with which the adversary can assail us;-a confidence that sin cannot damp;-a confidence that, in some cases, the approach of death itself will not destroy, but which will lead its possessor to the very gate of heaven, and will only be dispelled when the fearful response is given,-"I never knew you, depart from me ye workers of iniquity." Then he who has been deceived by its delusive whispers of "peace, peace, when there was no peace,' "shall exclaim in the very paroxysm of astonishment and despair, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved!" The consideration of such a case as this, should make us "examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith." It is true, that, if we look to ourselves for comfort, we shall never obtain it; but, it is equally true, that, if the gospel is not to us the spring of holiness as well as the source of our comfort,--"we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us." We must not dread the discovery that we have been making little progress, or even that we have been pursuing a retrogade motion in the christian course; nor must we smother every emotion of insecurity and danger that may rise on such a review. True, we must not cherish such emotions, and rest in them till they lead us to despair. They must lead us anew to the blood of sprinkling. That which gave consolation when all we could look back upon was an unbroken course of rebellion, will give consolation still; and it is only by such a process, I conceive, that true comfort can be obtained. During the summer months, besides teaching a sabbath school in the neighborhood of Perth, and keeping his meeting with the young men course once a week for conversation on the Scriptures, he diligently pursued his studies and a of reading. From some memoranda among his papers, I find that he kept a regular account of every day's employment. It commences on the twelfth of May, on which day he arrived at his father's. It then lays down the following plan of study and occupation for the future:-"To rise at seven o'clock; Greek Testament till eight; walk till nine; Breakfast between nine and ten; Hebrew Psalms till eleven; Mathematics till twelve; French till one; Greek till two; English reading till three; dinner, three to four; Latin, four to six; tea, six to seven. Walk,' &c. At the end of September is the following summary of his occupations for the preceding months: -"Greek Testament, Matthew to the Epistle to the Romans. Revised 184 pages of Hebrew Grammar. Read 40 verses of Hebrew Psalms. Revised six books of Euclid's Elements; 120° pages of Bridge's Algebra; wrote one essay and fifteen letters. Read 72 Lectures of Brown's Philosophy; Baxter's Saints' Rest; Gilbert's Life of Williams; Edwards on Religious Affections; Narrative of a Tour to the Grande Chartreuse; Horne's Letters on Missions; Orme's Letter to Irving; fourteen Miscellaneous Discourses." It is evident, from this statement, that he did not pass his time idly or unprofitably. It does not however contain the whole of his employments. Besides what is mentioned above, it appears from the daily entries, that he read several of the Orations of Cicero; considerable portions of Homer, Thucydides, &c. He besides met with several interruptions, which repeatedly engrossed most of The following excellent letter he wrote to his friend Craik, shortly before he went to London : Barossa Place, September 3, 1825. My very dear Friend; I am astonished to find, on looking to the date of your last, that it is so long since I received it: and, probably, if you have been expecting a letter, the time, that has seemed to me like a few hours, may have been felt by you as if longer than it actually is. At least, so I feel. I always think my friends are very long in answering my letters, and yet I find, that, even when I conceive myself most punctual, I am more dilatory than any of my correspondents. That is an apt personification of Time, which represents him as a decrepid old man with wings, that are visible only from behind. While we watch his approach he seems to creep tardidly along: it is not till he has passed us that we perceive he has been flying. I cannot tell you how much I felt on the receipt of your very splendid and very affectionate present. It has turned so common, from the higher refinement of our day, in the acknowledgment of the most common-place favor, for an individual to allege that he cannot express his gratitude, that I am almost ashamed to use the much-hackneyed phrase. But, in my case, it is used in simple honesty; and I know you will believe me when I say so. The word "memorial," in the inscription, which of course struck my eye before reading your letter, affected me a good deal. I feared it was prophetic of separation, and looked anxiously over your letter for the passage which should tell me that you had got an appointment to some situation which would prevent our meeting in St. Andrew's next winter. I was agreeably relieved from my anxiety by finding in your first page, instead of an account of your fancied removal, a proposal of lodging in the same. house with me. And I was pleased to think, that, by calling your present a "memorial" of our friendship, you meant, perhaps, to remind me of the fleeting nature of our intercourse; which soon,it may be very soon,—will exist only in the recollection of the past. My alternations of feeling somewhat resembled those of one, who, on returning after a long absence, to the land of his nativity, should ask some passer-by, in pointing to a sepulchral pile before them, Whose monument that was which seemed to have been so lately erected? and should be answered by the mention of the name of one whom he remembered as one of the dearest companions of his youth, and in whose company he had yet hoped again to revive the recollection of joys that had long departed,—a feeling, in some respects, more pleasing, even than the joys themselves. But whose informer, on perceiving the gloom that had overcast his countenance, should rejoin,-not to think that he was dead, he was still alive for whom that monument was intended, he had built it, not like many who in life-time raise a splendid mausoleum for their dust, as if to demonstrate that infatuated man can be proud even of his frailty; but to stimulate him to greater diligence in the improvement of a season, in which so much has to be done, which, at its longest, is so very short, and which even were it longer is so very uncertain. But whither am I wandering? Excuse a mind that is sometimes too fond of amplifying trifles. I would scarcely write in such a motley strain to any but yourself. If, however, Cowper published a moral poem on "The Sofa," I may be excused for moralizing in a private letter, on the word "memorial." Most of Newton's Letters I have read,-and those I read with very great pleasure. And, though not perhaps after this particular author that I remember, yet, frequently, after perusing such authors, have I shared in the feelings you express, -a fear, that the spirit that animated such men is fast declining. Often have I asked myself the question,-Is not Christianity the same now as it was in the days of Owen and Baxter, and Newton, and why then is it that we now so seldom meet with "living epistles of Christ," such as they were? If we do not observe this luke-warmness, the world will. If we do not use it as an incitement to greater fervency of prayer for the reviving influences of the Divine Spirit:-infidels will make their use of it, in drawing from it arguments against the power of religion. I have often thought that I perceived arguments against evangelical religion, far stronger than its opposers have ever adduced;-and I have wondered how they could escape the notice of such acute men as we have often had to mourn over among the "enemies of the cross of Christ.' 22 I think it is the pious Newton, of whom we have just been speaking, who thinks he perceives in this, the watching of a gracious Providence, lest the mind of a weak believer should be shaken by the corroboration of those arguments from another, which must often have appeared fearfully alarming in his own experience. Were the opposers of evangelical truth, instead of their worn-out vocabulary of opprobrious epithets, to employ fair arguments from the incon |