the mellow light of heaven. The one a foretaste of the fire of hellthe other, a pledge of everlasting repose.

"Fight the good fight."-I TIM. vi. 12. "Take the shield of Faith, and the sword of the Spirit."-EPH. vi. 16, 17,

THE CONQUERING CHRISTIAN.

A glorious Temple rises to our view,

The conquering Christian fights his passage through,
His dreadful foes who now attack him sore,
False Shame behind, fell Unbelief before,
And worldly Love-great idol here below,
Unite to aid in Christian's overthrow;
But he, courageous, takes at once the field,
Armed with his ancient, well-appointed shield;
A two-edged sword he wields, well known to fame,
And prostrates at one blow the dastard Shame;
On Worldly Love he falls with many a blow,
And soon he lays the usurping monster low.

Now Unbelief, the champion of the rest,
Enraged, bestirs him, and lays on his best;

A fearful thrust he makes at Christian's heart,

The shield of Faith receives the murd'rous dart ;

With his good sword brave Christian wounds him sore,
And out of combat he is seen no more;

Into the Temple now the Victor speeds,

And Angel minstrels chant his valiant deeds.

THE above represents a mam fighting his way towards a beautiful Palace; it is his home. From various causes he has been long estranged from his paternal inheritance. He is by some means reminded of its endearing associations—of its ancient magnificenceof its voices of happiness and love; pleasant things to delight the eye; choral symphonies to enchant the ear; rich viands to gratify the taste, are there. He becomes anxious to return; he determines at once to regain possession of his mansion, or perish in the attempt. He meets with opposition; the odds are fearful, three to one. His enemies do not absolutely deny his rights, yet they are determined to oppose him to the uttermost. He gives battle, and by dint of skill and courage, he routs his foes, gains a complete victory, and enters his home in triumph.

This allegory represents a part of the Christian warfare. The temple or palace signifies that glorious inheritance which the Almighty Father has bequeathed to all his children. It contains

all that can please, delight, or enchant the soul, and that for ever more. For it is an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away. The Hero denotes a man who has decided to be a Christian. By the influence of the Holy Spirit on his heart, he is convinced of his outcast condition-of the impotency of created good to make him happy-of the insignificance of the things of time compared with those of eternity. Convinced of these, in the strength of grace, he says, "I will arise and go to my Father," and he goes accordingly. But he soon meets with enemies who powerfully oppose his progress, and among the first of these is

Shame. Our passions, or powers of feeling, have been given to us by our benevolent Creator, to subserve our happiness, and shame among the rest.

"Art divine

Thus made the body tutor to the soul

Heaven kindly gives our blood a moral flow,
And bids it ascend the glowing cheek."

Shame stands as a sentinel to warn us of danger, and so put us on our guard. But all our passions are perverted from their proper uses, and sin has done it. Therefore as man loves darkness rather than light-calls evil good ad good evil-puti bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter-so also he changes the proper uses of shame. Instead of being ashamed of the bad he is ashamed of hea good. Shame is the enemy hard to conquer. The convert finds it so. He feels ashamed at first to be seen by his old companions, in company with the truly pious; or going to a religious meeting-or on his knee, praying—or in any way carrying the Cross of Him whom he has now chosen to be his Master. Shame con

fronts him everywhere, and gives him to understand that for the most part, religious people are a poor, low, and ignorant set; that no person of character will associate with them, &c. The Christian remembers that what is highly esteemed among men is had in abomination 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 for ever 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 affect 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 his givings, 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 things, he 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 banner, 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 skilful 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 consolation 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 institutions, 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.