have foes within, and foes without. And nothing but constant vigilance and unwearied exertion can vanquish our spiritual enemies, and secure our progress in religion. We should search fearlessly into the deep recesses of our souls, and bring to light the hidden things of darkness. We should often compare our whole characters with the requisitions of the gospel, determined to know ourselves, the worst of ourselves, that we may apply the proper remedies to all our moral maladies. We should labor, by habitual practice, to make all the duties of religion a pleasure, and often let the pure incense of devotion ascend from the consecrated altars of our hearts. If, therefore, our knowledge of ourselves makes us more humble, more charitable, and more watchful, then will our faults be likely to be in a good degree corrected, and our character essentially improved. To that Good Being who has promised his holy spirit for the guidance and purification of his erring and sinful children let us pray without ceasing, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults, keep back thy servants also from presumptuous sins." B. W.

THE STING OF DEATH.

RELIGION is the one thing needful to sustain the soul in the closing scene of earthly existence. We connect so many gloomy associations with the idea of death;-the wasting sickness; the watchings and tears of anxious friends; the distressing hour of separation; the ghastly corpse; the sable habiliments of mourning; the slow moving hearse; the dismal tolling of the bell; and the

last agonizing look, ere the object of affection is consigned to its kindred dust,—as to render the subject peculiarly unwelcome to our minds. And when any circumstance forces our attention to the period of our own dissolution, we utter the hasty prayer-O let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his; and then we banish the chilling thought.

But is death itself so much to be feared? When I have seen the tender infant, sickening in its mother's arms, opening its entreating eyes and raising its little hands for comfort, then drooping like a new mown flower, and without a struggle sinking into the sleep of death, with an angelic smile on its countenance, I have asked-Is this death? It is; but it has no terrors here. And when I have stood beside the dying minister of Christ, whose head was white with the snows of more than eighty winters; and heard him pour forth fervent gratitude for the manifold blessings of his long life, and joyfully call upon his heavenly Father to receive his departing spirit; and watched the last flickerings of the lamp of life before it was extinguished, I have asked-Is this death? It is; but there are no terrors to me here. I have not yet discovered where lies the sting of death. When I have seen one in the strength of manhood, who had lived as he listed, and sneered at the realities of religion, suddenly prostrated on a bed of extreme suffering; and while the fatal disease was fast preying on his earthly frame, heard him calling for the consolations of the Gospel, because conscience, an awakened, accusing conscience, had kindled a hell in his soul ten times hotter than his burning, tormenting fever; and after much bodily and mental anguish, ob.

served the contortions of agony which death had left on his features, I have asked-Is this death? It is indeed death. And it is death in all its terrors. I know now what the sting of death is.

Let a man lead a wicked, impenitent life, and when brought upon the bed of death, if reason keeps her seat, and conscience is faithful in her duty, his last hours may well inspire us with dread. The hell in his own soul, he cannot quench with all the reasonings of sophistry and infidelity. The consciousness of past wickedness, the torment of present sins, and the fear of an hereafter, will be his bosom companions. And it will not be in the power of any creed, christian or infidel, to relieve his mental agony. No. It is religion alone; the recollection of a well spent life; the possession of christian virtues; a well grounded hope of future felicity; and an unwavering confidence in the infinite Father; it is these, and nothing but these, that can smooth the pillow of death and destroy its sting. But with these; with the innocence and purity of childhood; with the character of goodness and piety, death itself is not to be feared. Its bodily pangs, even when most excruciating, can be of but short duration. Its appalling associations can be banished by the force of reason and reflection; its terrors can be dissipated by the cheering light of the Gospel; and it becomes the door of admission to regions of glory and eternal blessedness. If then, we would have support, when called to walk through the dark valley of the shadow of death, we must prepare for it now. must make religion our friend. We must live soberly and righteously and godly in the present world. And when our earthly pilgrimage closes, no matter how few

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or how many seasons have rolled over our heads, we shall be enabled to meet the summons of death with a smile. With triumphant hope, we may exclaim-I have fought a good fight; I have kept the faith; I have finished my course; I am hastening to the bosom of my God. O grave, where is thy victory; O death, where is thy sting! B. W.

EXPLANATION OF SCRIPTURE.

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.-HEBREWS vi. 4, 5, 6.

THERE is one material error in this translation. The clause, if they shall fall away," should be rendered, “and have fallen away." In the original, the word is kai, which is never rendered if, but most generally and. The participle also is in the past tense, and not in the future, as it now reads in our Testament. Consequently the correct translation must be—and have fallen away.

The unlearned reader need not depend on my authority alone. The following remarks are from the honest, learned, orthodox Dr Macknight, who has published a valuable translation of the apostolic Epistles. "The participle, perapesontas, being in the past tense, ought to have been translated, have fallen away.' Nevertheless, our translators, following Beza, who, without any authority, has inserted in his version the word if, have rendered

this sentence, if they shall fall away, that this text might not contradict the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. But as no translator should take upon him to add to, or alter the scripture for the sake of any favorite doctrine, I have translated the clause, and have fallen away." This must be satisfactory to every candid mind.

In this passage, the writer is speaking of some apostates from christianity. When Jesus Christ was on earth, many of the Jews attended upon his ministry; they were enlightened by his preaching; they tasted of the heavenly gift, the christian religion; they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, in acquiring a christian temper; they tasted the good word of God, in his fulfilment of his promise of a Saviour; and the powers of the world to come, in the miracles wrought in confirmation of his Messiahship. But the first disciples were soon persecuted. And some of those, who had been blessed with the Saviour's instructions, renounced their allegiance; they separated from his professed followers; they returned to Judaism; and they crucified the Son of God afresh, by uniting with his murderers, and maintaining, with them, that he was a malefactor, and had been justly crucified. Their apostacy is mentioned to incite the Hebrews to perseverance in their christian profession; and stimulate to greater exertions for religious goodness. And the impossibility of reclaiming such backsliders, is urged as a powerful motive to constancy. When we speak of the impossibility of reforming a confirmed drunkard, we mean to express only an extreme degree of improbability. And so here.

In this sense, it was not to be expected, that those who had publicly renounced their religious faith, dispo