ination with God. That shame after all, is the promotion of fools only. Thus he vanquisheth shame by the sword of the Spirit even by the word of the Lord.

As soon as shame is disposed of, another foe appears-Love of the world. This consists in a greater attachment to this present world, than becomes one who is so soon to leave it and live forever in another. As the boy should learn what he may need when he shall become a man, so should the mortal acquire what it may need when it puts on immortality. The natural man is so strongly wedded to earthly objects, that to him the separation is impossible. Argument will not effect it. He may be convinced intellectually, that the things of earth are transitory and unsatisfying, yet he pursues them eagerly. His feelings may be lacerated by the death of some beloved relative, and his hopes blasted by the loss 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 perseveringly; in his religious experience; in his self-denying duties; in hisgivings, and in his sufferings. The Christian, however, knows that he must conquer that foe, or perish-therefore he sets himself to meditate upon his duty-he searches the Scriptures-he finds that God's enemies are those who mind earthly thingshe 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 Christ his Lord, who left heaven for man, he renounces earth for God. He dies to the world and lives to Christ. As a soldier 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 skillful and bold in his attacks. He knows how to shift his ground adroitly. Sometimes he assails 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 sleep." 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 consolations 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 subject 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 souls who profess Christ, yet not having true faith, in works deny him. He that believeth not shall be damned.

Sometimes unbelief attacks the Christian under the garb of benevolence. He pities and deplores most 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 in

stitutions, 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 paradise. 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, suiting 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 seen, 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 mansion for him; he will possess it. His Saviour has conquered and reigns. He will conquer and reign also. He beholds by faith, a glorious mansion, a palm of victory, a song of triumph, a crown of life. Animated by the prospect, he fights his way through all his foes, and as he fights he sings

"The glorious crown of Righteousness,
To me reached out, I view,

Conqueror through Christ I soon shall rise,
And wear it as my due."

6

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 tempest braves,

He leaps on board, and with a skillful hand,

Through rocks and breakers, brings them safe to land.

ance.

We have here a picture of danger and of deliverPeter the Great, Emperor of all the Russias, had been sailing in one of his yachts as far as the Ladoga Lake; finding himself refreshed by the seabreeze, instead of landing at St. Petersburg, he sailed down the Neva toward the open sea of the gulph of Finland. The day had been very fine; toward evening, however, the weather suddenly changed; the Emperor resolved to land, but he had scarcely reached the shore, when the storm burst forth in all its fury. The waves rose and beat against the craggy rocks of the coast, 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 listened; he thought he heard the voice of distress mingling with the yell of the storm; his penetrating glance soon discovered a boat struggling against the rolling surge, that was driving it towards the furious breakers. The men, most of them being soldiers, are evidently at a loss what to do; presently the boat is dashed upon a reef; the sea breaks over it mountains high. The Emperor immediately sends a vessel to their aid, but in vain; the men on board want both skill and courage to execute the dangerous task. The poor men on the reef, seeing themselves deserted by their companions, rend the air w. their piteous cries for help; the Emperor can rain himself no longer, he springs into his ov Joat, calling on all who have hearts to dare for their brethren, to