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E are come

YE

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD.

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to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.Heb. xii. 22-24.

THIS precious blood opens heaven for our prayers; for it pleads for us now in heaven, and speaks better things for us than the blood of Abel. That called for vengeance on the sinner; this intercedeth for daily grace for daily sin, and procures for us daily mercies for daily supplies.-T. Taylor.

Seeing that we, neither we ourselves, nor any other friend, could contribute any just price towards our redemption, to whom could we have recourse? Whither should we flee for refuge, but to that one God and one Mediator between God and man-the man Christ Jesus? Flee to Him we did not neither; nor could we first; rather He sought us out, found, overtook us, fleeing from Him. In our deplorable condition "the good Samaritan had compassion on us," weltering in our blood, the blood of our sins on the ground, of sins that required His blood to cure our wounds, and heal our bruises.-Bishop Sprat.

(Dying Aspiration.)" This is the last sickness in which you will have to visit me," said a dying Indian; "I know that I must soon die ; but I have no fear on that account. I have a Saviour, a friend in heaven, who hears my prayers, who turns my heart away from this world, from my wife and children, and draws it to Himself." Then stretching out both his arms, as a bird spreading its wings to fly, he exclaimed, "I want to go and be with Him, who has washed away my sins in His own blood; and now gives me rest and peace in the midst of pain! I have sent for you to tell me as much as you know about this new state I am going to."Rev. W. Cockran.

THE DARK PLACES.

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THE dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.-Psalm lxxiv. 20.

IGNORANCE (of the Gospel) is the hold of Satan, where he keeps his captives in chains of darkness. It is the shadow of death; the very borders, and suburbs, and inlet into hell.-Bishop Brownrig.

Ignorance of God is another name for vice, and vice is misery; and the threefold night of ignorance, pollution, and wretchedness, still enwraps by far the greater portion of the habitable globe. . . . Men are "going daily to the generation of their fathers, and never see light." (Psalm xlix. 19.) . . O Christian! this is darkness; not the darkness of one nation, or of two; but the darkness of every heart and of every clime, where Jesus' name, Jesus' power, are unknown! Once ye were thus "darkness," but " now are ye light in the Lord." And, O consider! ye are more than this. As ye are light in the Lord, so ye are light for the Lord!Rev. F. Goode, Church Missionary Sermon, April 30, 1838.

Lord! bid Thy angel speed his flight
Amidst the darkness here below,
And shed Thy Gospel's glorious light
O'er regions lost in sin and woe.

I have indeed seen that darkness; but it is not easy to describe it. No man can know what it is, who has not seen it. It is no less dreadful than when the Israelites beheld at a distance the thick darkness of Egypt from their dwellings "in Goshen, where there was light." I have been in what the Scriptures call "the chambers of imagery" (Ezek. viii. 12); and have witnessed the enormity of the pagan idolatry, in all its turpitude and blood. I can now better understand those words of the Scriptures-"The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." (Ps. lxxiv. 20.) I have seen the libations of human blood offered to the Moloch of the heathen world; and an assembly, not of two thousand only but of two hundred thousand, falling prostrate at the sight before the idol, and raising acclamations in his name.. —C. Buchanan, Church Missionary Sermon, June 12, 1810.

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THE REDEEMED.

REDEEMED from among men, being the first fruits

unto God and to the Lamb.—Rev. xiv. 4.

...

Go up to heaven. Ask the Redeemed who are singing there what they most prize. The answer is, "salvation." Go down to hell, and ask the weepers there what they most need. No other sound comes through the darkness than "salvation." . . . Now, collect us again, when a hundred years are gone, put the same question to us: we too have learned the language of eternity; we ask for "salvation." We no longer say in our hearts, "The world now, and eternity hereafter." This is our cry, "O save us! Give us grace! Give us mercy!" Better to be a convicted, pardoned sinner, than an unpardoned angel.-T. Bradley.

Redemption! Oh, the thrilling sound!
It tells of joy in woe;

Of more than prophets saw or heard;
Of all that man can know.

Redemption! God's best charity,

To man imprisoned long;

The world's reprieve the sinner's plea,
And heaven's eternal song!

(Uava, New Zealand.)—On the 21st July, 1849, Mr. C. Baker buried two of his flock, who, he says, "had long given him satisfactory evidence that a change ́had been wrought in them by the Divine Spirit." On the 22d (Lord's Day) I spoke from Hebrews xii. 22, 23. I could not help dwelling on the fact of their communion with us last Sunday at the Table of the Lord, and on the belief that they are now before the throne of God, holding communion with the ransomed in glory. The last time I conversed with these happy Christians was on Saturday week. The elder, George Taikehu, who had been for many years a priest, said, that he had no fear of death. He added, that he beheld, by faith, a ladder, as it were, that reached from earth to heaven, on which he was about to mount; and that, after death, his body would be raised incorruptible. The other, Charlotte, was a young wife, who had for years been a worthy character. Her husband told All was peace!

me this morning that her end was triumphant.

THE FEAR OF THE LORD.

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FEAR Him, which after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear Him. -Luke xii. 5.

HE that will not fear Him that threatens to cast both body and soul into everlasting fire, whom will he fear? With this fear, O Lord, fasten Thou together our frail flesh, that we may never swerve from Thy laws.—Bishop Ridley's Letters.

We must do our work out of the fear of God, and conscience of His commandments, not out of respect of profit, or fear, or praise of man; for such as do so are hypocrites. God esteems

our actions and works, not according to the greatness or exactness of the performance, but according to the sincerity and truth of our hearts in doing them.-J. Mede.

The more we fear, the less reason we have to fear. If we fear God, we need not fear anything else. In His fear we are safe and secure; and all the powers of hell cannot hurt us.-Bishop Bull.

Move me, my God, to watch and pray,

To strive to be sincere ;

To take my Cross up day by day,
And serve Thee, Lord, with fear.

Bunyan.

¶ O Father of Life! Leave me not under the power of wicked imaginations, nor puffed up with a proud look; but turn away from Thy servant a haughty spirit and vain desires, and fill my heart with grace of Thy Holy Spirit, that I may always think of Thee, and serve Thee with reverence and godly fear.—S. Augustine.

The Indians of Guiana seem to consider the "good Spirit" as a being too high to notice them; and, not knowing Him as a God "that heareth prayer," they concern themselves but little about Him. It is not, therefore, surprising that they should have the most abject dread of the evil principle, and not regarding God as their protector, seek blindly to propitiate devils. Superstitious fear thus reigns, where holy love is wanting. Their belief in the power of demons is craftily fostered and encouraged by a class of men who are their sorcerers or priests, professing to hold intercourse with familiar spirits, and to cure diseases by their means.— Rev. W. H. Brett.

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THE CREATION OF MAN.

THE Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.-Gen. ii. 7.

O God! the Creator and Father of the spirits of all flesh, we pray Thee, that as Thou didst provide an help meet for man in Paradise, and didst ordain the holy bonds of marriage for the mutual society, help, and comfort that one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity, so guide and direct us in the bonds we form,—that those who are bound together as flesh of one flesh, may be helps meet for each other in the pilgrimage of this life. May they live, like Isaac and Rebecca, in perfect love and peace together, and walk according to Thy laws. May husbands love their wives, and know no bitterness against them. May wives love their husbands, live in subjection to them, and adorn themselves with the ornaments of a meek and quiet spirit. And so may they twain be of the same mind one toward another, and one body in Christ.-Canon Townsend, in part.

With respect to the creation of the world, the New Zealanders have been taught, from time immemorial, by their priests and fathers, to believe that three gods made the first man. They

also believe, that the first woman was made of one of the man's ribs. This is a remarkable tradition, and must have had its origin from Divine revelation; the general term for bone is "Eve." All the New Zealanders believe, that the first woman was made of an eve, or bone, taken from the side of the first man. I have had many conversations with him (Duatterra, a convert), on this subject, but never found him to vary in the least in his account of this tradition.-Rev. J. Marsden.