meaning is, he worketh not in a law sense, to the ends and intentions of the first covenant; to make up a righteousness to himself by his own working, to cover himself with a robe of righteousness of his own spinning and weaving -a home-made cloth; no, not a ray of that. Thou must receive Christ into an empty, naked, unworthy soul, or not receive him at all.— Flavel.

HOLINESS.

No gifts, no duties, no natural endowments, will evidence a right in heaven; but the least measure of true holiness will secure heaven to the soul. As holiness is the soul's best evidence for heaven, so it is a continued spring of comfort to it on the way thither. The purest and the sweetest pleasures in this world are the results of holiness. Till we come to live holily, we never live comfortably. Heaven is epitomized in holiness; and, to say no more, it is the peculiar mark by which God has visibly distinguished his own from other men. "The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself." (Ps. iv. 3.) O holiness, how surpassingly glorious art thou !—Flavel.

PROMISES FULFILLED.

As the herbs and flowers which sleep all winter in their roots underground, when the time of spring approacheth presently start forth of their beds, where they had lain so long unperceived, thus will the promise in its season do. He delays who passeth the time appointed; but he only stays that waits for the appointed time, and then comes. Every promise is dated, but with a mysterious character; and for want of skill in God's chronology we are prone to think that God forgets us, when indeed we forget ourselves in being so bold to set God a time of our own, and in being angry that he comes not just then to us.-Gurnal.

PREPARE FOR THE "EVIL DAY."

A wise man labours duly to time his care. It is the fool that comes when the market is over. As the evil day is of great concern in respect of its event, so the placing our care for it in the right season is of chief importance. There are more doors than one at which the messenger may enter who brings evil tidings, and at which he will we know not. Possibly death may strike the quaffing cup out of thy hand while thou art sitting in the alehouse with

thy companions, or meet thee as thou art reeling home, and make some ditch thy grave. Who knows where, when, or what the "evil day" shall be? God doth conceal these that we should provide for all. Cæsar would never let his soldiers know when or whither he would march. Our knowing of the times would torment us with distracting fear; the not knowing them should awaken us to a providing care. It is an ill time to caulk the ship when at sea, tumbling up and down in a storm: this should have been looked to in the harbour. bad is it to begin to trim a soul for heaven when tossing on a sick bed. Things that are done in a hurry are seldom done well. A man called out of his bed at midnight, with a dismal fire in his house, cannot stand to dress himself as at another time. Those poor creatures, I am afraid, go in as ill a dress into another world who begin to provide for it when on a dying bed. Conscience calls them up with a cry of hell-fire in their bosom.-Gurnal.

THE STAR IN THE EAST

And as

He that led Israel by a pillar of fire into the land of promise, leads the wise men by a star to the promised Seed. If those men had been acquainted with all the other stars of heaven, and