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ADVICES TO A MOTHER.

through the outward circumstances and relations of the body to the internal and spiritual ones of the soul. In this point of view, every subject of disease Christ restored to health proclaimed his purpose to abolish the curse of sin-his mission to seek and to save that which was lost.

But still something more than this is implied in the declaration of the evangelist, even that there was an actual fulfilment of those words of the prophet in the miraculous cures performed by our Lord upon men's bodies. It as much as affirms that he had already visibly entered, to some extent, upon the work of our deliverance, and that, along with the removal of those bodily diseases, he was carrying away, as he had charged himself with, the sins of which they were the fruits and indications. An exchange is denoted, both by the prophet and the evangelist, between what is ours and what is Christ's only with this difference, that the prophet more immediately refers to its effect on Christ, and the evangelist to its effect on us.

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transgressions, and healing the backslidings of his people. O that this goodness of God were not abused to make us insensible to the greatness of our sins, and forgetful of the fearful judgments which they have exposed us to inherit! And O that all the pains and disorders in our bodies, and the troubles and calamities in our condition, were sanctified to make us feel the exceeding sinfulness of our sins, as well as their inherent bitterness to our souls, and lead us the more earnestly to apply to the good Physician, who alone can cure the hurt they have produced in our condition!

ADVICES TO A MOTHER.

the question unchangeably (especially if the habits
are wrong), whether you are to have a government
which will form your children to honour, and glory,
and immortality, or one which will leave their cor-
God will cer-
ruptions to take their natural course.
tainly hold you answerable for those young immor-
tals, and for the distinguished talents which he has
given you for their benefit. If you have any piety,
my dear child, let it be brought to this bearing.
Make the management of your children the object of
your most anxious exertions, and the subject of your
agonizing and unceasing prayers.

THE influence of a mother upon the manners and (From a Letter from Dr Griffin to his Daughter.) salvation of children, especially the latter, is probably greater than that of all other created beings united. On you, then, it chiefly depends, under God, what your children shall be in both worlds. If you Christ comes into the world with lose your authority over them, you lose, of course, the all our transgressions laid upon him; and therefore, lose the choicest means which God has appointed for chief part of your influence, and then your children as sorrow and suffering, even unto death, are the their happiness here and hereafter. If you once wages of sin, these in their most appalling and ag- form such habits of management as to lose your augravated form must be gathered into his condition thority, you never can regain it; for not only your -all that is properly ours in that respect must beown habits will stand in the way, but the confirmed ome his. This is the representation of the prophet. habits of depraved and untamed children, who will no longer brook restraint. The present is your formnd the application made of it by the evangelisting period. Two or three years to come will settle simply teaches that, as Christ, at the time referred to, had begun to manifest himself to Israel by the removing of what was properly ours-the evils and distempers which were the offspring of sin-He thereby clearly showed that he had entered on the work of our redemption; not merely taught, as by so many symbolical acts, the higher blessings we had reason to expect-salvation from sin itself-but that he was even now actually grappling with the mighty evil, and so far making it his own, since only on the ground of his substitution for our guilty souls could he have interfered to remove the disorders, which were the just fruit and recompense of our sins. He lifted off from men's shoulders the guilt of sin with its attendant evils, because he had taken both upon himself, and in his own person would bear the mighty load. Perhaps a question may now present itself to the rainds of some as a kind of objection to what has been said-that if the diseases and troubles of the body are thus closely connected with sin, why were such things then, or why are they now visited only upon some? why is not every unforgiven sinner stricken with disease? The answer is to be sought wholly in the forbearance and mercy of God, to which alone it is owing that even the wrath to the uttermost has not already fallen upon us. Those who suffered the visitation of sore disease in our Lord's time, or who now suffer it, could have no reason to say that worse things had happened to them than their sinful condition deserved; nay, it would well become them to say, How much more still might be laid upon our loins, if we got the full desert of our iniquities? And those who have either comparatively escaped such visitations, or have experienced them, and again been delivered from them, are only the more called to magnify the grace and loving-kindness of God as passing by the

I have not time to go into a full treatise on family government, but will lay down the following rules for your daily and prayerful examination:

1. Exercise your authority as seldom as possible, and instead of it employ kind persuasion and deliberate reasoning; but when you exercise it, make it irresistible.

2. Be careful how you threaten, but never lie. Threaten seldom, but never fail to execute. The parent who is open-mouthed to threaten, and threatens hastily, but is irresolute to punish, and when the child is not subdued by the first threat, repeats it half a dozen times with a voice of increasing violence, and with many shakes and twitches of the little culprit, will certainly possess no authority.

3. Avoid tones and gestures expressive of agitation for trivial matters indicative of no depravity, and indicating only the heedlessness or forgetfulness o. children, or perhaps nothing more than is common to all young animals-a love to use their limbs. In all such cases the tones should be kind and persuasive, rather than authoritative; and the severity and even the gravity of authority should be reserved exclusively for cases of disobedience or depravity, or for the prevention of serious evil. A perpetual fretting at children for little things will inevitably harden and influence. There never was a fretting parent, their hearts, and totally destroy parental authority who often threatened and seldom performed, that had a particle of efficient government.

4. Establish the unchanging habit of not commanding a child but once. Cost what it may, break the child down to obedience to the first command. And when this is once done, if you are careful never to let disobedience escape punishment of some kind or other, and punishment that shall be effectual and triumphant, you will find it not difficult to maintain your absolute authority.

WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

boy. "Well, my clothes were neither worn by birds

nor worms.

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"True," said a sheep, grazing close by, "but they were worn on the back of some of my family before they were yours; and, as for your hat, I know that the beavers have supplied the fur for that article; and my friends, the calves and oxen, in that field, were killed, not merely to get their flesh to eat, but also to get their skins to make your shoes."

See the folly of being proud of our clothes, since we are indebted to the meanest creatures for them!

and even then we could not use them, if God did not give us the wisdom to contrive the best way of making them fit to wear, and the means of procuring them for our comfort.-Cobbin.

SCOTCH SABBATHS.

I HAVE heard many curious stories illustrative of that veneration with which the Sabbath is regarded in Scotland. Let me mention one or two. A geolo

hammer with him, took it out and was chipping the rock on the way-side, for examination. His proceedings did not escape the quick eye and ready tongue of an old Scotch woman. "What are you doing there, man?" "Don't you see? I'm breaking a stone." "Y'are doing mair than that: y'are breaking the Sabbath."

THE world looks upon some of their families coming out like a fresh blooming flower in the morning; their cheeks covered with the bloom of health; their step bounding with the elasticity of youth-riches and luxuries at their command-long bright summer days before them; the world says, There is a happy soul. God takes us into the darkened room where some child of God lately dwelt. He points to the pale face where Death sits enthroned-the cheek wasted by long disease-the eye glazed in death-the stiff hands clasped over the bosom-the friends stand-gist, while in the country, and having his pocketing weeping round, and he whispers in our ears, "Blessed are the dead!" Ah, dear friends, think a moment, whether does God or you know best? .... It is a happy thing to live in the favour of God-to have peace with God-to frequent the throne of grace to burn the perpetual incense of praise-to meditate on his word-to hear the preached Gospelto serve God-even to wrestle, and run, and fight in his service, is sweet. Still God says: "Blessed are the dead." If it be happy to have his smile here, how much happier to have it without a cloud yonder ! If it be sweet to be the growing corn of the Lord here, how much better to be gathered into his barn! If it be sweet to have an anchor within the veil, how much better ourselves to be there, where no gloom can come! "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." ." Even Jesus felt this: God attests it. "Blessed are the dead."--M'Cheyne.

PRIDE IN DRESS.

A FABLE.

A LITTLE boy and girl were once seated on a flowery bank, and talking proudly about their dress. "See," said the boy, "what a beautiful new hat I have got; what a fine blue jacket and trousers; and what a nice pair of shoes; it is not every one who is dressed so finely as I am!"

"Indeed, Sir," said the little girl, "I think I am dressed finer than you; for I have on a silk hat and pelisse, and a fine feather in my hat; I know that my dress cost a great deal of money." "Not so much as mine," said the boy, "I know." "Hold your peace," "said a caterpillar, crawling near in the hedge; "you have neither of you any reason to be so proud of your clothes, for they are only second-hand, and have all been worn by some creature or other, of which you think but meanly, before they were put upon you. Why, that silk hat first wrapped up such a worm as I am."

"There, Miss, what do you say to that ?" said the boy.

"And the feather," exclaimed a bird perched upon a tree, "was stolen from, or cast off by one of my

race.

"What do you say to that, Miss ?" repeated the

Another old woman's inquiry of one who, on the Sabbath-day, passed her on the road, singing as he went, was equally characteristic. It was very brief. "Songs, man, or psalms?" Now, I am well aware that many readers will at once say, "What ultraseverity!" and will be only able to see something absurd and ridiculous in these sayings. Others, among whom I readily number myself, will view them in a light altogether different-as apt, amusing, and characteristic, no doubt, but as most valuable testimonies to the strong religious feeling of the people, and to that habitual decision with which many among them carry out those scriptural princi ples, regarding the observance of the Lord's-day, which they have imbibed in their childhood, and put into practice from Sabbath to Sabbath during the course of their lives.-Trench.

POWER OF THE BIBLE.

THE mother of a family was married to an Infidel, who made a jest at religion in the presence of his own children; yet she succeeded in bringing them all up in the fear of the Lord. I one day asked her how she preserved them from the influence of a father whose sentiments were so openly opposed to her own. This was her answer: "Because, to the authority of a father, I did not oppose the authority of a mother, but that of God. From their earliest years my children have always seen the Bible upon iny table. This holy book has constituted the whole of their religious instruction. I was silent, that I might allow it to speak. Did they propose a question, did they commit any fault, did they perform any good action, I opened the Bible, and the Bible answered, reproved, or encouraged them. The constant reading of the Scriptures has alone wrought the prodigy which surprises you."--Adolphe Monod.

THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

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THE BELIEVER'S AFFLICTIONS; HIS PROSPECTS; THE INFLUENCE OF THE ONE UPON THE OTHER; AND THE STATE OF MIND REQUISITE TO THE EFFICACY OF THAT INFLUENCE.

BY RALPH WARDLAW, D.D., GLASGOW.

THE ONE UPON THE OTHER.

III. The third thing we were to consider is of | truth, that a good and a just God will not allow the deepest importance and interest, namely, THE them to be sufferers in both worlds; that they CONNECTION BETWEEN THE BELIEVER'S AFFLIC- are getting their share of want, and grief, and TIONS AND HIS PROSPECTS-THE INFLUENCE OF trouble now, and that it will be made up to them hereafter. And in proportion to the In the conclusion of our former paper, we amount and variety of their tribulations on remarked, that it would have been no small earth, is the confidence with which they rest in matter, had the afflictions only been to be their hopes of heaven. Now, how sincere and followed by the "far more exceeding and eternal deep soever the compassion we may feel for the weight of glory." It would have been much destitute and distressed, we must not suffer had there been no more than this; much to them, without faithful and affectionate warning, have been assured that, when all the troubles to cherish such a delusion; for a delusion, beof earth came to a close, they were to be suc-yond all question, it is an utter delusion. It is ceeded by "fulness of joy, and pleasures for not according to their conditions and circumstances evermore"-by all the glory and blessedness in the present world, that the states of happiof the heavenly state. But in the apostle's representation there is something more than this. There is a connection between the twoan influence of the one upon the other. The afflictions are not only to be followed by the glory-they work it out for us. What, then, is the nature of the connection and influence thus expressed? How is it that the affliction works the glory? The answer to these questions is of no light moment, considered in its practical bearings; embracing, as it does, the Lord's ends in the trials of his people, and the use, consequently, which it is the duty of his people to make of them, and to seek the grace necessary to their successfully doing so.

On this essential part of our subject, then, let it be observed :

ness and misery awaiting men in the world to come are to be apportioned to them; it is according to their characters-the principles by which, in whatever conditions and circumstances, they have been actuated, and the conduct in which these principles have been practically evolved. In determining on which side of the impassable gulf they are respectively to have their place, and in what proportion they are to endure the misery on the one side of it, or to enjoy the happiness on the other, the question will be-not, were you rich, or were you poor?

were you healthy, or were you victims of disease?—were your circumstances prosperous, or adverse?—but, what were you in principles and in character?—were you believers in Christ, or unbelievers?-were you renewed in the 1. Negatively-the afflictions do not work out spirit of your mind, or unrenewed?—were you the glory on any principle of mere compensation. spiritual, or worldly?—or, in the terms of our My meaning will be at once understood, when present passage, to be hereafter illustrated, were I have mentioned the parties whom, in making you of those who "looked at the things which the observation, I have in my eye. There are are seen and temporal," or of those who "looked not a few persons to be found, especially among at things unseen and eternal?" It was not, the poorer classes of society, who, when they let the reader remember, because Lazarus was are labouring under the pressure of severe poor, and outcast, and afflicted, and because the hardships, suffering many and pinching priva-rich man was wealthy, and prosperous, and tions, and, in the midst of these, assailed per- well-clothed, and well-fed, that the one went haps with personal disease and domestic be- to heaven, and the other to hell. It was not reavement, appear to found their expectations because Lazarus had "received" on earth of happiness in a future world on no other "his evil things," that he was afterwards " comground than that of their sufferings in this. forted;" nor because the rich man had received The secret impression is in their minds, and his good things" that he was afterwards "torthey flatter themselves into a persuasion of its mented:" but because, amidst his poverty and No. 13.

privation, Lazarus was a child of God; and because the rich man, in the enjoyment of his abundance, lived without God, a child of the devil. Had the characters of the two been reversed-had the poor man been the reprobate, and the rich man the saint, there would have been a corresponding reversal of conditions in the other world: Lazarus would have "lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment;" and the rich man would have been " carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom"-from his sumptuous table on earth to the better and more permanent feast of heaven.

The

There is, however, one description of sufferings which, when they are endured from evangelical principles, in humble-minded faith, and love, and self-renouncing reliance on mercy through the great propitiation, our divine Master himself has engaged, in a certain sense, graciously to compensate. He says (Luke xviii. 28-30), in answer to the implied question of Peter: "Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting." Here is compensation-gracious compensation; not the reward of merit, but the expression of approving love. assurance of it is held out as an encouragement not to shrink in the hour of trial, but to hold on and hold out to the end-to be "faithful unto death." If the reader will compare with our Lord's words, the manner in which Paul writes to the Hebrews (Heb. x. 32-37), to the Romans (Rom. viii. 17), and to Timothy (2 Tim. ii. 8-13), he will find good reason for thinking that, in looking at his "light and momentary afflictions," and contrasting them with the "eternal weight of glory," and considering the connection between them, the apostle might have such assurances of his Master in mind, and such feelings of confidence in their fulfilment as, in the passages referred to, he himself expresses. It was that Master who was allotting to him his "afflictions;" and he had pledged himself that no one of his servants should endure them cheerfully and perseveringly on his account without a gracious recompense. All the promises in the epistles to the Seven Asiatic Churches "to him that overcometh," are in the same spirit, and proceed on the same principle; and so, too, does the ravishing description of the final rest and blessedness of those who "come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made

them white in the blood of the Lamb.”—Rev. vii. 14-17. In this way, then, not in the way of compensation for mere suffering, independently of faith and character-nor in the way of merited compensation even for faith and character themselves—but according to the gracious engagements of the Lord to his faithful servants-the afflictions 66 were working out the glory." As surely as they were faithfully endured, they would be faithfully rewarded. But,

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2. The "afflictions" may be considered as working" the glory by the power of contrast. This is a natural principle. It is founded in our constitution. Every day, amidst the changes of our earthly lot, we are sensible of the truth of it. The poet has said: "Sweet is pleasure after pain." He might have expressed the sentiment even more strongly. After the longcontinued endurance of severe pain, ease itself

the mere cessation of the pain—becomes posi tive pleasure. In proportion as the toils of the day have been heavy and exhausting, the la bourer feels the sweetness of his evening rest. In proportion as his campaigns have been long, and harassing, and perilous, the soldier feels the sweetness of returning peace. In proportion as the voyage of the mariner has been one of storm, and danger, and dread, of sunless days and starless and sleepless nights, and toilsome and tedious conflict with contending elements, does he enjoy the haven of security and repose. In proportion as his disease has been protracted and severe, does the patient appreciate the blessing of recovered health. Thus will it be with the believer when he reaches heaven. Jesus himself, "for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross and despised the shame;" and when, on the termi nation of his sufferings, he entered into that joy, and was "made exceeding glad with God's countenance," can there be a doubt that the remembrance of the agonies of Gethsemane and Calvary contributed to the "fulness of the joy," and gave zest and exquisiteness to the

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pleasures at God's right hand?" And thus, too, it is said of believers: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."Rev. xiv. 13. They "hunger no more, neither || thirst any more." " God," with a Father's hand, wipes away all tears from their eyes." And then

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"The more we toil and suffer here,

The sweeter rest will be."

THE BELIEVER'S AFFLICTIONS, &c.

The contrast between the bitters of earth and the sweets of heaven will make the sweets the sweeter. The darkness of earth will add brightness to heaven's cloudless sky. The warfare and the perils of earth will enhance the enjoyment of the peace and security of the paradise above.

3. That which, from the connection, the apostle had principally in his eye, appears to have been something still more direct and positive, namely, the present influence of afflictions, as a part of the means of promoting the believer's weetness for the coming glory.

I have said that this is the sense of the words most immediately indicated by the context. I refer to the connection with the preceding verse: "For which cause, we faint not: but though our outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day: FOR our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us," &c. This connection leads us, naturally and evidently, to consider the "affliction" as "working the glory," by its contributing to this renewal of the inward man." This renewal is the same thing with the progressive advance of the soul in holy assimilation to God, in likeness to him in his purity and in his love-in that meetness to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light," for which, elsewhere (Col. i. 12), this same apostle "gives thanks to the Father." Sinners, by the quickening energy of the Spirit, are born of God." By the continued supply of the same energy-the energy of the indwelling Spirit-the spiritual life thus begun is maintained, and carried on to its perfection. But in this the Spirit operates by

means.

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Of those means the chief are- - the Word, the ordinances, and the providential dealings of God; and, among his providential dealings, his discipline especially. Many a time is this design and this effect of discipline referred to in the Scriptures. See Isa. xxvii. 9; Heb. xii. 9-11; Zech. xiii. 9; Lam. iii. 37-41, &.

Salutary discipline is thus a part of our God's wise and gracious system of paternal treatment, which it would not be safe for us to be without. It is by means of this discipline that he weans us from the world, and from the excesses of attachment to the things of time and sense; that he draws our affections and desires more to himself, and to the "things that are unseen and eternal"-thus fixing our hearts more where our treasure is; that he increases our spiritualmindedness, introduces more of the spirit of heaven into our souls, while we are on our way

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to it, purifying us for his service here, and for his holier and higher service there. Who is there, among the children of God, that has not had experience of the benefit of affliction,' who has not had reason to adopt the Psalmist's language: "It has been very good for me that I was afflicted"-" Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I have kept thy law?"

And when the afflictions of life have these effects, they may truly be said to "work for us the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." They are at once the means of keeping us from that apostasy by which we should forfeit and lose it-preventing us from allowing the world to supplant it in the affections and desires of our hearts; and, at the same time, of fitting us for the final possession and enjoyment of it. Yes, Christian reader, when we reach " the better country, even the heavenly," after all the conflicts and sufferings of the wilderness through which we pass on the way to it, and look back on all that way in which the Lord has led us, to bring us to final possession, we shall see our afflictions in their true light. With the mental vision purged of every obscuring film, and freed from every deceptive influence, we shall discern wisdom, and faithfulness, and love in every one of them; and the largest amount, it may be, of all these in those of them which were the most difficult to bear, the most mysterious and perplexing, the hardest for faith to reconcile with the kind and gracious assurances of our covenant God, while we sojourned below. We shall be made fully, gratefully, delightfully sensible, that all of them, in their respective places and times, and ways and degrees, have been made to answer the one end of ❝ working for us the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." And when we are thus put in possession of the glory, and find it indeed such as eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor had entered into the heart of man to conceive," we shall duly estimate the value of whatever has been made to contribute to the safe and full attainment of it. It will be little pleasure for us to reflect on the world's prosperity, associated as the reflection will be with the remembrance of its having been our chief temptation to forget and depart from God-the occasion of defectiveness and deadness in the functions of the divine life-the heaviest weight and hindrance to our souls in their progress heavenward. While, on the contrary, we shall strike our loudest and liveliest notes of praise for those trials which, sent in the loving-kindness and faithfulness of

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