righteousness? He has the spirit of a weaned child to give you. Ps. cxxxi. Do you want love? he is the fountain of love; all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen. I am sure if you get a glimpse of him you would lay your head in his breast and die there. May the Spirit anoint your eyes to see him more and more, and soften your heart to lean on him. Those that have leaned on him through the wilderness shall sit with him on the throne. Rev. iii. 21. Farewell, dear soul! the Lord feed you sweetly, as he feeds the flowers, by silent drops of dew. Ever yours, &c.

TO THE MEMBERS OF A PRAYER MEETING.
Parable of the Sower.

MY DEAR FRIENDS,-It has been a matter of great joy to me to hear that you meet together from time to time to read the Word of God and pray-to pray for a blessing on yourselves and families, that you may be brought to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to pray for ministers, that they may be filled with the Holy Spirit, and made insatiably greedy for the salvation of souls, and that the Word of God preached on the Sabbath, may rise and be glorified till the whole world bow the knee at the name of Jesus.

O you that have had your eyes opened to see your lost condition by nature and by wicked works-you that have been drawn by the Father, to believe in Jesus, to wash in the blood of the Lamb, and to put on the righteousness of God,-oh! pray with all your heart that your dear friends may be brought to take the peace you feel that your enemies may be brought to the same Saviour, and that all the world may be brought to know him, whom to know is life eternal.

If you look at the xiii. chapter of Matthew, verse 3-9, you will see how much of our preaching is in vain, and what need there is to pray that God would open the hearts we speak t

Many among you, I fear, are like the hard wayside, so that, when the seed falls, it cannot get into your hearts, and the devil plucks it all away. Verse 3, 4. Is it not true that some of your hearts are like the footpath, trodden all the week by wicked thoughts? "Free passage this way" is written over your hearts -common worldly thoughts-busy covetous desires of moneymalicious thoughts-impure, abominable thoughts. O who can tell what a constant thoroughfare of wicked imaginations is passing night and day through every unconverted mind! O look at Genesis vi. 5, and weep over the Bible description of your own hard hearts. Now, when you come to the church on Sabbath, your heart is like a footpath; the seed cannot fall in, it lies upon

the surface. You do not understand the minister. Perhaps he preaches of the desperate wickedness of the heart, and the danger you are in, of going to hell, if you be not born again. You feel it to be a dry subject, and turn your head away. Perhaps he is preaching of the love of Jesus, in tasting death for every man ; and that he will in no wise cast the vilest sinner out. Still, you feel no interest, and, perhaps you fall asleep during the sermon. O you are the wayside hearers-the devil plucks all the seed away. When you turn your back on the church, you turn your back on divine things; and before you have got half way home, the devil has carried off every word of the sermon. Yea, often, I fear, before you have got a sight of your own cottage, or the trees before the door, the devil has filled your hearts with abominable worldly thoughts, and your tongue with evil talk, unworthy of the Sabbath. O Satan, Satan! what a cunning fiend thou art! Even when the hard hearts will not receive the word, thou wilt not suffer it to remain; lest it should come back in a time of sickness or danger, thou carriest all away.

Dear believers, pray that it be not so with you, nor with your friends; pray for a soft heart and a retentive memory: and often speak together of the sermons you hear, and get them harrowed into your hearts, that Satan may be cheated, and your soul saved.

Many, I fear, among you, are receiving the seed into stony places (Matt. xiii. 6)-receiving the word for a while-but soon withering away in time of persecution. I fear there may be some among you who are charmed with something about the gospel, instead of cleaving in heart to Christ. I can imagine that some of the wounded Israelites, that were bitten by the serpent, were much taken with Moses, as he held up the brazen serpent, instead of looking at the serpent itself. Many are fond of ministers, who are not fond of Christ. Read over Ezekiel xxxiii. 30-32, and pray that this be not your case.

Now, I will give you two marks, by which you may know whether you are one of these unfruitful hearers. 1st, The rocky heart will remain the same. If you find that your liking to the gospel is from the surface, from curiosity, or fancy, or love to a minister-if you find that your rocky heart has never been broken by conviction of sin-has never melted to flow towards Jesus— then, you are an empty professor; you have a name to live, while you are spiritually dead.

2d, You will endure for a while. A really converted soul is like a branch. I am the vine, ye are the branches. It will cleave to it summer and winter. But if you have only a mock conversion, you will wither away when persecution comes. God knows how soon days of trial may come in Scotland. Be ye therefore ready. He that endureth to the end shall be saved. I fear, dear friends, that many of you receive the seed among thorns; Matt.

xiii. 7. Look into your heart and see, when you read your Bible in the morning, how many cares and anxieties are dancing before your eyes, so that you can hardly see the page you are reading. How often you come to the House of God, and you see the minister preaching of eternal things with all his might, but your heart is stuffed full of cares, and plans, and pleasures. Alas, alas! the world has got the first hold of your heart, and so you can think of nothing else. What will it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?

One thing is plain, that thorns and wheat cannot grow on the same spot of ground; so that, if you will keep to your thorns, you must burn with them. O dear souls, if you got but a glimpse of the beauty of Jesus, you would leave all and follow him. If you got but a taste of the sweetness of forgiveness, you would count everything else but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ. See how Matthew did? Matt. ix. 9. He was once as worldly as yourselves, and as greedy of money as any one of you; and yet a word from the sweet mouth of Christ made him leave all. Read that sweet command of Christ; Matt. x. 37, 38. Oh! pray to be made willing to leave all for Christ. He is kinder than father or mother-more precious than son or daughter. Take up your cross, then, and follow him.

Last of all, I trust there are some among you like the good ground (Matt. xiii. 8), who receive the word into a heart broken up by the Spirit of God-watered by prayer-and who bear fruit unto life eternal. HAVE YOU HAD YOUR HEARTS BROKEN, dear friends? Has God ploughed up your hard, unbelieving hearts? Have you had real concern for your perishing soul? Have you been driven to your knees? Have you ever wept in secret for your sins? Have you been made to tremble under your load of guilt? Do you come thus to the House of God-your heart like an open furrow, waiting for the seed? Enquire earnestly whether the fallow-ground of your heart has ever been broken up; Jeremiah iv. 3. A broken heart alone can receive a crucified Christ.

HAVE YOU UNDERSTOOD THE GOSPEL? Have you believed the record that God has given concerning his Son? Do you feel that it is true that God is love?-that Christ has died the just for the unjust?—that he is beckoning you to come to him? Do you believe on the Son of God? He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned; Mark xvi. 16.

DO YOU BEAR FRUIT? Without holy fruit all evidences are vain. How vain would it be to prove to a farmer that his fields were good and productive, if they produced no corn. You might say to him, "Neighbor, your land is good; the soil is dry and well trenched." "Oh, but," he would say, "where is the yellow grain-where are the full ears falling before the sickle of the reaper?" Dear friends, you have awakenings, enlightenings, ex

periences, a full heart in prayer, and many due signs; but if you want holiness, you will never see the Lord. If you are a drinker, a swearer, a liar, a lascivious talker, a wanton, a slanderer, you are in the broad way that leads to destruction.

Read Matthew vii. 21-23; and pray that you may not be deceiving your own souls. Dear believers, pray that you may bear fruit an hundred fold. Do not be content with bearing thirtyfold or sixtyfold; pray to be sanctified wholly; 1 Thes. v. 23. Pray that the whole lump may be leavened; Matt. xiii. 33. Pray that, day or night, in company or alone, Sabbath and week day, you may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. I often pray for you all; and desire that in secret, and in your families, you will not forget me. Your friend and soul's well-wisher, &c.

TO M. S.
Trying dispensations.

DUNDEE, February 28, 1841.

DEAR FRIEND I have heard from J. S. of your brother's death, and I write a line to comfort you. There is no true comfort to be found but in Christ. He is a fountain of living waters, and you must go with your thirsty soul to him and drink. John vii. 37; Psa. lxiii. If your brother died in the Lord, then he is far better than if he were here. Phil. i. 23. If he died out of the Lord, you must be like Aaron when "he held his peace." Lev. x. 3. Be not moved by these afflictions, knowing that you were appointed thereunto. Seek more and more abiding peace in Christ. He is not only a Saviour, but a sympathizing elder brother.

Read the xi. of John, and Lamentations iii., and you will see what a compassionate bosom Christ has. Lean your head more and you will find rest. "Do not despise the chastening of the Lord." Enquire what change he would have wrought in you and in all your friends. Are there any need to be awakened? let them listen to this warning. Are there any need to be brought off from love of the world? let them hear the voice of God from your brother's grave, saying, "What shall it profit a man though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul." Your brother, though dead, still speaketh. To you he says, "Lean on the beloved as you come up out of the wilderness. The Lord is at hand." Keep your eye fixed on Jesus. Pray much for his spirit and likeness; and be ready for his coming.

Our communion is on Sabbath next. Your friend J. thought you would perhaps love to be here. Farewell for the present; may the Lord Jesus be very near you, to comfort and sanctify and bless you. Ever yours, &c.

TO E. R., ASKING COUNSEL.

A sight of corruption drives to Christ.

DUNDEE, 1842. DEAR FRIEND I send you a hurried line, and may the Spirit accompany it with his divine power to your heart! It is a good thing to be shown much of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of your heart, provided it lead you to the Lord Jesus, that he may pardon and subdue it. Slightness and carnal ease are much more to be dreaded than discoveries of our leprosy.

The groans and triumphal song of a believer are not far separated, as you may see in Paul, Rom. vii. 24, 25,"O wretched map," and "I thank God," all in one breath. David felt the same-see lxxiii. Psalm. At one verse he feels himself a fool and a beast in the sight of a holy God, and in the very next verses he is cleaving to Christ with a song of unspeakable joy; v. 22, 23, 24. Ah! there is a sweet mystery here-bitter herbs along with our passover Lamb. It is sweet to see ourselves infinitely vile, that we may look to Jehovah our Righteousness, as all our way to the Father.

The sweet Psalmist of Israel felt this on his dying bed, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, "Although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me," &c. His house had been the scene of many a black sin; and now, when dying, he could not but confess that it was not right with God. Not a day he had lived appeared clean -not a moment. So may you say in the house where you live, and looking at the pollutions of your own heart, "Although my house be not so with God"—although my heart and life be not so, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.

God makes that covenant with you, when he brings you to lay hold on Jesus as your surety-your curse-bearing, law-fulfilling surety. Then you are brought into the bond of the everlasting covenant, and all its blessings are yours-pardon, righteousness, consolation, grace upon grace, life, love, the spirit of supplications -all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

Pray to be made like Caleb, who had another spirit, and followed the Lord fully. Follow Christ all the day. He is the continual burnt-offering in whom you may have peace. He is the Rock that follows you, from whom you may have constant and infinite supplies. Give yourself wholly away to him. You are safe in no other keeping but in the everlasting arms of Jehovah Jesus.

Keep yourself from other men's sins. Do not go to the end of the string that is, going as far as you can in dallying with temptation without committing open sin. Remember that it is our happiness to be under grace, and every sin will be bitterness in