DIVINITY AND ACTIVITY.

OUR great example, the life of our blessed Lord himself, what was it but one continual exercise of labour? His mind did ever stand bent in careful attention, studying to do good. His body was ever moving in wearisome travel, to the same divine intent.

If we yet soar further in our meditation to the superior regions, we shall there find the blessed inhabitants of heaven, the courtiers and ministers of God, very busy and active; they do vigilantly wait on God's throne, in readiness to receive and to despatch his commands; they are ever on the wing, and fly about like lightning to do his pleasure. They are attentive to our needs, and ever ready to protect, to assist, to relieve us. Especially, they are diligent guardians and succourers of good men; officious spirits sent forth to minister for the heirs of salvation: so even the seat of perfect rest is no place of idle

ness.

Yea, God himself, although immovably and infinitely happy, is yet immensely careful, and everlastingly busy. He rested once from that great work of creation; but yet my Father (saith our Lord) worketh still;" and he never will rest from his works of providence and of grace. His eyes continue watchful over the world, and his hands stretched out in upholding it. He hath a singular regard to every creature, supplying the needs of each, and satisfying the desire of all.

And shall we alone be idle, while

Shall we

all things are so busy? keep our hands in our bosom, or stretch ourselves on our beds of laziness, while all the world about us is hard at work in pursuing the designs of its creation? Shall we be wanting to ourselves, while so many things labour for our benefit? Shall not such a cloud of examples stir us to some industry? Not to comply with so universal a practice, to cross all the world, to disagree with every creature, is it not very monstrous and extravagant ?

"Lord! what wilt thou have me to do?" is the great question which should now be asked by every disciple of Christ. After his own reconsecration to God, personal effort with, and personal prayer for, the impenitent, is now the great demand which the Saviour makes upon those who love him.

All are now willing to be approached; nay, most are even waiting and desiring to be addressed upon the great subject of the salvation of the soul. The unconverted expect God's people to speak to them; they are disappointed if they do not, and are tempted to feel that there is something wanting in the power of truth, or in its professors, if they do not now endeavour to bring every man within their reach to repentance and faith.

Much can be done in the mass. In the prayer-meeting and the great congregation, a deep and salutary impression may be made, by the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit. But man must repent individually, and for himself. Each must pass through the narrow gate for himself. And for this each

needs guidance, and warning, and encouragement. Every Christian ought to be labouring now with individual souls; entering into their spiritual case; appreciating their individual wants, and dangers, and perplexities, and temptations; and doing all he can, with the help of God, to make their calling and election sure.

Dear reader, who dost profess to I love the Saviour, art thou now labouring, with faith and prayer, for the conversion of any single individual?

THE SPIRIT OF DIVINE
LOVE.

IF I am awakened to a sense of sin, and fear the anger of God, I shall long to know the awful extent of his power, and the terrible effects of his anger, as well as the methods of obtaining his grace. If I love him, I shall spend many pleasant hours of inquiry into his amiable excellencies. Each pious passion will promote its peculiar inquiries. Fear and love will wander with holy awe and delight among his glories, and be ever pursuing further knowledge of his perfections. If I love God with warm and devout affection, I shall rejoice daily to find new discoveries of his unsearchable wisdom, his all-sufficient power, his immense goodness, and the unbounded riches of his grace. I shall trace his wondrous footsteps through this beautiful creation, and endeavour to find his way in the tract of daily providences. I shall survey him and his attributes in his book of grace, and dwell upon his

Divine features in Jesus, the image and brightness of his glory, Heb. i. 3. And I shall search further continually into the knowledge of Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh. I shall dig in the mines of Scripture for treasures of Divine knowledge, and never grow weary of the work. I shall be always inquiring what I shall do to please and serve him who is the object of my highest love, and how I shall obtain stronger sensations and assurances of his favour, and dwell for ever in his presence who is the life and joy of my soul. We long still to know more of this transcendent Being whom we love. It is this Divine passion that animates these inquiries after the knowledge of God, and this shall render them infinite and everlasting, because God, the object of them, is everlasting and infinite.

ARE YOU SAINTS?

THE question probably sounds absurd to you. You have had no notion of becoming eminently holy. Eminent holiness is for a few great scholars, priests, females removed from the cares and temptations of daily active life; a thing for storybooks, not for real men and women. Indeed! Is there, then, one Holy Spirit for priests, and scholars, the leaders of retired lives, and another and inferior one for ordinary men and women? You know that it is not so. You know that as there is but one Lord who died for all, one faith by which all must be justified, one baptism by which all must be regenerated, so there

is but one Spirit by whom all must be sanctified; and you either know, or ought to blush scarlet for your disgraceful ignorance, that this one Spirit will sanctify every Christian heart that will receive him, will obey him. You know that no man, be he rich or poor, be he king or peasant, be he priest or a carrier-on of the lowest trade-no man, be he what he may, shall see the Lord without holiness, but which he works in no man at once. There must be endeavour, there must be struggle; the devil gives up no heart without resistance. We must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Christ has worked out the possibility of it for us all; but our own actual salvation must be our own work, though wrought in and by God working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

REMARKABLE CONVERSION. THE promises and invitation of the Gospel are not confined to rank or sex, but reach to every son and daughter of Adam, and the profligate and abandoned often find in them pungent and consoling words to reach them in their ruin and despair. The following incident is in point.

A sailor, who had been piously trained in early life, but for many years had been the victim of all manner of profligacy, at length, while at sea in the Pacific Ocean, was thoroughly awakened and convicted by the Spirit of God. One night, after turning in, his terror rose to such a pitch that he dared

not shut his eyes lest he should awake in hell; but at length he was overcome with fatigue and weakness, and fell asleep. While in this condition, he dreamed of being in India (he had been formerly), and hearing a missionary preach on the solemn words, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" he was so moved by the words that he tried to run away, and in the effort awoke.

Then, as he says, "the perspiration was pouring from my forehead, and I was in the greatest agitation, I opened again God's word, for I had no other comforter. I read the third chapter of John, and there I saw what I needed. I must be born again. I read on and came to the sixth verse, 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' I was struck by these beautiful words. Does that include me? Yes, I thought; 'whosoever' means me; I will venture on this love. I tried to give God my heart; and there, in that midnight hour, far away on the billows, I cast my poor guilty soul on his mercy; and while pleading this precious word, I felt peace and comfort within me."

THE SOURCE OF COMFORT. THE well-known missionary, John Campbell, for many years after his conversion, had neither peace nor joy in believing. His faith was rather subjective than objective. Doubts, fears, and actual backslidings had often shaken his hope, and driven him almost to despair, even at the time he was regarded

by other Christians as a pattern. At last, as he said in a letter to the Rev. John Newton, "The cloud which covered the mercy-seat fled away, and Jesus appeared as he is! My eyes were not turned inward, but outward. The Gospel was the glass in which I beheld him. I now stand upon a shore of comparative rest. When in search of comfort, I resort to the testimony of God; this is the field which contains the pearl of great price. Frames

and feelings are, like other created comforts, passing away. What an unutterable source of consolation is it, that the foundation of our faith and hope is immutably the same; the sacrifice of Jesus as acceptable to the Father as ever it was! Formerly the major part of my thoughts centred either upon the darkness I felt or the light I enjoyed; now they are mainly directed to Jesus, what he hath done, suffered, and promised."

EASTERN SERVANTS.

.. 'He called his servant that ministered unto him."-2 SAM. xiii. 17. Eastern masters do not keep their servants at the distance which is usual in England. The affairs of the family, the news of the day, and the little incidents of life, are mutually discussed, as by equals. The difference betwixt them, in reference to property, is sometimes not great: the master has, perhaps, his small family estate, or some business which produces a little profit; and the servant is content with his rice, and a scanty cloth for his loins.

No native who can afford it is without his servant, and many who can scarcely procure food for themselves talk very largely about their domestics. See my lord seated in his verandah, chewing his betel, and cogitating his plans: hear him at every interval say to his attendant, "What think you of that? Shall I succeed?" "You must assist me; I know you have great sense. "Let this prosper, and you shall have rings for your ears, and a turban for your head." "Good: pour water on me." They go to the well, and the servant bales about a hogshead of water on his master's head. They go to the house; and then the command is, "Rub my joints and limbs." "Ah! bring my rice and curry." That finished," Bring water to wash my mouth; pour it on my hands; a

shroot and fire bring; fetch my sandals, my turban, umbrella, and betel-box. Let us depart." Then may be seen the master stepping out with a lordly air, and the domestic at his heels, giving advice, or listening to his master's tales.

WASHING THE FEET.

"Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet."-GEN. xviii. 4.

How often, in passing through an Eastern village, may we see this grateful office performed for the weary traveller! As the people wear neither shoes nor stockings, and as the sandal is principally for the defence of the sole of the foot, the upper part soon becomes dirty. Under these circumstances, to have the feet and ankles washed is very refreshing, and is considered a necessary part of Eastern hospitality. The service is always performed by servants. (John xiii. 14.)

EASTERN WIVES.

"Where thou diest will I die."-RUTH i. 17.

The dreadful practice of widows burning themselves on the funeral pile with the dead bodies of their husbands, has made the declaration of this text familiar to the native Eastern mind. Hence a wife, when her husband is sick and in great danger, will say, "Ah! if he die, I

also will die; I will go with him! Yes, my body, thou also shalt be a corpse!" A slave makes use of the same language to a good master. Husbands sometimes boast of the

affection of their wives, and compare them to the Eastern stork, which, if it lose its mate in the night, is said immediately to shriek and die.

MIND THE

ONE of the most satisfactory proofs of a revival among the churches will be a conscientious attendance at church-meetings. The neglect of this is a source of manifold, multiform, and incalculable evil, at once a symptom and a source of decay. The following dialogue between a gentleman and a pastor is offered by way of illustration.

A. Have you a church in this town?

B. Yes, we have a church of about one hundred members, and I am its pastor.

A. I am very glad to hear it; and as I expect to spend a little time here, hope to have the privilege of becoming acquainted with your church.

B. Certainly; and you will have a good opportunity. This evening we have our stated weekly prayermeeting; Friday, our monthly church-meeting, and a meeting for special business; and next Sabbath our communion. We shall be happy to see you present on those occasions.

Such was my introduction to pastor B. Well, I was glad to accept his invitations, and accordingly went to the prayer-meeting. There were only about a dozen present, so I did not see the church. Friday came, and found me at the place of the church-meeting, where there were the pastor, one deacon, five brethren, and fourteen sisters,-twenty-one, all told. They had a comfortable season; two related their experience and were received, and some special business was transacted, by the few,

MEETINGS.

not by the church, for the majority were not there. Sabbath came-a pleasant day; the ordinance of baptism was administered, the hand of fellowship extended, and forty-five sat down at the table of the Lord; it was a good day. Monday morning I called on the pastor, as I had concluded to leave town sooner than I anticipated, when he remarked, "Well, brother A., I am happy to form your acquaintance, and my church has been very much gratified by the aid you have rendered them."

A. I have had a pleasant time; but as for your church, I have not seen it. You said it consisted of about one hundred members. At the prayer-meeting there were about a dozen, twenty-one at the church meeting, and forty-five at the communion. The largest number present on any occasion was only a minority. The majority I have not

seen.

B. Well, I have never seen more out on similar occasions; I thought we had pretty full meetings.

A. And yet the church was not at the prayer-meeting, not at the business meeting, nor at the communion!

Now I find, on inquiry, that similar accounts might be given of very many churches. The minority, and sometimes a small one, sustain the meetings, transact the business, and receive and exclude members. The majority have little to do with these matters.

Then I ask, Where is the church? where is it to be found? where does it meet? True, there may be a few of every church that meet, but are these the church? Where, then, is the church to be found? Is its visi