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weep day and night" for his people. Your Saviour "wept" as he gazed upon Jerusalem, and thought of the guilt and coming misery of the Jews; and his first message of redeeming mercy was sent to the men who had imbrued their hands in his blood. Luke xxiv. 47.

"Is it, then, nothing to you," for whom in better days they interceded, who owe them so much, and who derive all your comfort and hope from him who, when he came as the Saviour, "took on him the seed of Abraham?"

eyes a fountain of tears, that he might gan to ask them, especially the man, many and strange questions; among which were," Do you know and "Do you repeat the Lord's Prayer ?" go to church ?" "Which do you love best-your father or mother?" And on the man answering, that, he must say, when they were living, he liked his father best, the vicar replied, "Then you are a very wicked fellow;" and after continuing to ply them with such questions, he turned to the poor man again, and asked him if he loved his wife better than other women? and being answered in the affirmative, he put some further questions respecting their going to church; and receiving no satisfactory answer to them, (indeed, the man began to lose temper, and told the vicar he would not be forced to church by anybody,) he arose "Ah! I see you from his seat, saying, are a very wicked fellow, indeed; and as to distress, you live in a palace: you need no relief, I am sure," and so left; but turning back, gave them a ticket for a loaf, a little tea, and one pound of meat.

"Is it nothing to you" that you are put in trust with that gospel which has been, and is, "the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek?"

Is all this " nothing to you," while yourselves admitted to the family of God, you are charged to seek their salvation, and, as "the Lord's remembrancers, to give him no rest until he establish Jerusalem, and make her a praise in the earth ?"

A VICAR'S VISIT.

SIR-In visiting a poor old couple in my district, I heard from them an account of a visit paid them by the vicar of the parish, of such a singular character, that I must give it you, that, if you think it will edify your readers, you may give it them. The vicar had been induced to visit them by the Scripture-reader who laboured in the parish, and who commiserated them, the man being paralysed. He has left now; he is a pious man, and therefore felt very uneasy with his vicar.

On entering the room, the vicar be

I felt a little surprised at such a visit being paid to a sick man, though I have learned not to expect much from vicars; so I particularly inquired, "Did he say anything to you about your souls, and Christ as a Saviour?" They both answered, in one breath, "Not a word, Sir; that's what we were surprised at; it was so different from all we had heard before."

I have no need to make any remark on this specimen of clerical visitation; it will speak for itself.

A MISSIONARY.

The Counsel Chamber.

THOUGHTS FOR YOUNG MEN.

BY REV. JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

JOHN FOSTER, in his admirable essay on Decision of Character, says, it is a poor and disgraceful thing not to be able to reply, with some degree of certainty, to the simple questions, What will you be? What will you do? I once heard one of the most distinguished men in our country state that it was on the wing of this thought that his soul penetrated infinity and eternity, and that he resolved that, by the grace of God, he would set his face towards heaven, towards a glorious immortality.

Young Men! you are now rapidly deciding what you will be, and what you will do, through endless ages. Many of you are deciding without thinking. We wish to induce you to think what you may be, and then wisely to decide what you will be.

You have entered upon a long journey. It is bright morning with you now; and yet it is almost noon; and soon it will be night. The day of life over; the journey of life finished. Your dead body will be buried; your name forgotten. Other generations will rise and disappear like ocean billows on the beach, and every trace of your existence will be obliterated from the face of the earth. But is that the end of your journey? No! An archangel's form will appear in these deep blue

heavens. With one brush of his celestial wing he sweeps away the curtained skies, and opens the throne of judgment to view. The trumpet sounds--doomsday trump-the trump that shakes the earth, and pierces the ear of death, and sends its reverberations from star to star, throughout God's illimitable empire. Your body breaks from the grave at that terrific summons, and you gaze with unutterable emotions upon the vision opening and transpiring before you. You stand at that bar to hear the sentence which eternity cannot change. This scene, apparently distant, is near. It will soon have passed, and your destiny, as a rejoicing angel

or a lost spirit, will be settled for ever. Reflect then, for one moment, upon what you may be, upon the elevation to which you may attain. Try to ascend Pisgah's summit, and look into that heavenly Canaan which God invites you to enter, and to possess as your eternal home.

1. You may be spiritually holy; your heart as serene as the atmosphere of heaven; as pure as the prayer of the seraphim. As the poet Gray looked upon the young men sporting upon the play-ground of Eton College, his mind glanced forward to the scenes they were to encounter on life's busy theatre, and with equal truth and poetic beauty he writes,

"These shall the fury passions tear,
The vultures of the mind,
Disdainful anger, pallid fear,
And shame which skulks behind.
And envy wan, and faded care,
Grim visaged, comfortless despair,
And sorrow's piercing dart."

These are the great enemies of human happiness. These unsubdued passions are the foes from whom you have the most to fear, as you go on in life; and they will do more than all other causes combined to destroy your peace. There are few passages in the English language more powerful than the fearful imagery with which Southey describes a man struggling with passions which have obtained the mastery over him:

"For from his shoulders grew
Two snakes of monster size,
Which ever at his head

Aimed their rapacious teeth,
To satiate raving hunger with his brain.
He, in the eternal conflict, oft would seize
Their swelling necks, and in his giant

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It is thus that the passions, having obtained the supremacy, torture their victim. How large a portion of your own hours of discomfort are caused by your own troubled thoughts! But in heaven every passion will be subdued for ever. The conflict will be over. Temptation will lose its power; and the soul, in holiness and in perfect peace, shall never experience another emotion of disquietude.

2. You may be socially blest beyond what imagination can conceive. There are few joys greater than those of congenial companionship. There you may enjoy that pleasure in its utmost perfection and without the least alloy. All the wise and good who have ever dwelt on earth shall there be congregated, wiser, better, and nobler than ever before.

And you may be their fitting associate, your own ennobled heart reciprocating every generous emotion which rises in theirs. Your heart shall reflect, in undiminished lustre, Abraham's heroism, and David's fervour, and Daniel's magnanimity, and Isaiah's sublimity and pathos, and all those graceful attractions which adorned the character of John, the disciple whom our Saviour loved. No tongue of slander shall ever sully your fair fame. No unkind insinuation of envy or jealousy shall ever sunder the chords of affection. Affection's bond shall be eternal, ever brighter, ever stronger.

3. You may be intellectually great. There are no powers possessed on earth more highly prized than powers of mind. There are none which give its possessor more enviable eminence. But when the emancipated spirit stands in God's court, with all the wonders of the universe open to its view-its physical wonders, its spiritual wonders, with the lofty intelligences who surround God's throne, and all the mysteries of their intellectual nature revealed to the eye; and suns and systems, and countless universes, but as the houses and streets of the village in which you reside, with all the principles of God's government clearly understood, there is necessarily here involved a degree of intellectual elevation and grandeur, which dwarfs in the comparison the loftiest mind which ever drew its infor

mation through the senses of an earthly body. This intellectual grandeur you may attain. The duties of your calling may interfere with your intellectual improvement now, but the dawn of the resurrection morning may open to you a page, such as the eye of man on earth never read; and shall introduce to your expanding mind such conceptions as cherubim and seraphim revolve with ecstasy.

4. You may attain to the combination of every conceivable blessing. Is wealth desirable? You shall be an heir of God. Everything shall be yours-the wide universe, with its every avenue of enjoyment, shall be as it were the park and the pleasure-ground of your own mansion. Are there joys of sight? The throne of Deity shall be unveiled to your eye, and blazing suns and revolving planets, and rushing comets peopled with every variety of intellectual life, shall be the prospect with which your vision may be enraptured. Has music any charm to soothe and cheer the soul? You may hear, nay, more, you may join in those anthems which angels sing, and where cherubim and seraphim unite in the exulting chorus. And the ecstatic notes shall roll from world to world, while the universe of being listens enraptured by the melody. Are youth, and health, and vigour desirable? There you shall inherit an incorruptible body, which through eternity shall grow more vigorous, mature, perfect in the development of all its powers. Its energies shall never be exhausted, its mechanism never deranged. Exuberant with immortal youth, it shall never know a pang or decay. This is what you all may attain, and, having once attained, shall never lose or fear to lose. The seal of eternity shall be upon all your possessions and all your enjoyments.

The Saviour has died for you, and made atonement for all your past ingratitude and sin; and now points to his bleeding hands and lacerated side, in token of your danger and his infinite love; and pleads, My son, give me thine heart. The Holy Spirit has been sent from the bosom of the Father, to urge your acceptance of salvation. And often have you felt his

persuasive appeals in the silent monitions of conscience; in the deep and unearthly accents of the grave, when friends have been entombed; in the various providences of your lot, afflictive or joyous; and in the exhortations and demonstrations God has sent from the pulpit to your ear and to your heart. It is not the information which you lack it is the disposition to do known duty, which is wanting. And

if you have but the willing mind; if you will only go to God in sincerity, and say, "Father, I have sinned;" if you will, from this hour, commence a new life of prayerful and conscientious obedience to every known duty, God will, for the sake of Christ's atonement, forgive all the past, adopt you into his own family, and he will be your Father and you shall be his son.

The Fragment Basket.

LUTHER'S MEMORABLE PROTESTATION UPON THE ARTICLE OF JUSTIFICATION.

I, MARTIN LUTHER, an unworthy preacher of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thus profess, and thus believe: That this Article, that faith alone, without works, can justify before God, shall never be overthrown, neither by the Emperor, nor by the Turk, nor by the Tartar, nor by the Persian, nor by the Pope, with all his cardinals, bishops, sacrificers, monks, nuns, kings, powers of the world, nor yet by all the

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devils in hell. This Article shall stand fast whether they will or no. This is the true gospel, Jesus Christ redeemed us from our sins, and he only. This most firm and certain truth is the voice of Scripture, though the world and all the devils rage and roar. If Christ alone take away our sins, we cannot do this with our works; and as it is impossible to embrace Christ but by faith, it is, therefore, equally impossible to apprehend him by works. then, faith alone must apprehend Christ before works can follow, the conclusion is irrefragable that faith alone apprehends him before and without the consideration of works. this is our justification and deliverance from sin. Then, and not till then, good works follow faith, as its necessary and inseparable fruit. This is the doctrine I teach, and this the Holy Spirit and Church of the faithful have delivered. In this will I abide. Amen.

And

ETERNITY. WHENCE do you derive your confidence

that your dying day is so remote? From your youth? Yes, you reply; I am as yet only twenty-thirty-years old. Ah! you completely deceive yourselves. No, it is not you that have advanced twenty or thirty years, but that death has gained twenty or thirty years upon you. God has given you thirty years of grace, by suffering you to live: you are his debtor for these years; and they have brought you so much nearer to that term when death awaits you. Take heed, then; eternity already marks upon your brow the fatal instant in which it will begin for you. ETERNITY! Ah! know you what it is? It is a time-piece, whose pendulum speaks, and incessantly repeats, two words only in the silence of the tomb: ever, never-never, ever-and for ever,-Bridaine.

MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION. MORALITY, in its common acceptation, is distinct from religion. Man is a social being, and loves society for its own sake. He has a conscience to distinguish between right and wrong. He has reason by which he may form rules of conduct that shall tend to promote the security, quiet, and happiness of the community. He can see that one course of conduct tends to order and happiness in the world, that its opposite tends to misery and ruin; and he can pursue the one and avoid the other, even though he believe that there is no God above; no law sustained by the sanctions of a great and just Lawgiver; no future retribution, or future state of existence.

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be may be a moral man, and yet an irreligious man, although it is also true that irreligion is generally connected with immorality.

Hence it is evident, that a Christian preacher would fall far short of the great end for which his office is ordained, if he were to preach so as to make men mere moralists. Morality, without spiritual life, cannot prepare the soul for the hour of death, or for the judgment seat of God.

BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF A
WELL-SPENT SABBATH.

I AM prepared to affirm, that to the studious especially, and whether younger or older, a Sabbath well-spent-spent in happy exercises of the heart, devotional and domestic-a Sunday given to the soul, is the best of all means of refreshment for the mere intellect. A Sabbath so passed is a liquefaction of the entire nature-a dispersive process -dispelling mental cramps and stagnations; and enabling every single faculty again to get its share in the general diffusion of the intellectual powers.-Isaac Taylor.

PRAYING AND GIVING. THE venerable Father Sewall, of Maine, once entered a meeting in behalf of foreign missions, just as the collectors of the contributions were resuming their seats. The chairman of the meeting requested him to lead in prayer. The old gentleman stood, hesitatingly, as if he had not heard the request. It waз repeated in a louder voice; but there was no response. It was observed, however, that Mr. Sewall was fumbling in his pockets, and presently he produced a piece of money, which he deposited in the contribution-box. The chairman, thinking he had not been understood, said loudly, "I didn't ask you to give, Father Sewall; I asked you to pray." "Oh, yes," he replied, "I heard you, but I can't pray till I've given something."

RELIGION MAKES MEN COM

FORTABLE.

A WILD Fingo was travelling through Hankey, a missionary station in South Africa, and sat down to rest for a few minutes upon the step of the door of

the chapel. It was getting near the time of evening service, and several of the Christian natives were standing about, looking clean and neatly dressed. The Fingo looked round on everything with great amazement. "How do all you people get food?" he asked. It was a good man to whom he spoke. He answered the Fingo, "Do you not think I look as if I were comfortable, and had enough to eat?" 66 Yes," said the Fingo. A little child came by. "Do you not think that child looks well fed ?" asked the Christian native. "Yes." "If you will come to this place of worship to-morrow," said the Christian," you will see a great many persons as well fed as I am, and better clothed." The Fingo rose from his seat, looking astonished; and as he marched off, he lifted up his eyes and pointed his right hand to heaven, and said, "It is always so where that God is worshipped." Yes, it is religion that makes people comfortable.-A Missionary.

GOOD DONE BY MISSIONS. THE Voice of Lord Denman, Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, England, has often been raised in behalf of the poor and oppressed in different lands. Quite recently he has written a letter to Lord Brougham on the final extinction of the slave trade, in which he bears his strong testimony to the good accomplished by missions in Africa. "Let me indulge myself," he says,

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by pausing one moment on the only agreeable part of a most painful and revolting subject, and expressing my unbounded respect and veneration for the missionaries, whose disinterested labours have done so much for Africa. Their services are above all earthly praise."

TRAINING OF CHILDREN. THE instruction of your children cannot commence too early. Every mother is capable of teaching her children obedience, humility, cleanliness, and propriety of behaviour; and it is a delightful circumstance, that the first instruction should thus be communi

cated by so tender a teacher. It is by combining affectionate gentleness in granting what is right, with judicious firmness in refusing what is improper,

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