beloved relative, and his hopes blasted by the lofs of property, still he cleaves to earth. The power of the Almighty alone can help him. He needs a new principle of feeling and of action; even that of faith that overcomes the world. Obtaining this principle, he looks not at the things that are seen, but at those which are unseen.

The genuine Christian convert has many conflicts ere he can set his affections on the things above. Worldly Love opposes him perfeveringly; in his religious experience; in his self-denying duties; in his givings, and in his sufferings. The Chriftian, however, knows that he must conquer that foe, or perifh-therefore he sets himself to meditate upon his duty-he fearches the Scriptures-he finds that God's enemies are those who mind earthly things, he wishes not to join them-that the love of the world is hatred to God-if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him; and animated by the example of Chrift his Lord, who left heaven for man, he renounces earth for God. He dies to the world and lives to Christ. As a foldier of Jesus he fights under his banners, and comes off more than a conqueror through Him who has loved him.

Unbelief is a gigantic foe. He is indeed the champion of all the rest, peculiarly skilful and bold in his attacks. He knows how to shift his ground adroitly. Sometimes he affails vehemently, denying Christianity itself; nay, the very

existence of the Almighty, declaring that "God is nature, and that there is no other god," and that "death is an eternal fleep." Thus by one stroke he would sweep away the being and attributes of the Eternal; the doctrines, promises, and commandments of the word of God, man's responsibilities, and consequent duties. Were this stroke successful, it would deprive man of all happiness in this life, and of the confolations of hope in the life that is after death. It expels him a second time from paradise into a desert where not even thorns and briars spring up for his support.

Unbelief, however, does not always act so boldly. Sometimes he admits the existence of God, and the fubject of religion in general, but denies that man owes duties to the former, or that he is interested in the latter. He will even approve of the form of religion, provided there is no power, no faith, no Holy Spirit in it. Unbelief in this form destroys thousands of immortal fouls who profess Christ, yet, not having true faith, in works deny him. He that believeth not shall be damned.

Sometimes unbelief attacks the Chriftian under the garb of benevolence. He pities and deplores moft feelingly, the present evils that flesh is heir to. He promises you a terrestrial heaven. But, first, the present order of things must be abolished. All institutions, political and religious, must be abrogated. The foundations of society must be broken up-its frame-work dissolved

that is to say, a perfect chaos must be made, out of which shall arise a perfect paradife. You must first pass through a vast howling wilderness where no water is, and then (if indeed your carcass does not fall in the wilderness) you will be conducted into the promised land.

In these ways does unbelief make his onsets, fuiting his methods to the dispositions of the age, or to the circumstances of individuals. The Christian repels them with the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. He possesses the divine word which is full of promises, and that faith which is a deep conviction of things not feen, and the substance or foundation of things hoped for. Therefore he gives no quarter to unbelief; God hath spoken, it is enough. There is a manfion for him; he will possess it. His Saviour has conquered and reigns. He will conquer and reign alfo. He beholds by faith, a glorious manfion, a palm of victory, a fong of triumph, a crown of life. Animated by the prospect, he fights his way through all his foes, and as he fights he fings

"The glorious crown of Righteousness,
To me reached out, I view,
Conqueror through Christ, I soon shall rife,
And wear it as my due."

THE IMPERIAL PHILANTHROPIST.

The haplefs crew upon the reef are caft;
And round them rages wild the furious blast;
Deep calls to deep with wide-mouthed thundering roai,
Loud beat the billows on the rock-bound shore;

Crash after crash is heard with fearful shock,
As the boat dashes on the craggy rock.
The affrighted crew nor skill nor courage have,
To fave their bark from the devouring wave;
Russia's great Czar beholds them on the reef,
And nobly hastens to afford relief:
Boldly he plunges in the boiling waves,
And all the fury of the tempeft braves;
He leaps on board, and with a ikilful hand,
Through rocks and breakers, brings them fafe to land.

We have here a picture of danger and of deliverance. Peter the Great, Emperor of all the Ruffias, had been failing in one of his yachts as far as the Ladoga Lake; finding himself refreshed by the fea-breeze, instead of landing at St. Peterfburg, he failed down the Neva toward the open fea of the gulph of Finland. The day had been very fine; toward evening, however, the weather fuddenly changed; the emperor refolved to land, but he had scarcely reached the shore, when the storm burst forth in all its fury. The waves rofe and beat against the craggy rocks of the coaft, and the wind roared from the wild sky with a thundering voice; in a few minutes a black cloud, let down like a curtain, hid the scene from view. Still, however, the emperor looked and liftened; he thought he heard the voice of distress mingling with the yell of the storm; his penetrating glance foon discovered a boat struggling against the rolling furge, that was driving it towards the furious breakers. The men, most of them being foldiers, are evidently at a loss what to do; presently the boat is dashed upon a reef;