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 perseverance, under God, faves a foul from death and hides a multitude of fins.

Most 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 fees them exposed to its influence; he uses the rod of correction in order to keep them awake-he uses it in love—"whom he loveth he chafteneth." Woe! woe! unto us, when He commands the ministers of affliction to "let us alone." Poverty, reproach, fickness, 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:-sickness 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 witnefs 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 chaftening rod,
And straight I turned unto my God,
What though it pierced my fainting heart,
I bleffed the hand that caused the smart;
It taught my tears awhile to flow,
But faved me from eternal woe."

"In fable cincture, fhadows vast,
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 froft,
, Is many a fathom to the bottom chained,
And bid to roar no more :-a bleak expanfe,
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 household foon are faft afleep,
Their toillome 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 sound,
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 answer 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 safely 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 traversed; 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 fhows 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 shadows lengthen, and night, filent and majestic, affumes 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,

"balmy fleep" foon lights upon their eyelids; their flumbers are deep; but they are foon to be disturbed night gives the fignal for the beasts of prey to come forth from their dens; hungry and thirsty for blood they come; roaming, ravening, and roaring they come; the woods echo their fearful howlings; they fcent out the travellers; they furround the tent; they clamour loudly for its inmates; dreadful is the confufion; the beafts growl and fight with each other, that each might have the prey to himself-the travellers awake in trembling diftrefs. One of them has heard of the effect of fire upon wild beafts; while they are quarrelling, he quickly lights his brand, puts it to fome dry leaves, and kindles a blaze; to this he adds more fuel, nor ceases heaping it on till he has encircled the tent with flames. His efforts, are fucceffful; the wild beasts are now affrighted, and roaring dreadfully with fear and rage, they rufh impetuously through the trees, and come near the tent no more.

The preservation of the traveller from the fury of the wild beafts by means of fire, represents the preservation of the Christian from the attacks of Satan and his helpers, by the Almighty. Among the Jews, and many other ancient nations, fire was regarded as emblematical of the Deity, and indeed not without reason, for on feveral well authenticated inftances did the Almighty manifest himself under the appearance of fire. Mofes was fummoned before a court of fire to receive his commiffion as deliverer of Ifrael. God was