orphan. His first object was to soothe him into confidence, and then to direct him to a Father who would never forsake him. With patience he satisfied his curiosity respecting death-how it is a long sleep, but that the voice of God will one day awake even the dead. He told him how death was introduced into the world, and made him understand that it was the consequence of sin. He explained to him the natural depravity of the heart-how we, "like sheep, have all gone astray." He laboured to impress upon him a correct view of the character of God-his attributes of love, mercy, justice, &c., and then explained how we might be saved by Jesus Christ. He next strove deeply to impress upon the listening boy what is "the chief end of man," and thus concluded, while his little hearer seemed to hang upon his lips: "And now, my dear little boy, you have indeed lost a tender father, but I have been trying to point you to a Father who has promised never to forsake the poor orphan."

But," says the child, "what is it to be an orphan ?"

"It is to be left destitute of parents while we are yet children."

"Oh, yes, but what is a poor orphan?"

The clergyman was affected, but replied: "It is a child who is left destitute of property, as well as parents."

"Oh! I wish," said the child, in the simplicity of his heart, "I wish that I was a poor orphan, if God would be my father."

The good minister wept; for he knew that the child's wish respecting property would be fully satisfied.

"I trust, my dear child, that God will be your father. You know how short are our lives-how certain our death-how much we have to do to prepare for death; and how we should devote our lives to God, that we may meet death with peace. I hope you will not only be good, and live so as to meet your poor father in heaven, but I hope your life will be spent in trying to do good to others.

The clergyman held the hand of the child, and they knelt in prayer on the grave. The petition was, that God would provide for the little orphan. It was now dark, except what light was afforded by the bright twinkling of the stars. As they left the grave-yard the shepherd directed the attention of his lamb to these wonderful works of God, and his heart beat with joy when he exclaimed: " My Father made them all."

He led the orphan to his place of residencesoothed his grief-assuaged his sorrows, and determined to adopt and make him his child. But God ordered otherwise. The faithful pastor was soon after laid upon the bed of death; and from the chamber which had for many years been the witness of the piety of his heart, and which was "privileged above the common walks of virtuous life," his spirit, as we trust, flew from the snares, the corruptions, and the sins of this transitory world, and found a shelter in the bosom of his Redeemer-and left the child a second time an orphan.

At the death of the clergyman the little boy was thrown upon the wide world with but few friendshis patron was dead, and he was forgotten. Many who saw, felt compassion for him. They saw sorrow often brooding over his countenance, and the big tear often gush from his eyes-they saw and pitied

hoped he would be provided for," and left him as they found him. But it should be a matter of consolation to dying parents that there is One who heareth even the " 'young ravens when they cry," and will provide for the fatherless.

I have only to add, that to the subject of this narrative God was ever near. He was placed in many

different situations-passed through many trials, but was ever protected by the tender mercy of God. At the age of sixteen it is believed that he experienced the operations of the Spirit of God upon his hearthe thought of this interview with the good clergyman, and of his advice, his prayers and his wishes; and he dedicated his life to the service of God. The hand of charity was extended. He is now a member of one of our most respectable colleges; and it is hoped and believed that this orphan may hereafter be known as a missionary of the cross in some heathen land, where he has determined to spend his days.— Todd's Simple Sketches.

THE MARIGOLD.

WHEN with a serious musing I behold
The grateful and obsequious marigold-
How duly, every morning, she displays
Her open breast, when Titan spreads his rays;
How she observes him in his daily walk,

Still bending tow'rds him her small slender stalk; How, when he down declines, she droops and mourns,

Bedew'd, as 'twere with tears, till he returns;
And how she veils her flowers when he is gone,
As if she scorned to be looked on

By an inferior eye, or did contemn
To wait upon a meaner light than him:
When this I meditate, methinks the flowers
Have spirits far more generous than ours,
And give us fair examples to despise
The servile fawnings and idolatries,
Wherewith we court these earthly things below,
Which merit not the service we bestow.

WITHER.

Missionary Fragments.

LEANING UPON THE BELOVED." ONE day a very old man went into Mr Pitman's study, when the following conversation took place; "Well, my friend, what is your business?" "I wish to give myself to God in baptism." "Is that the real desire of your heart?" "Yes, the real desire." "Do you love God and Christ?" "Yes, I love God. I have been a wretched being, a great warrior in this place, and many a one have I slain in my days of ignorance; but there is a new day. We heard you preach from these words: God forbid now hear things that we never heard before. I that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I thought much about the cross of Christ." "Do you know who Christ is ?" "He is the Son of God." "What was his object in coming into this world ?” "To be the true sacrifice for sin,

that we might be saved." "Do you pray to him?" this," leaning his back, and resting his whole weight "Oh, yes." "Do you trust in him "Yes, like against the sofa in the study; "my soul thus leans on Christ."

Daily Bread.

FRIDAY.

"He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death." -REV. ii. 11.

When from flesh the spirit freed,
Hastens homeward to return,
Mortals cry, "A man is dead!

Angels sing, "A child is born!"

A believer may feel the stroke of death, but he shall never feel the sting of death; the first death may bring his body to corruption, but the second death shall never bring his soul to damnation; though he may live a life that is dying, he shall die a death that is living; he that is housed in Christ shall never be housed in hell.-Dyer.

SATURDAY.

"Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."ROM. V. 1.

The peace which man can ne'er conceive,
The love and joy unknown,
Now, Father, to thy servant give,

And claim me for thine own!

We are only acceptable in the Beloved. A Christless man is a peaceless man; he hath no peace with God-no peace with angels-no peace with conscience. Till we be Christ's friends, we are our own foes. It is true, a wicked man may speak peace to himself, but God speaks not a jot of peace to him.-Ibid.

"

SABBATH.

Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt."-IEB. xi. 26.

Thy power and saving truth to show,

A warfare at thy charge I go,

Strong in the Lord, and thy great might;
Gladly take up the hallowed cross;
And, suffering all things for thy cause,

Beneath thy bloody banner fight.

Fiery trials make golden Christians; sin hath brought many a believer unto suffering, and suffering hath kept many a believer from sinning. They that here be crossed for well-living, shall hereafter be crowned for well-dying. The losing of our heads makes way for receiving of our crown. God will season our vessels with water of affliction, before he pours in the wine of glory. By this you see, beloved, that the reproaches of Christ are precious. It is better to be preserved in brine than to rot in honey.

-Ibid.

MONDAY.

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God.”— 1 Cor. iii. 26.

Let us never, never rest.
Til. the promise is fulfill'd;

Till we are of thee possess'd,

Pardon'd, sanctified, and seal'd;

Till we all, in love renew'd,

Find the pearl that Adam lost,

Temples of the living God,

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Every true Christian is a temple to God. If ye look for sacrifices, they are not wanting there: they offer the sacrifice of praise, and they do good; with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Christ himself is the altar that sanctifies the gift. If we look for incense, it is there too. The graces of the Spirit are found in their hearts; and the Spirit of a crucified Christ fires them, and puts them in exercise; like as the fire was brought from the altar of burnt-offering to set the incense on flame; then they mount heavenward like pillars of smoke. But the best of incense

will leave ashes behind it. Yes, indeed; but as the priest took away the ashes of the incense in a golden dish, and threw them out, so our great High Priest takes away the ashes and refuse of all the services of the saints, by his mediation in their behalf.-Boton.

TUESDAY.

"He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit."-JoHN XV. 5.
Lord, if at thy command

The Word of life we sow,
Water'd by thy almighty hand,

The seed shall surely grow.

The fruits of holiness will be found in the hearts,

lips, and lives of those who are united to Christ. The hidden man of the heart is not only a temple built for God, and consecrated to him, but used and employed for him, where love, fear, trust, and all the other parts of unseen religion are exercised. The heart is no more the devil's common, where thoughts go free; for there even vain thoughts are hated; but it is God's enclosure, hedged about as a garden for him. It is true, there are weeds of corruption there, because the ground is not yet perfectly healed; but the man, in the day of his new creation, is set to dress it, and keep it.-Ibid.

WEDNESDAY.

"The righteous shall hope in his death."-Prov. xiv. 32.
For the joy he sets before thee.
Bear a momentary pain;
Die, to live the life of glory;

Suffer, with thy Lord to reign.

What harm did the jailer to Pharaoh's butler, when he opened the prison door to him, and let hita out? Thus, and no worse, are the souls of the saints treated by death. It comes to the godly man, as Haman came to Mordecai, with the horse and the royal apparel. He whom the king delighted to honour, behooved to be honoured; and Haman, Mordecai's grand enemy, must be the man employed to put his honour upon him. A dying day is, in itself, when the captives are delivered, when the prisoners a joyful day to the godly; it is their redemption day, home from their pilgrimage-the day in which the are set free. It is the day of the pilgrims coming heirs of glory return from their travels to their own country, and their Father's house, and enter into their marriage-day: now is the time of espousals; actual possession of the glorious inheritance. It is riage-feast begun, which has no period.-Ibid. but then the marriage is consummated, and a mar

277

JORDAN Overflowing all his banks is an image of death. The last enemy has long been pictured as a river to be passed by the traveller in his way to the eternal state. The Heathen themselves had something of this kind in their mythology; for they spoke of Styx, a fabled river of Hades, on which Charon plied his boat, conveying departed spirits to their final abode.

But now, the travelling nation had left the wilderness behind-they encamp beside the stream-the fruitful hills of Canaan tower in the distance, and the valleys wave with luxuriance; this, only this river separates them from the long desired rest. Would that it were fordable; how soon, in that case, had the impatient congregation rushed through the barrier! But that is impossible-it was now harvest, when Jordan overflows all his banks.

Such is the Christian's position on the verge of time. True, all his trials in the wilderness are left behind; but one remains to be surmounted, more terrific than all the rest. Nature shudders at the thought of the encounter. The deep rolling wave, the roar of the billows, the sorrows of parting from all we love-the sounds, the sights, the feelings, the heart-sickening anguish, the throbbing pulse, the clammy browall go to spread out a scene before the eyes of the dying altogether overwhelming to poor human nature. Oh! to get away-to surmount the barrier, and reach the farther shore. How can it be?-how can the heart endure-how shall the sorrows of that hour give way before the spirit stretching across the flood? But the passage through is matter of mystery up to the moment of going forward. The command is given: "Speak to the people that they go forward;" and, lo! that which seemed an insuperable impediment passes off-the river divides, and the tribes march along the bed of the stream. So here, up to the hour of departure from the wilderness, all seems dark and mysterious. The eye of the Christian, long before he comes up to Jordan, peers into the distant future; he starts ten thousand difficulties-he propounds ten thousand queries. But, when the moment arrives, the believer finds that his fears were groundless. His guilt is cancelled; his Surety has abolished death by dying; his faith is strengthened for the last solemn march; and his fears flee away as the mists of the morning. They are uniformly scattered, and come to nought. Is there a Christian who ever found it otherwise? Where did he live, and where did he die? There never lived the man who did not realize the truth of the promise: "I am with thee." Yet the timid saint, at No. 24.

some distance from the dreaded river, cannot see the way-cannot comprehend how it is to be. No more could Israel, when a good way off from Jordan; but the feet of the priests once dipped in the brim of the water, all doubt took end; for that instant the prodigy appeared. So now, the feet of the Christian pilgrim must be actually in contact with death's cold flood; and then, oh! then, the dry-shod passage takes place; all that God has spoken is fulfilled-fulfilled at the time, and in the manner he had promised it would be.

There

Now, how does this come to pass? Why, thus: The secret of the marvellous division of the waters lies in the presence of the ark of the covenant. The ark was a type of Christ. There was the law deposited-emblem of Him who said: "Thy law is within my heart." was the golden pot of manna-which spoke of Him who is the true bread of life. There too, was the rod bearing blossoms and almonds -the figure of the chosen Priest, the rod of whose strength goes out of Zion. On that sacred chest was the mercy-seat; for God is in Christ the true propitiatory: and a golden crown surrounded the mystic seat; for it pointed to the King of Israel, the Lord of Hosts. Then, as the ark entered Jordan, the waters were driven back; so Jesus passes on before his chosen : "I come again, and receive you to myself." "Lo, I am with you." "It is I, be not afraid." And, now, 'tis but the shadow of death" through which they pass." The bitterness of death is past; and well it may, for the glorious Surety exhausted the cup.

All eyes were to be directed toward the ark; it rested underneath the crystal wall. The whole congregation, in close column, passed before it. Every eye was fixed upon it—every heart did homage to it. Thus the Christian, who has all along the wilderness kept looking to Jesus, must have a special eye to him as the finisher of faith. No respect must be had to works of the creature-to merit of any degree or of any kind. He, like the martyr, must turn from all that he has done or suffered, and cry: "None but Christ-none but Christ." "Ye have not gone this way with your feet," says Moses; but Christ says: "I am the way, the truth, and the life-come to the Father by me."

Then, again, the ark remained in its position until all the people passed over; the least, the feeblest, was not left behind. Some might be faint and weary, or aged and infirm, and unable to keep pace with the rest; no matter, there the glorious safeguard stood till every soul had reached the shore in perfect safety. And it is so still. Yonder has the Mediator planted his August 8, 1845.

feet, and from the divided stream will he not go up till the last saved sinner has passed into glory. Cheer up, faint heart; cheer up, then; "I will never leave thee," is the watchword. Keep it-bind it to thy heart; it shall be a sweet cordial all the way, and glory at the end!

Pillars of memorial were now to be brought from the midst of Jordan. Twelve stones, built up after the fashion of a monument, were to be placed in the river and out of it. The first would be visible when the stream was low, and would tell beholders that in that place the Captain of the Lord's host stood while the chosen people marched through on dry ground. But another pillar, on the dry land, always meeting the eye of the traveller, would proclaim this great deliverance, and waken up the gratitude of the hearts of unborn generations. Both were to have an interpretive language, which the ransomed were to make plain to all future inquirers.

Nor are we without somewhat analogous in this age. What is the Lord's-day but a standing memorial of our Lord's victory ?-what but a noble, an undecaying, an. everlasting and divinely appointed trophy, raised up to tell all the world that death is "conquered" that it is "abolished"-that it is "swallowed up;" yea, that that dreadful barrier is taken out of the way of all believers-it is dried up, and is no more? And what is the dying experience of all the faithful who have left their testimony behind them, but so many stones of memorial standing, as it were, in the river of death, to cheer the spirits of upcoming passengers, by affording growing assurance with their growing numbers, that the "faithful and true Witness" has, in every case, been as good as his word; and that they, too, may venture in the full assurance of faith?

But the thought must needs strike an observer, that of the millions who are constantly coming forward to the river's brink, all do not find a comfortable passage and a safe landing. No; he sees multitudes advance before whom goes no ark, and whom the waters of this dark flowing stream know not. They have no arkthey would have none; they scorned a guide they would have none of Christ; or, despising him through the wilderness, they calculated that he would be at a call by the river's edge. But it is not so: "I called, and ye refused; I stretched out my hand, and ye did not regard; I will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." So says the rejected Deliverer. They are seen to advance without him; but they are seen no more the cold rolling wave receives them-they utter the shriek of despair, and are lost for ever!

Thrice happy they who have been made alive to their misery and helplessness, and who have fled to the Friend of sinners; to them life is pleasant-death is welcome-eternity is glo

rious!

EXTRACTS FROM A TRAVELLER'S NOTE-BOOK.

BY THE REV. W. K. TWEEDIE, EDINBURGH.

THE CITIES OF ITALY-MILAN.

"I HAVE not been a very great sinner," was the significant remark of Nelson to his chaplain, within an hour of his death, in the cockpit of the Victory; and the words often occurred to us as we traversed the scenes over which Popery broods like a dark cloud, or stood in the churches where it so manifestly holds the souls of men under its corroding bondage.

Even amid the gorgeousness and architectural grandeur of the Cathedral of Milan, we could not forget that that was the sentiment by which myriads, as well as Nelson, are deluded; nay, the Cathedral of Milan forced that thought upon the mind. We had reached that city-the first of the great cities of Italy, which we would now attempt to describe-with excited expectations regarding it, and especially regarding its vast and wondrous fane;" and of all that Italy contains, if we except Rome, this is, perhaps, the most magnificent. Indeed, so gorgeous is the structure, that one would rather wander round and round it to admire, than attempt any description of its details. It was founded in 1386. Its style is Gothic, in the form of a Latin cross. It is composed entirely of white marble. It is decorated by some hundreds of statues of the same beautiful material." Its long drawn aisles, and its roof, lofty to a degree that renders it sublime, are beyond our praise. The original architect is unknown; but the exclamation of the Emperor Joseph II. when he beheld the pile, though exaggerated, is descriptive: "E una montagna d'oro convertita in marmore." If not, like Abbotsford, a romance in stone and lime," it is better-an epic in Carrara marble. These and similar incidents might be dwelt on at length; but let us look into the interior. Are there "living stones" there?

In the various chapels, you find priests at all hours performing mass, with here and there a worshipper or two-the number increasing or diminishing according to the popularity of the saint who happens to be worshipped as the god or goddess of that particular spot. And as long as men feel that they "have not been very great sinners," this mass-saying and mummery suffices to keep conscience quiet; the chink is small, and easily stopped. But let conscience be roused by the conviction that “God's law is exceeding broad," and yet, that "cursed is he who continueth not in all that law" (Ps. cxix. 96, corapared with Gal. iii. 3, and James ii. 10); that is, just let a man believe God's Word, not merely concerning mankind, but concerning himself, then all this delusion is at an end-the earnest soul refuses to be satisfied with such miserable and meagre appliances as either the sentiment of the hero or the delusions of Popery supply.

You accordingly notice, in some of these chapels, some worshippers whose demeanour betokens intensest mental misery. They do not mingle with the crowd, or frequent the more gaudy and attractive