world fast buried in spiritual slumber? Thousands and thousands are going on in a dream, going on as if asleep. A kind of spiritual somnambulism has seized hold of all their faculties; and, as a man walks in a dream, so sinners are going on in their course of life altogether in a dream. About worldly things they are sufficiently wakeful, acute, on the alert; but as regards the life of God, the welfare of their souls, they are fast asleep. Like Jonah, whilst all is tempestuous around, whilst the ship is straining with the fury of the storm-like Jonah, whilst God's wrath is hanging over their heads, and the tempest of eternal wrath brings its furiousness and horror around them, they are in the hold of the vessel, fast asleep. But the Christian must try to awaken them and then warn them to escape from the danger which thus surrounds their souls.

;

He comes to one, and finds him Simple,-so simple to say, "There is no danger yet." How many a sinner has, in this way, evaded the warnings of the Gospel! He does not credit them. He does not believe in any immediate peril. If any dark cloud is ever to burst upon the sinner's head, it has not gathered yet; years may pass, probably will pass, ere it overcast his moral sky. How strange is this belief, nay, how idiotic! when there is but a step between the sinner and death, how can he assert, "There is no danger yet"!

Then there is another, and he is Slothful. The chains of sloth are hanging about his limbs. He is not willing to undertake any trouble, he is not willing at present to attend to those things which pertain to his peace. So he postpones these important matters, and "at some more convenient season " he will begin to think about his soul. And he will return such an answer as this-"I am young yet; there is plenty of time when I am older and have more leisure; in old age I will begin to think

about these matters. I agree they are important matters; they ought to be attended to, and some day I will attend to them; but there is plenty of time yet. A little folding of the hands to sleep ;' there is no danger."

Then another is Presumptuous, and his answer is a different one. His answer bespeaks the pride of the natural heart, the dislike to any interference in its concerns; and he rudely repels the kind believer who would thus endeavour to save his soul from the wrath to come. He says, "We must stand alone; we are not responsible one to another. Let me be; it is not your business to interfere with these concerns; they are mine; I must give an account for myself. Let me alone; why should you interfere with what belongs only to myself?" So many a sinner has put aside the appeal to his conscience, and has rudely repulsed the friend that would have led him to the cross of Christ.

Here you have a picture of the world. Some are so simple as not to see their danger; others are so slothful as to postpone their endeavours after life; others are so presumptuous as to dare to leave things just as they are, and to be wilfully careless about the future.

You will remark that the young believer is not to say, "I am too young to endeavour to save sinners ; I must wait till I am more advanced, till I have more knowledge and greater experience; and then I will begin." No; if you this hour have received joy and peace through believing, you ought this hour to begin at once to endeavour to save sinners. The first person you can speak with, the first you can pray for, and for the salvation of whose soul you can labour, you must make that person the subject of your spiritual efforts. The believer therefore takes the first opportunity. He does not wait for some grand occasion; he does not wait for some time to

come when he can do great things. He does not say, “Oh, that I were a minister that I might preach the Gospel of Christ! I should like to be a missionary and go forth to distant regions to make Jesus Christ known to the perishing heathen. I wish I could do some great thing for God;" but he remembers that we are not to be judged by the extent of our work, but by our fidelity; it is not to be said of us, "they did a great deal," but "they did what they could." So every opportunity which occurs is an opportunity which he takes, and thanks God in the endeavour to make Christ known.

And who were those that afterwards met the believer-those that came tumbling over the wall?not the right way of entering the road to ZionHypocrisy and Formalism. Ah! reader, there is much of formalism and hypocrisy amongst those "who profess and call themselves Christians," much in the present day which we must attribute to formalism and hypocrisy. What is formalism? A religion of externals; a dependence upon rites and ceremonies; a satisfaction in having attended to the outward duties of religion. And what is hypocrisy ? Not only the assuming of religion as a cloak to hide sin and to gain applause; but hypocrisy is the carrying out of anything of a religious life not from Christian motives. And this may be done even without the actual purpose to be a hypocrite. The mind may be self-deceived; and there may be much hypocrisy attending the religious life of some professors, much hypocrisy which is carried on unconsciously, but which is not the less hypocritical.

And why, then, are Formalism and Hypocrisy apparently going towards heaven? They are going in order to win the praise of men. Oh, how much does this enter as a motive, we fear, into the religion of the present day! The praise of men! Some ministers preach for the praise of men; some people go to

church for the praise of men; some undertake a religious life for the praise of men, because otherwise they would be looked upon with suspicion-otherwise they would not stand so fair in the eyes of their neighbours and friends.

The praise of men! How earnestly, reader, ought we to take warning from such characters! How earnestly ought we to ask God to search our hearts by the powerful scrutiny of His Holy Spirit, lest there be any wicked way in us, and, if there be, that He would remove it! We ought to beseech God earnestly to keep us from the spirit of formalismfrom trusting to the externals of religion-from placing dependence upon ordinances, and sacraments, and attendance upon God's Word, and the performance of religious duties. These may be done without there being any faith in Christ, without the soul having entered the right path, without its having gone through the Wicket-gate. It may have entered by getting over the wall; and if the soul gets thus without Christ into the way, it must hereafter go out of the way again without Christ.

The question, then, returns in all its force, Have we entered the way to heaven through Jesus Christ? Have we gone to the Wicket-gate, or have we climbed like thieves and robbers over some other way? Oh! reader, it is possible to be looked upon by the eyes of men as true and sincere disciples of Jesus Christ, and yet to be found out afterwards as hypocrites or as formalists. It is very possible for the heart to deceive itself so as to be a hypocrite unconsciously. How earnestly, then, ought selfexamination to be carried on! how ought we to constantly search our hearts to ascertain whether we are truly believers in Christ, and whether we have entered the road to heaven through Him, by faith in Him, not expecting to be saved by anything we

can do, but expecting to be saved by Christ through faith-that faith which is not even of ourselves, but which in itself is a gift of God!

W. M. W.

THE WAY TO THE HEART.

BY ANNA MENNELL.

Ir was a strong, massive, iron-bound door, closely shut and firmly locked. How to get it opened was the difficulty, and it seemed likely to remain one; for various efforts had been made by various persons to gain admittance, but hitherto all in vain.

One

gave a loud and authoritative knock; another seized the handle and rattled that vigorously; a third endeavoured to break open the door; while a fourth brought a heavy tool and attempted to smash in one of its panels. But all that they gained was selfirritation and repeated disappointments. The door stood as immovable as ever, and if they imagined that it was likely to unclose in answer to these demonstrations, they were very much mistaken.

Presently some wiser head than the rest suggested the use of a key. The suggestion was immediately adopted, and one of the party stepped forward and essayed to push in a clumsy-looking key, which was about three times too large for the opening. The next employed one correspondingly too small. Others were selected and tried, but the same results followed. The simple reason was, none of them fitted the lock.

So, baffled in their enterprise, and a little angry too at their failures, they were just about to give over their useless labour, when somebody produced a small, slender, delicately-formed key, which he said he believed would easily accomplish the object they had in view. Smiles of mingled pity and incredulity, and