CHRIST THE PURIFIER. was answered, "As soon as we have attended to his lordship, we will come to you." A few words of explanation ensued, and to her dismay she found that the outside passenger with whom she had thought it beneath her to dine was not only a nobleman, but that very nobleman in whose family she had hoped to be an inmate. What could she do? How could she bear the interview? She felt really ill, and the apology she sent for her non-appearing that evening was more than pretence. The venerable peer was a considerate man, and one who knew the way in which the scripture often speaks of the going down of the sun. "We must not allow the night to pass thus," said he to the countess, "you must send for her, and we must talk to her before bed-time." He reasoned with the foolish girl respecting her conduct, insisted on the impropriety of the state of mind that it evinced, assured her that nothing could induce him to allow his children to be taught such notions, refused to accept any apology that did not go the length of acknowledging that the thought was wrong, and when the right impression appeared to be produced, gave her his hand. The Lord of all, before whose judgment-seat every human being must hereafter stand, was for a season in the world, and the world knew him not. When he was on the earth, the Son of God was but an "outside passenger." With what consternation will many of those who treated him with disdain recognize in the Almighty Judge of quick and dead, the despised itinerant from Gallilee whom they scorned and derided! And as it was with him, so it is with his living representatives. By far the greater number of those who belong to the court of the Prince of Princes have been "outside passengers." What will be the feelings of many who have treated them contemptuously when they hear the words, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me ?" Happy would it be for the churches of Christ if all who belong to them were to remember habitually that they also have a Master in heaven; and that nothing is more clearly deducible from his instructions, than that every one who desires to enjoy his favour should be ready at all times to exercise courtesy towards an "outside passenger."-London Baptist Magazine. CHRIST, THE PURIFIER.. THE following story-I know not on what authority-is abroad in the religious world:- Some ladies in Dublin met together, from time to time, at each other's houses, to read the scriptures, and to make them the subject of profitable conversation; and when they CHRIST THE PURIFIER came to the third chapter of the prophecy of Malachi, had some discussion respecting the method of purifying the precious metals. As none of the company knew anything about the process, one undertook to inquire of a silversmith with whom she was acquainted how it was effected, and particularly what was the business of the refiner himself during the operation. Without explaining her motive, she accordingly went to her friend, and asked him how his silver was cleaned from any dross with which it might have been mixed. He promptly explained to her the manner of doing this. "But," said the inquirer, "Do you sit, sir, at the work ?" "Yes," he replied, "for I must keep my eye steadily fixed on the furnace; since if the silver remains too long under the intense heat, it is sure to be damaged." She at once saw the beauty and propriety of the image employed: "He shall sit as a refiner of silver;" and the moral of the illustration was equally obvious. As the lady was returning with her information to her expecting companions, the silversmith called her back, and said that he had forgot to mention one thing of importance, which was, that he only knew the exact instant when the purifying process was complete, by then seeing his own countenance in it. Again the spiritual meaning shone forth through the beautiful veil of the letter. When God sees his own image in his people, the work of sanctification is complete. It may be added, that the metal continues in a state of agitation till all the impurities are thrown off, and then it becomes quite still-a circumstance which heightens the exquisite analogy in this case; for, oh, how "Sweet to lie passive in his hand, And know no will but his !" The subject was embodied in the following stanzas, at the urgent request of a friend, who, with her young family, was about to leave her native country and settle in a distant part of the globe; but the writer's mind had received the first ineffaceable impression of the similitude and the inference in the year 1832, from the lips of another dear friend, when she was nearly in her last agony, who meekly applied it to herself and her affliction, which had been long and excruciating, yet borne by her, as such pains can alone be borne, in God's presence and under his eye:— "HE SHALL SIT AS A REFINER AND PURIFIER OF SILVER." Mal. iii. 3. HE that from dross would win the precious ore, Bends o'er the crucible an earnest eye, The subtle, searching process to explore, Lest the one brilliant moment should pass by, He meets his pictur'd face, as in a glass. Thus, in God's presence, are his people tried: Thrice happy they who to the end endure ! POETRY. Who from the crucible come forth so pure, That he, whose eyes of flame look through the whole, Nor with an evanescent glimpse alone, As in that mirror the refiner's face, But stamp'd with heaven's wrought signet, there be shown And round that seal of love this motto be,— 'Not for a moment, but Eternity." Poetry. JAMES MONTGOMERY. PSALM C. THE following version of the hundredth psalm is from the pen of George Sandys, the celebrated Oriental traveller, who died in the year 1643. Its force, fire, and beauty, are very great. All from the sun's uprise, Unto his setting rays, The great Jehovah's praise. Him serve alone; in triumph bring Man drew from man his birth, Fill'd with celestial flame. His sons we are; sheep by him led, O to his portals press In your divine resorts: And praise him in his courts. How good! How pure! His mercies last: ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, AND GEMS. Anecdotes, Selections, and Gems. lord, is Timothy Bennett, shoemaker, A NOBLE-SPIRITED SHOEMAKER. | in this affair?" "My name, my -Shoemakers have in all ages been a somewhat remarkable class of men. Meditative and energetic, as it would appear, from the nature of their profession, they have at various times distinguished themselves as patriots, men of letters, and generally useful members of society. Numerous anecdotes are related of individuals who have thus imparted a glory to the "gentle craft," as shoemaking has been called. The most illustrious, perhaps, are William Carey and William Yates, the translators of the Holy Scriptures into numerous oriental languages. Timothy Bennett was a shoemaker, residing in the village of Hampton-Wick, near Richmond, in Surrey. The first passage from this village to Kingston-upon-Thames, through Bushy Park, (a royal demesne) had been for many years shut up from the public. This honest Englishman, "unwilling," as he said, "to leave the world worse than he found it," consulted a lawyer upon the practicability of recovering this road, and the probable expense of a legal process. "I have seven hundred pounds," said this honest patriot, "which I should be willing to bestow upon this attempt; it is all I have, and has been saved through a long course of honest industry." The lawyer informed him that no such sum would be necessary to produce the result; and Timothy determined accordingly to proceed with vigour in the prosecution of this public claim. In the mean time Lord Halifax, ranger of Bushy Park, was made acquainted with his intentions, and sent for him. "Who are you, sir," inquired his lordship, "that have the assurance to meddle PAST AND PRESENT PRICE OF THE BIBLE.-In the thirteenth century, the wages of a labouring man for fifteen years were barely sufficient for the purchase of a single copy of the Word of God! Few could read the dead languages, in which it was written. How great the change wrought by the translator and the press! The same amount of labour, which six centuries since a single bible would cost, will now furnish the family of the labourer with an abundance, and then enable him to place 6,000 copies of the entire Word of God, or instead, if he chooses, 25,000 copies of the New Testament, in as many destitute families. American Messenger. ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, AND GEMS. INATTENTION. When Bishop not of to-morrow. He does not Aylmer observed his congregation acknowledge it in his calendar of inattentive, he used to repeat some time. It is the grave of holy reverses of the Hebrew Bible, at which solves and good purposes, the the people naturally stared with doomsday of the soul, and he abastonishment. He then addressed jures it. Let us not count on them on the folly of eagerly listen- to-morrow, nor rely upon its opporing to what they did not understand, tunities. Its offers, like those of a while they neglected instructions false friend, are fair, exceeding which were readily comprehended. fair; but they are treacherous, and will fail us in our need. The work of religion, if it ever begins, begins to-day-never to-morrow. LOOK HIGHER.-Those, sure, must be little, narrow souls, that can make themselves a portion and a sufficiency out of what they enjoy here, that think of no more, that desire no more. For what is this life but a circulation of little, mean actions? We lie down and rise again; dress and undress; feed and wax hungry; work or play, and are weary; and then we lie down again, and the circle returns. We spend the day in trifles; and when the night comes, we throw ourselves into the bed of folly, among dreams, and broken thoughts, and wild imaginations. Our reason lies asleep by us; and we are, for the time, as arrant brutes as those that sleep in the stalls or in the field. Are not the capacities of man higher than these? and ought not his ambition and expectations to be greater. Let us be adventurers for another world. BURNET. PRAYER OR SIN.-Prayer is that by which a man engages all the auxiliaries of Omnipotence itself against his sin, and is so utterly contrary to, and inconsistent with it, that the same heart cannot hold them both, but one must soon quit possession of it to the other; and either praying must make a man leave off sinning, or sinning force him to give over praying. SOUTH. And MERCIES! What a catalogue of mercies for which to be thankful! Conviction of sin, regeneration, conversion, justification, pardon, adoption, sanctification, access to God, communion with Christ, light, love, hope! Shall the insensibility, the stupidity, of ingratitude characterize the subject of all these ? what providential kindness! Bread, water, raiment, friends, reason. Shall he not give thanks for these? And what spiritual priviléges! The closet, the bible, the religious book, the christian acquaintance, the sabbath, the sanctuary, the minister of Christ. Shall these be omitted in the arguments for praise? TO MORROW A CHEAT.-Pity it is that we cannot bring ourselves to believe, what is so fatally true, that we shall feel the same indis position to be virtuous and deny our lusts to-morrow that we feel to-day, and the succeeding day as to-morrow, and ten years hence as Leask's" Evidences of Grace." now. It is ever to-morrow, and RELIGIOUS NICKNAMES.-"Meto-morrow, and to-morrow, or, on thodism " is a very convenient my next birth day, or the beginning word; the general meaning of it, of the next year; and when those by those who use it, is, that the days come, there is the same back-person or work to which it is ap wardness in the soul to do this great and pressing work, and it is again deferred. "Now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation." The true christian knows plied has more religion than the speaker. I have known many religious persons in my life, but never one who had too much religion. A man must indeed be a simpleton, |