they envied him for the splendour of holiness that fhone around his path. In their hatred they exclaimed, "He hath a devil;" and in their blood-thirsty malice "they cried out the more, saying, 'Let him be crucified.””

If envy, malice, hatred, reigns,

And binds my foul with flavish chains,
O Lord, thy heavenly love impart,
And drive the demon from my heart.

"While we look not at the things which are feen, but at the things which are not feen."-2 COR. iv. 18. "For we walk by faith, not by fight."-2 COR. v. 7.

CHRISTIAN FAITH, OR RELIGION.
High on the world, fee where Religion stands
And bears the open volume in her hands;
With eyes upraised, fhe feeks for heavenly light,
To know its doctrines and its laws aright:
The crofs of Chrift fhe bears, and walks abroad,
And holds communion with her Father, God.
Thus with the Chriftian: filled with love divine,
Above the world he foars in heavenly clime,
The facred cross his only hope and stay,

The Book of Truth his guide from day to day.

CHRISTIAN Faith or Religion is here reprefented ftanding upon a globe. This denotes that the Chriftian, although he is in the world, yet, like a fhip at fea, he is above the world. In her hands fhe holds the opened volume of God's Holy Word. She is looking upward, to show

that the expects light from above to shine upon the facred page. With one arm the embraces the cross, fignifying that her only hope of falvation is founded on the death of Jesus Christ.

This is an emblem of that religion which God in his mercy has given to mankind. He who poffeffes it refts his all-his foul and body, his time and his eternity-upon the atonement of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. While fome are trusting to the mere mercy of God out of Chrift, and others to their felf-righteoufnefs, others again to the interceffion of men, women, and angels, his language is, 'Tis all my hope, and all my plea, for me the Saviour died. God forbid that I fhould glory, fave in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross of Chrift is the mighty lever that is to roll the world back again to God. All true Christians have fo understood it.

Constantine the Great took advantage of this fact-the common faith of the early Christians in the power of the crofs. When going to fight against Maxentius, he related to his army that he faw (fome fay in a vifion) a crofs in the fky, bearing this infcription, Ev TOUT vika" By this, conquer." It inspired the foldiers with courage. The cross was feen infcribed on every banner; the emperor led his army to triumphant victory.

The Holy Scriptures are very precious to him who has true faith. He regards them as the words of God—as a divine proclamation of grace to man-as a record of parental love-as a

hiftory of his dear Redeemer, and of his own redemption as the title-deed of his own glorious inheritance-as the only rule of his faith and practice. With its facred leaves open before him, he looks upward and prays, O Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." While fome neglect and despise the Holy Book, and others depend upon human creeds, and the mufty traditions of "the Fathers, he exclaims, "O how I love thy law! Thy ftatutes have been my fongs in the houfe of my pilgrimage."

By his faith in the cross, the Bible, the power of prayer, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, the Christian overcomes the world, enjoys communion with God, becomes meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the faints in light, and finally join in the fong of Mofes and of the Lamb for ever.

;

Then embrace Religion, "and you shall be presently installed in the poffeffion of all the benefits and immunities of the Redeemer's purchase without deduction, and without qualification you fhall emerge from under the dark shadows of the fall, into the effulgence of the light, and the plenitude of the joy, of a renovated, heaven-born nature; and the filent tide of oblivion shall instantly close for ever over all your past fins, and you fhall be immediately admitted into the circle of the redeemed of the Lord.

"Your brow fhall be encircled with a double diadem of life and righteoufnefs; a patent to all

the titles and illuftrious dignities of the nobility of heaven shall be made out for you, which nothing in time or eternity shall alienate or refcind. Paradife fhall unlock for you its everlasting gates, and you fhall behold the interminable future through a vifta of the brightest hopes, and inherit a name immortal in the records of glory."