bound with the strong cords of affection, yet looks upward evidently longing to depart and be with Chrift, which, as the Apostle says, is far better. Though he may feel this, yet often times he feels strongly bound with the cords of love to remain with the objects of his affection here on the earth, to whom his stay at present seems needful. He, however, does not confider this world as his abiding-place; he has it beneath his feet, he is looking upward, and waiting for his tranflation to one above.

Thus the Christian stands ready prepared, and longs to depart and be with Christ; but the interests of earth exercise an influence over him and bind him down with the golden bands of affectionate love. When a finner becomes a saint, his relations become changed, "old things have passed away. Behold all things have become new." A "new heart" is given, filled with love to God and man. A new world is presented full of glorious realities, substantial and eternal. A new God is given, Jehovah is His name. He formerly worshipped the gods of this world. A new Saviour is embraced, who is the "altogether lovely." New companions, the nobleft, the wisest, and the best. He is the fubject of another King, one Jesus, the citizen of another city which is out of fight, whose Builder and Maker is God, -the heir of an inheritance, which is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away.

No wonder, then, if he should often times de

F

fire to depart in order to possess all this happiness. Wandering on earth, "here he has no abiding city;" astranger and pilgrim as all his fathers were. Nevertheless, he has interests, affections, and duties of an earthly kind; these have a weighty claim upon him; they are connected with God and eternity. The religion of the Bible, while it strengthens the powers of the intellect, and sanctifies the soul, does also increase the power of natural affection, and makes us capable of the most lively emotions.

The true minister of the Gospel, like the great Apostle, would cheerfully lay down his work and away to Jesus, but the interests of his Master demand that he should stay, and build up the waste places of Jerufalem; therefore he says, "All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come."

The pious parent, when visited by sickness, would fain regard it as a call to heaven, but the dear pledges of love are weeping round the bedside, and their youthful state demands a faithful guardian. He can only say, "I am in a strait betwixt two, having a defire to depart and be with Chrift, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you; the will of the Lord be done."

"How happy is the pilgrim's lot!
How free from every grovelling thought,
From worldly hope and fear!
Confined to neither court nor cell,
His foul disdains on earth to dwell,
He only sojourns here.

"Nothing on earth I call my own :
A stranger to the world, unknown,
I all their wealth despise;
I trample on their whole delight,
And feek a country out of fight,
A country in the skies."

WESLEY. "Escape for thy life."-GEN. xix. 17. world."-Ephes. ii. 2.

"The course of this

THE FATAL CURRENT.

See! where the fatal current, broad and deep,
Rolls its fwift waters down the awful steep;
While from below the steaming clouds arise,
And spread and mingle with the distant skies;
Two men, behold! near the tremendous verge,
A moment finks them 'neath the boiling furge,
One rows for life, he pulls with all his strength,
And from the danger well escapes at length :
The other stops, ops, lays in his oars to drink,
While nearer drawing to the dreadful brink;
His jeers and taunts he still persists to throw,
And finks unaided down the gulf below.

THE engraving shows the fatal current hurrying on its rolling waters to the dread abyss; see where the boiling cataract sends forth its cloudy vapours; like volumes of thick smoke they rise and mingle with the furrounding atmosphere. On the stream, and near the fatal gulf, two men are seen in their frail barks. The one on the left hand, knowing his danger, pulls with all his might. Life is at stake; he stems the current. By dint of mighty, persevering effort, he escapes the vortex, and gets beyond the reach of danger.

The one on the right, careless and unconcerned, suffers his little boat to glide down the stream; he dreams not of danger. See! he has laid in his oars, he is drowning thought by drinking the intoxicating draught. He points the finger of fcorn at his more thoughtful and laborious companion. Notwithstanding his unconcern, the stream bears him onward; nearer and nearer he draws toward the awful brink; on, and on he drifts, till all at once, over he goes; and finks into the roaring, boiling gulf below.

The above is an emblem of what follows: The gulf, with its rising curling vapours, may represent the regions of the damned, where the fmoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and

ever.

The fatal current fignifies the "course of this world" leading thereinto-the streams of fin that eventually lead to the gates of death. The - man on the left, rowing against tide, represents those who stem the torrents of fin, who oppose themselves to the course of this world, "no longer fulfilling the lufts of the flesh, nor of the mind." Eternal life is at stake; they agonize