THERE is certainly no merit in praying that we

should receive, because we ask-it is the grace of God, transfused into the soul by the Holy Spirit, that excites to prayer, and then rewards for his own gifts and graces, as if they were the peculiar properties of the petitioner. Astonishing goodness! how lamentably astonishing, that it should be so soon forgotten, or so little regarded.

WOULD

OULD you preserve your heart from the contamination of impure desires, and irregular emotions, the panders of vice, guard your ears with the most sedulous care, from the ribaldry of licentious jests and obscene conversation, and your tongue from the most distant allusion to ideas that angels might not cherish.

ETERNITY! awful eternity! duration without end!

how can the limited powers of the finite mind be made to conceive the stupendous idea! Millions of years roll on, and eternity is only beginning, always be

ginning; never, never ending: the restless soul, fond of research, stretches her faculties to explore, if possible, the boundless ocean-her wings soon flag, her head grows giddy, her trembling feet can find no resting place; aghast, exhausted, she shrinks back to her native shores, where she may date time from its beginning, and trace it to the close, and here finds relief. But eternity! who can reach it! And oh! who can bear the idea of being miserable to all eternity! Well we know the wages of sin are eternal death, and yet (ah! madness of stupidity) we sin on, and sit at ease while the sword of divine vengeance is suspended over our heads, "our feet sliding on slippery steeps, and fiery billows rolling below"-Be astonished, oh! heavens, and wonder, oh! earth; yet this is the way of sinful flesh.

FOR

OR a Christian to go back to past experiences for refreshment to his soul, is as vain as for a natural man to depend upon the food he received last year, to sustain him in the present. Daily supplies of grace are as needful for the soul's support in the divine life, as animal food is for the body.

AND shall I fear the monster death,

Who shuts my veins, and stops my breath?
My flesh can only feel the smart,
He touches not the immortal part;
He opes the door, the spirit flies
To mansions bright above the skies;
Mansions prepar'd e'er time began,
By him who died for fallen man:
In him alone my soul shall trust,
Who breath'd his spirit in my dust,
And bid me live, and oh! when sin
Had all his image spoil'd within;
When in the broad destructive way,
Fainting with satan's wounds I lay,
He takes the ingrate rebel up,
Heals every wound, and fills my cup
With blessings flowing from above,
Pardon, and peace, and heavenly love.
Oh! welcome day that takes me home;
Come quickly Jesus, come Lord come.

OH! how merciful is our good God and Father, to

make our state of probationary labour and sorrow so short, and our state of peace, rest and unremitting joy, eternal as himself.

THE omnipotence of the great Jehovah which ter

rifies the sinner, is the comfort and consolation of the Christian. He knows in whom he has trusted; the powers of earth and hell cannot prevail against him; all things are put under his feet, and he brings to pass, by the word of his power, whatever he wills to be done. In wisdom, unerring; in justice, inflexible; in power, almighty; in mercy, unbounded; in purity, unspotted; in majesty, exalted; in dominion, unlimited; in love, passing all understanding: these attributes the finite mind may have a faint conception of, (alas! how faint and imperfect) but the immaculate glories of the Godhead, eternity will be too short to unfold. Fall prostrate in the dust, O my guilty soul, and wonder, and adore in silent astonishment, that thou art not this moment in that house of misery, where hope never cometh; it is because his "tender compassions fail not let every tongue confess the name, and every sinner bow before the triune God, blessed over all for ever.

"Do this," said the gracious Redeemer to his disciples at the last mournful supper, "Do this in remembrance of me, and as oft as ye do it, ye do show forth my death until I come." What an easy command, to meet together sometimes, and simply eat

and drink bread and wine, in commemoration of the great things he hath done for us; and in us no expensive preparation is required, no tedious journey to be performed, no flesh-torturing penances to be suffered, no lacerated veins to bleed, no crown of thorns to pierce the head, nor nails the hands and feet, nor spear the side, no gall and vinegar to drink, no tauntings and revilings to wound the spirit; no, all these he took upon himself, and left us to set down at ease to a feast of fat things; milk and honey without price; wine on the lees, double refined, while he is sweetly saying, "Eat, O beloved, eat, drink abundantly; what more can I do for my people, that I have not done?" Nothing, O divine Saviour, the work is complete.

"WHEN thou passest through the water, I will be

with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle on thee."* Happy, inconceivably happy are they to whom the Holy Spirit sanctifies and seals this exceeding great and precious promise; to such, the grisly terrors of the hostile den, the ferocious bellowings of the hungry lion, are harmless as the pensive murmur. of the lonely grot, or the tender bleatings of the gentle lamb. To such, the raging fury of the fiery furnace, seven times heated, belching forth volumes of

* Isaiah xliii..