careful that they are in no case formed with those whose principles are loose, and whose conduct is bad. Hear what God says: "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." "When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness." Seek God's grace. He waits to pardon all your sins, and to give you a new heart, renewed by his own Spirit, which will incline you to do all his will. Then say with David, "I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts."

A bad book is offered you, and you feel inclined to read it. Cast it aside. It will sap your principles; it will pollute your heart; it will lead you into sin. Whatever "good" there may be in you, it will help to " destroy."

them?

What parent has not many a time trembled for the future of his children? Here they are in a world of sinners, and the question naturally arises, What can I do to preserve As far as he can, by the exercise both of persuasion and authority, he should keep them from all companionships which are evil. Then, too, there should be the utmost care in the selection of their pursuits for life. It ought to be a sufficient reason for not placing a youth in a situation, however advantageous in other respects, that he would be surrounded by evil influences which he would find it difficult, if not impossible, to withstand. The writer knew a youth who was placed in such a situation. He wrote to his father, imploring that he might be removed. The father refused, and the young man was ruined. But there is a better precaution still. We must seek to have the good so firmly established in their hearts, that it is not likely to be destroyed. Warning them, as occasion may present, against the dangers to which they are exposed, we must do our utmost to lead them to that Saviour in whom alone there are true life and strength; and, at the same time, we must lift up our fervent prayers for the quickening grace of God's Holy Spirit. With hearts renewed by him, they may pass unhurt through all the wiles both of Satan and the world, their souls pure from evil, and their good undestroyed.

Should not the thought of the evil which may be wrought by one sinner furnish a strong incentive to seek

his conversion? It were a great thing to save him, if we thought of nothing more than his own salvation; for no words can tell the worth of his immortal soul. But that is not all. From that hour, we preserve the good he would otherwise have destroyed. There is more than even that. There is reason to hope that he will become a blessing to those whom he might otherwise have led down to hell. The poisoned fountain will not only be dried up, it will become a spring of living waters, bearing health and life wherever they flow. The man whom we convert may convert others, and they, in their turn, others still; and so, when the final issues of our work stand revealed, it may be manifest that the conversion of that one sinner was the first link in a chain of influences by which multitudes were first brought to the cross and then led up to heaven.

"I

This fact of the good one sinner may destroy is suggestive of very solemn reflections to the sinner himself. never did anybody harm," has been often said by very wicked men. It may be quite true, we would say to such a man, that neither in body nor estate have you ever injured any one; but if either by example or precept you have destroyed in others what was good, you have done them incalculable harm; nay, it is very likely that there may be charged upon you not only the destruction of good, but even of an immortal soul. There may, at this very hour, be such a soul in hell, whom you led away from Jesus and down to the pit. It is an awful thing for a sinner to stand before God to answer for guilt contracted by sins which concerned himself alone; but how much more terrible to be chargeable with the blood of a soul! Review the past, and as you see that you have committed evil which it may now be too late to repair, let that thought bow you in deep and heartfelt penitence. Your heavenly Father waits to cancel all your guilt. Go, believing in Jesus, and implore the exercise of his forgiving. love. Then, a pardoned sinner, resolve that your noblest powers shall henceforward be expended in the promotion of everything that is good, but especially, by the exhibition of the truth in Jesus, in the deliverance of souls from everlasting death.

And if there be one within your reach whose goodness you have helped to destroy-whom you have taught to treat sacred things with levity, and whom you have led away from the cross-go, find out that man. Tell him that

your sin lies heavily on your conscience, and that, though God has forgiven it, you cannot rest till you have done your utmost to lead him back from his wickedness to the Saviour, in whom you have found everlasting life. Who can tell but you may have the joy of seeing him walking with you on the way to heaven?

WHO IS ON THE LORD'S SIDE?

In almost all our congregations there are persons outside of the pale of the church, who not only cherish the hope and the belief that they are true Christians, but who furnish to all around them evidence that they are so, but who yet treat a public profession of religion as a matter of no importance. They say, "Profession is nothing, but the possession of religion is everything-and after all, the best profession is a consistent course of living." In this remark, which is so common, there is a degree of truth which often hides from view the error that is tacitly connected with it. While nothing is more certain than that a mere profession of religion is of no avail, yet the truth is too often overlooked that the existence of vital religion in the heart will naturally lead to that public avowal of it which is enjoined by God's positive command, and which, on that account, becomes an act of acceptable obedience.

In reading the New Testament, nothing appears to be more evident than this, that our Lord has set forth the ordinances of his church as the proper means of expressing our allegiance unto him. They are the appointed signs of self-dedication to his service. In the apostolic age all Christians were addressed as those who had received them, as a matter of course. And a matter of course it seemed to be when explicit commands were undisputed, and all understood the force of our Saviour's saying, "If a man love me, he will keep my words.” "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." "This do in remembrance of me."

And then, it ought to be understood by every one who desires to be accounted a friend of true religion, either here or hereafter, that if he recoil from a profession of Christianity, the world will take him at his word and will reckon him on its own side. How can it be otherwise? He neglects a positive command. Profession of religion is not, to be sure, sufficient proof of possessing it; but de

liberate non-profession will be regarded by the great majority as presumptive evidence that there is none to profess. For, it is the nature of love to a great and glorious object freely to express itself. Is love of country mute when our country's enemies are reviling or opposing, thwarting her plans, diminishing her influence, or boasting of their numbers?

Moreover, the imperative obligation of this coming out from the world is enforced by the consideration of its benefits to the individual who performs this duty. These are manifold; but it is worthy of special notice that it strengthens all his moral purposes. Nothing is more obvious than that when any question is at issue, and strong feeling is enlisted on opposite sides, he who, determining his own opinion, buries it in his own bosom and hesitates to avow it openly, must, from the nature of the case, become deficient in moral energy, and cannot develope any great strength of character. His feelings will be languid, his purposes will be infirm, much of his influence will be wasted, and he will be of comparatively little worth to the cause to which he is attached. In the great controversy, therefore, which is now going on between truth and error, between God and men, those who are for him are called upon by the great Head of the church, as were the Israelites in the days of Moses, to prove it by decisive action: "He that is on the Lord's side, let him come unto And who does not perceive, that he who thinks that he has a heart loyal to the cause of Christ, and yet refuses to obey such a summons, if he be not deceiving himself, is thoughtlessly setting at nought his own duties and in

me.

terests?

May all those to whom this subject has any relation, soberly consider it; for the hour hastens when all will wish not to be reckoned and ranked with the votaries of this perishing world. Its petty objects of interest may engross us now; its friendship, wealth, and pleasures may charm and fascinate us a while; but all this cannot last. The hour hastens when all its beauty, grace, and fashion shall have passed away, when its pomp and power shall have vanished like a night vision, when all its kindreds and tribes shall have been summoned before the judgment throne, when the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, who belongs to it,

will cry for shelter from the presence and wrath of the final Judge. Then to be classed with those whom the Scriptures call "the world," with those who serve and idolize and honour it, with those who have their treasure and their portion in it, and their destinies linked to it, will be to have all evils concentrated in one. Then will be felt all the weight and the worth of the truth which was of old the song of the church, "The Lord's portion is his people, and Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.'

TRYING TO FEEL BETTER.

In the discharge of pastoral work, I was, some time since, brought into contact with a young man, with whom I had not been conversing long before I discovered that he was under deep religious impressions. After the ice was once broken, he displayed anxiety to talk about the state of his mind.

He told me that having been brought up in the enjoyment of many religious advantages, he had often been painfully convinced that he was pursuing a dangerous course, and had been more than once "almost persuaded to be a Christian," but that he had always relapsed into his old state of unconcern. And now that 66 the powers of the world to come" bore upon him again with unwonted influence, he was greatly troubled on account of the way in which he had trifled with these earlier convictions.

I soon found that though he had been brought up under a gospel ministry, and was, in a general sense, acquainted with the truths of the gospel, yet he was lamentably in the dark as to the true way of acceptance with God.

I asked him to tell me, in a few words, what he conceived his state to be. He told me that he felt himself to be a sinner; in fact, he was utterly wretched, disturbed by day, and terrified by night; and that he desired, above all things, to know that peace of mind of which he had heard Christians talk, but to which he himself was an utter stranger. I told him that the only way to secure this peace was to believe in the testimony which God gave concerning his Son. Whereupon he assured me that he did believe, and yet could not find "peace and joy in believing." I endeavoured to convince him that he did not in any true sense believe in Christ; that he might believe Christ to be a Saviour, and yet not believe Christ to be his