secure, whatever you part with, keep a good conscience -peace with yourself. There is no enemy like an offended conscience. There is no anguish like selfreproach-no war so fierce as that which a man wages with himself.

CASUISTRY.

A pure conscience, enlightened from above, wellinstructed out of the law of the Lord, and not bribed by selfishness, is the best of all casuists. Seldom will a case arise, when such a conscience will not immediately and instinctively decide aright.

JUDGMENT OF CHARACTER.

We must not judge of ourselves by the occasional desires that we feel, nor by the occasional resolutions that we are induced to make. They indicate not what we are, but what we are capable of, being under strong excitements. The infallible criteria are our uniform desires and our fixed dispositions. We are, in fact, and in God's estimation, what we habitually are. He

regards us according to our established character, and not according to our occasional deviations from it. And if any man would know what his real character is, and what is the moral state of his heart, let him not always look at himself in one position only, but let him take notice of himself under every change of circumstances. Circumstances reveal character. They cross-examine a man. What a man is, in every variety of conditions, under all circumstances, that he is. If the sick man is anxious and as firmly resolved to be religious, when he recovers his health, then his heart is indeed that way. When the world begins to look bright again to the mourner, if his mind is still directed to Him, to whom in the hour of trouble he betook himself, it is a sign that there was something more than a mere shifting of the thoughts,-even a thorough turning of the mind to God. If they who are gracious when the pangs come upon them, are gracious when they go off from them, they are gracious in reality.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

No man will ever find out fully what he is by a mere survey of himself. A heart that is deceitful above all things, in order to be known, must be searched. The interior must be penetrated, as well as the surface contemplated. Explore yourselves, therefore. When a

charge of sinfulness is brought against you, say not, "I am not the man,"-"Thou art the man.” David thought he was not, until convicted out of his own mouth, he cried, "Have mercy upon me, O, God, and blot out all mine iniquities." Paul thought he was not the man. He was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and he died-he found he was the man. Job thought he was not the man, while he only heard of God, but when he saw him, he exclaimed, “Behold I am vile." The publican lived many years, perhaps, before he discovered what sort of a man he was. He made the discovery not long before he went up into the temple to pray. Peter was sure he was not the man, on the evening before the day, when it was publicly discovered that he was. The prodigal son was long in coming to himself. it now takes a great while to bring a sinner to the open, and intelligent, and hearty confession of his desperate wickedness. And yet if any deny or even doubt his own vileness and guilt, the gospel brings to him no salvation, no joy, no hope.

And

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The subject of the first lesson in the science of salvation is self. Neither skip that, nor imperfectly learn it. The second treats of Christ, but it is so dependent on the first, that it will never be rightly learned, till that is learned. No man ever comes to Christ, till he has first come to himself.

HYPOCRITES.

It must be confessed that there do sometimes exist good reasons for applying the odious denomination of hypocrite to a man. In that case let him be exposed. Let not the world spare him, and let not the Church receive him. I have no apology to make for the man, who by one course of action, declares that he is a Christian, and by another, proves that he is a polluted sinner.

How absurd the conduct of the mere professor. He takes great pains, and gets nothing for it but greater guilt and heavier condemnation. He has too much conscience to neglect religion entirely, and too little to make thorough work of it; and thus he loses both worlds. Religion does not, and the world cannot make him happy; and all this happens, in consequence of his trying to be what he never can be, a lover of this world and a lover of God too.

Satan himself has his wardrobe of innocence.

Many are ready to show courage for Christ, who cannot exercise fortitude for him.

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INCONSISTENCIES.

Christ's real people are his servants, his subjects, his friends. But of many of his professed people, it may be said, what strange servants! Always at work for themselves;-doing nothing for their Master! What singular subjects !—taking the reins of government into their own hands, and making their own will a law unto themselves. What heartless friends!-preferring the company of the vain and the friendship of the world, above communion with God.

The most important things are the most neglected. In proportion as subjects deserve attention, it is denied them. The life of man is chiefly taken up with trifles. Compare what men are doing, with what they are leaving undone, and you will see with surprise, how much the latter transcends in importance the former.

He that does good without being good, pulls down with one hand what he builds up with the other.

He who by inconsistency becomes a stumbling-block in the church, is the grief of the church, the jest of the world, and the gazing stock of fallen angels.