moulder away, until at last, its carvings effaced, and its imagery blotted out, it becomes a shapeless mass, destitute of grace and symmetry. Conscience is thus defaced; and there is a necessity, not only for obeying its decisions, but for insuring their correctness. No longer of supreme authority, it must frame its judgments in conformity with the principles of a higher tribunal. There is an appeal from its authority to the word of God, and then only can our conclusions be depended upon, when conscience conform itself to the dictates of Revelation. If the former be disobeyed, the law implanted in the heart is infringed; if the latter be neglected, the enactments of the Almighty are trampled under foot. So that a man may, through the corruption of our nature, be placed in the awful alternative of wilfully transgressing one law, or ignorantly violating another.. To deliver us from so fearful a condition, a change takes place. Conscience is no longer supreme, as it was before. Then the sole arbiter of right and wrong, it declared the law-now it only decides whether the law laid down has been obeyed or violated. Had it been otherwise ordained, that power which had been created for good, would, through the fall, have become mighty only for evil. Wrong would have been substituted for right, evil for good, the path from which we had wandered would have been rendered more trackless by faithless way-marks, the abyss into which we had fallen more dark, by fearful and lurid blazes. It would have been as though all the elements should conspire to leave their proper confines, and the sea should burst its everlasting bands, and the air rage with fierce and unnatural tempests, and the lightnings of heaven kindle with portentous brilliancy. Such a war of elements would present but a faint conception of the dread, and terror, and ruin that would have rushed into the mind, if conscience, distorted by the fall, had been suffered to rule, without a guide to direct and a law to controul. It Indeed, it is only necessary to turn our eyes towards those on whom the dawn of Revelation has never broken, to be satisfied of this. Notwithstanding the comparative preservation of conscience to which allusion has before been made, amid the ruins around it, still it assumes aspects the most appalling. were easy to summon up the spectres of past atrocities, and to point to the bloody sacrifices of Baal, or the fiery offerings of Moloch. We might shew that such unnatural cruelties were perpetrated even in the seat of ancient learning, and sanctioned, at least so we must imagine, by conscience. For if conscience did not sanction, where was the inducement to commit them? So that religion was changed into superstition, judgment into cruelty, the vicegerent of God into the slave of Satan. But we need not call up images of other days to show the ravages of a fallen and perverted conscience. Even now it commands rites of untold atrocity. Sometimes it burns the widow on the funeral pile—at other times it baptizes the infants with the baptism of demons. Sometimes it lacerates the ascetic with hideous tortures-at other times it bids him imbrue his hands in the blood of martyrs. How bright is the contrast when we turn to Christian lands! This fearful weapon of woe has been converted into an instrument of peace. The fierce elements, chained and fettered, work only our good. How has this been effected? Laws have been given, and with them motives and strength for their performance. And since the justice of those laws has been satisfied, they remain as a guide instead of a terror. Conscience no longer holds his court to pronounce a sentence of irrevocable condemnation, but invested with the milder office of leading those to righteousness whose offences have been forgiven. The faithless waymark has become a grateful beacon, the lurid blaze a bright and shining light, the solitary column a pillar in the temple of God. LUCIUS. Unless it were for the word of God, our wisdom were nothing, and our knowledge were nothing. Whatsoever we have, we have it by the word. Without it, our prayer were no prayer; without it, our sacraments were no sacraments; our faith were no faith; our conscience were no conscience; our church were no church. Take away the light of the sun, and what remaineth but darkness? Heaven and earth are darkened; no man can see his way, nor discern the things about him: even so, if the word of God be taken away, what remains but miserable confusion and deadly ignorance? Testimony of the Reformers.-Jewell. - MAY MEETINGS. THREE years ago, I left my mountain fastness, and sped my way to the busy metropolis, keenly alive to the interest of what was going on. I was then an old man, so old that the addition of a triplet of years to my span does, in some lights, appear of small account. Nevertheless those seasons have not been altogether barren, or unfruitful of experience. I have learnt lessons; some solemn, and some touching lessons, both in reference to myself and others. I have studied more calmly the character of the dispensation under which we are brought-the spirit that rules in the minds of men, and the bearings of that course which the church pursues, in days, evidently of coming trial. Seated in my alcove, I often pursue the theme, with kindling earnestness; and when my eye, upturned to heaven in silent intercession, falls back upon the gleaming spire of my own peaceful church, nestled in distance among the bursting buds of spring, I breathe, with the fulness of satisfied feeling that exquisite aspiration of our sublime liturgical service, "We also bless thy holy name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear." Oh, it is very pleasant to the pastor's heart to number the sheep of his flock who are already, by divine mercy, safe folded under the immediate hand of the great Shepherd! "Trying times approach." This acknowledgement you will hear on every side. Trying times are come, is the deep conviction of my heart. The goodly tents of Israel are outspread, and many are hastening into them from among the alien multitude; while the enemy, from his commanding height surveys the encampment, devising enchantments against themseeking first by infernal art to weaken, where he is preparing anon to assail with the fierceness of hostile power. Balaam is confederate with Balak, and the princes of Moab rest on their spears around, until they shall see the sorcerer's curse taking effect among the troubled hosts of the Lord. And truly, if there were not One far mightier than they, beholding their devices from a loftier height, we could not but tremble for the unconscious dwellers in the tents. But I look on the guarded spot-the camp round which the angel of the Lord encampeth yet again: and on their banners I read the motto of their hope, the pledge of their security, A PEOPLE SAVED OF THE LORD. Concerning this saved people there are often great searchings of heart, among those who have the spiritual charge of them. I have communed with some brethren, grown gray in the service of the sanctuary; and I ever find a response to the note of trembling solicitude that issues from the recesses of my own bosom. We fear for that class who are likely to be soon called forth into the field of battle, for the younger pastors of the Lord's fold. We behold a net spread in their way, a snare laid for their feet; and we bring them before the Lord in earnest supplication that He will keep their steps, lest they fall therein. What I allude to, concerns not the dwellers in our rural districts, though no man can say that |