THE SUNKEN ROCK. among mankind? Persons will not hearken to those who are wiser themselves; but with some fixed idea of their own, which, though perfectly unfounded, nothing can move, they rush to their own destruction. They are deluded by some falsehood they have created or adopted for themselves, while they pronounce the truth told them by others to be false and delusive. A man is warned against a certain course of conduct, which it is plain will ruin him; he is assured that a sunken rock lies before him; but he will not believe, and on he goes, till, in some dark hour, he makes shipwreck. The rock is sunk and unseen. Some profess to have investigated the subject, and found it all delusion. But He who knows all things, who is the faithful and true witness, who cannot lie, declares to us that there it is. Men may ridicule the idea, and boast of their superiority to vulgar prejudices; but there it is. It is true you cannot see it; it lies at present out of sight; but there it is. Believing or not believing makes no difference with regard to the actual existence of the thing; and therefore, however men may think and feel about the future consequences of impenitence and unbelief, the fact remainsthere it is. It must have been an awful moment when the commander of the frigate discovered his mistake-when the vessel actually struck on the sunken rock, and the wild waves came dashing over it-when he stood there on the shattered timbers, looking out in the dark night upon the watery grave opening at his feet. One can imagine, though hardly with sufficient vividness and power, what must have been his bitter self-mortification, reproach, despair, and agony, as he thought of the folly which had produced this irreparable mischief. In the few moments spent upon the wreck in that wild raging sea there must have been intense anguish. A far more awful moment will it be when a self-deluded soul awakes in eternity to the consciousness of his own infatuated unbelief-when the truth, long denied, opposed, ridiculed, and reviled, comes before the eye, and overwhelms the heart as a stern reality. Can any one adequately imagine what must be the feeling upon the discovery, when the mischief is beyond repair, of a life spent in rejection of the divine testimony respecting ETERNAL RUIN? Then at last it will be found that it would have been better far to have sought and found ETERNAL SALVATION. American Paper. POETRY. Poetry. PARTING WITH THE WORLD. I SEND the joys of earth away; Your streams were floating me along, Lord, I adore thy matchless grace, That warn'd me of that dark abyss! That drew me from those treach'rous seas, And bade me seek superior bliss. Now to the shining realms above I stretch my hands, and glance my eyes; To bear me to those upper skies! There from the bosom of my God, THE HEAVENLY PILOT. JESUS, at thy command I launch into the deep; And leave my native land, Where sin lulls all asleep; For thee I would the world resign, And sail to heaven with thee and thine. Thou art my Pilot wise, My compass is thy Word; I trust thy faithfulness and power, By faith I see the land, The port of endless rest; O may I reach the heavenly shore, Where winds and waves disturb no more. ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. Anecdotes and Selections. DYING WITHOUT CHRIST.-A student for the christian ministry was brought, in the course of Providence, into the company of a young lady who was just recovering from a dangerous illness. She was still very weak, but liked, as most persons do when recovering, to tell how much she had suffered, and how wonderful was the preservation of her life. Among other things she said, "At one time I sent for my aged parents, and my beloved brothers and sisters, and took, as I thought, my last farewell of them. Both the physicians had given me up, and my friends expected to see me no more." As she finished this sentence, the student said to her, "We seldom meet with a person who has been so near death as you have been. Pray tell me what were your feelings when you were on the verge of eternity ?" "I was happy," she replied. "And will you please to tell me what were your prospects ?" "I hoped to go to heaven, of course." "Had you no doubts, no fears, no suspicions ?" "None." "Perhaps almost all hope to go to heaven; but, I fear," said the young man, "there are very few who have a good foundation for their hope. Pray, on what was your hope founded ?" "Founded," she replied, "why I had never injured any person; and I had endeavoured to do all the good in my power. Was not this sufficient ?" The student did not give her a direct answer, but observed, "I am very thankful that you did not then die." "What! do you think I should not have gone to heaven ?" "I am sure you could not in the way you mentioned. Do you not perceive that, according to your plan, you were going to heaven without Christ? This is what no sinner has done since Adam fell, and what no sinner will be able to do while the world stands. Be very thankful that you did not go out of the world resting on that delusive foundation. Jesus saith, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.' God carried home this word to her soul. Light broke in upon her mind. From that day a decided change took place in the young lady's views; and a corresponding penitence, and love, and zeal, and usefulness, adorned all her future life. 199 THREE LAST WORDS.-A Puritan minister of the seventeenth century tells of an extravagant young man who was often admonished by his godly friends to reform his wicked life and seek an interest in Christ. But he presumptuously gave them this answer, "That if, when he lay a dying, he did but say three words of repentance, he should do well enough." These three words, I suppose, were to be, "Lord, have mercy." But on a certain day, as he was riding over a narrow bridge, his horse slipt, and fell in with him, and, after struggling awhile, he was heard to speak these three words, "Devil take all." ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. A GENTLEMAN, having come to the possession of an estate, invited a friend from a distance to partake of his hospitality, and to congratulate him on the acquisition of his possession. The friend was a christian; but the proprietor of the domain sought his happiness in this world's enjoyments. Soon after the arrival of the guest he was led out to a balcony, commanding an extensive view. Pointing forward, the proprietor asked, "do you see that range of fields extending to the verge of yonder hill ?" "I do," was the reply. "Then these are mine. Look again," he continued, “in this other direction. Do you see these farm-houses and adjacent fields?" His friend assented as before. "These again," he cried, in the joy of his heart, "are mine." Having gone over, in description, the whole of his property, he waited the usual congratulation, but received none. On expressing his surprise, mingled with dis. pleasure, his companion, who saw in these things the idol which had taken possession of his heart, gently replied, "Why should you be surprised? Look to yonder village; there lives a peasant who can say more than you have said to-day." The gentleman exclaimed with astonishment, "What can he say ?" His friend replied, "He can look up and ask, 'Do you see yon sky? Above that sky is the heaven of heavens; that heaven of heavens is mine!' Again, he can look beyond this world, over the narrow verge of time, to a vast eternity of happiness, and can say, 'that eternity is mine! But more, this disciple of the Lord Jesus can bid you look around, and asking you to behold the finger marks of him who created all things, he can add, with joy unspeakable, "The God who made all these things is mine!' And when your property is burnt up in one vast conflagration, his shall endure for ever, and be enjoyed in blissful immortality." What effect this reproof had upon the gentleman I cannot say; but I trust that all who read this will be led to seek a title to that inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, and which can be had only through faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. AN AMERICAN INDIAN, being among his white neighbours, asked for a little tobacco to smoke, and one of them having some loose in his pocket, gave him a handful. The following day, the Indian came back, inquiring for the donor, saying he had found a quarter of a dollar among the tobacco. Being told that, as it was given him he might as well keep it, he answered, pointing to his breast, "I got a good man and a bad man here; and the good man say, 'it a'int your own, you must return it to the owner; the bad man say, 'why, he gave it you, and it is your own now:' the good man say, 'that is not right-the tobacco is yours, not the money:' the bad man say, 'never mind, you got it, go by some dram :' the good man say 'no' so I dont know what to do, and I think I go to sleep, but the good man and bad man keep talking all night and trouble me, and now I bring the money back I feel good." ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. A MAN OF THE WORLD, in the best vigour of his days, strong to suffer, was seized with inflammation on his lungs. He had sat under a gospel ministry, but had refused to submit to the yoke of Jesus. Often had the small still voice of a gracious Saviour invited his attention to his eternal interests; but he had quenched the Spirit. Now his fears were excited; his medical attendant announced him to be in great danger; then did his alarm become distressing. During momentary relief from the paroxysms of his complaint, he cried most vehemently, "God be merciful to me a sinner! O, I am dying!-I am dying-a lost, lost sinner! I have fought against God, and now he fights against me. O! for a day,— a day-an hour-an hour!" With these, and similar exclamations, he sunk exhausted into the arms of death, leaving his friends, who were weeping by his bedside, no other consolation than what arises from the conviction, that "The Judge of all the earth will do right." Reader would you like to die thus? O no! Then flee at once to Christ. THE DYING REFORMER.-The following just and appropriate sentiments were uttered by Musculus, one of the continental reformers, in the immediate prospect of his dissolution. They were translated into English from an old manuscript. "Cold death my heart invades; my life doth fly; O Christ, my everlasting life, draw nigh! Why quiverest thou, my soul, within my breast? Quit cheerfully this drooping house of clay, God will restore it in the appointed day. Hast sinn'd! I know it: let not that be urged; MUNGO PARK, in the account of his travels in the interior of Africa, relates the circumstance of a negro youth being wounded by a shot from one of a party of Moors, who were in the act of stealing a number of cattle. His mother was quite frantic with grief, clapping her hands and enumerating the good qualities of her son. "He never told a lie," said the disconsolate mother, in her own language, as her wounded son was carried in at the gate, "he never told a lie; no never." But, alas! it is a lamentable fact, that there are parents in this highly-favoured land who cannot say what this African mother did. A GREAT PRINCE once asked a christian preacher to do an unjust thing: "Prince," said he, "if I had two souls I perhaps could sacrifice one to please you; but I have but one soul, and I will save it." Reader, you have but one soul, and if you lose this you lose all. Let, then, the salvation of this one soul be the great business of your present life. |