example, the first Lord's day. Devote it to the purpose. Read alone. Pass no statement without fully understanding it. If the meaning or truth does not appear on the first reading, read the passage again, and so also if the truth should escape your memory. Do so especially if you have any difficulty on the subject treated of. And 7. Read with proper design and personal application. That is, keep before you what you want to get at in reading the Guide; keep constantly in mind that your object is the attaining of peace with Godthe salvation of your soul-the assurance of your eternal well-being; and with this in view apply the truth to yourself, not to your neighbour. Read as if you were the only sinner to be saved, and as if the good news were addressed to no other but yourself. It will give us pleasure to receive from any quarter information of the usefulness of the Guide, or suggestions relative to improvements of which it may be susceptible. And we are the servant of all in Jesus, THOMAS HUGHES MILNER. EDINBURGH, December, 1852. Doing what I Can, and Leaving the Rest to Christ, THE GOSPEL GUIDE. THERE IS TIME ENOUGH. THIS objection, dear reader, assumes that you have not only a sufficiency of time to prepare for eternity, but that you may rest assured of having, notwithstanding all that you have misspent, far more than a sufficiency. If it were made as signifying that there is merely time enough, it would then imply the conviction that there is no time to lose, and that immediate decision is necessary. But, as every one knows, this is not the idea generally entertained when it is said, there is time enough. The ordinary argument of the objection is-there is more than enough of time, and therefore there is no need for me being now concerned about my salvation. I am young as yet-my health is good-I have many years to live-and it shall be quite sufficient time for me to think of eternity after I have enjoyed some of the good things of this life, and am nearer the confines of man's allotted years. Such is the general scope and import of the objection. Now, we apprehend that a few questions cannot fail to dispel the fatal illusion which overshadows this fancy, so far as it concerns those who will give the matter the slightest consideration. Then, reader, what reason have you for supposing that you have superabundant time for your salvation? What proof have you that there is a moment more time for you than you require? So far from being assured of this, you know that you cannot promise yourself a single hour beyond the immediate present. Can you deny that ere another sunrise your doom may be for A ever sealed? Can you guard yourself against one of the thousand unseen accidents of life? Are you not conscious that, in a moment hence, disease may prostrate your physical energies-or that your reason may be taken from youor that death itself, without any warning whatever, may instantly lead you beyond the reach of mercy? Yet, although you know all this, and, consequently, are aware that you cannot reckon upon another hour of the future in which to secure your salvation, you say, let me alone— there is time enough! If you were but to glance at the fearfulness of your position under the influence of this objection-if you were but for a moment to realize your danger through it-you would stand appalled at your desperate foolishness in ever having listened to it for a single hour. Take an illustration of the infatuation which it manifests. Suppose it to be necessary for your happiness, and interests in general, that you leave this country for a distant part of the worldthat you have indispensable preparations to make—that you have but a short and uncertain period given you in which to make them-and that you are aware of your liability to be called away at any time without a moment's warning. Well, would you not regard it as altogether preposterous and madman-like for you to bestow all your attention on things quite foreign to your great enterpriseleave yourself utterly unprepared for the call that might reach you in a second of time-and excuse yourself after all by the unmasked delusion, that there is time enough? You would certainly regard this course as the extreme of folly. Yet, you must see that this is wisdom compared with the folly of leaving the vast interests of the soul in jeopardy, under the unsanctioned fallacy that there is time enough to decide in regard to them. Beware, then, dear reader, of delay. Remember that the present alone is yours; the past you cannot recall; the future you may realize only in eternity. Remember that one hour's delay may be as fatal as that of a life-time. Let the present, then, be the period of your decision, your conversion, your salvation. Why delay to be saved till to-morrow, when there is no to-morrow promised you, and |