vest shall come after. I cannot be afraid. There is a God that rules both earth and heaven, and his power is over all. There is an unseen Spirit of love and power pervading all things, controlling all things, and directing all the movements of the universe to one grand and glorious end, the regeneration and salvation of the world. Even the proud and cruel spirit of turbulence and war, and the unclean and blasphemous demons of infidelity, are under His control, and shall be made, against their will, to contribute to the happy consummation of all things. Changes may multiply; political and ecclesiastical institutions may fall and pass away; empires may become convulsed, and for a time confusion and disorder may threaten to involve and ruin all; but it cannot be. If the earth should become another chaos; if the laws of society should be for a time suspended, and wild anarchy and havoc seize on all lands; that Spirit which brooded over the former chaos, and called forth light from darkness, and from a rude and undigested mass of jarring elements formed a world of beauty and perfection, will brood over the moral chaos, and produce another world, filled with the light and harmony and bliss of heaven. Devils may rage; despots and deceivers may cry out, alarmed; infidels and wild licentious theorists may join their efforts to produce confusion; and the foes of God and man may exult, and fancy that the cause of death and hell is triumphing, but they will be wofully disappointed. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at them; the Lord shall have them in derision. He shall speak to them in his fury, and vex them in his hot displeasure. They shall fly as the chaff before the fierce winds, and their schemes of impiety and death shall perish for ever. But truth and holiness shall flourish. The light and blessings of the Gospel shall roll through the world like a flood of glory; and there shall come forth from the countless millions of the regenerated family of man a loud and rapturous and everlasting song of praise.

JUSTICE.

PEOPLE should do justice to all men, and under all circumstances. If I have done wrong to any one, you ought not to withhold what is my due from me. If a creditor of ours should turn out to be a murderer, we should not be justified in refusing to pay him our debts. If a member of a church should prove unworthy, the ought to have justice done him as punctually as if her had proved faultless. Nothing can dissolve our obligations to do justice to any man on earth.

Nor ought we to refuse a man his due because we think he has sufficient already, or because we fancy that by doing him justice we shall increase his power to do harm. We have no more right to rob a rich man than to rob a poor man; and we have no more right to withhold from a man any acknowledgment that we may owe him, because it may increase his power to injure us or our cause, than we have to kill a man for fear he should do mischief. If in a dispute I had wronged an infidel, by charging some foul crime on him; as soon as I found out my error, it would be my duty to repair the injury. I have nothing to do with what may be the influence of my acknowledgment; it is as much my duty to do justice to an infidel as to a Christian.

There are some who would at once repair an injury done to one of their party, but they would not make the least acknowledgment to one who belonged to some other party. There are some in religious societies, that seem to think it right to injure those whom they choose to suspect of error. These things are opposite to the religion of Christ; and those who plead for such practices do in effect say," Let us do evil that good may come; whose damnation is just." Do right, and leave the event with God. Do a man justice, if he refuses justice to you. Do justice to a public enemy; do justice to an infidel; do justice without bargain or consideration; and let feeling, and passion, and interest, and life be sacrificed, rather than once do injustice either in word or deed.

NEVER DESPAIR.

DESPAIR of none. There is something good in the most unpromising characters; and if we are persevering in our efforts, we may still be instrumental in bringing them to God. Nay more; it often proves that those who give you the least promises, prove most abundant in performances. Many a time has it happened that those from whom we expected nothing but reproaches and curses, have been among the first to be converted; and those who were the most outrageous in their opposition to goodness, have become the most devout and zealous Christians. There could hardly ever be a more hopeless character to look at than Paul. He was as full of bitterness and rage against the cause of Christ as he could hold. He breathed out threatenings and curses like a fury, and persecuted and harassed the churches with all the eagerness and rage of a demon. To look at him as he stood by at the murder of Stephen, or as he was journeying on his expedition of impiety and blood to Damascus, you might have deemed his conversion impossible. And yet, strange to tell, it was not many days before that persecutor was on his knees, praying for mercy through that very Jesus whom he had cruelly persecuted.

When Christ was on earth, his most affectionate and devoted followers were not from among the most promising class of people. There were great multitudes at that time, who were very forward to talk about the Messiah, and who were very rich in professions and promises; but when the Messiah appeared, they hid their faces from him, and plotted his destruction. There were others whose cases were considered hopeless,-numbers of outcasts and profligates, who were regarded as lost beyond the possibility of recovery. But from this class the Redeemer received some of his most faithful and affectionate followers. The Saviour referred to this in his parable of the Two Sons. One of them, when he was bid to go work in his father's vineyard, said, "I go, sir," but went not; the other, when he was commanded to go,

said, I will not, but he afterwards repented, and went. "And I say unto you," added the Redeemer," that even the publicans and harlots go before you, and show you the way into the kingdom of God. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you believed him not; but the publicans and harlots believed him yet you who saw this, did not afterwards repent and believe him."

The most unsightly wilds are not always the worst spots for cultivation. Those very things which seem to make against the cultivation of a piece of ground, would often yield us encouragement, if they were properly understood. If we had fixed our eyes on the forests of the American continent a few ages ago, we should probably have thought the cultivation of those forests a thing impossible. And yet, beneath the shadow of those dark forests, there lay a fertile soil, which needed only to be cleared and rightly managed, in order to be rendered as productive as the most fruitful land on earth. And when once the huge trees were cut down, and the stumps and bushes cleared away, there arose a scene of beauty and fertility, which might almost bear comparison with the gardens of Paradise.

It is not uncommonly thus with moral wastes. The drunkard was for a long time thought to be almost beyond the reach of reformation, but later efforts and experiments have proved the contrary. Thousands of those degraded and unhappy creatures have of late been delivered from their guilt and wretchedness, restored to piety and peace, made good husbands and good parents, happy men and women, and benefactors and reformers of their fellows. The African Negro was once thought incapable of intellectual and moral cultivation; but we have now Africans that are both cultivated themselves, and successfully employed in cultivating others. From that once hopeless race we have now teachers, and preachers, and writers, who bid fair to equal the best and noblest of our kind. The poor of our own land were once thought incapable of any great improvement; but through the instrumentality of Sabbath Schools, and modern adaptations of religious

instruction to their peculiar wants and circumstances, thousands upon thousands of the poor have become wise, and good, and happy. Hundreds of those once hapless and neglected ones have become ministers of the Gospel, and influential writers; and their labours are, at this time, spreading the light and influences of religion through every quarter of the globe.

We should despair of none. Those very appearances in the characters of sinners which most discourage us, would often, if we understood the matter perfectly, be found to be hopeful and encouraging symptoms. One man is bold and headstrong in evil; but we ought not on that account to despair of his conversion. This boldness and recklessness are no part of his crimes, but only manifestations of natural temperament; and instead of hindering his conversion, they may actually assist him in renouncing the company and the wicked customs of his associates, in combatting the temptations of the devil, and the sneers and opposition of his enemies. And when once he is fairly enlisted into the army of Christ, the same courage and forwardness which now alarm you, will render him a terror to the powers of hell, and a distinguished champion in the cause of truth and piety. There is another who carries every sin in which he indulges to the wildest extremes: he is moderate in no thing. Another is as quick as thought in replying to your advices and reproofs, and by his ready wit he almost baffles you. One is full of gaiety and mirth; and another is fruitful in sinful inventions and expedients, and is always restless, unless engaged in some strange exploit of iniquity. But shall we despair of these men? By no means. Speak to them; appeal to their consciences; expostulate with them kindly; be serious and persevering; prove yourselves their sincere friends, and pray for them, and you will not be long before you find some of them converted to God. They may answer you with a laugh, or seem to cast away your words with scorn; but they will think of you when you would little expect it, and the advice you give them, and the love you show them, will affect them to the bottom of their hearts. And when once they are