I not be confounded: therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed."

MEDITATION.

"How little did they conceive what they were doing; hiding His face, as if He were some ignominious and wretched man, unfit to look on, in a sort of perhaps drunken frolic; hiding that face which is the light of heaven, and from which angelic creations drink ineffable bliss and hope. Surely it was of this the prophet spake, when he said, 'Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be ye very desolate, saith the Lord.' But even now in their wanton folly they are constrained, by a mysterious providence, to acknowledge Him as the Christ, although in mockery; and to personate by their mad actions the very history of their own condemnation and judgment. Thus did they hide His face from them: and yet if He lifted not up the light of His countenance upon them, and they did not behold His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten Son of God, it would have been well for them never to have been born. Yet it was not that He hid His face from them, but that they by their foolish, and careless, and cruel mockeries of justice and truth, by their thorough want of seriousness, had shut up and blinded their own eyes, so that they could not behold Him. And when they, by their evil deeds, had persuaded themselves that the face of God was hidden and covered, then they thought they could insult and beat Him with impunity, and be not at all the worse for it. This is the description of the wicked in all ages: they say, 'He hideth away His face, and will never see it;'

'The Lord doth not see, neither doth the God of Jacob regard it.' Thus as the high-priest, when he rent his clothes, so these now in their wickedness did that which was divinely significant of themselves, of their own conduct and fate. It was not that He, like Moses, put a veil over His face, that they might not behold His glory; but they themselves veiled His face in their wickedness. This would exactly describe the manifestation of Christ among the Jews; this would describe their case unto this day: the veil is on their heart, and placed by them on His countenance. So it is with all unbelievers. It would seem as if all this wonderful scene was intended to set before us a description of the folly and wickedness of men at all times; for in their sins they must be in the sight of good angels like these men; and sin itself is an insult in the presence of the Most High, and the denial of His adorable majesty. But may God grant that we all, even in these His humiliations, 'with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, may be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.'"

PASSAGES FROM THE LIVES AND DEATHS OF HOLY PERSONS.

Death of Rev. H. Martyn.

The last passage of his Diary, written a few days before death.

'Preserving mercy made me see the light of another morning; the sleep had refreshed me, but I was feeble and shaken; yet the merciless Hassan hurried me off. The munril, however, not being distant, I reached it without much difficulty. I expected to have found it another strong fort at the end

of the pass; but it is a poor little village within the jaws of the mountain. I was pretty well lodged, and felt tolerably well till a little after sunset, when the ague came on with a violence I had never before experienced; I felt as if in a palsy; my teeth chattering, and my whole frame violently shaken. Aga Hosyn and another Persian, on their way from Constantinople, going to Abbas Morra, whom I had just before been visiting, came hastily to render me assistance, if they could. These Persians appear quite brotherly after the Turks. While they pitied me, Hassan sat in perfect indifference, ruminating on the further delay this was likely to occasion. The cold fit, after continuing two or three hours, was followed by a fever, which lasted the whole night, and prevented sleep.

"No horses being to be had, I had an unexpected repose. I sat in the orchard, and thought with sweet comfort and peace of my God; in solitude my company, my Friend and Comforter. Oh! when shall time give place to eternity? when shall appear that new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness? There, there shall in nowise enter in anything that defileth: none of that wickedness which has made men worse than wild beasts; none of those corruptions which add still more to the miseries of mortality, shall be seen or heard of any more.

"At Tocat, upon the 16th of October, Mr. Martyn entered into rest."

Third Saturday in Lent.

SCRUPULOSITY.

PASSAGE FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATING MISPLACED SCRUPULOSITY.

"ON the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop, to pray, about the sixth hour; and he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet, knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth; wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.

"And there came a voice to him, saying, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.

"But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.

"And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou

common.

66

This was done thrice; and the vessel was received up again into heaven.”

PASSAGE FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE DISSUADING FROM IT.

"Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God."

RULES FOR A SCRUPULOUS MAN.

"1. The case of the scrupulous man is full of variety, or uncertainty; so that it is as easy to govern chance, and to give rules to contingency, as to him. In all other cases there is a measure, and a limit, and therefore a remedy can be proportioned to it; but in this fear is the disease, and that alone is infinite; and as it commences oftentimes without cause, so it proceeds without limit.

"2. He that is vexed with scruples must fly to God by prayer and fasting, that this lunacy and spirit of illusion, which sometimes throws him into the fire, and sometimes into the water, may be ejected; and the Spirit of God and the spirit of wisdom may come in substitution, according to the promise so often recorded in the holy Scriptures.

"3. Let the scrupulous man change the tremblings of his spirits to a more considerable object, and be sure, if he fears little things, let him fear great things greatly; every known sin let him be sure to avoid, little or great; for by this purity he shall seek God, and the things of God, -peace and truth,-and the honesty of his heart will bear him out from the mischief, if not quit from the trouble of scruple.

"4. Let the scrupulous man avoid all excess in mortification, and corporal austerities, because these are apt to trouble the body, and consequently to disorder the mind; and by the prevailing fond persuasions of the world they usually produce great opinions of sanctity, and ignorant consequences of God's favour.

"5. Let the scrupulous man interest himself in as few questions of intricate dispute, and minute disqui