It must also be remembered that the ranks of the ungodly in middle life, are constantly filling up from the ranks of the young, who have received their first training in the society of young men. Experience teaches also that very few who have had a wicked training in youth change their course in middle life. It is easier for an Ethiopian to change his skin, and a leopard his spots, than for those who have been ripened in evil to change their course in middle life. Few rivers are turned into a new channel when once they sweep along in the full tide of their strength; and equally few men turn into a new course of life when once the strong current of middle life is bearing them on in the way of destiny.

There is no time when one can so ill afford to be profligate as while he is a young man. It is the period of life when the foundation of ruin is most easily and deeply laid. Either health or character lost then is an evil that can never be fully repaired. Many a groan in old age is the result of early folly; but the repentance which it begets comes too late..

NEVER JEST WITH SCRIPTURE.

It is of great importance that we should resist the temptation, frequently so strong, of annexing a familiar, facetious, or irreverent idea to a scriptural expression, a scripture name. Nor should we hold ourselves. guiltless, though we may have been misled by mere negligence or want of reflection. Every person of good taste will avoid reading a parody or a travestie of a beautiful poem because, the recollection of the degraded likeness will always obtrude itself upon our memories when we wish to derive pleasure from the contemplation of the original. But how much more urgent is the duty by which we are bound to keep the page of the Bible clear of any impression tending to diminish the feeling of habitual respect and reverence toward our Maker.—PALGRAVE.

THE SABBATH.

CREATOR! God! Almighty King!

Enthroned in light beyond the sky!
What can the earth for tribute bring
To glorify thy Majesty!

Her treasures are but moth and rust;
Her incense dies-her gold is dust.

We stop the countless pulse of Time:
The mighty breath of earth we stay-
We stand in rest before Thy shrine,

We offer Thee thy Sabbath day!
Uncrowned her kings before Thee bow;
In silence Nature hails Thee now!

And Thou! as chime and chant arise,
Marking the holy time for Thee,
Thou dost receive it in the skies,
And makest it Eternity!

Oh, hasten, Lord, that Sabbath day,
Whose light shall never pass away!

I remember, I remember,

When our earliest sorrows came,
How our hearts beat higher, wilder,
Yet we thought them still the same.
Ah! we knew not of the changes

That the world was working there-
How it soiled those living pages.
That were erst so pure and fair.

I remember, I remember,

Those bright sunny memories all,
When the glow of childhood lingered

Like a sunbeam on the wall;
How the dreams of youth came o'er us,
With a gentle voice and low,
Like the breath of summer flowers,
At the twilight's mellow flow.

I remember, I remember,

When still later years came on,
How those fairy visions vanished
Like the mist before the sun;
How we wished that they were real-
That life ever might be so-
But the blossom first must perish
Ere the fruit begins to grow.

I remember, I remember,
Every accent as it fell

From the young lips warm and tender
Of the friends I loved so well;

I can hear their merry laughter
Ringing clearly now as then,
And my bosom heaves with sadness
As I wish them here again.

Some are sleeping in the churchyard,
Some have wandered far away;
Others still are here around me,
But so sadly changed are they,
That I can no longer meet them
As we met in days of old-
When we sported in the sunshine,
Like the lambs within the fold.

THE ORIGIN OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP.

FROM THE GERMAN OF MULLER, BY PARTUS.

How do we stand toward You will not what I will; I You will not, what I will We are friends, Will and will not

I WILL NOT, you say. Nor will I, I say. each other? Are we friends or enemies? will not what you will. We are enemies. not; I will not what you will not. make all friendship and enmity in the world. You complain against enemies. Who is then your enemy? He who will not as you will? The enmity can soon be removed. Your neighbor says, "I will not as you will." You answer, then I will as you will. Then you are friends. All depends on willing.

When your will and my will are one will, then we are the best friends. Is the work good? Give yours, I give mine. Is it evil? you break off and I break off. We are friends. But nothing is so difficult to subdue as the will. For me to have my will in unison with yours, and you yours in unison with mine, is almost as difficult as it is for heaven to become earth and earth to become heaven. Nothing in man is more obstinate than the will, which, nevertheless, binds every thing. But if your will and my will are one will with the will of God, they will also be in in unison with each other in God, just as two little balls of wax, when they are melted in the fire flow together, and are formed into one ball.

After this let us both strive to have our wills one with the will of God, for he is our Father, we are his children. Let the will of the Father also be the will of the child. He is our Lord, we are his servants; the servant must not live according to his own will, but according to the I will of his Lord. Let us both live as God wills, and thus we are one with God. You will what God wills, I will what God wills. Your will and my will are in God the same will. If self-will were out of the world there would be no contention. From self, will come self-interest, selflove, self-glory. These occasion all disputes. My friend, we both have one God, one Jesus, one Spirit, one faith, one heaven: and therefore let s also have one will. This I beg of you. Let us be friends in God.

1857.]

Death-Bed Repentance.

61

DEATH-BED REPENTANCE.

BY THE EDITOR.

DEATH-BED repentance has always been suspected and pronounced unsafe by those who best understand the scriptures. We may safely say that a want of confidence in what appears to be repentance under these circumstances is general. However much christians may differ on some points, in this they all agree. Even the careless themselves are right on this subject in theory. Those who defer their repentance do so, not because they believe that to be the best time, but because they are unwilling to forsake their wrong position as long as they can avoid it. They regard that not as the best resort, but as the last resort!

There are good reasons why death-bed repentance is not popular; and why few reflecting persons have confidence in it. There is solemnity enough in crossing the dark, solemn stream when all is calm and ready. Even those who meet it with preparation often find it still a fearfully solemn change. It is the "king of terrors," the "last enemy," a change with which only fools can trifle.

When death comes there has then been a long life-time of sin, in which firm habits are formed and settled. The heart is hard and the conscience seared. How hardly will a superficial commotion, and a few tears that have more of fear than true penitence in them, break up the depths of a stubborn nature which has confirmed itself in sin during a whole life of carnality! To use the strong illustration of holy scripture, it is as easy for an Ethiopian to change his skin, and a leopard his spots, as for him to do good who has been accustomed to do evil.

At death, too, the mercy and love of God, by whose aid alone true repentance is possible, has been abused and insulted by a life of sin. Though His mercy is not easily provoked, and he endureth long the impudence and presumption of sinners, yet there are also times and seasons with God, when he answers: "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." Let him who trusts to a death-bed repentance also remember that then the pains of the body are often so great that it is next to impossible to fix the mind for one moment steadily on one point. Every joint groans, every muscle writhes, every nerve trembles with agony, and from every pore issues a flame of burning fever. Is this a time for repentence? There is sorrow, but is it godly sorrow? On this point the prophet has truly said: "They have not cried unto me with their hearts, when they howled upon their beds!" It is not penitence because of sin, but it is a howling because of misery! Behold now, wilt thou trust to this broken reed, and hang eternal hopes on such uncertainty? What is a still more serious consideration, there is also frequently at such a time more or less aberration of mind. The sense swims, and the poor sufferer scarcely knows what he is doing. Even where the nature

of the sickness does not directly destroy the mind's balance, it frequently begets gloom and despair. The guilt of a wicked, mis-spent life, comes rushing in upon the soul like an angry flood. The person feels himself crowded out upon the fearful verge of an eternal world for which he is not prepared, and the soul is overwhelmed with a sudden sense of its awful condition. Is this a time for repentance? Even when persons are exercised in a religious way at such a time it is almost always from wrong motives. It is not so much a sense of sin as a fear of the consequences of sin which moves them. Repentance, like all other acceptable acts, must be from right motives. Not all sorrow is godly sorrow; only that which is produced in the right way. How often is death-bed sorrow a mere terror, alarm, confusion and consternation. Hence it is, that in cases where death does not ensue, and the person is restored to health, it proves itself to have been false. A return to health is a return to sin, in nine cases out of ten. Satan, who has blinded the soul up to such an hour, can also easily blind it then. What it takes to be the calm of peace is only the evidence of a deeper death. Who will trust to such hopes of repentance?

If we had nothing else to dissuade and discourage us from trusting to such a refuge, one consideration would be enough. It is this: When one who has lived a life of sin, is once called to lie down on a bed of death, that is not a call to repentance, but a call to judgment! When once the axe falls upon the root of the barren fig-tree, it is not that he may become fruitful, but that he may be cut down! When once the cry is made: "Behold, the bridegroom cometh," it is not a call to go and buy oil for the lamp. It is now too late for that. In the eleventh hour the lord of the vineyard yet hired laborers, but not in the twelfth hour!

But did not the dying thief upon the cross receive pardon? Yes. But there is every reason to believe that he had never before known any thing of Christ. Is this the case with you? His case is, therefore, different from the case of such as defer this duty wilfully to that hour, when they have been a thousand times warned and invited before. Besides, there is only one penitent thief mentioned; where is the record of thousands who died in despair? Will you venture upon dangerous seas where myriads have perished, because amid the thousands who went down you have heard of one who reached the shore? Trust not in the favor shown to the penitent thief, as a refuge for a sinning, sinking soul; but trust rather now, and without delay, in Him who showed mercy to him, and who waits to do the same to you.

A PLAN FOR READING THE BIBLE THROUGH EVERY YEAR.-During January read Genesis and Exodus; February, read to 10th Deuteronomy; March, to 15th of 1st Samuel; April to 15th of 2d Kings; May, to 5th Nehemiah; June, to 100th Psalm; July, to 50th of Isaiah; August, to 20th of Ezekiel; September, to end of Old Testament; October, to end of Luke; November, to the end of 1st Corinthians; December, to end of New Testament-about sixty-five or seventy-five pages per month, or about two pages for every week-day and four for Sunday