draw you on to such points as predestination. The will ask you what you think of the salvation of in fants and of the heathen. All this is meant to thro out the great question.

SEIZE FAVORABLE OCCASIONS-not only the "mollia tempora fandi," but when public charac ters and public events furnish occasions of profit able reflection.

CHILDISHNESS

Bring before your friends THE EXTREM OF A SINFUL STATE. Tre worldly amusements as puerile things. People the world are sick at heart of their very pleasures

On the Christian Sabbath.

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IT belongs to our very relation to God, to set u apart a portion of our time for his service: but, as it might have been difficult for conscience to deter mine what that portion should be, God has pre scribed it: and the ground of the observance re mains the same, whether the remembrance of God's resting from his work, or any other reason, be assigned as the more immediate cause.

The Jewish Sabbath was partly of political insti tution, and partly of moral obligation. So far as it was a political appointment, designed to preserve the Jews distinct from other nations, it is abrogat ed: so far as it was of moral obligation, it remains in force.

Our Lord evidently designed to relax the strict ness of the observance. Christianity is not a hedge placed round a peculiar people. A slave might enter into the spirit of Christianity, though obliged to work as a slave on the sabbath: he might be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, though in the mines of Patmos.

Difficulties often arise in respect to the observance of the Sabbath. I tell conscientious persons, "It you have the spirit of Christianity, and are in an employment contrary to Christianity, you will

or to escape from it, and God will open your y." If such a man's heart be right, he will not Fow himself out of his employment the first day suspects himself to be wrong, but he will pray I wait till his way shall be opened before him. Christ came not to abolish the Sabbath, but to plain and enforce it, as he did the rest of the w. Its observance was no where positively ened by him, because Christianity was to be pracable, and was to go into all nations: and it goes ther stripped of its precise and various circumnces. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, ems to be the soul of the Christian Sabbath.

In this view of the day, a thousand frivolous estions concerning its observance would be anvered. "What CAN I DO?" says one: I answer, Do what true servants of God WILL do. ot to what is wrong. Be in the Spirit. God will elp you."

Bend

In short, we are going to spend a Sabbath in ternity. The Christian will acquire as much of e Sabbath-spirit as he can. And, in proportion ɔ a man's real piety in every age of the church, e will be found to have been a diligent observer of e Sabbath day.

On Judging Justly.

PERFECTLY just and sound mind is a rare and nvaluable gift. But it is still much more unusual o see such a mind unbiassed in all its actings. God as given this soundness of mind but to few; and a very small number of those few escape the bias of some predilection, perhaps habitually operating; and none are, at all times and perfectly, free. I once saw this subject forcibly illustrated. A watchmaker told me that a gentleman had put an exquisite watch into his hands, that went irregularly. It was as perfect a piece of work as was ever made.

He took it to pieces and put it together ag twenty times. No manner of defect was to be de covered, and yet the watch went intolerably. last it struck him, that, possibly, the balance-whe might have been near a magnet. On applying needle to it, he found his suspicions true. He was all the mischief. The steel work in the othe parts of the watch had a perpetual influence on motions; and the watch went as well as possib with a new wheel. If the soundest mind be MAG NETIZED by any predilection, it must act irreg larly.

PREJUDICE is often the result of such strong ass ciations, that it acts involuntarily, in spite of con viction and resolution. The first step toward it eradication, is the persevering habit of presenting it to the mind in its true colors.

on the

If a man will look at most of his prejudices, he will find that they arise from his field of view being necessarily narrow, like the eye of the fly. He can have but little better notions of the whole scheme of things, as has been well said, than a ́ fly pavement of St. Paul's cathedral can have of the whole structure. He is offended, therefore, by inequalities which are lost in the grand design: This persuasion will fortify him against many injuriou and troublesome prejudices.

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JUST judgment depends on the simplicity and the strength of the mind. The eye which conveys perfect idea of the scene to the mind, must be un clouded and strong. If the mental eye be not sin gle, the judgment will be warped by some little, mean, and selfish interests; and, if it be not capable of a wide and distant range, the decision will be

partial and imperfect. For example: a man, with either of these failings, will be likely to blind his eyes from the conviction, that would dart on him, when he places a son or a friend in any sphere of influence, BECAUSE he is his son or his friend; when a single or a strong eye would shew him, that the interests of religion and truth required him to prefer some other person. The mind must be raised above the petty interests and affairs of life, and pursue supremely the glory of God and the church.

SOME minds are so diseased, that they can see an affair only in that light, in which passion or predilection first presented it, or as it appears on the surface. The essence, the truth of the thing, which must give character to the whole, and on which all just decision must depend, may lie beneath the surface, and may be a nice affair. But such minds cannot enter into it. It is as though I should try to convince such persons-allowing me that the pineal gland is the seat of the soul-that, however fair and perfect the form, the man wanted the essence of his being, in wanting that apparently insignificant part of his body. Such men would say, "Here is a striking and perfect form-all parts are harmonious-life animates the frame-the machine plays admirably-what has this little insignificant member to do with it?" And yet this is the essential and characterizing part of the man.

EVERY man has a peculiar turn of mind, which gives a coloring and tinge to his thoughts. I have particularly detected this in myself with respect to public affairs. I have such an immediate view of God acting in them, that all the great men, who make such a noise and bustle on the scene, seem to

me like so many mere puppets. God is moving them all, to effect His own designs. They cannot advance a step, whither He does not lead: nor stand a moment, where he does not place them. Now this is a view of things, which it is my privilege to take as a Christian. But the evil lies here. I dwell so much on the view of the matter, to which the turn of my mind leads me, that I forget sometimes the natural tendencies of things. God uses all things, but not so as to destroy their natural tendencies. They are good or evil, according to their own nature; not according to the use which He makes of them.

THE mind has a constant tendency to conform itself to the sentiments and cast of thinking with which it is chiefly conversant, either among books or men. If the influence remain undetected, it grows soon into an inveterate habit of obliquity. Even if it be detected, it is the most difficult thing in the world to bring back the mind to the standard, especially if there be any thing in its constitution which assimilates itself to the error. I was once much in the habit of reading the mystical writers: a book of Dr. Owen's clearly convinced me that they erred: yet I found my mind ever inclining toward them, and winding round like the biassed bowl. I saw clearly the absurdity of the notions in their view of them, and yet I was ever talking of "self annihilation" &c: and am not even now rid of the thing.

On the Character of St. Paul.

I DELIGHT to contemplate St. Paul as an appointed pattern. Men might have questioned the propriety of urging on them the example of Christ