is the closing paragraph of the will of Patrick Henry: "I have now disposed of all my property to my family; there is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is, THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. If they had this, and I had not given them one shilling, they would be rich; and if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor."

THE CLOWN AND THE SUN-DIAL.

A lazy clown, going to a sun-dial, to see if it was not yet the point of time when he might regale and be idle, expressed himself very irreverently when he found it was not yet the hour he wished for. Suppress your foolish impatience," said the sun-dial, "and recollect with awe that this moment, pointed out by my shadow, and which you survey with indecent scorn, is the last to many, and doubtful to all."

Moral. This fable has its moral in itself; but we may add, that the careless indifference with which we often treat the passing time, seems as if we thought it would have no end, or was of no value, never dreaming that each moment may be cur last, nor recollecting the slight tenure on which we hold our existence, although daily instances before our eyes prove it, and show us the necessity of being always prepared as well to our affairs in this world as in the next, so that we may be enabled to quit this life with due resignation to the will of our Creator.

BENEVOLENCE REWARDED.

A poor woman said, as the missionary meeting in her village drew on, that she was concerned lest her missionary box might not be worth presenting. She had five shillings to purchase her a pair of shoes, which she much needed, but resolved to put it into the box. As her shoes would not keep out the wet, while drying her toes by the fire, some of her family would remind her of what they called her "imprudent charity." In a short time a friend at a distance sent her a box of clothes, and some money also, which she took as from the hand of God, and gave him the glory of his bounty and goodness.-Rev. R. Tabraham.

"A MEEK AND QUIET SPIRIT." This is the adorning recommended to females by the Scriptures. The world urges upon them its fashions and its gewgaws, and many yield to