LOSSES BY RELIGION. NEAR London there dwelt an old couple: in early life they had been poor, but God had blessed their industry, and they were living in a comfortable retirement, when one day a stranger called on them to ask their subscription to a charity. The old lady had less religion than her husband, and still hankered after some of the Sabbath earnings and easy shillings which Thomas had forfeited, from regard to the law of God; so when the visitor asked their contribution, she interposed, and said, "Why, sir, we have lost a great deal by religion, since we first began; my husband knows that very well. Have we not, Thomas ?" After a solemn pause, Thomas answered, "Yes, Mary, we have. Before I got religion, Mary, I had an old slouched hat, a tattered coat, and mended shoes and stockings; but I have lost them long ago. And, Mary, you know that, poor as I was, I had a habit of getting drunk and quarrelling with you—and that, you know, I have lost. And then I had a burdened conscience, and a wicked heart, and ten thousand guilty fears; but all are lost -completely lost, and, like a millstone, cast into the deepest sea. And, Mary, you have been a loser too, though not so great a loser as myself. Before we got religion, Mary, you had a washing tray, in which you washed for hire; but since then you have lost your washing tray and you had a gown and bonnet much the worse for wear, but you have lost them long ago; and you had many an aching heart concerning me at times, but these you happily have lost and I could even wish that you had lost as much as I have lost; for what we lose by religion will be an everlasting gain. The inventory of losses by religion runs thus: A bad character-a guilty consciencetroublesome temper-sundry evil habits—and a set of wicked companions. THE BLESSINGS GAINED BY RELIGION, IN : CLUDES ALL THAT IS WORTH HAVING IN TIME AND ETERNITY. Happy is the people whose God is the Lord." COMPLETE IN HIM. THE late Lady Colquhoum was one who knew the preciousness and power of resting on Christ Jesus alone for peace, comfort, and salvation, and from personal experience she was "able to teach others, also." Let the anxious and inquiring ponder the following excellent remarks, which were addressed by her to a young friend, and take the comfort they are calculated to convey:- "As well in our winters as our summers the foundation standeth sure-Christ is all.' With him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Precious truth! Let us rest upon it, and cease from the vain endeavour to find anything in us that can give the shadow of hope. Abiding hope must be fixed on the object that changeth not. We change daily, hourly, He remains glorious in holiness eternally. And this Perfection is in the court of heaven our representative. Can we want more? Shall we say, I will add a few of my virtues and graces to the account? When we are guilty of this folly, we weary ourselves seeking for them, for they cannot be found, and our harp hangs upon the willows. But we resume the songs of Zion when we look entirely from ourselves to the Lord our righteousness. How is it with you, dear A. ? Can you rejoice in the Lord always? If not, experience will teach you that living on frames and feelings will not do-that comfort ebbs and flows with them-and that you equally delude yourself when you take comfort from the feeling of nearness to God, or when you lose it because you lack that joy in devotional exercises, which is, nevertheless, extremely desirable, and much to be prized. This, however, is distinct from joy in Christ crucified, and in Christ our righteousness; and it is very possible to feel little heart for prayer, and to mourn an absent God, and yet to stand firm on the sure foundation, rejoicing in Christ, and never doubting that we are complete in him." THE PLUCKED FLOWER. A GENTLEMAN's gardener had a darling child, in whom his affections seemed to be centered. The Lord laid his hands upon the babe-it sickened and died. The father was disconsolate, and murmured at the dealings of Providence. The gardener had in one of his flower-beds a favourite rose. It was the fairest flower he had ever seen on the tree, and he daily marked its growing beauty, intending, when full blown, to send it to his master's mansion. One morning it was gone -some one had plucked it. Mortified at what he thought was the improper conduct of one of the servants, he endeavoured to find out the culprit. He was, however, much surprised to find that his master, on walking through the garden, had been attracted by the beauty of the rose, and, plucking it, had carried it to one of the beautiful rooms in the Hall. The gardener's anger was changed into pleasure. He felt reconciled when he heard that his master had thought the flower worthy of such special notice. "Ah, Richard!" said the gentleman, "you can gladly give up the rose, because I thought it worthy of a place in my house. And will you repine because your Heavenly Father has thought wise to remove your child from a world of sin, to be with himself in Heaven ?", AM I WELCOME TO THE SAVIOUR? (Continued from page 73.) ARE you looking unto Jesus? He is the author and finisher of faith. Do you ask, how can I look while I have no evidence that I have any spiritual perception-that the eyes of my understanding have been enlightened? If this be your case, which I much doubt, you cannot look to Christ any more than one deprived of the sense of sight, can look at any natural object. They, and they only, can look to Christ whose minds have been illuminated by God's Spirit; and in whose hearts the true light hath shined. The Israelites, who had been bitten by the fiery flying serpents, and who were already dead, could not look at the brazen serpent set up by God's command. Those of them only who were yet in life could look and be saved. And it is equally true in spiritual things. If there is no Divine life in the soul, there can neither be a right perception of ourselves as sinners, nor a "looking unto Jesus" as the only hope of salvation. But what is meant by this spiritual perception, to which you think yourself a stranger? What did Christ say of the Spirit's work? "When the Spirit of truth is come, he shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment." What say you to being convinced of sin? Indeed, you reply, I cannot doubt but that I see myself in a very different aspect to what I formerly did; and that I do see and feel most painfully that I am a great sinner-so vile and so unworthy that if God were to deal with me on the ground of my deservings, he would be just in eternally banishing me from his presence into that place where hope can never enter. I feel more and more, every day of my life, the guilt and burden of sin; but this may all be nothing more than the awaking up of natural conscience. Stay awhile. It is quite true that natural consciences may, and sometimes will, wound the heart very deeply, and beget a fear of death and judgment. But this is not all you feel; you are longing for salvation, not merely as an escape from the punishment, but that you may be cleansed from the pollution of sin. You want to know that he is your's, and that you are his; for if I mistake not, you said, just now, that if you did but know that Christ was as willing to heal your soul, as you were willing that he should do so, your happiness would be complete. Natural conscience never inspired such feelings and desires as these in any poor sinner's heart. It has made many dread hell; but it has never created a really spiritual salvation like that of which you are now the subject. There is much instruction and encouragement to be gathered from the case of the man born blind, and on whom Christ bestowed the sense of vision. (See John's Gospel ix). The poor man having been questioned again and again, as to how his eyes were opened, and who opened them, exclaimed, at last, "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." It is evident that the Jews tried hard to make the man discredit the miracle the Saviour had wrought on him. Their hatred of Christ was such that they would say or do anything to bring him into dispute among the people. Whatever the intentions of the Jews may have been, with regard to this miracle, one thing is certain, that the great enemy of souls, working on an evil heart of unbelief, adopts this course to induce those who are under the first leadings of God's spirit, in conviction of sin and a sense of danger, to question the reality of their feelings, and of that work of grace which has been commenced in their hearts. And, instead of taking comfort from the fact of their now being awakened to a sense of their lost and ruined condition, and of their having a cry for mercy put into their hearts, they are writing bitter things against themselves, held in legal bondage, and robbing the Saviour of that gratitude which such a change in their views and feelings, from what they once were, should have a tendency to awaken in their hearts. But, Satan was a liar from the beginning: he robbed our first parents of Paradise by a lie. Do not, therefore, think he will speak the truth to you. He will try hard to keep you from the Saviour, by telling you that your feelings and desires are nothing more than natural excitement, and that they have nothing to do with real religion. He will use his utmost endeavours to persuade you that your's is a hopeless case, and that you may as well give it up, at onee, as a delusion: that your sins are too many, and too great |