citizen on any soil on which his foot may be cast."Middleton.

"The New Year calls us also to increased labours for Christ. The sphere of duty is growing wider and wider. A time of war is opening out the sterner passions and the kindlier affections of our fellow-men. The soul is harrowed by daily tidings of successes or reverses, that it may be more ready, perhaps, to receive the good seed of the kingdom. And while death is reaping a double harvest-the sword of war, and of late a fearful pestilence, being added to the common causes of mortality-the voice appeals to us with redoubled power, 'In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, this or that, or whether both alike shall be good.'

"Finally, the New Year calls us to holy meditation. Times of conflict, like the present, are too apt to turn Christian men and women into Athenians, whose chief desire is to tell or to hear some new thing. Even the pressure of spiritual works to be done is unfavourable for the culture of a heavenly mind. But the solemn events around us call for secret communion with God, and the inquiry of the beloved disciple, 'O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?' When the judgments of God are in the earth, our duty is not to be swallowed up with the anxieties, the hopes and fears of each passing moment, but to obey the voice that speaks to us from the throne of the Almighty Governor, the King of nations, 'Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, and I will be exalted in the earth!'"-T. R. B., Churchman's Monthly Penny Magazine.

436

CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP.

"Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another :" 1 THES. V, 11.

"THE soul was the last and the noblest work of God in the formation of the world—the finish and ornament of this material fabric, on which the Divine Architect bestowed His most mature deliberation, and expended His richest treasures. It stood, amidst creation, the fair and beauteous image of the Creator. This was the object which, in his explulsion from paradise, first caught the envious eye of Satan, and in the spoils of which his malice sought a fiend-like solace for the loss of heaven. This was the object which, in its fall, dragged the creation into a vortex of ruin. This was the object, selected by the great God in the counsels of eternity, whose salvation should be the means of exhibiting to the universe the most glorious display of the Divine perfections-on which mercy, wisdom, and power were to exhaust their united resources. This was the object for which the Son of God could justify Himself to all worlds, as not demeaning His dignity nor disparaging His wisdom, when, for its salvation, He veiled His Divinity in human flesh, was made lower than the angels for a while, tabernacled amidst the sorrows of mortality, and closed a life of humiliation and suffering upon the ignominious cross. This is the object for which all

the revelations of heaven, and all the dispensations of grace, all the labour of prophets, priests, and apostles-in short, all the splendid apparatus of redemption, were arranged. This is the object whose interests render angels unquiet upon their heavenly seats, and draw them with exquisite solicitude to minister to its safety. Such is the retinue attending on the soul of man. What then must be the value of the human soul? Now appears the justness of our Saviour's language: 'What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'"-J. A. James.

"When we endeavour to estimate the worth of an immortal soul, we are utterly lost in the attempt. The art of spiritual computation is not governed by the same principles and rules which guide our speculations concerning earthly objects. The value of gold, silver, merchandise, food, raiment, land, and houses, is easily regulated by custom, convenience, or necessity. Even the more capricious and imaginary worth of a picture, medal, or statue, may be reduced to something of systematic rule. Crowns and sceptres have had their adjudged valuation, and kingdoms have been bought and sold for sums of money. affix the adequate price to a human soul? profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'

But who can
What shall it

"The principles of ordinary arithmetic all fail here, and we are constrained to say, that He alone who paid the ransom for sinners, and made the souls of men His 'purchased possession,' can comprehend and solve the arduous question. They are indeed 'bought with a price;' but are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.' We shall only ascertain the value of a

soul, when we shall be fully able to estimate the worth of a Saviour."-Legh Richmond.

"Recollect, Christian! God thought fit to require the blood of His Son for the redemption of our souls. These souls must have been very precious in the sight of God, since He redeemed them at a price so immense. The misery into which they were liable to be plunged, must have been extremely terrible, since God thought proper to make such great efforts to save them from it. The felicity, of which they are capable, and to which the Lord intends to elevate them, must be infinitely valuable, since it cost Him so much to bring them to it. For what in the universe is of equal value with the blood of the Son of God? Disappear, all ye other miracles, wrought in favour of our souls! ye astonishing prodigies, that confirmed the Gospel! thou, delay of the consummation of all things! ye great and terrible signs of the second coming of the Son of God! Vanish before the miracle of the cross; for the cross shines you all into darkness and shade. This glorious light makes your glimmering vanish, and after my imagination is filled with the tremendous dignity of this sacrifice, I can see nothing great beside. But, if God hath estimated our souls at such a rate, shall we set a low price on them? If He hath given so much for them, do we imagine that we can give too much for them? If, for their redemption, He hath sacrificed the most valuable person in heaven, do we imagine there is anything upon earth too great to give up for them?"—Saurin.

"Having secured the great concern, make yourselves easy as to others of smaller importance. You have chosen 'the kingdom of God and his righteousness, other things therefore shall be added unto you;' and if any which you desire should not be added, comfort yourselves with this thought, that you have the good part which can never be taken away.

And, not to enlarge on these obvious hints which must so often occur, be very solicitous that others may be brought to a care about the one thing needful. If it be needful for you, it is so for your children, your friends, your servants. Let them, therefore, see your concern in this respect for them, as well as for yourselves. Let parents, especially, attend to this exhortation, whose care for their offspring often exceeds in other respects, and fails in this. Remember that your children may never live to enjoy the effects of your labour and concern, to get them estates and portions. The charges of their funerals may perhaps be all the share of what you are so anxiously careful to lay up for them. And oh! think what a sword would pierce through your heart, if you should stand by the corpse of a beloved child with this reflection: This poor creature has done with life before it learnt its great business in it, and is gone to eternity, which I have seldom been warning it to prepare for, and which, perhaps, it learnt of me to forget."-Dr. Doddridge.

"There is a vast amount of education going on, there is a vast and progressive interest for the well-being of the little ones of our folds; but I believe that disappointment and failure in many an instance follows, because the best of all education, the holiest of all training is wanting in that homediscipline, and that spiritual and religious culture, that leading to Jesus, that parental wrestling with God in prayer for children, which after all is the key-stone of the arch."Manna in the House.

"They ought to be more deeply concerned for His righteous cause, that remember that they were most unrighteously engaged against it. And ought besides to be filled with compassion towards the souls of men yet in an unreconciled state, as 'having known the terrors of the Lord,' and remembering the experienced dismalness and horror of that state