business and the man of God would be unable to fulfil their duties. To a more perfect command we should aspire, and we must succeed, if we seek it by steady perseverance, with prayer to God for success. Suffering them to be vagrants at certain times, increases their aptitude to be so at all times, while perpetual attempts to direct their course will decrease this pernicious tendency. Our thoughts and affections do not work, like the bees in a hive of glass, through which mortal eyes can perceive their movements, but unto God they are all known. Besides which, it is important in other respects, that our hearts and minds should be properly engaged. From a mind without purity a course of conduct must proceed in violation of the divine laws, injurious to society, and destructive to the transgressor. He, who does not watch over his heart, in the fear of God, will infallibly decline in piety, and, probably, disgrace his character by some external and enormous offence.

This christian vigilance implies incessant caution against sins to which we are peculiarly liable. Paul mentions the sin which doth most easily beset us. Why any particular class of transgressions should influence certain individuals oftener than any other, it is not at this time our business to enquire that it does is a fact. We perceive a tendency to avarice in one, and to licentiousness in another; here stands a proud man, and there a misanthropist. With respect to these offences, no caution, no prayer, no exertion, can be excessive. Indeed it is not only proper to pray for deliverance from the dominion of sin

in general-but those which most frequently attack us with success, should have more than common attention. They should be mentioned particularly before God.

Nothing, however, is more important than watchfulness over the formation of habits. Who does not acknowledge their power? yet how little caution is used against the existence and growth of those which are evil? One contracts a habit of inattention in the sanctuary, and if an angel occupied the pulpit, he would wander from his theme. Another hears without subsequent meditation, and the celestial manna does not feed the soul, because it was not digested. Others slide into a ha bit of greatly neglecting secret prayer, and seldom engage in it, in consequence, without reluctance. Againt the commencement of these, we should guard, for, when once formed they are either not perceived, or, if seen, it is not an easy task to forsake them. Habits grow insensibly unless we are peculiarly vigilant; when formed, they resemble a deeply rooted tree, the fruit of which is frequently very pernicious, and even deadly.

We will conclude with a word of comfort to the heavenly pilgrim. Much time is for ever passed away, and so much of your painful journey to heaven is trod. Now is your salvation nearer than when you first believed.

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"On all the wings of time it flies, Each moment brings it near-" Children of God! your salvation is certain, for "nothing shall separate you from the love of God"-you are in your Father's hands, and out of them nothing shall be able to pluck you. The

good Shepherd, who gave his life for you, has said that you shall never perish. To the regions of ineffable sanctity and bliss you are, therefore, ever approaching. Think how many disappointments you have experienced, how many tears you have shed, how many temptations you have endured; just so many of the evils you were to suffer are vanished to appear no more. Have patience, heirs of heaven, a little longer watch and pray, and trust in God, and do his righteous will, and death and heaven will come. Like the Apostle, look to the end, and exclaim, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Attend to his advice and "walk by faith, and not by sight." Submit with patience to live longer here, but "be willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord." But see to it "that ye labour, that whether present or absent ye may be accepted of him."London.

T.G.

equally disposed to derive practical instructions from the prayers it records.

In the present time, the evil of the world is too visible among those who call themselves the followers of Christ. In many instances it appears as if the nature of his kingdom were changed from its first institution. "My kingdom" was his language, "is not of this world." But is it not too apparent that there is a deficiency of separation between his friends, and those of the world, which displays how little they are influenced by the decision of a Saviour? Since, therefore, we are in danger from this source, it becomes us to enquire, in what the evil of the world consists?-and to point out the importance of preservation from it.

There is a two-fold evil in the world-the evil of sin, and the evil of suffering. It is moral evil from which we should most carefully abstain. This we must fly from as our most deadly foe, which can never be but injurious. As the world is a rebellious province against the King of heaven, it contains the principles of pollution and contamination in every part of it. There is evil in its company, in its spirit, in its pleasures, its maxims, and its course.

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There is evil in the company of the world. It is true that while God allots us our existence on this globe, we must hold converse with the men of the world, for to avoid this we must leave it; and Christianity looks with no favourable eye on the retirements of the hermit. As man is made for society, in society must he mingle. But there is a wide difference between this necessary intercourse

with ungodly men, and making them our chosen companions; forming voluntary intimacies of the closest nature with them; and delighting in their society as those whom we principally regard. This, O professor, cannot be done without direct violation of the holy will of God, and without endangering thy best welfare. The mandate of heaven says" enter not into the path of the wicked; go not in the way of evil men: avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away." An habitual and voluntary intercourse with them will evince and create too great a similarity of disposition to them-will tend to lessen spiritua~ lity of mind-darken our evidences, and perplex our souls. O, let it be our study to fly from this snare, to chuse the saints as our company, esteeming them the excellent of the earth, in whom is all our delight. If the company of the world in general be so pernicious, what must be that union of the closest nature, which we too soften see formed between the members of Christ and the members of Satan? The marriage of the godly with the ungodly. The children of God becoming one flesh with the children of disobedience? If the occasional intercourse of believers with the wicked be so prejudicial, what must be an union with them which nothing but death can dissolve?

There is evil in the spirit of the world. This is that love of the world, that lust of the eye, that attachment to the things of time, which the Scriptures denominate covetousness. And here it is to be suspected that professors of the present day are chiefly in danger.

We are not now liable to be driven to apostacy by the terrors of the wrath of man; by fines, confiscations, imprisonments, and death, in all its horrors. Thanks to the providential goodness of God, these things assail us not in Britain. But we are exposed to what is far more fatal-the influence of worldly things. If persecution has slain its thousands, the spirit of this world has destroyed its ten thousands. It is not so much from gluttony, drunkenness, cheating, and open crimes, that professors are in danger, as from that covetousness which disguises itself by false names, which attaches to itself honourable importance, and which escapes detection, except by the eye of him who searches the heart, and tries the reins of the children of men. It is frequently supposed that when the Bible thunders the heaviest anathemas against covetousness, it is only that species of it which consists in usury, oppressive measures, in extorting the gain of injustice, or in depriving others of what is really their due. This is indeed that vice in the basest sense of the word. But not so exclusively. Having the heart set on the world, is covetousness in the sight of God. When the rich fool is presented to us as an example of this disposition, we read not that he attained his property by unjust dealing, by oppressing the widow and orphan, or depriving those of his charity who waited on him for relief. No, his spirit was fixed on what he acquired, the love of the world engrossed his soul. And whether this passion be exerted in spending or in obtaining the substance of time, it is this hateful disposition

in the view of the Lord-"For so is every one who is rich to himself, and not rich towards God." Now is there nothing detrimental in this spirit? What, not in that which is idolatry-which robs Jehovah of his throne-the heart which debases every intellectual power-which disqualifies for all moral and spiritual exercises-and which excludes from the kingdom of Christ and of God?

There is evil in the pleasures of the world. Did you never read of some who were lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God? And what pleasures were these? Were they spiritual, heavenly, and divine? or carnal, sensual, and earthly? How many deceitful pleasures does the world present to beguile unwary souls? Amidst the number may be reckoned those of the theatre, the card table, the ball-room, the tavern, the race-ground, the vain fashions of dress, with many others, which the imaginations of my readers will easily supply, and which are manifestly calculated to banish thoughts of God and eternity. Now, it might be almost superfluous to enumerate these, were it not too obvious that many, who call themselves followers of Christ, are seen frequently attend ing them. Without displaying the peculiar turpitude attendant on each of them, suffer me to propose a few questions concerning them in general. Is an attachment to these consistent with your character as strangers and pilgrims on the earth? Does it harmonize with your pretensions as the followers of the self-denying Saviour? Would he honour them with his presence, were he resident in our world? How can you be living

epistles of Christ, if you can be habitually in those those exercises which you know he would condemn? Does conformity to these things recommend his religion? Will it be pleasing to review these things when death appears before you? O, it will produce anguish at a season which is a detector of the heart.

Survey the maxims of the world. As the believer has principles by which he regulates his behaviour; so has the votary of time.. As those of the one teach him to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; to demean himself as a stranger and pilgrim on the earth, but as a fellow-citizen of the saints, and of the household of God; so those of the other instruct him in all the ways of iniquity, folly, and sin. These maxims, which are disclosed in the general conduct, are without difficulty ascertained. One of them evidently is "that the world is to become our supreme concern, and religion subordinate to it.”—that it is well to have a little religion, but when this clashes with business, with pleasure, with fashion, it must be surrendered to these great concerns. On this principle their whole conduct is regulated. They seek first the things of time, rather than those which pertain to the kingdom of God-they are careful and troubled about many things, and neglect the one thing needful-they labour not chiefly for the bread that endureth to everlasting life, but for that which perisheth-they lay up treasures on earth, but none in heaven. O Christians, are you in no danger from such pernicious doctrines? Do they never interrupt your pro

gress? Have you not reason to watch against their contaminating influence, and to pray to be kept from the iniquity of the world?

What is the course of the world? Is it not evil? If its company, its spirit, its pleasures, and its principles, are depraved, what can we expect from its conduct? If the tree be corrupt, such will be its fruits. If the fountain be polluted, its streams will be infected. And such is the case in reality. When Paul describes the course of the world, he draws it in the blackest colouring. Read, for instances, Eph. ii. 1, 3. Titus iii. 3. Beware, O believer, of that evilspeaking, those envyings, that forgetfulness of God, pride, anger, malice, and deceit, which are too visible in all around. Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Hold fast the word of life. Be blameless as the sons of God, in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation.

Every thing calls upon you to seek preservation from it. If we live under its inflnence, we dishonour the Saviour who bought us with his blood. We are called upon to let our light so shine before men, that others, seeing our good works, may glorify our Father in heaven. But how can we glorify him, and bring others to the same temper. of mind, if there be no difference between us and them? May it not be asked, what do ye more than others? where is the efficacy of your boasted religion? Is it to be expected that they will say to us, We will go with you, for we see that God is with you? Religion will suffer by our conduct, and men will, through us, speak evil of the good way of the Lord. If we imbibe the spirit of the

world, we shall invalidate our Christian profession. What is the import of your baptism? Is it not a separation from the world? Are you not buried with Christ in baptism?-buried with him by exclusion from the world? And is it not as inconsistent for you to live in conformity to it, as for a spectre from the tombs to visit the abodes of men? What is the meaning of your attendance on the Supper of the Lord? Is it not that you are separate, and cannot touch the unclean thing? Is it not a declaration that whatever others do, you are determined to serve the Saviour? But if time has your warmest affections, you positively abjure in your conduct, what your professions maintain.

Examine all the descriptions of the Christian character, which the word of God unfolds. Do they not all imply a separation from the world? Is the child of God distinguished by his faith? But faith overcomes the world-by his conformity to Christ? but he is not of the world, as Christ was not of the world-by the tribulations which assail? but it is because we are not of the world, but Christ hath chosen us out of it, that the world hates us. What is it that you distinguish in Noah? In the face of a deriding world he builds the ark. What do you admire in Moses? He esteemed the reproach ofChrist greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. What is your expectation, O ye professors, in the day of God? Is it not that when the wicked shall be assigned to a furnace of fire, that then you shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of your father? How can you maintain your profession unless preserved from the