into levity, or disordered into a wanton frame, indisposing us for religious thoughts and actions. We ought always, in our behaviour, to maintain not only a fitting decency, but also a stately gravity, a kind of venerable majesty suitable to that high rank which we bear of God's friends and children; adorning our holy profes sion, and guiding us from all impressions of sinful vanity. Gravity and modesty are the fences of piety, which being once slighted, sin will easily attempt and encroach upon us.-BARROW.

with it, if it allow itself to notice what busy mortals | whereupon we should never suffer them to be dissolved are doing in their (as they reckon them) grand nego tiations here below. He hath still the image before his eye of this world vanishing and passing away; of the other, with the everlasting affairs and concernments of it, even now ready to take place and fill up all the stage and can represent to himself the vision of the world dissolving, thrones tumbling, monarchies and kingdoms breaking up, crowns and sceptres lying as neglected things. He hath a telescope through which he can behold the glorious appearance of the supreme Judge; the solemn state of his majestic person; the splendid pomp of his magnificent and vastly numerous retinue; the obsequious throng of glorious celestial creatures doing homage to their Eternal King; the swift flight of his royal guards, sent forth into the four winds to gather the elect, and covering the face of the heavens with their spreading wings; the universal silent attention of all, to that loud-sounding trumpet that shakes the pillars of the world, pierces the inward caverns of the earth, and resounds from every part of the encircling heavens; the many myriads of joyful expectants arising, changing, putting on glory, taking wing and tending upwards, to join themselves to the triumphant heavenly host; the judgment set, the books opened; the frightful, amazed looks of surprised wretches; the equal administration of the final judgment; the adjudication of all to their eternal states; the heavens rolled up as a scroll; the earth, and all things therein consumed and burnt up. And now, what spirit is there any more left in him towards the trivial affairs of a vanishing world? How indifferent a thing is it with him, who bears himself highest in a state of things whereof he foresees the certain hastening end! How secure is he in this, that infinite wisdom governs the world! How calm is he in the midst of external troubles! How placid and serene a spirit inhabits his peaceful breast!-HowE.

Christian Comfort.-Let the course of your tribulation be what it will, "in me ye shall have peace." How is it, then, perhaps you will ask, that Christians are not always rejoicing? How is it that we so often see them bathed in tears, and scarcely hear any thing from them but sighs and complaints? It is easily enough to be accounted for. It is because they love the world, and the things of the world so much, that they have no room nor relish for divine consolations. be sure, where Christ is there is always ground of comfort; but Christians are not always fit to be comforted. They may, through mere inattention, or a too fond attention to temporal possession, and enjoyments, be so sadly declined as to require reproof rather than comfort, and what they want Christ gives.-LAVINGTON. The Reward in Heaven.-The earlier the new birth, the

weightier will be the glory in the kingdom of God. Young ones regenerated and enabled to bear head against the temptations of their violent nature, shall have crowns set with more jewels,-they shall have an abundant enthe greater will be their glory. If there be any sorrow in The more violent the storms they encounter, heaven, it is because they were not sooner new born, that they might have glorified God more on earth, who bestoweth such honour upon them in heaven.-CHARNOCK.

trance.

Obligation to Preach to the Heathen.-Our speculations regarding the final destiny of the heathen ought never to influence our conduct towards them, in any way tending to render us less zealous for their salvation. Were we even sure that they would occupy thrones in heaven, or pass, by an imperceptible transition, from a state of consciousness into the calmest sleep of oblivion, it would be just as much our duty to labour for their conversion as of those who see in every pagan the subThe recognition

The discovery of unsuspected sin, one of the results of sanctified affliction.-How much unmortified corruption, unhumbled pride,-unsubdued opposition to the divine will, when directly thwarting our own;-how much secret cleaving, with idolatrous attachment, to some beloved earthly object, often lurks within our soul, unconsciously to ourselves, of whose very existence, the awakening influence of affliction first makes us aware. This it effects, by stirring up the hidden mass of pol-ject of an inevitable condemnation. lution that lies concealed in the deep recesses of our hearts, which before appeared so calm and clear, that heaven itself seemed reflected in its bosom; like the pool, that, while undisturbed, appears perfectly pure and pellucid, but as soon as it is stirred, all the muddy sediment which had settled to the bottom, immediately rises to the surface, and what before looked so transparent, is now all dark and defiled, the reflection of leaven entirely obliterated, or sadly marred, and clouded, and confused. Now, this hidden mass of corruption, which thus lay concealed from our view, in the depths of or deceitful hearts, was not concealed from the piercing ye of the heart-searching God, "with whom we have to ." He saw it in its hiding-place, and, in mercy to our souls, resolved to discover it to our view; and, therefore, thut down the angel of affliction to stir the pool; because He knew that the troubling of the waters would be attended with such salutary influences, such healing virtue to our soul.-WHITE.

of the moral righteousness of God, exalted, as it is, by the atonement of the cross, by a Christian catechumen in a pagan country, one prayer of faith offered to the Supreme Being, through the merits of Christ, by such an individual, is of infinitely more value than all our theories as to the final destiny of those who live and die in involuntary ignorance; as practical charity transcends subtle and ingenious speculation.-STEELE.

Christian Gravity. It is our duty never so far to engage ourselves in the way of wit, as thereby to lose or impair that habitual seriousness, modesty and sobriety of mind, that shady composedness, gravity and constancy of demeanour, which become Christians. We should continually keep our minds intent upon our high calling and grand interests, ever well-timed and ready for the performance of holy devotions and the practice of most serious duties, with earnest attention and fervent affection;

Diligence.-Diligence is a duty that makes rich; therefore, be much about this duty. Take Solomon's verdiet of it: "The soul of the diligent shall be made fat." Would you know why the Christians of this time are so much put to it, to cry, "Their leanness, their leanness?" Would you know why the Christians are so much in sighing and going backward, and counting that their life is spent here in vain, they are not ascending like "pillars of smoke?" Even this, they are not diligent. O Christians! When was it that you rose up in the "silent watches of the night" to pursue after an absent Jesus? It is this that would make you richi : diligence would make a Christian rich in experience; diligence would make a Christian rich in love; diligence would make a Christian rich in humility; yea, it would make a Christian rich in all the spiritual things in heaven. I may compare diligence to Joseph. It is fruitful by a well, whose branches hang over the wall.” Nay, if you were diligent, I know not what you might not win.-GRAY.

ON THE WISDOM NECESSARY FOR REGULATING | impossible. Christians, however much they may

must be maintained; and the closer and the more delicate the bonds by which that intercourse is upheld, the more intimate the footing on which we stand towards any men of the world, the stronger the claims they have on our regard, or the hold they have on our affections, the greater is the temptation to violate these principles; the more imminent is the danger of an attempt to compromise them; and the greater need is there for those who are anxious to adhere to, and to act upon them, to exercise all the wisdom of the serpent which they are able to attain. This is necessary in all circumstances in which Christians can be placed, but especially when they are called to act on a broad scale, and in the open and public arena of the world; for whatever differences may be observable in the characters of those worldly men with whom they may be brought into contact, they are all accustomed in common to cherish feelings, to hold sentiments, and to be influenced by views very different from those which Christian knowledge and principle are fitted to produce; so that, allowing for differences arising from peculiarities of constitution, temper, and habit, we may lay it down as a general rule, sufficient for all the purposes of practical instruction, that they are reducible to two great classes. They are either the decent, and virtuous, and respectable men of the world, who, though engrossed with its pursuits, and enamoured of its pleasures, and thoroughly impregnated with its spirit, yet shew a regard to what is amiable in feeling, and upright in conduct; who practise many, or all of those civic and social virtues, which are so needful to the well-being and the comfort of society, and who, though they may have little taste, or, it may be, a rooted dislike for what they term the puritanical precision of those who take the Gospel as their rule, yet manifest the same tokens of outward respect, and are ready to do the same kind offices to them, as to others of a description more akin to themselves. In all our intercourse with such persons, there is great necessity for our imitating the wisdom of the serpent. The fair assemblage of virtues with which they are adorned, and the kindliness of disposition which they exhibit, may so insinuate themselves into our regard, as to blunt the edge of Christian feeling-to make us overlook, or cast into the shade, the secret worldliness to which they are a prey, and by keeping our admiration directed to the brighter and more attractive features of their character, bring us insensibly to love them, even with all the defects by which our admiration should have been limited or restrained. What is often seen becomes familiar to the eye-even the most notorious and disgusting deformities cease to be offensive through frequent observation, and the melancholy declension of many from the high ground of Christian excellence, is often to be traced to their having been closely and habitually associated with men who won their unconscious regard by the seducing influence of a few specious virtues, and brought them eventually down to the level of their own

deep and devoted worldliness. Were we required to verify these observations, we might appeal to our own experience, that in many of those situations where Christians are much associated with men of the world, a compromise on the part of the latter is not unfrequently made in some things, which, trivial as they may seem, may be productive of the most serious disadvantage and injury to their character. Take a single example that has suggested itself of a young Christian entering on the world, and engag ing in its business. His heart open and full of gratitude to those who patronised his incipient efforts, encouraged his rising fortunes, and gave him a welcome reception into their family and home, he is ever ready to select and dwell upon what is fair and honourable in their character and deportment; and though he may frequently hear them uttering sentiments, and see them acting upon principles which he knows to be at variance with the spirit and requirements of the Gospel, yet, carried away by his emotions of kindliness and friendship for them, he allows himself gradually to slide down into congenial habits, and to be contented with a lower standard of principle and duty. Thus, his familiar intercourse with them, though springing from, and maintained by, the kindliest and most amiable feelings, tends to the hurt and prejudice of his Christian character, and, like the precious metals incorporated with baser alloys, the gold gradually becomes dim, till the most fine gold eventually perishes.

The men of the world with whom Christians may have sometimes to associate, may be of a different class. They may be the vicious and profligate and abandoned men of the world, who act on no fixed or reputable principles, are guided by no impulse but that of appetite, and are given to sinful practices, to low vices, to secret crimes, each according to his own desires, and in different degrees and habits of criminality. With these, it cannot be supposed for a moment, that Christians can have any harmony either of feeling or of enjoy ment. Light is not more opposite to darkness, heaven is not more opposite to hell, than they who have the true spirit and purity of the Gospel, are to the lovers of profligacy and the perpetrators of crime. But although it is as impossible for Christians to be friends of these, as it is for two "to walk together, unless they are agreed," yet they may be frequently thrown together. The unavoidable calls of business, or the bonds of a near relationship, may bring them to move almost constantly in the circle of the same society; and although there is no danger in regard to this, as there might be in regard to the former class, of our becoming lovers of their characters and principles and ways, yet there is a danger here also, though arising from a different cause, and a consequent need of the wisdom of the serpent to avoid it. They may suffer our presence because they cannot get rid of it, but it will always be felt as a restraint upon them, and they will never be at rest, till, either by fair means or foul, they have obtained our countenance, and got us on their side. If we

are proof against their solicitations, they will lay snares to entrap us. They will devise the most dexterous expedients, and fabricate the most cunning stories, and form the best-concerted schemes to catch our feet in the net which they have laid; and should their plot take effect, O with what malignant satisfaction will they triumph over our fall, and expose the weakness of the saintly pre-independent will, and in the course of his extendtenders, and embellish their narrative of our disgrace, with every additional circumstance to make us appear ridiculous and contemptible in the eyes of the world. Nor may this be the end of it. That scheme, which they originally contrived for their temporary amusement, may give rise to consequences more serious to us than they ever contemplated; and the unhappy irregularity into which we may have been betrayed, though it stand in solitary contrast to the tried and established virtue of a protracted life, may make an inroad on our peace of mind, the memory of which may haunt and distress us till our dying day, and entail such effects on our interests and respectability in the world, that years of unblemished morality and the most unfeigned piety may be unable to efface the indelible stain. Some there are among the professing followers of Christ, so strong in the faith, as to remain invulnerable amid all such assaults of infidel and ungodly ridicule,-whose pre-reclaim, he becomes lost and undone for ever. sence, whose words, whose very looks are sufficient to awe into silence the presumptuous scoffer, and to check the utterance of the impious jest that may have risen to his lips. But by far the greater part of Christians are of more timid and less established characters, and when compelled by circumstances, or urged by a mistaken regard and friendship to such enemies of the truth, they join their society, they pierce themselves through with many sorrows; for while, with a melting eye and a heart that secretly aches, they are observers of the unholy sentiments and practices in which these indulge, they are forced, in their presence, to compromise their most sacred feelings, and most cherished principles, for fear of drawing down upon themselves the vengeance of the "world's dread laugh;" and knowing, though they do, what they have to expect, yet they continue, as if spell-world, let them be ever on the watch themselves, bound, to haunt and linger in the fatal spot, with and look earnestly for grace from above, that they an infatuation, only equalled by, but more piti- may avert the seductions of evil example, and able far than, that of the tiny moth, which flies and ward off the weapons of ungodly ridicule, and be futters round the flame, till, lured by the deceitful not carried away by the imposing appearances and glare, it loses itself in the element of destruction. fair pretences of men, for Satan himself is someEvery Christian's experience will shew the times transformed into an angel of light. In fine, truth of this picture, and prove that unguarded let Christians be prudent, and look well to their intercourse with such men of the world is not un-goings; let them be wise, and with all their imitafrequently attended with consequences so fatal and irretrievable, as to make one tremble at the bare idea. Look into the criminal annals of the land, and of whom do their dark pages retail the history? Not of him alone who was cradled amid iniquity, and whose infant lips were taught to lisp the accents of profanity and vice; but of him, too, who, though brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, yet unhappily got into the society of those who were walking in the vanity

of their own minds, and had no fear of God before their eyes. On his first entrance into the world, fresh from the lessons of the Bible, and fortified by the counsels of parental tenderness, he would have fled, as from a pestilence, from the presence of those who were enemies to virtue, and at open war with their God. But left to his own ing acquaintance with the world, he begins to look down with contempt on what he now deems the weakness and bigotry of the principles to which he was trained. In an evil hour he is thrown into the company of those who studiously foster these growing opinions, and allows himself to be caught by the artful allurements by which they ply him to come over to their side. After a few ineffectual struggles, his resolution falters,-his principles are unhinged, the authority of his parents, his Bible, and his God, is forgotten or despised; and he who would have once recoiled, with instinctive abhorrence, from the commission of known and open sin, becomes familiar with the simplest forms of crime, and passing on from one stage in the career of iniquity to another, descends with fearful rapidity, in the downward path that leads him to the deep, and "in that deep, a lower deep still yawning to devour him," till past the possibility of

Let Christians, then, beware, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so by their intercourse with men of the world, their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Let them remember, that experience adds its strong verdict to the testimony of the apostle, that in every instance "evil communications corrupt good manners;" and knowing the sad and disastrous consequences which may, from this cause, accrue to their peace of mind, and their purity of conduct, let them shun altogether the society of those of whom Mammon is the god, and the world is the portion; or, if they cannot shun them altogether, let them mingle with them as little and as seldom as they can; or if circumstances oblige them to keep up habits of constant and familiar intercourse with men of the

tion of the far-sighted and wary circumspection of
the serpent, let them take care to be wise in that
which is good, and simple concerning evil.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF
MRS HUNTINGTON

THE influence of Christianity is often exemplified in
some of its most interesting and beautiful aspects, in
the lives of pious females. Possessed of strong sensi-
bilities, theirs is peculiarly the religion of the heart,
diffusing its salutary effects over the whole of that nar-