when a note, edged and The shock was great, A dear friend, whom I

It was but a few days after this event, sealed with black, was brought to me. but feelings of thankfulness soon arose. knew to be a servant of Christ, had been summoned with equal suddenness to heaven. He had left his family to prepare for driving out; his carriage was at the door, but he descended not as usual to meet it; the clay tabernacle had been struck in a moment, and the spirit was in the presence of God! I dare not invade the sacredness of family grief, nor picture the consternation that reigned in the forsaken household. But the departed was a man of God. A long life of consistent christian character had marked him to be so. He had adorned the gospel by the consecration of high talent, cultivated mind, and considerable property, to the service of God. Such a character could flow from nothing but christian faith, could be produced by nothing but the Spirit of God. And therefore those who sorrowed for him, knew that while they wept, he stood before the throne, washed and justified and sanctified; his white robe unstained by one spot of sin; his noble intellect expanding to an angel's grandeur; his generous heart filled to overflowing with purest love to the Saviour who died for him. He labored much for Christ, through strength given him from above; and now he rests from all his toils; for the golden streets of the New Jerusalem weary not the feet of those who tread them on celestial errands, the ceaseless activity of the ransomed, while with the angels they haste to do Jehovah's will, is as untiring as the sweetest sleep that ever visited an infant's brow.

Dear young reader, you, too, must die; you too, may die suddenly and soon! Should you this night sleep the sleep of death, (and who can promise that you shall not) where would you awake at the gates of the heavenly city, or before the portals of the dungeon of despair? I beseech you to consider now. I seem to hear some gay young person say, "why press such gloomy thoughts? I am in no danger; kind, obedient, amiable, attentive to my religious duties, I have no need to fear. Let the wicked tremble; I will not, for I am safe."

My dear young friend, then I tremble for you. It is a hard thing to say, but a true friend must speak the truth; if you die in such confidence, there is no white robe for you; no golden

harp; no glorious mansion among the green shades of immortality. Can you rest now; when one has dared to throw a doubt over your prospects: can you rest now, without seeking certainty on this, the most important of all subjects?

The person who is now safe, once felt himself in danger. He saw his danger, and fled from it to Christ. No one is carried blindfold to heaven. It is necessary to enter, consciously to enter, the strait gate; to journey on in the narrow way, fighting with sin, wrestling, praying, toiling up the steep ascent, leaning upon Omnipotence. He who is safe, has had many fears; he has had much labor; he has felt that he could not save himself; that the whole world could not save him; that none but Jesus could do it; and therefore he has cast his soul into the arms of the Redeemer, and has had it washed in that fountain of precious blood, which was opened on Calvary.

Is this a gloomy picture of the christian life? Nay, but the path has its sunshine and its flowers; and the flowers are sweeter, and the sunshine is brighter, than anything that gladdens the broad smooth road that leads you to destruction. Whether it is better to be lulled into sleep by some perfumed but deadly vapour, or to climb a steep and difficult mountain, in the fresh morning air, with lake and meadow and forest beneath your feet, and the clear blue sky above your head; though you should skirt occasionally some terrific precipice, you have an unerring guide before you, and the arm of love securely clasping yours. The real danger will produce no fear. From the precipice which makes you tremble, you are safely guarded.

Some are saved, who knew not that they were sinful, until sin was theirs no longer, who, ere they were aware, were placed before the Lamb, by whose blood they had been washed unconsciously. Strange was their awaking in an unknown world; stranger the story they had yet to learn of Christ's redeeming love, and the Spirit's renovating power. These souls departed in unconscious infancy; but you are conscious, rational, responsible creatures. The Holy Spirit alone can sanctify you, and he does so in all his people, "by working in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure." If you are saved by the blood of Christ, you must apply to Him for salvation. You must desire to be saved, being sensible that you are lost. If unconscious of vour sin

and danger, you will never seek Christ; and he who is not united to Christ will never go to heaven.

What is it to be united to Christ? It is not merely to be called a christian. It is not merely to have been baptized in his name. Satan kills many souls in this manner; he persuades them that they are in Christ, because they have received baptism. The first converts were not baptized while in a state of heathenism, to make them christians; they were baptized after they had professed to believe in Christ, in order to seal their engagement to be his. Baptism without true faith, never did, and never can save a soul; nay, it seals the condemnation of the unhappy man who has it and yet dies an unbeliever, who has broken his vow to be the Lord's.

To be united to Christ, is not merely to receive the memorials of his death in the Lord's supper. How many do this, who only profane that holy ordinance, and render themselves guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. It is a most comforting, edifying, precious institution; a token of the Saviour's love to those who are his own; but to none besides. No guest is welcome to that table, who has not previously been arrayed in the wedding garment. A person who is far from his native land, has sent a costly gift to a beloved friend at home. The friend receives it as a pledge of his continued affection; it recalls the days of pleasant intercourse, when they looked upon the same fields and trees and hills, and walked to the house of God in company. The voice and countenance of the absent rush over the memory of his friend, producing sweet emotions; and he blesses the gift as a token that their early love is not extinguished. But should the treasure be purloined, it is to the person who unjustly acquires it, not a pledge of affection, but a presage of wrath and punishment. To discover the treasure in his possession, would be the surest method to procure his condemnation. It is no less a crime to purloin the seal of Christ's love for his chosen and ransomed people. The Lord's supper is not a saving, but a sealing ordinance.

What then is it to be united to Christ? Far easier is it to say what it is not, than what it is. The tongues of seraphim would not fully unfold a privilege so glorious; a few of the blessings which accompany, or flow from it, are all that the most advanced saints on earth can tell.

Those who are united to Christ have been born again. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Now the first saving work of the Spirit within the soul is to renew it; with new life, he gives new perceptions. The sinner perceives sin to be an infinite evil, and Christ to be a perfect Saviour; and he accepts of this Saviour as his own. As of old, the sins of Israel were confessed over the scape-goat before he bore them away into the wilderness, and after the other goat had been sacrificed; so all Christ's people confess their's over the head of their Great Substitute, for Christ is put in their room-their sins are accounted his; and his spotless righteousness is accounted their's. Thus are they justified; and love springs up in the heart to their Redeemer. Hatred of sin is produced also; for how can they but hate that which they have seen to be infinitely evil. The renewed soul can no more love sin, than the mortal body can enjoy physical pain; it must strive and struggle to get quit of it; it must mourn when, at any time, it has been overcome by it, for sin is utterly opposed to the new nature.

Now these effects are conscious things-to accept of Christ, to love him, to strive against sin. The soul that does these things, must know that it does them. And therefore, dear young friends, if you are utterly unconscious of such actings of mind and heart, do not dream that you belong to Christ already, but go and seek him now.

I might tell of other marks of union to Christ; of love to his people; of zeal for his glory; of abounding in every good word and work. And I might mention the glorious hopes of immortality; the peace that passeth all understanding; the glimpses of the world unseen, which are often given to cheer the traveller in his rough ascent. But I have chosen to speak of the very rudiments of the Christian life, that you may not be discouraged; for there are degrees of grace; there are babes, and young men, and fathers, but all these live.

Are you alive in this important sense; or have you need to seek this life? If it be your's, you shall grow in grace; if but a babe as yet, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby;" if a "young man," seek to have your strength increased; and in what stage soever you may be, press on to the fulness of the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus.

The soul that is thus alive is united to Christ.

A soul dead in trespasses and sins cannot be one with the risen, glorified Redeemer; union with him must produce spiritual life, and spiritual life is progressive, it is immortal; it will advance on earth, it will be perfected, and endure for ever in heaven.

My dear young reader, if you are thus alive you shall never die; if you thus live, and believe on Christ, though you be dead, yet shall you live. You need not fear a sudden call, for it will be but the voice of your Beloved, saying, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!"

S. E. P.

SCRIPTURAL USAGES IN MALTA.

THE Customs of the Maltese are described by the Rev. R. W. Stewart, as decidedly of Eastern origin. It has often struck me, he writes, how little change centuries have produced on these; for in Syria and Asia Minor, and even in Malta, the manners and customs of the people, throw light upon many passages both of the Old and New Testament.

Thus, for example the cisterns, or tanks, in which they have to store up the rain water for their use, for want of springs of living water, put me forcibly in mind of what is written, Jer. xi, 13.

The flat roofs of the houses, on which we walk as a promenade, and on which many of the poor people sleep during the summer time; and the manner in which they are invariably built, with a square court in the centre,* open towards heaven, and covered during the heat of summer with an awning, explains how easily those who brought the man sick of the palsy to Jesus, could let his bed down through the roof.

The stairs, which we find leading up to the roof, on the outside of some of the houses, from the ground, explain the exhortation of the Saviour in Luke xvii. 31.

There is generally not a drop of rain here, from April till October, or even later. The rain falls chiefly at two periods-the

* See our Engraving at page 82.