cares, and the calm of our tempest: prayer is the issue of a quiet mind, of untroubled thoughts-it is the daughter of charity and the sister of meekness; and he that prays to God with an angry, that is, with a troubled and discomposed spirit, is like him that retires into a battle to meditate, and sets up his closet in the out-quarters of an army, and chooses a frontiergarrison to be wise in. Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer, and, therefore, is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to God. For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upwards, singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and climb above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back, with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconstant, descending more at every breath of the tempest, than it could recover by the liberation and frequent weighing of his wings, till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over; and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as if it had learned music and motion from an angel, as he passed sometimes through the air about his ministries here below. So is the prayer of a good man: when his affairs have required

business, and his business was a matter of discipline, and his discipline was to pass upon a sinning person, or had a design of charity, his duty met with the infirmities of a man, and anger was its instrument; and the instrument became stronger than the prime agent, and raised a tempest, and overruled the man; and then his prayer was broken, and his thoughts were troubled, and his words went up towards a cloud; and his thoughts pulled them back again, and made them without intention; and the good man sighs for his infirmity, but must be content to lose that prayer, and he must recover it when his anger is removed, and his spirit is becalmed, made even as the brow of Jesus, and smooth like the heart of God; and then it ascends to heaven upon the wings of the holy dove, and dwells with God till it returns, like the useful bee, loaden with a blessing and the dew of heaven.-Jeremy Taylor.

DANGER OF "LITTLE SINS."

As I am fearful to act great sins, so I will be careful to avoid small sins. He that contemns a small fault commits a great one. I see many drops make a shower: and what difference is it, whether I be wet either in the rain or in the river, if both be to the skin?

There is small benefit in the choice, whether we go down to hell by degrees or at once.Warwick.

CHEERFULNESS IN AGE.

As oft as I hear the robin red-breast chant it as cheerfully in September, the beginning of winter, as in March, the approach of the summer, why should not we (think I) give as cheerful entertainment to the hoary frosty hairs of our age's winter as to the primroses of our youth's spring? Why not to the declining sun in adversity, as (like Persians) to the rising sun in prosperity? I am sent to the ant to learn industry; to the dove to learn innocency; to the serpent to learn wisdom; and why not to this bird to learn equanimity and patience, and to keep the same tenor of my mind's quietness as well at the approach of calamity's winter as of the spring of happiness ?- Warwick.

THE PROMISES OF THE GOSPEL.

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises," (2 Pet. i. 4.)

Great for their extent, precious for their excellency. The promises are a cabinet of jewels. The promises are enriched with variety. and are suited to a Christian's present con

dition. Doth he want pardoning grace? there is a promise of blotting out sin, Isa. xliii. 25. Doth he want sanctifying grace? there is a promise of healing, Hos. xiv. 4. Doth he want corroborating grace? there is a promise of strength, Isa. xli. 10. And the adopted person may apply any of these promises. There is Christ and heaven in a promise; now he, being an heir of the promise, may lay a legal claim to it. An unbeliever hath nothing to do with these privileges. The promises are like a garden of flowers paled in and enclosed, which no stranger may gather, only the children of the family.-T. Watson.

TRUTH.

Truth is the most glorious thing; the least filing of this gold is precious. Truth is ancient; its grey hairs may make it venerable; it comes from Him who is the Ancient of Days. Truth is unerring; it is the star which leads to Christ. Truth is pure, Psa. cxix. 140; it is compared to silver refined seven times, Psa. xii. 6. There is not the least spot on truth's face; it breathes nothing but sanctity. Truth is triumphant; it is like a great conqueror; when all its enemies lie dead, it keeps the field, and sets up its trophies of victory. Truth may be opposed,

but never quite deposed. In the time of Diocletian, things seemed desperate, truth ran low: soon after was the golden time of Constantius, and then truth did again lift up its head. When the water in the Thames is lowest, a high tide is ready to come in. God is on truth's side, and so long there is no fear but it will prevail. "The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved," 2 Peter iii. 12, but not that truth which came from heaven, 1 Peter i. 25. -T. Watson.

THE WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN.

Were the appointed hour of judgment or of death made known to us for months or years before-hand, we should be ready to think constant watchfulness a very needless thing. Mankind would persuade themselves to indulge these foolish and sinful slumbers, and only take care to rub their eyes a little, and bestir themselves an hour or two before this awful event. But it is the suddenness and uncertainty of the coming of Christ to all mankind, for either of these purposes, that extends the charge of watchfulness to all men, as well as to the apostles, and that calls upon us aloud to keep our souls ever awake, "lest," as our Lord expresses it, "coming suddenly, he should find us

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