SO?" "Why," said the old man, "it makes out a man's case to be hopeless, and quite stops his mouth. It shows that we are all sinners, and all condemned. But I have got to a chapter that gives some little light and hope after all." He read through the book several times. He also read James's "Anxious Inquirer." Meanwhile he did not neglect the study of the Bible, nor was he without the spiritual counsel and prayers of the visitor, and these means have been employed by the Holy Spirit in bringing this aged infidel to the feet of Jesus as a humble believer, and enabling him to rejoice in the light and liberty of the Gospel.

When we look at facts connected with this case, that the man was more than seventy years of age, that he was deaf, that he was so much afflicted with rheumatism, that, if he had wished it, he could not have attended the stated ministry, that he was addicted to intemperance, profaneness, and other vices, and that infidelity had long exerted its influence over him, we see in the change that has been wrought an illustrious display of the rich grace of God; and when we notice the means employed, and inquire for those most likely to be made effectual in similar cases, we see the great importance of that personal effort in which the Tract Society is engaged.

OBSCURE PASSAGES IN THE
BIBLE.

A gentleman who visits with great regularity the Philadelphia Penitentiary, the inmates of which his piety prompts him to instruct, had given a Bible to a convict, who would ask him, at each visit, with much shrewdness, some difficult question formed from passages of the sacred volume; each time declaring he would not go on if this was not first explained to him. The gentleman was unable to persuade him that it would be best for him first to dwell upon those passages which he could easily understand, and which plainly applied to his situation. After many fruitless trials to induce the convict to this course, his friendly teacher said, "What would you think of a very hungry man, who had not eaten a morsel of food for the last twenty-four hours, and was asked by a charitable man to come in and sit down at a richly covered table, on which were large dishes of choice meat, and also covered ones, the contents of which the hungry man did not know. Instead of satisfying his exhausted body with the former, he raises one cover after another, and insists on finding out what these unknown dishes are composed of. In spite of all the advice of the charitable man to partake first of the more substantial dishes, he dwells with obstinate inquiry on nicer compounds, until, overcome with exhaustion, he drops down. What do you think of such a man?” He is a fool," said the convict," and I will be one no longer. I understand you well."— Dr. Leiber.

A PIOUS FANCY.

Fontanes asked Chateaubriand if he could assign a reason why the women of the Jewish

race were so much handsomer than the men. To which Chateaubriand gave the following truly poetical and Christian one: "The Jewesses," he said, "had escaped the curse which alighted upon their fathers, husbands, and sons. Not a Jewess was to be seen among

the crowd of priests and rabble who insulted the Son of God, scourged him, crowned him with thorns, and subjected him to ignominy and the agony of the cross. The women of Judea believed in the Saviour, and assisted and soothed him under affliction. A woman of Bethany poured on his head precious ointment which she kept in a vase of alabaster. The sinner anointed his feet with perfumed oil, and wiped them with her hair. Christ, on his part, extended his mercy to the Jewesses. He raised from the dead the son of the widow of Nain, and Martha's brother, Lazarus. He cured Simon's motherin-law, and the woman who touched the hem of his garment. To the Samaritan woman he was a spring of living water, and a compassionate Judge to the woman taken in adultery. The daughters of Jerusalem wept over him, the holy woman accompanied him to Calvary, brought balm and spices, and weeping sought him in the sepulchre. man, why weepest thou?' His first appearance was to Mary Magdalene. He said to her, Mary!' at the sound of his voice, Mary Magdalene's eyes were opened, and she answered, Master.' The reflection of some very beautiful ray must have rested on the brow of the Jewesses."

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WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR MONEY?

I remember a circumstance which took place at the burning of the steamer Washington. One of the passengers, on the first alarm of fire, ran to his trunk, and took from it a large amount of gold and silver coin which he had carefully stowed away, and loaded his pockets, ran to the deck, and jumped overboard. As a necessary consequence, he went down immediately. His treasure was his ruin. So we have got to swim in order to reach the kingdom of heaven; and who can estimate the folly of loading our pockets with the gold and silver which must inevitably carry us under? Great riches hedge up the way to eternal life; and God has shown his mercy in providing an outlet for them, so that they shall not drown us in perdition. It is worthy of thought, that when his people, in years past, would not avail themselves of this natural outlet, God opened a mighty waste-gate. Almost in the twinkling of an eye, the accumulated wealth of Christians vanished into smoke at the touch of his finger. The waste-gate is again shut; prosperity has returned to all our borders. Let us beware lest, by neglecting the natural channel, we lose our souls, or compel the Lord to open it again. Liberality takes the poison out of riches.-Wisner.

SPIRITUAL DAGUERREOTYPE.

In 2 Cor. iii. 18, the apostle speaks on this wise of the transforming power of the Gospel, received through faith: "But we all with

open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image," etc. Chap. iv. 6, this reflected glory is said to be from the "face of Jesus Christ." The doctrine is this: Jesus Christ, in the Gospel of his grace, is beholding us in mercy, ready to save us from our sins. When we look to him by faith, the rays of the beaming glory falling upon our hearts, transform them into the same image; we bear his likenessare partakers of the Divine nature. This is beautifully and strikingly illustrated in the process of taking daguerreotype likenesses. The rays of light proceeding from the face whose likeness is to be taken, fall upon the plate, and an exact fac-simile is produced there. Two things are necessary to this effect; the proper apparatus must intervene between the object and plate, and the plate must be properly prepared to receive and retain the image. So the Gospel apparatus must intervene between the out-beaming glory and us, and our hearts must have the proper preparation to receive the Divine image. Faith brings us into the right position, and gives to our hearts the necessary preparation. Lord, teach us to believe.

ELECTION.

With respect to the doctrine of election, I would state it in Scripture terms, and obviate the Antinomian interpretation by remarking, that man, as man, is said to be chosen to obedience, to be conformed to the image of God's Son, etc., and not on a foresight of his faith or obedience; as also that the distinction betwixt true believers and others is often expressly ascribed to God: "Thou hast hid these things;" "To you it is given not only to believe;"" As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." As the doctrine of election, however, occupies but a small part of the New Testament revelation, it should not, in my opinion, be made a prominent point in the Christian ministry. It is well to reserve it for the contemplation of Christians, as matter of humiliation and of awful joy; but in addressing an audience on the general topics of religion, it is best, perhaps, to speak in general strains. The Gospel affords ample encouragement to all; its generous spirit and large invitations should not be cramped and fettered by the scrupulosity of system.-Hall.

PATRISTIC REASONING.

The credulity of the fourth century (on religious subjects) appears from the following statement:-The primitive fathers had such experience of the blind credulity and superstition of the age in which they lived, that the impossibility of a thing was an argument for the belief of it; so we find Tertullian disputing against certain heretics; he reasons thus: "The Son of God was crucified-it is no shame to own it, because it is a thing to be ashamed of. The Son of God died; it is wholly credible, because it is absurd. When buried, he rose again to life, it is certain, because it is impossible." When we reflect on the corrupt and degenerate state of the Church in the end of the fourth century, as it is allowed by the most diligent inquirers

into antiquity, we may justly conclude, that all the miracles recorded in this age were, in the gross, the mere effect of fraud and imposture; for we can hardly dip into any part of ecclesiastical history (of this age especially) without discovering the credulity of the people and the imposition of the priests, even up to the Reformation.-Conyers Middleton.

LABOUR.

The more we accomplish, the more we have to accomplish. All things are full of labour, and, therefore, the more we acquire, the more care and the more toil to secure our acquisitions. Good men can never retire from their Their fortune is works of benevolence. never made. I never heard of an apostle, prophet, or public benefactor, retiring from their respective fields of labour. Moses, and Paul, and Peter died with their harness on. So did Luther, and Calvin, and Wesley, and a thousand others as deserving, though not so well known to fame. We are inured to labour. It was first a duty; it is now pleasure. Still there is such a thing as over. working man and beast, mind and body. The mainspring of a watch needs repose, and is the better for it. The muscles of an elephant and the wings of a swift bird are at length fatigued. Heaven gives rest to the earth because it needs it; and winter is more pregnant with blessings to the soil than summer with its flowers and fruits. But in the war for truth and against error, there is no discharge.-A. Campbell.

THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK.

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The proper work of Christians is the extension of Christianity: the adding to the cloud of witnesses, the diminution of the sons of darkness, the accession of the gems to the Redeemer's crown. It is to be imbued with holy, untiring anxieties to rescue beings like themselves from going down to the pit; and, because time is short, to devote every power, to consecrate every talent, devise every means, employ every resource, to save souls from death," consequently, to remember that men are always perishing, that, therefore, we should be always labouring; that the season for activity is circumscribed, and that, ere long, the night will come-it is coming-when our tongues shall be silent, our hands motionless, and our hearts pulseless; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest.

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"BE YE ANGRY AND SIN NOT."

Anger is implanted in us as a sort of sting, to make us gnash with our teeth against the devil, to make us vehement against him, not to set us in array against each other. We have arms given us, not to make war against ourselves, but that we may employ our whole armour against our spiritual adversary. Art thou prone to anger? Be so against thine own sins; chastise thy soul, scourge thy conscience, be a severe judge, and merciless in thy sentence against thine own sins. This is the way to turn anger to profit. It was for this that God implanted wrath within us.-St. Chrysostom.

to sin, and sin again. Now, I wish to make you feel that you cannot reform yourself; and you will be convinced of this if you will only think how many times you have wished to be good, and still, on the slightest temptation, you have again offended. But there is One, my love, who will assist your feeblest efforts. It is the same blessed Jesus who was once, like yourself, a little child, and had a great many more hardships to contend with. He was tempted, and has promised to "succour those who are tempted." He is the Rock spoken of in your text; and it should be your constant prayer that you may be led to him. There is safety nowhere else. Whenever, then, my dearest boy, you feel yourself inclined to such sinful anger, let your first wish be, "Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." Let it be your morning and evening supplication, and never rest till you feel yourself firmly fastened there.'

"She then made me kneel down; and kneeling beside me, with her arm clasping my waist, she commended me to God and to his grace so fervently and so pathetically, that the recollection of that hour will always linger in my memory. I thought I never should be passionate again. But, alas! even on that very day I was frequently reminded of my own weakness, and recalled from very near approaches to fretfulness and ill-temper, by my mother's serious but sweet expression, and an emphatic Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.'

"Alas! I soon lost this devoted mother. She was too fair and frail a plant to buffet the storms of life, and so she was bowed beneath them. I forgot her pious precepts, and my spirit was too nearly assimilated to a licentious world; but I can say with truth, that in the wildest career of folly, when sense and reason have been almost annihilated, and the voice of conscience has been disregarded, those very words, Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I,' have come over my benumbed senses like a voice from the tombs, restoring me to my better self, and quickening me to a sense of my infatuation and my guilt.

"I was once a victim to calumny and falsehood, and the fever of my soul had well nigh driven me to madness; but the same sweet words, in all the tenderness of my mother's

tones, fell on my burning spirit, and I was calmed. In that season of bereavement, too, when all that I loved seemed forsaking me, they entered my desolated heart like a dream of childhood, restoring me hood, restoring me to thoughts of happiness, and innocence, and peace.

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They at length became as the handwriting on the wall to guilty Belshazzar. 'Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I,' was continually in my imagination-not as heretofore, with soothing influence, but as something fearful and appalling. Go where I would it followed me, and the consciousness that I had hardened my heart against its silent teachings, pursued me like a phantom. It was this, under God, that led me to repentance. It is this that now shields me in temptation; and whenever these horrible struggles, such as you have seen, come upon me, I instinctively reach forth to lay hold upon the Rock that is higher than I.'"

CHINESE ODE.

THE Rev. J. Johnston, Baptist missionary in China, has forwarded translations of several of the tracts put forth by the revolutionists, whose career in that country is now exciting so much interest throughout all Christian nations. The translations were made by the late Dr. Medhurst, English missionary at Shanghai.

We select from one of these tractsor poems, for such in form they areentitled an "Ode for Youth,' such portions as relate to the duties of life in the several domestic relations. They will be read, we think, with interest in the family circle.

The entire poem embraces similar stanzas on the duties of men to God, to Jesus, to the various functionaries of the State, and on the management of the heart, the senses and members of the body, etc.

In the construction of this poem, we are told, "each line [in Chinese] contains four words, and each verse four lines." In making our selection, we have preserved the order and continuity of the stanzas, as in the original, except in the first, and the last two, which are brought to their places here from different positions in the parts omitted.