will at first fall a prey to the ftupor of indifference. Then the chilling influence of fin will creep over him; the life's blood of his piety is arrested in its course; heart and intellect are benumbed; Faith, Hope, and Love are now but indiftinct images of the past. He is in danger of spiritual death.

As in the engraving, we fee one aroufing his companions with a rod or stick, fo the Chriftian fhould endeavour to awaken his brother when he sees him falling beneath the influence of a wicked atmosphere. He may poffefs more Chriftian experience, or more spiritual understanding; he has a stronger faith, or is better acquainted with the wiles of the devil; these are fo many gifts or graces, that he is in duty bound to exert for the falvation of his brother; hence he is to exhort and admonifh him with all long-fuffering and faithfulness, If this fails, he is to reprove, nay, to "rebuke him fharply," and in no wife to fuffer fin upon his brother. Though it may seem harfh, yet he is to perfevere as long as any figns of life remain, left he perifh for whom Chrift died; he will tell him of the danger to which he exposes his immortal soul, of the reproach he will bring upon religion if he falls into fin, of the wounds he will again inflict upon the facred heart of Jefus; that he will cover heaven with fackcloth, and make hell echo with exultations of fiendish delight-he will not fpare, in order to arouse him from his flumber. With the hammer of God's word he will strike him, with the sword

of God's Spirit he will pierce him, and with the fuel of God's love he will enkindle a fire round about him. He is fucceffful-foon the fleeper moves-he melts-he weeps-he prays; in his gratitude he exclaims, "Let the righteous fmite me, it is an excellent oil unto me,' faithful are the wounds of a friend! Thus the active Chriftian, by his perfeverance, under God, faves a foul from death and hides a multitude of fins.

Moft beneficial, alfo, has the exercise been to himself; it has proved the means of his own fafety; by it he has been kept watchful and . prayerful; his gifts and graces have been ftrengthened; the more he laboured for his brother, the more he was bleffed in his own foul. So true is the promise, "He that watereth others fhall be watered himself."

The wintry atmosphere is fuch a dangerous region that the Almighty himself becomes, as it were, alarmed for the fafety of his children, when he sees them exposed to its influence; he uses the rod of correction in order to keep them awake-he ufes it in love-"whom he loveth he chafteneth." Woe! woe! unto us, when He commands the minifters of affliction to "let us alone." Poverty, reproach, sickness, and death, are employed by our heavenly Father as inftruments of correction-yet they are bleffings in difguife. He gives us poverty in time, that we may be invested with the riches of eternity :reproach, that we may receive the plaudits of the King eternal-fickness of body, that the foul

may flourish in immortal health :-Death, to ufher us into life, into his immediate prefence, that where He is there we may be alfo. God's children have borne witness in time, and they will bear witness to all eternity, that "it was good for them to have been afflicted."

"Long unafflicted, undismayed,

In pleasure's path fecure I ftrayed;
Thou mad ft me feel the chastening rod,
And ftraight I turned unto my God,
What though it pierced my fainting heart,
I bleffed the hand that caufed the fmart ;
It taught my tears awhile to flow,
But faved me from eternal woe."

"In fable cincture, fhadows vaft,
Deep-tinged and damp, and congregated clouds,
And all the vapoury turbulence of heaven,
Involve the face of things. Thus winter falls,
A heavy gloom oppreffive o'er the world,
Through nature fhedding influence malign."
"Ocean itself no longer can refift
The binding fury; but, in all its rage
Of tempeft taken by the boundless frost,
Is many a fathom to the bottom chained,
And bid to roar no more :-a bleak expanse,
Shagged o'er with wavy rocks, cheerlefs and void
Of every life, that from the dreary months
Flies confcious fouthward. Miferable they!
Who, here entangled in the gathering ice,
Take their last look of the defcending fun;
While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold froft,
The long, long night, incumbent o'er their heads,
Falls horrible."
THOMPSON.

"For I, faith the Lord, will be . . . . a wall of fire round about." ZEC. ii. 5.

THE PROTECTED TRAVELLER.

'Tis night, the Traveller with labour spent,
Beneath the foreft's fhade has pitched his tent;
He and his houfehold foon are faft afleep,
Their toilfome journey makes their flumbers deep;

Above their heads the stars are glowing bright,
Like diamonds fparkling on the breast of night;
This is the fignal for the favage beast

To roam the foreft for his bloody feast;
Leopards and lions round the tent now prowl,
And wake the woodland with their fearful howl;
The Traveller, startled at the dreadful found,
A blazing fire foon kindles all around;
The monsters fee it, and with horrid roar,
Rush through the thicket and appear no more.
As when Elisha, 'mid the Syrian band,
Saw fword and fpear arrayed on every hand,
In gracious anfwer to the prophet's prayer,
Angelic banners flashed upon the air;
Jehovah's armies round about him came
With burning chariots and steeds of flame;
The fiery feraphs circled all his path,
And kept him fafely from the Syrian's wrath.

IN thefe days of emigration, multitudes are continually leaving the homes of their fathers for diftant climes. The populous cities of the old world are traverfed; the broad blue ocean is traversed; the vast forests of the new world are traversed, in order to find a home of peace and plenty. The engraving shows a family tended and guarded for the night. The travellers, weary with the day's journey, feek a commodious place whereon to pitch their tent. The fun already begins to fink below the horizon; the fhadows lengthen, and night, filent and majestic, assumes her empire over the earth. Stars of glittering beauty befpangle her bofom and reflect their brilliancy on the broad leaves of the foreft. The travellers retire to reft; wooed by fatigue,