tion are remembered only by their crimes. They are rotting above ground. "Exalted o'er their less abhor'd compeers, They fester in the infamy of years." These facts, so afflicting to the proud heart of man, do not distress the Christian. His witness is in heaven, his record is on high. His name is written in a book which can never be worm-eaten, and engraved on the breast of the living ONE. He is a citizen of the New Jerusalem, none of whose inhabitants shall be forgotten, however little they may be known on earth. Be not anxious then, Christian, about earthly fame; seek the honour which cometh from God only. You are now a son of God. world knows you not? it knew not the Lord. Your life is hid with Christ in God. The world knows not the source of your pleasures, nor the nature of your principles. "Christ, your life, shall soon appear, and then What matters it, then, that the you shall appear with him in glory." Be then, if the Lord so appoints it— "Content to live on earth unknown, Till Christ your Lord appear." Fellow immortal! there is only one way to lasting fame, it is to be identified with Christ. Once united to Jesus, your name, your interests are associated with, or rather merged in, his. The poor woman who went to his feet with her tears of penitence, and was. 66 offering of gratitude, and Zaccheus, who received the Saviour joyfully into his house, little thought that they were laying the foundation of eternal fame; but so it Go to Jesus, cast yourself at his feet, and though a mother may forget her sucking child, he will never forget you." When Paul and Barnabas hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus, Acts xv. 26, they did not do it to be remembered; but so it is, and so it shall be, with all who, having been saved by Jesus, desire to serve him. When the deeds of conquerors, the reigns of monarchs, the discoveries of genius shall pass into oblivion, those who ministered to Christ's cause from a principle of love, and with a feeling of humility, shall be held in everlasting remembrance. To all such he will say, " Ye did it unto me. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world." "All the pale hors'd king obey, Ancient fathers, where are they? 'Midst this mighty wreck of things, Hark, the judgment trumpet calls, And eternity thy day!" THE GREAT BIRTHDAY. "The last day." John vi. 39. THE "last" of anything is frequently very affecting. The last look at dear friends leaving us for ever; the last visit to a dear and well remembered spot, with one who is now for ever gone; the last birthday we spent with some beloved one, are all of this nature. But " THE last day," when rightly pondered, casts every other day into the shade. It will be well if we so contemplate it, as to be stirred up to make use of every day aright as it passes on, for it is the relation of the last day to previous days, which invests it with such unspeakable importance. It is the harvest-day, but the days now passing over us are sowing days, and whatsoever a man soweth, that will he also reap. Sow then in righteousness, if you would reap in mercy. Each day live near the cross, and live to Him who died upon it, and the last day will be to you a glorious birthday. From the grave, a new body shall come forth for your sinless spirit to inhabit. It will be a glorious body, the work of redeeming love and power, "fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body." Then will be the day of open adoption, when you shall be publicly owned as a child of God among the children of the resurrection. A new world shall then be born for you to inherit, a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness," for he that sitteth on the throne will say, "Behold I make all things new." and there shall be no more death. Life will triumph, flow in rivers from the throne of God and the Lamb, and " there shall be no more curse." Pleasure, sublime and tender, shall be everywhere, and sorrow nowhere, "for there shall be no more pain, neither sorrow nor crying." Then shall every wish be fulfilled, and every desire satisfied. But reader, if you have never been born again, the last day will be a dreadful birthday to you. It will be the birthday of despair and anguish, which will never die. On that day things will appear in their true light. Truth will be seen in its importance. Mercy in its adaptation. Christ in his sufficiency. Holiness in its beauty. Hell in its terribleness. It will be a demonstrating day. That day will be God's loud Amen to his own word. Oh bear in mind that whatever will be demonstrated then, is declared now, and that the things relating to God, the soul, and eternity, are as true now as they will be then, and that they are as important now, as they will appear to be then. Why then trifle with that truth on one day, which will appear so unspeakably important another? "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." The last day is not yet come; but it is coming, and hasteth quickly; therefore "to-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." On this your birthday, God pleads with you, "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me?" It may be the last birthday you may have to commemorate on earth; how terrible the thought of spending the next in hell, wishing yourself out of existence! Why should it be so, when Jesus says, "this is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him should have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day ?" Why should it be so, when, as on "the last day, that great day of the feast," Jesus still cries, " if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink?" "O sinner, little dost thou know The tenderness of love, With which that eye is fixed on thee, Now looking from above." THE BENEDICTION. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matt. v. 3. WHILE receiving the greetings of kind friends, and enjoying much happiness in their society, the great question after all is, whom does God greet with a blessing on their birthday? Over whom, as time rolls |