"The fear of man bringeth a snare."

He that unduly fears man cannot truly fear God; and he that lives much in the fear of God, will not, overmuch, regard what man can do unto him. The want of faith is the root of all carnal fear, which becomes less and less pressing, as faith increases in the soul. Feeble souls should pray much to Him who can strengthen the weak, to give them fortitude without rudeness, and resolution without rashness, that they may act properly, and hold out in the day of trial.

"Without me ye can do nothing."

Were it not for "the Lord Jesus Christ with my spirit," what should I do! Like Peter on the sea, I have sometimes ventured boldly after my Lord; but, like him too, through faintness of heart and weakness of faith, at other times, I have cried out, "Lord, save, or I perish." Thou hast helped me indeed, blessed be thy name, O my God, and yet I cannot but reprove myself for the cold forgetfulness and weakness of my spirit, in doubting so often of thy faithfulness, and in not keeping hold of thy promises.

"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
"Whom resist, stedfast in the faith."

Oh! how many fiery darts are thrown against the Christian's soul! If his armour doth not sit close upon him, and if the shield of faith be not well held up to repel the assault, how many wounds will he receive! or, if the Christian should be so unwise as to meet this enemy without armour, sad will be the consequence. In great trials, they look to their leader, and therefore, in his strength, and with his omnipotent arm, they prevail. But when they think lightly of a lesser temptation, and fight against it in their own strength, then it is they learn their weakness by losing the day, and sustaining loss.

"For if the Lord be once withdrawn,
And we attempt the work alone,

When new temptations spring and rise,
We find how great our weakness is."

Satan, as the adversary of the saints, acts with vigilance; he knows there are traitors within, and he makes his attacks upon the weakest part, and in the most ungarded seasons. Thus the Christian's foes within and without are not idle, but join hand, head, and

heart to throw open the citadel to the enemy. Well has Mr. Newton, of blessed memory, expressed in one of his hymns:

"In conflict with this threefold troop,

How weary, Lord, am I;

Did not thy Spirit hold me up,
Sure I should faint and die."

"Be not high-minded, but fear."

A distinguished orator once illustrated the truth of the Christian religion so clearly as to excite the admiration of all who heard him. He was alive to the praise of his friends, but gave not God the glory: and to secure, as he imagined, the honour more entirely to himself, he offered to take the other side of the argument, and establish the contrary point on its ruins. We are told that God vindicated his own honour by confounding the boasting orator so strikingly, that he who was so gifted with abilities became an incurable idiot. His eminent powers, at first, appeared to be employed for God; but being found, upon trial, to be devoted to his own vain glory, were thus shrouded in darkness. These and such like things should ever occasion "great searchings of heart."

Let us not delude ourselves. This is a truth, if there be any in religion. They who are not made saints in the state of grace, shall never be saints in glory. The stones which are appointed for that glorious temple above, are hewn and polished, and prepared for it here, as the stones were wrought and prepared in the mountains for building the temple at Jerusalem.-Leighton.

TEA-DRINKING PARTIES.

It is feared that the social hour devoted to tea-drinking is too often a season of idle conversation, if not of scandal, and dishonour to the Christian profession. The following fact will, it is hoped, speak to all Christians on the right improvement of time at this meal. To all Christian professors it says, "Go and do thou likewise."

"In the afternoon, when he was called down to tea, he used to bring his Hebrew Bible or Greek Testament with him, and would either speak upon one verse, or upon several verses, as occasion afforded. This was generally an improving season. The glory of God is very seldom promoted at the tea-table; but it was at Mr.

Hervey's.

Drinking tea with him was like being at an ordinance; for it was "sanctified by the word of God and prayer." Let us learn from this holy man of God, to let our hours of rest and refreshment, and the "fruit of our lips," bring glory to the Lord. Why should we not let all our conversation be thus with grace, trying either to bring some ignorant relative to Jesus, or to restore some fallen one, or to encourage some dejected one, and edify each around us. Our time is short, and we often complain that we have so little of it for the service of the Lord. Oh! let us see to it that we do not make the little less, by spending any part of it in such words of which we shall be ashamed to hear again in the day of account, and before an assembled world. "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

Oh! change-oh! wondrous change-
*Burst are the prison bars-
This moment there, so low,
So agonized-and now
Beyond the stars!

Oh! change-stupendous change!
There lies the soulless clod:

The Sun eternal breaks

The new Immortal wakes

Wakes with his God.

LINES

Suggested by those appearing in the Friendly Visitor for Sept. 1841.

"Gather the people together." Deut. xxxi. 12.

Gather me, Lord, with that blessed race
Who have made their home in a blessed place,
Where the ransom'd saints of earth are found
By brightness and bliss encompass'd round;
Where no sinner is with a doom accurs'd
To feel the pangs of eternal thirst,

But all are redeem'd by like precious blood,
And all name alike the name of God.

Gather me, Lord, where sweet friendly tone
Comes gently forth from a Father's throne,
With the holy, heavenly, happy throng,
From whose lips flow out meet joyous song;
Where love beams forth from each speaking eye,
And brighter still through eternity;
Where peace and joy fill every heart,

And none shall be weary, and none depart.

Gather me, Lord, to that world of peace,
Where sin and sorrow for ever cease;
To that celestial and blest abode,
Where dwells and reigns the will of God;
Where age after age rolls blessedly by,
And none ever ask despairingly,

"O Lord, how long?" Fear enters never;

"For the love of eternity flows on for ever!"

C.

ARTHUR FOSTER, PRINTER, KIRKBY LONSDALE.

FRIENDLY VISITOR.

No. 279.

DECEMBER, 1841.

VOL. 23.

THE SHORTNESS AND VALUE OF LIFE.

O that I could impress on the minds of all who hear me, with awakening and saving power-(may God do it! for he alone can)—the solemn truth, that if you would be Christ's at his coming, you must be Christ's now! If you live without Christ, and die without Christ, you must pass into eternity without Christyou must rise from the grave without Christ-you must appear at the tribunal of God without Christ-and in the decisions of that day you must be pronouncedChrist himself will pronounce you-"none of his." The judgment may be distant; but death is near: and to you death is as decisive as the judgment. What you are at the moment when you draw your last breath, you shall be found when "the judgment shall be set, and the books shall be opened." The future depends on the present-eternity upon time-the decisions of a distant day upon the decisions of a day that may be close at hand. If you are not "Christ's" ere you quit the world, his you can never be-no, never— nor he yours--nor his salvation. If once you have passed the boundary between time and eternity, there is no power that can bring you into union with him. God's power never will; for his own word has told us so; and there is no other power in existence able to effect it. Surely, would men but think at all, how vast, how infinite, the results are that depend upon their present fleeting life, there could not be found one trifling it away, as, alas! the far greater part of mankind thoughtlessly do. O ye who "regard lying vanities, and forsake your own mercies," do not do not, as you value the happiness of an unending existence, persist in thus trifling. Short and transient as it is, the life which you enjoy here is unspeakably precious.

N