Salvation from the power of sin, as well as deliverance from its curse, is the great truth of Inspiration. But to see this truth aright, the heart must be enlightened, and through enlightenment, purified. It is "the pure in heart that see God." The best preparation, therefore, for the study of the inspired page is, purity. No man can be said to be brought thoroughly under the dominion of the law till he has formed a keen relish for the Scriptures,-a relish so keen as utterly to indispose him to all reading at variance with their spirit and their principles. The taste of the Psalmist may be viewed as the standard, to conformity with which all Christians ought to aspire: "Oh! how I love thy law; it is my meditation all the day." It is one thing to read a portion of the Book at stated periods, from a sense of duty; it is another thing to love it to use it as a manual-to delight in it! The difference really constitutes the test of individual character. No man can be going backward in spiritual things who is increasing in

love to the Sacred Volume.

At no previous period of our country's history was there ever so much temptation as at the present hour. Bad books, of every description, are being multiplied to an extent altogether incredible. Where the supply is so vast and constant, the fact proves that the demand must be in keeping. As much romance may now be purchased for a shilling as could have been purchased, thirty years ago, for three half-guineas! The aid of the fantastic caricaturist and the sober artist are largely called in also, to

add to the zest, and heighten the potency of the poison. Under these circumstances, we are ever glad to meet with writers alive to the evil. Of these the following has recently come before us, in an excellent essay, which, somewhat abridged, we shall now present.

BEWARE OF BAD BOOKS. The same harm that personal interWHY, what harm will books do me? course would with the bad men who wrote them. That "a man is known by the company he keeps," is an old proverb; but it is no more true than that a man's character may be determined by knowing what books he reads. If a good book can be read book cannot be read without making without making one better, a bad one worse.

Lord Bacon makes the pithy remark, that " In the body there are three degrees of that we receive into it, aliment, medicine, and poison; whereof aliment is that which the nature of man can perfectly alter which is partly converted by nature and overcome; medicine is that and partly converteth nature; and poison is that which worketh wholly upon nature, without nature being able to work at all upon it: so in the mind, whatsoever knowledge reason cannot at all work upon and convert, is a mere intoxication, and mind and the understanding." endangereth a dissolution of the

Works of science, art, history, theology, etc., furnish "aliment" or 'medicine;" books of fiction, romurder, are "poison" more or less mance, infidelity, war, piracy, and diluted, and are to be shunned. They will "bite like a serpent, and sting like an adder."

Books of mere fiction and fancy are generally bad in their character and influence. Their authors are commonly irreligious men, and such A stream does not rise higher than men do not often write good books. its fountain. Their principles are

often corrupt, encouraging notions of chivalry, worldly honour, and pleasure, at war with the only true code of morals. They insult the understanding of the reader by assuming that the great object of reading is amusement. The effects are such as might be expected. Familiarity with popular fiction gives a disrelish for simple truth; engenders a habit of reading merely for amusement, which destroys the love of sober investigation, and blasts the hope of mental improvement; renders scientific and historical reading tedious; gives false views of the perfectibility of human nature, thus leading to disappointments in the relations of life; and dwarfs the intellectual and moral powers, except the imagination, which is rendered morbid and unhealthy by constant excitement. The Bible becomes a wearisome book; spiritual classics, like those of Baxter, Bunyan, Flavel, and Doddridge, though glowing with celestial fire, become insipid and uninteresting; and the influence of the pulpit is undermined, by diverting the attention from serious things, and lessening the probability that truth will take effect upon the conscience; or if it does for a time, the bewitching novel furnishes a ready means of stifling conviction and grieving away the Spirit of God.

Beware of the foul and exciting romance. All that is said above will apply with a tenfold intensity to the class of reading, for which it paves the way. The writer of modern romance chooses his scenes from the places of debauchery and crime, and familiarises the reader with characters, sentiment, and events, that should be known only to the police. Licentious scenes and obscene imagery are unblushingly introduced, and the imagination polluted by suggestions and descriptions revolting to the pure in heart." "Public poisoners," was the title long since justly given to writers of this class.

occasioned by his daughter's "reading the impure works of * * * Mental delirium tremens is as sure a consequence of habitual intoxication from such reading, as is that awful disease the certain end of the inebriate. Beware of it!

Beware of infidel books, and of all writings which ridicule the Bible. You will meet them, with a more or less guarded avowal of their object, in the newspaper, the tract, and the volume. Infidelity is a system of negations; it is nothing-believes nothing does nothing good. Beware of it, in whatever form it ap proaches you, as you value temporal happiness and prosperity, the peace of society, and eternal well-being. No man enters eternity an infidel.

Beware of books of war, piracy, and murder. The first thought of crime has been suggested by such books. The murderer of Lord Wm. Russell confessed on the scaffold, that the reading of one such book led him to the commission of his crime. Another, who was executed for piracy, was instigated to his course by a book of piratical tales. The prisons are filled with criminals who were incited to crime by similar means. They stimulate the love of adventurous daring, cultivate the baser passions, and prompt to deeds of infamy. Away with them!

Do you still need to be persuaded to beware of the poison that would paralyze your conscience, enervate your intellect, pervert your judgment, deprave your life, and perhaps ruin your soul?

gent inquirers into the Sacred Word, and strongly attached to Theological study. That time has gone by: it will one day return. As one means

of hastening the blessed era, we would leave no method untried to imbue the spirit of the age with the Evangelical element.

1. I presume you desire to be happy here and hereafter: you know there are a thousand difficulties which attend this pursuit; some of them perhaps you foresee, but there are multitudes which you could never think of. Never trust, therefore, to your own understanding in the things of this world, where you can have the advice of a wise and faithful friend; nor dare venture the more important concerns of your soul, and your eternal interests in the world to come, upon the mere light of Nature, and the dictates of your own reason; since the word of God and the advice of Heaven lies in your hands.

2. Whatsoever your circumstances may be in this world, still value your Bible as your best treasure; and whatsoever be your employment here, still look upon religion as your best business. Your Bible contains eternal life in it, and all the riches of the upper world, and religion is the only way to become a possessor of them.

3. To direct your carriage towards God, converse particularly with the Book of Psalms; David was a man of sincere and eminent devotion. To behave aright among men, acquaint yourself with the whole Book of Proverbs; Solomon was a man of large experience and wisdom. And to perfect your directions in both these, read the Gospels and the Epistles.

4. As a man, maintain strict temperance and sobriety, by a wise government of your appetites and passions; as a neighbour, influence and engage all around you to be your friends, by a temper and carriage made up of prudence and goodness; and let the poor have a certain share in all your yearly profits. As a trader, keep that golden sentence of our Sa

"Whatso

viour's ever before you: ever you would that men should do unto you, do you also unto them."

5. While you make the precepts of Scripture the constant rule of your duty, you may with courage rest upon the promises of Scripture as the springs of your encouragement. All Divine assistances and Divine recompenses are contained in them. The Spirit of light and grace is promised to assist them that ask it. Heaven and glory are promised to reward the faithful and the obedient.

6. In every affair of life, begin with God. Consult him in everything that concerns you. View him as the Author of all your blessings and all your hopes, as your best Friend and your eternal portion. Meditate on him in this view, with a continual renewal of your trust in him, and a daily surrender of yourself to him, till you feel that you love him most entirely, that you serve him with sincere delight, and that you cannot live a day without God in the world.

7. You know yourself to be a man, an indigent creature, and a sinner, and you profess to be a Christian, a disciple of the blessed Jesus; but never think you know Christ nor yourself as you ought, till you find a daily need of him for righteousness and strength, for pardon and sanctification; and let him be your constant introducer to the great God, though he sit upon a throne of grace. Remember his own words, "No man cometh to the Father but by me," John xiv. 6.

8. Make prayer a pleasure, and not a task, and then you will not forget nor omit it. Believe that day, that hour, or those minutes to be all wasted and lost, which any worldly

in everything that belongs to them; the time is come, and they are un prepared. Let the concerns of your soul and your shop, your trade and your religion, lie always in such order, as far as possible, that death at a

short warning may be no occasion of a disquieting tumult in your spirit, and that you may escape the anguish of a bitter repentance in a dying hour. Farewell. WATTS.

THE Rev. Samuel Dunn, of Sheffield, has favoured us with the following

choice extracts:

Christ suffered on the cross among sinners, and with them, and like them, and for them. This place was given him, that all the ends of the earth might have hope when they look to him for salvation. The work was finished. The lowest depths of humiliation were reached and passed. -William Arnot.

When the Lutheran Reformation, like a strong wind out of the clear north, was sweeping off from the nations the dense cloud of Papal superstition, and revealing once more to their wondering eyes the long hidden Sun of Righteousness, who could have thought that the horrid cloud would again return to spread its murky folds over so many of its ancient fields, and that men choosing darkness rather than the light, would love to have it so?-Robert Buchanan.

Though the sound of words were completely put down, the sound of our unshrinking steadfastness might become the louder; the voice of our verbal appeals and solemn messages, if made to cease altogether, might be more than compensated by the voice of our undaunted suffering, and the cry of our martyred blood. -Alexander Cumming.

As the period of Zion's universal triumph comes on, these showers of God's grace will exhibit still greater majesty and power. The victories of the Spirit will become more and more extended, as well as illustrious. Baxter Dickenson.

Justifying faith is that by which the soul, which before was separate

and alienated from Christ, unites itself to him, or ceases to be any longer in that state of alienation, and comes into that union or relation to him.-Jonathan Edwards.

Love to men never fails to flow

from love to God. Love is the fulfilling of the law; it completes the character of a true Christian. No gifts or endowments, however excellent, can compensate for the want of Christian love.-P. McFarlan.

Deliverance from the power of sin is an important part of Christ's salvation; whilst conformity to the call of God is a characteristic feature of Christ's loyal subjects, and is felt to be a source of present peace, as well as that by which they are made meet for future glory.-Christopher Greig.

One pure act of lively faith will bring in more treasure than many hours fagging and struggling in duties and performances.-Oliver Heywood.

The flowers of the garden and the herbs of the field have their unwearied devotees; crossing the ocean, wayfaring in the desert, and making devout pilgrimages to every region of nature for offerings to their patron muse. The rocks, from their residences among the clouds, to their deep roots in the bowels of the earth, have a most bold and venturous priesthood; who see in their rough and flinty faces a more delectable image to adore than in the revealed countenance of God.-Edward Irving.

Fix this simple idea in your mind, that justification is the opposite of condemnation.-J. A. James.

The sentence of the damned in