the way of duty. The heavenly commiffion he has received makes it incumbent on him to deny self, take up his cross, to bear the yoke, and to become a pilgrim in the world. He is faithful to his calling. Pleasure courts him, but he embraces her not. Wealth entices, but he confents not. Honours and glories folicit him, but all in vain. He rejects them all. He will not have a clog to his foul. He is free, and he knows the value of his freedom. The poor flaves of fin and earth know no more of the man and his pursuits, than of the angel Gabriel and his employments in paradise. To them, this fpurner of gold, this rejector of honours, this trampler on earth, is a fool and a madman he is befide himself, and fo he is denounced accordingly. They judge of him and his conduct by the rules of earth, but he follows another standard. As well might the oyfter buried in the fand attempt to pass judgment on the towering eagle when he flies on the wings of the storm, mounts and mingles with the new-born light, and rejoices in the boundleffness of space.

The Christian rejects what he knows, upon the authority of Truth and the God of Truth, to be worthlefs in themselves, unsatisfactory in their nature, and tranfitory in their continuance. He receives and holds faft what is invaluable, satisfying, and eternal. And when the light of the laft conflagration fhall reveal the fecrets of all hearts, and declare the value of all things, then will it be feen that the Chriftian has governed

himself according to the rules of the highest Wisdom.

Thus it was with the man of meekness; he gave up a kingfhip and royalty, and formed an alliance with a troop of flaves; he relinquished the fplendours of a court for the terrors of a defert; a life of luxurious ease for one of peril and fatigue. By the men of his generation his conduct was regarded as foolish and absurd, but his appearance on the glorious mount of tranffiguration, as an Ambaffador of the skies, encircled with the splendours of Heaven, proclaims to the world that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom," and the love of him its highest confummation.

Look again at the young man of Tarsus; see him refign the profeffor's chair to become a teacher of barbarians. The ruler of the Jews becomes the servant of the Gentiles; the friend of the great and powerful becomes the companion of the weak and contemptible; the inmate of a manfion becomes a vagabond on the earth, "having no certain dwelling place." He embraces hunger, thirst, and nakedness; the dungeon, the fcourge, and the axe. The world has pronounced its verdict upon him-he was a madman," ""a peft," "a difturber of the public peace," "a ringleader of the defpifed." cafe, however, is pending in a higher court, and when those who "fleep in the duft of the earth fhall awake," and Paul, “shining as the brightness of the firmament," takes rank among

The

୮

the "wife," the verdict of Heaven will have

been recorded.

"Wisdom is humble, faid the voice of God,

'Tis proud, the world replied. Wisdom, faid God,
Forgives, forbears, and fuffers, not for fear

Of man, but God. Wisdom revenges, faid
The world; is quick and deadly of refentment;
Thrufts at the very fhadow of affront,

And haftes by Death to wipe its honour clean.
Wisdom, faid God, is highest when it stoops.
Loweft before the Holy Throne; throws down
Its crown, abafed; forgets itself, admires,
And breathes adoring praise."

"If finners entice thee, confent thou not."-PROV. i. 10. not unto thine own understanding."-PROV. iii. 5.

"Lean

From arctic regions fierce the whirlwinds blow,
And earth, all fhivering, wears her robe of fnow;
The leaflefs foreft murmurs to the blast,

The rushing river now is fettered faft;
And clouds and fhadows fettling over all,
Wrap lifeless nature in her funeral pall.
Some youths now haften to the frozen lake,
And on to fchool their way with pleasure take;
Nor go alone, but others they entice
With them to frolic on the flippery ice;
The way is pleasant, fmoother far to go,
Than o'er the mountain through the drifted fnow:
One, and one only, makes a wiser choice;
He will not hearken unto Pleafure's voice :
Awhile the others guide along the lake,
When all at once the ice begins to break;
In-in they plunge! In vain their piteous tones-
The waters quickly hush their gurgling groans.

HERE we see the danger of prefumption-the fruits of disobedience. It was a winter's day, the fnow had fallen, and earth was clad in her robes of white; the north wind had moaned through the foreft, and the ponds and rivers were partially frozen over. Some village schoolboys, about to ftart for the school-house, which was fituated at fome distance on the other fide of a mountain, were admonished by their parents not to go by the way of the lake that lay round the foot of the mount; the parents judging it to be unfafe, the command was given with all poffible earneftness and tenderness. Well would it have been for the boys had they obeyed; as foon as they were out of fight Harry whispered to Charles that "it would be much more pleasant to go by the way of the lake, than to trudge it over the mountain, and