beheaded him. Of the many onceeager followers of St. Paul, he says, that, on a particular occasion, "no man stood by him." And, in fact, every page in the history of life serves to confirm the persuasion, that the religious ardour which is kindled by mere passion or excitement is likely to be extinguished as easily as it is lighted. That piety alone endures, whose deep foundation is laid in the hatred of sin, and in the love of a Saviour; which is guarded by self-denial, stimulated by prayer, and controuled and limited by the unbending law of God. But what is the inference from this? -that we are to banish the affections from religion? This were to make Stoics of us, and not Christians; to strip religion of one of its brightest charms; to destroy its vivacity; to extinguish its spirit, and stop its life blood. Let the distinctions between truth and error upon this point be carefully marked. To find pleasure only in scenes of excitement and noise; to enlist the most fiery and volatile passions of the heart in the service of the sanctuary; to throw the reins on the neck of the imagination, and rather to fancy a God and Saviour, and a religious system, than to receive the simple record of the volume of inspiration; to employ ourselves in lashing the mind into a state of agitation and froth-is one thing. To cultivate a spirit of tender, ardent, devoted love to the Saviour of sinners, and to his creatures-is another. The language of one Apostle is, "The love of Christ constraineth us:" the language of another, "We love him because He first loved us." The language of God himself, under one dispensation, is, "My son, give me thine heart;" under another, "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart." And that love which springs from the sober contemplation of the excellencies of God, of the wonders of redemption, of the Cross of Christ, and of the splendours and joys of the world of spirits, must be considered as the vital principle of true religion. If the men of mere passion or sentimentthose without clear views or settled principles, or a disposition to sit down and count the cost-are disposed, in the fervour of their spirits, sometimes "Hosanna," and sometimes, Crucify him!" it is not thus with those who, in a scriptural sense, love their Master. She who had sat in tears at the feet of Jesus, was the last at his cross, and the first at his tomb. Oh for a coal from the altar of God, to light up the flame of sanctified love to cry 66 in the soul! O for a touch of that allpowerful Hand which can arrange the discordant strings of the heart, and force from the lips the song of gratitude and praise!-May we cast away every obstacle which impedes our approach to Christ! May we rejoice to "cut down" those high "branches" under which we have too often sought an earthly shelter, and strew them at the feet of the Redeemer! And, amidst the storms of life, and its hours of brightness; amidst the tumults of business, and in the depths of solitude; may our exulting voice be heard: "Hosanna! blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest!"....." Rejoice! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." FROM Olivet's sequestered seats What sounds of transport spread? What concourse moves, through Salem's streets, To Sion's holy head? Behold Him there, in lowliest guise! The Saviour of mankind! Triumphal shouts before Him rise, And shouts reply behind: And "strike," they cry, "your loudest string: "He comes! Hosanna to our King!" Nor those alone, that present train, An earlier and a later strain Extolled the self-same Lord. Obedient to His Father's will, He came he lived-he died; And gratulating voices still Before and after cried, "All hail the Prince of David's line! "Hosanna to the Man Divine!" He came to earth :-From eldest years, Of prophet-bards and patriarch-seers The light of Heaven in every breast, |