B. Read it then; this is all you have to do to be fully satisfied that the whole is a base human fabrication.

contains internal evidence of its falsehood.

A. Do you believe the doctrine of election, sir?
B. I do.

A. Why?

B. Because I find it in the Bible.

A. Do you approve of it?

It

B. Not to approve what Infinite Wisdom has thought fit to do, would be palpable pride and presumption in a mortal worm like me. I dare not bring the mighty God to the bar of my little mind.

A. Then, sir, a man may continue in all wickedness, fold his arms and say, "If I am elected, I shall be saved; if not, I shall be damned?"

B. If you, sir, adopt this plan and continue in it, it will indeed prove you never were chosen of God; but the experiment is dangerous in the extreme; and your having done so will never satisfy your mind in hell; you will then sce that God was righteous and you were wicked. You had better take alarm now, and obey God's command to believe in his Son, and you shall not perish, but have eternal life. Be assured, God shall vindicate his conduct towards men before an assembled universe; and every wicked mouth shall be stopped by the force of evidence.

A. But many of the teachers of religion are as bad as other people.

B. You are called, sir, to found your faith not on the testimony of man, but on the word of the living God, which you have in English.

COME, AND WELCOME, TO JESUS CHRIST.

SEE REV. XXII. 17. MATT. XXII, 1--4.

THOUGH all are welcome by the gospel call,
How few will come! and none would come at all,
Did not the Spirit's efficacious pow'r

Their hearts constrain in his appointed hour!
But, granted this, does want of will, I pray,
Excuse the sin of those who keep away?

You have a servant; ask that servant, why
With your injunctions he will not comply?
"I have no will," methinks I hear him say,
"Yourself to love, or your commands obey;
I'm surely not to blame for acting so;

For I my nature cannot change, you know."
And will depravity afford a plea

From ev'ry bond of duty to set free?

The most deprav'd are then the least to blame;
And sin must lose its nature and its name.

Your principles, my friend, if such your creed,
May serve to justify the foulest deed;

For the worst crime that ever has been done
Within the ample circuit of the sun,
Arose, no doubt, from a depraved will,
Averse to good, and prone to all that's ill.

ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT.

SWEET babe!

She glanc'd into our world, to see

A sample of our misery;

Then turn'd away her languid eye,
To drop a tear or two, and die,

Sweet babe!

BOLD infidelity, turn pale!

Beneath this stone four infants' ashes lie;

Say, are they lost or sav'd;

If death's by sin, they sinn'd, because they're here; If heaven's by works, in heaven they can't appear;

Reason, ah! How deprav'd!

Revere the Bible's sacred page, the knot's unty'd;

They dy'd, for Adam sinn'd; they live, for Jesus died!

PRECIOUSNESS OF THE BIBLE.

On a Saturday night, some time since, a poor man went into a bookseller's shop in Holborn. "I come," said he, "to ask what may seem very unreasonable; I am very poor, I cannot buy a Bible, nor can I leave the value of one; will you trust my honesty, and lend me one till Monday morning? I will return it faithfully." The bookseller consented; and at the appointed time it was returned, with many expressions of gratitude. He afterwards came regularly for it, and as regularly returned it. A person, who heard of the circumstance, desired the bookseller to give him a Bible, and place it to his account. When he returned to ask the usual indulgence, and found that he had a Bible of his own, the poor man was in a transport of joy, imploring many blessings upon the head of his unknown benefactor; declaring it was a treasure he never expected to possess!

Reader, how large a blessing a small pittance may communicate! Whatever is in the power of our hand to do, may it be done immediately, and with our might, remembering that in this world only can the believer benefit a fellow creature!

In heaven there are no sons of need;
There all these duties are no more!

SOLILOQUY AFTER READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. A PARODY.

THESE are thy glorious works, Eternal Truth,

The scoff of withered age and beardless youth;

These move the censure and th' illib'ral grin

Of fools, that hate thee and delight in sin,

But these shall last when night has quench'd the pole,
And heav'n is all departed as a scroll;

And when, as justice has long since decreed,

'This earth shall blaze and a new world succeed,

Then these thy glorious works, and they who share
That hope which can alone exclude despair,
Shall live exempt from weakness and decay,
The brightest wonder of an endless day.

THE CAVILLER REPROVED.

A CERTAIN man went to a dervise, and proposed three questions. First, why do they say that God is omnipres *ent? I do not see him in any place; shew me where he is. Secondly, why is man punished for crimes, since whatever he does proceeds from God? Man has no free will, for he cannot do any thing contrary to the will of God; and if he had power, he would do every thing for his own good. Thirdly, how can God punish satan in hell fire, since he is formed of that element; and what impression can fire make on itself?

The dervise took up a large clod of earth, and struck him on the head with it. The man went to the Cadi, and said, "I proposed three questions to such a dervise, who flung such a clod of earth at me, as has made my head ache." The Cadi having sent for the dervise, asked, "Why did you throw a clod of earth at his head, instead of answering his questions?" The dervise replied, the clod of earth was an answer to his speech; he says, he has a pain in his head; let him shew me where it is, and I will make God visible to him; and why does he exhibit a complaint to you against