yielding the most delicious fruit, and exhaling a holy savour of divine things far and wide. And so far as you may find this not to be the case, O get down quickly into the dust of the deepest humiliation before God! confess all your sins, departures, and shortcomings; renounce all idolatrous attachments and human confidences, and unreservedly devote yourselves anew to the Lord, and to the honour of his holy name through the precious blood of Christ. Let the world's hold on your hearts be not only loosened and shaken, but entirely broken off, and all your treasure, and all your hearts, be wholly in heaven. Crucify the flesh with all its lusts; never touch, taste, or handle those filthy abominations tobacco, snuff, and intoxicating drinks; fix your affections on things above, and let "Holiness to the Lord," be clearly written on all you possess, and do below. Be ever striving for a stronger faith in God, and the whole of divine truth from day to day; a warmer love to the Almighty Saviour, and all his commandments, to each other, and all the lost and perishing on every side, evinced by a growing activity, and a holy, undying zeal for the honour of God, and the establishment of his reign in the hearts and minds of the children of men. O beloved! I long to hear that this spiritual, holy vitality is progressing in every member of your church, and extending to all your families, unions, districts, visits, and exertions of every kind; producing deep and intense desire for the salvation of children and parents, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbours, till it burn in all your prayers, conversations, and actions, with unconquerable ardour, untiring perseverance, and wisely adapted efforts to secure this grand object, compared with which, all, all besides is nothing. Cultivate a delight in secret retirement to converse with your hearts, your bible, and your God. Scrutinize your thoughts, tempers, words, and actions, in the blazing light of the Eternal Throne. Bring everything to the Bible, and try it by the divine touch-stone of the living word. Be careful to be of one mind with God in all things, and spurning creeds and human systems, come to the fountain of living waters, and feast your souls on the pure bread and water of eternal life, as dealt out by the Holy Spirit; for according to your love to, and study of the Bible, will your piety ever be found growing or declining, strong or weak. If you are dull in secret or family devotion, you have left your first love; if your prayers are cold, your hearts are cold: haste then to fill your hearts with the fire of heaven, and you will present your supplications in "thoughts that breathe and words that burn." But, be sure to act out all your prayers in vigorous exertions to bring guilty sinners to the blood of the cross. If you have not this experience, producing this conduct, what evidence can you give of real love to Christ, or of faith in his blood? Oneness of heart and soul with Christ in the great design of his death for the salvation of the world, is the best proof that we are his. If, with regard to this, your zeal is cold, your love is cold,-your faith is dead; but if your faith be quickened to a holy flame by humble and fervent applications to the cross; its influence will soon spread; heart will enkindle heart, and hand help hand: all minds will be united to plan, and all efforts to

But

accomplish; then comes forth spirited action, and noble enterprize. Now my dearly beloved, is it so with you? Are you pressing on to victory? Is there a lively determination in the breast of every member, that you will at least double your present number before six months? Does the prospect of it sparkle in every eye, and nerve every power of body and mind really to do it, and firmly resolving never to rest till it be actually done? And then only to review the field to see how with increasing numbers a more vigorous attack may be made to insure a more decided, extensive, and splendid victory? For this, let every leader train his band to pray and work, that each one may be wise to win souls; and thirsting for the distinguished honour, let ingenuity and holy diligence be ever on the stretch to bring unconverted sinners to all the district prayermeetings, as well as to the public services in the chapel, with the specific and direct design of promoting their conversion. rest not in merely bringing them to the meetings with that design, but be careful to ascertain the effect produced, by enquiry, conversation, and prayer. Press the prayers, addresses, or sermons, on their consciences over and over, till they are effectually broken down at the feet of Jesus, and then press on till they rise to the joy of a living faith, a lively hope, and burning love. And then, onward, onward, to train them in all holiness, wisdom, and usefulness, that each one may do the same by others. O that you may all prosper and be in health even as your souls prosper; and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. May great grace rest upon you all. With very kind love, dear brethren and sisters, I am, Yours Affectionately, THOS. PULSFORD.

Hunmanby.

"ANOTHER YEAR HAS ROLLED AWAY!"

ANOTHER year has roll'd away!

And we are spared to see its close;

O let us now our homage pay,

To Him who every good bestows!

Another year has roll'd away!

And mercies new each hour hath brought;

Thy favours, Lord, from day to day,

Surpass the utmost stretch of thought.

Another year has roll'd away!

What sins and follies we have done;
Dear Lord, thy pard'ning love display,
O save our souls through Christ thy Son!

Another year has roll'd away!

And, should it prove our last below,
May death our happy souls convey

To worlds where endless pleasures flow.

St. Hill, Kentisbeer.

C

H. F. R.

TO THE DEPARTED YEAR.

WHAT hast thou borne away with thee, O thou departed year?
For lov'd and cherish'd things are gone since first thou did'st appear:
We saw thee in the Spring's soft hours, deck'd in thy green array,
With bloom and fragrance of sweet flowers,-these all have pass'd away:
And Summer, with its cooling founts and deep-toned melodies,-
And Autumn, with its golden fruits,—but ah! it is not these!

What hast thou, then, that once was ours, for which our heart doth mourn ?
Hast thou not friends we fondly prized, that will no more return?
Say, miss we not the tender gaze that beaming on us fell,

And voices whose harmonious tone fast bound us with their spell?
Their bosom was a shrine in which our memory was placed,

The deep remembrance of which can never be erased.

Hast thou not beings such as these? for from our hearths and homes Are vanished such,—and on these spots are heard Affection's moans: These are the jewels thou hast stole, the gems for which we sigh, That all the paltry gold of earth was far too poor to buy ;

Fair hopes, that lit life's darkened scene, have sunk with them in gloom, For thou, departed year, hast borne these fond ones to the tomb.

And is it so, and must it be, that thou wilt bear away,

O Time! our loved and cherished ones, to have them for thy prey?
Then speed thee in thy daring flight, nor stay the swift-winged hours,
For we will seek a better land, beyond thy spoiling powers,-
Where living founts shall ever gush, and one eternal spring
Bloom with the flowers of paradise, that know no withering.
And should the present year, like thee, leave us still poorer yet,
'Mid grief of parting agony, that land we'll not forget;
Where, walking in uprightness along our heavenly way,
Our brows adorned with living wreaths, that never fade away,
'Neath those clear skies whose gentle gales shall never know one breath
Of farewell sighs, or pain's fierce throes, or quivering strife of death,—

Our parted friends we'll meet again, and holier friendship prove,
More deep and pure than earth hath known, near the pure source of love;
Free from the power of sin's dark thrall, exalted and refined,
Our ransomed souls shall there true bliss and perfect freedom find:
We know of those who now enjoy the pleasures that are there,
Whom thou hast borne away with thee, O thou departed year!

SELECTIONS.

J. J. W.

It was the custom to cancel bonds anciently, by piercing the writing with a nail. See 2 Col. 14.

The name of Jesus occurs about 500 times in Paul's Epistles. Many will let Christ be their Teacher, providing they may choose their own lessons.

That anger is not sinless which has seen two suns.

The more religious fear we have of God, the less sinful fear shall we have of men.

A mountain of pearls heaped high as heaven, would be no such treasure as one promise of God's word.

Query.-How shall we detect a wolf in sheep's clothing?

Answer.-Shear him and his wool will grow no more!

BRIEF SKETCHES OF SERMONS.

SUICIDE.

BY THE REV G. CLAYTON.

"Do thyself no harm.”—Acts xvi. 28.

I.-The crime forbidden. "Do thyself no harm."

1. It is a direct violation of the principle of self-preservation, which is an established law of nature.

2. It is as contrary to the law of God, as to the dictates of nature. 3. An impious invasion of the prerogative of God.

4. Discovers the utmost distrust, petulance, and impatience. Distrust of God's power or of his mercy.

5. Involves a hardened infidelity of the future state, and a daring defiance of the tremendous consequences of death.

II.-The causes which ordinarily impel to this unnatural deed.

1.

Unsanctified calamities.

2. An inordinate love of the world.

3. The fear of man bringeth this "snare." It is not courage, but pusillanimity, which disposes men to this deed of desperation. 4. Habitual indolence, or the want of useful occupation, has been productive of this dreadful mischief.

5. The harsh and unfeeling treatment which persons of great constitutional sensibility have sometimes received, has not unfrequently urged to this sad result.

III.-Enforce the dissuasion. "Do thyself no harm."

1. Consider that the animated structure of the human frame is the curious and exquisite workmanship of God.

2. Reflect how much the human nature has been honoured by the assumption of the Son of God.

3. Remember that the body is capable of a joint participation with the soul in the inestimable blessings of Redemption.

4. Represent to yourselves the distinguished honour and illustrious association to which the human frame is destined in a happy immortality.

5. To adopt the fatal measure I am combating, is but a cowardly retreat from the ills of life.

6. It is a vain and irretrievable expedient :-vain, because, so far from alleviating our distresses, it does but aggravate them; and irretrievable, because life once extinct can never be restored.

This awful subject may be improved.

1. By suggesting some profitable cautions.

2. By reprobrating some kindred or collateral iniquities. 3. By exciting devotional feelings.

And finally,

4. By addressing various classes of persons in this audience.

ELOQUENT EULOGIUM TO SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANITY.

The ark of God was never taken by the arms of earthly defenders. In captivity its sanctity was sufficient to save it from insult, and to lay the hostile fiend prostrate on the threshold of his own temple. The real security of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality, in its exquisite adaptation to the human heart, in the facility with which its scheme accommodates itself to every human intellect, in the consolation which it bears to the house of mourning, in the light with which it brightens the great mystery of the grave. To such a system it can bring no addition of strength or dignity that it is part or parcel of the common law. It is not now for the first time left to rely on the force of its own evidences. Its sublime theology confounded the Grecian Schools in the fair conflict of reason with reason. The bravest and the wisest of the Cæsars found their arms and their policy unavailing when opposed to the weapons that were not carnal, and the kingdom that was not of this world. The whole history of the Christian Religion shows that she is in far greater danger of being crushed by the alliance of power than of being crushed by its opposition. Those who thrust temporal sovereignty upon her, treat her as their prototypes treated her author. They bow the knee, and spit upon her; they cry hail! and smite her on the cheek; they put a sceptre into her hand, but it is a fragile reed; they crown her, but it is with thorns; they cover with purple the wounds which their own hands have inflicted on her; and inscribe magnificent titles over the cross on which they have fixed her to perish in ignominy and pain. Edinburgh Review.

BAPTISM IS DERIVED FROM A GREEK WORD.

THE following extracts from a modern Greek Author will show how the Greeks themselves understand the word, as used in the Language of their Fathers :

:

A BOOK called, LIGHT of those in DARKNESS: in which are contained Testimonies and Proofs of the Divine Fathers, that only the Baptism given from GOD to the Apostles, cleanses sins; but the filthy and salted sprinkling and pouring, devilishly devised by the Latins, (i. e. Roman Catholics, &c.) not only do not cleanse but even defile the sprinkled, as foreign from the evangelical and apostolical tradition. Composed by a certain religious Monk, a genuine son of the Eastern Church, for the conversion of the heretical Latins, and the benefit of Orthodox Christians. And now first printed. 1757. Title Page.

Seeing that the difference is great between the word of the GOSPEL and the words of the Latins. For the holy Gospel says, BAPTIZING; these vile magicians must of necessity say, (RHANTIZING) sprinkling and Besides, what agreement has baptizing with sprinkling and pouring? NONE AT ALL surely.

pouring as they do.

-

Moreover, Baptism is a divine fruit, and a tradition of the Apostles, and an ancient practice of the general Church, from that tradition;