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inasmuch as it damps and extinguishes the flames of envy and

ambition.

Christian love promotes the salvation of souls.. Direct your eye to Missionary Societies: read the "Missionary Transactions," and see a proof, a lively demonstration of this assertion, in the Hottentots, men raised up from the lowest state of human degradation, advanced to a state of civilization, and, by religion, rising to the throne of God and the regions of eternal life!

We do well to remember, that the authority which commands us to love one another is divine, absolute, and eternal. It was JESUS CHRIST Who said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." In short, a want of love is a want of every thing.

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That we may duly cherish Christian love, let us guard against "evil surmisings," suggested by pride, envy, and distrust. These tend to undermine and destroy all Christian communion. Meek-eyed Charity thinketh no evil." Pride, envy, and distrust have kindled endless animosities, and occasioned infinite distress to thousands! Let us be always ready to serve, rather than to be served. Let us guard our words, and never speak in anger. Let us uniformly cherish the noblest sentiments, and the warmest benevolence. Dear reader, be as the sun in the firmament, and diffuse light and heat in every direction. "Let love be without dissimulation.”

THE TURNPIKE-GATE ·

ON A SUNDAY.

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MIKROS.

THE bells from the several churches were sweetly chiming, to call to the house of and whether it was the effect of imagination, or from some higher source operating upon my mind at the moment, I know not, but so it was, they seemed to form in my apprehension an echo to the gracious invitation of the word, as if they said "Whosover will, let him come and take of the water of life."

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"Bountiful Lord," thought I, "was it not enough to provide so rich a Saviour for poor sinners as Jesus, but dost thou open in him "fountains and streams from Lebanon? Dost thou cause channels of ordinances to be running through the kingdom for conveying the blessings of redemption, where the poor and the needy may come and receive freely," without money and without price?"

Happy nation! happy people! O England, didst thou but know how rightly to appreciate thy mercies! Surely, it may be said of our highly-favoured island as it was of Judea of old,

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"What nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for!" We can enjoy our Sabbaths free and unmolested, while multitudes upon the face of the earth know not what a Sabbath means, nor ever heard the "sound of the church-going bell!" Nay, to come nearer home, thousands of our neighbours on the Continent have lost the very distinction of the holy day amidst the din of war, and the horrors of revolution!

I was hastening to the house of God, under the sweet impression of these thoughts, and in my mind anticipating the rich enjoyment this hatlowed day opened to my views, when my mind was suddenly arrested with the noise of passengers, some on horses and some in chariots, driving with eagerness towards the Turnpike-Gate, as if the attainment of every thing which could constitute happiness was thrown open to their pursuit.

I paused as I beheld the affecting sight. "Is it possible," I said to myself, as the busy throng glided by me, " is it possible that these can ever once have considered the great end and design of man, or the mercy of a Sabbath? Surely, they have never seen thy loveliness, thou blessed Redeemer of mankind! for had they known thee, this day would have been endeared to them as thine, bringing with it, as it doth, the blessings of salvation! And yet, methinks, even now, as the giddy crowd is hastening by, I behold thee (as thou art beautifully represented in thy sacred word)" standing at the gates, and at the entering in of the city," lifting up thy voice with all the tenderness which distinguishes thy character, saying, "O ye simple, when will ye understand knowledge? and ye fools, depart from folly!"

I felt my heart melting as I looked on. Oh, had I but the power of persuasion (1 said to myself) what a subject is here for entreaty! Here Eloquence might find scope to lavish forth all her noblest powers!"

Nothing but the consciousness of an inability to the service could have restrained the impulse I felt to go forth in argument or persuasion. Methought I could have caught one and another by the arm, and with all the winning affection of an awakened concern, I could have said, "My poor, unthinking brother, had either of you an idea that this Sabbath might be your last, would you, or could you, consume it in the manner you intend ? Would you wish to be found ending time and beginning eternity in the very act of bidding defiance to one of the most positive commands of God? Have you never heard the solemn unalterable precept," Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy?" And supposing (what no human being can be sure may not be the case) supposing that before the shades of night close in upon the earth, the shades of death should close in upon your existence, how would your soul be harrowed up to all the possibilities of misery, to hear the first tremendous voice hailing your approach

into the world of spirits, with saying "This is the wretch who bade Omnipotence do his worst, and found death in the moment of breaking his Sabbath!"

The thought wounded as it passed over my mind. It brought, to my recollection an awful circumstance of this kind, which took place in the town of Devizes, near Bath (the Lord only knows how numerous they may be elsewhere); the particulars of which are recorded on a morument in the church-yard there. It affected me so much in the perusal, that I could not resist the desire of transcribing it. If the reader should ever pass that way, he may find it near a row of trees, at one end of the burying-ground. It stands in the form of an obelisk, and holds forth to the passenger this awful history':'

"In Memory

Of the unfortunate end of

Robert Merrit and Susannah his Wife, Elizabeth Tiley her Sister,
Martha Carter, and Joseph Derham,

Who were all drowned in the flower of their Youth,

In a Pond near the Town called Drews,

On Sunday the 30th June;

And are together underneath entombed."

On another compartment of the stone is added,

"Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.
This Monument, as an awful Monitor to Young People,
To remember their Creator in the Days of their Youth,
Was erected by Subscription."

But to return. Amidst the group which I beheld turning their backs on the house of God, as if judgment and not mercy was to be expected there, one party caught my attention with more than ordinary concern: it was a young couple, with a lovely child of about (as it should seem) a year old. They were in what is called a Gig; and the sweet unconscious babe lay in its mother's arms. The father's whole attention was engaged to drive a horse, apparently not much used to the service; and he himself still less accustomed to the province he had assumed.

Independent of the danger arising from the restiveness of the poor animal, and the want of skill in the driver, there was cause of continual apprehension, from the number of coaches, and chariots, and horses, passing and repassing on the road. As I looked on, they seemed to me as if, in the moment they drove by, they had several narrow escapes from being crushed between the larger carriages, running in every direction. "What! (I said to myself) if a single untoward circumstance should happen! Should the horse take fright, or the wheel on either side get entangled, or the gig upset, in either case what can preserve

them? And should a morning so fair and promising bring on evil before night, should Death on his pale horse appear,

what follows?"

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My mind shuddered at the images I had raised, I sought to forget the whole in turning from the scene, and hastening to the church: The bells were still chiming, and I still interpreted their language: "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir, and Hermon; from the lions dens; from the mountains of the leopards.

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"Yes," said my heart, as I construed the gracious invitation," I will come with thee my beloved; for thy love is better than wine. Neither shall the goodly mountain of Lebanon, which Moses, the man of God, so ardently longed to see; nor Shenir, nor Hermon keep me back. Lions in human form, and sinners whose various hue, like the spots of the leopard, are in every place; but Lord, I will come out from among them, and touch not the unclean thing. Yes, Lord, I will attend thee to the ordinances of thy grace, where "the king is held in the gallerics," and where he "manifests himself otherwise than he doth to the world.” At thy call I come, and will go forth with thee" into the fields, and lodge in the villages, and get up early to the vineyards. For the field of thy scripture, and the villages of thy people, and the vineyards of thy church will all be sweet and precious when Jesus is in the midst, and where he gives his loves."

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Oh, did the world but know the sweets of that gracious communion which takes place between Jesus and his people! Had they an apprehension of that "joy which is unspeakable and full of glory," which ariseth from the mutual communications, when he imparts of his fulness and exchanges for their emptiness, - we should not find the wretched mistake which is now so often made in the prosecution of things temporal, to the loss of those which are eternal!

I forgot a while, in the house of prayer, the distressing sights I had left behind me in the street. Like the church brought into the banqueting-house, "I sat under the shadow of Jesus with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

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Jesus, one day beneath thine eye,

To hear thy gracious voice,

Exceeds a whole eternity

In empty carnal joys.

Had I the world at my command,

With all th' expanse of sea,

For one bless'd hour at thy right haud,

I'd give the whole away.

[To be concluded in our next.]

R. HAWKER.

Evangelicana.

FIRE AT CHUDLEIGH.

WHEN the late dreadful fire happened (22d May) which nearly destroy. ed the town of Chudleigh, a professor of the gospel with his family was driven for shelter to a farm-house, about a mile from the town, the master of which was a Roman Catholic. While he was giving vent to his dis #ressing feelings, with his four small children, the master of the house, in order to console him, advised him to remember what the Bible said. The word Bible roused his attention; when, to his astonishment, he added, "That once a farmer driving a waggon with a team of horses in a bad road, the wheels sunk so deep in the mire, that they could not be removed by the horses: in this distress he called on Hercules for help; Hercules bid him put his shoulders to the wheel and push; and if all his efforts were vain, then he would help him. "Now," said he," Mr. M- -, I'd advise you to imitate him." The farmer's wife, who is a Protestant, replied, That is not in the Bible, my dear.' "Yes," replied he, it is in Isaiah, or Jeremiah, I don't know which."

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Struck with the ignorance of his host, the following just reflections immediately occurred to his mind: "What! shall I so deeply lament the loss of temporal good, when this my fellow-mortal, though in the possession of every earthly comfort, is so ignorant of the contents of his Bible, as not to Enow the difference between a fable and the divine strains of Isaiah or Jeremiah?" This thought restrained his grief. He dried up his tears, and encouraged himself in the Lord his God."

Believer, prize thy Bible! ever remembering" that Christ is the fulness of the scriptures, and grace is the fulness of Christ."

Chudleigh.

W-M

Four Rules for promoting the Peace and Prosperity of the Church.

DAVID prays for the church," Peace be within thy walls, and prospeity within thy palaces." The former perhaps invariably produces the latter. Let me recommend the four following maxims to all professors of the gospel, especially to members of Christian churches; they will promote the happiness of the person who adopts them, as well as the happiness of the persons and societies with which he is connected.

1. Let the judgment you form of yourself be dictated by humility.
2. Let the judgments you form of others be dictated by charity.
3. Let your desire to please yourself be moderated by self-denial.
4. Let your desire to please others be stimulated by benevolence.

Warwick.

AN ARGUMENT FOR LIBERALITY.

W-W

THE loving-kindness of God is not short-lived, like worldly comforts; it shall last as long as your souls; and so long as it lasts, they shall be happy. Those goods that you fear shall be pillaged and spoiled in war, how many hazards are they subject to, even in peace? Solomon tells you, that "riches oftentimes" (though nobody take them away) "make themselves wings, and fly away." And truly, many times the undue sparing of them is but letting their wings grow, which makes them ready to Яy away; and the contributing a part of them to do good, only clips their wings a little, and makes them stay the longer with their owner.'

Archbp. Leighton, Serm. vi. p. 170.

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