looking onward, beyond the wreck of visible worlds, and the paling away of created suns, and moons, and stars, he sees a divine glory gilding the eternal mount of God, and the mansions of the redeemed; and feeling within himself the life of God, and the resurrection power of Christ, and the earnest of the Spirit-he takes up the note which yet lingers on Isaiah's harp-strings, and with the film of death on his eye, and the roar of Jordan in his ear, he triumphantly sings "The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory."

But alas! how different, how sad, is the condition of the impenitent, unbelieving, wandering, homeless sinner's soul. Every tie of his heart is an earthly tie, destined to bleed; every hope of his heart a deceitful hope, destined to die; he has not made God his REST; his fixed sympathies are not in the Household of God; like a wandering bird he visits the altars of the Lord, but he does not dwell there. He must have a place! Death holds a mortgage on his body, and he must lie down in the grave; then he will no longer wander up and down any more. The violated law of God has a claim upon his unpardoned, unsanctified soul, and for all such souls a place is provided;-no light, no glory, no promise visits that place; it is the home of Dives and Judas; of all who have denied Christ, and made this world their chief joy. Between that home of the impenitent, the unbelieving, the disobedient, the ungodly, and the mansions of the redeemed, an impassable gulf is fixed by God upon the latter, radiant glory from the face of the Lord God and the Lamb, eternally shines; over the former, eternal darkness, that can be felt, reigns.

Lord of Hosts, when thou gatherest thy saints together, that have made a covenant with Thee by sacrifice, may we be there; but, Oh! gather not our souls with sinners.

BY THE LATE REV. DANIEL A. CLARK.

THE DANGER OF FALSE MAXIMS.

"I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst."-DEUT. 29: 19.

THIS is a maxim which Moses, the inspired servant of God, puts into the mouth of ungodly men. It is a sentiment as prevalent in the present day as in the age in which it was uttered. The principle is this: our present conduct will not affect our future condition. It disassociates deportment and destiny, and says, "Whatever I may now he, it shall be well with me hereafter, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.””

Let us now proceed to examine this maxim, with a view to ascertain whether it be a safe one for the regulation of our conduct. That it is not a safe maxim is evident; because

1. It is contrary to all analogy. Human conduct is uniformly productive of results, good or ill, according to the character of that conduct. There is a powerful principle of reproductivenes in both character and condition. Economy and industry are usually followed by independence and respectability. Intemperance, negligence, and dishonesty, by degradation, want, and shame.

2. It denies a state of probation. This state of being is one in which all are forming their character and condition for a future world. The maxim in question is at variance with this divine arrangement, as it alleges that our character here has no relation to our estate hereafter.

3. The maxim confounds virtue and vice. It confounds them in their results. If the laws of virtue have no sanctions they are mere advice. Thus the flood-gates of iniquity are opened on a miserable world, and our standard of character is found in the words of the Psalmist: "A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees." Might makes right.

4. The maxim is at war with men's best interests in the present as well as in the future life. It removes restraint from the evil passions. It throws the reins upon the neck of the most unhallowed lusts. A community acting upon this principle would soon become annihilated. A few only of the mightiest in physical strength could survive the experiment.

5. The maxim denies the existence of God, or denies his attributes. If there is a God he must have given his creatures a law,

and that law must have sanctions. It cannot be that he is indifferent to the dishonoring of his law.

6. The maxim is unreasonable. God cares for the happiness of his creatures. He provides for the happiness of brutes, and yet more for that of man; but how can he care for the happiness of man, if he has endowed him with such passions, and laid no restraint on him?

7. The maxim would go to prove that God often loves the wicked more than the righteous. If it be well with all alike in a future world, the earlier we die, the earlier we are blest. On this principle, when men are cut off by the judgments of God for their iniquities, they are shown to be the favorites of heaven. Thus the old world went to heaven before Noah; the inhabitants of Sodom were suddenly taken to heaven when Lot was left to wander a vagabond upon the mountains.

8. The maxim is unscriptural. The Bible teaches that this life. is the seed time, eternity the harvest. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." The Word of God in its history, its promises, its exhortations, its warnings, its threatenings, goes to say that the maxim is a lie.

REMARKS.

1. We should beware what sentiments we imbibe, as they will surely affect our characters. Bad sentiments make bad men, while the contemplation of sacred truth tends to make men holy. We may not unfrequently judge men's characters when we know the school in which they were bred.

2. The maxim under consideration originates in the desire of a depraved heart. Men wish that their conduct may not affect their destiny. Wishing they assert, and asserting they at length believe.

3. How strange it is that men can be so blinded as to live in accordance with such a maxim. The falsehood of it is written not only in God's word, but on the conscience, and in the experience and the observation of all men. Consciousness testifies against it. He that does right is happy, while the "way of the transgressor is hard." We have seen that analogy is against it; the glutton is diseased; the drunkard destroys himself; the idle are improvident and poor; the vicious are finally hated; the deceitful are found out and detested; the dishonest gain at length the bad reputation they deserve.

Verily it is a proof of the blinding power of sin, that men can be found living in accordance with maxims the falseness of which is as manifest as the sun in the heavens.

BY REV. WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, D.D.

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ALBANY, New York.

.ON THE LIFE AND DEATH OF REV. DR. CHALMERS.

And unto one he gave five talents.-MATTHEW 25: 15.

It is a beautiful feature of the creation that uniformity everywhere blends with itself variety. The stars that light up so brilliantly the evening sky, bear to a superficial gazer substantially the same appearance; and yet astronomy, not less than Christianity, has certified to us the fact that "one star differeth from another star in glory." The landscape which at first opens upon us merely as an extended field of verdure and brightness, reveals to a closer inspection a thousand variegated tints, each of which is a legitimate subject both of reflection and of admiration. The pebbles of the brook, the flowers of the field, the trees of the forest, each of the various forms, both of mineral and vegetable existence, possess common properties, while yet each particular specimen is, in some respects, different from every other. The whole animal creation has something in common, and each of the several tribes has more; but here again, whether you compare the tribes, or the individuals composing the tribes, there is no end to the diversity which they exhibit. And what is true of the inferior orders of being, is true of man also wherever you find him, you find him in all his essential characteristics the same; and yet need I say, that he ranges from a little above the brute to a little below the angel?

This inequality that pervades the human race, is one of the lessons conveyed by the parable in which we find the text ;-I mean the parable of the talents. And in the text itself there is a refer

ཨ ལས་

ence to the highest number of talents ever bestowed;-in other words, to an individual most highly favored in respect to both character and condition. What constitutes the distinction here referred to? I answer, it is the possession, in an eminent degree, of whatever may be used for the benefit of ourselves and our fellow creatures, or for the glory of God. Let us glance at two or three of its leading elements.

I may mention, first, high intellectual endowments;—a mind originally constituted with extraordinary powers, and subjected to the most vigorous and efficient culture. I may mention also a highly favored moral constitution ;-that native energy that never tires, that native frankness that knows not how to dissemble, that native generosity and sympathy that respond instinctively to every tale of woe. And then there is the image of the heavenly deeply enstamped upon the soul by the Spirit of God; there are the Christian graces shining out with unwonted attraction; there are the fervent breathings of a spirit which lives in the atmosphere of Calvary or at the foot of the throne. And last of all (for I will not include in the present estimate great riches, however legitimately they might be included), there is the providential arrangement of circumstances favorable not only to the highest development, but to the most useful application, of the various faculties;-an arrangement at once creating facilities and supplying inducements to benificent action. Wherever you find an individual in whom these various characteristics meet,-one who possesses a richly endowed mind, and a noble spirit, and an exalted Christian character, and who withal occupies a station of dignity and influence, there you find one possessing the five talents. He stands upon an eminence which few ever reach. He is among the greater lights in the firmament of illustrious minds.

It may perhaps occur to you that I am scarcely warranted in speaking of eminent piety in this connexion as a talent, inasmuch as the parable takes for granted that the several talents referred to, whatever they may be, are not only all to be accounted for, but are liable to be perverted, and thus to bring condemnation and ruin to their possessor. I do not use the text in so strict a sense as this objection would seem to imply. My object is to consider it, not chiefly as illustrating human responsibility, but as pointing to the highest style of human character;-to character considered as the production not of nature only, but of grace. Every good gift that we receive, everything that is fitted to advance either our happiness or our usefulness, comes from God: and surely that richest of all gifts,-the gift of an exalted piety, is not only to be referred to the same infinite benefactor, but is to be referred to him in a far higher sense than any other of his favors; for while these are to be regarded as the fruit of his common bounty, that in