ligion. Not till they decide against the bestowment of time and expense on other objects, connected with human welfare, can they reasonably decide against all similar appropriations for the promotion of piety and virtue. Religion is as truly a social concern as any other. It is as truly a social, as it is an individual concern; and in neither character can it flourish without care and culture. It is, like every thing in this world, dependant on means. It is as dependant on means, as knowledge. And he who, while professing to value it, should be constantly pleading that it is a private affair, and must spring from an inward impulse alone, would act as unwisely, I think, as he who should say, concerning knowledge, True, it is an excellent thing; but it is a thing that every man must have to himself, and within himself; let us destroy the school-houses, and scatter these class books, that are filling the youthful mind with foreign notions and prejudices; let these times and seasons of teaching and learning be abolished; and let all rest in pure simplicity and perfect freedom.' It would, indeed, be the simplicity of universal ignorance, and the freedom of universal licentiousness. And a like result would follow, if a like course were pursued in religion.

"

D.

TO DIE IS GAIN.'

An,-is it thus, blest mortal?—I would ask

How thou hast weighed, and by what process brought
The Apostle's answer to thy sum of life.

Where are thy balances, and whose firm hand
Did poise therein thy talents and their use
To shew such grand result?-Time's capital
Needs well be husbanded, to leave the amount
Of gain behind, when at a moment's call
The spirit fleets, and the dissolving flesh
Yields to the earth-worm's fang.

-Say, hath thy lip

Too often satiate, loathed the mingled cup,
Unthinking filled at Pleasure's turbid stream ?-
Or hath thine ear the promises of Hope
Drank on in giddy sickness, till the touch
Of grave philosophy their emptiness
Detected, and to their own element

Of air reduced ?-Or doth thy cheated heart,
Sowing its warm affections on the wind,
And reaping but the whirlwind, loathing turn
From every harvest which these changeful skies
Can ripen or destroy?-Then hast thou proved
The loss of life, but not the gain of death,
But hast thou by thy ceaseless prayers obtained
Such token of acceptance with thy God,
So filled each post of duty, so sustained
All needful discipline, so deeply mourned
Each burden of iniquity, that Death
Comes as a favored messenger to lead

To its bright heritage the willing soul?

-Searcher of hearts, thou knowest! Thou alone

The hidden thought dost read,-the daily act

Note unforgetful.-Take away the dross

Of earthly principle, the gathered film

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

John xii, 32.

In this passage, our Saviour speaks of his death as the means of his success and his glory. To be lifted up, undoubtedly means to be lifted up on the cross, to die by crucifixion. And the influence of his death, the Saviour says, shall be in drawing all men to him. It is one of those passages that clearly set forth the purpose of the death of Christ. It was to draw all men unto him. It was to operate, not upon God, but upon men. It was not to make the Supreme Father merciful, but to make man a worthy object of his mercy. It was to make men disciples and followers of Jesus Christ. 'I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men unto me.' death shall have a convincing, persuasive efficacy upon the minds and hearts of men. It shall satisfy their understandings of the validity of my claims; it shall awaken their conscience to the evil of sin, when they reflect how much I suffered to remove it; it shall stir and melt their hearts, when they reflect that it was from love of them, that I poured out my blood like

My

water. I shall thus draw all men unto me by the cords of reason, conscience, and love.

'All men.' What are we to understand by this phrase? I shall draw all men unto me.' This verse has been thought, by some, to prove the doctrine of the final salvation of all men, as a necessary and inevitable event. And why does it not prove the doctrine? I answer, because, from reason and from other declarations of the Saviour, we have cause to believe, that a condition is implied, though not expressed. For our Saviour elsewhere declares, 'If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins; and again he says, that none shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but such as do the will of his Father, who is in heaven. From these passages, we have reason to regard the declaration, I shall draw all men unto me,' as conditional. The meaning evidently is, that his death will have a great tendency to draw those, who duly reflect upon it; who open their minds and hearts to its influence; and who are led by it to embrace and practise his religion. We have no ground for the belief, that it will irresistibly draw those, who do not choose to follow; or that it will carry a man to heaven, in any other way, than by presenting to his mind arguments, persuasions, and motives, to induce him to receive the doctrines, obey the commands, and imbibe the spirit of our Saviour.

THE TEMPTATIONS INCIDENT TO AFFLICTION.

It is a common thing, to consider the careless hours of prosperity as the peculiar season of temptation; a season when the soul becomes thoughtless of important and serious duties, when the affections are in dan ger of being absorbed by trifles, when self-examination is likely to be neglected, and the strains of pleasure become so sweet and powerful as to drown the murmurs of conscience. But while human life is what it was meant to be, a scene of probation, there is no temporary exemption for us from the assaults of temptation; each crisis of our affairs brings with it, under some new modification, the trial of our virtue; and along the whole journey of life, snares are spread for us by the road-side, whether hidden among the roses of pleasure, or the rank and melancholy weeds of affliction. Many perhaps hardly realize that in the hour of adversity the soul is as likely to neglect watchfulness as in the time of gayer abstractions.

The first temptation, in seasons of sudden calamity, is, to utter loose assevertions of our trust in God, while we are indulging ourselves in emotions inconsistent with that trust. We shrink from a charge of disputing God's will as from an accusation of shocking impiety. But what avails this, unless our confidence in him is as it should be unless it is a strong, practical, operating principle within us? If it be not of this character, one great duty, in the midst of whatever presses upon our mind, is, to make it so. If we neglect this duty, we have slighted our first lesson, thrown away the first ad