and thy strong tower. "In that he suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." Dost thou feel thy own littleness and insignificance? Thy God thinketh upon thee. "The hairs of your head are all numbered." "Ye are of more value than many sparrows." Thou mayest be little and unknown among men, but a precious diadem in the hands of thy God. "He is nigh unto thee in all that thou callest on him for." Various and changing may be the scenes through which thou passest. But all shall be tempered by his wisdom for thine own advantage. "All things work together for good unto them that love him." Thou shalt die. But when thou walkest through the valley of the shadow of death, he shall be with thee. But thy "flesh shall also rest in hope;" for "in his book all thy members are written." And while adoring "Him that sitteth upon the throne, and the Lamb in the midst of the throne," "God with us" shall be the burden of thy song for ever. Is Christ our Immanuel-God with us? Then let us take care that we are with him,-coming to him habitually in acts of faith and love, walking with him and before him; so shall he to us be all in all, the strength of our heart, and our portion for ever.-Watson. "LORD, IS IT I?" JUDAS is not the only man who needs to ask this question. Christ has been betrayed more than once. He is betrayed every day by false or negligent professors of religion. No wicked man can injure Christianity so much as one who has professed it. He is supposed to know all about it; and if he apostatizes, and declares all religion an imposture, his authority has great weight with irreligious men. Or if his life shows indifference to religion, the unconverted presume that they are safe in neglecting what even its professors care so little about. There is no limit to the pernicious influence which an inconsistent Christian may exert. Who, then, is doing this great evil? Who is strengthening the hands of the wicked? Who is standing in the way of sinners ? The real Christian suspects himself. The apostles all asked, "Lord, is it I?" Judas spoke last. The hypocrite has no fears for himself. "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" Peter, before he fell, declared with great positiveness that, though he died, he would not deny his Master. Who in our churches are labouring for a general reformation of morals, and revival of religion? Or who is secretly opposing both? Is there no Achan in the camp to be removed? "Lord, is it I?” THOUGHTS FROM ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. LOOKING TO GOD.-It is not from myself I look for comfort at any time, but from my God and his free grace. Here is comfort enough for all times. When I am at the best, I ought not, I dare not, rely upon myself; when I am at the worst, I may and should rely upon Christ and his sufficient grace. Though I be the vilest sinner that ever came to him, yet I know that he is more gracious than I am sinful; yea, the more my sin is, the more glory will it be to his grace to pardon it. FAITH.-Faith first purifies the heart, empties it of the love of sin, and then fills it with the consolation of Christ, and the hope of glory. REDEMPTION.-There is one redemption. He that is redeemed from destruction by the blood of Christ is likewise redeemed from that vain and unholy conversation that leads to it. A BEAUTIFUL THOUGHT.-There are no dumb children among those that are born of God; they all have that spirit of prayer by which they not only speak, but cry, Abba, Father." 66 THE SCRIPTURES.-The Scriptures are a depth that few can wade far into, and none can wade through; but yet all may come to the brook, and refresh themselves with drinking of the streams of its living waters, and go in a little way, according to their strength and sta ture. THE GRACE OF GOD IN THE HEART. The grace of God in the heart of man is a tender plant in a strange, unkindly soil; and, therefore, cannot well prosper and grow without much care and pains. GOD'S IMAGE IN THE SOUL.If men can read the characters of God's image in their own souls, those are the counterpart of the golden characters of his love, in which their names are written in the book of life. A GOLDEN CHAIN.-If election, effectual calling, and salvation be inseparably linked together, then by any one of them a man may hold upon all the rest, and know that his hold is sure. THE PEACE THAT PASSETH KNOWLEDGE. All the peace and favour of the world cannot calm a troubled heart; but where the peace is that Christ gives, all the trouble and disquiet of the world cannot disturb it. Outward distress to a mind thus at peace, is but the rattling of the hail upon the tiles to him that sits within the house to a sumptuous feast. SIMPLICITY OF FAITH. THE late king of Sweden was greatly exercised upon the subject of faith some time previous to his death. A peasant being once on a particular occasion admitted to his presence, the king, knowing him to be a person of singular piety, asked him what he took to be the true nature of faith. The peasant entered deeply into the subject, and much to the king's comfort and satisfaction. The king, at last, on his death-bed, had a return of his doubts and fears as to the safety of his soul, and still the same question was perpetually in his mouth to those about him: "What is real faith?" His attendants advised him to send for the Archbishop of Upsal, who, coming to the king's bedside, began in a learned and logical manner to enter into the scholastic definition of faith. The prelate's disquisition lasted an hour. When he had done, the king said with much energy, "All this is ingenious, but not comfortable: it is not what I want. Nothing but the farmer's faith will do for me." Biblical Illustration. MOURNING FOR THE DEAD. "They mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son." ."-2 SAM. i. 12. Thus did David, and those who were with him, weep and fast until the evening, because the "mighty were fallen," and because the weapons of war" had "perished." When a father or mother "falls on the ground," the children have stated periods when they weep and fast in memory of their dead. On the day of the full moon, those who have lost their mothers fast until the sun comes to the meridian, and in the evening they take milk and fruit. For a father, the sons fast on the new moon in the same way as for the mother. Fasts are exceedingly numerous amongst the Hindoos, and they often keep them with great rigour. Numbers abstain three days every month. On the first they do not eat till three o'clock in the afternoon; on the second, at night; and on the third, not till the evening. Some also watch during the whole of the last night. The Mahometans make a great merit of fasting (as they term it) forty days and forty nights: many of them take only just sufficient to sustain life. In the beginning of their great fast, therefore, a man will be comely and in good condition; but in the end of it he will appear to be little better than a skeleton. ORIENTAL GARDENS. "Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs. Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee."1 KINGS xxi. 2, 3. See Eccles. ii. 5. Our first parents had for their residence a beautiful garden, which may have had some influence upon their immediate descendants, in imparting to them a strong predi lection for the best emblems of Paradise. People in England will scarcely be able to appreciate the value which the Orientals attach to a garden. The food of many of them consists of vegetables, roots, and fruits; many of their medicines also, being indigenous, are produced in their gardens. Here they have their fine fruit-trees, and constant shade; and here they have their wells and places for bathing. See the proprietor, in his undress, walking around his little domain! His fence or wall is high enough to prevent any one from overlooking him. He strolls about, to pick up the fruit, and cull the flowers. He cares not for the world; he is satisfied with the scenes around him. Ahab wished to have Naboth's garden. But how could he part with "the inheritance of" his "fathers?" There was scarcely a tree which had not some pleasing associations connected with it: one was planted by the hand of a beloved ancestor, another in memory of some great event, as on the day a child is born, parents often cause a number of fruit-trees to be planted. The water which he drank, and the fruit which he tasted, were from the same sources as those which refreshed his fathers. How then could he, in disobedience to God's command, and in violation of all those tender feelings, give up his garden to Ahab? To part with such a place is, to the people of the East, like parting with life itself. BREATH A SYMBOL. "By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed."-JOB iv. 9. The margin has, "By his anger." See also Exod. xv. 8; Job i. 19, xv. 30; Isa. xi. 4, XXX. 33; 2 Thess. ii. 8. " When the natives of the East are angry, they distend their nostrils, and blow with great force. The action may be taken from some animals, which when angry blow The Counsel Chamber. INDIFFERENCE; OR, "I DON'T CARE.”* To prove that a spirit of indifference does exist in the world is quite unnecessary, and the expression, "I don't care" is also familiar; but probably all are not aware of its bad influence, power, and extent. Indifference, or, in other words, "I don't care," is a topic upon which much may be said. In ruminating on the subject, we at once find a wide scope, inasmuch as it affects man's temporal and eternal interest. There is an old maxim, good and true: "I don't care has ruined thousands." Indifference is one of the greatest barriers to the progress of everything good and great. By it we are affected as individuals, and as a community. If we look at man in his relations, and society in general, we cannot fail to trace indifference exerting a blighting influence, poisoning present happiness, and in innumerable instances depriving its subject of eternal joy. Most of those evils which disgrace and press down myriads in this highly-favoured country may be traced to a spirit of indifference-"I don't care." Many born in affluence have, through a spirit of indifference and a want of due care, died in poverty; while others, born in a hired cottage, by attention and industry have occupied a mansion. The subject becomes more important when we consider that it is opposed to the spirit of God's word, which enforces most emphatically the necessity of a hearty and cordial discharge of every duty, as well as entire abstinence from those things which are unholy. In viewing indifference as a barrier to the progress of everything good and great, let us inquire into the history of any movement established for ameliorating the condition of mankind, and we shall find that success is generally in proportion to the effort put forth on its behalf; and that the reason why many a meritorious project has failed of success, was the indifference of those who ought to have helped it on. By way of illustration, take, as a minor instance, our own Association; and the Christian Church, as a more important. What is the reason that some of our number attend but seldom, and others scarcely at all? To what shall we attribute their absence? Is it that they are not alive to the glorious object we have in view? When they gave in their adhesion, * Read by William Ashford Owen, to the Young Men's Christian Association at Welshpool, on the 4th of February, 1858. was it merely a matter of form? Is it that they feel no pleasure in reading God's word? Have they no delight in social intercourse? Do they esteem it no privilege to bow together at the throne of grace, and unite in hymning the praises of Him who bought them with his blood? Or, to take lower ground, do they not experience that "As iron sharpeneth iron, so does the countenance of man that of his friend?" That charity which we have for each other as fellow-members forbids us to say that their absence is for any of these reasons. What, then, is the cause? To what shall we attribute it? In some cases, doubtless, occasional absence is justifiable; but in many cases I am under a strong impression that if the causes of absence were searched into, a leaven of indifference would be discovered. Often trifles are allowed to intervene, and molehills sometimes rise into mountains. We may also ask here, why the young men of our town do not more numerously unite with us? Converse with them on the subject, and they listen with indifference. Ask their sentiments, in order to bring them over, and the answer is, if not in words, in import, "I don't care about it." Take again, the Christian church. How lamentable the coldness, the apathy, the indifference existing ! Professing Christians may be strict in observing personally religious duties, but they appear unconcerned for those around them, their weaker brethren, the backslider, and the ungodly. They are not up and doing, not alive to the importance of their position. Such a state of things tends to lessen the pleasures and happiness of the Christian's life. We now pass on to consider the subject in reference to social intercourse with each other. The dispositions of men are very differently constituted; there are various shades of dispositions, from the lively and entertaining down to the morose and disagreeable, but scarcely any man without some good quality. Experience tells us that man, to be happy, must enjoy the society of his fellow-man. How necessary, then, that our conduct towards each other should be warm and cordial! The disposition is frequently manifested as strongly in conduct as words. The shake of the hand is very expressive, and may frequently be taken as an indication of the heart, either for coolness or affection. Here let me ask, Who will not admire that man who meets his friend with an honest countenance and hearty shake of the hand? Contrast with him the man who comes with a sullen look, accosting his friend in a surly or freezing manner, and if he extends his hand for custom's sake, instead of a friendly shake, merely lends his finger for the occasion. When his friend presses, he feels, instead of a hearty response, as if he held a piece of dead fish, so cold and lifeless! and, as such, it slips from the hand. "I don't care for you, or your hand." Suppose a conversation with an indifferent man. Two individuals meet; one says, "I have been thinking over such and such a |