I could think of the opposing interests of the world-its wars, its rumours, its commotions; nation set against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; the party spirit of towns, the scandal of villages, and the feuds of private life; frequently branches of the same family at variance with each other. I could think of these things, I say, until I regarded the whole world as a holly bush.

And what are its inhabitants ? Evergreens in appearance, glossy in their expression, soft and silky in their professions; but, desire their golden fruit, stand in need of their assistance, run to them for protection, lean on them for support, and you will confess with bitterness, that man, when trusted in, is no better than a holly bush.

But let us consider: the bitterest herb may be grateful to the smell, the most brackish water prove medicinal; and something surely may be said in favour of the holly bush.

It

It is tenacious of its rights, and jealous of its liberties; but it never attacks the liberties of others. is ever ready to defend itself, but is never known to be the aggressor. Nations may here learn wisdom

from the holly bush.

It is grateful in the darkest seasons; it repines not at the wintry winds.

Though cold its place, though lone its lot

It buds, it bears, it murmurs not,

but in the bleakest storms and rudest blasts looks

cheerfully towards the skies, and the fruit of gratitude at the darkest season is abundant on its branches. And can we learn nothing from the holly bush?

Perhaps the little spray that I now hold in my hand was among the topmost branches of its parent tree, and bore its blushing honours thick upon its aspiring head, defying the wintry blast, and exulting in security; but it was untimely severed from the place where it grew, it was cut down in the glory of its youth.

And we may endure the rude ravage of time,

And exult, though the loud howling tempest may roar; And we, too, may fall in the midst of our prime,

And the place that now knows us, may know us no more.

THE CHRISTIAN'S LEVER.

"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you,” Matt. xvii. 20.

A CHRISTIAN Will willingly get good from every thing, and a lever may help him to a profitable reflection.

The lever may be regarded as a simple instru

THE CHRISTIAN'S LEVER.

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ment; but the right knowledge of its power, and its proper mode of application, was a mighty discovery. A child, by means of the lever, will do the work of a man. Christian! say not thou art come to a stand, though the mountains of the earth tower up to the skies in thy way. Lay hold of the lever that God has prepared for the use of his people, THE PRAYER OF FAITH: this is the Christian's mighty lever. The right use of this, I would speak with humility as well as boldness, will both bring Christ down to thee, and raise thee up to Christ.

THE DIVER.

It is a pleasant thing, when pilgrims are travelling the same road together, to beguile the time by the relation of their past adventures. A Zion-bound pilgrim lately gave me an interesting history, in nearly the following words:

"Often, in the days of my youth, have I gazed on fragments of ruddy coral, goodly shells and pearls, costly stones and curious sea-weed, and thought of those wrestlers of the ocean, who dive down to the caverns of the deep in search of pearls.

"The wild wonders of the ocean, explored by the

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THE DIVER.

pearl-diver, in his painful struggles to win the treasures of the raging ocean, have been at such seasons present with me. The broken ship and half buried anchor, the monsters of the world of waters, the sharp, craggy rock, the deep, dark cavern, the glittering spar, the sparkling gem, and light-reflecting pearl. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep;' and he who pursues the wild and life-wasting calling of a diver, has scenes of terror and beauty presented to his eyes, that others never saw. I speak of these things feelingly, for I myself have been a diver; but do not mistake me. Pearls though I have, costly beyond all price, yet they were not brought up from the mighty deep: listen, and you shall hear my relation.

"For twenty years of my life, I was a diver in books, and brought up stores of knowledge that to me were prizable, gems of thought and costly pearls of reflection but all this time I was as much a stranger to myself as I was to the bottom of the sea. I sought my own pleasure, I delighted to hear some new thing, and to see some new sight; but there was one sight I could never see, and that was, the sinfulness of my own heart.

"One Sabbath day, as I sat in the house of God, it pleased the Holy Spirit to take of the things spoken by a zealous and faithful minister of the gospel, and apply them with power to my soul. The word of

6

the Lord was quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,' and was a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.' The man of God seemed to smite me with the rod of his mouth,' and to dash me in pieces like a potter's vessel.' That sermon, for the first time in my life, set me diving into my own bosom. I descended, not altogether unattended by the light of His Spirit, who will search Jerusalem with candles,' into the deep caverns of my own evil heart. What I found there, I will not make known, nor attempt to describe the terrors that filled my soul at the discovery. Blessed be the God of mercy! in my distress I became a diver in the Scriptures of eternal truth; and, though for a long time I was unsuccessful, through his goodness who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, I became possessed of the pearl of repentance, and cried out, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!' Luke xviii.

13.

"Though I then possessed a gem more precious than the gold of Ophir, in the pearl of repentance, yet for a long time I knew not the value of it, nor felt any comfort in its possession, until one day a kind friend, by his encouraging and Christian counsel, set me diving again, no longer into the troubled sea of my own guiltiness, nor the dark, frowning waves of God's holy law, but into the boundless ocean of the everlasting promises of the gospel.