insight into his own constitution, soon gets to know that this or that is bad for him, that this or that, on the other hand, is for him digestible and wholesome. I say, for him. Probably it would be a mistake in medicine to assert that, independently of the constitution, circumstances, and temperament of the patient, any particular food was digestible or the reverse. And certainly it is a grand mistake in Theology to suppose that all the productions of devout writers are equally serviceable to every class of minds. It is notoriously the reverse. In His Holy Scriptures, which are the great fontal abyss from which every work of piety and devotion must be drawn, the Lord has given us an infinite variety of Inspired Literature. What literature is there which does not find itself represented in the Holy Scripture, poetry, history, biography, proverbs, letters, fables, allegories? There never was a book so little monotonous as the Bible, so continually changing its key, if so be that some, at all events, may be charmed by the voice of the Heavenly Charmer: The same Spirit, who inspired the Holy Scriptures, gave great diversity of gifts to the early Christian teachers. All were not Apostles, nor all prophets, nor all teachers, nor did all speak with tongues, nor all interpret. And now that the supernatural gifts have died out of the Church, the same Spirit observes the same rule of variety in the different mental endowments, which He distributes to different teachers of Divine Truth. All men's writings have not the same power over all men's minds. Is there not a plain testimony to this in the avowal which we hear so often made ; I know I ought to like such and such a book, which all the world agrees in praising; but I cannot do it?" What the complaint really means is, that the book does not suit you, that the general strain of the author's mind has not that harmony with the general strain of yours, which will give him an influence over you for good. That being the case, leave him alone, without however doubting or denying the power which he may have over other minds. Even in the Holy Scriptures them

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selves we think ourselves quite warranted in selecting those passages which are most suitable to the circumstances, intelligence, and character of the reader. No one would think of recommending a peasant to engage himself much with the Book of the Revelation, or a child to study the eighth chapter to the Romans. Much more, then, may we exercise a similar discretion with those works, which, however pious and edifying, do not come to us on the authority of Inspiration. Choose, then, those books to which, from a cursory knowledge of their contents, you find yourself most drawn. There are several which have attained the rank of standard works, from their possessing excellences of various kinds. Such are the Saint's Rest, the Pilgrim's Progress (which all know a little of, but very few have studied), the Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, Cecil's Remains, the Thoughts of Adam, Pascal's Thoughts on Religion, Bishop Hall's Contemplations, Edwards on the Religious Affections, Leighton's Commentary on St. Peter, the Christian Year, and several others which will at once suggest themselves to all who have a general acquaintance with our religious literature. To these I may add Foster's Sermons, and Archer Butler's Sermons, both of which combine originality of view with piety of sentiment in an unusual degree, and also two works which are most valuable as theological compendiums, while their authors never lose sight of the edification of the heart, Griffith on the Creed, and the Bishop of Tasmania's (Nixon's) Lectures on the Catechism. There are indeed many devotional publications, especially some of recent date, which will seem more attractive than the above, and which will better meet the unhealthy craving for something new and highly flavoured, which now is so generally prevalent. But spiritual nourishment resembles natural nourishment in this respect, that the most stimulating is by no means the most wholesome or the most safe. He who honestly reads for edification must not discard a book for being dry, as if he read for diversion. In

a certain temper of mind, the Holy Scriptures themselves will fall upon us as insipid; it will seem to us as if we knew them by heart, and had nothing further to learn from them, as if they could neither settle controversy nor quicken thought. But this temper of mind is one in which we are incapable of edification, however capable we may be of amusement. In a right state of mind, those books will please us most which most resemble the Holy Scriptures,-which are most weighty, most sober, most simple, most savouring of a spiritual mind. To a pure taste the manna was a more attractive food than the fleshpots of Egypt. Bear this in mind in the choice of devotional reading.

But suppose our book chosen, and chosen well and wisely. In what manner shall we read it? The answer to this question has implicitly been given already. Read it as a devotional exercise, mixing Prayer, or at least devout aspirations, with the reading. Every thing that can be said on the subject is really wrapped up in this, that the reading shall be devotional. Yet we will expand the thought a very little.

Think of the author as now a member of the Church triumphant, one who is with Christ in Paradise, and, for aught you know, looking down upon your struggles and trials from a sphere where sin and sorrow are unknown. Regard this book as a sort of letter sent from him to you, to encourage you on your heavenward pilgrimage, and to stir in you a livelier hope of the inheritance to which he has (by Grace) attained. By degrees you shall feel attracted in a strange way, though you have never seen him, towards his mind, as it is mirrored in his writings, and shall realize something of the sentiments described in that beautiful passage of the Christian Year :

-

"Meanwhile with every son and saint of Thine,
Along the glorious line,

Sitting by turns beneath Thy sacred feet,
We'll hold communion sweet,

Know them by look and voice, and thank them all
For helping us in thrall,

For words of hope, and bright ensamples given,

To show through moonless skies that there is light in
Heaven."

The recollection that you read for edification, and not for curiosity, or to serve a controversial purpose, will suggest many wholesome rules. Carefully eschew all dissipation in the method of reading. Dissipation is the great snare of all study, whether secular or religious, in the present day. There is so much to read,—such profusion of matter in every department of literature, nay, even in the public journals, that insensibly the habit is formed of skipping the dull, and sipping the interesting, and never honouring any book with a fair and thorough perusal. We must set ourselves in opposition to this habit, if we wish to profit by devotional reading. Books must be read through from end to end, if it were only as a corrective to that discursive habit of mind, which the literature of the day fosters, and which is so particularly inimical to devotion. Generally speaking, a second book of devotion should not be taken up, till the first is finished. If the time. which we can spare for such reading is short, books of thoughts, more or less sententiously expressed (such as some of those I have mentioned, and to which I may here add "Selections from the Writings of Payson "), will be found very serviceable. The eye soon runs over a few lines, which convey a weighty sentiment; and, when the sentiment is caught, the mind may recur to it at spare moments during the rest of the day.

We have already said that good and holy sentiments are the oil which feeds the lamp of Prayer. They are emphatically so. And this suggests an occasional use of good books, over and above their regular and normal use. There are seasons known to every devout person, when the vessel of the heart seems to run dry, and the flame of Prayer burns low in the socket. You may then often replenish the vessel by reading the favourite

spiritual author. Pass your eye once more over that marked passage,-over those words which glow with such a fervour of devout sentiment; and the oil will flow again, drop by drop, into the vessel. Particularly may this be done with Christian poetry. Poetry is the voice of the affections; and, therefore, has a peculiar tendency to quicken the affections. The music of

David's harp chased away from Saul the evil spirit of moody sullenness. Elisha's minstrel, playing with his hand, laid such a spell upon the prophet's mind, that the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he prophesied. And the minstrelsy of psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, has often brought the Christian out of a state of mind, in which Prayer seemed a labour and a drudgery, if not an impossibility, into that calm and holy frame, in which he could again put forth spiritual energies, and has found himself able to renew his interrupted converse with God. Give the specific a trial, and you shall ere long know its virtue for yourself,

CHAPTER VII.

OF FASTING.

“I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection."1 COR. ix. 27.

THE passage which stands at the head of this Chapter carries our minds at once to the subject of Fasting. And it is a subject on which those who desire above all other things quiet advancement in the religious character will gladly hail counsel and direction. Fasting is a practice uncongenial to that form of piety which consists wholly in good emotions and serious impressions. But if any one is profoundly discontented with emotions and impressions which terminate on themselves, and leave no mark on the character ; if any one seeks

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