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unknown future. Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous." This is a promise of infinite length, of unbounded breadth, and of unutterable preciousness.

As for the defence which the believer needs in this land of battles, it is here promised to him in the fullest measure. There were vast shields used by the ancients as extensive as a man's whole person, which would surround him entirely. So says David, "With favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield." According to Ainsworth there is here also the idea of being crowned, so that we wear a royal helmet, which is at once our glory and defence. O Lord, ever give to us this gracious coronation!

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Verse 3.-" In the morning." "In the days of our fathers," says Bishop Burnet, "when a person came early to the door of his neighbour, and desired to speak with the master of the house, it was as common a thing for the servants to tell him with freedom My master is at prayer,' as it now is to say, 'My master is not up.'" Verse 5.-What an astonishing thing is sin, which maketh the God of love and Father of mercies an enemy to his creatures, and which could only be purged by the blood of the Son of God! Though all must believe this who believe the Bible, yet the exceeding sinfulness of sin is but weakly apprehended by those who have the deepest sense of it, and will never be fully known in this world.-Adam's Private Thoughts. Verse 6.-" Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing,” whether in jest or earnest. Those that lie in jest will (without repentance) go to hell in earnest.—Trapp.

Verse 9.—" Their inward part," &c. Their hearts are storehouses for the devil.-' Trapp.

"Their throat is an open sepulchre." This doth admonish us, (1) that the speeches of natural unregenerate men are unsavory, rotten, and hurtful to others; for, as a sepulchre doth send out noisome savours and filthy smells, so evil men do utter rotten and filthy words. (2) As a sepulchre doth consume and devour bodies cast into it, so wicked men do with their cruel words destroy others; they are like a gulf to destroy others. (3) As a sepulchre, having devoured many corpses, is still ready to consume more, being never satisfied, so wicked men, having overthrown many with their words, do proceed in their outrage, seeking whom they may devour.-Wilson.

Verse 12.-" As with a shield." Luther, when making his way into the presence of Cardinal Cajetan, who had summoned him to answer for his heretical opinions at Augustburg, was asked by one of the Cardinal's minions, where he should find a shelter, if his patron, the Elector of Saxony, should desert him? "Under the shield of heaven!" was the reply. The silenced minion turned round, and went his way.

HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER.

Verses 1, 2.-Prayer in its threefold form. "Words, meditation, cry." Showing how utterance is of no avail without heart, but that fervent longings and silent desires are accepted, even when unexpressed.

Verse 3.-The excellence of morning devotion.

Last two clauses.-1. Prayer directed. 2. Answers expected.

Verse 4.-God's hatred of sin an example to his people.

Verse 5.-" The foolish." Shew why sinners are justly called fools.

Verse 7.-" Multitude of thy mercy." Dwell upon the varied grace and goodness of God.

Verse 7.-The devout resolution.-Jay.

Verse 8.-God's guidance needed always, and especially when enemies are watching us.

Verse 10.-Viewed as a threatening. The sentence, "Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions," is specially fitted to be the groundwork of a very solemn discourse.

Verse 11.-I. The character of the righteous: faith and love. II. The privileges of the righteous. (1) Joy-great, pure, satisfying, triumphant, (shout) constant (ever). (2) Defence-by power, providence, angels, grace, &c.

Verse 11.-Joy in the Lord both a duty and a privilege.

Verse 12 (first clause).-The Divine blessing upon the righteous. It is ancient effectual, constant, extensive, irreversible, surpassing, eternal, infinite.

Verse 12 second clause).-A sense of divine favour a defence to the soul.

Christian Chymistry.

XLVIII.

CARBO is reported to have said that in Sylla he had to contend both with a fox and a lion, but the fox gave him the most trouble. We have to resist the devil as a roaring lion; this needs care, but to watch against his devices is harder work by far.

XLIX.

DURING that memorable battle between the Carthaginians and Romans at the Thrasimene Lake, a violent earthquake occurred, but so eager was the combat, that it was not noticed by either army. The most important and shaking considerations, although never so earnestly pressed, seldom obtain audience from hearts taken up with immoderate cares regarding the things of this life.

L.

ON the first of May, in the olden times, according to annual custom, many inhabitants of London went into the fields to bathe their faces with the early dew upon the grass under the idea that it would render them beautiful. Some writers call the custom superstitious, it may have been so, but this we know, that to bathe one's face every morning in the dew of heaven by prayer and communion, is the sure way to obtain true beauty of life and character.

LI.

MICHAEL ANGELO, when painting an altar-piece in the conventual Church, in Florence, in order that the figures might be as deathlike as possible, obtained permission of the prior to have the coffins of the newly-buried opened and placed beside him during the night;-an appalling expedient, but enabling him to reproduce with terrible effect, not the mortal pallor only, but the very anatomy of death. If we would preach well to the souls of men we must acquaint ourselves with their ruined state, must have their case always on our hearts both by night and day, must know the terrors of the Lord and the value of the soul, and feel a sacred sympathy with perishing sinners. There is no masterly prevailing preaching without this.

LII.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH, enjoying some gleams of Elizabeth's royal favour, wrote on a glass window which was sure to meet her eye—

"Fain would I climb and yet I fear to fall."

Upon which the queen espying it, underwrote:

"If thy heart fail thee do not climb at all.”

Not thus doth our loving Lord, King Jesus, underwrite the trembling hopes of his people, but with the promise that he will uphold them with the right hand of his righteousness, he encourages them to climb the ladder which reacheth from earth to heaven.

LIII.

MR. JOHN FOXE, the author of "The Book of Martyrs," was once met by a woman who showed him a book she was carrying, and said, " See you not that I am going to a sermon?" The good man replied, "If you will be ruled by me, go home, for you will do little good at Church today." "When then," asked she, "would you counsel me to go?" His reply was, "When you tell no one beforehand." To boast of what we are going to do for Christ is not only vain in itself, but will make all our worship vain. "Come see my zeal for the Lord!" was the language of Jehu, but a sincere child of God lets not his right hand know what his left hand doeth.

LIV.

In a skirmish between the Protestants and Papists in the civil wars of France, a soldier of the Protestant party gained a horse highly valued by the enemy, for which they offered to exchange three prisoners who had been captured that day. The offer being rejected, the enraged Papists slew the men immediately before his eyes. A few days after, the same soldier being engaged on that very horse was by his fiery headstrongness, carried so far into the enemy's troops that he could not be brought off, but was there slain and the horse recovered. Lord, in that value which my heart sets upon things here let me observe moderation, lest while I too much prize the things I love much, those very things procure the loss of those things I love more.

LV.

How shamefully was Michael Angelo treated by that volatile debauchee, Pietro de Medici, when he employed the art of that great master in modelling statues of snow; but how much more degrading is it to the immortal soul of man when Satan and the world occupy it with earthly pleasures and pursuits which shall so soon come to an end.

LVI.

THE Germans, though inferior to the Italians in craft and subtlety, made amends for the want by a peremptory sticking to those resolutions which they had before considerately taken up. I find myself quite unable to deal with that old serpent who hath so many methods of deceit; but let him say what he will or can, Lord do thou fix me irremovably in this resolution: "I have said I will keep thy commandments always, even to the end."

LVII.

THE ancient inns of Poland gave no entertainment to the traveller but bare walls, without bed or board or other accommodation whatever. Alas! how oft is my heart such a guest-chamber to good thoughts and pious designs, where they often find only such welcome as decayed persons have from their wealthier friends, and not such good cheer as we give to dear and respected guests.

LVIII.

WHEN Cyrus besieged the city of Babylon, the river Euphrates was the greatest obstruction to his designs till he cut out many channels and

diverted the stream into them, thus making the river easily fordable which, when united, had been deep enough to carry great ships. The diffusions of the mind into variety of thoughts and subjects, render it incapable of deep research; but he is likely to be profound who fixes his mind upon one object till it is attained. "Unite my heart to fear thy

name.'

LIX.

MILTON excuses Oliver Cromwell's want of bookish application in his youth thus: "It did not become that hand to wax soft in literary ease which was to be inured to the use of arms and hardened with asperity; that right arm to be softly wrapped up amongst the birds of Athens, by which thunderbolts were soon afterwards to be hurled among the eagles which emulate the sun." Carnal ease and worldly wisdom are not becoming in the soldier of Jesus Christ. He has to wrestle against principalities and powers, and has need of sterner qualities than those which sparkle in the eyes of fashion or adorn the neck of elegance.

LX.

In the early times when land was sold the owner cut a turf from the green sward and cast it into the cap of the purchaser as a token that it was his; or he tore off the branch of a tree and put it into the new owner's hand to shew that he was entitled to all the products of the soil; and when the purchaser of a house received seizin or possession, the key of the door, or a bundle of thatch plucked from the roof, signified that the building was yielded up to him. The God of all grace has given to his people all the perfections of heaven to be their heritage for ever, and the earnest of his Spirit is to them the blessed token that all things are theirs. The Spirit's work of comfort and sanctification is a part of heaven's covenant blessings, a turf from the soil of Canaan, a twig from the tree of life, the key to mansions in the skies. Possessing the earnest of the Spirit we have received seizin of heaven.

LXI.

As Peter Waldo, a rich merchant of Lyons, was walking the streets with some of his friends, one of them suddenly fell down dead. With this spectacle he was so much affected, that he immediately reformed his life and became the beginner of the Waldenses, who for so many ages have stood forth courageous confessors of the truth. Lord, how suddenly and unexpectedly mayest thou call for this breath that is in these nostrils, and time to me shall be no more; let me, therefore, improve the present time to do thee service, and secure my soul, seeing the time to come is so uncertain.

LXII.

WILLETT, in his exposition upon Leviticus, writes, "A swine is good for nothing while he is alive, not good to bear or carry as the horse; nor to draw, as the ox; nor to clothe as the sheep; nor to give milk, as the cow; nor to keep the house, as a dog; but fed only for the slaughter. So a covetous rich man, just like a hog, doth no good with his riches whilst he lives; but when he is dead his riches come to be disposed of; and it turns out that the riches of a sinner are laid up for the just." (To be continued.)

by Father Ignatius, and his crew! Has it come to this, that monkery is to be revived in a professedly Protestant Church? Who would have believed it had it been foretold ten years ago? Can it be true that altars are consecrated by these monks to the Virgin and to the saints, and that they are still tolerated in the Establishment? Yes, it is even so. Ignatius was introduced to a congress of clergy as a minister of the Church, and all his doings are strictly within her pale. Monkery is therefore re-established in the Anglican body. We are not at all surprised at this, nor should we be much astonished if high-mass were publicly celebrated in our parish Churches, and shrines set up to the Virgin, and the saints, within the com

munion-rails. These would be only legitimate displays of the festering corruption of that part of Antichrist which dominates over this country. But what we are astounded at above measure is, the way in which believers in the Lord Jesus and evangelical Christians continue to countenance all this Popery by remaining in communion with it! The Popish party sneer at them, the Dissenters denounce their dishonesty, and many of them feel uneasy in the organs which once were their consciences, but still they "abide by the stuff" without complaining of it! Verily some persons can eat a large amount of dirt! We wish we could say a word kindly but forcibly in the ear of our brethren, who are still in fellowship with the works of darkness practised in the Anglican denomination of Romanists. When will you come out? How far is the corrupt element to prevail before you will separate from it. are mainly responsible for the growth of all this Popery, for your piety is the mainstay and salt of what would otherwise soon become too foul to be endured, and would then most readily be swept from the earth. You hinder reformation! You protect these growing upas trees which drip with death to the souls of men! You foster these vipers beneath your goodly garments! You will be used as a shield to protect the agents of the devil, until they need you no longer, and then they will cast you away! For the love you bear to your Redeemer, be duped no longer, and by your own hatred of monkery and priestcraft, come ye out from among them, be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing.

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