strengthening grace. Our search will not be in vain; for those "who come unto Him, He will in no wise cast out:" and, with the Spirit of God to help us, we cannot fail of being completely triumphant in our Christian warfare. But let us so act, as to invite the Spirit's help, and let us beware lest, by our own sinfulness or negligence, we quench his gracious influences. When the grace of God seems to call our thoughts from their former evil purposes, and to lead them to holiness and to heaven, let us not refuse to hearken to the Spirit of truth; let us not endeavour to drive away for the present, the voice from heaven, with the hopes of recalling it at a more convenient season; for how can we tell that the call will ever be repeated? As long as we resist the grace of God, our sins are every day increasing, and our recovery every day becomes more hazardous: we are approaching nearer to our end; our burden becomes greater, our strength less; our business increases, the time to do it in decreases. The Almighty himself calls us from sin to holiness, from death to life. The word from his mouth says, "Turn ye, turn ye from the evil of your ways;" "Repent and be converted ;""Now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation." He who refuses to hear this voice now, may never be allowed to hear it again in the consoling words of invitation; its next awful words may be, "this night shall thy soul be required of thee."

V.

ON THE COLLECT FOR CHRISTMAS DAY.

"A MERRY Christmas to you, friend," said Charles, as he opened the door of the blind woman's cottage in our way home from church on the morning of Christmas Day.

"A happy Christmas, Charles," said the old woman gently, "I am past the days of merriment, but I can enjoy the comforts of the Gospel. This day is one of gladness to me, for it reminds me of the glad tidings which He who was born this day into our sinful world, came to bring to the weary and heavy-laden sinner.-But won't you sit down, neighbours, and tell me what you have heard at church?""That we will," said Charles, "I have marked

down in my Bible all the texts our minister repeated in his sermon to explain the expressions which we use in the particular prayers appointed for this day. The text of the discourse was from Gal. iv. 4, 5. When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.' Mr. H. observed that it was by Christ's taking our nature upon Him, that we gained a title to be called the sons of God. By nature we are children of wrath and of disobedience, a seed of evil-doers; but by grace we are made the children of God, members of Christ, and heirs together with Him of the kingdom of heaven. He further told us that our Church in the collect appointed for this day, and the Sunday after, designs to teach us that the birth and death of Christ can avail us nothing, unless we are indeed made new creatures, regenerate as the collect expresses it, born again of water and of the Holy Spirit; and unless we walk in newness of life, hating all sin, and relying solely for acceptance on the mercy of God through Christ Jesus." Here I interrupted Charles to inquire why in the office of baptism, the minister declares, after having baptized the infant, that he is regenerate and grafted into the body of Christ's Church, when the child not having been capable of doing good or evil, can have given no proof of being really born again from the death of sin to the life of righteousness.

"It was long," said Charles, "before I quite rightly understood that part of the service you speak of, but I now clearly see that by baptism the child is placed in a state of salvation, which he could not be by nature. He is taken into covenant with God, he is made a partaker of the promises of the Gospel. But there is a further work of the Spirit to be wrought in him, which the collect for this day will explain. You remember we pray that seeing we are regenerate, and made God's children by adoption and grace, we may daily be renewed by his Holy Spirit. This gift of the Spirit it is the duty of the parents to beg for the child till he can pray for it himself, and by this Spirit, the work which was begun in baptism, is continually carried on till it is perfected in glory. I remember

a friend who formerly gave me much instruction in the things of God, told me that I should find it the best method to understand spiritual things, by considering them as they are described in Scripture, in comparison with natural things. Whenever the Scriptures speak of any doctrine which seems hard to be understood, they describe it by some object or figure which we are in the constant habit of seeing, and by which it is made clear to us. Thus, to apply this remark to the subject of our present discourse; we know that when a child is born, he requires daily food and constant care, and that if neglected, he would die; and this helps us to understand that the life of the soul must, in like manner, be supported daily and hourly by its proper food, which are the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the comfort and assistance which Christ gives to all His faithful servants, to keep them from falling into the snares of their spiritual enemies."

"It is a dangerous thing" (here our blind friend interrupted Charles) "for people to think because they have once felt some good thoughts, and for a time perhaps, walked in Christ's ways, that therefore they are safe. I remember young man in the village I lived in when I was a girl, who had become acquainted with a set of misguided men who taught him that he was sure of salvation because he had once been much affected by a sermon he heard at a meeting, wherein the new birth was spoken of, and he had felt for a time strong convictions of sin, spent some hours in prayer, and seemed a real believer. And so doubtless he was for a time, but he neglected the means of grace. He grew careless; he thought himself righteous, and despised others who had not had such a wonderful conversion,' as he called his change. He wandered about the country, preaching to others, but never taking heed to the state of his own soul; temptation overtook him, he was drawn away into his former sins, and he died in great agony, bitterly exclaiming that he was one who had drawn back unto perdition, and earnestly exhorting all his companions to be watchful and to pray without ceasing, for that grace which alone can keep us from falling."

"Your sad tale, friend," said Charles, rising to take leave of the aged Christian, "will, I trust, prove a warn

ing to us both never to presume on having been 'called to a state of salvation,' but earnestly and diligently to pray for that help by which alone we can continue in the same unto our life's end." L. S. R.

THE COALHEAVER.

FOR the encouragement of persons who have grown up without being able to read, and who now feel painfully the want of so great means of instruction and improvement, I send a little incident which lately came to my notice.

In visiting my parishioners I have found many who were always able to read, having been taught at the schools when they were children, but very few, if any, who had ever taught themselves, after they lost the opportunity of early instruction. It was therefore most gratifying to me, on inquiring into the circumstances of one poor family, to find that the head of it had learned to read tolerably well, long after he had grown up and married, and when at the time he was constantly engaged in a very laborious occupation. I found him sitting at home with his wife, as he had scarcely recovered from an illness, happy and contented in the midst of great poverty, and with sickness in his family; and in my conversation with him, one of the first things I discovered, was, that he had made the Lord his trust and consolation, and that one chief source of his cheerfulness and contentment was the Word of God, which, by diligent application, he had become able to read. The business of a coalheaver had occupied almost all his days, and in the evening no doubt he must have felt himself tired and exhausted, and with most other labourers, have been tempted to spend his remaining hours in idleness at the public house, or to throw himself at once upon his bed for repose after his fatigues. Those hours, however, he devoted to the difficult and troublesome work of going through the children's course at school, the alphabet and spelling, in order that he might hereafter have the delight and satisfaction of opening the Bible for himself, and drinking as from a perpetual fountain, of those living streams of the water of life, which are thus opened to the daily enjoyment of all

who can read. Whether indeed we can read or not, the word of Christ may dwell in us richly in all wisdom and in all knowledge, by means of hearing it, and carefully treasuring up in our memory what we hear; but although it is not necessary that we should read for ourselves, yet every one must confess that there can be no earthly consolation or blessing so great to a Christian as to be able at any time he pleases to search through those blessed Scriptures which God has "caused to be written for our learning," and thus to make them, with David, "his meditation all the day." Our poor coalheaver was induced to attempt the work which so few at his years undertake, by the advice of his wife, who became also his instructress. As she very artlessly told me, it was her first desire, after her marriage, to teach her husband what his parents had unfortunately omitted to do, and with great diligence she accomplished her desire. He is now able to make out any book which may be given him, and seems to have no greater delight than in studying those which are pious and instructive. During his illness much of their time has been spent in reading the Bible to one another, his wife has the happiness of seeing her labours crowned with success, and he has also the pleasure of thinking that if ever she should be unable, through any affliction or in illness, to continue their present practice, he could then reward her pains in teaching him by using for her benefit and instruction that most valuable talent which she has -been the means of procuring him.

Their contentment and happiness in poverty and suffering, has, I am persuaded, been owing in great measure to the constant resource they have enjoyed in this delightful occupation, which not only has soothed the hours of pain, but, while it occupied and employed their minds, made them also at the same time to increase in that wisdom which is unto salvation. Often it has kept him from even the temptation of wishing to join his thoughtless companions, because it has made his home more dear to him; and his fireside more cheerful. There he has found both employment for his thoughts, and instruction for his soul; and those domestic habits have been formed, which make so great a part of true happiness. The pleasure