Probing questions.

indeed considered what it is to receive baptism? have you weighed the meaning of those questions? have you thought how much is implied in renouncing the sinful desires of the flesh, so that you will not follow nor be led by them?" Consider what a state of affections this implies. No matter what may be your wishes, your desires, or your inclinations-if they are not in strict accordance with the holy will of God, you bind yourself by the most solemn of vows to renounce' them-to give them up-to sacrifice them-though the effort cost you as much pain as the amputation of an arm, or the plucking out of an eye. Are you ready to sacrifice self, and bow thus submissively to the will of God?

"Consider in whom you profess faith! In Christ! That Christ whom you have denied, abjured, and blasphemed. In receiving baptism you declare, that abandoning every other hope, you look to him alone for salvation—you cast yourself upon his free mercy-fully sensible that unless he saves you by an act of infinite grace, you must perish— and that if you perish, you are determined to perish at the foot of the cross.

"Consider also that you are to vow, that you will not only abandon your former courses, and habits, and sinsmaking a complete surrender of yourself to Christ, your King; but that you 'will obediently keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of your life.' What surrender could be more perfect than this? What profession of religion could be more solemn or unqualified?

“Now, sir, are you willing thus to give yourself up to God? Allow me to specify. You cannot but be sensible, if you have any right views of your own past conductyou cannot but be sensible that you have injured—cruelly injured your family. The only reparation that you can now make them, is a frank and humble acknowledgment of the ill-treatment they have received at your hands. Nothing can prevent your making this acknowledgment,

Superficial views of religion.

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unless it be a remaining sinful desire of the flesh.' That desire you must sacrifice, or never receive baptism from my hands."

The religious feelings which at this time existed in the bosom of Mr. Lindsley had been awakened solely by the fear of death, and the dread of that punishment that follows death. While occupied by this one absorbing emotion, which grew more intense with every advancing step of terror's king, the proud and rebellious spirit of depraved nature lay in a state of dormancy-but it was not subdued. Agonized at the thought of dying in guilt, and dropping into endless perdition, Mr. Lindsley was anxious to perform some external act of religion, from which he might gather some gleam of hope: forgetting in this hour of mental agony, that external ordinances can be of no avail, without the heart is right in the sight of God.

That which determined him to send for the Rev. Mr. Z―, at this time, as his spiritual counsellor, was the uniform character this man sustained for dove-like gentleness and universal benevolence. With such a counsellor he hoped his path to the grave would be rendered smooth, and his passage to the eternal world easy; and that he should be spared the painful business of laying bare to the severing knife the dark depravity and deep corruptions of the inner man.

When, contrary to his expectation, his spiritual counsellor applied a searching caustic to every wound, and with a discriminating perception that seemed almost divine, touched that string in his heart to which a thousand feelings of concealed but deep-rooted depravity vibrated-making, a reconciliation with his family-an acknowledgment to them of sorrow and contrition for the many evils they had suffered at his hands—the sole condition upon which he would administer baptism to him-Mr. Lindsley hastily replied, and the tones of his voice were those, not of an humble, dying penitent, but of a self-willed and unsubdued sinner,

"That acknowledgment, sir, I can never make."

"Then," said Mr. Z- with a solemn and emphatic tone, "I can never baptize you. And," continued he, "as I see no prospect of being of any further service to you, I will now take my leave."

He accordingly arose and proceeded to take his departure. His hand was already upon the latch of the door, when the sick man, raising himself up in his bed, his countenance exhibiting ten thousand conflicting and soul-racking emotions, exclaimed,

"O my God, must I then die unbaptized !!"

The kind-hearted minister, affected even to tears at this sudden burst of feeling, turned round and said,

"Deluded man, baptism cannot wash the deep corruption -the crimson stains of guilt from your heart. Until your feelings are changed, and your stubborn will subdued, there is no hope for you."

"Hear me, ," said the sick man, gathering new strength from the intensity of internal and agonized feeling. "Hear me-if you desert me, then there is no hope;" and as he spoke, torrents of scalding tears coursed down his haggard checks-"I wish to be baptized for several reasons—one is, that I may declare my belief in the Christian religion, which, although I have often abjured with my lips, I have never doubted in my heart. I am sensible that I am now near eternity, and that hell is yawning beneath the very place where I lie. I would be saved. My pride has been my ruin. That prevented me from giving up my heart, and from going forward to unite myself with the church of Christ, at a season when the Spirit of God wrestled powerfully with my soul. O, had I then accepted of the overtures of mercy, chosen the Lord for my portion, and bound myself by a solemn and inviolable vow to the service of my Maker, what a tremendous wreck should I have avoided! My pride just now would not suffer me to make peace with the wife of my youth, and the child of my early love. Yes, I have cruelly injured them. They were all that is

Proposed reconciliation.

kind, gentle, holy, affectionate, and lovely; and, amid all the bitter breathings and envenomed rancour of this wretched heart, I have ever loved them, and love them still."

Exhausted by this effort to unburden the conflicting emotions of his soul, Mr. Lindsley now sunk back upon his bed in silence. A milder and more subdued aspect sat upon his countenance, than had before been observed.

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Mr. Z- then told him, that on his way to visit him, he had fallen in with Mrs. Lindsley and Mary Anna, and that they were now in the village, ready to fly to his embrace. "Will you not"-continued he-" allow me to call upon them, and assure them that you truly deplore the misdemeanours of your life, and desire, before you depart hence, next to being reconciled to God, a perfect reconciliation with them ?"

To this Mr. Lindsley immediately consented, and in a few minutes the wife and daughter were at his bedside.

THE parted family were again beneath the same roof, and happy in each other's presence. All former unkindness was forgotten. The mother and daughter were now unwearied in their attentions and efforts to contribute to the comfort of the sick and dying man. The object of their constant and most tender solicitude, was, that he might be prepared to enter upon that dread eternity which now stretched before him.

Baptism had been administered to him-he having given evidences of contrition and repentance, that, in the view of his spiritual guide, justified this act.

"Who" said Mr. Lindsley, as he lay upon his bed one afternoon, now greatly debilitated, his countenance changed,and his features exhibiting evidences of a chastened and subdued spirit—no one at the time being in the room except Mary Anna,