hibitions also tended in some measure to restrain the bolder assumptions of the Romish officials.

It must not, however, be thought that the danger is at an end. The foe is not to be the less feared when he goes to work in a more wily manner. The ambush is often as deadly as the open assault. The present calm may be but the lull which presages a return of the storm in unabated fury. Let us look on it as a breathing-time kindly afforded us by the God of our mercies; and let us hasten to avail ourselves of it by a timely preparation for what may yet await us.

I may just add, that it was the proposed adaptation of the required Essay to "Sunday school teachers and scholars" which especially attracted my notice, and awakened in me the desire to testify my love to the Sabbath school cause by an endeavour thus to promote its interests. I felt the extreme difficulty of so writing as to meet the wants of both classes;

but have sought to advance arguments which I hope may not be deemed beneath the notice of the teachers, while I have laboured to make such appeals to the heart as may be understood by the majority of our scholars. The following remarks were not penned without prayer that the Spirit of light and life might grant the writer his enlightening and quickening influences; they were forwarded for adjudication, with the earnest petition that they might not be selected unless they were to be made subservient to the glory of God and the good of souls; and now they are committed to the press, with the fervent supplication that the young, whether in or out of our Sabbath schools, may learn to see light in the light of Him who is the God of truth.

Highbury,

T. S. H.

December 31, 1851.

THE HEAD AND THE HEART

ENLISTED AGAINST POPERY.

THE bright sunshine of a summer's morning rested on the sea view that lay peacefully outstretched before me. Its beams glistened in the spray of the breakers close at hand, gleamed on the dancing ripple beyond, and then poured a flood of glorious light on the glassy surface of the more distant ocean. Nor was the scene an inanimate one. Multitudes were there of those who do business in great waters. From the frigate to the schooner, from the merchant vessel to the pleasure yacht, from the steam ship to the fishing boat, all were in motion. Their sails, which appeared of dazzling whiteness, were unfurled to catch the favouring breeze that was wafting them speedily upon their onward course. But when a few short hours had passed, the whole had undergone a

change.

The sky was overcast with black masses of cloud, the waves rose in tumultuous fury, and conflicting winds seemed to blow from all quarters of the heaven. I looked anxiously at the smaller vessels that were exposed to this unlooked-for peril; and some of them were in a grievous case. Prepared only for fair-weather service, they were unable to resist the force of the tempest; now they were driven hither, now thither, the sport of winds and waves; and each moment I expected to see them engulfed in the yawning depths that opened on every side to receive them. As I continued to gaze, however, I perceived that a few of the barks were gallantly weathering the storm. Some of them were diminutive in size, and frail in appearance; but they had been prepared for such a crisis; they nad laid in their ballast; they had looked well to their rigging. And now that the hour of trial had come, their rapid progress indeed was checked; but bravely they breasted the threatening waves, and sturdily they bore up against the adverse blasts.

My young friends, does not this parable apply to you? Have you not been living

us.

beneath the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness, and the glad shining of gospel light? But clouds have swept across our sky, and a strong wind of false doctrine is blowing over How shall we stand against it? Are we well ballasted? Are head and heart alike prepared to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints? Head and heart, I say, for both must be enlisted on the side of truth; and of the two, the latter is of chief importance in such an emergency. The apostle has given us a prescription for steadfastness against "divers and strange doctrines ;" not so much that the head be filled with knowledge, as" that the heart be established with grace,' Heb. xiii. 9. Pray earnestly that the Holy Spirit may be your teacher, for He will open the eyes of your understanding; and he will, at the same time, renew you in the spirit of your mind. Let us, in dependence on his aid, inquire what things there are in the teachings and doings of the church of Rome against which an enlightened head and a renewed heart will always protest.

You well know that the pope has appointed Romanist bishops in this country, and has