moment: begin it just now, that so thou mayst have made some good progress in it before the "evil days come," before the sun, and the moon, and the stars be darkened," and all the comforts and joys of life be fled and gone.

TILLOTSON.

THE FACULTIES OF HUMAN NATURE, AND THEIR PERVERSION.

EXAMINE first with attention the natural powers and faculties of man; invention, reason, judgment, memory; a mind "of large discourse," 66 looking before and after," reviewing the past, thence determining for the present, and anticipating the future; discerning, collecting, combining, comparing; capable, not merely of apprehending, but of admiring, the beauty of moral excellence with fear and hope to warm and animate; with joy and sorrow to solace and soften; with love to attach, with sympathy to harmonize, with courage to attempt, with patience to endure, and with the power of conscience, that faithful monitor within the breast, to enforce the conclusions of reason, and direct and regulate the passions of the soul. Truly we must pronounce him “majesty, though in ruin.” “Happy, happy world!" would be the exclamation of the inhabitant of some other planet, on being told of a globe like ours, peopled with such creatures as these, and abounding with situations and occasions to call forth the multiplied excellencies of their nature. "Happy, happy world, with what

delight must your great Creator and Governor witness your conduct, and what a glorious recompense awaits you when your term of probation shall have expired."

"I bone, quo virtus tua te vocat: i pede fausto
Grandia Laturus meritorum præmia."

But we have indulged too long in these delightful speculations; a sad reverse presents itself, on our survey of the actual state of man; when from viewing his natural powers, we follow him into practice, and see the uses to which he applies them. Take in the whole of the prospect, view him in every age, and climate, and nation, in every condition and period of society. Where now do you discover the characters of his exalted nature?" How is the gold become dim, and the fine gold changed?" How is his reason clouded, his affections perverted, his conscience stupified! How do anger, and envy, and hatred, and revenge spring up in his wretched bosom ! How is he a slave to the meanest of his appetites! what fatal propensities does he discover to evil! What inaptitude to good!

WILBERFORCE.

THE DANGER OF SINS OF OMISSION.

A FARTHER danger to good kind of people seems to arise from a mistaken idea, that only great and actual sins are to be guarded against. Whereas sins of omission make up, perhaps, the most formidable part of their catalogue of offences. These generally supply in number what they want in weight, and are the more dangerous for

They continue to be

being little ostensible. repeated with less regret, because the remembrance of their predecessors does not, like the remembrance of formal, actual crimes, assume a body and a shape, and terrify by the impression of particular scenes and circumstances. While the memory of transacted evil haunts a tender conscience by perpetual apparition; omitted duty, having no local or personal existence, not being recorded by standing acts and deeds, and having no distinct image to which the mind may recur, sinks into quiet oblivion, without deeply wounding the conscience, or tormenting the imagination. These omissions were perhaps among the "secret sins" from which the royal penitent so earnestly desired to be cleansed; and it is worthy of the most serious consideration, that these are the offences against which the Gospel pronounces very alarming denunciations. It is not less against negative than actual evil, that affectionate exhortation, lively remonstrance, and pointed parable, are exhausted. It is against the tree which bore no fruit, the lamp which had no oil, the unprofitable servant who made no use of his talent, that the severe sentence is denounced; as well as against corrupt fruit, bad oil, and talents ill employed. We are led to believe, from the same high authority, that omitted duties, and neglected opportunities, will furnish no inconsiderable portion of our future condemnation. A very awful part of the decision, in the great day of account, seems to be reserved merely for omissions and negatives. "Ye gave me no meat; ye gave me no drink; ye took me not in; ye visited me not."

MISS H. MORE.

ON THE POWER OF CONSCIENCE TO

PUNISH VICE.

Ir would be in vain to dissemble, that, in the present state, as is the offence such is not always the punishment. Notoriously profligate sinners often partake not, to appearance, the common evils of life, but pass their days in prosperity, affluence, and health, and die without any visible tokens of the divine displeasure. The fact is indisputable; and it was a stumbling-block by very good men of old time, not without great difficulty surmounted. The conflict occasioned by it in the human mind is described at large in the seventy-third Psalm, and in the twelfth chapter of the prophet Jeremiah; nor will believers fail sometimes to experience a temptation of a similar nature, while the object shall continue to present itself, that is, while the world shall last.

To take off, in some measure, the force of the objection, it must be remarked, that, besides those judgments of God, which lie open to the observation of mankind, there are others, even in the present life, of a secret and invisible kind, known only to the party by whom they are felt. There is a court constantly sitting within, from whose jurisdiction the criminal can plead no exemption, and from whose presence he cannot fly; there is evidence produced against him, which he can neither disprove nor evade; and there, a just sentence is not only passed, but forthwith executed on him, by the infliction of torments, severe and poignant as the strokes of whips or scorpions ; torments, exquisite in proportion to the sensibility

of the part affected; torments, of which he sees the beginning, but is never likely to see the end. Trust not to appearances. Men are not what

they seem. In the brilliant scenes of splendour and magnificence, of luxury and dissipation, surrounded by the companions of his pleasure, and the flatterers of his vices, amidst the flashes of wit and merriment, when all wears the face of gaiety and festivity, the profligate often reads his doom, written by the hand whose characters are indelible. Should he turn away his eyes from beholding it, and succeed in the great work during the course of his revels, yet the time will come when from scenes like these he must retire, and be alone: and then, as Dr. South states the question, in a manner not to be answered, "What is all that a man can enjoy in this way for a week, a month, or a year, compared with what he feels for one hour, when his conscience shall take him aside, and rate him by himself?"

There is likewise another hour which will come, and that soon-the hour when life must end; when the accumulated wealth of the east and the west, with all the assistance it is able to procure, will not be competent to obtain the respite of a moment; when the impenitent sinner shall be called-and must obey the call-to leave every thing, and give up his accounts to his Maker, of the manner in which he has spent his time, and employed his talents. Of what is said

Of

by such, at that hour, we know not much. Care is generally taken that we never should. what is thought, we know nothing.-O merciful God, grant that we never may !

BISHOP HORNE,