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THOUGHTLESSNESS OF MANKIND!

There is nothing in this world so strange as the indifference of mankind to religion! If you go with them into life you will find them shrewd and clever enough; "they will buy and sell and get gain,” and in all their worldly concerns will manifest the utmost prudence and circumspection; and yet with regard to the greatest of all concerns-those which they acknowledge to be the greatest-they are, for the most part, and in the great majority of cases, utterly unconcerned and thoughtless. Ask if they believe in a God, and they will be affronted at the doubt which the question implies. Ask if they believe in the Immortality of the Soul,—in a state of Future and Eternal Rewards and Punishments, and they will tell you that neither reason nor revelation will permit them to doubt. And yet, day after day, and month after month, and year after year, they live in forgetfulness of God; they constantly manifest their interest in the things of time, but they never think of the preparation to be made for eternity. How unreasonable for rational beings thus to act! How strange that creatures who have to live but a few short years in the world, should so allow its paltry pleasures and engagements to draw their attention from the infinitely higher concerns! But such, alas, is mankind! Oh, that they were wise, "that they understood this, that they would consider THEIR LATTER END!"

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DAILY TEXTS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES.-Cover, p. 2. THE CHOLERA.-A PRESCRIPTION FOR SUDden Disease.-Cover, p. 3. THE BREVITY OF LIFE.-Cover, p. 4.

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DAILY TEXTS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES.

"O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day."—Psalm cxix. 97.

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THY JUDGMENTS ARE IN THE EARTH. (Isaiah xxvi. 9.)
THE LORD'S DAY.-It is I; be not afraid. (Matt. xiv. 27.)

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth
by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruc-
tion that wasteth at noon-day. (Psalm xci. 5, 6.)

Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. (Psalm xci. 9, 10.)

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. (Psalm xci. 7, 8.)

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. (Isaiah Iv. 6.)

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah lv. 7.)

For godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. (1 Tim. iv. 8.)

THE LORD'S DAY.-The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. (Psalm cxlv. 9.)

I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. (Ps. xxxiv. 4.)

God is angry with the wicked every day. (Psalm vii. 11.)

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. (Psalm xxxiv. 15.)

All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.

The

grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. (1 Peter i. 24.)

Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. (Psalm xc. 11.)

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psalm xc. 12.)

THE LORD'S DAY.-Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thy honour dwelleth. (Psalm xxvi. 8.)

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. (Ps.

cxxii. 1.)

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. (Psalm ciii. 8.)

He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. (Psalm ciii. 9.)

He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. (Psalm ciii. 10.)

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. (Psalm ciii. 13.)

For he knoweth our frame: he remembereth that we are dust. (Psalm ciii. 14.)

THE LORD'S DAY.-O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. (Psalm xxxiv. 8.)

In all thy way acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs iii. 6.)

Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. (Prov. xxiii. 17.)

The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. (Job xxviii. 28.)

It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. (Hebrews
ix. 27.)

There is but a step between me and death. (1 Sam. xx. 3.)
The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice. (Psalm xcvii. 1.)
THE LORD REIGNETH; LET THE PEOPLE TREMBLE. (Psalm xcix. 1.)

"JUSTICE, NOT CHARITY."

We were much struck, and gratified too, by this motto, when we first saw it. We have often heard it with pleasure when uttered by the noble men who demanded that the "staff of life" should be free from taxation; and we have heard it with pleasure, too, when uttered by men who meant, "relieve us from all social and civil disabilities laid upon us because we are poor,-do not add to the evils of poverty the evils of a lower legal position than the rich,-and tax us only in proportion to our means, and then we are willing and able to maintain ourselves by our industry." Yes, we have always felt it to be a proud distinction of our English fellow-workmen, that they prefer to earn their livelihood,-they do not like, more than their wealthier neighbours, to depend on charity. They think, and we believe justly think, that were full justice done them, they could take care of themselves. We have found, by actual conversation with them, that our intelligent operatives want no communism or socialism established by law, no statutes to raise wages, to destroy the capital or machinery which employs them, or to effect social impossibilities; no, their idea is, "do us bare justice, and we want no more." "Justice, not charity."

Yet this admirable motto of the industrious has often suggested to us a very strong contrast-the contrast between our position before man and before God. Before man, when conscious of skill and power to shift for ourselves, provided no unjust restrictions hinder us, we can demand justice and refuse charity. Before God, the inward monitor compels us to exclaim, Not justice, but charity! "If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand." "We cannot answer him one of a thousand." "By the law can no flesh living be justified, that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." Such have been the feelings of all who ever honestly asked the question, "How can man be just with God?"

It has also occurred to us, that in some minds the proudly cherished consciousness that they only ask what they think to be justice from their fellow-man, may have indisposed them to throwing themselves on mere mercy in looking to their God. The mind may contract a feeling of self-sufficiency from the views it indulges towards men, which it may most injuriously transfer to its thoughts in regard to the most Holy God. All of us, by dwelling too much on what we may hold to be our rights at the hands of men, may forget the sad fact, that God has received none of His rights at our hands. "Justice, not charity," we say to men. Perhaps we should say it in a softer tone, if we remembered that "Justice, not charity," is what God says to us, and says it to us in vain. We have never done Him

justice; no, not even we who most loudly demand justice from our fellow-men.

"A son honoureth his father,

And a servant his master."*

"If, then, I be a father, where is mine honour?

And if I be a master, where is my fear ?"

"He is not worshipped by men's hands as if he needed anything."+ “Or who hath first given unto him, and it shall be recompensed him again." Even "if we be righteous, what give we Him, or what receiveth he at our hands."§

Oh, it is well to learn from our own complaints of others! We feel it so deeply if men wrong us, insignificant as we are; shall we not remember how the great Parent and great Lawgiver must feel the wrongs of his children and subjects towards him? towards him whose "ways are all equal," whose ways are all infinite and unutterable love?

Friend, if you have ever uttered the cry at the head of this article, permit one who has often joined in it too, to remind you, as he has reminded himself, of the strange contrast between our demand earthward, and our behaviour heavenward. Yes, justice we ask; but we have never done justice to our Heavenly Father's creating love,—to his love in daily caring for us,-to his love in bearing with our ingratitude, our forgetfulness, and our rebellion,—above all, we have never done justice to that love which gave up his beloved Son to the shameful, cruel death of the cross, that we prodigal sons might be forgiven and justified by his precious blood.

"I AM IN GOOD HEALTH NOW."

How com.

Many, and delightful to think upon, are the evidences of God's goodness. They lie plainly before our eyes. The earth, the air, the sea, and the sky, are full of the "goodness of the Lord." Who of us does not feel self-condemned for noticing it so little? paratively few are there whose comforts do not exceed their privations! How few the sufferers who might not find relief, would they but turn to their heavenly Father, who chastises them "for their profit !"|| Amongst the severest of those chastisements is deprivation of health. Amongst the most common and precious of earthly blessings is that of health, the one through which all other blessings are enjoyed. And at any one time how many more are in health than sick. Yet thousands use it to their injury! Can it be? Hearken, friend, for you may be one. It may be your's one day to repent of misusing health; yes, even to repent not only of employing it for unworthy and trivial purposes, but of deliberately perverting the Malachi i. 6. † Acts xvii. 25. Romans xi. 35. § Job. xxxv. 7. Heb. xii. 10.

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