loved too much and direct your thoughts from spiritual abstractions, retire to the wilderness where not one flower blooms to attract your eye. In a path beset with dangers you cannot walk safely; endeavour therefore to find one where no object shall beguile you, and no snare be spread for your feet." In this manner the monks and hermits of past ages pretended to be influenced in their choice of retreats. The world might be abused and they therefore renounced it altogether.

If the above is not correct reasoning, that adopted by the advocates of total abstinence cannot be defended. Indeed it is less tenable than the other. Total abstainers say, "because one man has no command over his appetite, and cannot taste the cup without draining it, therefore a man who can regulate his desires must abstain." How the truth of this proposition can be established, is to us perfectly marvellous. Our doctrine would be, "let the man who is the victim of evil habits by every and any means try to overcome them; but let the man who can use the good things of life without abusing them, continue to do so." While the former will be a constant monument of human frailty and imbecility, the latter will be a proof that some virtue is left in the world, virtue consisting in resisting the dangers to which he is exposed.

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There is a mixture of truth and error in the system we are considering, which should be carefully separated. is erroneous to subject a sober man to the austerities of self-denial; it is consistent with truth that the intemperate should by every means become sober; and therefore, if in no other way this object can be effected, he should totally desist. Our views cannot be so well expressed as in the words of Dr. Samuel Johnson. "Austerities and mortifications are means by which the mind is invigorated and roused, by which the attractions of pleasure are interrupted, and the chains of sensuality are broken. Abstinence, if nothing more, is, at least, a cautious retreat from the utmost verge of permission, and confers that security which cannot be reasonably hoped by him who dares always to

hover over the precipice of destruction, or delights to approach the pleasures which he knows it fatal to partake. Austerity is the proper antidote to indulgence; the diseases of the mind as well as body are cured by contraries, and to contraries we should readily have recourse, if we dreaded guilt as we dread pain."

By all means let drunkards be reclaimed and let sober persons watch against the least approach to a sin so fatal. It is because we wish well to temperance that we cannot press total abstinence. Temperance is a cause which all good men will espouse, but total abstinence they will not. This system therefore hinders the objects it means to promote, by repelling the conscientious, and putting the gibe and the scoff into the lips of the wicked.

It is of great importance that in all efforts to reclaim from a vicious course, those motives be presented which are so beautifully described by the great writer just quoted. "The completion and sum of repentance is a change of life. That sorrow which dictates no caution, that fear which does not quicken our escape, that austerity which fails to rectify our affections, are vain and unavailing. But sorrow and terror must naturally precede reformation, for what other causes can produce it? He therefore, who feels himself alarmed by his conscience, anxious for the attainment of a better state, and afflicted by the memory of his past faults, may justly conclude that the work of repentance is begun, and hope by retirement and prayer, the natural and religious means of strengthening his conviction, to impress upon his mind such a sense of the divine presence, as may overpower the blandishments of secular delights, and enable him to advance from one degree of holiness to another, till death shall set him free from doubt and contest, misery and temptation.

"What better can we do, than prostrate fall
Before him reverent; and there confess
Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears
Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek."

POETICAL PARAPHRASES OF SCRIPTURE TEXTS.

NO. VI.

"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."-Eccles.xii. 1.

CREATOR God! my mind to thee
Its earliest powers would pay;
Ere morning's freshness past shall be,
Or night succeeds the day.

Old age with all its cares comes on,
Youth's prime will quick depart;
Ere thought is frail, or memory gone,
I give thee all my heart.

In days of toil I'll seek thy love
To make my labours blest;
To thee yet warmer thoughts shall rove
When Sabbaths give me rest.

The joys of earth around me shine,
Hope spreads a prospect fair;
But earthly pleasures soon decline,
And lurking snares are there.

Oh memory! quick, inconstant, wild,
To God thy powers be given;
Nor be by joyous scenes beguiled
To think no more of heaven.

NO. VII.

“Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."-Matthew xix. 14.

WHO speaks these words divinely fair?

"To me let little children come;

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In life I make their wants my care,

And heaven, when life is past, their home."

These words are His, who once below
Bless'd babes and youth with humble love;
Then to the cruel cross did go

To raise their souls to joys above.

Lord! thou art far from mortal things,
And high in glory's light dost dwell;
Yet still thy love each blessing brings
The heart to cleanse, to save from hell.

What though thou art exalted there?
Our Saviour! bid by thee we come;

Oh make, in life, our wants thy care,

And when we die, thy heaven our home.

NO. VIII.

"Praise the Lord, both young men, and maidens, old men, and children."-Psalm cxlviii. 12.

WE praise thee Oh God, for joys that are past,
For all thou wilt give us while being shall last;
The spring of thy pleasures exhaustless doth flow,
And the songs which we utter no ending shall know.

We praise thee, Creator, in youth's early prime,
While our brows are untouched by the finger of time;
Or when winter's pale blossoms our heads shall adorn,
And life's former pleasures have left us forlorn.

We praise thee! let each now awaken the lay,
And the harps from the willows be taken to-day;

Dull care shall not daunt us, nor trouble annoy,
While Jehovah is with us, our duty is joy.

We praise thee! let maidens prepare thee a crown,
And manhood bring gifts to the Lord of renown;
And babes in their lispings a tribute shall give.

To the God who has formed them and makes them to live.

Sing praises! sing praises! the song must not die;
The Lord is now with us, whose throne is on high;
Let the music be sweet, and no end let it know,
Since the spring of His pleasures exhaustless doth flow.

LATE SPRING.

By Dr Johnson.

IT has been observed by long experience, that late springs produce the greatest plenty. The delay of blooms and fragrance, of verdure and breezes, is for the most part liberally recompensed by the exuberance and fecundity of the ensuing seasons; the blossoms which lie concealed till the year is advanced, and the sun is high, escape those chilling blasts, and nocturnal frosts, which are often fatal to early luxuriance, prey upon the first smiles of vernal beauty, destroy the feeble principles of vegetable life, intercept the fruit in the germ, and beat down the flowers unopened to the ground.

I am afraid there is little hope of persuading the young and sprightly part of my readers, upon whom the spring naturally forces my attention, to learn, from the great process of nature, the difference between diligence and hurry, between speed and precipitation; to prosecute their designs with calmness, to watch the concurrence of opportunity, and