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"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."-PROV. xiv. 12.

MAN threads his way through the world. He thinks all to be right, when often, if not always, he is in the wrong. He is satisfied with the present good, as if there were no futurity, when all his actions will be subject to a severe scrutiny. He enjoys the present, and revels in the sunshine of prosperity. He lives to himself, cares for himself, and makes for himself a home, a rest in a world of sin and woe. His thoughts, his aims, his desires, are moulded by the present evil world. He looks no higher, wishes nothing further, than the bright and dazzling scenes which everywhere excite his feverish and longing heart. He walks in the dangerous and giddy path of earthly delight, and rushes on with avidity in the broad road to destruction.

The worldly-minded man is not right as to his motives. He is taught in the inspired volume to do all to the glory of God; not to live to himself, but to consecrate his heart to the service of his God. His life, however, wholly contradicts the Divine command, being in direct opposition to his holy and perfect will. He is of the earth, earthy. His motives of action are selfish, and he seeks nothing higher than the pleasures of the world, its smiles, its allurements, its honours, and its gains. He cares not for the things of God, and heeds not the warnings of conscience or the force of truth. He is absorbed in the business of life, and regards its claims as paramount to every other consideration. He finds no time for meditation on the great concern of the soul's salvation,

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and vainly imagines that his dream of happiness will long continue. He obeys the desires of the heart, becomes a slave to his passions, and greedily drinks from the fountain of earthly bliss. God is not in all his thoughts. He knows nothing of a heart broken for sin. He does not reflect that for every act he is responsible, and never solemnly ponders the words, "The soul that sinneth shall die." He is dead in trespasses and sins, exposed every moment to the wrath of God. He does not feel his awful condition. a veil over his eyes, and he walks continually on the precipice of an everlasting destruction. He does not believe in the wrath to come. The word of God is to him a sealed book; it is neither studied nor weighed in all the awfulness of its truths. Satan has possession of his heart, and reigns there undisturbed. Sin has dominion within, and he is overcome by its power, and becomes a prey to its influence. He is given up to the idols of his own imagination, and bows down to the shrine of an ungodly world. Is it all right for heaven with him? It is all wrong, so long as he knows nothing of a burning desire for pardon through Christ. The lusts within his soul are enough to ruin him for ever.

What, then, is the path which is right both for time and eternity? My reader! will you seriously ponder this great question, and resolve never to rest until you are able to say, "I know that it is all right for heaven?" Look to the perfect law of God. Dive deep into the mine of its precious truths, and make most diligent search into the depths of the hidden wisdom. Approach the word of God with great reverence, and as you look into the sacred page, think that God is fixing his eye upon you, watching intensely your thoughts, your feelings, your desires, your aim. You cannot mock God in the slightest degree but what he detects. Lift up an earnest prayer to him for the Holy Spirit to guide, teach, and enlighten you, and to reveal unto you the blessed truth in all its life-giving power. You will then be led to discover your sinfulness, your guilt, your total unfitness for heaven. You will perceive that you never can stand before God in your own merits, and that one sin is enough to consign you to everlasting woe. The Holy

Spirit will discover to you the awful condition of your heart, its vileness, pollution, wretchedness. You will see in all the clearness of the noonday light the hideousness, malignity, and fearfulness of sin. The dark cloud which has long hung over your soul will be dispersed by the rays of the Sun of Righteousness, and you will perceive the amazing distance you have been from God. You will be led to look at the sufferings of the Holy One on the cross for sin; and as you deeply weigh the agony, and the shame, and the bitter pangs which rended his heart, you will begin to feel that all was endured for your redemption, to obtain deliverance from the thraldom of sin, and bring you to eternal glory. You will also be led to look with wonder and amazement at the unparalleled love of God in giving up his own Son to die for you on the accursed tree; and this act of his wondrous love will still constrain you to behold deeper and deeper the weight of sin in your bosom. The blessed Spirit will help you to discover that all is not right, and scatter to the winds your false confidence in the refuge of lies.

There is no plague so bad as the plague of the human heart, and no possibility of describing its dark malignity. If, after an attentive study of the sacred word, you begin to feel the power of its truths, and become convinced of your danger, and that you stand exposed to the wrath of an offended God, bear in mind that you cannot resist your convictions without resisting the Spirit of God. To resist conviction is to quench the strivings of God's Holy Spirit. To trifle with the awakening of a conscience which feels itself condemned by the purity of God's perfect law, is to reject the offer of Divine mercy. There is no escape from eternal woe for such as despise the warnings of God deliberately, and wilfully stifle their convictions of sin. His Spirit will not always strive with man; if his threatenings and promises are disregarded, he will leave the sinner to follow the devices of his own heart.

There is nothing more awful than to see one who feels the terrors of the world to come, who is solemnly awakened to his guilt, who knows that without repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ he cannot be saved,

turn back to the world, become careless, and dead in heart to the power of Divine truth. To desire conversion is not to be saved. Many wish for salvation, but they labour not to enter into the kingdom. The way to glory is by the strait gate, and there must be the pressing in, the striving, the perseverance in prayer, and waiting upon God. Many will seek to enter in, but shall not be able," because they sought not God with all their heart, wanted the single eye, could not give up the world, and follow Christ fully.

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Is all right with you, my reader? Ponder thoughtfully the words, “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Let there be no mistake, for it may be fatal, for ever fatal. Time is precious. Every moment brings you nearer to your account. You cannot arrest the messenger of death. He has already received his commission. Your departure is fixed, is irrevocable, is certain. Can you give slumber to your eyelids without trembling lest you awake up in eternity, and find yourself before the bar of God, to give an account of your stewardship? Can you lie down at night without being converted without Christ as your Friend, your Redeemer, your Justifier? Can you engage in your daily business with unconcern, when the thought of everlasting punishment steals across your mind? Can you trifle with all that is valuable, important, solemn, and put off salvation to a future period when you cannot ensure a single hour of life? Is it wise? Is it safe? Is it right to peril the precious soul? Is it not to be on the wrong side, to reject the offers of mercy, and to shut your eyes to the blessed invitations of the Gospel? Let me try to persuade you to come to Christ at once, immediately, without hesitation, and seek forgiveness through his most precious blood. Now is the best time. "Now is the day of salvation." Christ will not have you to wait until to-morrow. He longs for your salvation. "Come now, and let us reason together," is his language. He bids you come to him, and he offers you salvation freely, without money, without price. Your sin may be like a huge mountain, but his grace is far greater. Let your resolution be, in the beginning of another year, "I will now seek the Lord with my whole heart, and yield to him my time, my

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THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH. "Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth."-EPH. vi. 14.

THE dress of the oriental is large and full, and hangs loosely about his person, unless it is confined in its place by the girdle. Without it, his flowing robes would greatly incommode him when engaged in running, in battle, or in any active employment.

The

dress of the soldier in ancient times was not, indeed, as loose and flowing as was that of the citizen, yet the girdle was a necessary part of his armour. It served to confine the lower part of the cuirass, or breastplate, and to brace up and support the body. From it the sword was suspended. The girdle worn by the wealthy, or those of high rank, was of silk or embroidered linen; that worn by the poorer classes, was of plain leather; and that by the soldiers, of leather, covered with plates of steel, or embossed with gold or silver ornaments.

The Christian soldier is to bind himself about with the girdle of truth. The truth here spoken of consists in the doctrines and precepts of God's word, as the object of the Christian's knowledge, faith, and obedience. This truth he should believe in the love of it, to be governed by its dictates in all his life, and labour for its promotion in the world.

Truth, thus known, believed, and obeyed, is like a girdle. The girdle is designed to keep the soldier's dress and armour in their place, and when it is bound about him, he is the better prepared for efficient action. So truth received and followed regulates all the Christian's affections and intents, and gives harmony and effect to his labours. Truth is mighty. Definite scriptural knowledge, godly sincerity, and an honest purpose to do the right, are the treasures of strength. Let the Christian gird up his loins with truth, and he shall be able to fight the good fight of faith," and prevail; "he shall run and not be weary, he shall walk and not faint."

Let him draw from the armoury of truth his moral principles and rules of life. How much better qualified is he

for his great work on earth than he would be by all the maxims of philosophers, or the shrewd sayings of worldly men. He pursues what the all-wise God has pronounced to be right. He aims at what is truly worthy of his endeavour. He performs his work by methods which more than human experience has decided to be the best. There can be with him no such thing as utter failure or disappointment. He involves not himself in the toils and labyrinths of shortsighted and perverse men. Even when his course seems to be retrograde and irregular, it is only apparently so, like that of some of the planets in their revolutions round the sun. He is ever bound to the great centre of the moral system, and kept in one unvarying orbit in strict accordance with its harmonious and perfect laws.

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Let him be girded by the word of truth in the formation of his doctrinal sentiments. He is prepared to go forward from strength to strength, in the work of holiness and faith. The way of error is tortuous, perplexing, and unsafe. How many fierce but vain controversies has error engendered, and how much of the strength of the church has it exhausted! It is like a loosened girdle, and a little of it impedes the Christian's heavenward progress. But he that believes and knows the truth is as one who walks in the light and is girded for the race. knows in whom he has believed. rests his hope on the true Saviour, not one whom man has created in "the chamber of his imagery; " and such a hope is like an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast. He knows for what to strive and labour, for what great end this life is afforded him, what are the obstacles in his way, and what rewards are laid up in store for the faithful servant. He labours not, therefore, in vain; he strives not as one that beateth the air. He fulfils his mission on earth, is a witness for the true God, and at last inherits the sum and result of truth-eternal life.

Let a man follow truth in opposition to falsehood and deceit. No cunning craftiness or deceptive wiles will enable him to cope with the wiles of the devil, or give him permanent success in a tempting, ensnaring world. No false pretences, no mere show and parade, no crooked expediency and skilful management, will help a good

cause. But he who meets the craft and guile of the world, girded in the rigid simplicity of truth, in strict honesty, integrity, and justice, will be the conqueror. He may be beset on every side by pitfalls and snares, but he pursues a narrow way which has been opened by Him who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," and which will carry him on in one unbroken, unfailing course, to where the light of truth shines, without the shade of a cloud or the twilight of eve, for ever. J.

"HE GOT NOTHING FROM ME."

I was passing from the door of the sanctuary, within whose walls I had listened to an impressive and affecting appeal in behalf of a noble Christian charity. A generous response had been given to the pleadings of the man of God, and many had contributed cheerfully and gratefully to the object claiming their benevolence.

As I mingled with the throng wending homeward, the sentence that heads this article grated-oh, how harshly! -on my ear. I involuntarily turned to look at the speaker, and saw at a glance that it was not because he was too poor that he had uttered this mean boast. I knew him, and knew that he was far more able to contribute to a benevolent work than many who had done so that day.

He got nothing from me! He seemed to triumph that he had succeeded in hardening his breast against its own generous impulses. His better emotions had been awakened. They needed exercise in order to their own healthfulness. But he resolutely said, No! His will would not permit his heart to soften. He was disciplining himself in selfishness; and many there are who are thus educating and strengthening their own selfish propensities, and striving to render themselves odious in their own esteem, and hateful to others.

He got nothing from me! It was an ungrateful boast. The God, whose poor he was asked to pity and relieve, whose starving for the bread of life he was asked to feed, had been most bountiful in his benefactions to him. His health was robust, his business prosperous, and there was plenty in his home. How basely ungrateful to

deny the calls of that Providence by which he had been so uniformly favoured!

He got nothing from me! Who got nothing? He could not mean the preacher, for he asked for nothing for himself. His poor neighbour, prostrate upon a bed of sickness, with a helpless, suffering family, he got nothing from the church. The minister of Christ's Gospel, who, moved by love of God and of souls, had said, "Give me only food and raiment, and I will go and proclaim the blessed Gospel to those who are perishing for lack of knowledge;" to him had he scornfully said, "You get nothing from me. Not a farthing to buy you a loaf shall come from my purse. Let the heathen perish, and the heralds of good tidings to them starve, so far as they depend on my benevolence."

He got nothing from me! No, avaricious man! and if the world of mankind were like you, all the channels of benevolence would be dried up. There would be none left to pity the suffering, none to bear the blessings of civilization and Christianity over our world. What a selfish, griping, hardhearted race would ours be, if they were only all moulded after your model! There are too many like you, but there is hope for our race in the assurance that many are very unlike. He got nothing from me! But you have lost more than you have kept by your parsimony. You have lost another opportunity for treasuring up a pleasant memory, for by-and-bye the sweetest reminiscences that can be called back to the soul, will be those associated with deeds of charity and kindness. Be sparing of your seed now, and you will have but a sparse harvest of happy memories to reap. And if God rewards according to the deeds done, you have lost a reward for this refusal, and probably you will have very few to claim.

He got nothing from me! And you will get nothing from Him when God calls you into judgment. If you have not a heart to sympathise with the miseries of your fellow-men here, there will be no pity for your wretchedness hereafter. If you are so destitute of love to God and man that you can unfeelingly boast of your own hardheartedness, then there will be no companionship for you among the loving and the holy in heaven. You

are not like them in tastes or spirit, and you would not associate with them in intimate fellowship if you could. That mean, selfish nature of yours

must be changed by the grace of God,
and rendered benevolent and merciful,
or you will never lay up treasures in
heaven.
T.

Lessons by the Way; or, Things to Think On.

CROMWELL ON TOLERATION.

Men who believe in Jesus Christ—that is, the form that gives being to true religion, namely, to faith in Christ-and walking in a profession answerable to that faith; men who believe the remission of sins through the blood of Christ, and free justification by the blood of Christ, who live upon the grace of God-they are members of Jesus Christ, and are to him the apple of his eye. Whoever hath this faith, let his form be what it may, he walking peaceably without prejudice to others under other forms: it is a debt due to God and Christ, and he will require it if that Christian may not enjoy his liberty. If a man of one form will be trampling upon the heels of another form; if an Independent, for example, will despise him who is under Baptism, and will revile him and reproach and provoke him, I will not suffer it in him. If, on the other side, those of the Anabaptist judgment shall be censuring the godly ministers of the nation who profess under Independency; or if those who profess under Presbytery shall be reproaching or speaking evil of them, traducing and censuring them, as I would not be willing to see the day when England shall be in the power of the Presbytery to impose upon the consciences of others that profess faith in Christ, so I will not endure any reproach to them. But God give us hearts and spirits to keep things equal; which truly, I must profess to you, hath been my temper. I have had some boxes on the ears, and rebukes, on the one hand and on the other; some censuring me for Presbytery; others as an inletter to all the sects and heresies of the nation. I have borne my reproach; but I have, through God's mercy, not been unhappy in hindering any one religion to impose upon another.-MS. in British Museum.

HOPE OF THE CHRISTIAN.

Our daily observation and experience prove to us that hope springs continually into the breast of man. If he undertakes a scheme, and fails of accomplishing it to his mind, hope will nerve him up to the undertaking of another, and so on to the end of life. It is right that it should be so. Were

it not for this, life would be unsupportable. But there are times when the delusive hopes of this world cannot give peace to the soulwhen sorrow, trouble, and affliction overtake us-when health, fortune, and friends are gone. How dreary, how inconsolable, how sad our lot, did not the hope of the Gospel incite us to look forward to fairer prospects, and did not one bright spot appear through sor

row's clouds, which tells us all is not darkness, that light may yet shine upon us; and while we view this spot, our drooping spirits are revived, and a hope of better, brighter prospects cheers our hearts, and gives light within. Misfortune's storms may rage, and sorrow's waves dash; trials and troubles with a foaming fury rush in on every side, and even death's dark waters be in full view; yet, if we ride in the bark of Christian hope, we need not fear. It will bear us safe through life's tempestuous seas, outride the dark waters of death, and conduct us to the haven of eternal rest, where peace, like a river, will flow to the soul.

"CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME."

As if the proverb were a vindication of the most self-denying benevolence, when it is nothing more than the miserable sophistry of a selfish heart. Selfishness begins at home; and it is this which is often palmed upon the world for a kind of home charity. The man who refuses a contribution for the heathen world because he beholds needy ones in his own neighbourhood is not usually distinguished for his generosity to them. "It is absurd," said a penurious Christian professor belonging to this class," to be sending money abroad, to be spent we know not how, when there is so much suffering nearer home." "I will give five pounds to the poor at home, if you will give the same," said the Christian to whom the above remark was made. did not mean that," replied the liberal man; "but if you must go from home, why go so far? Think of the miserable poor of Ireland." "I will give five pounds to the poor of Ireland, if you will give the same." "I do not mean that, either," was the reply; a very fair illustration of the real spirit of such professing Christians as seek to hide their sins under the mantle, "Charity begins at home."

THE IMMORTALITY OF MIND

“I

Intellect alone can put on a shape of earthly immortality, and become an everlasting and irrefragable witness of its own reality. Neither poets, nor painters, nor sculptors, nor even historians, can erect living monuments to any but themselves. The exactest copy of the fairest face, or the loveliest soul, becomes in a few years a mere ideal, only commendable as it expresses universal beauty or absolute goodness. Only the painter's or the poet's heart is really perpetuated. All but the mind either perishes in time, or vanishes out of time into eternity. Mind alone lives on with time, and keeps pace with the march of ages. Beauty, ever

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