Thy pilgrimage lies through the wilderness, a wilderness indeed; but the dear path to Christ's abode is there, and his light is shining. No pilgrim's rest is in this world, but there is a REST that remaineth for the people of God. Here we have no continuing city; but we seek one to come, a city which hath foundations that cannot be moved, whose Builder and Maker is God. Go, then, on thy way, singing as thou goest

How happy is the Pilgrim's lot,

How free from every anxious thought,
From worldly hope and fear!
Confined to neither court nor cell,
His soul disdains on earth to dwell—
He only sojourns here.

This happiness in part is mine;
Already saved from low design,

From every creature-love!
Blessed with the scorn of finite good,
My soul is lightened of its load,
And seeks the things above.

The things eternal I pursue,
A happiness beyond the view
Of those that beastly pant

For things by nature felt and seen;

Their honours, wealth, and pleasures mean,
I neither have nor want.

No foot of land do I possess;
No cottage in this wilderness;
A poor way-faring man;
I lodge awhile in tents below,
Or gladly wander to and fro,

Till I my Canaan gain.
Nothing on earth I call my own;
A stranger to the world, unknown,
I all their goods despise:

I trample on their whole delight,
And seek a city out of sight,

A city in the skies.

There is my house and portion fair;
My treasure and my heart are there,
And my abiding home;

For me my elder brethren stay,
And angels beckon me away,
And Jesus bids me come!

-Cheever.

ALLEGED TRIVIAL DETAILS IN THE
BIBLE.

(From Gaussen's Theopneustia.) ONE of the passages which we have most frequently heard brought forward to justify a distinction between what is inspired in the Word of God, and what is not, is the recommendation of Paul to Timothy respecting the weakness of stomach, and other ailments with which this youthful disciple was afflicted. Drink not only water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thy frequent infirmities." (1 Tim. v. 23.)

If, however, we look into this passage, what an admirable and lively revelation do we not find of the greatness of the apostolic vocation, and of the amiability of the Christian character! Remark, in the first place, that it is, as it were, in the temple of God that it has been uttered; for immediately before we have these solemn words:"I speak to thee in the presence of God and the Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the elect angels, that thou observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by partiality. Lay hands suddenly on no man; keep thy

self pure. Drink not only water," &c. We here see that it is in the presence of their common Master, and of the holy angels, that Paul would address himself to his disciple: let us, therefore, enter into the same temple, in order to understand him, and place ourselves on the same heights, and range ourselves, like him, "before the Lord Jesus and his elect angels;" we should then quickly recognise how much these words reflect the beauty of the apostolic ministry, and the gracious dealings of the Lord towards his servants. The celebrated Chrysostom well understood this, when, preaching from these very words, he remarked, the most useful servants of God ought to be little surprised, if it frequently happen that their Lord judged it expedient to try them, as Timothy, by various bodily infirmities and weaknesses; by some thorn in the flesh, or by permitting some emissary of Satan to buffet them, in order, on the one hand, that they might be stirred up to the exercise of sympathy, gentleness, cordial affection, and tender compassion; and, on the other, to patience, self-denial, self-renunciation, and especially to prayer. Re-peruse, with seriousness, and by the light of the last day, this beautiful passage of the apostle, and you will have to admire how much precious instruction the Holy Ghost has given to us in the small space of a single verse, above what the pious Jerome has pointed out. How many words, and even chapters, would have been necessary to teach as much in any other form! You there learn, besides, for instance, the sobriety of the young and ardent Timothy; he had desired, like Paul, to bring his body under in service; he drank only water, and refrained from using wine. You will there see, also, with what tender and parental delicacy the apostle reproves either his imprudence or austerity carried too far. You will there see with what wisdom the Lord authorizes and invites, by these words, his children to take all necessary care of their health; at the same time, nevertheless, that he sees fit to visit. them with bodily sickness. You will see, too, with what prophetic foresight this word, put into the mouth of an apostle, antecedently condemns those human traditions, which, in the lapse of time, would deny to the faithful, as an impurity, the use of wine. You will there see, sixthly, with what tender solicitude, sympathy, and truly paternal vigilance, the apostle Paul, in the midst of his high functions, and notwithstanding the overwhelming care of all the Churches (from Jerusalem to Illyria, and from Illyria as far as Spain), kept his eye upon the personal circumstances of his much-loved Timothy, and felt for his weakness of stomach, his frequent infirmities, and his imprudent neglect of needful aliment. And, finally, you will there learn an historical fact, which throws great light upon the nature of miraculous gifts. In spite of all Paul's interest for the ailments of Timothy, he had not the power of restoring him to health; not even Paul, who had so often healed the sick, and who had even raised the dead; because the apostles (and we learn it in this verse, as well as by the sickness of Epaphroditus) (Phil. ii. 27) had not received the permanent gift of miracles, any more than that of theopneustia; because it was necessary that this power should be renewed to them on each particular occasion.

But if all these lessons of the apostle are important, and if we thus receive them all so briefly, and in a manner so calculated to affect us, oh! how attractive and full of light do they become to a simple Christian's mind, as soon as he is convinced that it is not here the word of a good man merely, that it is not even that of an apostle only, but that it is the voice of his God, who would teach him so affectingly, sobriety, brotherly love, a tender interest

for the health of others, and the utility of afflictions and infirmities to the most zealous of the servants of God, and who, to teach us all these precious lessons, deigns to address us by the mouth of a frail creature! We are often assailed in connection with the salutations with which Paul concludes his Epistles, and which (we are told) are, after all, but as the vain compliments which we habitually use at the close of our letters. There is nothing (it is added) in these unworthy of an apostle, but neither is there anything inspired. The Holy Spirit has therein left the pen of Paul at liberty, that he might give free expres sion to his personal affection, as a secretary would be left to himself to close, in the usual complimentary style, a letter, the subject-matter of which had been dictated to him. Look, for example, at the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Is it not evident that the apostle devotes sixteen verses to the remembrance of his own personal friendships? Did the dry catalogue of all those individuals require the Holy Spirit's aid? The apostle mentions eighteen persons by name, without reckoning all those to whom he sends collective salutations in the households of Aquila, Narcissus, and Aristobulus. These verses cannot have required inspiration; at the utmost, they needed only that oversight of the Spirit of the Lord which was still exercised, even when the sacred writers were left to their own personalities.

We do not shrink from avowing, that it gives us pleasure to review, in this place, these sixteen verses which have been so repeatedly objected to; for, on the contrary, they are of the number of those pas sages in which divine wisdom is conspicuous; and if you examine them you will soon admire, with us, the exceeding richness, the condescension, and dignity of this mode of instruction; you will there find, under the most practical and artless form, the living picture of a primitive Church; you will there discover, with lively interest, the relations of its members one with another; and you will see to what high estimation the weakest and most ignorant among them could attain within its bosom.

See, in the first place, with what tender interest the apostle recommends to the love of the Church at Rome the humble woman who, from Corinth, it would appear, was journeying into Italy about her temporal affairs. She was a well-beloved sister, who had been devoted to the service of the saints, and who did not fear to open her house to many of the faithful, and to Paul himself, notwithstanding the perils of such hospitality. She was the servant of the Church at Cenchrea. The brethren at Rome are therefore called upon to receive her in the Lord, and to assist her in whatsoever she has need. See, in what follows, how forcible an example the apostle gives us, in a few words, of that Christian courtesy which ought to characterize the mutual relations of the children of God! Admire how, whilst passing so rapidly in review the brethren and sisters of the Church at Rome, he remembers to shed upon this "dry nomenclature," as it has been termed, the refreshing unction of his love! For each one of them, there are a few words of encouragement and tender esteem. He there recalls the generous hospitality of Phoebe; the risking of life on his behalf by Aquila and his companions; the honour of Epenetus, in being the first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ; the "much labour" bestowed on him by Mary; the recollection that his kinsmen Andronicus and Junia, were in Christ before him; his Christian love for Amplias; the evangelical labours of Urbane; the triedfi delity of Apelles; the multiplied labours of Tryphena and Tryphosa in the Lord, and those of the beloved Persis. What an appeal, moreover, to the conscience of every serious reader, is this rapid cata

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logue! Behold, he should say to himself, the character of the faithful in the Church at Rome, to whom salutations were sent! And if the apostle were to address an epistle to the Church in which, for a season, I myself occupy a place, what would he say of me? Would my name have a place in it? Could he add that, like Phoebe, I welcomed the saints to my house ?-that, like Aquila and Priscilla, I had meetings of Christians under my happy roof? that, like Mary, I bestowed much labour on the ministers of the Lord; that I have suffered for Christ, like Andronicus and Junia; that I am a man approved in Christ, like Apelles; that I am elect in the Lord, like Rufus; that I am his fellow-helper, like Urbane; that I am in much service for the Lord, like Tryphena and Tryphosa; and that I labour much therein, like the beloved Persis?

But, above all, see what a lesson for Christian women is set forth in these admirable verses! In the simple familiarity of the salutations which close the epistle, how he shows them the high character of their vocation! What an important part is assigned them in the Church, and what a place in the heavens! Without having, as yet, even seen the city of Rome, Paul there mentions, by their own names, and as his fellow-helpers, as many as nine or ten women. Besides Phoebe, whom he first commends to them, there is the excellent Priscilla, that happy wife of Aquila, who went so far as to expose herself to the suffering of death for the apostle, and who enjoyed the gratitude of all the Gentile Churches; next, one named Mary, who had been very zealous in ministering to the apostles; then Tryphena and Tryphosa, who continued to labour in the Lord; then Persis, who was especially dear to him, and who had laboured much in the Lord; then Julia; then the sister of Nereus, who is perhaps Olympas; and, finally, we have the venerable mother of Rufus. And remark, by the way, with what respect he mentions this lady, and with what delicacy he salutes her with the tender name of MOTHER: “ Salute Rufus, elect in the Lord, and his mother and mine!" Is not this an example of the Christian courtesy which he had recommended to the same Romans in the twelfth chapter of the epistle: "Salute Rufus, elect of God," he writes, "and his mother, WHO IS ALSO MINE!" What a lovely pattern do these verses exhibit to husbands and wives, in the persons of Aquila and Priscilla! You here see them at Rome; you might have seen them, five years previously, driven out of Italy by the Emperor Claudius, arriving at Corinth, and receiving into their dwelling the apostle Paul; then, eighteen months afterwards, accompanying him into Asia, and dwelling at Ephesus, where they had a church in their house (1 Cor. xvi. 19), and where they assisted, with so much effect, the young and eloquent Apollos, who, notwithstanding his talents, was glad to avail himself of their Christian intercourse and love; and now that the death of Claudius had allowed the accession of Nero, you see them scarcely returned to Rome, when they consecrate their new abode to the Church of God. It was there that the saints assembled; and you here learn, from a passing expression, that both husband and wife had not hesitated to lay down their own necks for the life of Paul.

But besides all the lessons which are presented to our consciences in these sixteen brief verses, you may there farther learn two facts of paramount importance in the history of the Church. And, in the first place, you have the most unintentional and convincing evidence that, at this period, there was no question at Rome either of Peter, or of his episcopacy, or of his popedom, or of his primacy, or even of his presence. Do we not recognise a prophetic

foresight in the care which the Holy Spirit has here taken, to do, in this Epistle to the Romans, what is not done in either of the other fourteen of Paul's Epistles-closing it with a long list of the men and women, most esteemed, at that time, throughout the Church at Rome? We have here the apostle of the Gentiles, twenty years after the commencement of his ministry, writing to the saints at Rome, saluting as many as twenty-eight of them by name, and numerous others by collective designations, yet not sending a word to the Prince of the Apostles, or, as he is styled, the Vicar of Jesus Christ-to his superior, the head of the Universal Church, and founder of the Roman hierarchy ! Peter was the apostle of the Circumcision, and not of the Gentiles (Gal. ii.): his post was at Jerusalem; it is there he must be sought; and it was there that Paul had always found him. On his first journey, three years after his conversion, Paul there visited him, and remained fifteen days in his house. (Gal. i. 18.) On his second journey (to be present at the first council) he again met him there. On his third journey thither, in the year 44, at the period of the death of Herod Agrippa, it was still there that Peter was dwelling. (Acts xiii. 1, 3.) On his fourth journey, seventeen years after his conversion (Gal. ii. 7), Paul again finds him there, discharging the office (and let this be especially noted) of an apostle, not of the Gentiles, but of the Circumcision. And when, finally, he is on his fifth and last journey, he writes to the Romans and to the Galatians; and then, in order that the whole Church might distinctly know that Peter is not at Rome, and never had been there, Paul takes care to salute by name all those who were most eminent among the saints in that city, even among the women. Where is the bishop of the Latin sect, in our day, who would venture to write an epistle of sixteen chapters to the Church of Rome, without saying a single word either of the pope, or of Peter, or a vicar of Jesus Christ?

But there is another historical fact yet more interesting, to the knowledge of which these same sixteen verses, which have been termed useless, particularly direct us. We see, in the details of these brief salutations, by what humble instruments, and yet to what an extent, the gospel had been established, in so short a time, in mighty Rome! No apostle had there set foot; yet, behold what had been accomplished by the unaided labours of travellers, artisans, merchants, women, slaves, and freed men-what progress the Word of God had made! Jesus Christ had disciples already in the palaces of the Jewish princes who were attached to the imperial court, and even among the Roman officers who were nearest to the person of Nero. Among those to whom Paul first desires his salutations, are "those of Aristobulus' household;" and, secondly, "they of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord." Now, the first of these was the distinguished brother of Agrippa the Great, and of the immodest Herodias; the second was the powerful favourite of the Emperor Claudius, who was not poisoned by Agrippina until the close of the year 54.

Oh! that all who are called Christians would for ever renounce the rash systems in which the words of Scripture are arraigned, and their fitness questioned; in which men dare to prune God's Bible of this word and that passage, to make (at least as far as such words and passages are concerned) a Bible of their own; in which they render themselves responsible for any amount of tampering with the Word, which daring commentators may ever venture upon! Why should not others do with an entire book what you have dared to do with a verse? What idea do they form of the sacred writers, to suppose

them capable of the senseless audacity of blending their own decisions with the oracles of the Almighty! We remember a poor idiot, a pensioner of one of our hospitals, whose hand-writing was, nevertheless, so good, that a minister of Geneva employed him to transcribe his sermons. Great, however, was the confusion of the latter when the manuscript was returned, to find that the poor fellow had thought proper to enrich every page by the introduction of his own thoughts. There is, however, far less distance between the idiot and the minister, though the latter should be holy as Daniel, and sublime as Isaiah, than from Daniel or Isaiah to the Eternal Wisdom.

"NOBODY ON EARTH CAN TELL THAT!” THE hand of death had been at work in our town." Three had been hurried to their graves in quick succession. One of them, a man up in years, was cut off very suddenly; and his death caused considerable sensation. It was the topic of conversation in every circle. I happened the day after to meet an old man, whose bent form told that age and sickness had made great inroads upon his naturally strong constitution. We spoke of the sudden death. He told me, in the course of our conversation, that he himself had once been attacked by the same disease of which the old man died; and had been so ill that he was not expected to recover. I took the opportunity of asking him, "Where do you think you would have been now, if you had died then?" He replied very quickly, “Oh, sir, nobody on earth could tell that!” From my previous acquaintance with his character, I was already aware that he was a godless man; but I now discovered how he continued to keep his conscience quiet amidst all his carelessness. The whole matter of our eternal welfare was to him wrapped in doubt and uncertainty; and instead of being troubled at this, as he ought to have been, he was actually making it his excuse for indifference both to the doing of God's will and the seeking of His salvation. He had once been nigh unto death—he was just about to enter the eternal world, but was restored, by the mercy and forbearance of God, that he might be led to repentance. And yet, from that day till now, he has continued in carelessness and sin; and his reason for it is that no one can ever make sure of his soul's salvation. He evidently thus reasoned in his mind that, as the greatest attention to spiritual things still left the soul in darkness as to its safety, he need not give himself much trouble about the matter, as most likely he would, after all, fare just as well without any such anxiety-at any rate, nobody could tell. Only this he knew, that God was merciful. He very willingly, therefore, followed the bent of his sinful desires, and left the salvation of his soul, as a matter of little moment, unattended to.

If this deceit were uncommon, it would be less sad; but thousands are resting their souls upon it. Few there are of the careless, with whom we meet, but are more or less possessed by the idea. But is it really true that nobody on earth can tell? In other words, Is there no possibility of coming to a satis factory conclusion regarding the state of our souls,

And, O! how difficult is it to get our whys and hows crucified, and to resolve all into, and rest satisfied in, infinite wisdom, tempered with new covenant love! Our affliction is returned to an extremity, and the storm has blown hard now for some time; but the Lord sits on the floods; and though it seems to be without all order, yet certainly there is an order in it, though imperceptible to our eyes, and the several drops keep their ranks according to the word of God's command.-I am, with the most endeared respect, yours, &c.

AN ADVICE TO A YOUNG MINISTER.
BY THE LATE REV. CHRISTMAS EVANS.

I AM an old man, my dear boy, and you are just entering the ministry. Let me now and here tell you one thing, and I commend it to your attention and memory. All the ministers that I have ever known, who have fallen into disgrace or into uselessness, have been idle men. I never ain much afraid of a young minister, when I ascertain that he can, and does, fairly sit down to his book. There is Mr.

of whom we were talking just now, a man of such unhappy temper, and who has loved for many years to meddle in all sorts of religious disputes and divisions; he would have long ago been utterly wrecked, had not his habits of industry saved him. He has stuck to his book, and that has kept him from many dishonours, which, had he been an idle man, must have by this time overwhelmed him. An idle man is in the way of every temptation; temptation has no need to seek him; he is at the corner of the street, ready and waiting for it. In the case of a minister of the gospel, this peril is multiplied by his position, his neglected duties, the temptations peculiar to his condition, and his own superior susceptibility. Remember this-stick to your book.

OUR FOOLISHNESS.

ALAS! how we preclude ourselves from the secret experiences of the tender mercies of our God, by the hardness of our hearts, and by the lightness and vanity of them! Oh, that indignity; our God still waiting to be gracious, to heap up more of his love to us; but we are busied in other things, and not at leisure to wait on him! Oh, what are they-these things that take us up? Great matters? Alas! sorry trifles, all day long; and when we are at leisure, yet we are not at leisure; for then we must take our ease, must go to sleep, and so still he is put off, and forced to retire, after he has stayed till" His head be filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night."-Leighton.

PAUL AND JAMES.

THERE is not the smallest disagreement between Paul and James, in the matter of justification. They concur in one common sentiment-that the just shall live by a faith which worketh by love. Is it not by works that our natural body is proved to be alive? If there be no signs of pulse, no respiration, no warmth; in short, if there be no vital actions whatever, do we not pronounce the body dead? These actions are the proper proof that it is alive; yet they are not the cause of its life. The soul, which is the

source of these actions, is the cause of life: further, the more in number, vigour, and excellence, these actions are, the more thoroughly, we say, that body is alive. So in spiritual things.-Wesselus.

A DELUSION.

THERE has not, for these thousand years, been started a more mischievous, pestilential notion, than that God does not demand a perfect fulfilling of all his laws. This is directly to contradict Christ. God never alters his perfect law, though he pardons us when we break it. Observe, however, he does not pardon those who are asleep, but those who labour; those who fear, and who say with Job, "I know thou wilt not hold me innocent." Never suppose that God does not require an exact regard to every tittle of his law; such a notion will soon engender pride, and make you despise that grace, through which his holy law, as a schoolmaster, should compel you to seek deliverance.--Luther.

THE "LITTLE FOXES."

"Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes,”—CANT. ii, 15, THE first risings of sinful thoughts and desires, and the beginning of trifling pursuits, are like the little foxes, which, if not taken, will spoil the vines. Trifling visits which waste much time, incur great expense, put the mind out of frame for devotion, and intrude on the hours that should be employed in meditation, self-examination, searching the Scripthis respect; and no good can arise from such unture, and secret prayer, are peculiarly injurious in necessary intercourse with worldly people, or with superficial professors, whose company is still more prejudicial. Specious deviations from the truth, which make a little allowance for the pride, avarice, vanity, or indolence of our hearts, and admit of some measure of conformity to the world, and to the discourse of those who are ever asking, What harm is there in this or that? or, What need of this or that measure of diligence? are little foxes, which spoil the vines, and which must be taken and removed out of the way, by private Christians and public teachers. who desire to be, or to see their people, fruitful branches of the living Vine. Even lawful and needful pursuits and re reations, when attended with excess or inexpediency, "choke the word, and it be cometh unfruitful;" for our vines have tender grapes."-Scott.

Fragments.

Men compare themselves with men, and readily with the worst, and flatter themselves with that comparative betterness: this is not the way to see our spots, to look into the muddy streams of profane men's lives; but look into the clear fountain of the Word, and there we may both discern and wash them; and consider the infinite holiness of God, and this will humble us to the dust.

You have entered the ship with Christ; what do i you look for? Fine weather? Rather expect winds, and tempests, and waves to cover the vessel till she begins to sink. This is the baptism with which you must be first baptized, and then the calm will follow, upon your awakening Christ, and imploring his help -for sometimes he will appear to sleep for a season. Luther.