one winter in London, at the house of a friend, a constant attendant on the ministry of that estimable and faithful preacher whom I quoted in my last section. In company they frequented his church, and there they regularly met the G- family, who were as seldom absent as themselves, who listened with eagerness, and praised what they heard with enthusiasm. E- had often wondered how they could so much admire a man who perpetually and severely lashed those worldly follies of which they were guilty; but her surprise was put beyond limits, when, one morning, Miss G- called, and a conversation ensued between them, which I shall presently repeat.

66 a

On the preceding Sabbath evening, our beloved minister had taken for his subject, the text I have above quoted, and from it had delivered one of the most powerful practical discourses I was ever favoured to hear; none, we all thought, could mistake his views or his meaning. He did not, certainly, specify by name, every gay and worldly amusement, any more than every moral pollution, from which the body must be kept, when once presented as living sacrifice;" but any unprejudiced mind who heard him describe the emotions of the soul which must prompt to the offering of such an oblation, must have been completely aware that all vain and dissipated amusements, after the fashion of the world, were included among the worthless things which would be thrown aside, in complying with the inspired apostle's request. I have notes of that discourse still in my possession, and I wish I had space to lay them more fully before my readers.

E's hospitable friend was engaged when Miss

G———— called, a few days after, so that she had to entertain the visitor alone. The Sunday's sermon formed one topic of conversation; Miss Glavishly praised that, and a preceding one, on the awful subject of death, in which, she declared that 'the dear man had really out-done himself.' Various subjects were afterwards introduced, and something in itself unimportant, elicited the remark from Miss G-that the music at the opera last night was extraordinarily fine.' E-- thought she had misunderstood her fair companion, but she soon explained herself by adding that they had all been at that scene of gaiety on the preceding evening. E—— was astonished. 'What?' said she, in her simplicity, after last Sunday night's sermon?'

"Yes,-why not?' asked Miss G-, with apparently as much surprise, which perhaps concealed a slight confusion in the speaker.

·

'What would your dear Mr. D***' say to you?' 'Oh! I don't know,' gaily answered the lady, 'I don't suppose he would object.'

E-- shook her head gravely, and Miss G—— added, 'I dare say he often goes there himself!'

This was too much for E. 'Never,' said she, I am quite sure of that; I never can believe it unless I hear it from his own lips.'

The conversation was here interrupted, and not again resumed; but it made a painful impression on the mind of E-, and she felt how possible it is for the most zealous and powerful preacher to be " as a very lovely song" to many of those who so eagerly press to hear them, "for they hear the words" indeed; but, alas! "they do them not."-Ezekiel xxxiii. 32.

TEXT II:

"Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this sinful and adulterous generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels."-Mark viii. 38.

ILLUSTRATION:

'THE DOUBLE-MINDED TIME-SERVER.'

Putting the "hand to the plough," and then only looking back, is pronounced a token of unworthiness for "the kingdom of heaven," (Luke ix. 62); what shall we say then of those who put their hand indeed upon the plough at first, and immediately withdraw it again, as if ashamed of the occupation, when those pass by, who are disposed to cast ridicule upon it?

Such are the time-servers, who are devout to-day with the pious, and careless to-morrow with the worldly, and whose religion, (to quote Mr. D*** once more,)' is all of times and places, just such a religion as the devil most delights in.'

The class seems scarcely to need an exemplification, yet there is one portion of it who have brought so great a reproach on the church of Christ, by their double-minded practices, that I cannot forbear no ticing them. I allude to public men of this character; and I will individualize them under the designation of H. who must consequently bear all the sins of his party.

His first entrance into political life was effected as member for a close borough, in the patronage of a pious and influential gentleman. He was then considered a promising and delightful Christian character; he constantly spoke at Bible meetings-befriended Sunday schools-joined the small religious

minority in the house-made devout speeches against the slave-trade-zealously defended the church, and abhorred Romanism with all the righteous indignation that his soul could contain.

What does he now that he is in office? He discountenances all Sabbath-bills, votes against the conservation of the Protestant establishment, and in favour of every unjust measure that can expedite the blood-stained march of popery. And yet he still patronizes the Bible Society, and Sunday Schools, and all such works of piety and charity. He may be seen on the platform of a religious society on the Saturday, at a cabinet council on the Sunday; he will give ten pounds to a missionary purpose one week, and twenty towards the building of a popish mass-house the next.

Is this consistency? Is it Christianity? Does it indicate the single or the double mind? and if the latter, how does St. James treat such? "Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." (iv. 8, 9.)

Is there a more explicit way of practically denying the Saviour than the frequent union with his enemies? "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad." (Matt. xii. 30.) And if such are his own words concerning the neutral bystander, what shall we say of those who join and favour alternately his friends and his foes? Surely that which he has said of them who deny him, and are "ashamed of him before men," that he will also be ashamed of them, "when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels." X. Q.

LETTER FROM THE CONTINENT.

We present our readers with another letter from our valued friend on the continent.

In my last, from C

which I hope you

have received, I promised you a letter from this place. And as in that I confined myself chiefly to what I saw in the celebrated cathedral of Amiens, so I shall here dwell chiefly on what has met my eye in that great temple of infidelity-the Pantheon. This place I visited, after having been first at the old metropolitan church of the capital of France, the cathedral of Notre Dame. This latter edifice, which stands in the oldest and most unfashionable part of the city, is, as the sextoness with much sang froid told us, little frequented, and seems to possess little of what is considered remarkable or worth seeing, except Napoleon Buonaparte's coronation robes, which, together with the purple dresses for the Cardinals, with which that remarkable man presented their Eminencies on that occasion, she shewed us for a trifle. We were, also, shewn the spot where the Emperor stood, when the father of the Christian world,' to shew how popery can accommodate itself to all circumstances, came from Rome to anoint him; as a predecessor of his had done Charlemagne before. Altogether the building seemed to have "ICHABOD inscribed upon its very walls; and even of devotees