came up to the pulpit. After a very serious and fervent prayer, he took for his text these words (Mat. viii. 26) Why are you fearful, Oye of little faith The very reading of these words surprized Mr. Owen, who immediately put up a short ejaculatory petition, that God would be pleased, by that minister, to speak to his condition. His prayer was graciously heard; for Providence so ordered it, that the minister raised and answered those very objections which Mr. Owen had commonly formed against himself; and, what was remarkable, he managed them in the same method which Mr. Owen bad frequently done in his own mind, though without effect: but it pleased God. so to bless this sermon to him, though otherwise a plain, ordinary, familiar discourse, that it resolved his doubts, guided his conscience, and laid the foundation of that spiritual peace and comfort which he afterwards enjoyed during the course of his life.

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S SOLILOQUY.

Extracted from Davies's Sermons, vol. 4, p. 318.

My glorious and condescending Lord, who has endowed mankind with a wise variety of capacities, and assigned to each of them his proper work, agreeably to the various exigencies of the world they inhabit, has appointed me the most pleasing work, the work of love and benevolence. He only requires me to act the friend of human nature, and shew myself a lover of souls; - souls whom he loves, and whom he redeemed with the blood of his heart; souls whom his Father loves, and for whom he gave up his own Son unto death; souls whom my fellow-servants of a superior order, the blessed angels, love; and to whom they concur with me in ministering; souls precious in themselves, and of more value than the whole material universe; - souls that must be happy or miserable, in the highest degree, through an immortal duration; souls, united to me by the endearing ties of our common humanity; - souls for whom I must give an account to the Great Shepherd and Bishop of souls; souls whom hone hate but the malignant ghosts of Hell, and those fallen spirits who are under their influence upon earth. And Oh! can I help loving these dear souls? Why does not my heart always glow with affection and zeal for them? Oh! why am I such a languid friend, when the love of mmy Master and his Father is so ardent! When the ministers of Heaven are flaming fires of love, though they do not share in the same nature? and when the object of my love is so precious and valuable? The owners of those souls often do not love them; and they are likely to be lost for ever by the neglect. Oh, shall not I love them? Shall not love invigorate my hand to pluck them out of the burning? Yes, I will, I must love them. But, oh to love them more! Glow, my zeal! kindle, my affections! speak, my tongue! -flow, my blood! be exerted all my powera! be my life, if necessary, a sacrifice, to save souls from death!2 be a pleasure; let difficulties appear glorious and inviting in this service. O thou God of love, kindle a flame of love in this cold heart of mine! and then I shall perform my work with alacrity and success.”

let labour

JUVENILE DEPARTMENT.

My son, keep thy Father's Commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck: When thou goest, it shall lead thee, when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. Prov. vi. 20, 21, 22. By these words, my young friends, you are taught the reasonableness and the advantage of regarding the instructions of your religious parents. The regard which you ought to pay to the word of God, in which they instruct you, is expressed by binding it on your heart, and ST

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tying it about your neck;' which is an allusion to the customs of the Jews, who wrote parts of their law upon pieces of parchment, and wore them on their garments. It means, that you should receive the word of God with pleasure and delight, and take pains to treasure it up in your memories, — keep it as a treasure, and wear it as an ornament. Do not dismiss and forget the instruction of your parents and teacher, as if you had done with it when they have done talking; but lay it up in your hearts, and let it influence your daily conduct : and observe, my young friend, that not only the commandment of your father, but the law of your mother also is to be regarded. Undutiful children, especially undutiful sous, are too apt to disregard a mother's counsels, though perhaps they pay some respect to the advice of a father; but the wisest of men directs you 'not to forsake the law of your mother;' and in another place, he says, Despise not thy mother when she is old,' Prov. xxiii. 22; and he tells you what respect he himself had paid to his mother's instruction; for when be begins the last chapter of the book of Proverbs, he says, The words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.' This shews that mothers are to teach their sons, even if they are princes; and that sons are to regard their mothers instructions, even so as to remember and submit to them when they come to be inen.

If a stranger give good advice, it ought to be regarded; but good advice comes with peculiar force from a parent. A father! a mother! is an endearing name! Does a father command? Surely, it must be in love. Does a mother instruct? Surely, it must be with tender affection. Dear youth, believe me, there are no two people in the world who love you so much, and wish you so well as your father and your mother; and, therefore, there are none in the world whom you ought so much to regard; - and remember, that what your parents so warmly enforce, is only the command and the law of God; they would teach you the fear of God; they would convince you of your sinfulness and danger; they would lead you by the hand to Jesus, the Friend of sinners, that you may be saved through him for ever.

Now observe, my young friend, the advantage that you may and will

btain by a due regard to the word of God:

When thou goest it shall lead thee, You are a young traveller; you have a difficult and dangerous way to go; you are yet ignorant of the right and safe path; but, 'the commandment is a lamp,' and the hand of your pious parent holds it out to you. This lamp will discover the enemies who are wishing to mislead you; it will clearly guide you in the right path as to your company, your businesses, your connections, your future settlement in life; and, what is far better, it will lead you in the

way everlasting!'

When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee. It was common in ancient times, for superstitious people to hang amulets, or charms, about the necks of their children, to defend them from danger; Solomon alludes to this; not that he recommends scraps of Scripture to be used for such a purpose; but he recommends a believing and obedient regard to the word of God, as the best means of rendering our sleep comfortable and refreshing, and as the best way of securing the divine protection in the dark night, so that no ill shall befal you.

When thou awakest it shall talk with the. If thine eyes are held waking the night, meditation on the word shall administer counsel and comfort, and keep thee from frightful, distracting, and defiling thoughts; or, when thou awakest in the morning, after the comfortable refreshment of sleep, by laying up the word of Christ in thy heart, thy first thoughts will ruu upon it, and it will suggest useful directions for the conduct of the day.

Such are the advantages of regarding divine and parental counsel. May the consideration of these prevail on thee, my young reader, henceforth, if not before, to keep thy father's commandment, and not to forsake the law of thy mother!

Dbituary.

Some Particulars relating to the
Dying Experience of the late A.
G Esq. of S-

lieved them, that he has not lived and acted under their genuine and purifying influence. But who ever heard an opponent of the gos pel approve and recommend his sentiments, while he condemned him. self for a life unsuitable to his creed! No; creed and conduct are involved in the same condemnation, and are alike reviewed with alarm and dismay. He has leaned on a broken reed; the hand of his confidence is pierced; terror and anguish over. whelm his soul.

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Ask an opposer of gospel doctrine to account for this state of things, and he will auswer, That the days of vigorous health are the better days of man; that his sentiments at this period are much more likely to be correct and true, than those resorted to when depressed by infirmity, worn down by sickness, or frightened by the approach of death. But

THE changes of human opinion are not to be considered as decisive proof, for or against the truth of any system which the fickle children of men may adopt or discard; yet, the circumstances under which those changes usually take place, must furnish strong presumptive evidence, which every attentive and impartial mind will duly weigh. Some persons renounce the distinguishing doctrines of the gospel, in favour of Socinianism or Deism; while others relinquish the tenets of infidelity and Socinianism, and embrace the evangelical system. So far the fact proves nothing, except the instability and imperfection of man. But the former change takes place, generally, or rather universally, in the seasons of youth, of health, and of prosperity; the latter not merely are these advocates of error in these seasons, but also in the unwilling to know that a death-bed times of dark alliction, and when is frequently a detector of the under the apprehension of approach heart? that there the glare of the ing death. Here the evidence is by world fades before the eye, and the no means equal. 'Tis a fact, undis- petulance of pride subsides, the puted by the adversaries of evan- convictions of truth have freer room gel cal religion, that many who lived to operate, and often will be heard and gloried in the profession of that a sense of eternal danger proDeistic and Socinian opinions, have duces an involuntary alarm; while renounced them with consternation the dictate of common sense urges and horror at the approach of to shrink from the precipice, and death; confessing their insufficiency to lean to the safer side. Indeed, to support their confidence in their the experience of some, and the near prospect of that solemn tran. apologies of others, plainly prove sition, which was to introduce them that the religion of Deists and Sociinto the immediate presence of nians is only calculated for the meri their Almighty Maker and righteous dian of worldly ease; that it only Judge. The shores of death exhibit is suited to such as are whole, and many wrecks of Deistic and Soci- need not a healing remedy. In nran confidence, among the learned their Gilead there is no balm; and illiterate; but not a single in- there is no physician there. This cirstance of failure in that evangelical cumstance aloue demonstrates, that hope, which the highest authority neither the system of the one nor assures us never maketh ashamed. the other can be the system of salIf the professor of gospel truth be vation revealed in the gospel, alarmed with fear at the close of can ever be identified with the relife, it is not from a suspicion of ligion of Christ : a religion the unsoundness or insufficiency of preached to the poor; designed to his principles, but from the appre- heal the broken-hearted: proclaimhension that he has not truly being deliverance to the captives, re

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covering of sight to the blind, and setting at liberty them that are bruised. By dying, Jesus delivers them who, through the fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage. Relying on the good Shepherd, who gave himself for the sheep, the expiring Christian can say, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me! O death! where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?' The sting of death is sih; and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.