DANGER OF DELAY.

A gentleman of great worldly respectability, but without vital godliness, was one day conversing with a lady of truly Christian principles. In the course of conversation, she fully expressed her religious sentiments; when her worldly companion exclaimed, “I

"Not yet," she replied, "Oh!" said he carelessly, Alas! he knew not that his

hope, madam, you are not a saint?” "but I trust to be one some day." "there is time enough for us all yet." days were numbered, and that a few more were all he had to spend on earth. Though his general health was good, he had for some time suffered from a carbuncle forming in his side; and in a day or two after this conversation, it became so much worse, that two physicians were called in. On examining the part affected, one of them told him that the carbuncle must be opened; but he refused to consent to this. The other observed that it was then too late. and gave it as his opinion that he had only a few minutes to live. "Impossible," said Mr. "I have often felt worse than I do now." However his countenance changed, and after a few words addressed to his son, who, in great distress, stood beside him, holding his hand, he exclaimed, "I am no more," and expired almost immediately. If any one could have told him the week before, when he would not hear of eternal things, that he must so soon enter eternity, how earnestly would he have sought for pardon and repentance.

SOLEMN WARNING.

Be warned! Repent! Fly, fly for succour to the ark of God -to Jesus Christ-the Lamb which once was slain, that you might live-for he is worthy to receive all honour, power, and glory. Believe, and you shall live. Obey his word, his Spirit, his calls, his invitations. There is no time for delay. Put it not off, I beg of you: no, not for a moment. Do you want to join that heavenly choir, and sing the new song? Then come in God's appointed way. Repent. Do you want a house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? Then join in heart and soul this happy people whose God is the Lord. Do you want an interest in the new Jerusalem, the beloved city? Then set your face as a flint Zionward. Become a pilgrim in the good old way. 'Seek first

the kingdom of God,' says Christ, and then all these things shall be added unto you.'

But you, who have never wept, nor confessed your sins to God, who have been more anxious to have your names written in the book of fame, of worldly honour, of the riches of this world, than in the book of life ;-remember, you too will weep when all heaven is silent. When the last seal is broken, then you will see the book, and your name blotted out! Then you will weep, and say, once my name was there. I had a day of probation. Life was proffered. But I hated instruction; I despised reproof, and my part is taken from the Book of Life! Farewell, happiness! farewell, hope!

BENEFIT OF GIVING TRACTS.

A young man of the name of John Bamford, resided, when I was at Melton, in the family of a pious surgeon of the place, as a servant; and while there, had many opportunities of religious instruction, besides the Church services which he attended. Though there was nothing disorderly in his conduct, and his attention to his duties was exemplary, there were no symptoms of his being under religious impression. It pleased God, however, to visit him with ill health, which so increased upon him, as to oblige his master to send him to the Leicester Infirmary. After he had remained there for some months, not unhappy, as he said, under the circumstances, though ignorant of the only source of true happiness, a lady, at Market Harborough, sent some tracts to be distributed among the inmates, and one of them, Watts' "End of Time," came into his hands, the reading of which, under the divine blessing, led him to see himself a sinner in need of a Saviour. The reality of the change was evinced by the effects. He no sooner became awake to his true condition, than he was anxious to return to Melton, as, to use his own words, "he feared that his soul might be lost for want of instruction." He therefore was brought back, though very weak. His mother said, that his desire for spiritual privileges, seemed to give him strength for his journey. He only lived a week after his return, during which time, I regret to say, I did not see him, owing to absence; but he was visited by many of our Christian friends, and profited much by their intercourse. One of them, who was constant in her attentions to him, put down upon VOL. 22. M 2

paper a few remarks, which show the genuineness of the work of grace in him.

Upon my visiting him, I said, "I am sorry to see you so ill." With much animation in his countenance, he replied, "I am not sorry. I am sure I am afflicted for my good. I know I am a great sinner, but if I was to die to-night, Jesus would save me, his mercies are so great." I asked him if he were happy in the infirmary. "Yes," he replied, "until about a fortnight back, when I read a tract, which made me feel very miserable about my soul. (He here told me what struck him so much in the tract.) I then began to wish to come home, and I felt my soul would be lost for want of instruction. I wish I knew that dear lady, who thought of poor immortal souls, by being so kind as to send tracts to the infirmary, that I might thank her." I said to him, "You have had good instructions." "O yes! but how little have I profited by all the prayers and sermons I have heard. When Mr. K read to

us, it was with me, as I fear with the other servants, it went in at one ear and out at the other. What can I have been doing all my life, to neglect seeking the Lord? O, I want to talk to every body to seek Jesus! I have talked to one of Mr. K'.s servants; I want to see the others, to exhort them to seek the Lord." Upon repeating some portions of Scripture, it seemed quite familiar to him, and he said, "Though I cannot read much now, I can lie and think of all I have read in the Bible." One day he said to his mother, "O mother! I cannot tell you how happy I am! I cannot express my feelings. I hope I shall never turn from the Lord.” A short time before he died, he said, "O how these pains wean me from the earth. May we all meet in heaven!" He begged his parents never to part with the tract, but read it again and again, with prayer for a blessing.

LAST DAYS OF AMBROSE SERLE.

Two months before the death of this excellent man, he wrote, "Mine age and my disorder put me continually in mind that I have no long continuance here. How shall I face death, usually styled the king of terrors? How shall I appear in the presence of God? I have surely no other foundation of hope, but in the atoning blood and perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour.

I have no help but in the Spirit of truth, by whom I have access to this grace wherein I stand. I have no plea but this one, which the Lord will not reject; God be merciful to me a sinner.' Lord my God, be with me in my departing hours. Make all my bed in my sickness; sustain my drooping spirit; and when my heart and flesh fail, be thou the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. Amen."

Being visited by a paralytic attack, he was precluded from affording to his dear friends the dying testimony which no doubt would otherwise have been given: but he wrote much even in the last days that confirmed the living testimony, and proved that he had living hopes in dying hours.

"O let me depart in peace. Be with and uphold me, and then all shall be well, and I shall have nothing to do or to say, but blessed be God who giveth me the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Hallelujah for evermore. Amen. I write this with a trembling hand; but blessed be God, with an undismayed heart, through the love of God in Christ vouchsafed to me. Blessing, glory, honour, power to Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever. Amen. Hallelujah." Thus closed his earthly testimony to the preciousness of his hope. May each reader be led to examine if the same hope dwells within. Soon shall we all in the swellings of Jordan need a friend, a prop that will not fail. Let it be our wisdom as well as happiness to know that we are united to Christ, and that because he lives, we shall live also.

RULES FOR PROFITABLY READING THE BIBLE. (From the Rev. Hugh White's "Profession and Practice.")

Are you about to be engaged in the perusal of the word of God? Lift up your heart and voice to the Holy Spirit, in the words of the Psalmist, " Open thou mine eyes to see the wondrous things contained in this blessed Book." Have the impression deeply wrought into your inmost soul, that, without the divine teaching of this blessed Spirit, you cannot so understand a single verse as to derive from it strength, refreshment, or consolation. That you cannot appropriate a single promise with such a grasp as will fill your heart with peace and joy, and enable it to abound in hope,

unless by the power of the Holy Ghost. Yes, believer, the Bible even to you must prove a sealed book, unless the Holy Spirit break the seals, and give you the true interpretation of the glorious visions it unfolds to the spiritually enlightened eye.

But while I consider this reliance on the Spirit's teaching and influences as of primary importance in the perusal of the sacred volume, there are one or two hints I would affectionately suggest, which you may find profitable, in assisting your anxious endeavours to make the study of its precious pages conducive to the advancement of your sanctification. Read the Bible with fixed attention; concentrating all the faculties of your mind on the work in which you are engaged. With deep reverence, regarding it as the word of God, as much as if the voice of God were, at the moment, audibly to pronounce in your ears the very words you are reading; and with a sincere desire to discover the mind of the Spirit, remembering that all Scripture is given by inspiration of the Spirit, and that the holy men, who have recorded therein the revealed will of God, "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Two or three verses, read in such a frame of mind, would be more profitable than as many chapters hurried over in that superficial manner in which too many who engage in it only to satisfy conscience, by the long-established custom of daily reading a certain portion of Scripture, peruse the sacred page. The Bible is a mine of spiritual wealth; but we must dig deep if we would discover the rich veins of precious ore which lie hidden beneath its surface. If we are content carelessly to skim its surface, we shall come away unenriched by a single particle of the divine treasure it contains.

Again, read in a spirit of self-application; approach the sacred volume, that you may hear what the Lord God has to say to you. Remember, the address of the Bible is to you individually: “I have a message from God unto thee:" and let the answer of your soul be, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." Is it a precept that comes before you? Examine whether you are in the habit of rendering it a cordial obedience. Is it a prohibition? Inquire if you habitually abstain, through a conscientious regard to the will of the God you love, from the forbidden thing, whatever it may Does some precious promise meet your eye? See that you are enabled to appropriate it as your own, and to extract from it the sweetness of divine comfort, or the spirit of sustaining strength it was intended to supply. Does some awful threatening arrest

be.