Christian Treasury

I asked my father why he did not himself serve God, by conducting the family worship, instead of leaving it to my sister. He replied, "I was prevented by a false shame; but, from this time, I will overcome it: to-morrow, I will perform with you the most sacred and the sweetest of duties."

In short, my father commenced, on that day, a regular service, which God blessed more and more to all those who were admitted to it. His example was quickly followed; and in almost every cottage in the neighbourhood, family worship was established. Many souls were called to the knowledge of salvation; they served the Lord with reverence and godly fear, enjoying the blessings of this life, and having hope of the life to come.

THE LITTLE ITALIAN.

AN English lady had stopped at a hotel in Naples, that large and noisy city of Italy, situated on the beautiful bay which bears its name, on the opposite side of which rises up Mount Vesuvius, the everburning mountain. It was a lovely scene that was there presented at that early hour of the morning, when the brilliant sun, not yet come forth in its full strength, threw its softer beams upon the sparkling

waters.

While occupied in gazing at the beautiful prospect, a soft voice and light step interrupted the lady's meditations, and a little girl, of about nine years old, who had knocked at the outer door without being heard, gently entered the room, with a small basket on her arm, and bidding the lady good-morning in the Italian language, told her that she had brought ner back some linen she had given to be washed. The lady smiled at the child as she took the clothes, and gave her a little piece of money for herself.

Instead of retiring in silence, as a little English girl would probably have done, the Italian child stood and gazed upon the English lady, whose lightcoloured hair and eyes, being so different from those seen in the girl's own country, appeared to fill her with wonder and interest.

"The lady is beautiful!" she said at last, with a look of innocent admiration; "beautiful hair! beautiful eyes!"

"My child," said the English lady, smiling kindly at her, "my hair and eyes are not beautiful in Eng. land."

"Oh! they are beautiful in Naples," cried the child, but directly changing the expression of her face, her own dark eyes assumed a more earnest and anxious look, as the asked in her sweet native voice and manner, "Is the lady a foreigner? "

"Yes; I am English," was the answer. "English," said the Italian child, and cast down her eyes, which seemed to speak without words, so plainly did they express each changing sentiment of her young mind.

There was a silence, and the lady had moved away, when she heard the gentle, earnest voice again: the little Italian girl stood beside her with eyes raised in deep interest to her face, and bending forward with a natural and expressive movement, said, in a tone that showed anxiety for the reply, "Does the signora believe in God, the great God?" she added, with a light motion of the hands towards the fair scene be

yond the windows, "the great God who made all things?" and her little fingers fluttered upwards towards the bright skies; "Does the signora believe in the great God ?"

The lady was surprised, and even affected at such a question, and at the deep earnestness of the young speaker.

Yes, my child," she replied, "I do believe in God." "Oh! that is good," cried the child; "the lady is English, but she believes in God!"

She was silent for a moment, as if in reflection, but yet did not seem to be satisfied. She drew nearer to the English lady, and with her little hands joined together and pressed upon her breast, and her expressive eyes fastened in deep earnestness on her face, she asked again,

"But the good Saviour Jesus Christ; oh! he is good; he is the Redeemer of our souls; does the lady believe in the good Saviour?"

With a tear almost springing to her eye, the lady answered, "Yes, dear child, I do believe in the good Saviour Jesus Christ; he is good; he died for us;

his blood cleanses from all sin."

"Oh! yes, he is good," cried the little girl; "the lady believes in the good Saviour."

Again there was a silence, and the Italian girl continued to gaze upon the English lady, and seemed puzzled by some thoughts which she could not clear up to herself. The lady, too, surprised and pleased by the interest which the little stranger showed in her, was occupied in endeavouring to trace its source.

The child spoke again, and this time in a still more doubtful voice, as if she had been thinking, and had at last almost found out what it was which the English stranger might not believe in. "But the holy mother" (la santa madre), said she, in a more trem bling manner, "does the lady believe in her ?"

"My child," said the lady, "you mean without doubt the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, the virgin Mary. You ask me, do I believe in her? Yes; I believe that such a blessed woman lived, and that God chose her to be the mother of our blessed Saviour's human nature; and the Bible tells us that she was thus highly favoured among women,' and that is nearly all we are told about her; but I believe that she is now with God, and with her Saviour, and with all those whom he has redeemed from sin and suffering."

"And the lady goes to church, and prays to the blessed virgin?" said the child, with anxious eager

ness.

"I go to church, dear child,” said the lady, "but I do not pray to the blessed virgin; for the virgin Mary was a woman like myself, though a better and holier one; but I do not pray to her, for we are told to pray to God through Jesus Christ only, and we are told to ask pardon of our offences through Him only, and we are told that God gave us one Saviour only, and that Saviour was his well-beloved Son; and Christ told his disciples that whatsoever they asked of God in his name should be given to them; so that there is no use in praying to any one but to God who made us, and to Christ who died for us; for if Christ

IN CHAINS.

loved us well enough to die for us, he will hear us, and pity us, and forgive us, and save us, when we cry to him to do so; and if God loved us well enough to give his dearly-beloved Son to die for us, he will accept us, and receive us for his sake alone, and for the good of the creatures he formed, and would not have to perish. Therefore I do not pray to the blessed virgin, nor to any other saint, but only ask God, for Christ's sake, to pardon me, and to instruct me, and to lead me in the way I should go."

The child looked very thoughtful; after a little she said, "The lady does not pray to the holy mother, but she believes in God, she believes in the good Saviour, she goes to the church, and prays to the great God, and to the good Saviour; will she never pray to the holy mother?"

"No, dear child, for the mother of our Lord was a mere mortal woman like ourselves, and if I should pray to her I should make her equal to God, who alone is the hearer and answerer of prayer; and if I made her equal to God, and to Christ, who is one with God, I should break the first of the commandments, which declares, 'Thou shalt have none other gods but me.'"

The Italian child listened in silence, then suddenly seizing the English lady's hand, she pressed it to her lips, saying only, "The signora is good;" and she went away.

The English lady thought much of her afterwards. How unusual the interest which that little stranger took in her spiritual state! She had heard evidently, that England was a nation of heretics; she believed, like many other devout and ignorant people in Roman Catholic countries, that Protestants had no faith in God, or in Christ, and were no better than infidels.

Thus arose her concern and anxiety to know that lady's belief; and how sweetly, how tenderly was it expressed! how little of self appeared! while the dear child, never saying one word of what she believed, of what she had been taught, or of what she did, showed so earnest and affectionate an interest in the religious condition of a stranger!

Poor little girl! brought up in a land of superstition and bigotry, she is taught to believe in many things which God's word does not authorize. Yet may we not learn a lesson from her, of deep concern for superstitious Romanists, unbelieving Jews, and ignorant idolaters.

Perhaps this remembrance of the little Italian girl may not be useless to some more favoured English child-Tract Magazine.

JESTING.

How strikingly the apostle cautions us against "foolish talking and jesting, which are not convenient!" Indeed they are not; and it may be questioned which is greatest, the folly of jesting or the mischief arising from it. A jester is a most contemptible or a most dangerous person: no one either respects or trusts him. He who delights in puns, scruples not to make himself the ape or the buffoon of a company. He who indulges a more pungent and malignant kind of evil-speaking, spares neither the feelings nor the character of others

"Who, for the poor renown of being smart. Would stick a dagger in a brother's heart."

Another poet has it

"Laugh at the reputations she has torn,

And hold them dangling at arm's length in scorn," The contemptible light in which jesters are held by all men of sound wisdom, is evident in many cautionary maxims left on record, such as, "Commit no business, no secret of importance, to a jester."play with you in the market."-"The joking of wits, "Let not a fool play with you in the house, lest he like the play of puppies, often ends in snarling.""He that makes himself the common jester of the company, has but just wit enough to be a fool."

The jester has seldom any reverence for sacred things; the sacred name of God, or some sentiment point to the strokes of his profane levity. "It may or precept of his holy word, is often perverted to give be wit to turn things sacred to ridicule, but it is wisdom to let them alone."-" Sin is too bad, and holiness too good, to make sport of; the one demands repentance, and the other reverence."-" They are fools who mock either at sin or holiness."

times indulge themselves in repeating the puns or It is a great pity that even religious people somemistakes of others on the words of scripture, which are thus associated in the mind with improper and ludicrous ideas; and the sacred influence of the passage is entirely lost. Some ministers have declared themselves precluded from preaching on one ture, from being unable to divest them of some luor more very solemn and weighty passages of scripdicrous association imprinted on the mind, perhaps in the days of youthful vanity and folly, or perhaps, which is still more to be lamented, presented more of sacred wisdom to restrain this frivolous wit.recently by some one who ought to have had enough Family Book.

IN CHAINS.

ON a Sabbath evening, when the services of the day appointment, I alighted at an inn, and was ushered were over, and I directed my steps towards the next into the common room appointed for travellers. It was nearly dark, and the only light in the room was that proceeding from the fire, around which a numthem, my eyes were soon arrested by the sight of ber of persons were sitting. Taking my seat among sad and sorrowful: and soon after I perceived that two persons sitting together, with downcast eyes, their hands were manacled, and themselves bound fast to each other, and, on enquiry, learned that they were on the way to the penitentiary of our State, there to remain for ten or twelve years, for man, the other a young one. robbery committed in concert. The one was an old Shall I inform my readers that they were a father and his son? What a sight! and who, think you, was first and chief in guilt? Was it the father or the son? Did the son say to the father, Father, let us steal? Impossible. The lips of a son could scarce utter the words, except first taught by the father. Is it the

son that teaches the father to utter words of blasphemy, that raises the accursed cup to his lips, and says, Father, drink? Or, is it not the father who teaches his infant child by precept perhaps, as well into his opened lips? The scene I have described as example, to swear, and pour the first fatal drop followed me for a long time, from day to day, from church to church, and seemed ever before my eyes. I could not rise up in the pulpit, and look upon the

congregation, but it seemed to be renewed before me. I thought I saw parents and children, husbands and wives, sitting side by side, bound by invisible chains of sin stronger than links of iron, and going onward, not to some temporary prison, but to an eternal one, from whence there is no escape. What a thought, that on some Sabbath-day, and in some house of God, parents and children may be sitting side by side, and moving onward as fast as the wings of time can bear them, to some eternal abode of darkness and misery, the parents leading the way in guilt and suffering! Let all parents examine themselves well, and see how deeply guilty they are by reason of their evil example.-Bishop Meade.

SOCIALISM.

"CALL it not socialism, call it devilism, for it has made me more a devil than a man!' exclaimed a poor dying man in my neighbourhood," says the Rev. J. A. James, "to one of our town missionaries who visited him on his death-bed. I got into company that led me to socialism, and to drinking. I rejected the Bible, denied the Sa|viour, and persuaded myself there was no hereafter; and as the result, acted the part of a bad father and a bad husband. I have the testimony of my master, that I was a steady and respectable man until I listened to the Owenites; but since that time I have become a vagabond, and they who formerly knew me have shunned me in the streets. The system of the Owenites is worse than that of Paine.' Such," adds Mr James, "is the testimony of a dying victim and martyr of socialism, and a similar confession has been made by many others. I have seen the husband, once moral, happy, and useful, as long as he professed religion; and have seen him in his misery, poverty, and ruin, since he has thrown it off; I have heard the impassioned accents of his heart-broken wife, so far as weakness allowed her to be impassioned, exclaiming, as she looked at her miserable companion, Oh, sir, he has been a changed man ever since he went among the Owenites!' Such is socialism!

UPON THE HEARING OF A LUTE WELL PLAYED ON.

THERE may be (for aught we know) infinite inventions of art, the possibility whereof we should hardly ever believe if they were before reported to us. Had we lived in some rude and remote part of the world, and should have been told that it is possible only by an hollow piece of wood and the entrails of beasts, stirred by the fingers of men, to make so sweet and melodious a noise, we should have thought it utterly incredible; yet now that we see and hear it ordinarily done, we make it no wonder. It is no marvel if we cannot fore-imagine what kind and means of harmony God will have used by his saints and angels in heaven, when these poor matters seem so strange to our conceits, which yet our very senses are convinced of. O God! thou knowest infinite ways to glorify thyself by thy creatures, which do far transcend our weak and finite capacities; let me wonder at thy wisdom and power, and be more awful in my adorations than curious in my inquiries.Bishop Hall.

UPON THE ARRAIGNMENT OF A FELON. WITH what terror doth this malefactor stand at that bar! his hand trembles whilst it is lift up for his trial; his very lips quake whilst he saith, Not guilty. His countenance condemns him before the judge, and his fear is ready to execute him before his hangman: yet this judge is but a weak man, that must soon after die himself; that sentence of death which he can pronounce, is already past by nature upon the most innocent; that act of death which the law inflicteth by him, is but momentary; who knows whether himself shall not die more painfully? O God! with what horror shall the guilty soul stand before thy dreadful tribunal in the day of the great assizes of the world! Whilst there is the presence of an infinite Majesty to daunt him; a fierce and clamorous conscience to give in evidence against him; legions of ugly and terrible devils waiting to seize upon him; a gulf of unquenchable fire ready to receive him; whilst the glory of the Judge is noless confounding than the cruelty of the tormentors where the sentence is unavoidable, and the execution everlasting. Why do not these terrors of thee. my God, make me wise to hold a private sessions upon my soul and actions, that, being acquitted by my own heart, I may not be condemned by thee; and being judged by myself, I may not be condemned with the world?-Ibid.

UPON THE WHETTING OF A SCYTHE. RECREATION is intended to the mind as whetting is to the scythe-to sharpen the edge of it; which otherwise would grow dull and blunt. He therefore that spends his whole time in recreation, is ever whetting, never mowing; his grass may grow, and his seed starve: as contrarily, he that always toils, and never recreates, is ever mowing, never whetting: labouring much to little purpose: as good no scythe as no edge. Then only doth the work go forward when the scythe is so seasonably and moderately whetted that it may cut, and so cuts that it may have the help of sharpening. I would so interchange, that I neither be dull with work, nor idle and wanton with recreation.—Ibid.

I AM NOT TO BE TRACED. UPON Some affair of great consequence, which had occurred in some providential dispensations, Luther was very importunate at the throne of grace to know the mind of God in it; and it seemed to him as if he heard God speak to his heart thus: "I am not to be traced." Referring to this incident, one adds, "If He is not to be traced, He may be trusted; and that religion is of little value which will not enable a man to trust God where he can neither trace nor see Him. But there is a time for every thing beneath the sun, and the Almighty has his

times and seasons.' It has been frequently with my hopes and desires, in regard to Providence, as with my watch and the sun, which has often been a-head of true time; I have gone faster than Providence, and have been forced to stand still and wait, or I have been set back painfully. That was a fine sentiment of Flavel, Some providences, like Ilebrew letters, must be read backwards.'”

THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

WHAT IS IT TO BE CAST AWAY?

BY THE LATE REV. R. M. M'CHEYNE, DUNDEE.*

I. WICKED MEN SHALL BE CAST AWAY BY GOD.

"Depart from me, ye cursed."-Matt. xxv. 41. "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."-2 Thess. i. 9.

1. Away from Christ. At present ungodly men are often near to Christ. Christ stands at their door and knocks. He stretches out his hands to them all the day long. He speaks to them in the Bible and the preached gospel. He says, Come unto me, and I will give you rest. Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. But when Christ pronounces that sentence, "Depart from me, ye cursed," there will not be one knock more-not one invitation more-not one sweet offer more. Christ is the only way to the Father; but it shall be then closed for ever. Christ is the only door; but it shall then be shut for evermore. It is the blessedness of the redeemed that they shall be with Christ. "To-day shalt thou be with me. Having a desire to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. So shall they be ever with the Lord. His servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face." It is this that maintains the eternal calm in the bosom of the redeemed. But the ungodly shall be cast away from all this. "Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness."

2. Away from God. True, the wicked can never be cast away from the presence of God. "If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there." (Ps. cxxxix. 8.) Job says, "Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering."-(xxvi. 6.) His almighty power creates it, His breath kindles it. "The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it."-(Isa. xxx. 33.) But they shall be banished,

First. From the possession of God.-God said to Abraham, "I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward." God makes himself over to the believing soul, saying, I will be thy God. David says, God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. Who can tell *This outline of a sermon, taken from Mr M'Cheyne's Memoir and Remains, was published some time ago as a tract by the American Presbyterian Board of Publication, and we are induced to insert it in our pages by observing a statement to the effect that in the tract form it has been largely blessed.

the joy of those who enjoy God-who have God-the infinite God-as their portion? From this the Christless shall be cast away. You will have no portion in God. God will not be your God. His attributes will be all against you.

Second. From the favour of God." In thy favour is life." The favour of God is what believers feel on earth. A beam of God's countenance is enough to fill the heart of a believer to overflowing. It is enough to light up the pale cheek of a dying saint with seraphic brightness, and make the heart of the lone widow sing for joy. From all this the Christless shall be cast away for ever; and, instead of it, Jehovah's frown shall light on them for "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

ever.

Third. Cast away from the blessing of God. God is the fountain of all blessing. No creature is good or pleasant any more than God makes it to be so. The sun warms us— our food nourishes us-our friends are pleasan to us-because God made them so. All the joys in the world are but beams from tha: uncreated light. But separate a man from God, and all becomes dark. God is the fountai of all joy. Separate a man from God finally and no creature can give him joy. This is to be cast away, cut off from God for ever and ever. Though there were no lake of fire, this of itself would be hell.

II. WICKED MEN SHALL BE CAST AWAY BY THI HOLY SPIRIT.

It is not often thought of, but it is true, tha the Holy Spirit is now dealing and striving with natural men. All the decency and mo rality of unconverted men is to be attributed to the restraining grace of the Holy Spirit.

men, that they are greatly restrained from going to extreme lengths in wickedness.

2. The Holy Spirit also works through protidences in restraining wicked men.— -He places them in such circumstances that they cannot sin as they otherwise would do. He often reduces them to poverty, so that they cannot run into the vices they were inclined unto; or he lays sickness on their body, so that their keen relish | for sin is greatly blunted; or he terrifies them by bereavements, so that they are kept in the bondage of fear, and dare not sin with so high a hand as they otherwise would do.

3. The Holy Spirit also restrains through convictions of sin -Many men have deep wounds and convictions who are never saved. Many are pierced with arrows of the word from time to time, and then are driven away from their wicked companions and saved from open sin. Restraining grace is an amazing work of God. It is more wonderful than his setting a bound to the sea that it cannot pass over. Think what a hell every unconverted bosom would become, if the Spirit were to withdraw and give men over to their own heart's lusts. Think what a hell an unconverted family would become, if the Spirit were to withdraw his bands. What hatreds, strifes, murders, would take place! Think what a hell this world would become, if every Christless man were given over to the lusts of his own heart.

Now this is to be a castaway. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man."-(Gen. vi. 3.) The Holy Spirit, I believe, strives with all men. "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost," (Acts vii. 51;) but he will not always strive. When the day of grace is done-when the sinner sinks into hell-the Spirit will strive no more. First. The Spirit will strive no more through ordinances. There will be no family worship in hell-no Bibles read-no Psalms sung. There will be no Sabbath in hell-no preached gospel-no watchman to warn you of your sin and danger. The voice of the watchman will be silent-the danger has come-your doom will be past, and no room for repentance.

Second. The Spirit will no more strive through providences. There will be no more poverty or riches-no more sickness or bereavements -no kindly providences restraining the soul from sin-nothing but anguish and despair unutterable.

Third. There will be no more convictions by the Spirit. Conscience will condemn, but it will not restrain. Your hearts will then break out. All your hatred to God, the fountains of

contempt and blasphemy in your heart, will be all broken up. You will blaspheme the God of heaven. All your lusts and impurities that have been pent up and restrained by restraining grace and the fear of man, will burst forth with amazing impetuosity. You will be as wicked and blasphemous as the devils around you.

O the misery of sin! it is an evil thing and bitter. The way of transgressors is hard. Ah! sinners, you will yet find sin the hardest of all masters you will yet find your grovelling lusts to be worse than the worm that never dies. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still."-(Rev. xxii. 11.)

III. WICKED MEN SHALL BE CAST AWAY BY ALL THE CREATURES.

The state of unconverted men at present, although a very dreadful one, is yet not hopeless. The angels watch the unconverted, to see if there is any sign of repentance. It is believed that the holy angels are present in the assembly of God's worshippers.-(1 Tim. v. 21.) And if so, no doubt they watch your faces, to see if a tear starts into your eye, or a prayer trembles on your lip. There would be joy this day among the angels, if one sinner was to repent.

The redeemed on earth are peculiarly interested in unconverted souls. They pray for them night and day, many of them with tears; many a child of God wets his pillow with tears in behalf of perishing souls. Jeremiah wept in secret places for their pride. David says, “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes." They wish your conversion more than any personal benefit. Ministers are set apart to seek after lost and perishing souls. "Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." If ministers are like their Master, this will be their great errand-" that by all means we may save some." But when the day of grace is past, all holy creatures will east you away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, for the Lord hath rejected them."

The angels will no longer take any interest in you. They will know that it is not fit they should pity you any more. You will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.

The redeemed will no longer pray for you, nor shed another tear for you. They will see you condemned in the judgment, and not put in one word for you. They will see you depart into everlasting fire, and yet not pray for you. They will see the smoke of your torments going up for ever end ever, and yet cry, Alleluiah!

Ministers will no more desire your salvation.

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Christian Treasury, Volym 5