the child, and doted but too much upon her, because she was the likest her mother of any of the children, both as to her countenance and humour. But I see that the Lord will not allow me to have any idols, I but will have the whole of my heart to himself; and, Lord, let it be so-Amen and amen. Though thou shouldst strip me naked of all that I have in the world, O happy exchange!

I remember that a day or two before the child fell sick, she was in my closet. She and I being alone, I took her on my knee and dandled her, and she was very fond of me, took me round the neck and kissed me; which engaged my heart very much. But my love and affection to the child filled me with a strong desire to have Christ formed in her soul, and thereupon I began to commend Christ to her. The Lord helped me to speak of Christ to her in such words as were suitable to her capacity, to which she seemed very attentive. Particularly, I told her, I remember, that she would die, and that it would be better to die and to go to heaven where Christ is, and where she would meet with her dear mother, than to be here; at which words the dear child gave a broad look in my face, as if she had been taken with the thing. I bless the Lord who put it in my heart and mouth to converse with her at that time. I hope the Lord entered into her heart with what I said to her. She died pleasantly without any visible pang or throe; her soul, I hope, being carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, and her body buried at her mother's side in the chapel burying-ground, Scotland-well, in her brother Alexander's grave.

I take it kindly that the Lord comes to my family to gather lilies, wherewith to garnish the upper sanctuary, "for of such is the kingdom of heaven." And O it sometimes affords me a pleasing prospect to think that I have so much plenishin in heaven before me, and that when I enter the gates of glory, I shall not only be welcomed by the whole general assembly of saints and angels, but my wife and four pleasant babes will, in a particular manner, welcome me to those regions of glory, and I shall join in the hallelujahs of the higher house which thall never have an end.

II. LETTER TO A LADY ON THE DEATH OF SEVERAL YOUNG CHILDREN.

BY ISAAC WATTS, D.D.

I have a comely fruit tree in the summer season, with the branches of it promising plenteous fruit; the stock was surrounded with seven or eight little shoots of different sizes, that grew up from the root at a small distance, and seemed to compose a beautiful defence and ornament for the mother tree; but the gardener, who espied their growth, knew the danger; he cut down those tender suckers one after another, and laid them in the dust. I pitied them in my heart, and said, "How pretty were those young standards! How much like their parent! How elegantly clothed with the raiment of summer! And each of them might have grown to a fruitful tree." But they stood so near as to endanger the stock; they drew away the sap, the heart and strength of it, so far as to injure the fruit, and darken the hopeful prospect of autumn. The pruning-knife appeared unkind indeed, but the gardener was wise; for the tree flourished more sensibly, the fruit quickly grew fair and large, and the ingathering at last was plenteous and joyful.

Will you give me leave, my dear madam, to persuade you into this parable? Shall I compare you to this tree in the garden of God? Your agreeable qualifications seem to promise various fruits of faith, of love, of universal holiness and service. You have

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had many of these young suckers springing up around you; they stood a while your sweet ornaments and your joy, and each of them might have grown up to a perfection of likeness, and might have become a parent tree. But say, Did they never draw your heart off from God? Did you never feel them stealing any of those seasons of devotion, or those warm affections that were first and supremely due to Him that made you? Did they not stand a little too near the soul? And when they have been cut off successively, and laid one after another in the dast, have you not found your heart running out more towards God, and living more perpetually upon him? Are you not now devoting yourself more entirely to God every day, since the last was taken away? Are you not aiming at some greater fruitfulness and service than in times past? If so, then repine not at the pruningknife; but adore the conduct of the heavenly husbandman, and say, “All his ways are wisdom and mercy."

But I have not yet done with my parable.

When the granery was well stored with excellent fruit, and before the winter came upon the tree, the gardener took it up by the roots, and it appeared as dead. But his design was not to destroy it utterly; for he removed it far away from the spot of earth where it had stood, and planted it in a hill of richer mould, which was sufficient to nourish it with all its attendants. The spring appeared, the tree budded into life again, and all those fair little standards that had been cut off, broke out of the ground afresh, and stood up around it (a sweet young grove) flourishing in beauty and immortal vigour.

You now know where you are, and that I have carried you to the hill of paradise, to the blessed hour of the resurrection. What an unknown joy will it be, when you have fulfilled all the fruits of righteousness in this lower world, to be transplanted to that heavenly mountain! What a divine rapture and surprise of blessedness, to see all your little offspring around you that day, springing out of the dust at once, making a fairer and brighter appearance in that upper garden of God, and rejoicing together (a sweet company), all partakers with you of the same happy immortality-all fitted to bear heavenly fruit, without the need or danger of a pruning-knife! Look forward by faith to this glorious morning, and admire the whole scheme of providence and grace. Give cheerful honours beforehand to your almighty and all-wise Governor, who by his unsearchable counsels has fulfilled your best wishes, and secured your dear infants to you for ever, though not just in your own way. That blessed hand which made the painful separation on earth, shall join you and your babes together in his own heavenly habitation, never to be divided again, though the method may be painful to flesh and blood. Fathers shall not hope in vain, nor "mothers bring forth for trouble. They are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them." (Isa. lxv. 23.) Then shall you say, "Lord, here am I, and the children that thou hast given me. For he is your God, and the God of your seed, in an everlasting covenant." Amen.

OUTSIDE HOLINESS PROFANE.. OUTSIDE holiness, how splendid soever it looks, is profane holiness. The heart denominates action. The Pharisee was for temple praying-for lifting up of eyes and hands, but no heart-a mere image drawn out in such a posture, with his eyes and hands inclining upwards; and Christ made baseness of this best piece. God is worshipped in spirit. If holiness reach not this, it is gross profaneness. Holiness is spirit yielding to spirit; bad to good. It is a pure

heart-a heart captivated with Christ, and spending itself upon him. Holiness is everlasting doors within-doors of the soul-that everlasting thing opened to a King of glory. It is affection caught with truth; one spirit bound by another-a bad spirit by a good, and carried whither that listeth. It is a flame, and an angel ascending in it. A spirit, a fire, and ascending upward; a man upon his knees and his heart upon his lips, taking rise for heaven, from this advantage.

Profane holiness, is holiness merely formal; piety

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suited to policy--to things on this side Christ and truth. My father did so, my grandfather did so, the most do so; therefore it is best to do so, and it is idle to do otherwise." Many men's sanctity is such a mere piece of antiquity; a rumour to wear such an old fashion. What a curse is blind devotion! True holiness is regulated by truth, and not by persons, nor time. Sanctify them with thy truth; thy word is truth," saith Christ. Sanctity is made by truth, God's truth; God's truth is his word; his words are truth: "Thy word is truth;" not any man's word, to square holiness by. Holiness is motion from Christ to Christ. A soul taking rise from truth, and so going to God, making God's word God's way to himself.-Old Author.

"O DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING?” (A Letter from Andrew Wellwood to a Friend.) THOUGH I be stepping into eternity, and was thought to have been just entering into it about half an hour ago, I could not but remember you, and dictate a little of my mind to you: not that I intended to write any instructions unto you, but only to show that God is good to them that seek him; and that, in his providence, his promises are all accomplished to the full to me. I cannot tell what he has done for my soul; but I think he has brought me to the end of my days, to the end of my race, by such a wonderful chain of divine providence, that I would not for ten thousand worlds he had brought me any other way, or that my race had been either longer or shorter. He lives long enough, who lives till he get to heaven: all other things are but appendages. He lives a short while who is unprepared for it, of whatsoever age he be: therefore my death need not offend any man; for what can I get more than the kingdom immovable, "undefiled, and that fadeth not away ?" (1 Pet. i. 4.) I desired to live for no other end, but to preach my Lord to the great congregation; and think you not he will accept the will for the deed? I dedicated my life to his service, and I hope he will graciously take it off my hand, as if I had done him many years' service. And I must tell you, he has many wonderful ways of bringing his children unto glory: I could tell you of it by sweet experience, if my weakness and breath would permit. I would not, for all the glory, riches, and pleasures of a vain world, my lot had been another than my Lord has appointed it; yea, my last half year's providence has been a golden chain, which neither I, men, nor angels, can sufficiently value. Would you know what I think now of heaven? Though I were out of this state of mortality, I could never think of it enough. Oh! oh! oh! the joy of being with JEHOVAH and the Lamb! Oh! the "excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus," even on this side of time! but to see him as he is-oh, who

can tell what a sight it is! Even those who see! "him face to face" see, as it were, but the skirts of his beauty and excellence: and let them dive still deeper and deeper, till eternity, they shall still be but beginning, and yet never well begun. To show my great love and respect I ever had to you, both formerly and now, I write unto you, even when the death-rattle is in my throat; and though I be in a great agony, I find the only way to heaven, that

"new and living way," only by the blood of the Son of God: there is no other way but believe in Christ and be saved. But it is a lively, purifying, loving, and believing way. I cannot say much; I am in death's pangs. But, "O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory ?" (1 Cor. xv. 55.) | I am like to have a sharp combat, but I hope Christ will not be an indifferent spectator. The end crowns the work. And if once I were within Immanuel's surpassingly sweet land of conquest, then should I trample death and hell under foot, and triumph over all the miseries and afflictions of time, which seemed to triumph over me. O Death, what art thou in, mine eyes! my Lord hath swallowed thee up in victory: and can a free-born son and conqueror, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, be afraid of a conquered slave? (Rev. xiv. 13.) Hell, sin, devil, and death, are conquered slaves.—I am, dear sir, yours,&c.'

JUDGE YOURSELVES. SINNERS, honour truth and confess your state. Lay hands on a bad heart, and bring it forth to the great Searcher of secrets, and charge it with its own. My heart is wicked, my person abominable, my state damnable. Sinners, can ye thus judge yourselves? No! Why, then, you will be judged of the Lord." What a man will not lay hands on and bring forth to God, God will judge it where it lies. The sin you keep close shall burn in your bones. David found it so; shall not a wicked man much more? He that hideth his sin hardens his soul, and hardens God to cat by truth, and the man not own it! Grace is frus it off; he can never prosper. Hypocrisy discovered trated, justice only must go to work upon this soul. It is dreadful to me to think what shuffling some make, to bear up before the light that condemns them; you make a halter for your own necks in this, to be despatched quickly. You fight with light,, because you love darkness; what do you think will be the end of this? You make fuel for consuming fire to flame forth against you.-Lockyer.

HOW TO CRUCIFY THE WORLD.

SOME are saying, O that the world were crucified to me, and I to the world! O that my heart were as dead as a stone to the world, and alive to Jesus! Do you truly wish it? Look, then, to the cross. Behold the amazing gift of love. Salvation is promised to a look. Sit down, like Mary, and gaze upon a crucified Jesus. So will the world become a dim and dying thing. When you gaze upon the sun, it makes every thing else dark; when you taste honey, it makes everything else tasteless; so when your soul feeds on Jesus, it takes away the sweetness of all earthly things praise, pleasure, fleshly lusts, all lose their sweetJesus. Look, till the way of salvation by Jesus fills Keep a continued gaze. Run, looking unto up the whole horizon, so glorious and peace-speaking So will the world be crucified to you, and you unto the world.--M'Cheyne.

ness.

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I AM a stranger on the earth," says the Psalmist; and so say all true believers; and only they can say it, with full meaning. The stranger is also a "pilgrim;" so is it with all the saints, for they from choice "seek a better country" than this earth. So, by necessity, is it with the sinner too; he must arise and depart, for this is not his rest, whether he will it or no. So are we all-all pilgrims to the eternal state! In our external progress, we all seem one. Our pace is one, and our temporal path is one; and so, as pilgrims, we all seem to be one band. Yet in reality it is not so. There are amongst us two classes, as distinct in path as light and darkness, as distinct in end as heaven and hell. Some are passing on steadily, in darkness, to hell. Such are in a state of spiritual blindness; they know not whence they come, how they move, or whither they go; they see nothing, they fear nothing, they ask nothing; they desire no light, for they know no darkness; they have no path, for they aim at no end. Year after year, Sabbath after Sabbath, leaves them nearer to hell: yet, on they go, blind and dark, not knowing anything with certainty, until they know that they are in final perdition !

But there are amongst us others of a different sort. They know whence they come, and whither they go, and how they move, and what will be the end of their journey. They know the world, and they know hell, and they know heaven, and they know the paths of each. They have light, they see light, they love light, they glory in the light; and therefore they say, 'Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path!" They are "children of light," and are of one family with the Psalmist; subjects of the same grace, they are subjects also of the same experience; and they love to meditate on and express the same object of delight. Let us now, near the close of another stage in our journey, meditate on these words, and

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study their meaning a little and may the God and Guide of pilgrims help us!

I. The Word of God is LIGHT, and a lamp or torch, in darkness, to all spiritual pilgrims.

The Psalmist here addresses GOD, saying, "THY Word." This "thy" is emphatic in his mind. He is in communion with God; and all that glory which he sees in HIM he transfers to his Word; and so says, the Word of God is light, simply because it is His Word.

"God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." He seeth, knoweth, understandeth, manifesteth, judgeth, all things. Everything is present to his mind always, according to truth. He is living light, and all things are as he seeth or showeth them.

CHRIST is light-" the light and the life of the world; " he is the medium of its diffusion the image of the invisible God to men. What the sun is to natural light, that Christ is to the light of Godhead. He conveys and gives to us what is needful, as "the Sun of Righteousness," for salvation and eternal life.

THE HOLY SPIRIT " enlightens the eyes of the understanding." He gives sight; that is, gives us the inward power of using the outward light of Christ; so that we may believe in him, and in the things that are his. The sight is the foundation, and the first act of the faith which saves us.

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THE WORD OF GOD is thus a true light, as proceeding from HIM; partaking of his character, revealing his mind, declaring his will, showing his purposes, declaring his commandments, communicating to us his very knowledge. So also the Word is as a glass," showing by reflection the Lord Christ, who hath the gospel specially as his own Word. The Spirit, too, employs the Word of God as the medium of sight. He inspired it, and he uses it according to his own holy and glorious nature. This light is perfect-it shows us everything that we need to know: sure-for, being the very mind of God on all that it shows, it cannot err: universal-extending to every object, person, and cha

racter: unextinguishable for God hath lighted and ordained it, and ever preserves it: it is also the only light-the public light of the Church—the private light of the believer the secret light of the spiritual heart and it is a portable light, like "a lamp,” lantern, or torch, which may be carried, any whither, or by any one, even until the valley of the shadow of death be safely and for ever passed. Oh, glorious light, that so shineth! Oh, blessed pilgrim, that in it walketh! Oh, most merciful God, who hath given it!

II. This light is OURS-our property, and for our use; "a lamp to my feet, a light to my path," saith the believer.

God hath ordained it for us, and prepared it for our benefit, as well as for his own glory; so that we see in every page, "This is for me!" Even as the sun and moon, so also is it. It is the gift of God to us. By whomsoever it is given immediately, by God is it given ultimately and really; so that we may always say, GOD hath given me this book, this law, this gospel, this light!

Faith makes it ours in possession: for what is faith but the heart's acceptance of God's gift! It was mine in the ordinance and in the gift; now it is mine in acceptance and actual possession-not the volume only, but its contents, even all the truth that it contains, as the Word of God.

Use confirms all this. When we have lifted up the lamp and it shines on our path, that light is ours; when we walk in the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, then that light upon our feet is ours-we are in it.

But it is the HOLY SPIRIT who really makes the light ours in heart. He gives the will and the power to receive its rays into the soul: so that the whole man is full of light. He reveals it to us as the ordinance and gift of God; he teaches us the faith and use of it; and, as our inward life, he enables us to walk and abide in this the true light.

Blessed are they whom this Spirit enlightens, and who know their own state by this, that their heart's desire and supreme effort is to walk in conformity, inward and outward conformity, with the Word of God! whose prayer is this, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law!"

III. The PATH of the believer is enlightened by this lamp, this light of God to the heavenly pilgrim.

The Christian's path is one of progress: and consists chiefly of two elements-1. The con

stant administration of divine providence, in all its variety, towards him; and, 2. The haul correspondence of heart and life, on the part of the Christian, with that providence. When the latter agrees with the former, all is well, even in death itself; when the latter departs from the former, all is ill, even in the very sunshine of life. This is the true theory of a Christian's whole course, from first to last; and on the whole of this course does God's Word shine-and so to walk, is to "walk with God."

The entrance of the Christian path is revealed in the light of the gospel. By it was the convinced sinner directed to Christ so as to find rest at his cross, or enter on the pursuit of eter nal life in HIM.

The movements of the path are directed by this light of God. By it are we taught how we ought to think, and speak, and will, and act; what to shun, what to enjoy, what to pursue. and what to fulfil; how to discharge the rela tive duties of parents, children, husbands wives, brothers, sisters, and friends; how to act towards the world, how to live in the Church of Christ; how to conduct worldly business, so as to eat and drink, to buy and sell, and do all other things "to the glory of God;" how to occupy time, how to use our talents, how to live, how to die; how to fulfil the whole end of our redemption, and how to move stedfastly forwards, step by step, "from strength to strength, until we appear before God in Zion."

The trials of our path, in all their difficulty, are lightened and removed by this word of light. The fear of man is removed, by a view of God's power and of man's weakness; the love of the world is broken up, by a scriptural sight of its emptiness and sin. Satan's temptations are turned aside, by "Thus saith the Lord;" accusations of conscience are stilled by the gospel of Christ's blood: strange doctrines are tested by the law and the testimony of truth: bereavements are supplied by the consolations of the Holy Ghost in the Word: and death itself is made peaceful and happy, by a sight through it of the world of glory and eternal bliss! so that all the trials of the journey become a source of interest, and a ground of thanks, instead of being as dismal mountains of darkness and evil. Even in dwelling sin is seen, in this light, to be not the "dominion of sin," and as having now no power to condemn a believer in Jesus; so that he who is very sad for sin, is, through the Word, made very joyful in Christ Jesus the Lord.

The goodly company or fellowship of the path