then acts from the occasion, nothing is further from it than recollectedness. I have, for weeks together, in pursuit of some scheme, acted so entirely from the occasion, that, when I have at length called myself to account, I have seemed like one awaked from a dream. "Am I the man who could think and speak so and so? Am I the man, who could feel such a disposition, or discover such conduct?" The fascination and enchantment of the occasion is varished; and I stand like David in similar circumstances before Nathan. Such cases in experience are, in truth, a moral intoxication; and the man is only then sober, when he begins to school his heart.

THE servant of God has not only natural sensibilities, by which he feels, in common with other men, the sorrows of life; but he has moral sensibilities, which are peculiar to his character. When David was driven from his kingdom, he not only felt depressed as an exile and wanderer; but he would recollect his own sin as punished in the affliction. Eli had not only to suffer the pangs of a father in the loss of his sons; but he would recal, with bitterness of spirit, his own mismanagement, in bringing up these sons. St. Paul had not only to endure the thorn in the flesh; but he would feel that he carried about him propensities to self-exaltation, which rendered that thorn necessary and salutary.

DANGEROUS PREDICAMENTS are the brinks of temptations. A man often gives evidence to others that he is giddy, though he is not aware of it perhaps himself. Whoever has been in danger himself will guess very shrewdly concerning the dangerous state of such a man.

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A haughty spirit is a symptom of extreme danger -A haughty spirit goeth before a fall.

Presumptuous carelessness indicates danger. "Who fears?"-This is to be feared, that you feel no cause of fear. Such was Peter's state: Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I.

Venturing on the borders of danger is much akin to this.

A man goes on pretty well till he ventures within the atmosphere of danger: but the atmosphere of danger infatuates him. The ship is got within the influence of the vortex, and will not obey the helm. David was sitting in this atmosphere on the house-top, and was ensnared and fell.

An accession of wealth is a dangerous predicament for a man. At first he is stunned, if the accession be sudden: he is very humble and very grateful. Then he begins to speak a little louder, people think him more sensible, aud soon he thinks himself so.

A man is in imminent danger when, in suspected circumstances, he is disposed to equivocate, as Abraham did with Pharaoh, and Isaac with Abimelech.

Stupidity of conscience under chastisement-an advancement to power, when a man begins to relish such power-popularity-self-indulgence-a disposition to gad about, like Dinah-all these are symptoms of spiritual danger.

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A CHANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCES in our condition of life is a critical period. No man who has not passed through such a change, can form any adequate notion of its effects upon the mind. When money comes into the pocket of a poor man in small sums, it goes out as it came in, and more follows it in the same way; and with a certain freedom and indifference, it is applied to its proper uses: but when he begins to receive round sums, that may yield him an interest, and when this in

terest comes to be added to his principal, and the sweets of augmentation to creep over him, it is quite a new world to him. In a rise of circumstances, too, the man becomes, in his own opinion, a wiser man, a greater man; and pride of station crosses him in his way. Nor is the contrary change less dangerous. Poverty has its trials. That is a fine trait in the Pilgrim's Progress, that Christian stumbled in going down the Hill into the Valley of Humiliation.

A SOUND head, a simple heart, and a spirit dependent on Christ, will suffice to conduct us in every I variety of circumstances.

I CANNOT look through my past life without trembling. A variation in my circumstances has been attended with dangers and difficulties, little of which I saw at the time compared with what reflection has since shewn me, but which in the review of them make me shudder, and ought to fill me with gratitude. He, who views this subject aright, will put up particular prayers against sudden attacks.

GOD will have the Christian thoroughly humbled and dependent. Strong minds think perhaps sometimes, that they can effect great things in experience by keeping themselves girt up, by the recurrence of habit, by vigorous exertion. This is their unquestionable duty. But God often strips them, lest they should grow confident. He lays them bare -He makes them feel poor, dark, impotent. He seems to say, "Strive with all your vigor, but yet I am He that worketh all in all.”

THERE is no calling or profession, however ensnaring in many respects to a Christian mind, provided it be not in itself simply unlawful, wherein God he