other. Thus a man who has been intemperate is in special danger from that quarter a man who has been an infidel is in special danger of scepticism; one who has been avaricious, proud, gay, or ambitious, is in special danger, even after conversion, of again committing these sins. (3.) Sins to which we are exposed by our profession, by our relations to others, or by our situation in life. They whose condition will entitle them to associate with what are regarded as the more elevated classes of society, are in special danger of indulging in the methods of living and of amusement that are common among them; they who are prospered in the world are in danger of losing the simplicity and spirituality of their religion; they who hold a civil office are in danger of becoming mere politicians, and of losing the very form and substance of piety. (4.) Sins to which we are exposed from some peculiar weakness in our character. On some points we may be in no danger. We may be constitutionally so firm as not to be especially liable to certain forms of sin. But every man has one or more weak points in his character; and it is there that he is particularly exposed. A bow may be in the main very strong. All along its length there may be no danger of its giving way-save at one place where it has been made too thin, or where the material was defective-and if it ever breaks, it will of course be at that point. That is the point, therefore, which needs to be guarded and strengthened. So in reference to character. There is always some weak point which needs especially to be guarded, and our principal danger is there. Self-knowledge, so necessary in leading a holy life, consists much in searching out those weak points of character where we are most exposed; and our progress in the Christian course will be determined much by the fidelity with which we guard and strengthen them. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us. The word rendered "patience" rather means in this place perseverance. We are to run the race without allowing ourselves to be hindered by any obstructions, and without giving out or fainting in the way. Encouraged by the example of the multitudes who have run the same race before us, and who are now looking out upon us from heaven where they dwell, we are to persevere as they did to the end.-Barnes's Notes.

MATERNAL INFLUENCE.

IN the summer and autumn of 1822, the writer of this brief sketch spent a few weeks as an occasional supply of the pulpit in the town of Kent in Connecticut. It was during an interesting period of religious feeling in the place. The children of God had, to some extent, been revived, and a little band had come forward and consecrated themselves to the best of masters. This special interest in religion among that people led the venerable Samuel J. Mills, (father of the missionary of that name,) then upon the borders of eighty, to revisit the place of his nativity, and spend a few weeks there, with more than ordinary pleasure to himself, and profit to his numerous relatives and acquaintance. Proof was apparent that the bodily and intellectual powers were on the decay, and equal proof too that the "inward man was renewed day by day." Occasionally, when some favourite topic was introduced in conversation, and especially at a religious conference, where he was eminently at

home, there would be a kindling up of youthful sprightliness, there would be enlarged and vivid conceptions; illustrations from striking and apposite stories would be poured forth with thrilling eloquence, all inimitable. The great doctrines of the Gospel-those which stain all human pride, which magnify free boundless grace, and give all the glory of every sinner's salvation to him who is worthy to have every crown cast at his feet, were themes on which he loved most to linger. When to others the resources of every mind seemed exhausted, and no new thought could be suggested, some mine would be, opened by him who had dug deeper, displaying treasures still more precious.

One lovely autumnal morning, he asked me to walk with him. He directed his way towards an antiquated mansion, with a slow step, and unusually thoughtful countenance, and approached and surveyed the dwelling. It was the home of his childhood, his father's and his mother's home. While standing but a few steps from the threshhold, he related the circumstance of his father's death. He was drowned in the Housatonic, which pursues its way in most lovely variety of silence, of gentle murmur, of circuitous movement and noisy roar, through a very narrow vale among the mountains. The father left his family to secure some timber on the banks of that river, exposed to be swept away by a spring flood, and returned no more. It was while this son was but a child of the age of four or five years that this event occurred. Very faint were the recollections of his father's looks, or of his counsels; but the remembrance of the sight of the corpse, the funeral, the appearance and conversation of the widowed mother soon after, were fresh in his memory.

A knock at the door brought the lady of the house to answer the inquiry," may we come in?" We were made welcome. The aged visitant immediately announced his object-that he had "come to see where his father and mother lived," and desired permission to go into some of the apartments. Every thing was examined with a curious and deeply interested eye. The rooms, the doors, the wainscoating, were the same as he had seen them in his childhood, more than seventy years before. On entering the room which had been their common sitting-room, his emotions deepened. He pointed out the very place where his mother, the morning after the family had seen its head laid in the grave, was seated in her arm-chair, when she called the little group of three sons to her side, read the Scriptures with them, and then kneeled to commit herself and her children, to the God of the widow and the fatherless. "There she sat, when, placing her hand upon my head, she said, with peculiar cheerfulness, Sammy, my dear son, you now have no earthly father, but repent of your sins, and believe in Christ, then God will be your father.'

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The venerable man desired permission to visit the chambers; and a slow and laborious step brought him to the top of the stairs. On opening the door to one of the rooms, he said, "Here my mother led me one day, and after having prayed with me with inexpressible earnestness and tenderness, she said, 'Sammy, you must come here every day while you live in this house, and shut the door and fasten it, then kneel down and pray to your Father in heaven.' She had assigned one chamber to my brother John, and another to Edmund, with similar directions." He added, that "the interest she manifested in this, the kindness of her manner, and the solemn, earnest, and decided tone of voice with which the expressions were uttered, made an impression on my memory never to be effaced."

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On retiring from the scene of these early recollections, he related the following story of his mother:-" One Sabbath, soon after she was written a widow, while sitting in the house of God with her three sons in the pew, while the minister was preaching, she was overwhelmed with a flood of tears by emotions which struggled for utterance. The minister paused. A good deacon stept into the pew, and kindly endeavoured to soothe what he supposed to be her excessive grief. 'O!' she exclaimed, 'these are not tears of sorrow but of joy. I came here with my heart filled brimful of gratitude and love, from contemplations on the character and government of God, and his great goodness to me. Our minister spoke of Jesus, and my cup ran over.""

Such was the mother of the Rev. Edmund Mills, of Sutton, Massachusetts, and of the Rev. S. J. Mills, of Torringford, Connecticut; such was the grandmother of the Rev. S. J. Mills, the missionary, the friend of the African. Mothers, would you exert an influence that may so bless the world and have an influence after you have gone to heaven? Love Jesus, speak of Jesus to your little ones, be at the mercy-seat as suppliants for them, and with them. Remind them of the time, and the place, and the circumstances of their own personal duties to Jesus.

THE FAMILY ALTAR.

Come to the place of prayer!

Parents and children, come and kneel before
Your God, and with united hearts adore
Him whose alone your life and being are.

Come to the place of prayer!

Ye bands of loving hearts, oh come and raise
With one consent, the grateful song of praise
To him who blessed you with a lot so fair.

Come in the morning hour

Who hath raised you from the dream of night?
Whose hand hath poured around thee cheering light?
Come and adore that kind and heavenly power.

Come at the close of day,

Ere wearied nature sinks in gentle rest;

Come, and let your sins be here confessed;
Come, and for his protecting mercy pray.
Has sorrow's withering blight

Your dearest hopes in desolation laid,
And the once cheerful home in gloom arrayed?
Yet pray, for he can turn the gloom to light!

Has sickness entered in

Your peaceful mansion? Let the prayer ascend,
On wings of faith, to that all-gracious Friend,
Who came to heal the bitter pains of sin.

Come to the place of prayer;

At morn, at night, in gladness or in grief,
Surround the throne of grace, there seek relief,
And pay your free and grateful homage there.

So in the world above,

Parents and children all may meet at last,
When this their weary pilgrimage is past,

And mingle there the joyful notes of love.

WHY THE RICH SHOULD BE LIBERAL.

1. Riches are the gift of God; they should be used, therefore, according to his will. "Freely ye have received, freely give."

2. Prosperity is very dangerous. Hence the caution addressed to Israel, "Lest when thou hast eaten, and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, then thy heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God."

3. Judicious liberality is invaluable as a means of grace. "The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that water eth, shall be watered also himself."

4. Many have fallen into great spiritual darkness in consequence of forgetting the declaration of Christ "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

5. Few men of wealth are called to be heirs of eternal life; for "a rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven." It becomes those few, therefore, to acknowledge God's mercy in a peculiar manner.

6. The example of Christian liberality is very salutary. Those who see a man of wealth crucifying that "love of money which is the root of all evil," acknowledge the power of the Gospel over his heart and life.

7. The call for money at the present time is very loud. Many young men have been kept out of the missionary field, and many heathens have perished without hearing of Jesus Christ, because the rich were not more liberal. Shall it be so hereafter?

8. In the case of many rich men, their property is their principal talent. If this, therefore, is "kept in a napkin," wherein do they honour God?

9. Rich men, as they approach a dying hour, often regret having given so little. For one who is soon to appear in the eternal world it is a sad reflection, "I am going to meet the heathen, and how few will have been saved by my liberality!"

PUBLIC WORSHIP.

One summer's day, when sitting in my house, after dinner, looking out of the window, I saw a person at a distance, seated on a log of wood, looking attentively towards the house. I was a little surprised: and looking again presently, I saw him in the same position. Thinking it was a person in distress, I went to him to make some inquiries, and found he was one of the Society of Friends, who believed he had a call to visit me, and was waiting for a farther opening. I gladly received him into my house. As he sat some time in silence, I concluded he had no special message to me, and ventured to break the silence, by asking him how he thought we could best spend an hour to our mutual edification. He said, "Perhaps thou hast a plan to propose." been thinking," I replied, "that if we could tell each other with good temper and sufficient freedom, what appears to us to be the leading defects in Quakerism and Methodism, we might learn something of importance." "Perhaps thou wilt begin the first," he said: which I did, and continued for some time declaring my undissembled sentiments. When I had finished, and he heard me patiently without any reply, he

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began with the same freedom, as follows:-" I have frequently observed, when thy people go to worship, they talk about buying and selling, or any other worldly project, till they arrive at the very threshold of the meeting; but when thou seest a Friend going to meeting, he walks in silence, inattentive to all he sees and hears; seeking a preparation in the temple of his heart, to wait upon God, who is a Spirit. When thy people come out of meeting, it is like the disturbing of a beehive-every one has his calls to make, his messages to deliver, or instructions to receive. When all this is ended, some friend is waiting for him according to appointment, to inquire how he liked the preacher, &c. The reply probably is, He is an excellent preacher! what a flow of language! how zealous he is! this is one of the best sermons I ever heard," &c. Whereas, if thou wert to see the Friends, when they come out of meeting, thou wouldst remark. each retires in silence; for though he is not in the meeting-house, he is conscious of the presence of that Being who filleth immensity, and who maketh the heart of the contrite his habitation. And if any remarks be made on the speaker among us, they are of this kind-" I think friend has been favoured to-day: ascribing all the praise to him to whom it justly belongs." I exclaimed, "Guilty, guilty, the naked truth! I am the man; and by the grace of God, I hope I shall be benefited by what I have heard." I only knew of one thing more to make this a Christian meeting, and that was, uniting in humble hearty prayer to God, for his blessing upon our conversation. But the men

tion of prayer made him very uneasy, and he remonstrated against it, lest their people hearing of it, should reprimand him. At length, after I had promised secrecy, he consented. While we were thus engaged with God, we were much affected, melted, and blessed; and we parted rejoicing that we met in the name of the Lord. Ever since my interview with this Friend, his remarks have had their proper influence upon my conduct. Soon after, I took a sitting in a pew down stairs, that I might retire as soon as service was concluded, without uttering one word if it could be avoided. Some of my brethren may have thought me reserved and singular, when going to the house of God, and returning from it; but they knew not what this pious Quaker had said to me, and the consequent conviction which yet habitually remains upon my mind; and which, I hope, will continue to influence my conduct to my life's end.-Memoirs of H. Langdon.

DON'T DWELL ON THE DARK SIDE.

It is a most pernicious practice to be meditating on affliction, and reckoning up the evil, dark circumstances thereof, and dwelling long on the dark side; it doubles and trebles the affliction. And so when speaking of them to others, to make them as bad as we can, and use our eloquence to set forth our own troubles, is to be all the time making new trouble, and feeding and pampering the old; whereas the contrary practice would starve our affliction. If we dwell on the bright side of things in our own thoughts, and extenuate them all that we possibly could, when speaking of them, we would think little of them ourselves, and the affliction would really, in a great measure, vanish away.-President Edwards.