the pathway of the sinner, thus necessitating those who will go to perdition to trample over the bleeding and mangled body of the Son of God? And if still onward they rush, In spite of all these obstacles, will it not be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for such?

THE HOUSE OF PRAYER. Wouldst thou have the temper of thy soul raised above the temptations and cares of life to the region where God, and virtue, and endless peace, and happiness dwell-go not, my brother, into the wilderness; climb not the steep rock; seek not the gloom of the forest, or the resounding shores of the ocean; but enter, with the train of devout worship. pers, the house of prayer; there, with thy children, thy household, thy kindred, friends, and neighbours, bow down before the high God. If the general countenance of this place do not tend to calm the passions of the soul, to allay its feverish anxieties, and infuse into it sensations of peace and piety, of duty and benevolence, how strangely must we all have forgotten everything which it most behoves us to regard and to remember! This is the climate of devotion. It is the atmosphere of praise and thanksgiving that we breathe here; and we are not purely intellectual, but sentient, impressible beings.

THE POWER OF HABIT AND THE PLEASURE OF SIN.

"Why do you rob me so?" asked a Russian prince of his servant, as they were travelling confidentially in the same carriage.

'My prince," replied the cook, taken aback only for the moment, "I must have my pleasures. The fatigues of your service require recreation. I have imbibed from your presence rather expensive tastes. I should have no genius for composing a dish unless I refreshed my faculties with a little music, and I always arrange a feast when my ideas are put in order by the motion of a comfortable carriage. What else can I do?"

"Let us understand one another," said the prince; 66 you are necessary to me, and I am necessary to you; neither can do without the other. Is there no means of arranging matters? I will give you any amount of wages you require."

The cook hesitated, stammered, and at length burst into tears, and exclaimed, "My prince, I would rather rob you!"

FILIAL AFFECTION IN THE

ᏀᎡᎬᎪᎢ ᎠᎬᏚᎬᎡᎢ,

We dismounted at the door of a spacious tent in the centre of the encampment. No sooner had our sheikh touched the ground, than he was affectionately embraced by his son, a fine boy of about fifteen. The scene at once brought to my mind some incidents recorded in Scripture, and seemed, in fact, to realise the interesting narratives of patriarchal times. The youth placed his hands on his father's neck and kissed each cheek, and then they leaned their heads for a few seconds, while embracing, on each other's shoulders. Precisely similar was the scene at the meeting of Jacob and Esau nearly

four thousand years ago: "And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."-Porter's Five Years in Damascus.

NEVER JEST WITH SCRIPTURE.

It is of the greatest importance that we should resist the temptation, frequently so strong, of annexing a familiar, facetious, or irreverent idea to a scriptural usage, a scriptural expression, a Scripture text, or a Scripture name. Nor should we hold ourselves guiltless though we may have been misled by mere negligence or want of reflection. Every person of good taste will avoid reading a parody or a travestie of a beautiful poem, because the recollection of the degraded likeness will always obtrude itself upon our memories when we wish to derive pleasure from contemplation of the original. But how much more urgent is the duty by which we are bound to keep the pages of the Bible clear of any impression tending to diminish the blessing of habitual respect and reverence towards our Maker's law?-Palgrave.

RESURRECTION.

There is something very grand and sublime in the Scripture doctrine of the resurrection. Confine your view to a single individual case. That body, so pale and motionless, breathless, we deposit in the earth. Soon all apparent coherence of parts is lost. The flesh shrivels -the bones are disjointed-the whole and wondrously adjusted fabric is loosened, till at last it is undistinguishable from the clods of the valley. This is mortality. Dust returns: to dust. But as the clarion note of the resurrection bursts on the astonished world, the mouldering clay vibrates with life, the bones are marshalled into order, sinews and tendons, flesh and form appear, the eye begins to sparkle, and the whole frame springs up in the vivacity of being.

ONE OF ROWLAND HILL'S PULPIT

ILLUSTRATIONS.

In one of his sermons he was speaking of the value of the Gospel from its relative aim and influence. "It makes," says he, "husbands better husbands, and wives better wives; parents better parents, children better children, masters better masters, and servants better servants; in a word, I would not give a farthing for that man's religion, whose cat and dog were not better for it!"

Every one could not have uttered this, but I received it from no less a person than Mr. Wilberforce, who heard it himself, and who remarked that, while probably everything else he said that evening was long ago forgotten, no one would ever forget this.

CHRIST THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE.

Oh, what a melting consideration is this, that out of his agony comes our victory; out of his condemnation, our justification; out of his pain, our ease; out of his stripes, our healing; out of his gall and vinegar, our honey; out of his curse, our blessing; out of his crown of thorns, our crown of glory; out of his death, our life! If he could not

be released, it was that you might. If Pilate gave sentence against him, it was that the great God might not give sentence against you. If he yielded, that it should be with Christ as they required, it was that it might be with our souls as well as we can desire.Flavel.

HE WILL GIVE YOU REST.

Are you travailing with sorrow? Are you heavy laden with the burden of oppression or woe? Christ will give you rest. Doubtless the heavy-laden with the burden of sin are first invited, but they exclude no other sufferers. There is no exception of age, or rank, or clime, the extent of the travail, or the weight of the burden: the childish sorrows of the weeping schoolboy are as much the subject of the Saviour's sympathy as the matured wretchedness of the aged man; all come within the Saviour's invitation.-H. Blunt.

FOLLY OF DELAY.

You may delay the work of repentance, and think the future far off-but it will come: your last call from heaven far off-but it will come your last unavailing effort to repent far off-but it will come: the death-struggle, the shroud, the funeral far off-but it will come : the day of judgment, the day of reckoning far off-but it will come: the sentence, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," far off-but it will come: eternal banishment from the presence of the Lord, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth far off-but it will come.-Dr. Chalmers.

EXCELLENCY OF THE BIBLE. Lord Bacon has remarked, that the Bible is like the land of Canaan, which flowed with milk and honey; or like the garden of Eden, where the Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food. The remark is as true as it is striking; and the more we examine the sacred volume, the more we shall perceive that it abounds not only with the nourishing, but with the delicious; not only with the profitable, but with the delightful. Its communications improve us while they entertain, and entertain us while they improve.-Jay.

the peevish and perverse, he only hath true charity; always remembering that solid, true peace, and peace of God, consists rather in complying with, than in being complied with. in suffering and forbearing, rather than in contention and victory.

THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH.

The Bible is the great anti-sin text-book; the Church, the great anti-sin society. No reform can be successful and complete which is not founded on the great fundamental principles contained in the Ten Commandments. All else is surface-work, and must prove abortive. As well might you kill a tree by clipping off here and there a twig, as kill a moral evil, while its root is still striking deep in a luxuriant soil.

THE CROSS.

By the love of thy cross, O Jesus, I live in that only will I glory; that, above all things, will I study; that, before all things, will I value. By the love of the Cross I will take up my cross daily and follow thee. I will persecute and crucify my own sinful affections and lusts, which persecuted, tormented, and crucified thee.-Ken.

THE MERCY-SEAT.

The mercy-seat in heaven is the surest and sweetest refuge in every hour of distress and darkness upon earth. This is our daily support and relief while we are passing through a world of temptations and hardships in the way to the promised land. "It is good to draw near to God."-Watts.

FAITH IN CHRIST.

Faith is the trust of the mind, for the blessing of justification, upon the obedience and death of the Son of God; and the ground of this trust is the excellence of the Saviour's obedience, and the worth and glory of Him who suffered.

SELFISHNESS.

Some men recognise nothing in the world to be worthy of their regard, if it does not conduce to their own immediate interest; they choose their friends as they do their animals, preferring those from whom they expect the most services.- Cicero.

CONSUMPTION OF TEA AND COFFEE.

One of the most remarkable facts in the diet of mankind is the enormous consumption of tea and coffee. Upwards of eight hundred millions of pounds of these articles are annually consumed by the inhabitants of the world.

SANCTIFIED SORROWS. Sickness, when sanctified, teaches us four things: the vanity of the world, the vileness of sin, the helplessness of man, and the preciousness of Christ.

THE WAY TO HEAVEN. If the way to heaven be narrow, it is not long; and if the gate be strait, it opens into endless life.-Beveridge.

"Whilst here," says his eldest son, Mr.T. B. Weston," he had the pleasure of being acquainted with the Revs. W. Jay, W. Thorp, and Robert Hall. He had also the honour of forming the acquaintance, and the advantage of occasionally enjoying the society, of John Foster; who, in addition to possessing a gigantic intellect and vast stores of knowledge, had a warm heart and a sanctified soul. To the conversational powers of that extraordinary man I have often heard him refer with delight. On one occasion he was invited to attend a meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The following is his characteristic reply, which was found among Mr. Weston's manuscripts: I shall allow myself but very few words, in the way of suggesting, that according to the feeling of the great majority of the persons attending these meetings, there are too many speakers, instead of a scarcity of them, and a far too protracted indulgence in making speeches. My own opinion or taste in the matter may perhaps partake of perversity or whim, but I will acknowledge I utterly loathe and abominate the prevailing spirit and manner of these meetings. From all I have seen of them, they appear to me to be, in a greater degree than they are anything else, exhibitions of vanity, cajolery, and ostentation. The ludicrous aping of the forms and ceremonies of the chief legislative assemblies, the rattling and clapping -the sort of prize-speech-making, in

WESTON.

which it is often so evident that the speaker's object is just to shine-the fulsome dealing round of extravagant compliments-all these give, to say the least, a farcical and operatic cast to the whole concern- -(in many instances, I have felt this the irresistible impression), and form, in my apprehension, a flagrant abandonment of dignity, sense, and honest truth. That' money is obtained, and the popularity of the good cause promoted, every good man must rejoice; but he must lament the necessity, if it be such, that so much of the agency for doing this good should consist in men's helping to inflate one another's vanity, and turning important matters into parading show and exhibition.'”

In 1832, Mr. Weston was settled at Wooburn, where, for a long time, be had to contend with various and deeply distressing difficulties, which, it would appear, were never wholly surmounted. Mr. Hayden proceeds:

own

Early in the year 1855, symptoms of failing health began to manifest themselves in Mr. Weston; and in July he went to Bath, in the hope that relaxation and change of air would recruit his energies. Nor was he wholly disappointed; for his health and that of his beloved wife, who was then in a delicate state, were evidently benefited by the visit. But, alas! the advantage was of short duration; for symptoms, ever and anon, appeared that induced his most intimate friends to apprehend that he would not be permitted to labour very many more months in the vineyard of his Divine Lord and Master. And so it came to pass; for on the first sabbath in June of the bygone year he preached for the last time to his people. His text in the morning was taken from Acts ix. 11, "Behold, he prayeth;" and in the evening from Psa. cxxv. 1, "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever." Referring to the service in the evening some week afterwards he said, "I was so completely exhausted at

its close that it seemed to me to be the last effort of nature." It may also be regarded as his last public testimony to the power and faithfulness of God, and the immovability of the believer's confidence: "Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.' Jehovah was his confidence. Reader! is he thine?

A few days after this I received a note from him, in which he expressed a strong desire to see me, as he was, on the recommendation of his medical attendant Robert Colebourne, Esq., whose attentions to him and his afflicted wife were unremitting, once more going to try the effect of a change of air. During the interview, while conversing with him on the subject, he said, "I have no hope that it will be beneficial to me; but, you know, all that a man hath will he give for his life." To enable him to accomplish this object, the vicar of Wooburn, the Rev. F. B. Ashley, kindly interested himself among his friends; and this act of fraternal and Christian affection was to the deceased a source of peculiar gratification. But the spirit had received too deep a wound, and the diseases under which he laboured, on the testimony of Mr. Colebourne, had been too severely aggravated by painful circumstances, to render any change of place beneficial to him. There was a time when Christ's ministers were crucified, or thrown to the lions, or burnt at the stake; but in the present day a different method is adopted to get them out of the world. I know it is sometimes said that ministers in our denomination receive what they are worth; but I also know that a more infamous libel than this was never uttered. Why, on this principle, what was the great Apostle of the Gentiles worth? (1 Cor. iv. 9-13.)

On the second Tuesday in June he left Wooburn in company with Mrs. Weston for Gravesend, and, after nearly a month's residence at that place, returned to die. To his wife the change had been beneficial, but not to himself. In a note, dated July 21st, he says, "We returned from Gravesend on Tuesday, stayed in London two days, and arrived at home on Thursday. Mrs. Weston appeared to receive a little benefit [from our visit]. Her appetite improved, and

her strength increased a little, but her cough was no better. I certainly am worse instead of better. We shall be extremely glad to see you. I want to talk with you. Mrs. Weston unites in kindest regards to Mrs. Hayden and yourself.'

Shortly after receiving this note I visited my afflicted brother. I was much struck with his appearance, and deeply affected at observing the ravages that disease had made in his mortal body since I last saw him. Oh, how painfully did his wasted form remind me of the plaintive language of the afflicted patriarch: "Thou prevailest always`against him, and he departeth; thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons are honoured, but he knoweth it not; they are oppressed, but he doth not perceive it. But his flesh upon him shall be corrupted, since his vital breath within him hath perished." But, melancholy as was the spectacle, I was greatly comforted to find that though the outward man was perishing, the inward man was renewed day by day. Among other precious observations which he made on this occasion was the following: "I expect," said he, in the language of John Howe on his dying bed, "salvation, not as a profitable servant, but as a pardoned sinner." His spirit appeared to me to be more subdued and resigned than when I saw him last; and the irritability to which he was liable in the first stages of the disorder, and which he lamented toward the close of his illness, seemed to be wholly removed. Thus his soul was ripening for heaven while his body was returning to the dust.

On my second visit I found Mrs. Weston very ill, and it then appeared to me probable that she would die first. But this was not the Divine decree. His soul was serene and happy, although he referred with strong emotion to what he had suffered in the ministry, and to his being forsaken in his last days by some who ought to have been his joy, 1 Tim. i.

15.

My third visit was on the 12th of August, when I took the liberty to propose to him the following questions, "Do those great truths which for many years you have preached to others support you now?" "They are all my joy, my hope, and my confidence."

Here let me refer to a circumstance which gave my afflicted brother great pleasure. In presenting him with a small sum which several of my hearers had contributed, I said, "That is from Mrs. -'s servant." This greatly interested and affected him; and as he went over the several names of the contributors, he emphasized the words which referred to this fact. Yes, and this female was the first to bring me the same sum at the close of the celebration of the Lord's Supper on the first Sabbath of September, when a somewhat larger sum was contributed for his widow. Well do I remember his saying on this occasion, "I sometimes feel almost overpowered by the kindness of friends." So true it is that the God of Israel will not forsake his people: "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."

It was during this visit that he put a slip of paper in my hand, and, as he did so, said, "I have given you the names of the brethren whom I wish to take a part at my funeral, although not in order; and I can do no more.' However, at my request, and with my assistance, he appointed to them their several parts. On this being accomplished, he appeared as if relieved of a

burden.

My next interview was on the 23rd of the same month, when I found Mrs. Weston somewhat better, but her husband decidedly worse.

On my

was the following, which occurs in his celebrated discourse "On the Discouragements and Supports of the Christian Minister:" "As the material part of the creation was formed for the sake of the immaterial, and of the latter the most momentous characteristic is its moral and accountable nature, or, in other words, its capacity of virtue and vice, that labour cannot want dignity which is exerted in improving man in his highest character, and fitting him for his eternal destination. Here alone is certainty and durability; for, however highly we may esteem the arts and sciences, which polish our species and promote the welfare of society; whatever reverence we may feel, and ought to feel, for those laws and institutions whence it derives the security necessary for enabling it to enlarge its resources and develope its energies, we cannot forget that these are but the embellishments of a scene we must shortly quit the decorations of a theatre from which the eager spectators and applauded actors must soon retire. The end of all things is at hand.' Vanity is inscribed on every earthly pursuit, on all sublunary labour; its materials, its instruments, and its objects will alike perish. An incurable taint of mortality has seized upon and will consume them long. The acquisitions derived from religion, the graces of a renovated mind, are alone permanent."

saying, "I hope as the outward man perisheth, the inward man is renewed day by day," he replied with emotion, "I have none. I will tell you what I mean presently." Having mastered his feelings, he said, "I find that my mental powers are failing me." Some time after this, and while we were surrounding the tea-table, his beloved wife and two of his dear children forming part of the group, as if to give proof that his intellectual faculties still retained something of their vigour, he quoted several beautiful passages from the writings of Robert Hall with energy and feeling. One

VOL. XIV.

ere

The other citation was from Dr. Ryland's funeral sermon, and is as follows: "The friendship which is founded on kindred tastes and congenial habits, apart from piety, is permitted by the benignity of Providence to embellish a world which, with all its magnificence and beauty, will shortly pass away; that which has religion for its basis will ere long be transplanted, in order to adorn the paradise of God.”

On rising from the sofa he exclaimed, "What a wreck!" And truly it was affecting to see his once manly form so wasted by disease. Still he held on his way, and, by grace, was enabled to exercise confidence in the wisdom and love of his Father in heaven:

"When flesh and heart decays and fails,

He will thy strength and portion be,
Support thy weakness, bear thy ails,
And softly whisper, 'Trust in me.'

P