All then betook themselves to reading such works as were suited to their age, and the state of their mind, with which the family library was pretty well stored. Such as the works of the Erskines, of Boston, Guthrie, Halyburton, Rutherford, Wilson, Trail, Flavel, Durham, some of Owen's, &c. Between nine and ten o'clock, allagain assembled for family worship, and then prepared for rest; each again in secret commending himself, and all the members of the family, to the care of the Shepherd of Israel. Such was the Sabbath in my father's house. It was literally a day spent in religious exercises, in gaining religious knowledge, or in seeking the grace, or in cultivating the dispositions, which were to fit us for the Sabbath of heaven, where some of the family have triumphantly gone, and whither the rest, it is hoped, will all in their appointed season arrive.

When I look around me, and see how the Sabbath is generally observed now, even in families professedly the followers of Christ, I cannot help exclaiming--It was not so in my father's. The religious arrangements of the age seem to me more calculated for the outward show of religion than for the cultivation of that piety which pervades and purifies, and blesses the most interesting of all earth's associations--the domestic circle. And, with regard to the almost universal desecration of the Sabbath-a subject which is justly exciting so much alarm in every friend of Zion-I cannot help feeling that a no inconsiderable portion of it has taken its rise in the trifling manner in which the day is observed in many families professedly Christian. And until a remedy is applied here, and the Satbath in the family at home becomes more like what it should be, no great change in the public observance of the day can reasonably be expected to take place.

SAINTS A BLESSING.

"Ye shall be a blessing."-ZECH. viii. 13.

What a difference is there between the state of nature and grace! The change from the one to the other verifies

and explains the words of the prophet: "Instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir tree; and instead of the briar, shall come up the myrtle tree." Hence God says, “As you were a curse”—“ Ye shall be a blessing."

For the change affects them not only personally, but relatively. It begins with themselves, but it extends to others; and a zealous concern for the salvation of their own souls is always accompanied with a benevolent anxiety for the salvation of their fellow-creatures. Their exertions for this purpose are indeed often ungratefully received; and they are reproachfully desired to keep their religion to themselves.

But this is enjoining upon them an impossibility. They cannot but speak the things which they have seen and heard. If these should hold their pcace, the stones would cry out. The fire must burn. The spring must rise up. Others are not only excused, but commended, even if they err in the manner, who strive to heal the sick, to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry; but Christians are called intermeddlers, when they exercise the noblest charity of all, which is spiritual mercy. Not that they neglect the body-Jesus himself did not. But he that converteth a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

David therefore said, "I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee." What a blessing was Andrew to his brother Peter; and Philip to his friend Nathaniel; and the woman of Samaria to her fellow-citizens! "Many believed Many believed on him for the saying of the woman.”

In this way God carries on his cause. He makes us the subjects of grace, and then the mediums and the instruments. He could call fifty at once in a village. But what is commonly the case? One is called first. He soon pities the condition of others; and he goes to the minister by whom he was awakened, and informs him of the ignorance of his poor neighbours, and says, "Come over and help us." He goes; and a number believe and

turn unto the Lord.

A single grain of corn will produce several ears; these

ears will produce many ears more; and the increase will be sufficient for the covering of a field, a province, a country. So says God of his people, "I will sow them in the earth." Thus churches are raised. Thus kingdoms are evangelized.

Why are good men called the "chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof," "the salt of the earth," "the light of the world," "a dew from the Lord," but to express the advantages others derive from them? And who can tell the extent of the benefits derived from their prayers, example, and influence? We are persuaded that none of them are useless; and he who has been the means of the salvation of one soul, has done more than the hero who has delivered a whole empire from civil bondagefor "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." But what blessings have some individuals proved! Think of Howard, in his journeys of compassion; of Thornton and Reynolds, in the diffusions of their bounty; of Luther, in the work of reformation; of Watts, in his psalms and hymns; of Whitfield, in his preaching; of a father and a mother who bring up a family of children in the fear of the Lord; of the individuals that brought Christianity to this favoured country; of the few missionaries who landed in the South Sea Islands, and induced whole communities to turn from dumb idols to serve the true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven!

But they are made a blessing, not only as they bless others, but as they are blessed by them. With regard to Joseph's offspring, the dying patriarch "blessed them that day, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh." What did Balaam but bless them, though he was employed to curse, when he said, "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, Ŏ Israel!"

"The Lord his God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them"-"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." And thus their very enemies are inwardly constrained to admire and extol those whom they pretend to despise, and in words even revile. But how cordially are they blessed by

those to whom they have been useful! With what satisfaction does Job speak of this! "When the ear heard

me, it blessed me: the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me." "Blessed be my mistress," said a servant; "I was ignorant as a heathen when I entered her family; but she has led me into the way everlasting." "Blessed for ever be my precious mother," said a child, "whose easy and gentle endeavours brought me up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Their fellowchristians bless them as their brethren, companions, and helpers. Ministers say, "The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord." "And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among all people; all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed:" for "Come," will the Judge say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

AFFECTING NARRATIVE OF A YOUNG FEMALE.

A young lady, in attending on divine service, had her mind arrested by these words: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." She pondered many days upon their meaning; she could not understand how her heart could be wicked, when she did not remember to have indulged a sinful thought: but she was of an unsuspicious temper, and durst not disbelieve in the words of the preacher. She said, "I cannot conceive that my heart is wicked; but perhaps it is deceitful, and hides its wickedness from me: how shall I detect it?" She attended again and again at the same church, in hopes that she might be able to discover the true state of her heart: but the preacher knew not her peculiar case, and gave no clue to the discovery of the wickedness she desired to be made sensible of. She had a brother, kind and affectionate, but gay and thoughtless. He had ever been her confidant and companion. Left to his care in her childhood, she loved him more than all the world

besides; and she herself possessed the warmest affections of his heart, accompanied by that jealous watchfulness which a virtuous brother exercises over a beloved and unprotected sister.

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This brother noticed her sadness; and on learning that her mind was oppressed with the fear of divine wrath, he first tried the force of ridicule; but her tears checked him. He then attempted to reason with her, and asked if her heart could accuse her of any wrong? "No," said she, heart does not accuse me, because it is deceitful, and desperately wicked." "How know you," inquired the brother, "that it is wicked, if it does not accuse you?" "Because," said she, "it is deceitful, and deceit implies wickedness." "Well," said the brother, "what evidence have of its deceit ?" She reflected for a moment, and then said, "Your question has awakened in my mind an evidence before unthought of; my heart has revelled in the delights of this world; it has lulled me to repose, without hinting that eternity might be near. Why has it not said, prepare to meet your God? Is that heart to be trusted which only cares for a life uncertain even of to-morrow-a life where joys last but a moment, and afflictions themselves are not long?"

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The brother used every argument; brought gay companions to converse with her, but all was in vain. Her health, which had always been delicate, and for some time past unusually so, suffered severely from her own troubled conscience, and from the importunities of her brother, who had an avowed hatred to religious people. This young man was at one time absent for a few days, and his sister spent that interval in reading her Bible. On his return he was shocked at her appearance; he endeavoured to wrest the Bible from her hands; but she clasped it still closer. "Never," said she, "never will. I part with this precious book, for it has shown me the wickedness, the deep sin of my heart." "And what sin," said the brother, "has that wonderful book made known to you?" "It has shown me," she replied, "that I was born in sin, born under condemnation, not an heir of glory, but an heir of divine wrath. That Christ, the