against me." Job xxi, 27. "The wicked will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts." Psalm x, 4. That is, he has no purpose to please God; he aims only at pleasing himself. So in Psalm lvi, 5. "All their thoughts are against me for evil; (their intentions are to do me mischief.) The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” Psalm xxxv, 11. "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts (thy purposes of still further works) which are to usward. I hate vain thoughts; (that is, purposes of doing vain things;) but thy law do I love." Psalm cxix, 113. "How precious are thy thoughts to me, O God:" that is, what blessed things dost thou intend to do for me. Psalm cxxxix, 17." The thoughts of the righteous are right:" that is, his purposes are to act uprightly. Psalm xii, 5. "The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord God hates the purposes of unjust men, as well as their deeds." Prov. xv, 26. "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Aim at pleasing God in what thou doest, and thy purposes and plans shall prosper." Prov. xvi, 3. " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:" that is, let the wicked give up both evil deeds and evil purposes. Isai. lv, 7." Formy thoughts are not your thoughts:" that is, my intentions are kind beyond the kindest intentions of men. Isai. lv, 8, 9. "Their feet run to evil: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. They do evil, and they do it purposely." Isai. lix, 7." How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee? How long wilt thou cherish intentions to run after idols?" Jer. iv, 14.

In several places, especially in the New Testament, thought means opinion, judgment, expectation; and in some passages it means mere imagination, forming or turning over ideas in the mind. To take thought for any thing, is to make that thing the subject of anxiety, and the object of eager and anxious endeavours. But in almost all places something more is signified by thought than what we are accustomed to call thought.

For want of understanding the difference between the

Scripture meaning of the word thought and the meaning of the word in common conversation, some have been subjected to much uneasiness. When the idea of any thing evil has entered their minds, and remained there for any time, they have fancied themselves guilty of entertaining evil thoughts, in the Scripture sense, though they have formed no purpose of doing any evil thing. When thoughts of vain things have entered their minds, they have judged themselves faulty, though they have entertained no design of following vain things. They have supposed that when the Scripture spoke against evil thoughts, it spoke indiscriminately against all the workings of the mind, about any sinful thing. They did not understand the difference between merely forming the image of a thing, and forming an evil purpose.

Hence they have supposed themselves guilty when they have not been so, and have troubled themselves without just cause. They have judged themselves under the power of the devil when they were not; and because they could not do impossibilities, they have concluded themselves the slaves of sin.

And it is

It is certainly unpleasant to have evil thoughts intruding themselves into our minds. It is especially unpleasant to have foolish fancies running through the mind when we are engaged in religious exercises. our duty to oppose such intruders, and to seek to have our minds well stored with happier and better thoughts. We should, nevertheless, do wrong to suppose that God is angry with us for the intrusion of foolish fancies, when we neither invite them to come nor encourage them to stay. To avoid thoughts of evil things altogether is perhaps in no man's power; and no one is blameable for not doing impossibilities. But we may refrain from evil purposes, and we may check the vagrancy of our imaginations, and this we are bound to do.

Foolish and idle fancies are not safe. If they remain long in the mind, they may excite evil desires and unholy feelings, and so prepare the way for the purpose and the perpetration of evil deeds. Those, therefore, who wish to avoid sin, must keep their minds as free from idle thoughts and fleshly imaginations as possible.

The mind can only be freed from idle and unholy imaginations by attention to our conduct. If we do evil things, we shall have evil thoughts; if we live in idleness, we shall be full of idle and dangerous fancies. Evil thoughts lead to evil deeds, and evil deeds multiply evil thoughts. If our hands are full of God's work, our hearts are likely to be filled with good thoughts. By diligently devoting ourselves to those works which tend to improve our fellow men, we shall be able to expel and to keep out almost every idle and troublesome fancy. The more we work for God, the more our affections and thoughts will be taken up with heavenly things. If a man try to master his thoughts without ordering his conduct, he will be disappointed; but if he attend to his conduct as he ought, his thoughts will gradually fall under proper discipline without any more to do.

I have found my foolish thoughts and injurious imaginings pass away just in proportion as I have given myself more and more to the study of religion, and the work of doing good. I recollect the time when, from one end of a journey to the other, my mind would be busy forming and turning over silly thoughts, and fancying impossible things. And when I awoke in a morning, and when I lay on my bed in the evening, away my mind would fly into wild and useless musings. Sometimes I should be lost in revery; at others I should be making a fortune, or taking my trial, or running over old quarrels and old grievances, or fancying myself beset with robbers and doing wonderful and brave things in my own defence. And thus would hours together pass away in waking dreams, leaving no fruit behind. At present my mind is almost entirely free from this kind of dreaming. My hands and my heart are full of realities, and I have no room for dreams. My character, my time, my money, my family comforts, are all embarked in the cause of God, and my mind has enough to do to manage my affairs. I have no sooner written on one subject than another subject presents itself; and I have no sooner done writing, than books, or friends, or afflicted people, or letters, or temperance meetings, or other business calls

for me. If I am alone on a journey, my mind is intent on its business; sometimes reviewing the past, and sometimes arranging for the future. God and his cause fill my thoughts. I have no time to lose myself in reveries; and I have no time for dreaming and fruitless musings. Or if there be yet any corners or crevices of my mind unoccupied, they will gradually be filled as my business is extended.

Any one may get rid of foolish and troublesome thoughts in the same way. Set to work with the intention of doing all you can towards converting and blessing the world, and continue steadily to pursue this glorious object, and you will gradually rise above all things low and foolish. You will find yourself falling more and more under the influence of holy and benevolent feelings, every day, until your whole soul is engaged and filled with thoughts and imaginations worthy of an angel of God. Busy yourself with good things, aim at great things, give yourself wholly to God and to his cause, and God, and happiness, and heaven will come down to you, and fill your soul. This is the way to perfection, this is the secret of happiness, this is the victory over self and the devil, and sin, to be wholly and constantly given up to the work of serving God and doing good to man. This is the grand cure for absence of mind, for nervous and melancholy diseases, for extravagant and vexatious fancies, for evil tempers and unruly thoughts, for earthly anxieties and discontents. This is the pathway up to God and heaven; the grand secret of true and eternal happiness. Let my young Christian friends adopt this simple rule, always to be aiming at serving God by blessing mankind, and they will need no other remedy for any ills of life, nor for any fears of death.

THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION IN EARLY LIFE. ONE of the reasons why men do not attend to religion with greater care and anxiety is, they do not consider its importance. If they would allow their minds more serious and close meditation on the future and eternal world, or if they would consider the great advantages which would flow from a religious life in the present

world, they could hardly be indifferent about it, but would seek after it with their whole heart.

Religion only wants to be rightly known, as it bears on our present and future interests, in order to be highly prized and eagerly pursued. If there is one period more than another, in human life, in which the advantages of religion will be best and most extensively secured, it is in youth. The choice of religion in youth is important, because it enables us to render unto God a more acceptable service, and it is more easy and pleasant to ourselves than it can be at any future time. And we know religion requires for God the sacrifice of that which is the best and most perfect in its kind. Youth is the morning of life, the best part of the day. At that time are the mental faculties active and sprightly, and the body vigorous and capable of labour. And the offering of ourselves to a Being so good and so great as God, should certainly be at a time when we possess most perfectly our various gifts, and when we are the most acceptable to him. Those persons who defer religion till old age or sickness, defer it till times when their faculties are debilitated, and their souls unable to render that service which was due from them. They offer the refuse of life, when they ought to have given its prime: they would serve God in their weakness, whereas they ought to have devoted to him their greatest strength. They employ their rising and meridian day in the follies of sin, and then hurry themselves when they see the day of life closing, and the shades of death falling around them, to give their few remaining moments, when they ought to have given it the brightest and best parts of their lives. But will God accept such services? Will he not despise their offerings who have so long despised his calls? Will he bless with salvation in the latest hour those who have till then obstinately rejected that salvation? It is true, God is merciful; but God is also just; and mercy long rejected, has often provoked his wrath, and brought down his heaviest judgment; and in proportion to the greatness of his forbearance and mercy, so has been the terribleness of his wrath, when that mercy has been withdrawn.

Many have been the arguments employed to urge the importance of religion in health and strength, and to set forth the great uncertainty of a death-bed repentance. Great have been the endeavours to correct that erroneous idea which some entertain of religion, viz., that it is needful only to calm their minds in death, and is of no importance during life; and it is astonishing that those endeavours and arguments appear so much to lose their effect, at least on the generality of men. Religion is necessary to our happiness, not only in death, but through every period of life. Religion is needful not only to soften the dying pillow, and soothe the departing spirit, but also to make the mind serene and calm amid all the sad changes of life. And religion is not so easily attained as some imagine, who think they may be religious