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part is certainly not eternal, we have no ground to say that the world itself is so. Geological arguments also have been brought forward by able defenders of the true doctrine, to prove the falsity of the atheistical theory. These show that the world is not eternal, and the begining of the present system was not above six thousand years ago. Now to talk, as some have talked, that nature has created all things, is absurd in the extreme. What do we mean by the word nature? It means the order of things which has been established, except sometimes when we use it for the author of nature.

But to speak of a creator to the exclusion of an intelligent agent, is a mere fallacy, for the term 'nature' itself implies an order or law, and a law cannot be an agent; a law is formed by the exercise of mind, and without the agent the law is nothing; and so nature without the agency of God is a nonentity.

Let us next treat of chance. In the first place, what is chance? In common discourse, the word expresses a want of intention; when we say that such a thing happened by chance, we mean that it was done without intention. But the chance-philosophers use the word instead of that intelligent being, by whose design we think the world is created. I am at a loss to think how chance can have produced a man, or a tree; and if chance has produced all things that we see and hear, why do we not see such occurrences now? Shall we say any more than chance is the author of all? no, not even in our dreams.

Next, can matter in motion have produced this world, with all its laws? Motion is not an inherent quality of matter, but is produced by applying some force to it; and if so, whence comes this force?

Lastly, some persons say that we cannot discover design in the creation.

The arguments against this are irresistible; because we have only to look around us, and examine the laws of nature, and the constitution of the human frame, and then see whether we can find any design in them or not. I shall select, for instance, the human eye; its formation undoubtedly shews a designing cause, for after a serious examination of the formation and adaptation of the human eye, is it possible for any man to deny a designing cause? The achromatic telescope is known to resemble the eye; and Mr Dolland, who was the inventor of it, acknowledges, that the structure of the human eye was his guide; no man can say that there is no design manifested in this instrument; and if so, how can any man say that there is no design manifested in the human eye? Shall we say that Dolland was a designing and contriving being, and yet deny that the author of the human eye, whose work was the model of the achromatic telescope, is a designing and intelligent being?

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God, and by the strength of love to him, is far more excellent and truly pleasant. The delights and pleasures of sin, religion indeed banishes; but it is to change them for joy, that is unspeakably beyond them. calls them from sordid and base delights, to those that are pure delights indeed. It calls to men, "Drink ye no longer of the cistern, here are the crystal streams of a living fountain. There is a delight in the very despising of sinful delights, as that in comparison with them, the other deserves not the name, to have such spiritual joy as shall end in eternal joy; it is a wonder, we hasten not to choose this joy; but it is indeed, because we believe not."-LEIGHTON.

Love to God. The cultivation of the love of God, is the principal means for preserving us from dejection of every kind, and freeing us, if we be fallen into it. Worldly sorrows must, by degrees, die away, because worldly desires, their sources, will. And their progress will be much accelerated by the impressions of a contrary nature, which gratitude, hope, love to God will make upon the mind. As to the dejection which relates to another world, it generally ends in the opposite state, being its own remedy and cure, but all direct endeavours after the true and pure love of God, must assist. It is much to be wished, that low-spirited persons would open themselves, without reserve, to religious friends, and particularly to such as have passed through the same dark and dismal path themselves. These would be like guardian angels to them; and as our natures are so communicative, and susceptible of infection, good and bad, they would, by degrees, infuse something of their own peaceable, cheerful, and devout spirit into them. But all human supports and comforts are to be resigned at last; we must have "no comforter, no God but one," and happy are they who make haste towards this central point, in which alone, we can find rest to our souls."-HARTLEY.

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"The Lord is my Shepherd."-In these words, the believer is taught to express his absolute acquiescence and satisfaction in the guardian care of the great Pastor of the universe, the Redeemer and Preserver of men. With joy he reflects that he has a shepherd, and that shepherd is Jehovah ! Where shall we find such diligence, such tenderness, skill, power, and unwearied patience? Why should they fear who have such a friend? How can they want, who have such a shepherd? Behold us, O Lord Jesus, in ourselves hungry, and thirsty, and feeble, diseased, defenceless, and lost. O feed us, and cherish us; heal us, and defend us; bear with us, and restore us.-BISHOP HORNE.

The Danger of Profaneness.-Many persons have begun to be profane from mere inconsideration, and at the commencement of their career, were no more depraved than such of their companions as abstained from

After all, we must heartily join with the Psalmist, this sin. "the fool hath said in his heart, there is no

who says,

God."

CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

The True Influence of Religion.-Religion deters not from the lawful delights which are taken in natural things, but teaches the moderate and regular use of them, which is far the sweeter; for things lawful in themselves are, in their excess, sinful, and so prove bitterness in the end. And if, in some cases, it requires the forsaking of lawful enjoyment, as of pleasure, or profit, or honour, for God, and for his glory, it is generous, and more truly delightful to deny things, for this reason, than to enjoy them. Men have done much this way, for the love of their country, and by a principle of moral virtue; but to lose any delight, or to suffer any hardship for that highest end, the glory of • The writer probably means the time which has elapsed since the deluge, or last great revolution on the earth's surface.-ED.

In their progress, however, they became corrupted, much more extensively within the same period, increased generally in wickedness, and particularly in hardness of heart, and lost every serious and even sober thought; all that course of thought, whence moral good might be derived, or whence might spring any hopeful efforts towards salvation. This is a case which must, I think, have frequently met the eye of every man, who is seriously attentive to the moral conduct of his fellow-men, and strongly shews that the practice has, itself, deplorably corrupted them in other respects, and set on fire the whole course of nature in What is true of profane cursing their minds and lives. and swearing, as to its corrupting power, is true of irreverence, in every form. Disregard to God is the floodgate to all moral evil. He who enters upon this conduct, ought to consider himself as then entering upon an universal course of iniquity, and as then yielding himself a slave to do the whole drudgery of Satan.DWIGHT.

SACRED POETRY.

PILATE'S QUESTION.

"WHAT is truth?" The fickle Roman
Ask'd, nor waited for reply.
Question of momentous omen!
Shall I also pass it by?

No, my Lord! I'll turn me to it,
Anxious all its depth to sound;
Let me humbly, closely view it,

Till I have the answer found.
"What is truth?" The only token
Lent to guide our blinded race,
Is the word which God hath spoken
By the heralds of his grace:
Thence we learn how helpless strangers,
Guilty rebels, such as we,
May escape ten thousand dangers,
Burst our fetters, and be free.

"What is truth? That man is mortal,
Wretched, feeble, and deprav'd;
Dying still at mercy's portal,

Yet unwilling to be sav'd.

Oft to safety's path invited,

Prone from it to wander far;

In the blaze of noon benighted,

With himself and God at war.

"What is truth?" That He, who made us.
He, who all our weakness knows,
Stoop'd himself from heav'n to aid us,
Bear our guilt, and feel our woes.
Like the lamb the peasant slaughters,
See him unresisting led;

Midst the tears of Judah's daughters,
Mock'd, and number'd with the dead!
Yes, my soul! thy lost condition

Brought the gentle Saviour low;
Hast thou felt one hour's contrition

For those sins which pierc'd him so? Dost thou bear the love thou owest

For such proof of grace divine?
Meek I answer, "Lord! thou knowest
That this heart is wholly thine !"
Long, indeed, too long I wander'd

From the path thy children tread;
Long my time and substance squander'd,
Seeking that which was not bread.
Now, though flesh may disallow it,
Now, though sense no glory see,
In thy strength, my God! I vow it,
Ne'er again to turn from thee!

R. HUIE.

THE VOICE OF THE PESTILENCE TO BRITAIN.

(Written in 1832.)

BY THE REV. WILLIAM SCOTT MONCREIFF,
Minister of Penicuick.

I AM come from the climes which the sun loveth best;
I have followed his course to the shores of the West;
The plains of the East, 'neath my shadow have quail'd,
Where the jackal, and vulture, my progress have hail'd;
I have travers'd the desert, the mountain, the sea,
And now, haughty Island, my visit's to thee.

Go, call forth thy learn'd ones, and question their lore,
Let them tell of my being, my birth-place explore;
Let them banish, or bind me, by art, if they can,
They shall see how I deal with the doings of man;
That all nature must tremble, where'er I have trod,
For my footsteps on earth have been those of a God.
No child of the air, earth, or ocean, am I,

I seize not the wings of the wind when I fly,

The poor speed of the tempest, and lightning I scorn,
On my own silent pinions alone am I borne ;
I follow no laws which to mortals are known,
The light is my sceptre, the clouds are my throne.
In vain, then, ye question the secrets of earth,
Or depths of the ocean, to tell of my birth,
The eye hath not seen it, the ear hath not heard,
The heavens can't reveal it, hell would, if she dar'd;
To the dread King of Terrors, the secret is known,
But he bows to my nod, and I sit on his throne.
From the lees of the wrath of Jehovah, I'm sprung.
His strange work of judgment to do, am I come;
I'm the breath of his anger, the rod of his ire;
More swift than the whirlwind, more keen than the fire.
I'm the roll which the prophet saw ages ago,
And within and without, I am mourning and woe.
Know ye scoffers at heaven, ye scorners of hell,
That my origin dates from the day that ye fell;
The first born of sin, and the sister of Death,
I enter'd your earth ere Eve had born Seth.
This is all ye shall know, the veil I have riven,
See the rod of my power, 'tis the sceptre of heaven.

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A Sailor Boy.-At a meeting of the Aberdeen Auxiliary Bible Society, a few years ago, the following pleasing anecdote was related by the Rev. Mr Grant, of Orkney, who was an eye witness of the scene:- Some time since," said he, "a vessel from Stockholm, in Sweden, was driven upon our coast in a tremendous gale, and became a total wreck ; situated so, that no human aid could possibly be administered for the preservation of the crew in a short time after, the vessel struck, and went to pieces. The spectators on shore beheld, with pungent grief, the awful situation of those on board; but those on shore could render no assistance. All on board perished except one man; and he, driven by the merciless waves upon a piece of the wreck, entwined amongst the ropes attached to the mast, half naked, and half drowned, reached the shore, and was disengaged from his heart-rending situation. As soon as he was rescued, the spectators observed a small parcel tied firmly round his waist with a handkerchief: some concluded it was his money, others that it was the ship's papers, and others said it was his watch. The handkerchief was unloosed, and to their great astonishment, it was his Bible. Upon the blank leaf was a prayer, written by the lad's father, that the Lord would make the present gift the means of saving the soul of his child. Upon the other blank leaf was an account how the Bible came into the old man's hands, with many expressions of gratitude to the British and Foreign Bible Society. One petition of the prayer was, that the son should make it the man of his counsel;' and it was added, that he could not allow his son to depart from home, without giving him the best pledge of his love-a Bible; although that gift deprived the other parts of the family of its sacred instructions. The Bible bore evident marks of being carefully read."

Published by JOHN JOHNSTONE, at the Offices of the SCOTTISH CHRISTIAN HERALD, 104, High Street, Edinburgh, and 19, Glassford Street, Glasgow ;-JAMES NISBET & Co., and R. H. MOORE, London; D. R. BLEAKLEY, Dublin; and W. M'COMB, Belfast; and sold by the Booksellers and Local Agents in all the Towns and Parishes of Scotland; and in the principal Towns in England and Ireland.

Subscribers in Edinburgh and Leith will have their copies delivered at their own residences regularly, by leaving their addresses with the Publisher, or with John Lindsay & Co., 7, South St Andrew Street. Subscribers in Glasgow will, in like manner, have their copies delivered, by leaving their addresses at the Publishing Office there, 19, Glassford Street.

Subscription (payable in advance) per quarter, of twelve weeks, 1s. 6d.-per half-year, of twenty-four weeks, 3s.-per year, of fortyeight weeks, 6s.-Monthly Parts, containing four Numbers each, stitched in a printed wrapper, price Sixpence.

Printed at the Steam-Press of Ballantyne & Co., from the Stereotype Plates of Thomas Allan & Co.

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WHAT OUGHT TO BE THE CHIEF OBJECT obvious spirit of the Bible, can a single moment

OF MAN'S EXERTION?

hesitate to testify. "Every imagination of man's heart" is said to be "evil continually." "Behold I was shapen in iniquity," exclaimed the Psalmist," and in sin did my mother conceive me." We are declared to be "dead in trespasses and sins," to have lost the image of our God, to be filled with all unrighteousness, in short, to be wholly depraved in thought, affection, and desire. Now if this be the moral character which we literally sustain, then, without question, that character must be repulsive to a pure and holy God it must expose us to his righteous indignation, and, unless previously altered, must draw down upon every sinner at death the divine anger.

BY THE REV. J. C. FOWLER, A. M., Minister of Roxburgh Church, Edinburgh. THERE are few questions about which mankind are, in their practical conduct at least, more completely at variance, than about this important question, What ought chiefly to engage the thoughts and exhaust the energies of a responsible being? Whatever may be the creed ostensibly professed upon this question, when we look abroad upon the face of society, a very palpable variety of opinion is discoverable. In the estimation of many, the great work which, with all his might, a man ought diligently to perform, appears to be the ac- Nor does Scripture alone testify that we are thus quisition of power, or a right to guide the coun- guilty, that by transgression we are naturally odisels, and arbitrarily to legislate for a nation-by ous in the sight of God, and have forfeited every others, it appears to be the advancement of human plea to favour,-the whole history of mankind, as knowledge, and the handing down to posterity of well as a survey of our existing circumstances, their names as the friends and promoters of science abundantly substantiate the same truth. All na-by others, it appears to be the mingling among the ture proclaims that the Almighty is a Being of ingay and the fashionable, and the gathering around finite purity and benevolence that he delights in them of a multitude of dependent and obsequious truth and good order-that he consults, in all his flatterers-by others, the living in comparative re- ways, the welfare of his intelligent creatures, but tirement and ease, or the indulgence of a consti- why, under the administration of such a Being, is tutional lethargy-and by, perhaps, the largest num- man so proverbially unhappy? Why do a thouber in the world, the great work appears to be the sand fears perpetually invade his bosom? Why do attainment of wealth, and the extension of their so many disappointments wring sorrow from his worldly possessions. But it need scarcely be re-heart? Why does he so often fruitlessly grasp at marked, that neither one nor all of these things is that which is sanctioned by the Bible. What then is the subject which, by a responsible being, ought primarily to be pursued, and in comparison with which, every other subject upon earth should be accounted secondary or trivial? The answer is furnished by the Apostle Paul in his well-known expostulation with the Corinthians, "We pray you," says he, "in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God." To arouse mankind to secure this reconciliation, was the principal purpose for which prophets and apostles of old were selected, endowed with inspiration, and sent forth as the messengers of heaven, and for which the Sacred Scriptures have been dictated and preserved. And surely that we do all need this reconciliation, no man who ponders the workings of his own heart, the violations of conscience with which he is chargeable, or the

happiness and enjoyment? Was a creature of this helpless and degraded kind the original workmanship of God? Did he, whose name is Goodness, make a race of beings opposed to all good? Did he, who created the angels of light, those pure and blessed spirits with whom he is ever well pleased, people this whole globe with inhabitants destined only to pine in suffering, to languish in affliction, and, at length, to expire in agony? Look at the smiling infant, before one deed of actual sin has been committed, before it can even discriminate between right and wrong, suffering by calamity, convulsed with pain, and, at length, overcome by death. Is this the spontaneous, the original intention of a God whom all creation declares to be boundless in wisdom and goodness? It is impossible. Then why is this the actua! condition of man? The fact stands prominently

These

fluence of the Spirit, labouring for the glory of
God and for higher degrees of sanctification? Do
we pray for his sustaining and comforting pre-
sence? Do we realise ourselves as reconciled
unto God, heirs of heaven; and are we pant-
ing after a nearer conformity to the sanctity of its
inhabitants? Are the Sabbath days more devoutly
spent? Is the sanctuary of the Lord more piously
resorted to? And are the irritable passions of
our nature more strenuously subdued?
things, in all ages, have been the experience of
God's children, and if they are not treasured up
in our experience, the reconciliation of which
they are unequivocally the fruits, it is to be
feared, has not been effected, so that still we
are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of
iniquity. Profession, we must remember, is not
always sincere. To avow that we are sedulously
accomplishing this work, while unadorned with
any of its beautiful fruits, is a hypocritical pre-
tence, a most culpable delusion. Let us "work
out then our salvation with fear and trembling,"
because it is a work of paramount importance,

forth into view, and it must have a cause. Now, what is the cause? Just that which Scripture affirms that a moral revolution has taken place in our character; that a breach, great and manifest, exists between us and our Maker, and we need only open our eyes anywhere, to behold its deplorable effects. Revelation, then, you perceive, declares our enmity against God; reason points to its fatal and existing consequences; both assure us, that in a little time God is to be met face to face in judgment. The first, the main object, therefore, to be pursued by one and all of us, is, the seeking reconciliation with our God, and pardon for our apostasy and guilt. And blessed be his holy name, the terms of reconciliation have been fully revealed; every encouragement has been given for our acceptance of them. Because, being the Governor of the universe, and presiding over myriads of other rational beings, no violator of his government, without an atonement, could be received into favour; he withheld not his only Son, but gave him up to carry the griefs, and to bear the sins of his people, to set them for ever free, and at the same time exhibit, with addi-"which our hand findeth to do." Let us exational lustre, to the universe, that law which they had broken, and which every attribute of his nature is pledged to uphold. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," is the simple and animating statement of Scripture. And surely then, after all this, we have lived to no purpose, until the present hour, if we have not come to God, through faith in this Saviour, to receive his pardon and forgiveness. That, without exception, we need these blessings, has been already shewn; that there is no other way of securing them, the youngest has been from childhood taught. Reconciled to God, through his Son, we shall meet him in mercy and peace; without this reconciliation, we shall meet him in wrath, the merited victims of his righteous judgment.

The Gospel, however, not only designs to pardon, but also to sanctify and prepare its disciples for the kingdom of heaven,-not only to pronounce an acquittal from the penalties of sin, but to subdue its corrupting principles in their nature, and render them fit for the glory to which they are ultimately to be advanced. The agent by whom this important process is carried on, is the Holy Ghost, the third person in the blessed Godhead. It is he who practically operates upon the children of God; when the period of their conversion comes, it is he who takes up his abode in their hearts, unites them to the Saviour, and throughout their lives furnishes them with consolation and strength. The impulses of the Spirit, then, we ought reverentially to inquire after, and vigorously to obey. Through a twofold medium, his will is discernible by us. In the first place, he dictated the sacred writings, and therefore they contain a legible compend of duty; and, in the second place, by an enlightened conscience, he stimulates to what is holy and acceptable, and speaks disapprobation when the path of rectitude and goodness is forsaken. Are we then, under the conscious in

mine and store our minds with the principles of the Gospel, compare them one after another with the example of Him whose servants we profess to be, and in the strength of God, "fight the good fight of faith." Although the wicked may combine to oppose our progress,-although the profane may pour forth their ridicule, and the sceptic interpose his disguised hostility, let us keep by the banner of the cross, and he who hath begun a good work in us, will make it perfect unto the end, in spite of every foe; we shall come to the land in which the wicked have no habitation, and where the way of the sinner is not known. The most devoted among us have yet much to perform. There is a heart liable to become cold and insipid to be kept alive and to be filled with gratitude; there are affections constantly wandering, to be kept steadily fixed upon the spiritualities of revelation; there is a temper disposed to be irritable, to be checked and rendered tranquil; there are passions struggling for pre-eminence, to be held in subjection; there are enemies to be forgiven; there is a besetting sin to be thrown aside, and sedulously to be exterminated. And besides all this, there are those to whom we may be nearly and closely allied, unimpressed with the Gospel, to be warned and implored to bestir themselves; there is a large field of heathenism at home, and a still larger field abroad, to be cultivated and converted into a garden of the Lord; in short, the more we examine the standard of duty, the more will we perceive the necessity of activity in the pursuit of holiness. Let us then be reconciled unto God, and walk as it becomes the children of the light.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE

REV. EDWARD PAYSON, D. D. EDWARD PAYSON was born at Rindge, New Hampshire, America, on the 25th of July 1783. His father was the

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In the month of August 1806, Mr Payson relinquished his charge of the academy in Portland, and returned to his father's house, there to prepare for entering on the ministry. Here he made the Bible the subject of close, critical, persevering, and, for a time, almost exclusive attention, his reading being principally confined to such works as tended to its elucidation. In this manner he studied the whole of the inspired volume, from beginning to end, so that there was not a verse on which he had not formed an opinion. He read the Bible too with prayer: and his biographer says, "he prayed without ceasing." "He felt safe no where," he goes on to say, "but near the throne of grace. He may be said to have studied theology on his knees. Much of his time he spent literally prostrated, with the Bible open before him, pleading the promise, I will send the Comforter.' His seasons for fasting were injuriously frequent. So far did he carry his abstinence from food, that his family were alarmed for bis safety. Often has his mother, or a favourite sister, stood at the door of his chamber, with a little milk, or some other refreshment, equally simple, pleading in vain for admission." Some may be apt to think that, in this respect, he was running into an extreme, but, as his jection of the heart and mind, with all their powers, to Christ, could not otherwise be effected, he was unquestionably right; for no sacrifice or suffering, which is requisite to this, can be too great. If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off; if thine eye cause thee to offend, pluck it out.' We do not mean to say that he acted rightly in suffering his health to be injured by fasting as he did, and that to a great degree; if he was to blame at all, it was not for fasting, but for fasting too long. Except in things strictly enjoined in the Scriptures, he never made his own practice a law for others. If he "bound heavy burdens and grievous to be borne," he did not "lay them on other men's shoulders," but made his own bear their oppressive weight.

Rev. Seth Payson, D.D., pastor of the church in Rindge, [ at some favoured moments we feel! What happiness in a man of piety and public spirit, distinguished as a cler- humbling ourselves in the dust, and confessing our sins gyman, and favourably known as an author. To the and unworthiness." Christian fidelity of his parents, to their instructions, their prayers, and their example, Edward Payson attributed his religious hopes, as well as his usefulness in life. From the first developement of his mental powers, his mind seems to have been more or less affected by his condition and prospects as a sinner. It is narrated of him, that at the early age of three years, he was frequently observed to weep under the preaching of the Gospel. And at this early age, too, he was wont to call his mother to his bedside, and ask her numerous questions about God and a future world. To what interruptions this seriousness was subjected, does not clearly appear; to shew, however, that they were not mere transitory impressions, we may state the fact, that his mother was always inclined to the belief that he was converted in childhood. At the time, however, when he had finished his studies, preparatory to entering the college, the evidences of his piety were far from being conclusive; and on this very account his father hesitated to send him thither; for, said he, "to give you a liberal education, while destitute of religious principles, would be like putting a sword in the hands of a madman." This decision, however, was not peremptory and unalterable; for he was allowed to pro-anonymous biographer admirably remarks, "if the subsecute his studies at home, and in his seventeenth year he entered Harvard College, where he was conspicuous among his fellow students for his ardent thirst for knowledge. He was what is called "a great reader," and every thing he read he made his own. Soon after leaving college, he was, on the recommendation of some of his professors, engaged to take charge of an academy, then recently established in Portland, where he remained for three years. Here, says his biographer, "he indulged himself in such amusements as were fashionable, or were considered reputable; and that too with a gust as exquisite as their most hearty devotees." He was, however, in the year 1804, aroused as if from sleep, to take a solemn view of his relations as an accountable and immortal being. The occasion of this new or revived concern for his soul, was the death of a beloved brother. Soon after this he writes, "I feel inclined to hope that I am progressing, though by slow and imperceptible degrees, in the knowledge of divine things." On the 25th of July 1805, being his birth-day, he commenced keeping a diary, "as a check on the misemployment of time." On that day he thus writes:"Having resolved this day to dedicate myself to my Creator, in a serious and solemn manner, by a written covenant, I took a review of my past life, and of the numerous mercies by which it has been distinguished. Then, with sincerity, as I humbly hope, I took the Lord to be my God, and engaged to love, serve, and obey him. Relying on the assistance of the Holy Spirit, I engaged to take the Holy Scriptures as the rule of my conduct, the Lord Jesus Christ to be my Saviour, and the Spirit of all grace and consolation as my guide and sanctifier. The vows of God are upon me." Subsequent passages in his diary show an ever-active zeal to perform "the vows which his lips had uttered." Shortly after receiving the holy sacrament, which he did at Rindge in September 1805, he writes to his mother, "I did not intend to say another word about my feelings; but I must, or else cease writing. I am so happy, that I cannot possibly think nor write of any thing else. Such a glorious, beautiful, consistent scheme for the redemption of such miserable wretches--such infinite love and goodness joined with such wisdom! I would, if possible, raise my voice, so that the whole universe, to its remotest bounds, might hear me, if any language could be found worthy of such a subject. How transporting, and yet how humiliating, are the displays of divine goodness, which

"The influence of habitual prayer upon his studies," to use the language of the published memoir," was so certain and so operative, that the strength of his devotion seems, for the most part, to have been the measure of his progress." There were few requests which he urged more frequently than those for assistance in study, and he found, to his joyful experience, the truth of that promise, "ask and it shall be given you." When we find it mentioned in his diary that he had great freedom in prayer, we almost invariably find likewise recorded there, that he received great assistance in his studies. There are many passages in his diary of a similar nature with the following: "Was much assisted in my studies this evening, so that, notwithstanding I was interrupted, I was enabled to write twelve pages of my sermon. It was the more precious, because it seemed to be in answer to my prayer." On the other hand there are entries of a different character, of which the following is a specimen : "Was quite dull and lifeless in prayer, and in consequence had no success in study." During all this time he was making great progress in the knowledge of his own heart, which he found, and every one who searches must find, to be " desperately wicked." His first care was to have it "right with God," but instead of being bound up in self, he was constantly exerting himself for the good of others. "Uniformly," says his biographer, "his war is with himself, and not with God. And if, to prevent the night watches, that he might meditate on God's word;' if, to 'love the habitation of his house, and the place where his honour dwelleth;' if, to account himself, and all things else, as nothing for Christ's sake;' if, to know in whom he had believed,' and to draw near to him in full assurance of faith;' if, to be

satisfied as with marrow and fatness, while remember

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