Paffion. Paffion is a fury, breathing out threatening and flaughter; Patience IS a cherub, whispering words of love and joy. Paffion is a tempeft, charged with lightnings, hail, and thunder; Patience is a holy calm, where peace reigns and ftillness triumphs. The one is a troubled fea, cafting up mire and dirt-the other, a placid lake illumined by the mellow light of heaven. The one a foretaste of the fire of hell-the other, a pledge of everlasting repose.

"The man poffeff'd among the tombs,
Cuts his own flesh and cries;
He foams and raves, till Jefus comes,
And the foul fpirit flies."

"Beloved felf must be denied

The mind and will renewed;
Paffion oppreff'd and patience tried,
And vain defires fubdued.”

"Lord, how fecure and bleft are they,
Who feel the joys of pardoned fin!

Should ftorms of wrath shake earth and sea,
Their minds have heaven and

peace within.

"How oft they look to heavenly hills,
Where ftreams of living pleasure flow
And longing hopes and cheerful fmiles
Sit undisturbed upon their brow!"

;

"Fight the good fight."-1 TIM. vi. 12. "Taking the shield of Faith, and the fword of the Spirit."-EPH. vi, 16, 17.

THE CONQUERING CHRISTIAN.

A glorious Temple rifes to our view,

The conquering Chriftian fights his paffage through,
His dreadful foes who now attack him fore,

Falfe Shame behind, fell Unbelief before,

And worldly Love-great idol here below,
Unite to aid in Chriftian's overthrow;
But he, courageous, takes at once the field,
Armed with his ancient, well-appointed shield i
A two-edged fword he wields, well known to fame,
And proftrates at one blow the daftard Shame
On Worldly Love he falls with many a blow,
And foon he lays the ufurping monster low.
Now Unbelief, the champion of the reft,
Enraged, beftirs him, and lays on his best;
A fearful thruft he makes at Chriftian's heart,
The Shield of Faith receives the murd'rous dart;
With his good fword brave Christian wounds him fore,
And out of combat he is feen no more;

Into the Temple now the Victor speeds,

And Angel Minstrels chant his valiant deeds.

From

THE above represents a man fighting his way toward a beautiful Palace; it is his home. various caufes he has been long estranged from his paternal inheritance. He is by fome means reminded of its endearing affociations-of its ancient magnificence—of its voices of happiness and love; pleasant things to delight the eye; choral fymphonies to enchant the ear; rich viands to gratify the tafte, are there. He becomes anxious to return; he determines at once to regain poffeffion of his manfion, or perish in the attempt. He meets with oppofition; the odds are fearful, three to one. His enemies do not abfolutely deny his rights, yet they are determined to oppofe him to the uttermoft. 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 Chriftian warfare. The temple or palace fignifies that glorious inheritance which the Almighty Father has bequeathed to all his children. It contains

not away.

all that can please, delight, or enchant the foul, and that for ever more. For it is an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth The Hero denotes a man who has decided to be a Chriftian. By the influence of the Holy Spirit on his heart, he is convinced of his outcaft condition-of the impotency of created good to make him happy-of the infignificance of the things of time compared with thofe of eternity. Convinced of thefe, in the ftrength of grace, he fays, "I will arife and go to my Father," and he goes accordingly. But he foon meets with enemies who powerfully oppose his progress, and among the first of these is,

Shame. Our paffions, or powers of feeling, have been given to us by our benevolent Creator, to fubferve our happiness, and fhame among the reft.

"Art divine

Thus made the body tutor to the foul--
Heaven kindly gives our blood a moral flow,
And bids it afcend the glowing cheek."

Shame stands as a fentinel to warn us of danger, and fo put us on our guard. But all of our paffions are perverted from their proper uses, and fin has done it. Therefore as man loves darkness rather than light-calls evil good and good evilputs bitter for fweet and fweet for bitter-fo alfo

he changes the proper uses of shame. Inftead of being ashamed of the bad, he is ashamed of the good. Shame is an enemy hard to conquer. The convert finds it fo. He feels afhamed at

first to be seen by his old companions, in company with the truly pious; or going to a religious meeting-or on his knees praying-or in any way carrying the Cross of Him whom he has now chofen to be his Mafter. Shame confronts him every where, and gives him to understand that for the most part, religious people are a poor, low, and ignorant fet; that no perfon of character will affociate with them, &c. The Chriftian 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 fhame by the sword of the Spirit, even by the word of the Lord.

As foon as shame is difpofed of, another foe appears-Love of the world. This confifts in a greater attachment to this prefent world, than becomes one who is fo foon to leave it and live for ever in another. As the boy fhould learn what he may need when he shall become a man, fo fhould the mortal acquire what it may need when it puts on immortality. The natural man is fo ftrongly wedded to earthly objects, that to him the feparation is impoffible. Argument will not effect it. He may he convinced intellectually, that the things of earth are tranfitory and unfatiffying, yet he purfues them eagerly. His feelings may be lacerated by the death of fome