Fragments not Lost.

OUR SABBATHS.

OUR Sabbaths are resting stages in the journey of life. And we rest as upon a little hill, where we can look a short way forward and backward, see the open sky, breathe a pure air, and mark quietly what lies around us. Here we are cheered by meeting with fellow-travellers, who are resting like ourselves. The hills on which we thus rest vary in elevation, but we may be always high enough for our view to be greatly widened, and for us to gain a truer general conception of the country through which we are moving. Now we are glad because we be quiet." We rest from our labours; and we sanctify the "work of our hands" by thoughts of its importance and its hopefulness. And as one beholding the glorious company of all the bright lights of heaven, first may feel as nothing by contrast with such greatness, and then immediately may rejoice in his dignity because of his true relationship thereto, for he also is a son of the Lord of glory-so on our Sundays, in presence of heavenly truths and commandments, first we may say, What are we, and What can we do? and then rejoice that we are God's sons, and Christ's brothers; that the first of us dwelt in Paradise, and that our race was redeemed on Calvary.-Ch. Spectator.

RELIGION AND BUSINESS.

Consider a man in the full flow of weekly business; he is surrounded with things that cry-"Act," ""decide." He must be prompt, rapid. He has little time for reflection and moral analysis. If he does right, he does so from the healthy state of his moral instincts. He wants presence of conscience as well as presence of mind. Now if his heart has throbbed healthily with Christian love, and his conscience has been vivified with thoughts of Christian obligation, he will in his business stand forth as a man of Christian integrity and kindliness. There cannot be much divine study during the hours of business, but there may be divine service-not frequent direct thoughts of God, yet a real and a wise obedience; and he who would transact business divinely, must seek the necessary strength and disposition in the worship and thought of other times. Whilst, however, direct spiritual exercises are essential to enable a man to do common work in a spiritual temper, the doing of common work in such a temper greatly promotes spirituality; and unless it be so done, spiritual exercises will soon become to the man a form and a weariness, or at best a reproach and pain; and to his God an offence and a mockery.

APHORISMS.

It is well that the mind should not be fixed too long and exclusively on the same things. If it be, there is danger of its becoming not only partial, but erroneous. The eye that looks upon an object with steady and prolonged gaze not only does not see any thing else, but cannot see even it.

A vast deal more may often be done by a wise superintendence than a personal activity. The shepherd does nearly all his work by his dog.

There is no payment for some things. The difference is between one who can do them, and all the rest who cannot.

Next to the doing evil that good may come, is the not doing good lest evil should come.

Of course none of us is a Paul; but we may be perfectly like him in will, however meaner and weaker in faculties. The iris in the dew-drop is just as true and perfect an iris, as the bow that measures the heavens, and betokens the safety of a world from deluge.-J. Sterling.

The soul of man, approving of the true and the right, whether it will or no, wherever these are discerned, points with unerring certainty to that which is the source of this its moral power, viz: the rectitude of the Divine charactereven as the poised steel, turning ever to the mysterious north, indicates the existence of that unknown power, which from afar controls all its vibrations, whose influence it ever feels, and at whose presence it trembles.-Rev. J. Haven.

THE

TRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE..

THERE is a perfect consistency between a strong attachment to our own branch of Christ's Church, and an enlarged and most tendr love for all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. 1 Cor. i. 2. How remarka'y this was exemplified in the late Dr. Chalmers, is known to all wellinformed Presbyterians. The acknowledged leader of the F Church of Scotland, the uncompromising champion of her dist guishing principles, and the eloquent advocate of her public c sures, he was at the same time alive to every interest of the be catholic, not excepting those organizations in which he ma to deplore and to condemn. In this his character stands at buke, first to the narrowness of such as never hook over the of their own petty enclosure, and then of all who thank i to buy a seeming union at the price of every thing pact creed and order.

twenty-seven Presbyteries, one thousand mes newired and twentysix ministers, and two hundred and seven thousand communicans. These are not scattered individuals, however closely allied, but i organized Church, which, though claiming no exclusive possession of the ark, are bound together and identified by a common creee, a uniform polity, and a happy gradation of courts. By God's speakable grace, this union is not documentary, symbolical, or VOL. I.-No. 5.

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