the flesh, rather than that where he has the best provision for the soul.

9. When he will be at more cost to please his flesh than to please God.

10. When he hates all mortification of the body. Baxter's Directory.

CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE.

ALL who profess to believe in Christ, and expect happiness and salvation from him, should endeavour to walk as he walked, and in all their actions imitate the pattern which he hath set them, as St. Paul did, 1 Cor. xi. 1. And verily, could we do this, how holy, how happy should we be! For questionless, as never man spake as Christ spake, so never man lived as he lived; he being the only person that ever lived on earth who did no sin, and in whose mouth was found no guile, 1 Pet. ii. 22. Indeed, his whole man was so pure, so perfect, that there was not the least spot or blot either in his soul or body: there was no darkness in his mind, no error in his judgment, no vanity in his thoughts, no perverseness in his will, no pride in his spirit, no malice in his heart, no irregularity, no disorder in all his affections; and therefore, no wonder that there was never an idle word heard to come from him, nor any sort of an unseemly action performed by him. Neither was he only thus free from evil, but he was fraught with good. Indeed, his whole life was but as one continued act of religion and charity; for as the apostle tells us, he went

about doing good,' "Acts x. 38. Wherever he came, you still find him either praying, or preaching, or dispensing his miraculous charity and goodness amongst the people: sometimes giving eyes to the blind, and legs unto the lame; sometimes health to the sick, and life to the dead; always doing some good act or other for God or men: insomuch that there is no grace, no virtue whatever, but what he hath given us an exact pattern and example of. I need not instance in particulars: his life, no less than four times, and by four several writers infallibly recorded, does sufficiently attest how courteous he was in his carriage, how patient under his sufferings, how content with his condition, how compassionate to the miserable, how charitable to the

poor, how submissive to his parents, how loving and just to all. And if we speak of his behaviour towards God, there was nothing that he did all his life long, but does clearly manifest his extraordinary love to him, extraordinary trust on him, extraordinary zeal for him, extraordinary submission to him, and extraordinary diligence and care to reveal his will, advance his glory, and propagate his interests among the sons of men. And certainly, whatever our Saviour, as man, did, he therefore did it, that we by him might learn how to do it: but of all those excellent and divine graces that his blessed soul was endowed, and his life adorned withal, the principal thing that he would have us to learn of him, is to be meek and lowly in heart: "Learn of me," saith he "for I am meek and lowly in heart;" not learn of me to work miracles, to heal the sick, or raise the dead; not learn of me to turn water into wine, or to make a few loaves to suffice thousands: but, "learn of me to be meek and lowly in heart."

Bishop Beveridge.

ON THE LENGTH OF LIFE BEFORE THE FLOOD. THE viciousness of mankind occasioned the flood; and very probably God thought fit to drown the world for these two reasons; first to plunge the then living offenders, and next to prevent men's plunging into those prodigious depths of impiety for all future ages. For if in the short term of life which is now allotted to mankind, men are capable of being puffed up to such an insolent degree of pride and folly, as to forget God and their own mortality, his power and their own weakness; if a prosperity bounded by three score and ten years, (and what mortal's prosperity since the deluge ever lasted so long?) can swell the mind of so frail a creature as man to such a prodigious size of vanity, what boundaries could be set to his arrogance, if his life and prosperity, like that of the patriarchs, were likely to continue eight or nine hundred years together? If, under the existing circumstances of life, men's passions can rise so high; if the present short and uncertain enjoyments of the world are able to occasion such an extravagant pride, such unmeasurable ambition, such sordid avarice, such barbarous rapine and injustice,

such malice and envy, and so many other detestable things which compose the numerous train of vice, how then would the passions have flamed, and to what a monstrous stature would every vice have grown, if those enjoyments which provoked and increased them, were of eight or nine hundred years duration; if eternal happiness and eternal punishment are able to make no stronger impressions upon men's minds, so near at hand, it may well be imagined that at so great a distance they would have made no impression at all; that eternal happiness would have been entirely divested of its allurements, and eternal misery of its terrors; and the Great Creator would have been deprived of that obedience and adoration which are so justly due to him from his creatures. Thus the inundation of vice has, in some measure, by the goodness of God, been prevented by an inundation of water. That which was the punishment of one generation may be said to have been the preservation of all those which have succeeded. For if life had not been thus clipped, one Tiberius, one Caligula, one Nero, one Louis XIV. had been sufficient to have destroyed the whole race of mankind; each of whose lives had they been ten times as long, and the mischiefs they occasioned multiplied by that number, it might easily be computed how great a plague one such longlived monster would have been to the world.

Howe.

"I HOPE MY CHILDREN WILL KNOW BETTER.” MY FRIENDS.-HAVE you time to read a few lines from one who wishes to do you good, and who has no favour to ask at your hands? I want to say a few things to you about your children. You are now toiling and striving to get them reared, and put out to gain an honest living; you find it hard work enough to get on in life. Perhaps you begin to feel that your strength is not so great as it once was, and you hope that your sons and daughters will soon be able to do for themselves, and when they are all out in the world, you hope to have that rest and comfort which you will need in old age, and that is what I wish you may enjoy. But what rest has the poor mother whose girl has come from service only to bring shame, and sorrow, and poverty with her? No saving of her wages in her hand, but plenty of fine clothes to her back. She cares not to help her parents; she comes to burden them. Does she love her home? No. Does she love her

father? No. Does she love her duty? No. Does she love her God? No. Will she love her helpless infant whose birth proclaims not her misfortune, as it is too often called, but her sin? No; she looks to her mother to bring it up, and little thanks does the poor woman get for the cruel, slavish work. Reader, Are you a father? Do you think this a pleasant prospect for old age? Is it such doings as these you would wish to see in your own cottage a few years hence?

Perhaps you will say, "I hope my children will know better than to fall into such loose ways." Well, my friend, upon what are your hopes founded? Have you taught them in the fear of the Lord? Have you instructed them in his commandments? Have you prayed for and with them, that their evil hearts might be changed? Have you kept them from feasts, dances, and sinful merry makings, while they were under your care? I say if you have done all this, then may you humbly trust that in the hour of temptation they will feel with the virtuous Joseph, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" To you then that have young families, I would say for your encouragement, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Your children have souls which must be happy or miserable for ever; to you they owe their birth, and from you they derive their sinful natures, for we all inherit a sinful nature from our first parents. Are you a mother? Come with me and view this cottage scene. A lady steps in. She was going to inquire the cause of the absence of one of her scholars, a child of nine years old, whose deplorable ignorance and sad neglect of school, gave her teacher great anxiety; a moment's glance around the room soon told a disgraceful story, for there sat a young woman, decked with scarlet ear drops and having a very bold appearance, nursing two young children nearly the same age, who were ill. Scarcely could the lady's presence prevent her from showing with what impatience she attended to their little wants; she soon would be rid of the trouble, however, for she was going to service again.

The visitor addressed to her a solemn warning, and ended with the 'advice to cast off those foolish ornaments which before had proved a snare to her. Hear the answer: "Oh if there are many servants in a family, and if one is not so much dressed as the rest, she is not so much thought of." Poor thoughtless girl! how completely has Satan wound his snares around her. Let us leave this sad scene, the effect of ignorance, and let me show you what God has put into your power to prevent this calamity. It is the Holy Bible; this sacred book will prove a guide through youth. I have

had more than 200 village girls in the course of ten years under my instruction; my great aim was to teach them from that sacred Book their duty to God and their neighbour, the evil nature of sin, and the way to be delivered from its guilt and power. Now mark well what I am going to say, lay it to heart, and whenever you feel a wish to keep your girl from school, think of it. Out of these 200 girls, several of those who had neglected school, who did not stay long enough to understand what they read, are still low and ignorant, and some have fallen into wicked ways; whilst those who stayed at school till they could read their Bibles with ease, and were encouraged by their parents to fill their minds with texts out of that holy Book, are mostly now in service, bearing a good character; nor have I known a single instance of a Bible loving girl bringing disgrace upon her family, but on the contrary, I have known them withstand great temptations.

Perhaps you will say, "This does not concern me; most of mine are 'boys, and so long as I take them out with me whenever I have a handy job, I am bringing them up to be useful, and I shall be sure to get them good places; besides, I send them to a pay school. I could show you such bills and such famous counting books. I think they will be rare scholars." Well, my friends, all this is very well, but does the master teach them their duty? does he set them a good example? does he try to make them understand their Bibles? Depend upon it if these things are wanting, all their learning may turn to poor account; I have known it end in the boy beating his mother, breaking open his master's desk and going off with the money to be a soldier. Then there was a lamentation over the money that had been spent on his learning. Would it not have been much better if he had learned, "Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother," Prov. xxiii. 22. And have you not known many a boy who once promised to be industrious, become a drunkard, a liar, a poacher, a smuggler, to the grief of his parents? What was the cause of all this? Was it not the want of the fear of God? How bitter must be the feelings of such parents! How will they bear to meet their children before the judgment-seat, and hear the sentence passed upon them, Depart from me, ye cursed," Matt. xxv. 41. And now, my friends, before bidding you farewell, I will point out to you a few passages in God's holy word, about the duty of you parents towards those little ones whom God has given you, to be trained up in his faith and fear, and of whose souls you will one day have to give an account; and then I will add a few more texts respecting the duty your children owe to you.

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