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demand more than a cursory attention. Give them whatever time is necessary, in order to understand them thoroughly.

2. If you find these scriptural evidences of conversion, or any one of them, clearly developed in your case, even in a low degree, you should thank God, and take courage. The lowest degrees of grace are grace. A drop is as truly water as an ocean. Babes in Christ are as truly Christ's as those who are more matured. The reality of piety and the degree of piety are different questions.

3. Growth in grace is an indispensable evidence of true grace. Thriving plants must grow. He that has no desire to be more holy has never rightly known himself as a sinner, or Jesus as a Saviour. To refuse to acknowledge a little strength is ungrateful and hurtful; to be satisfied with having but a little proves we have none of the right kind.

4. The Christian life is one of watchfulness and prayer. No evidence of a change of heart can release you from the necessity of constant vigilance and effort, or of repeated self-examination. Character is not what we are and do at one moment, but what we are and do habitually. Excitement, or sympathy, or persuasion, or whim, may produce temporary changes of feeling and conduct; but the permanent fruit, not the abundant blossoms, proves the good

tree.

5. True religion is like a lamp which shines in every direction, upwards and downwards, and all around. It makes us better sons, better daughters, better husbands or wives, better scholars, better friends, better masters, better servants, better to rule, better to be ruled. It sweetens the temper, quickens in

dustry, encourages cheerfulness, and leads us to promote the happiness of others. It makes us regular in our church duties, diligent in our daily business, faithful and candid in all our dealings. It shuns conformity to the world, and every appearance of evil, yet equally discountenances a supercilious moroseness, which looks with disdain or severity on a world over whose sins Jesus wept, and for whose salvation Jesus died.

6. Your Christian character will be very much as your prayers. If they are few and irregular, your light will be flickering, and your joys much interrupted; if they are cold and lifeless, your efforts in the cause will be neither fervent nor effective; if they are regular, earnest, and accompanied with careful study of the Bible, your piety will become daily more consistent, more cheering, and more useful. B. M. J.

"BE CAREFUL FOR NOTHING." REST in the Lord, believer, and all will be well. Be careful to please God, and your path will be one of peace, of joy, of spiritual prosperity. Gird up the loins, and run with patience the race set before you. Lay aside every weight, and bring every care, every trouble, and perplexity to the foot of the cross. Run not before Providence, but follow after, if you will have peace. Cast your anchor on the sure foundation, and you will ride over the tempestuous waves of life in safety. Launch out, by faith and hope, on the deep waters which surround you, and they will not hurt. Yield not to despondency amid the trying occurrences of the day, but fix the eye on Jesus, and the cloud will disappear beneath the

bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness. "Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil," or repine at thy lot, lest anxious care corrode your spirit and mar your evidences of union to Jesus. Be solicitous for nothing, but in all things let your requests be made known unto God, and peace will flow into thy bosom as a full stream from the Fountain of life.

In the season of deep perplexity, of sorrow which makes the heart bleed in the intensity of anguish, take the precious words, "Be careful for nothing." In all your ways acknowledge the Lord, however difficult, trying, sorrowful, and his promise will be realized-"I will never leave nor forsake you." Live on the promises in all their fulness, richness, blessedness, and they will suffice to meet all the perplexities of life. Go to Jesus with every burden, great or small, and make a full proof of your faith in trusting Him at all times; and your confidence shall be rewarded a thousand fold. Strong faith glorifies God, and ensures great and wonderful blessings. Take God's word in its true, its literal meaning, and cast every care on him, with the certainty, the assurance, that he who cares for you will help you, will strengthen and settle you, will impart that peace which quiets the mind in the midst of the fiercest storm. The Lord alone is acquainted with your secret grief, knows the beginning and end of all, perceives the working of trial, beholds you with deep interest, watches over the conflict which heaves your aching bosom, and will bring you off more than conqueror through the grace he will bestow.

In all your approaches to his mercyseat, keep back nothing, conceal no

thing, but make an ample disclosure of the inward burden which oppresses you, and the answer will come, "Be careful for nothing." Yield not to doubt, to suspense, to fear; but be stedfast, believing, confident, that the Lord will magnify his truth, and glorify his great name, by filling your heart with the choicest of his mercies. Lay hold on Christ, wrestle with the angel of the covenant, be instant in prayer, resolved to obtain the blessing you seek, and then the messenger of mercy will appear, bringing glad tidings of a gracious reception and response to the earnest supplication: "While ye are yet speaking, I will answer." When you can trust God with all your concerns, implicitly and without wavering, then will your peace flow as a river. "Them that honour me, I will honour." "Great peace have they who keep my law, and nothing shall offend them.”

In temporals as well as spirituals the same promise will hold good, "Be careful for nothing." The Lord will provide, and will be a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," and however intricate may be the web which has entangled your path, and strong the fetter which has bound your expectations, be strong in faith, and cast all your care on God, who alone can deliver and will deliver the suffering believer: "Is there anything too hard for the Lord ?" Is anything impossible with God? Has not prayer the same mighty efficacy now as in the day when Jacob wrestled, and Daniel prevailed with the angel of the covenant? Precisely so; and He who hath said, "In all things let your requests be made known unto God," imparts the blessed assurance that he

who sows in tears shall reap in joy. Many of the Lord's people walk in bitterness of heart, and endure amazing conflicts, because they carry their own sorrows, and grapple in their own strength with the mighty foe, and bring not, nor leave their cares with God. They endure a great fight of affliction in their own bosoms, pondering incessantly on the pressure of their calamities, and struggling in vain to shake off, or patiently to suffer the rod which smites down all their comforts. The Lord's way, however, is the only safe one, as a remedy for each and every event which may happen, and his voice appealing to the bosom heaving with the depths of grief is, "Be careful for nothing."

of faith and patience to exercise his confidence in God, and prepare him for the purer enjoyments of that state where every tear shall be wiped from his aching brow.

Christian! "Be careful for nothing," but bury your cares in the bosom of the adorable Jesus, and he will guide and guard you safe to his eternal kingdom, where you shall dwell in the light of his countenance, no longer to groan under the fearful weight of deep and corroding care. F. S. G.

Tiverton, Sep. 3, 1851.

GROWTH IN GRACE. SPIRITUAL prosperity is what God desires for all his followers. This should be our constant aim-" Grow in grace," grow like Christ-use all efforts to at

It is when the tried Christian acts upon this rule, and unburdens himself at the footstool of Divine mercy, mak-tain this holy state. Our moments are ing a full, a complete disclosure of his deep, crushing troubles, that the rainbow of mercy appears, and light bursts forth on his terrified and stricken heart. Resignation and quietness then compose the tossed spirit, and bring the distressed one into the haven of calm repose. The care is cast upon God, and left with him; and now behold a great calm—faith has triumphed over nature, and subdued the mighty kingdom within. "The just shall live by faith," and God will honour his own work, and restore peace to the mourner who clings alone to his sovereign will. The will of the Lord must be done, and when cheerful obedience characterises the suffering Christian in his pilgrimage through the valley, his path is one of light, of peace, of hope. To live and to walk in the Spirit is his daily privilege, and as he sojourns in the wilderness, he will meet with trials

lost in which we do not strive to be like Christ, and to reach forth unto the prize of our high calling. Our course must be onward and upward,— our aim, salvation. Progress is to be our maxims,-the plant withers and fades without progress. "The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like the cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God; they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing." Behold the dignity and high vocation of the children of light. They are planted in the garden of grace, to shoot forth their branches, and grow in all the luxuriance and beauty of the green and flourishing tree. The righteous is compared to" a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever

The great full of the Spirit of Christ, and receiving abundant grace; he is fitted as the messenger of mercy to abound in all the fruits of righteousness.

he doeth shall prosper."
Husbandman is the planter; the soil
is supplied with water from the ever-
lasting hills; the fruit appears in all
its perfection at the expected time;
the leaves are green and flourishing;
and all turns to spiritual prosperity.
This is God's husbandry, his work, his
eternal purpose in the complete per-
fection of all the spiritual plants in
the garden of his grace.

The Christian must grow spiritually, or he dies, and is like the root in a dry ground, only fit to be removed. He is of no use if decay is within; he is withered and smitten, without beauty or comeliness, and is ready to perish.

Growth in grace is a command as well as a principle; the means are in his power, and if he neglects their improvement, his responsibility increases, and he trifles to lose the blessing which outweighs in value all that engages and misleads his heart. The empire of grace must be within, and all must bow to its authority. Christ must reign until all his enemies become his footstool. He must be all and in all -the first and the last, the Alpha and Omega. The diligent Christian grows in grace; he is "strong in faith, giving glory to God;" he is earnest in the work committed to his trust, and seeks to honour God, not only in keeping his own vineyard, but in striving to bring others under the influence of the Gospel. He is fervent in prayer in behalf of those who are perishing in darkness, and labours to diffuse the sweet savour of the Saviour's name. Grace adorns his character and, beautifies his life. All his springs are in God. He catches the breezes of heaven, that he may move in the element of love, and be quickened for his holy mission. He is

The useful Christian grows in grace, for he has learnt of Christ, and is willing to spend and be spent in his service. He sits at the feet of Jesus to receive grace to qualify him for the high duties of life. His faith is operative, and he advances with steady pace from grace to grace, always abounding in the work of the Lord. He is filled with wonder, as the thought steals across his mind, that he is called to be an instrument of his gracious Master, to warn, rebuke, and exhort with all fidelity; and he labours in the strength of the Lord to accomplish the trust committed to his care. He is filled with compassion, as he beholds the moral wilderness, and earnestly prays that the spiritual reign of Christ may come, to renovate and enlighten the dark places of the earth.

The self-denying Christian grows in grace; for he dies to himself, that he may live to Christ. He is raised from death to life, that he may crucify the old man, and reign in the fulness of grace, in the bright sunshine of the Divine presence. He dies daily to sin, that the new man may grow in all the sublimities of holiness, and thus put on the image of his risen Lord. He fights the good fight of faith, that he may conquer to win the crown of life. He takes up his cross on earth, that he may possess the inheritance of the sanctified in heaven. He loses his life that he may find it hereafter, in full and endless perfection.

The prosperous Christian grows in grace. He holds on his way rejoicing, and runs with patience the race set

before him. He is full of his Master's the Saviour's countenance brightening spirit, and pants after the living God. his path below; he has before him the He draws water from the wells of everlasting light to shine on his ransalvation, and is athirst for the healing somed and glorified spirit. He has streams of the river which maketh dug deep into the mine of spiritual glad the city of our God. His course wealth, and gained the riches of an is one of joy, of peace, of love, and he everlasting crown, whose brightness rejoices in hope of the glory of God. will never be tarnished. He has He counts all but loss that he may win reaped the fruits of his labour, and Christ. He has the witness within, having sown to the Spirit, has his that he is born for God, for heaven, harvest-home in the mansion that will for eternity. He is sealed by the Spirit, never fade away. What a debt of and has the mark of the Lamb on his gratitude, infinite, inconceivable, does forehead, and his name written in the the Christian owe to Jesus; and how Book of Life. His soul breaketh for binding the command to grow in grace, the longing that it hath unto God's that he may glorify God on earth, by commandments. a holy, devoted, consistent life, to shine hereafter as a star in the firmament of glory! F. S. G.

Behold, then, the Christian having finished his course, and fought the good fight, and kept the faith. See him at the close of a diligent, useful, selfdenying, prosperous life, full of joy unspeakable, in anticipation of his eternal rest. Witness his triumph over sin, the world, and the pangs of death, and you see the monument of grace, the future, glorified spirit, soon to be surrounded by the holy, joyful train of immortal spirits before the throne, clad in the fine linen of the Saviour's righteousness. Is not the Christian, then, the highest style of man? Is not his progress in grace like the light "that shineth brighter and brighter to the perfect day?" Is he not superior to the most elevated condition of life? Is he not the heir of God, and joint heir with Christ? What on earth can be compared to his spiritual and moral elevation-his high and holy vocation-his dignity, his honour, his eternal calling? He shines on earth in the beauties of holiness; he will shine hereafter in the glories of heaven. He has the light of

Tiverton, April 4, 1852.

THE LESSON OF DEATH-BEDS. LORD CHESTERFIELD said at the close of his life, "I have recently read Solomon with a kind of sympathetic feeling. I have been as wicked and as vain, though not so wise as he; but now I am old enough to feel the truth of his reflection- All in the world is vanity and vexation of spirit."" Goethe, the distinguished German philosopher and poet, declared, at the age of eighty-four, as the lights of time went out, and the great lode-stars of eternity were beginning to open out on his vision, that he had scarcely tasted twenty-four hours' solid happiness in the whole course of that protracted career. Lord Byron, the great poet, gifted beyond most with genius, destitute more than most of grace, wrote his experience in his own beautiful but unhappy strains, when he said, upon the verge of the tomb

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