merchandize, with this chief regard to the bread of heaven! In that case, how equally blessed would be our wealth or our poverty; how daily more indifferent to our experience would be those constant changes in life, which so suddenly depress or inordinately excite our feverish hopes. We should then have nothing more to do with idols; even the dearest and purest earthly treasure (a faithful friend) would no longer remain necessary to our happiness. And thus if all of earth had left us for ever, we might lie down for eternity as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. But, in conclusion, if Gospel provisions are openly neglected or held in light esteem, God will take sure vengeance and resent the insult. (See ver. 7.) And now will any man say in his heart out of the ingratitude and madness of his iniquity, "What profit is there to God in my salvation, what damage to Him if I perish?" Ah, it is indeed true, God cannot be affected injuriously by the one event or advantageously by the other. His eternal throne will stand as firm; His glory shine as bright; His grace as fully prove triumphant; His Church as complete; the marriage supper of His well-beloved Son as well furnished with guests, whatever course you and I may finally resolve upon. But is not God righteous that taketh vengeance? Are they not justly outcast from heaven who made light of it on earth? Will it not be the only remaining proof of His power which Almighty God will then have to render upon such ungodly men, viz., His power to destroy, forasmuch as they disregarded His power to save ? Yes, verily; and that proof of His power must be branded upon them to their endless infamy, ruin, and despair! He will assuredly say of them at the last day, that great day of the feast-" The wedding is ready; but they which were bidden were not worthy. As for those mine enemies, who would not that I should rule over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me." O, my well-beloved in the Lord for the Gospel's sake, consider, I beseech you, in what disposition of heart and course of life the words of eternal salvation have once again visited your outward ears. Is the Gospel's joyful sound become so familiar to you that you can hear without heeding it? Does the idea of religion pass in and out of your mind together with the multitude of idle thoughts which make up the amount of your worthless meditations? Will you still live in a condition in which it is damnation to die? What would all your good resolutions for to-morrow avail, if to-night God should require your soul? and if you are spared until to-morrow, you will be still more likely to require another day, and that with a more hardened heart, with a more polluted and more slumbering conscience. Perhaps, on the contrary, to-day, now, at this precious but treacherous moment, some good thought or desire may be struggling for entertainment within your breast; will you dare to make light of it, and thus force it from you for a season? Ah, if slighted this once, it may never come back again! O, then, entertain it now; it is a precious guest, and shall quickly render you an infinite recompence by bringing you to your Saviour's table and your Father's house. But indeed, brethren, our message is thus urgent. Spend no more vain breath on fair future promise; this is not God's incense, He is weary to bear it. If I was called upon to express a conviction on the point, and to instance any one moment in a man's life most likely to be visited by a sudden judgment from Heaven, I should at once answer, the very moment in which he might be saying in his heart, "I will repent, but cannot now; I will devote myself to God, but cannot find leisure at present. I hope and purpose to give myself up to the heartwork and life-work of religion before I die-but," and then he begins to make excuse. As for you, my brethren, still the children of hope in the land of prayer, in the land of the living, "seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon Him while He is near:" in other words (and O that the spirit and power of them may reach every heart), "now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Come then to a point; be this Sabbath, this hour, this instant the season of thy high resolve. Begin now-press into the kingdom of heaven; from the closet of thy heart pour forth thy prayer to God, to draw you by the power of His Holy Spirit into a full and immediate compliance with the invitations of His grace. "Let not conscience make you linger, Nor of fitness fondly dream; Is to feel your need of Him; 'Tis the Spirit's rising beam." S. B. "THE TREASURE OF GLADNESS." On pulling down the roof of an old house in a village in Somersetshire some time since, a little book was found amongst the thatch, bearing the significant title of "The Treasure of Gladness." It was printed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as appears from the insertion of her name in the Litany, which forms a part of the book. "The Treasure" consists of a selection and arrangement of portions of holy Scripture, interspersed with prayers and meditations of a purely evangelical character. It was evidently one of the numerous and welltimed efforts made by the Protestants to diffuse through the country a knowledge of Divine truth, which had been so long obscured beneath the errors and tyranny of the Church of Rome. The type is the old English black letter commonly used in the infancy of the art of printing. Small as the book is, it no doubt proved a "treasure of gladness" to many a soul in those times when the word of God was rare, and the light of the Reformation slowly struggled through, and at last prevailed over the dense gloom of Popish corruption and heresy. We give one or two of the prayers contained in it, merely altering the spelling, which, being in the style of those days, might hardly be intelligible to some of our readers. It thus opens, like some casket of precious jewels bearing the marks of age, but having lost nothing of their intrinsic worth: "The Treasure of Gladness." Saith the prophet Hosea (xiv.): Take these words with you when ye turn unto the Lord, and say unto Him, O forgive us all our sins; receive us graciously. As for the works of our hands, we will no more call upon them, for it is Thou that art our God, Thou showest mercy unto the fatherless. Saith Christ (John xiv. 14): If ye ask aught of the Father in My name, it shall be given you. (Matt. vii.): Ask and have, seek and find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. A PRAYER. O Lord God the Father, for Thy Son Christ's sake, have mercy upon me, and forgive me all my sins; and from henceforth take from me all rancour of my heart, and create in me a new heart, an upright heart, such a heart as may fear Thy rigorous judgment; a heart to lament my unkindness and sinful life. O Lord, give me such a heart as may love and fear Thee above all things, such a heart as always trusteth in Thee, such a heart as may patiently bear Thy correction; yea, such a heart as may praise and thank Thee, O Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. O Lord, give me such a heart as will gladly forgive, such a heart as will do good for evil, such a heart as will hurt no man, such a heart as ever doth truly believe in the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ unto my salvation. O Lord, have mercy upon all people. Our Father, &c. MY CONFESSION. I acknowledge and confess with all my heart that I am a sinner; yea, such a sinner as hath need of the grace, mercy, and favour of God. MY FAITH JOINED WITH HOPE. I believe that the Lord will have mercy upon me; for He hath first made me, and, if it should please Him, He may save me. This I believe, whether I live or die I am the Lord's. MY HOPE. I hope that I shall find both grace and mercy for my sins of God the Father, even for Jesus Christ's sake; in Him I believe; He is my Redeemer; He liveth ever and ever, Rev. viii. He maketh intercession for sinners, 1 John iii.: So this I know, that now I am a corruptible body, but I hope through Christ to rise an incorruptible body; now a mortal body, but through Christ and His merits I hope to have an immortal body. Now an earthly body (1 Cor. xv.), then a heavenly body. Matt. xiii.: For as many as shall be saved shall shine in the kingdom of God as bright as the sun. This my faith and hope I lay up in my mind, the mind of my soul, trusting only to be saved through the merits of Jesus Christ, God and man (Mark xvi.), which is in heaven. Phil. iii.: From whence we look again for Him, the which shall change our vile body, and make it like to His most glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. O Christ, have mercy upon me; Thou hast redeemed me, O Christ, save me. THE PRAYER. O most merciful God and loving Father, I beseech Thee for Thy Son Christ's sake, grant to me to covet with prudent mind those things which may please Thee; to search them wisely, to know them truly, and to fulfil them perfectly, to the praise and glory of Thy name. Order my living so that I may do that which Thou requirest of me, and give me grace that I may know it, and have will and power to do it; and that I may obtain those things which be most convenient for my salvation. O good Lord, make my ways sure and stedfast, that I fall not by adversity or poverty; but, heavenly Father, that art only the rich God, vouchsafe to give me always sufficient for my soul and body, and for all my household that Thou hast given me; and give me grace ever to rejoice in Thee, and that I may never sorrow for any thing but for those things that draw from Thee. Let all worldly things be vile unto me for Thee, and be Thou, good Lord, my special comfort above them all. Let me not be merry with the joy that is without Thee, and let me desire nothing besides Thee. Let that labour delight me which is for Thee, and let all the rest weary me which is not in Thee. Make me to lift my heart oftentimes to Thee; and, when I fall, make me to think on Thee with a stedfast purpose of amendment. O my God, make me |