service. It is early in life for you to have made a public profession of the gospel; and that you have done so deliberately and prayerfully, I have every reason to believe. May I not hope, then, that you have truly come to the Saviour, and are learning of him and taking his yoke on you? This is your profession; now let me ask, do you feel concerned that such are the objects you are really and daily keeping in view? I am glad, as I have said, that you have made a public profession of your faith and hope in the Saviour, by voluntarily joining a Christian Church :-but let me earnestly remind you again and again, that this is only an avowal of certain principles. Your great business is, to maintain a course in harmony with those principles. It is an act expressive of certain obligations and resolutions;-the great business is to follow out, practically and constantly, those obligations and resolutions; it is a means to an end, and the inquiry with each of you should be, is the end answered? The great points to which I apprehend you should direct your serious and prayerful attention in reference to this matter are as follows:-The cultivation of great tenderness of conscience, an increasing desire and effort to be delivered from everything sinful as in the sight of God,-advancement in the knowledge of divine things, so as to understand more and more clearly "the great mystery of godliness"-the becoming more and more like the Saviour whom you profess to love; I mean like Him in general temper and spirit-meek, lowly, self-denying, humble, kind, benevolent, pure, devout; and further, cherishing a zealous and vigorous aim to do good. Do not think I am placing too high a standard before you, such a standard as only adult and experienced Christians can attain. I have only sketched, and very imperfectly, the points which every disciple of Christ must make the object of his care. They constitute personal piety, and are obviously included in the idea of the Apostle Peter, when he exhorted believers to and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." I hope you are not willing to act as if, having once joined the church, you might now relax your anxiety, any earnestness, any effort, in reference to your spiritual state. There must be still—at least there ought to be, as much earnest and vigilant inquiry into 66 grow in grace your true character before God, as when you first thought there was ground for you to decide on Church fellowship. That was a season of prayer and self-examination, was it not? You prayed that you might not delude yourselves. You asked for Divine aid to keep you and guide you and sanctify you. My dear friends, be assured you need to offer the same prayer still, and to exercise the same godly jealousy over yourselves still. There is evil "dwelling" within us, and a most crafty enemy lying in wait to ruin us. Cry mightily to the Saviour to preserve you by the constant influence of His grace on your hearts. He can render that grace all-sufficient for us, although our own natures are weak and sinful, and though the temptations to evil should be many by which we may be assaulted. Our spiritual safety consists in making our Saviour our refuge, looking to Him for aid and deliverance in every moment of danger; and our spiritual profit and improvement must be sought, by renewing our application to that same Saviour as to the fountain of all blessings, and which he can cause to abound towards us. Whenever, therefore, you become conscious of any interruption in your spiritual progress, go to the throne of grace, and ask to be strengthened with all might, to be revived and upheld, to be kept from becoming faint and weary, and to be enabled to renounce every besetting sin, for it is sin that wars against the soul, and fills it with distress and gloom. And among the means of preserving the spark of divine life in the soul we should never overlook Christian intercourse: “They that feared the Lord spake often one to another.” The apostle exhorted the Hebrews to the cultivation of this important duty when he said, "Exhort one another daily." You are not to be severe reprovers of one another, far from it; and I trust there is no inclination among you to be so, but you are to be faithful and affectionate towards one another, and thus helpers of each other's faith and knowledge, and purity and usefulness. I trust that when I am permitted to return home in the Spring, I may have the happiness of hearing that you have all been preserved "steadfast, immovable, and abounding in the work of the Lord." Not only that none have declined from "the right path or acted unworthily," but that you have all been diligent in religious ordinances, pressing forward in knowledge and true holiness, and proving that you are indeed alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. May great grace rest continually upon you! I cannot close my letter without requesting you to make my affectionate and kindest remembrances to all your companions in the school, and all my young friends there individually, from the youngest to the oldest, and assure them all of my earnest desires and prayers for their happiness and welfare, for the life that now is and for that which is to come. Ever, my dear young friends, Your very affectionate Friend and Pastor, THE HISTORY OF A FADED LEAF. DURING several pleasant winter walks, which I have been enjoying lately with a young friend, we have collected faded leaves to ornament a workbox; and the other day, my friend remarked to me, that the incidents of these excursions would, in years to come, be brought to mind by each of the leaves we had gathered. I thought so too, but added, that possibly, the records of their own short lives, (if we could get to know them) might prove yet more interesting, than those of our winter rambles. Our poets have often told us, that leaves could whisper, and I had myself fancied them holding pleasant colloquy with the winds, but no one knows how well they can acquit themselves in sober and consecutive narrative! The auto-biography of a dead leaf, is therefore probably a novelty. "A few weeks ago," said one of them, "(I think it was on the fifteenth of October, 1851,) “I was blown from the friendly stalk which had supported and nourished me, ever since the fine spring morning, when I first ventured forth to bask in the cheering rays of the sun. Many happy days did I reside upon my parent stem; and though we were apparently, a most demure and orderly family, enjoyed with my companions, many a merry game of see-saw, when moved by the summer breeze, or in playing bo-peep, with some frolicsome sunbeam. “At length the voice of the breeze became angry, and its violence increased perceptibly day by day, and though I struggled against it with all my feeble strength, resistance was useless, and torn from my native bough, I found a resting place upon one of the broad gravel paths of the cemetery. Scarcely had I had time to gain breath after my fall, when I heard voices, and looking up, I saw three persons approaching. I trembled, lest, in carelessness, one of them might tread upon my withered frame, and crush it to the earth. But it was not so decreed, for immediately I was raised by a kindly hand, and heard a voice exclaiming, 'See what a beautiful faded leaf! It will do for my new box.' So saying, she tenderly arranged my soiled and folded fibres, and carried me homewards, where I was spread out upon the lid of this box, and eventually covered with varnish, to preserve my form and color. However flattering these attentions might be, I was not disposed to acquiesce in them very readily. I curled myself up like a hedgehog, but was at length compelled to submit to the pressure from without.' When I found I was fairly imprisoned in my transparent film, however, I made the best of it, and fancied I looked wondrously like those old mummies, which, according to Herodotus, were encased in rock-crystal. "I foolishly thought my life had ended, because I had nothing now to do. But I soon found that listening and learning formed quite as important duties, as fluttering in the wind, or glancing in the sunshine. And what great things I heard and learned! The voice of the birds had been pleasant music to me, but I had formed a very low estimate of human nature and its capabilities. Men, women, and children, had passed to and fro beneath the branch on which I hung, but their language seemed to form the only discord in the chorus of universal nature. I supposed from their outward life, that they had nothing else to think of, than to buy and sell and get gain. Of their better faith and better deeds, I knew nothing, though I had seen hundreds laid in the graves around me. The measured step, and saddened faces of those who followed, led me to believe, they died as the fool dieth.' But my last and best days have undeceived me. It was not so with the young ladies into whose hands I had fallen. I heard them speaking of a poor woman who was dying, and who had declared that she had no hope.' But then, they spoke of Jesus the sinner's friend, and of his mercy to the poor, the wretched, and the guilty. They told of his words, how he called all to come unto him, and promised, 'Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.' They said that Jesus never broke one promise, and that if this poor woman would only believe His word, and go to Him expecting to be received by Him as His own dear child, she would find not only hope, but pardon, peace, and joy-joy during her few remaining days on earth-joy, during the countless years of a blessed eternity! They spake too of a lovely prospect from some neighbouring rock, and one remarked that few had ever seen it, or even knew of its existence, and then they compared it to the scenes of the Christian Pilgrimage-to the look-out places upon the side of the road where travellers could view the path by which they had journeyed-' the way by which the Lord had led them these forty years in the wilderness-places whence they might see the city they had left behind them and set up their Ebenezers for the mercies of the way. And when they had turned from these, they might catch a glimpse of the bright and glorious land toward which they were hastening. "They wondered how it was that so few frequented these rocks from whence such a gorgeous prospect was visible, and at length came to the conclusion that it was because so few were aware of their beauty. So they determined henceforward to tell all they came in contact with, of the pleasant road, the beautiful scenery, and the delightsome land beyond. "They kept their word. Again and again they talked of |