and unexpected experience. God was about to lead him by various steps of his providence in a way that he knew not. In depicting the progress of the great change, we shall avail ourselves of the admirably clear and impressive statements of his biographer, simply abridging them, and bringing different parts into closer connection.

The instrumentality by which he seems to have been first influenced was family bereavement-in the death, first, of his brother George, then of his sister Barbara, and then of an uncle residing at Anstruther, to whom he was much attached, and all this followed by severe personal affliction. The circumstances attending his brother's death were deeply affecting:

"From his childhood, George had been a favourite in the family; he was so simple-hearted, so confiding, so generous, and so manly; and when he joined his vessel, he became as great a favourite with his master and messmates as he had been at home. When his apprenticeship had expired, he became mate; and while yet only twenty-three years of age, was promoted to the command of the merchant ship Barton, which sailed from Liverpool, carrying, in the time of war, letters of marque, and cruising generally for six weeks in the Channel and along the French coast, in the hope of capturing some of our enemies' vessels, before she made her destined voyage to the West Indies. In the course of these voyages, many hairbreadth escapes were made, and many a brave action was fought, unchronicled in our naval annals. We sailed from Barbadoes,' says George, describing one of them, on the 17th May, a single ship, with twenty guns and fifty men; and on the 23d, fell in with a French privateer of ten guns, which ran on board our quarter and attempted to board us. Two days afterwards, we fell in with the Fairy schooner, a French privateer of twenty guns and 150 men. engaged us to leeward, within pistol-shot, for the space of an hour. We received her fire with calmness, and never returned a single shot, firing only our small arms till she came alongside us and grappled us on our fore and main chains. Then we gave her our broadside. Our guns were all loaded with round and grape shot. They made an attempt to board us, but we picked them down faster than they cut our nettings; at last they were obliged to shear off with a great loss. I perceived numbers of dead men on their deck, and their scuppers ran with streams of blood.'

She

"Wearied with the fight, George lay down upon the deck and fell asleep-a sleep as fatal as any shot of the enemy could have been, lodging in him, as it did, the seeds of that deadly malady which carried him to the grave. During the spring months of 1806, the symptoms of consumption having showed themselves with alarming distinctness, he resolved to try the effect of his native air. For a short time that air

seemed to revive and reinvigorate, but the improvement was only temporary. The months of August and September were spent at Kilmany, when his mother, his sisters Lucy, Jean, and Helen, and his brothers Thomas and Charles, were all around him. Leaving Thomas and Lucy ill behind him at Kilmany, George returned to Anstruther, where Thomas joined him at the close of the following month-not to be separated till the earthly bond was broken by death." Dr Hanna adds:

"The rapid progress of the malady was thus communicated by his father to James:- November 25. I sincerely wish I could make my report of my poor George more favourable. He is weaker than when I last wrote you. The doctors, I imagine, have

no great hopes of a recovery; but the Physician above all may otherwise appoint concerning him. I would desire to say with your brother, His holy will be done. He seems to be resigned to live or die as God shall see meet. I pray that living or dying he may be the Lord's.

"He was much pleased with your anxious solicitude about him; and said that a letter from you, so far from putting him into any disorder, would give him great satisfaction. He has nothing of peevishness about him-a firm, steady resignation he possesses to a great degree.— December 15.-Your letter gave George great satisfaction. I have no great heart to write. He is still alive, but unable to help himself in any manner of way; but blessed be God that gives him a sweet submission to His holy will, and a satisfying hope of his mercy in Christ."

"Every evening, at George's own request, one of Newton's sermons was read at his bedside by some member of the family in rotation. It was one of the very books which, a short time previously, Thomas had named and denounced from the pulpit. Bending over the pulpit, and putting on the books named the strong emphasis of dislike, he had said- Many books are favourites with you, which I am sorry to say are no favourites of mine. When you are reading Newton's Sermons, and Baxter's Saint's Rest. and Doddridge's Rise and Progress, where do Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John go to? As he now read one of these books to his dying brother, and witnessed the support and consolation which its truths conveyed, strange misgivings must have visited him. He was too close, too acute, too affectionate an observer not to notice that it was something more than the mere manly indifference of his profession,” something more than a mere blind submission to an inevitable fate, which imparted such calmness and serene elevation to George's dying hours. He was in his room when those pale and trembling lips were heard to say, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes.' Perhaps as the words were uttered, the thought arose that in his own case, as compared with that of his brother, the words might be verified. In company with a weeping household, he bent over the parting scene, and heard the closing testimony given, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. George died on the 16th December 1806. It was the first death of a near relation which Thomas had witnessed; and the deep impression which it made was the first step towards his own true and thorough conversion unto God."

His sister Barbara died just when he was preparing to sail for London, in connection with a volume which he had published, entitled "An Inquiry into the Extent and Stability of National Resources.”

voted to literary adventure in the great theatre of "But those days which in anticipation he had dethe metropolis, were to be spent in the retirements

of Anstruther amid the sorows of the sick-chamber hear of the day on which Thomas was to sail for Lonand under the shadow of death. While waiting to don, James received the following communication from his father:

"Anstruther, 1st August 1808. "I only write to prevent any surprise from the intelligence which I fear I must soon communicate to you, My dear Barbara has within these few days weakened very fast. Till the 27th ult. she went out on horseback every day, and complained of no toil, but was rather refreshed with her ride. On that day! she became so weak as since not to have been able to

leave her room. There is nothing impossible with God, but to human appearance her dissolution is not far distant. My weakness overcomes me much. I have every comfort that a parent could have in separation from a beloved child. I behold in her a cheerful submission to the will of God, and a humble confidence in the satisfaction of her great Redeemer. Her situation is not known to the Kilmany family, as the turn in her disorder is since we last wrote to them.'

"The same fatal malady which had carried George to the grave had seized upon Barbara. No earthly hope was left. Through three dreary weeks of great suffering she had still to struggle. But that great Redeemer, upon whose satisfaction her confidence had been cast, made clear unto her the path of life; and while she walked through the dark valley, the light of His presence shone brightly and steadily upon her, and neither doubt nor fear having visited her, she passed into the presence of God.

The death of his uncle, in June 1809, was sudden and unexpected. He had retired to his own room after tea. His sister-in-law, finding that he had remained longer away than from her than was usual, followed. She found him kneeling on a chair in the very attitude of prayer, but the spirit had fled-" apparently without pain or struggle, it had taken its departure from this lowly posture before the throne of grace on earth, had passed into the presence of the throne of glory in the heavens."

"The state of his health did not admit of Mr Chalmers leaving Kilmany till the beginning of August. He returned to Anstruther at the close of September, and it was some exposure in coming home from that second visit, which threw him into that long, severe, and most momentous illness, during which the first stage of a great and entire spiritual revolution was accomplished in him. For four months he never left his room; for upwards of half a year he never entered his pulpit; it was more than a twelmonth before all the duties of his parish were again regularly discharged by him. His illness, which was an affection of the liver, was such as to require the application of the very strongest medicines. I visited him,' says Professor Duncan, at Fincraigs, where he was under the medical treatment of Dr Ramsay of Dundee, and I certainly never saw any person so much altered in the same space of time, being then greatly attenuated, while formerly he was corpulent. He was scarcely able to walk across the room. It was a year or two before he recovered, and during that period he had much the appearance of an old man, of one who would never be able again for much exertion.' But although the body was thus weakened and reduced, the mind was left in untouched vigour; and into it, now left to its own profound and solitary musings, there sunk the deepest and most overpowering impression of human mortality.

"For upwards of twenty years death had never entered his family circle. Perhaps the first time that he had ever stood face to face in presence of the last enemy, and seen the last stroke given, was when he witnessed the death of his brother George. But death was now to be no stranger: already had he borne away two of the family in his cold embrace; and two of his sisters were at this time threatened with the same fatal malady. Mr Ballardie had passed into eternity in a moment. It seemed as if, once begun, the quick succession was to go on unbroken. A panic seized the family, as if one after another they were doomed to fall. Partaking fully of that panic, Mr Chalmers believed that he was about to die. For days and weeks he gazed upon the death brought

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My

thus so near, with eye intent and solemnized. confinement,' wrote Mr Chalmers, has fixed on my heart a very strong impression of the insignificance of time-an impression which I trust will not abandon me though I again reach the heyday of health and vigour. This should be the first step to another impression still more salutary-the magnitude of eternity. Strip human life of its connnexion with a higher scene of existence, and it is the illusion of an instant, an unmeaning farce, a series of visions, and projects, and convulsive efforts, which terminate in nothing. I have been reading Pascal's Thoughts on Religion: you know his history-a man of the richest endowments, and whose youth was signalized by his profound and original speculations in mathematical science; but who could stop short in the brilliant career of discovery, who could resign all the splendours of literary reputation, who could renounce without a sigh all the distinctions which are conferred upon genius, and resolve to devote every talent and every hour to the defence and illustration of the Gospel. This, my dear sir, is superior to all Greek and all Roman fame.'

"Contemplated from the confines of eternity, his past life looked to Mr Chalmers like a feverish dream, the fruitless chasing of a shadow. Blinded by the fascination of the things seen and temporal, he had neglected the things unseen and eternal. He had left undischarged the highest duties of human life, and he had despised that faith which can alone lend enduring value to its labours, and shed the light of a satisfying hope around its close. How empty had all these bygone years been of God! True, he had not been wholly forgetful; many an adoring thought of the Almighty, as the great Creator, Upholder, Governor of the universe, had filled his mind, and many grateful feelings towards his heavenly Benefactor had visited his heart. But that, he now felt, was not enough. The clear unchallengeable right belonged to God over the full affection of the heart, the unremitting obedience of the life; but no such affection had been entertained; and it had been but seldom that a dis tinct regard to the will of God had given its birth or its direction to any movement of his past history. In name acknowledged, but in their true nature and extent misunderstood, he felt that his Creator's claims over him had been practically disallowed and dishonoured during his whole career. The meagre and superficial faith of former years could no longer satisfy him. It could not stand the scrutiny of the sick-room; it could not bear to be confronted with death; it gave way under the application of its own chosen test; for surely, even reason taught that if man have a God to love and serve, and an eternity beyond death to provide for, towards that God a supreme and abiding sense of obligation should be cherished, and to the providing for that eternity the whole efforts of a lifetime should be consecrated. Convinced of the fatal error upon which the whole scheme of his former life had been constructed, Mr Chalmers resolved upon a change. He would no longer live here as if here he were to live for ever. Henceforth and habitually he would recognise his immortality; and remembering that this fleeting pilgrimage was a scene of trial, a place of spiritual probation, he would dedicate himself to the service of God, and live with the high aim and purpose of one who was in training for eternity. It was a kind of life which had already been realized by countless thousands of his fellow-men, and why not of him? It had been realized by Pascal in making the sublime transition from the highest walks of science to the still higher walk of faith. It had been realized by those early Christians whose lives and testimonies he was now engaged in studying. Surrounded with such

a cloud of witnesses, a new ambition, stronger and more absorbing than that which had thirsted so eagerly for literary fame, fired Mr Chalmers' breast. Every thought of his heart, every word of his lip, every action of his life, he would henceforth strive to regulate under a high presiding sense of his responsibility to God; his whole life he would turn into a preparation for eternity. With all the ardour of a nature which never could do any thing by halves, with all the fervour of an enthusiasm which had at length found an object worthy of its whole energies at their highest pitch of effort, he gave himself to the great work of setting himself right with God. The commencement of such an enterprise marks a great and signal epoch in his spiritual history. It sprung out of his profound sense of human mortality; his vivid realizing of the life that now is in its connexion with the life that is to come; his recognition of the supremacy which God and the high interests of eternity should wield over the heart and life of man. It did not originate in any change in his speculative belief, induced by his studies either of the contents or credentials of the Bible. In the course of that memorable transition-period which elapsed from the beginning of November 1809 till the close of December 1810, important modification in his doctrinal views were undoubtedly effected. His partial discovery of the pervading and defiling element of ungodliness, gave him other notions of human depravity than those he had previously entertained, and prepared him not only to acquiesce in, but to appropriate to himself representations from which a year before he would have turned away with disgust. And with his altered view of human sinfuluess, there came also an altered view of the atonement. He was prepared now to go farther than he had gone before in recognising the death of Christ as a true and proper sacrifice for sin. Still, however, while looking to that death for the removal of past guilt, he believed that it lay wholly with himself after he had been forgiven to approve himself to God, to win the Divine favour, to work out the title to the heavenly inheritance. The full and precise effect of Christ's obedience unto death was not as yet discerned. Over that central doctrine of Christianity which tells of the sinner's free justification before God through the merits of His Son, there hung an obscuring mist; there was a flaw in the motive which prompted the struggle in which Mr Chalmers so devotedly engaged; there was a misconception of the object which it was possible by such a struggle to realize. More than a year of fruitless toil had to be described ere the true ground of a sinner's acceptance with God was reached, and the true principle of all acceptable obedience was implanted in his heart."

(To be continued.)

FRAGMENTS.

THE noblest spirits are those which turn to heaven, not in the hour of sorrow, but in that of joy; like the lark, they wait for the clouds to disperse, to soar into their native element.

Opportunities to do good create obligations to do it; he that hath the means must answer for the end. The believer may well bless God for this truth, namely, that he may lose the [sentiment] assurance of his salvation without his salvation being endangered. The cloud may, and it is believed often has, involved the vessel during the greater part of her course, which is not the less advancing her to the

haven where she would be. Is Christ in the vessel ? is that which concerns us.-D'Aubigné.

It is in the furnace of trial that the God of the

gospel conceals the pure gold of his most precious blessings.-Ibid.

He who commands our duty perfectly knows our weakness.-Bridges.

Man may judge us by the success of our efforts; God looks at the efforts themselves.-Charlotte Elizabeth.

The habit of continually dwelling on our petty grievances, whether real or imaginary, is like constantly surveying mites through magnifiers; by degrees we believe them the monsters they appear.Christian Lady's Magazine.

He who can look up to his God with most believing confidence, is sure to look most gently on his fellow-men; while he who shudders to lift his eye to heaven, often casts the haughtiest glances on the. things of earth.-Detached Thoughts.

"Thou God seest me.' 39 The remembrance of this gives a sting to the worldling in the midst of his highest enjoyments, and affords joy to the Christian in his moments of deepest sadness.-Ibid.

We are apt to look with great complacency on those who fall short in things wherein we think we excel.-Ibid.

The least enemy being despised and neglected, as men observe, proves often too great. The smallest appearances of evil, the least things that may prejudice our spiritual good, while we make no reckoning of them, may do us great mischief.

If you would have free spirits for spiritual things, keep them at a spare diet in all things temporal. There is no right believing without diligence and watchfulness joined with it.

He who carries other graces without humility, carries a precious powder in the wind without a

cover.

Were our hearts much on that rich inheritance above, it would be impossible to refrain our tongues, and to pass on so silent concerning it.

Oh! how unseemly is it to have an immortal soul drowned in the esteem and affection of any thing that perishes, and to be cold and indifferent in seeking after a good that will last as long as itself!-Leighton.

God doth often wisely and mercifully cause rough blasts of affliction to arise upon them (ie., his people), to make them gather their loose garments nearer to them, and gird them closer.-Ibid.

Praying frequently helps to pray fervently.-Rev. T. Scott.

No article of faith can be truly and duly preached, without necessarily and simultaneously infusing a deep sense of the indispensableness of a holy life.Coleridge.

The visible kingdom of Christ is a floor containing a mixture of wheat and chaff, and every false doctrine is a wind which He whose fan is in his hand, employs for its purgation.-Fuller.

To live in this world of opportunities, given but once, and to neglect them, is the most fearful fate that can befall a creature of eternal responsibilities. -Howitt.

THE BROTHERS OF THE MANSE.

"THEY that will be rich fall into divers temp. tations." "That was our father's text to-day," said Alexander Burnett, addressing his two brothers as they sat together one Sabbath evening in the winter holidays.

James, John, and Alexander Burnett, were the sons of a pious and laborious minister, who about-years ago occupied a comfortable old manse, situated among the hills and hamlets of a pastoral parish in that part of Scotland known from old times and songs as 'the South country.' There was neither brother nor sister in that household but themselves. Their mother had died early-she was the wife of Mr Burnett's youth-and from her decease he devoted himself, if possible, with greater earnestness to the education of his sons, and the discharge of his pastoral duties, retaining the faithful old servant she had left him, as one amply qualified to fill the office of housekeeper in his humble establishment.

"Bessie and I will meet at farthest," the good man was wont to say, "long before the trees we have planted in our earthly garden have grown old, and much work presses on that span of separation."

Things had been so long in the state described, that the young Burnetts scarcely remembered their mother. They were all three, at the period of our story, rosy, brown-haired boys. Their father's hope for this world, and favourites with all ranks in the parish, for frank, good-natured, pleasant speech, and harmless ways. Each lad received the same amount of sound and serious education. There was but little difference of years between them; but a marked dissimilarity of character, which spoke out while they talked by the bright fire in that old manse parlour—a small narrow room with plain furniture, and no ornament except the portraits of their mother and John Knox over the mantelpiece, and awaited the return of their father, who had gone to visit a dying parishioner. "It's a grand thing to be rich," said James, throwing himself back in his chair with a glance of pride and resolution; "every body admires rich men. See how old Robertson's respected here; they say he was once but a baker's boy in Edinburgh. I would like to be rich "—

"And so would I," said John," but not to go plain and common-looking like old Robertson. I would have a carriage and four, a grand house, lots of servants, and fine clothes that nobody in the parish could buy."

"Well," said Alexander thoughtfully, "one wouldn't like to be poor; but if one must give account for every thing committed to one's trust, as our father said to-day, 'a large fortune might bring a heavy reckoning.""

"But if it were justly earned!" cried James. "And some of it spent in doing good!" said John.

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"Ay, there could be a deal of good done with money, if we were sure to use it for that end: but don't you remember what was also said in the sermon, 'that laying up treasures on earth has left many no time for laying up any in heaven?""

"Wouldn't you take a legacy, Alexander," said James looking archly at his brother, till Alexander hung down his head and smiled.

"I can't say I would not, but I should be afraid to wish for it after reading that passage, How hardly shall they that have riches""

"Wish only to be rich in faith, my boy," said their father, who had entered unperceived in the midst of the controversy, as he took his accustomed seat among them.

Mr Burnett's hair was whitening fast, and the stoop of age was growing on his once erect figure; the fatigues and exposure consequent on his ministerial labours in a scattered country parish, his hard study and ceaseless anxiety for the souls committed to his care, had brought premature decay upon him; and now the time was approaching when his sons must go forth to learn their respective business and professions, and he would be left alone in the manse with old Janet. His conversations with them were therefore more earnest and frequent than they had hitherto been, especially regarding those practical points on which active life is apt to bring so many a trial. The present question was one of that nature. It had been often discussed before, for few subjects present themselves more frequently; but the minister could not help fearing for his two elder sons.

His observation warned him that there was an alloy of pride in the one, and vanity in the other, naturally leading them to that over-esteem of wealth, to which the mind of youth is liable, before it has learned from time and experience, the lesson which they teach even worldly men, how short a way it can go in procuring human satisfaction. Hence, when considerate friends remarked to him that John and James were likely to make the best figure in life, the father was apt to reply, that he trusted divine grace would make his children equal; but it seemed to him that the quiet and thoughtful spirit of Alexander was most likely to walk free of snares, as it resembled that of his departed mother.

Kindly and carefully did Mr Burnett enter into the subject debated among his sons, explaining the arguments advanced in his previous sermon, and illustrating from his own observation and most extensive reading, that solemn declaration of Scripture, that "the love of money is the root of all evil."

James and John heard their father, as usual, with reverence and conviction; they had been accustomed to regard him not only as a parent, but to confide in him as a wise and gentle instructor; nor were his warnings then in vain, but the good seed has been often sown by the wayside, and on stony ground.

That quiet Sabbath evening closed, like all evenings in the manse, with praise and prayer; but week-day works and considerations re turned in their proper place the future pursuits of the young Burnetts were to be determined on. Their father wished to put each of his children to a respectable calling, believing that his own sojourn on earth would not be long. The minister had many friends, and, after some consultation with them, much talk with his boys, and many a fervent request for direction from higher wisdom, it was finally arranged, according to their own choice, that James and John should be sent as apprentices to two of Mr Burnett's oldest and most intimate acquaintances, one of whom was a bookseller and the other a civil engineer, but both men of some mark in the Scottish capital; while Alexander, who desired to devote himself to his father's vocation, should accompany them hither and commence the requisite studies.

Thus the brothers went out from their father's eye and roof, with many a blessing and many a counsel. The great city was new and strange to them; they had much to see, much to wonder at, and, their father said, many snares to fear among its busy streets and thousands. Mr Burnett knew from his own college days the perils that beset unguarded youth in the crowded town; and, in order to guard against them as far as human wisdom could, he made it a request, for old friendship's sake, that his two elder sons should be boarded with the families of their respective masters. Both were trustworthy church-going men, who kept regular households though much immersed in business, and, as Mr Burnett feared, somewhat worldly-minded; but he thought it was the best that could be done for James and John, while the same pious kindly widow with whom he had lodged when a student, in a retired street of the old town of Edinburgh, received Alexander into her domicile.

Thus the boys lived apart, each having to push his way in the working world; but they met at church, and sometimes on Sabbath evenings; always at new-year's time gathering home to the manse, to enliven the solitude of their father and old Jauet. As the seasons passed, and they grew to maturity, many a cheering account the minister heard of his sons on his occasional visits to Edinburgh; James' master was loud in praise of his steadiness and application to business, while John's cleverness and energy were no less applauded by the civil engineer; but Mr Burnett could still perceive that the former delighted in tales of men who had grown rich by their own endeavours, and the latter had a special eye for fine clothes and equipages.

Alexander was an industrious and attentive, though not a brilliant student. Many of his classfellows gained more prizes, but few stood higher in the esteem of eir teachers, and sum

mer after summer brought him to the manse, increased in growth and knowledge. As his mind expanded and his judgment strengthened, Mr Burnett rejoiced to see the fruits of deep convictions and Christian faith made manifest in the walk and conversation of his cheerful though serious youth. The father counselled, and watched over and prayed equally for all his sons; but Alexander was his confidant and comfort, and he looked forward with hope to the time when he should become his assistant or successor in the ministry. Their pastor's feelings on this subject were shared by his rustic flock; but a mightier Disposer had determined that Mr Burnett should never witness the fulfilment of his wishes among them.

He had complained of slight indisposition in the previous week, and one cold wet Sabbath, towards the end of Alexander's last collegiate session, the minister retired, according to an old habit of his, for private prayer and meditation before commencing the public duties of the day.

The church bell rang, the congregation assembled as usual, and Janet, surprised at her master's non-appearance, went up to warn him of the hour. Her repeated knocks being unanswered, the aged housekeeper ventured to look in, and saw Mr Burnett on his knees, but his head had fallen forward, and a nearer examination convinced her he was dead. In her grief and terror the old woman alarmed his now assembled flock, who poured to the manse in a body; but human aid was vain, the spirit of their faithful pastor had been breathed out, perhaps in prayer for them, and the father was removed without parting word or counsel.

Bitterly was that bereavement mourned by his parishioners, by his friends, and above all by his orphan sons. But time dries up the tears of the young. Their several avocations recalled them from his grave; but so strongly did the memory of his father plead in Alexander's favour, that both the patron and congregation, who in that parish chanced to be unanimous, determined to keep the manse unoccupied till he was licensed to preach, and after his first sermon the young man was in due form presented, called, and ordained to his father's office.

This had been his heart's desire, and henceforth it was Alexander's aim to walk in his father's footsteps, in hopes of leading many with him to the better country. The little which Mr Burnett's modest housekeeping and many charities allowed him to leave, he resigned to his brothers, considering himself amply provided for in his charge; and that, as soon as each had thoroughly learned his business, enabled him to become a sort of junior partner in his master's establishment.

The young Burnetts were now reckoned among men in their generation; but time brought changes among them. In the midst