fhowy place, but the foundation was fandy. The hurricane fwept them all away together.

The house on the rock, and its builder, is an emblem of the man who hears the word of God and keeps it. He makes the word of God a ladder by which he climbs to heaven. Beginning at repentance, he goes on to faith in our Lord Jefus Chrift, then to holiness; thus he mounts from faith to faith, till finally he reaches glory.

Obferve, it is not the perfon who hears, or understands, or remembers, or believes, merely, the word of God; but the DOER, that is, the prudent or wife man. He faftens on the Rock of Ages: Christ is his foundation, where, in obedience to the word, he has fled for refuge; hence, he is protected against all the ftorms of earth and hell.

"To obey is better than facrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams.' The word of God is compared to feed, which, if received in good ground, beareth much fruit. As the feed requires that the ground fhould be prepared, watered, weeded, &c.; so the word requires that it fhould be received with attention and nourished by meditation, much prayer, and faith. No one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he is a difciple of Chrift; but he is not a disciple unless he bringeth forth much fruit. He, and he alone, that doeth the will of God fhall abide for ever.

A perfon having juft returned from church, was met with the following exclamation: "What,

is it all done?"

prompt reply.

"No, by no means,' was the "It is all faid, but not all done.”

"For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified."-ROM. ii. 13. "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.

a doer of the work, this man fhall be bleffed in his deed."-JAMES i. 22, 25.

"If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." -JOHN xiii. 17.

"Seeft thou a man wife in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him."-PROV. xxvi. 12.

SELF-CONFIDENCE.

See how Self-confidence his friend doth treat,
Nor heeds the danger from beneath his feet:
With head erect, he proudly ftalks along,
The warning voice is but an idle fong;
As to the precipice he draws more nigh,
His friend yet louder lifts his voice on high,
But deaf and blind, he neither fees nor hears,
From friends or foes he nothing wants nor fears ;

He "knows, and that's enough-all right," when lo!
At once he falls into the gulf below:

Adown the rocks he tumbles o'er and o'er,
And finks in darkness to arife no more.

THE engraving fhows a traveller in the greatest peril. He is on the brink of an awful precipice: he knows it not. But this is not the

worft of his cafe: he is confident in his knowledge, and that he is fully prepared for every

emergency, although he has not examined any book of roads, or any charts, or maps, nor has he made inquiries of others who have travelled these parts before him. A friend is feen who endeavours to apprize him of his danger; he calls to him, but he turns a deaf ear to his remonftrances, and still proceeds. As he draws near the fatal brink, his friend, knowing his danger, exerts himself to the utmost to have him stopto liften-but for one moment; but no, he has no need of advice on he goes. The ground, which is hollow, gives way beneath his feet, he falls, and is inftantly dafhed to pieces. The Self-confidence.

name of the man is

The moral of this is, that dangers ftand thick all through the path of human life; dangers fuch as the luft of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, with their numerous attendants. False doctrines also, the tendency of which is to deftroy the happiness of mankind, prevail. They are covered with a flimfy garb, which deceives fuperficial obfervers.

Moreover, youth is prefumptuous, felf-willed, and self-confident. They are too much inclined to follow the light which their own vanity has kindled. But their felf-confidence does not remove the dangers from their path, nor render them invulnerable. But man is ignorant-how shall he know? Helpless-what shall he do? If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God. "Do" ponder well the paths of thy feet. not to thine own understanding. He that trufts to his own heart is a fool. In all thy ways

Lean

acknowledge God; he will direct thy paths. Here, then, is the conclufion of the whole matter; imminent perils surround the youth, but the greatest of all perils is the danger of trusting to his own heart. Lean upon God, and all will be well. Though weak and ignorant, yet God is wife and strong, able to guide and preferve all those who truft in him.

The mariner who fhould put to sea without chart or compass, trufting to his own knowledge, would, without doubt, on the first stormy night, repent heartily of his folly. O how much

greater is the folly of those who, trusting to self, neglect to use the lamp of God's truth, or to feek the enlightening influences of his Holy Spirit, or to follow the advice of the wife and good.

The cafe of Pharaoh, the Egyptian monarch, affords a ftriking example of felf-confidence. When the children of Ifrael had left the house of bondage, and were well on their journey towards the land of promise, the king, confiding in his strength, exclaimed: "I will pursue, I will overtake," and presumptuously set forth for that purpose. Each recently received plague remonftrated, and forbade the rafhnefs of the monarch; but all in vain. On he rushed, even to the divifion of waters. In his felf-confidence he engaged in battle with Jehovah, God of Armies. The conflict was of fhort duration; the arm of the Lord prevailed; Pharaoh and his men of war were swept away with the waters of deftruction.