seems to meet your case?" I asked. "I read," said he, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I am weary and heavy laden with sin. I want to find rest from this burden of sin. Tell me if I may place my hope in this promise?" "The Bible," I answered, "tells you that though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' 'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'" As I further conversed with him it was evident that the Spirit had been with him in that gloomy prison, where there was no eye to pity or voice to cheer. He was comforted and encouraged, and thanked me for coming to see him. I continued to visit him, and he gave to me very satisfactory evidence that he had truly repented of all his sins, and trusted alone in the merits of an atoning Saviour. MY FATHER. In a storm at sea, when the danger pressed, and the deep seemed ready to devour the voyagers, one man stood composed and cheerful amidst the agitated throng. They asked him eagerly why he feared notwas he an experienced seaman, and did he see reason to expect that the ship would ride the tempest through? No: he was not an expert sailor, but he was a trustful Christian. He was not sure that the ship would swim, but he knew that its sinking could do no harm to him. His answer was, 66 Though I sink to-day, I shall drop gently into the hollow of my Father's hand, for he holds all these waters there!" The story of that disciple's faith triumphing in a stormy sea presents a pleasant picture to those who read it on the solid land; but if they in safety are strangers to his faith, they will not in trouble partake of his consolation. The idea is beautiful; but a human soul, in its extremity, cannot play with a beautiful idea. If the heart do not feel the truth firm to lean upon, the eye will not be long satisfied with its symmetry to look at. Strangers may speak of Providence; but only the children love it. If they would tell the truth, those who are alienated from God in their hearts do not like to be so completely in His power. It is when I am satisfied with His mercy, that I rejoice to lie in His hand. INTERESTING EXTRACTS. THE Corn in harvest sometimes rooted faith. Pray to be esta- Many seem to think, that to be a believer is to have certain feelings and experiences; forgetting all the time that these are but the flowers, and that the fruit must follow. The engrafting of the branch is good, the inflowing of the sap is good, but the fruit is the end in view. So faith is good, and peace and joy are good, but holy fruit for God's glory is the end for which we are saved. his face. Look then at Jesusdeeply, intensely-till every feature is graven on your heart. We know not how greatly we are every day protected by God's saving might; we know not how He has already succoured us; how He has curbed the power of the enemy; we cannot tell from what bodily afflictions, from what mental struggles, from what fearful falls, He has actually kept us. Let us then fear nothing but separation from Him; let us The only way to hold fast lean upon His help, seek His your faith in Christ is to believe grace more earnestly; buckle more and more. Get a larger on and brighten our Christian acquaintance with Christ, with armour, that we may be able His person, work, and character."to stand against all the fiery Every line in the Epistles dis- darts of the devil." Let us becloses new depths in His work. lieve in the greatness of redempGet more faith, and you will get tion; in the of Christ; presence a firmer hold. A plant that has in the aid of the Holy Spirit; in got a single root may be easily the heavenly and serene chatorn up by the hand, or crushed racter of our daily lives; in the by the foot of the wild beast, or treasures of grace which are blown down by the wind; but open to us. Let us see what a a plant that has a thousand roots safe and blessed thing it is to struck down into the ground be on God's side; that there can can stand. Faith is like the be in His universe no real root many believe a little con- danger for "the man who trustcerning Christ-one fact. Every eth in Him." Let us watch our new truth concerning Jesus is wavering will; let us force soa new root struck downwards. briety on our unruly passions; Believe this more intensely. A let us sit often in earnest mediroot may be in a right direction, tation beneath the cross of our but, not striking deep, it is only Lord. Let us thus "resist easily torn up. Pray for deep- the devil, and he shall flee from us," and as he leaveth us, "be-toxicating nature-is dangerous. hold, angels shall come and minister unto us." Short questions, whereby to know whether the heart be truly changed: 1. Hath thine heart been turned into sorrow for sin ? 2. Hath thy sorrow turned into prayer? 3. Hath thy prayer turned into faith? 4. Hath thy faith issued in universal tenderness and obedience? I have in the course of my life witnessed such sad, such awful effects resulting from moderate drinking, that my heart sickens at the very remembrance of it. Place nothing to your lips stronger than water. No one but God can know how anxious I am that all my professing children may be kept walking in the fear of God, and in the love of the Spirit. Remember Him who loved you unto death; live to Him, and for Him, and resolve rather to die, than do Signs of faith to those that aught dishonouring to His dear believe : 1. Christ is precious. 2. The word is sweet. 3. Sin is bitter. 4. Prayer is delightful. 5. Saints are dear. 6. Religion is their business. 7. The world is a broken idol. 8. Death is welcome. Or thus-They that believe have Christ in their hearts; heaven in their eye, and the world under their feet; God's Spirit is their guide; God's fear is their guard; God's people are their companions; God's promises are their cordials; holiness is their way, and heaven is their home. Mrs. Winslow's Temperance Views (to her son R. F. W.)I earnestly hope nothing will induce you to relinquish your habits of temperance. How earnestly and constantly I pray that God may keep you from everything that, by slow and insidious steps, might lead to certain and, perhaps, irremediable ruin. Anything in the form of drink, but simple water -I mean, of course, of an in name, who, in so remarkable a manner, called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. Dear child, bear with a fond and anxious mother, for you know not how my heart goes out after you. The Lord has wonderfully kept me twentyeight years in this blessed way, and has never permitted me to bring dishonour upon His dear cause; and yet I feel that I as much require His upholding hand and His restraining grace, at this moment, as I did at the first. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Jesus is very precious to my soul. I feel I cannot live without Him. He is my all in all. The world, and all its glory and riches, are as dross to me, in comparison of " Him whom my soul loveth." And yet I find the Christian life to be one of constant warfare, and feel, at times, as though a host were encamped against me. Your affectionate mother, MARY WINSLOW. One chief secret of happiness lies in not suffering trifles to vex one, and in prudently cultivating an undergrowth of small pleasures, since very few great ones are let on long leases. To hide one fault by another is both unwise and wicked. Sin is overcome only when by God's grace we repent of it, abhor it, and forsake it. Happiness is a perfume, that one cannot shed over another without a few drops falling on one's self. As the sweetest rose grows upon the sharpest prickle, so the hardest labours bring forth the sweetest profits. which teaches men presumption. Genius may be sometimes arrogant, but nothing is so diffident as knowledge. In the reign of Edward the First the price of a fair written Bible was 377. The hire of a labourer was three half-pence a day, hence the purchase of a copy would have taken a poor man the earnings of 4,800 days, or thirteen years and fifty-five days. Excluding Sundays, something more than fifteen years and three months of constant labour would have been required to compass the price. No man dare ask of God so much as He is ready and willing It is not wisdom, but ignorance to give.—Luther. Intelligence. THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN IN THE IRISH REVIVAL.-Brainerd tells us, in his diary of the great work of God among the Indians, how little children used oftentimes to be seen weeping for their sins and feeling their way to the Saviour. Not the least striking characteristic of this awakening in Ireland we found to be the conversion of a great many children. In a school which we visited in a northern town, about one hundred of the pupils were suddenly prostrated, one week-day, all weeping for their sins, and crying to Jesus for mercy. It was the first "sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees" heard in that town; and men stood still in silent awe. One morning, in a Sundayschool, the superintendent inquired if any one had any word to say to the rest. After a pause, a little girl of eight rose, amidst a deathlike silence. "Last Sunday morning," she said in her simple way, "I went home with a great load on my heart. I asked my brother what I was to do, for my sins were like to sink me down into hell. He said, 'I'll pray for you;' but day after day passed, and I got no relief. I went to him again and told him, and he said, "Go to Jesus yourself, and ask Him to take away the load from your heart." Well, I went Jesus, and laid my sins on Him; and now the load is gone-I have the peace which passeth all understanding. And then, turning to all the children around her, she began to plead with them, and to entreat them to flee to Him. to In the city of Armagh, we visited a family where, a few weeks before, a little boy of nine had taken aside four children into the back room of the cottage, and had prayed and pleaded with them until the little group were all melted into tears. The father told us, with tears in his eyes, that he believed they had all found the Lord. Elsewhere we heard of a little prayer-meeting held behind a hedge in a gravel-pit-it was four young children, lifting up in secret their hearts to their Father in heaven. And in another place, a boy of twelve was lying in bed prostrated. "What ails you?" inquired the visitor. "Oh, my sins! my sins!" he cried. "Do you need Jesus?" The tears trickled silently down his cheeks; and, as if his heart was growing too big for utterance, he said: "Yes, yes! I do so want to love Him, and to live for Him!" In another town, a boy, thirteen years of age, after deep convictions of sin, had been brought to quiet rest in Jesus. "But how will you do," asked a visitor kindly, "when you go back among your companions? Are you not afraid of falling away from your love to Jesus?" "I know," the little fellow replied, solemnly but firmly, "that have my dark clouds to pass through, for I am still in the flesh. But I know that I am bound to my Jesus with two cords-the cord of faith and the cord of love. The cord of faith may be slackened for a time; but the cord of God's love, which my Jesus fastened in my heart, never can be broken-oh never, never!" In a village near Belfast, a mother told us, one day, about her boy, who had been "stricken." For hours he had lain on his bed helpless and almost unconscious. Having to go to work, she had left him under the care of two or three converts. On her return, she had scarcely opened the door, when, with a joyful smile, he exclaimed, "O mother! God has forgiven me all my sins; I am in Jesus now; and, oh, how I do wish I never may sin any more!" Some nights afterwards she urged his father to ask him to pray at family worship. His words were very simple and very few, and the mother seemed to have them graven upon her heart. "Lord," he said, "give all of us thy Holy Spirit; break every stony heart among us; dip the arrow of conviction in the blood of Jesus; and fill all of us with love to the Saviour and to one another." The father, she told us, had not suspected the real depth of the work in his child's heart; and he was so affected, that he had to go out alone and weep. us a At a prayer-meeting one morning, a clergyman told story about a little boy, who had been repeatedly at meetings, where, one after another, people had been crying for their sins, and had found rest in Christ. On going home, one evening, he had said to his father and mother, and to two or three others who were in the house, "There's me; home again to-night without Christ!" He was beginning to tremble, lest the day of visitation might pass, and he remain unsaved. The clergyman added, that, on that little story being narrated at a meeting, one of those present had been suddenly seized with the most agonising terror about her own soul, and screamed aloud for fear. |