wail your folly for ever and ever. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Hearken, ye stout-hearted and far from righteousness, God has brought near to you the righteousness of his Son; and if you receive it, his salvation shall not tarry; you shall instantly enter upon the enjoyment of it!"

This speech made a powerful impression upon many present; hot that they believed the world would be ended so soon as I had predicted, but it led their attention to events which must come some time or other.

do

Leaving the Exchange, I proceeded to visit a Christian family who resided in the neighbourhood. I shook hands, and inquired if they had heard the good news. "No!" said they, "What news"The Lord is at hand; the Heavens shall only retain him till Sabbath morning.' One said, "Charming! but I fear it is too good news to be true shall I be delivered from this frail,, sinful body, on Sabbath! Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!" A second added, "Amen, even so come Lord Jesus; I have waited for thy salvation. But how you know the Lord is to be here so soon?" An angel told me so,' said I, last night.' A third person present called out, "O Sirs, it is well with you, indeed! but it makes me tremble! O what shall I do to be saved?" Remember the old answer,' replied 1, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.' Light attended this faithful saying, for the youth was enabled to believe in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus; and was immediately as happy as any of us. Then we all sat down and sung, "Lo, he comes, with clouds descending," &c. After concluding our hymn, we compared our feelings on the occasion, and found that the prospect of Christ's near approach completely banished from our minds all sin; and the tempter cemed to have no power over us What fools we have been, not daily to be looking for the coming of the Lord, and thus to have lived constantly under the powers of the world to come!

In the evening I returned home, telling every passenger I met on my way to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Most of the night I spent in prayer to God, beseeching him to make quick work with thousands, to create nations of believers in one day.

Next day, I found the news had spread all over the metropolis. Anxiety seemed visible in almost every countenance; prayers were heard from almost every house I passed; business seemed quite at a stand. The joy that I had on beholding these things I cannot express; at the same time it was frequently damped by shocking scenes which presented themselves to me: many had drank to intoxication, to banish thought. From bills pasted up, I found that the public amusements were greatly multiplied, in order to divert the public attention from impending ruin. This reminded me of the state of the old world when Noah entered the ark, who were eating and drinking, FI

marrying and giving in marriage the very day when their destruction commenced.

I called at a house where an old Christian had been confined upwards of ten years to a sick bed. Said 1," John, have you heard the good news?" Oyes, good news it is to me;' the day of my release is at hand; long have I looked for his appcaring; and sometimes, when in great agony, have I said to my dearest Lord, "Why are thy chariot-wheels so long of coming?" but I find that He who shall come will come, and will not tarry. The moment his trumpet shall sound, I shall start up, and, ascending to my Lord and your Lord, I shall leave death and the grave for ever behind me."

In this way was I employed till Sabbath morning about the dawu, when suddenly the Heavens were opened, and their glorious contents manifested. The Saviour appeared, clothed with light as with a garment, attended with myriads of angels, and myriads, of glorified men, with palms of victory in their hands. Every eye was fixed on Jesus. Millions of ungodly men sought for hiding-places, but none could be found. Angelic knowledge found them out, and angelic powers compelled them to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. Here they were arraigned, capitally convicted of treason against the Lord, and condemned to suffer unutterable misery for ever and ever. The scene now became inconceivably awful. Two innumerable divisions of mankind on the eve of parting, to see each other no more, no, not for ever and ever.

The scene closed with Christ's commanding the wicked to depart from his presence. He had no sooner said Depart, than they immediately disappeared; and the righteous, by his kind invitation, went into life eternal.

REFLECTIONS ON LUKE XII. 9.

Consider the lilies how they grow.

HEMAN.

Ir is sweetly remarked, that if the all-wise Creator condescends to scatter so many ornaments amidst the wilderness through which the Christian travels to his heavenly home, what must that home be! If his creative power adorns with specimens of inimitable beauty the outer court, what must be the splendor and richness of the Holy of Holies!

Flowers are amongst the delicate and minute species of Nature's loveliest productions; and have been the praise of poets and the study of naturalists from the earliest ages. They are cultivated and admired by the florist, studied and arranged by the botanist, analized and applied to medical purposes by the chymist, and welcomed as the natural treasure and harbinger of spring by the rural tenants of the soil: to each of these

characters they yield an innocent recreation or useful pursuit; but the scripture we allude to, is not intended to urge the mind to consider the "lilies as they grow," merely to admire their foliage, to arrange their species, to extract their healing properties, or to ornament a nosegay; their claims upon the Christian's attention are superior, and point to the gracious allusion of their benevolent Creator, who marks them with a stamp of excellency beyond what all their hues unfold, by making them the subjects of his lips, and the memorials of his care to

man.

The Bible opens a new source of interest in all the minor works of creation. A mind evangelized (if the expression may be allowed) by the power of divine grace, can walk in the fields, or meditate in the retired paths of life with a sacred expositor of love and mercy, ennobling the produce of the fields, from the humble hyssop which grows upon the wall, to the stately cedar of Lebanon. The metaphors, similitudes, and parables which clothe the divine promises of Jehovah in a language familiar and easy to be understood, are indeed, as it is sweetly said, like "apples of gold in pictures of silver." With this treasury of consolation in our mind, let us pursue our Saviour's injunction, and Consider the lilies how they grow !"

It might be pleasing to consider the mechanism of nature, as it is unfolded in this beautiful flower, to trace how from the embryo, formed in the bulb or root, it remains torpid in the earth many months, is then attracted by the sun, and opens its snowy bosom to the sky; how erect and stately it sparkles its transient day, then drops its fading petals, and the retiring sap sinks into the root, and forms the blossom for the succeeding year! Beautiful imagery breaks in upon the mind with this view of the "lilies as they grow." We see an emblem of purity in its snowy whiteness, of the perfection of nature's God in the perfection of every part, and of the fragility of all terrestrial beauty in its decay: the wind passes over it, and it is gone! We see the provision laid up in the promise: every herb yielding seed, whose seed is in itself. But this is not all: the Christian may still consider the lilies as they grow, with more reviving images. The rod which the promises of Emanuel has be queathed him, is not a barren staff, but, like Aaron's rod, buddeth. When he takes the scripture, and considers "the lilies how they grow," the pleasing promise in Hosea breaks in upon his meditation: :- "I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily." Here the work of divine grace is familiarized to the mind, under the similitude of the soft falling shower and dew; and the flower, imperceptibly nourished in the earth, bears testimony, that under the secret attraction of divine love and power, a change may be wrought in the soul till it buds and blossoms as the rose; and the trembling believer may say, " I am like a green fir-tree; from thee is my fruit formed." This

imagery renews the enquiry after more divine similitudes; and the sweet rays of inspiration break in upon the memory. with "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley ;" cr, "as a lily amongst the thorns, so is my love amongst the daughters. Here the Saviour condescends to convey his image to our view as a peerless lily of the vallies; and to mention the church, as a lily amongst thorns. Can it be said that the Christian has not superior privileges, when he " considers the lilies as they grow?"

Lastly, The poor, despised, tried follower of the Lamb, the careful doubting Christian, may "consider the lilies as they grow," as a seal or stamp of God's providential provision and care for them who are ready to perish; he may fold the fair blossom to his bosom as a legacy of love from his dear. Saviour, and a memorial that he shall not be left destitute; and, following the gracious injunction of our Redeemer, he may pursue the promise attached:-"Consider the lilies how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet, I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven,-how much more shall he clothe you, O ye of little faith!"

THE ROBBER DISARMED BY CHARITY.

A PIOUS Lady of Montpellier, who devoted the greater part of her property to the relief of objects in distress, one day passing through a little wood, accompanied by her servant, was stopped by a man, who presented a pistol to her, demanding her money or her life. The good lady, without being terrified, looked on him with an air of kindness, and said, "Ah! my friend, you must be reduced to great extremity, since you are determined to take a part which both draws on you the wrath of God, and exposes you continually to all the rigours of human justice. I wish I had wherewith to supply your wahits,.and extricate you from the dangerous situation in which you are; but I have, alas! only eighteen franks, which I nad taken for my journey, and I offer you them with all my heart." The highwayman looking upon her attentively, before he would take the money, wished to know who she was; and when she told him,Wretch that I am,' said he, throwing himself at her feet, I have many times experienced your bounty, and have never been denied relief when I have sought it of you; and I was now upon the point of injuring you! Ah! believe me, my good Lady, I did not know you, or I should not have molested you; for though I have given you but too great a proof that I am a rob

ber, yet I am not a monster,-which I must be to injure a person so charitable as you are. Go on then, keep your money, and I will myself escort you out of the wood; and if any one come to atack you, I will defend you, at the hazard of my life.' The Lady was exceedingly affected, and endeavoured to represent to him his danger, and to urge motives of honour and religion, to induce him to quit so dreadful a way of life; and, promising to do more for hiin another time, she again offered him the eighteen franks: but knowing she wanted them for her journey, he would not accept them; till at last, she prevailed on him to take nine of them, which she threw to him on going out of the wood.

THE TRIUMPH OF PIETY,

SOME years before the Revolution, a lady, who was a bookseller at Paris, attracted by the reputation of Father Beauvegard, an eloquent preacher, went to the church of NotreDame to hear him. His discourse was particularly levelled against irreligious books; and the lady had cause enough to reproach herself on that scale, having been in the habit of selling many publications which were contrary to good manners and to religion. Interest had blinded her, as it does many others in the same line of business; but, penetrated by the sermon," she could no longer dissimulate that impious and licentious books are a dreadful source of poison to the heart; and she was compelled to acknowledge that those who print, or sell, or contribute to circulate them in any way whatever, are so many public poisoners, whom God will, one day, call to account for the evils they occasion. Impressed with these sentiments, she went to the preacher, and, with tears in her eyes, she said to him, "You have rendered me a great service, by giving me to see how culpable I have been in selling many impious books; and I intreat you to finish the good work you have begun, by taking the trouble to come to my warehouse to examine all the books which are in it, and to put aside all those which may be injurious to morals or religion. Whatever it cost me, I am determined to make the sacrifice: I had rather be deprived of a part of my property, than consent to lose my soul." Accordingly, Father Beauvegard paid her a visit next day, to examine her books. When he had separated the good from the bad, she took the latter, and, in his presence, cast them, one after another, into a great fire she had taken care to provide. The price or the works thus consumed, amounted, it is said, to about 6000 livres. She made the sacrifice without regret; and, from that time, endeavoured to sell no books but what might tend to counteract the evil done by the others. Perhaps every one will admire this example; but few, we fear, will "go and do likewise,"