Punto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. ‹ Are Motives wanted to ensure good conduct in every -department of human life? Titus ii. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who GAVE himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Are we looking for an Example in which these virtues and graces are embodied as well as presented for imitation? Hebrews xii. 2, 3. Looking unto JESUS the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God; for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in - your minds.

Is Consolation desireable amidst the multiplied trials and distresses of mortality? 2 Cor. iv. 17. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Are we anxious to be upheld in the awful moments of DISSOLUTION? 1 Peter i. 3, 4. Blessed be the GOD and FATHER of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively kope by the resur◄ rection of JESUS CHRIST from the dead to an in

heritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth ・not away, reserved in Heaven for you. And to introduce one passage more from THE NEW TESTAMENT. The Final consummation of all things is thus delineated with an awful grandeur in the book of the REVELATIONS, which concludes the canon of Scripture. Rev. xx. 11, 12, 13. And I saw a great white throne, and HIM that sat upon it, from whose face THE EARTH and THE HEAVENS fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw The dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened which is THE BOOK OF LIFE, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And THE SEA gave up the dead which were in it, and Death and the Grave delivered up the dead that were in them, and THEY WERE

JUDGED EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS!

Monsieur Fleury tells us that the EARLY CHRISTIANS were so attached to the Scripture, that women wore it hanging at their necks; children were trained up to repeat it by heart; most persons carried it about with them; some washed their hands before they took it up to read, and many were found buried with the Gospels lying on their breasts! Indeed the primitive confessors had that value for their Bible, that they would rather give their bodies to be burnt than deliver over the precious deposit into the hands of their enemies the heathen persecutors, who im

periously demanded it of them. Those unhappy persons who complied in the hour of temptation were branded with the name of traditores (because they betrayed or delivered up their Bibles), an appellation of the greatest infamy; so that the guilty, even after their having expressed the profoundest repentance, were, with the utmost difficulty, re-admitted into the bosom of the church! And, in modern times, passing by a host of inferior testimonies, listen to the declaration of Boyle, famed for his philosophical dis-coveries, and mark the conduct of Locke, who penetrated the deepest recesses of the human mind. ROBERT BOYLE having acknowledged that the Bible was his most honourable and beloved subject of meditation, declares-" I would bring myself to prefer the least sprig of the Tree of Life to a whole wood of bays (alluding to his scientific fame), and am inclined to think that a Christian may find a higher satisfaction in persuading men to pay their praises to THE SCRIPTURE than in receiving them. from all the world besides !" And JOHN LOCKR

Star of mind,

Whose beams illum'd the soul, disclos'd its powers;

By whom stood truth, who held a mirror clear

In which MAN saw his stature full display'd,
And all those energies which make him man-

employed a large portion of his time in the study of the sacred writings; but the Book of Psalms, distinguished for its sublimely devotional strains, was,

at his own special desire, read to him during the last
hour of his life! Thus his love of THE BIBLE, which
had been the rule of his faith, the regulator of his
practice, the solace of his cares, and the source of
his noblest expectations, terminated only with his
dissolution. We cannot therefore wonder that he
should have uttered those expressions so well known
and so generally admired by every denomination in
the religious world" Whoever would attain to a
true knowledge of THE CHISTIAN RELIGION in the
full and just extent of it, let him study the holy
Scriptures, especially the New Testament, wherein
are contained the words of eternal life! It has God
for its author, truth for its matter, and for its end
salvation." Nor in this important respect were the
Jews behind the Christians. "Ask one of our nation
(says Josephus), concerning THE LAW, he will tell
you all things more readily than his own name; for,
learning them as soon as we come to have any know-
ledge of things, we preserve them indelibly engraven
upon our minds!"

When the Reformation took place in England, conscious how inestimable were the contents of the Scriptures, the Bishop of London, to facilitate the perusal of them, caused SIX BIBLES to be chained to certain convenient places in St. Paul's church for all that were inclined to read. And, upon the pillars to which the Bibles were fastened, were inscribed curious regulations which, while they shew much

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good sense, indicate also the characteristic contracted❤ ness of the times in which they lived. May this singular circumstance left on record by an ecclesiastical historian, inspire us with thankfulness that we live in times of superior light and liberty!*

Futile and ridiculous is the objection urged by unbelievers, that THE BIBLE, particularly the New Testament containing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, has been the occasion of endless differences and bitter contentions throughout the world. To reject THE GOSPEL (says the Rev. D. Bogue in his Essay on the Divine Authority of the New Testament), because bad men pervert it, and weak men deform it, and angry men quarrel about it, and bigotted men look sour on others and curse them, because they do not agree in every tittle with themselves, displays the same folly as if a person should cut down a tree bearing abund

* RUSSEL tells us in his History of Modern Europe of the institution of the feast of the Ass in the 10th century, which was celebrated in several churches of France in commemoration of the Virgin Mary's flight into Egypt. A young damsel richly dressed with a child in her arms was placed upon an Ass superbly caparisoned? The ass was led to the altar in solemn procession. High mass was said with great pomp. The ass was taught to kneel at proper places; a hymn no less childish than impious was sung in his praise, and when the ceremony was ended, the Priest, instead of the usual words with which he dismissed the people, brayed three times like an ass, and the people, instead of the usual response, brayed three times in return!!!