He

and lets his light fhine, numerous falfe guides appear and proffer their services. While he was ftumbling along in darkness and in ignorance, the devil gave himself no concern about him. Now he is very much interested in his welfare. fends his fervants to put the poor man right. One of these endeavours to diffuade him from ufing the Bible, for, fays he, "it is full of myftery; it is impoffible to underftand it. I, for one, will never believe what I cannot understand. Follow reafon, that is the surest guide.” “Indeed, friend," replies the enlightened man, “it was by following reafon that I was led into the possession of the Bible, and my Bible has led me to God. I acknowledge it is mysterious, wonderfully so; yet it has led me right hitherto, and I am determined to follow it. The nature of its fecret influence over my foul, I cannot tell. The nature of the power by which it guides aright, under all circumftances of life, I know not. Neither does the mariner understand the power by which the compafs operates fo beneficially under all circumftances; of ftorm and calm, light and darkness, heat and cold. It is ever a fure guide. He believes in it, he follows it. Were the failor no more to weigh anchor and fpread the flowing fail, until he understands the mysteries of the compass, verily he would have to learn another trade, for fhips would rot in harbour, commerce would ceafe, and intercourfe between nations come to an end. And what is worthy of remark, the common failor-boy understands just as much

of the practical ufe of the compafs, as the captain; cease then to perfuade me further. The Bible is my compafs, my fure guide, I will follow it."

Other false directors, of different names, but all of them having the fame end in view, viz., to make him distrust his guide, and turn him out of the way, offer to them their fervices; fome prefs the matter one way, and fome another. His reply to all is, "Wherewithal fhall a young man cleanse his way, but by taking heed thereto according to thy word."

Thus he believes in it practically, follows its directions implicitly, and it guides him fafely by every flough of defpond, over every mountain of difficulty, through every strait of distress, and every ftorm of tribulation, and conducts him at laft in triumph to the home of the blessed.

"Take from the world the Bible, and you have taken the moral chart by which alone its population can be guided. Ignorant of the nature of God, and only gueffing at their own immortality, the tens of thoufands would be as mariners, tossed on a wide ocean, without a pole star and without a compafs. The blue lights of the stormfiend would burn ever in the fhrouds; and when the tornado of death rushed across the waters, there would be heard nothing but the fhriek of the terrified, and the groan of the despairing. It were to mantle the earth with a more than Egyptian darkness; it were to dry up the fountain of human happiness; it were to take the tides from our waters, and leave them stagnant, and the stars from our heavens, and leave them in fackcloth; and the verdure from our valleys, and leave them in barrenness; it were to make the prefent all recklessness, and the future all

hopele ffnefs; the maniac's revelry, and then the fiend's imprisonment; if you could annihilate the precious volume which tells us of God and of Christ, and unveils immortality, and instructs in duty, and wooes to glory. Such is the Bible. Prize ye it, and study it more and more. Prize it, as ye are immortal beings, for it guides to the New Jerufalem. Prize it, as ye are intellectual beings, for it giveth light to the fimple.”

"Above all these things put on charity."-COL. iii. 14 is the fulfilling of the law."-Roм. xiii. 10. love."-I JOHN iv. 8.

CHARITY, OR LOVE.

"Love "God is

The feraph Charity from heaven defcends,
And o'er the world on fhining pinions bends;
Round mourning mortals tender as a dove,
She spreads her wing and foothes in tones of love;

Pours living balm into the wounded breast,
And aids the beggar though in tatters dreft;
The orphan's plaint fhe heeds, and widow's figh,
And fmiles away the tear from forrow's eye.
Like fome fair fount that through the defert flows,
Fringed with the myrtle and the Perfian rofe,
She scatters bleffings all along her track,

And hope and joy to want and woe brings back,
And when the last faint fob is heard no more,
Up to her native bowers again she'll foar.

BEHOLD here a being of heavenly appearance. The light of love irradiates her brow; her eyes melt with tenderness; her countenance wears the afpect of benevolence; her heart bleeds with fympathy; her hands are strong to fave; the commiferating Angel has come from a far diftant part; on the wings of love and compaffion fhe has come; fhe has left all to fuccour and to fave the helpless, the wretched, and the loft.

See her at her Godlike work. In the foreground fhe is raising a miferable being in rags and tatters from a pit of mire and filth. With her right hand fhe is pouring the balm of life into the wounds of the dying. Look behind her; fee the widow and the fatherless. They have come to bless her; with hearts gufhing with grateful emotion they follow her with their praife; fhe has rescued them from the gripe of the oppreffor; they were hungry, and fhe fed them; naked, and fhe clothed them; and their prayers, like a cloud of incenfe, go up to heaven in behalf of their compaffionate friend. Before fhe leaves the diftrict of pain, want, and wretchednefs, CHARITY,