years, is a loss of six whole years of human life. Diligence is good for wealth, and wealth is not inconsistent with religion. "Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” Steady application to business, constant efforts to accomplish what is undertaken, and seizing the fragments of time, will prevent all possibility of failure.

The diligent are sure of success-" He shall stand before kings." The diligent man will acquire wealth, and respectability, and the highest as well as the lowest will give him their confidence. A trustworthy man, in every station, will assuredly command respect. Moses was diligently feeding his flocks on Mount Horeb, when God called him to be the leader and deliverer of Israel. David was a bold and busy shepherd when his father sent him from the field to the camp. Matthew was sitting at the receipt of custom when Christ called him to be a disciple and apostle; and the fishermen of Galilee left their nets and became fishers of men. Thus high honour and great influence await those who are diligent in business. Diligence in the business of religion will secure like success, and be crowned with the blessing of God. If we serve God faithfully, and overcome, through the blood of the Lamb, we shall be kings and priests unto God, and obtain a crown of glory that fadeth

not away.

Forty-Fourth Sabbath—Morning.

THE DAY OF SALVATION.

"Behold, now is the accepted time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!"-2 Cor. vi. 2.

NOTHING is so swift as time, nothing is so uncertain as life, and nothing is so important as salvation. Here we have a great blessing, a favourable season, and an earnest call.

The great blessing.-It is salvation. This blessing is greatly needed. I need it because of my sins; I need it because of the danger to which my sins expose me; and all, without exception, equally need it. The hungry man needs food, the drowning man needs a rope, or a spar, the condemned criminal needs a pardon, and every sinner needs salvation. This blessing is provided. The Lord Jesus came, and suffered, and died, that He might procure it. Salvation cost Him His life, while no price, no death but the death of Christ, could procure it. What a provision ! In salvation is included all other blessings. It embraces in its large bosom pardon of sin, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, a blessed hope of heaven, and heaven itself, with its endless enjoyments. Tears of repentance, wept day and night for a long life, could not have procured it; the cattle on a thousand hills offered up in one great sacrifice to God, was no sufficient price;

yea, all the gold in the world, though laid down in one vast mountain-heap, would have come short of procuring salvation for even one soul. What nothing else could do, the precious blood of Christ has done. It has procured a salvation so great, so comprehensive, and so inexhaustible, that neither time, nor numbers, nor eternity, can exhaust it. This blessing is within our reach. Because our sentence of condemnation, suspended over us by the law, has not been executed, the gospel brings salvation nigh. It pleads, and urges us to accept of it, in the name of Christ. "To you is the word of this salvation sent." "Neither is there salvation in any other."

"Salvation! O the joyful sound!

'Tis music to our ears,

A sov'reign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears.

"Salvation! O Thou bleeding Lamb!
To Thee the praise belongs;
Salvation shall inspire our hearts,
And animate our songs.

"Salvation! let the echo fly

The spacious earth around,

While all the armies of the sky
Conspire to raise the sound."

The favourable season for enjoying it-" Now is the accepted time, now is the day." The time for receiving it is "now," the day for receiving it is "now." How many procrastinate their salvation under the pretence of waiting till the Lord's time come! My reader, the Lord's time is

THE DAY OF SALVATION.

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"now," emphatically "now," because of the uncertainty of thy life, because thou wilt never be in more favourable circumstances for receiving it, because to-morrow thy day of grace may be ended, and because by refusing, or neglecting it, thou mayest crown all thy other sins with the condemning sin of unbelief. Shall the Father stretch out His hands; shall the Son open His bosom, and extend His arms of love; shall the Holy Spirit plead; shall the prayers, and the example of Christian friends encourage, and wilt thou refuse? This day, now, even now, let salvation come into thy heart, and into thy house, by believing in Jesus.

The earnest call "Behold, behold." This double call is intended to arrest thy attention. While thou art pursuing the way of sin, or trifling on the brink of a precipice, Christ and Him crucified is placed before thee, and His cry is, "Behold Me, behold Me." While thou art passing through the wilderness of this world, thy attention is called away from all objects of sense, that it may be fixed on Jesus. "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” Thou art invited, commanded, and urged to look to Him with the eye of faith, and all who look to Him shall be lightened. Because thy danger is great, and thy salvation important, thou art sincerely and earnestly urged to believe, and thou shalt be saved.

JOSEPH PERSECUTED.

"He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant." -Ps. cv. 17.

JOSEPH was the favourite son of Jacob and Rachel, the child of many hopes and many prayers, and in early life he gave indications of future goodness and future greatness. He was in a remarkable manner a child of Providence, and a dutiful son to his father. Let us attend to his youthful piety—his hatred of sin—the unjust hatred of his brothers against him-and the persecution he endured.

His youthful piety. He was greatly loved of his father, more so than Benjamin, and much more so than his other brothers. The reason of this probably was, his love to his father-his early piety-and his devoted obedience. His life is the most faultless recorded in the Bible, and doubtless this must be traced to his early piety. Why did Jacob love him so much but on account of goodness? True, he was the son of his old age, but so was Benjamin. True, he was the son of the beloved Rachel, but so was Benjamin. When young, Joseph was favoured with dreams, prophetic dreams, indicative of his future greatness; and as God, in early times, sometimes made known His will by dreams, these dreams