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, be

fore 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 Jesusthen 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 man," 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

the end, and will take something out of your eternal portion of glory.

Grace be with your dear and much honored minister, and with all that love Christ in sincerity. Never cease to pray for the parish, and for all parishes, that God would pour down his lifegiving spirit, to the conversion of perishing sinners and the glory of his own great name. I will remember you on the 12th of June May the Lord remember us. Ever truly, &c.

TO J. T.

A young boy anxious about his soul.

COLLACE, Jan. 27, 1842.

MY DEAR BOY-I was very glad to receive your kind note, and am glad to send you a short line in return, although my time is much taken up. You are very dear to me, because your soul is precious; and if you are ever brought to Jesus, washed and justified, you will praise him more sweetly than an angel of light. I was riding among the snow to-day, where no foot had trodden, and it was pure, pure white; and I thought again and again of that verse, "Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.' That is a sweet prayer-make it your own. Often go alone and look to Jesus, who died to wash us from our sins, and say, "Wash me." Amelia Geddie was one day dressed in a new white frock, with red ribbons in her bonnet, and some one said to her, "No doubt you will think yourself very trim and clean?" "Ah no,"

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she said, “I will never think that until I have the fine white robe of my Redeemer's righteousness put upon me." I am glad, my dear boy, you think that God is afflicting you to bring you to himself. It is really for this that he smites you; his heart, his hand, and his rod, are all inscribed with love. But then, see that he does bring you to himself. Do not delay. The lake of fire and brimstone stretches beneath every soul that lives in sin. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. If the Lord Jesus would but draw the curtain and let you see his own fair face, and his wounded side, and how there is room for the guiltiest sinner in him, you would be drawn to Jesus with the cords of love. I was preaching in Perth last Sabbath; when I came out, a little girl came up to me, I think about three or four years old. She wanted to hear of the way to be saved. Her mother said she had been crying the whole night before about her soul, and would take no comfort till she should find Jesus. Oh! pray that the same Spirit may waken you. Remember, Johnnie, you once wept for your soul too, and prayed and sought Jesus. Have you found him? or have you looked back, like Lot's wife, and become a hard, cold pillar of salt? Awake again and call upon the name of the Lord. Your