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TO THE UNCONVERTED READER.

FRIEND, We have been answering questions concerning a joy with which thou canst not intermeddle for thou art, to thine own loss and shame, a stranger from the commonwealth of Israel. But thou too hast a question or two which it were well to ask thyself. Whence that misery of which thou art at times the victim? Why dost thou tremble under an arousing sermon? Why doth the funeral knell grate on thine ear? What makes thy knees knock together at the sound of thunder? Why dost thou quiver at nightfall, though a leaf, all solitary, was the only thing which stirred within many a yard of thee? Why dost thou feel such alarm when pestilence is abroad? Why so anxious after a hundred remedies? Why so fearful if thou art but sick an hour? Why so unwilling to visit the grave of thy companion? Answer this, O soul, without reserve! Is it not that thou art afraid to die? It is!-thou knowest it is!

But, O my friend, fear death as much as thou wilt, thou canst not escape it. On his pale horse he is pursuing thee at no lame pace, but at a rate which thou mayst guess of by the wind or the flashing lightning. Noiseless is the wing of time, dumb is the lip of death; but time is none the less rapid for its silence, and death not one whit the more uncertain because he trumpets not his coming. Remember, while thou art fearing, the messenger is hastening to arrest thee. Every moment now gliding away is another moment lost, and lost to one who little can afford it. Oh! ere the wax hath cooled which is scaling thy death-warrant, list to a warning from God, for if the book of thy doom be once sealed, it shall never be opened for erasure or inscription. Hear Moses and the prophets, and then hear the great Jesus speak:-"The soul that sinneth it shall die." "He will by no means spare the guilty." "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." "Behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and ALL THAT DO WICKEDLY, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Regard then the voice of Jesus, full of mercy:"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

"Sinner, is thy heart at rest?

Is thy bosom void of fear?
Art thou not by guilt oppress'd?
Speaks not conscience in thine ear?

"Can this world afford thee bliss?
Can it chase away thy gloom?
Flattering, false, and vain it is;
Tremble at the worldling's doom.

"Long the Gospel thou hast spurn'd, Long delay'd to love thy God, Stifled conscience, nor hast turn'd, Woo'd though by a Saviour's blood.

“Think, O sinner! on thy end!
See the judgment-day appear;
Thither must thy spirit wend,
There thy righteous sentence hear.

"Wretched, ruin'd, helpless soul,
To a Saviour's blood apply;
He alone can make thee whole-
Fly to Jesus, sinner, fly." *

* Waterbury.

VI.

COMPLETE IN CHRIST.

"Ye are complete in Him."-COL. ii. 10.

THE pardoned sinner for awhile is content with the boon of forgiveness, and is too overjoyed with a sense of freedom from bondage to know a wish beyond. In a little time, however, he bethinks himself of his position, his wants, and his prospects: what is then his rapture at the discovery that the roll of his pardon is also an indenture of all wealth, a charter of all privileges, a title-deed of all needed blessings! Having received Christ, he hath obtained all things in him. He looketh to that cross upon which the dreadful handwriting of ordinances hath been nailed; to his unutterable surprise he beholds it blossom with mercy, and like a tree of life bring forth the twelve manner of fruits-yea, all that he requires for life, for death, for time, or for eternity. Lo! at the foot of the once accursed tree grow plants for his healing, and

flowers for his delight; from the bleeding feet of the Redeemer flows directing love to lead him all the desert through-from the pierced side there gushes cleansing water to purge him from the power of sin-the nails become a means of securing him to righteousness, while above the crown hangs visible as the gracious reward of perseverance. All things are in the cross-by this we conquer, by this we live, by this we are purified, by this we continue firm to the end. While sitting beneath the shadow of our Lord, we think ourselves most rich, for angels scem to sing, "Ye are complete in him."

"COMPLETE IN HIM!" precious sentence ! sweeter than honey to our soul, we would adore the Holy Spirit for dictating such glorious words to his servant Paul. Oh! may we by grace be made to see that they really are ours-for ours they are if we answer to the character described in the opening verses of the Epistle to the Colossians. If we have faith in Christ Jesus, love towards all the saints, and a hope laid up in heaven, we may grasp this golden sentence as all our own. Reader, hast thou been able to follow in that which has already been described as the "way which leads from banishment?" Then thou mayst take this choice sentence to thyself as a portion of thine inheritance; for weak, poor, helpless, unworthy though thou be in thyself, in Him, thy Lord, thy

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