in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." And, as he did with Eve, our mother, so does he tempt us her children. He first throws in doubts into our hearts, as to the strict nature and spirituality of the law of God; he endeavours to keep us blind to our true state by nature; but when the soul is convinced of sin, he next endeavours to raise doubts, whether God will actually put his threats in execution. He urges the mercy of God, his tenderness, his compassion. God is indeed merciful, indeed compassionate; but that mercy and compassion is only extended to us through his Son, on whom was laid the iniquity of us all. Did a sinner see the lake of fire, and firmly believe, that the moment he committed sin, he would be plunged therein, he would pause and hesitate before he yielded to the guilty desire. Did the thief believe that the rope would be put about his neck, and that he would be suspended from the gallows tree, the moment he had seized his neighbour's purse, he would fear to break the Eighth Commandment, and hastily draw back his hand from purloining. The devil deludes his captives now, as he did Eve in Paradise with his old lie," Ye shall not surely die." Not long ago, the laws of the country were of so sanguinary and severe a nature, that a petty theft was punishable with death; the consequence was, that many juries, however clear the evidence, hesitated to find a criminal guilty, as the sentence that would follow appeared to them little short of murder; and, if they did find a prisoner guilty, then an appeal was made to the crown, and a reprieve, end ing in pardon, was procured. Thus encouragement was given to crime, from the uncertainty of the sentence, in all its severity, being put in execution. The same takes place in private families: if children are accustomed to hear threats denounced, which are never put in execution, then they take encouragement to repeat the offence,-from the possibility, if not certainty, of being again and again pardoned. The devil's constant endeavour is to keep men ignorant of their sins; and, if he cannot entirely succeed in thus blinding them, he throws in the doubt if God will in reality punish them; but when the soul is awakened, the man who knows most of his own heart, will be apt to exclaim with St. Paul, “I am less than the least of all saints ;" not that he was in reality so-St. Paul was an eminent saint ;but, seeing the extent and purity of the law of God, and knowing more of his own heart than he could know of others, he felt himself to be indeed less than the least of all saints; of others he could only judge of the mere outside character, but he knew the depths of his own heart. Sin enters into all our actions: some mistaken men, after conversion, have imagined that they have not sinned for days, months, or years; but, even if such a supposition could be admitted, if a person had committed but one sin during a whole life, that one sin was sufficient to condemn him. He had broken the law of God, and brought upon himself the sentence of condemnation. If a man is one inch under water, he is as surely drowned as if he was many fathoms deep; but under sentence of eternal death, 66 let us all now gladly lay hold of the mercy of God, now offered to us through Christ, freely offered to us without money and without price. Let not the magnitude or multitude of our sins prevent our applying to that precious, purifying, cleansing blood-for what saith the promises of Him who cannot lie: Though thy sins be as scarlet they shall be as wool,"-and then the promise proceeds still in more encouraging language," though they be red like crimson"-crimson is of a darker hue than scarlet-" they shall be whiter than the snow." MICAH, II., 10. In the Evening. "Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your rest; because it is polluted it shall destroy you even with a sore destruction." THERE is a book, uninspired 'tis true, yet containing many excellent illustrations of Scripture-it was written by one imprisoned for the cause of the truth-namely, the Pilgrim's Progress; it is an allegory or vision. Bunyan, in his first dream, describes a man clothed in rags, with a book in his hand, and a heavy burden on his back; yet running across the plain, crying, life, life, eternal life! In the next vision, the same man is seen, pursued by his wife and messengers from his fellow-citizens, urging his return, but he only flies the faster onwards, and refuses to return to the City of Destruction. The explanation of this allegory is very plain: the man clothed in rags is the awakened sinner; the rags, the filthy rags, are his own righteousness; the book in his hand is the Bible, which has awakened him; the heavy burden on his back is the burden of sin; his wife and his friends are the people of the world, who are urging his return to that world, the City of Destruction, from which he is fleeing. So in my text we are bidden to arise and depart, for this is not our rest; our stay, even if assured of lengthened life, is but short in this passing scene-and as it is, none can be certain of an hour's existence. Yet men weary themselves for gain and for gold, as if they were to live here for ever. There is an ancient fable of a man so greedy of money, that he prayed to the gods for the power of turning every thing he touched into gold-he obtained his wish, but it became his curse-when he touched a bit of bread ere it reached his lips, it became a mass of gold; the water which used to refresh his thirst, was consolidated into the shining metal when it touched his mouth. The love of money is the root of all evil. We should pass through this world as travellers to a better land, content with sufficient to pay our way; and who, who believes that there is a mansion provided for him in Heaven, an house not made with hands, will not gladly hail the cry-Arise and depart, for this is not your rest! The man who sees hell beneath him, will gladly hang by the rope of life over the precipice, for fear of falling into the pit; but the man who sees heaven above him, will gladly lay hold of the ladder let down to draw him up, to that city which hath foundationswhose builder and whose maker is God! 251 THE PROPHET OF JUDAH. PART I. BESIDE a blazing altar Did Jeroboam stand, And, ring on ring, around him throng'd The son of Nebat took. There all the land were gather'd- From Bashan's hills, and Jordan's banks, And there, too, was the fisherman From far-off Galilee. And from that countless multitude Like sound of troubled waters, ere For toss'd was every bosom there— The tumult of the day When first they cast allegiance off, Had not yet pass'd away; And mutterings ran through the crowd-For rumours there were rife, |