cious monitor, who should venture to suggest to them that, as they seldom or never bestow on Christianity the least solicitude, they can have no just pretensions to the name.

But busy as men are, in pursuits foreign to piety, it is certain that after a few short years, the principal concern of the proudest, bravest, and fairest of the sons and daughters of Adam, will be religion. To that friend, whom many slight in the season of youth, health, and prosperity, they will (secretly, perhaps, but eagerly) fly for succour, in the time of age, sorrow, sickness, and death. What, indeed, is man, in his most flourishing state? What, the most admired and distinguished individual of us all, but an infirm, dependent creature; subject, from the cradle, to ten thousand evils; doomed gradually, often painfully, to decay, and certainly, perhaps most deplorably, to die? Second childhood, idiotism, insanity, palsy, blindness, deafness, lameness! ye are powerful preachers to those who mark well your ravages among the sons of men, once most highly distinguished for strength, comeliness, genius, all that charms the heart, and dazzles the imagination with transient brilliancy.

Think, mortal," says the poet, "what it is to die." Think also, I add, what it is to see those whom we love die before us; die, agonized with pain, after languishing with lingering disease; to attend them with all the blandishments of affection, without being able to contribute to their ease, or add one moment to their existence. Is there any partaker of human nature, however thoughtless, who, when he feels actually brought home to his own bosom, or to his own family, the

real calamities, the sore distresses of life, will not be anxious to seek comfort of religion, to acquaint himself with God, and be at peace with him? His prospect in the world is forlorn and dismal. It is a barren land, where no water is. Though it flattered him in better days, it now turns away from him in the hour of his utmost need. Indeed, if it were still inclined to sooth him, it has no cordials for his heart, no balsams for his wounded spirit. To heaven only he can look for comfort,'

'As examples of men well known, and recently in the land of the living, teach more effectually than any precepts and admonitions, I have selected the two following, to show how men of the world and men of pleasure are affected by disease and the decays of age.

The following verses, a translation of a Psalm, by the late Mr. Colman, who had been much conversant with the gay world, exhibit the state of mind to which the liveliest wits and men of fashion may be reduced, on a sudden, by sickness, by a stroke of the palsy, or any other malady.

"Psalm xxxix. imitated in blank verse:-
"I will take heed, I said, I will take heed,
Nor trespass with my tongue; will keep my mouth
As with a bridle, while the sinner's near.

-Silent I mus'd, and e'en from good refrain'd,
But full of pangs, my heart was hot within me ;
The lab'ring fire burst forth, and loos'd my tongue.
Lord, let me know the measure of my days;
Make me to know how weak, how frail I am!
My days are as a span, mine age as nothing,
And man is altogether vanity.

Man walketh in an empty shade; in vain
Disquieting his soul, he heaps up riches,

Knowing not who shall gather them. And now

Where rests my hope ?-O Lord! it rests with thee.
Forgive me mine offences! Make me not

A scorn unto the foolish! I was dumb,
And open'd not my mouth, for 'twas thy doing.
O, take thy stroke away! thy hand destroys me.
When, with rebukes, thou chasteneth man for sin,
Thou mak'st his beauty to consume away :

and there he will not seek it in vain. Religion has confessedly furnished a sweet solace, under extreme affliction, when the heart sickened at the pleasures of the world, and viewed its pageantries with contempt. Bitterer than wormwood has been the cup of adversity; but religion has infused a honied drop into it, which has overcome the bitterness: gloomy as midnight has been the lowering sky, but religion has tinged the clouds with gold and purple, and opened a prospect of the blue

expanse.

Distemper preys upon him, as a moth

Fretting a garment. Ah, what then is man?
Ev'ry man living is but vanity!

Hear, hear my prayer, O Lord! O hear my cry!
Pity my tears! for I am in thy sight

But as a stranger and a sojourner,

As all my fathers were. O, spare me then,
Though but a little, to regain my strength,

Ere I be taken hence, and seen no more!"-Colman. Let us hear also lord Chesterfield, a complete man of the world. The following is an extract from one of his letters :

"I have run," says he, "the silly rounds of business and pleasure, and have done with them all. I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and consequently know their futility, and do not regret their loss. I appraise them at their real value, which is, in truth, very low. Whereas those that have not experienced, always overrate them. They only see their gay outside, and are dazzled with the glare. But I have been behind the scenes. I have seen all the coarse pulleys and dirty ropes which exhibit and move the gaudy machines; and I have seen and smelt the tallow candles which illuminate the whole decoration, to the astonishment and admiration of the ignorant audience.

"When I reflect on what I have seen, what I have heard, and what I have done, I can hardly persuade myself that all that frivolous hurry of bustle and pleasure of the world had any reality; but I look upon all that is passed, as one of those romantic dreams, which opium commonly occasions; and I do by no means desire to repeat the nauseous dose, for the sake of the fugitive dream.

But what religion? There is no religion but the Christian, which, in the present state of society, can make any claim to general reception. There is none but the Christian, which can afford the smallest consolation. Explode Christianity, as some pretenders to benevolence seem to wish, and you rob the blind of their surest guide, and the wretched of their best friend and protector. You take away the staff of age, the chart and compass of youth, the pillow of pain, the grand column and ornament of human life. Man degenerates, without it, to a brute of superior sagacity to do mischief, and superior sensibility to suffer pain.

But there are many, and those able and distinguished men in the business of the world, who appear to reject Christianity entirely. Many give it no attention;' but contented with the decencies of life, and coldly complying with outward forms,

"Shall I tell you that I bear this melancholy situation with that meritorious constancy and resignation which most people boast of! No; for I really cannot help it. I bear it, because I must bear it, whether I will or no !-I think of nothing but killing time the best way I can, now that he is become my enemy. It is my resolution to sleep in the carriage during the remainder of the journey."

"You see," says bishop Horne, remarking on this passage, "in how poor, abject, and unpitied a condition, at a time when he most wanted help and comfort, the world left him and he left the world."

Compare these words with those of another person, who took his leave of the world in a very different manner.

"I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me at that day." St. Paul.

They know nothing about it, and therefore cannot desire or study it. Ignoti nulla cupido.—‘The people perish through lack of knowledge.' Hosea, iv. 6. The Indians prefer any bauble, which rattles and looks fine, to their mines of gold.

claim a merit in submitting quietly to its ordinances, and making no open opposition to it. Others profess to believe all religion equally true, equally false, and equally useful to the politician. Most of these are probably driven, at last, by their distress, in the evil days, and in the anguish of their hearts, to seek the aid of her, whom they despised or neglected in prosperity, and to take refuge, during the storm, in the shelter of the temple. But is it not desirable, in every stage of life, to be under the protection of one who is found so faithful a friend in the last stage? And is it not the part of every truly benevolent man, if opportunities offer, and, more particularly, if his professional duty not only justifies, but demands, an active interference in promoting the solid happiness of others, to endeavour to persuade his fellow-creatures to seek, in the most effectual manner, the light and consolation of Christianity? He can in no possible mode contribute so much to the melioration of society, and the improvement of the human race. Look at a neighbouring country, and see the misery consequent on renouncing Christianity. Mercy and justice seem to have fled from the land, together with the gospel. God hath avenged his cause in a most awful manner.

To stop the progress of infidelity, to resuscitate the dormant spirit of vital religion, the true nature of Christianity must be plainly pointed out to the mass of the people, the great as well as the vulgar; the great, I say, to whom, from thoughtlessness and immersion in sensuality, it is often little known,' however it may be professed. Chris

What is the gospel? The record that God hath given to us eternal life, and that life is in his Son.' 1 John, v. 2. It is