to God."

Thus, increase in faith in

sures growth in grace.

I have never heard of Atheists sending forth missionaries to preach their cheerless agnosticism; nor of a dying man rejoicing that he was destitute of Christian faith and hope; nor of a family being happy because irreligious; nor of a man prospering because he was Godless; nor of a society being lifted up by unbelief. Hence I firmly believe that persons destitute of Christian faith and belief, though they be profound think ers, and tolerably respectable citizens, lack that leaven which alone can elevate humanity into genuine manhood.

The story is told that when a young man was about to leave his parental home to seek his fortune, his father gave him an elegant watch, saying, "My son, accept, keep, consult, this token of my affection, and it will tell you how to spend your time." Then his mother presented him a Bible, saying, "Accept, keep, study, this sacred book, and it will tell you how to spend both time and eternity." She was the wiser.

REV. I. C. KNOWLTON.

HOPE AND MEMORY.

A little babe lay in its cradle, and Hope came and kissed it. When its nurse gave it a cake, Hope promised it another to-morrow; and when its young sister brought a flower over which it clapped its hands and crowed, Hope told of brighter ones which it should gather for itself.

The babe grew to a child, and another friend came and kissed it her name was Memory. She said, "Look behind thee, and tell me what thou seest.' The child answered, "I see a little book." And Memory said, "I will teach thee how to get honey from the book, and that shall be sweet to thee when thou art old.”

The child became a youth. Once

He became a man. Every day Hope guided him to his labor, and every night he supped with Memory, at the table of knowledge.

But at length age found him and turned his temples gray. To his eye the world seemed altered. Memory sat by his elbowed chair like an old tried friend. He looked at her seriously, and said, "Hast thou not lost something that I entrusted to thee?" And she answered, "I fear so, for the lock of my casket is worn. Sometimes I am weary and sleep, and then Time purloins my key. But gems thou didst give me when life. was new-I can account for all. See how bright they are."

While they thus sadly conversed, Hope put forth a wing that she had worn folded under her garment, and tried its strength in a heavenward flight.

The old man lay down to die, and when his soul left the body, the angels took it, and Memory walked with it through the open gate of heaven, but Hope lay down at its threshhold, and gently expired, as a rose giveth out its last odors. Her parting sigh was like the music of a seraph's harp.

She breathed into the bosom of a glorious form, and said:

"Immortal happiness! I bring thee a soul that I have led through the world. It is now thine, Jesus hath received it."

MRS. SIGOURNEY.

SIN A HARD MASTER. The attention of the reader is invited to a few considerations respecting sin as master. And,

The

on

1. It allows no time for rest. man who should be so driven by his employers as to be denied sufficient time for rest, would consider himself inhumanly treated. We all denounce those who require their servants to labor more hours than their strength will justify. We call them hard and cruel masters. But how is it with sin? Take a case. Here is a man whom sin has employed to commit the crime of murder. Now, after having committed this act, does sin let its servant rest? Does it spread for him a downy bed of ease which to repose his weary limbs? We speak not here of the conscience, the repose of the heart, for all know that the heart would be miserable; but we speak of the bodily condition of the sinner. Has the outer man rest? So far from this he must fly from justice the moment the fatal deed is done. He may have a home of plenty; his dwelling may be the habitation of splendor and grandeur; he may have a wife and children, and a large circle of friends-still he must fly. He must leave all; he at once becomes an outcast-be is hunt

of disturbed sleep on the cold, damp earth. Thus he flies; a vagabond in the earth, a guilty wretch which fears to meet his own child. How true is the language of Scripture "The wicked have no day nor night." Such is the service of sin! How cruel! how hard! Who would be the servant of such a master?

2. Sin gives no remuneration for the service it requires. In all labor which we perform, we are stimulated by the hope of an adequate compensation. This nerves the arm of all in the various hardships of life. This stimulates us to rise early and work late; and without this there is no inducement to labor. We are not sat isfied with promises-we want every agreement faithfully fulfilled. Now does sin give this adequate remuneration? Does it fulfill the promises it makes? Look around upon society.

Here, for instance, is a young man whom sin has called to the haunts of

dissipation. He has genius and talents which would give him the proudest rank in society; he has accomplishments and attainments which would gain him admittance to the first circles of fashion and refinement; he has wealth that would enable him to live in splendor. All these qualities and possessions he brings with him into the service of sin; but what is his remuneration? It would seem that he is entitled to something great; but what does he have? Why, he has promises; he is told that stolen waters are sweet, and that bread eaten in secret is pleasant-that the wicked are not in trouble as other men. But

promises, unless fulfilled, are poor pay; and yet these are all the votaries of sin obtain; for God has said the way of the transgressor is hard; and that he turneth the way of the wicked upside down. And so it is; for soon the genius and talent of this young man are destroyed, his accomplish

on the moral world in full meridian splendor. Endowed with prescience, his enraptured spirit soared on pinions of love divine, beyond the legal dispensation; and with an eye of faith beheld that august period when the glorious Messiah shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the rivers unto the ends of the earth. "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land." O, what a sublime and glorious prediction! It was dictated by divine inspiration, and the era will arrive when it will be fulfilled in glorious order. But now, alas, violence is heard in our land; wasting and destruction within our borders. The sound of eternal violence and wo emanates from thousands of pulpits, dedicated to the worship of the almighty God of love, and the blessed Prince of Peace. Millions on millions of the human race have heard the fulminations of endless violence and wo, and inspired with the most agonizing terror, have viewed their heavenly and unchanging Father as an almighty and eternal enemy to the largest portion of his creatures;

Who has prepar'd an endless hell, Where wicked fallen angels dwell, To which at last he will consign The largest portion of mankind! The sound of endless violence and wo has frightened the aged, the young and the timid. Wafted on the deleterious gales of fanaticism and superstition, it has reached the ears of the sick and the dying, destroyed their hope of a blessed and happy immortality beyond the tomb; and O, it has caused thousands to close their eyes in gloom and despair!

My Christian friends, do not give

ear to the dreadful sound of eternal violence, and wo, and damnation. Hark! the gospel trumpet sounds the notes of free salvation-listen to the heavenly music, and rejoice. Follow

Jesus, the everlasting Prince of Peace. He will not fail nor be discouraged. He will ultimately bring about the reign of universal peace. Then "violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders:" but "thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise." "And the ransomed of the Lord (who gave himself a ransom for all) shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads;" they shall obtain immortal felicity, and chant with angels and arch-angels the deathless honors of immortal love and boundless grace, and all shall know the Lord from the least to the greatest, whom to knowis life eternal.

"FATHER, FORGIVE THEM."

-Go, proud infidel-search the ponderous tomes of heathen learning; Explore the works of Confucius; examine the precepts of Seneca, and the writings of Socrates. Collect all the excellencies of the ancient and the modern moralists, and point to a sentence equal to this simple prayer of our Saviour reviled and insultedsuffering the grossest indignities-crowned with thorns, and led away to die! no annihilating curse breaks from his tortured breast. Sweet and placid as the aspirings of a mother for her nursling, ascends the prayer of mercy on his enemies, "Father, forgive them." O, it was worthy of its origin, and stamps with the bright seal of truth that his mission was from Heaven!

Acquaintances have you quarrelled? Friends, have you differed? If he, who was pure and perfect, forgave his bitterest enemies, do you well to cherish your anger?

Brothers, to you the precept is imperative; you shall forgive--not seven times, but seventy times seven.

Husbands and wives, you have no

right to expect perfection in each other. To eir is the lot of humanity. Illness will sometimes render you petulant, and disappointment ruffle the smoothest temper. Guard, I beseech you, with unremitting vigilance your passions; controlled, they are the genial heat that warms us along the way of life-ungoverned, they are consuming fires. Let your strife be one of respectful attentions, and conciliatory conduct. Cultivate with care the kind and gentle affections of the heart. Plant not, but eradicate the thorns that grow in your partner's path. Above all, let no feeling of revenge ever find harbor in your breast: Let the never go down upon your anger. A kind word--an obliging action-if it be in a trifling concern, has a power superior to the harp of David in calming the billows of the soul.

sun

Revenge is as incompatible with happiness as it is hostile to religion. Let him whose heart is black with malice and studious of revenge, walk through the fields while clad in verdure, and adorned with flowers; to his eye there is no beauty; the flowers to him exhale no fragrance. Dark as his soul, nature is robed in deepest sable. The smile of beauty lights not up his bosom with joy; but the furies of hell rage in his breast, and render him as miserable as he would wish the object of his hate.

But let him lay his hand upon his heart and say "Revenge, I cast thee from me-Father, forgive me as I forgive my enemies," and nature assumes a new and delightful garniture. Then, indeed, are the meads verdant and the flowers fragrantthen is the music of the groves delightful to the ear, and the smile of virtuous beauty lovely to the soul.

DESERVE Success and you shall command it.

DR. ADAM CLARK'S OPINION OF PHARAOH.

"The whole procedure was graciously calculated to do endless good to both nations. The Israelites must be satisfied that they had the true God for their protector; and thus their faith was strengthened. The Egyptians must see that their gods could do nothing against the God of Israel, and thus their dependence on them must be necessarily shaken. These great ends could not have been answered, had Pharaoh at once consented to let the people go. This consideration alone, unravels the mystery, and explains every thing.. Let it be observed that there is nothing spoken here of the eternal state of the Egyptian King; nor does any thing in the whole of the subsequent account authorize us to believe, that God hardened his heart against the influences of his own grace, that he might occasion him to sin, that his justice might consign him to hell! This would be such an act of flagrant injustice, as we could scarcely attribute to the worst of men. He who leads another into an offence, that he may have a fairer pretence to punish him for it; or brings him into such circumstances, that he cannot avoid committing a capital crime, and then hangs him for it, is surely the most. execrable of mortals. What then should we make of the God of justice and mercy; should we attribute to him a decree, the date of which is lost in eternity, by which he has determined to cut off from the possibility of salvation, millions and millions of unborn souls, and leave them under the necessity of sinning, by actually hardening their hearts against the influences of his own grace and spirit, that he may, on the pretext of justice, consign them to endless perdition? Whatever may be pretended in behalf of such unqualified opin