Paffion. Paffion is a fury, breathing out threatening and flaughter; Patience is a cherub, whispering words of love and joy. Passion is a tempeft, charged with lightnings, hail, and thunder; Patience is a holy calm, where peace reigns and stillness triumphs. The one is a troubled fea, cafting up mire and dirt-the other, a placid lake illumined by the mellow light of heaven. The one a foretaste of the fire of hell-the other, a pledge of everlasting repose.

"The man poffeff'd among the tombs,
Cuts his own flesh and cries;
He foams and raves, till Jesus comes,
And the foul spirit flies."

"Beloved felf must be denied

The mind and will renewed;
Paffion oppreff'd and patience tried,
And vain defires subdued."

"Lord, how fecure and blest are they,
Who feel the joys of pardoned fin!
Should storms of wrath shake earth and fea,
Their minds have heaven and peace within.

"How oft they look to heavenly hills,
Where streams of living pleasure flow;
And longing hopes and cheerful fimiles
Sit undisturbed upon their brow!"

"Fight the good fight."-1 TIM. vi. 12. "Taking the shield of Faith, and the sword of the Spirit."-EPH. vi, 16, 17.

THE CONQ uering chrISTIAN.

A glorious Temple rises to our view,
The conquering Christian fights his passage through,
His dreadful foes who now attack him fore,
False Shame behind, fell Unbelief before,

And worldly Love-great idol here below,
Unite to aid in Christian's overthrow;
But he, courageous, takes at once the field,
Armed with his ancient, well-appointed shield;
A two-edged fword he wields, well known to fame,
And proftrates at one blow the daftard Shame;
On Worldly Love he falls with many a blow,
And foon he lays the ufurping monster low.
Now Unbelief, the champion of the reft,
Enraged, beftirs him, and lays on his beft;
A fearful thrust he makes at Christian's heart,
The Shield of Faith receives the murd'rous dart;
With his good sword brave Christian wounds him fore,
And out of combat he is seen no more;
Into the Temple now the Victor speeds,
And Angel Minstrels chant his valiant deeds.

THE above represents a man fighting his way toward a beautiful Palace; it is his home. From various causes he has been long estranged from his paternal inheritance. He is by fome means reminded of its endearing associations of its ancient magnificence-of its voices of happiness and love; pleasant things to delight the eye ; choral fymphonies to enchant the ear; rich viands to gratify the taste, are there. He becomes anxious to return; he determines at once to regain poffeffion of his manfion, or perish in the attempt. He meets with oppofition; the odds are fearful, three to one. His enemies do not abfolutely deny his rights, yet they are determined to oppose him to the uttermoft. He gives battle, and by dint of skill and courage, he routs his foes, gains a complete victory, and enters his home in triumph.

This allegory represents a part of the Chriftian warfare. The temple or palace signifies that glorious inheritance which the Almighty Father has bequeathed to all his children. It contains all that can please, delight, or enchant the foul, and that for ever more. For it is an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away. The Hero denotes a man who has decided to be a Christian. By the influence of the Holy Spirit on his heart, he is convinced of his outcast condition of the impotency of created good to make him happy-of the infignificance of the things of time compared with those of eternity. Convinced of these, in the strength of grace, he says, "I will arife and go to my Father," and he goes accordingly. But he foon meets with enemies who powerfully oppose his progress, and among the first of these is,

Shame. Our paffions, or powers of feeling, have been given to us by our benevolent Creator, to subserve our happiness, and shame among the reft.

"Art divine

Thus made the body tutor to the foul--
Heaven kindly gives our blood a moral flow,
And bids it ascend the glowing cheek."

Shame stands as a sentinel to warn us of danger, and so put us on our guard. But all of our paffions are perverted from their proper uses, and fin has done it. Therefore as man loves darkness rather than light-calls evil good and good evilputs bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter-fo alfo he changes the proper uses of shame. Instead of being ashamed of the bad, he is ashamed of the good. Shame is an enemy hard to conquer. The convert finds it so. He feels afhamed at first to be seen by his old companions, in company with the truly pious; or going to a religious meeting-or on his knees praying or in any way carrying the Cross of Him whom he has now chosen to be his Master. Shame confronts him every where, and gives him to understand that for the most part, religious people are a poor, low, and ignorant fet; that no person of character will associate with them, &c. The Christian remembers that what is highly esteemed among men is had in abomination with God; that shame after all, is the promotion of fools only. Thus he vanquisheth shame by the sword of the Spirit, even by the word of the Lord.

As foon as shame is disposed of, another foe appears-Love of the world. This consists in a greater attachment to this present world, than becomes one who is so soon to leave it and live for ever in another. As the boy should learn what he may need when he shall become a man, so should the mortal acquire what it may need when it puts on immortality. The natural man is so strongly wedded to earthly objects, that to him the feparation is impossible. Argument will not effect it. He may he convinced intellectually, that the things of earth are tranfitory and unfatiffying, yet he pursues them eagerly. His feelings may be lacerated by the death of fome