because of some theft in which he was supposed to have been concerned.

When she was up again, after her confinement, she could get less by work than before; for she had now two young children to support. However, in the midst of all her poverty and all her sorrow, she was living near to God; she was walking with him in faith and humility, and accepting, as from his hand, the deep grief which her folly had brought on her. In her sad state, she felt the preciousness of her Saviour.

She had heard nothing of her husband for six weeks past, when, one morning, a message was brought in to her, that he had been, during the last night, attempting to break into a dwelling house, but had, in the act, received a wound from a gun, which was likely to prove his death; that, instead of being carried to gaol, he had been taken to the hospital, and that she had better hasten quickly to his side. Poor Milly! how her heart sunk! She knelt for a few moments in prayer; then begged a neighbour to carry her children to her mother, and to tell her the sad tale, and hurried off.

When she arrived, her husband did not know her; he was not conscious-his senses never again returned—no moment was afforded him for thought or prayer--in four hours he was a corpse. God has said, "The candle of the wicked shall be put out." How awfully was his put out! Milly shuddered. We will not attempt to describe her agony. She returned to her home and again lived with her parents. She was now indeed a humble and lowly disciple of the Lord, and he graciously provided for her. She obtained regular work, and with it a comfortable maintenance for herself and her babes; she was known among the neighbours as a woman of a sorrowful spirit, for how could she look back and not be sorrowful? but her faith and love grew. She trained up her children to fear and love the Lord, and in every future step in life, she sought to learn and do his will; and his guiding hand was with her, and his blessing rested upon her.

Reader! be not unequally yoked with an unbeliever.

THE HOLY DAY.

THAT holy day, which has God for its author, and the present and eternal happiness of man for its object, cannot be too highly valued, nor too carefully improved. The following remarks on the nature of the sabbath, the obligation to keep

it holy, and the great value of this merciful gift of God to man, more especially to the labourer, are so plain, convincing, and practical, that they may be read with general advantage.

"If we had been," said a malefactor to his guilty companion as they stood together on the platform of the fatal gallows," If we had been there," said he, pointing with his finger to a church, "on that guilty Sunday, we should not be here now." "It is my last advice," said another malefactor," and I hope you will always bear it in mind, that you always attend a place of worship. Sabbath-breaking and drinking have been my ruin."

These men had lived as heedless of the Lord's day, as many now do who, if they do not give timely heed to their ways, may have cause to repent it as bitterly at their dying hour. It is a common saying, that you may know a man by the company he keeps; not less certainly may you know a man by the way he keeps Sunday. If he spend it in buying and selling, in the alehouse, in reading newspapers, in idle, frivolous, sinful conversation, while the house of God is disregarded, the man has no true religion, no solid happiness. He is travelling along the broad road to ruin, with all the company of sabbath-breakers. There are set times for everything. The Lord's day is the appointed time for casting in the precious seed of the word, which, being sown to the Spirit," the fruit will be everlasting life. But whoever sows to the flesh on that day, "shall of the flesh reap corruption."

Our sabbaths, as they come and go, seem a small portion of time, yet the man of seventy has lived ten years of sabbaths; ten years in learning to be wise and holy for eternity, or ten in breaking the commandments of God! Of sabbath-breaking it may be particularly said, that he who is guilty of this offence is guilty of all; for it not only involves the principle of disobedience, but it is the first step to other temptations and sins.

It has been said that the sabbath is the oldest, and a perpetual holy-day. It may be considered as the birth-day of creation; for, after this vast earth, the sea, and all that in them is, had been called into being, the Almighty Creator ceased from his work on the seventh day, and "blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Therefore, in commemoration of the glorious work of creation, our first parents, and their descendants, were required to keep the sabbath; and the institution was again solemnly confirmed and commanded to be remembered for ever, in the fourth of the ten commandments, which

were written on two tables of stone, by the finger of God. Accordingly the Jews, who kept the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament, and were the peculiar people of God, till they rejected the Saviour, strictly observed the sabbath.

The Christian has an additional motive for keeping the sabbath holy, of which he is reminded by a change of the day on which it is kept, from the last day of the week, to the first, ever since the resurrection of our Saviour. The seventh portion of our time is still hallowed, but as the Lord of the sabbath lay in the dark and silent grave on the last day of the week, it was not a day for his people to rejoice in. On the first day of the week, our Lord arose, and therefore, in memory of his resurrection, the first day has ever been observed as the Christian sabbath; since, by his resurrection, the created world shall be restored from the ruins of the fall, and his faithful people look for "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

Thus we read in the Acts of the apostles that the first disciples, after our Lord's resurrection, met repeatedly on the first day of the week, and that our Lord himself then came in the midst of them and blessed them. The first day of the week was the day on which the disciples ever afterwards met for worship. It was called the "Lord's day." "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day," says the inspired John in the Revelation. This was the day the Lord had made, they were to rejoice and be glad in it. And after the example of these inspired apostles and early Christians, sanctioned, doubtless, by our Lord himself, the Christian church has always kept the sabbath on the Lord's resurrection day. The wandering Jews still keep the sabbath of creation; Christians keep the more glorious sabbath of redemption. The infidel, in doctrine and in practice, profanes both.

It is the height of impiety to dispute the will of God in the disposal of the time which he gave, and which he can take away in a moment. What man or what nation, in disobeying this command, can hope to prosper? As God gave to our first parents all the trees in the garden of Eden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of which they were forbidden to eat; so he gave us all the days in the week except the sabbath, which we are required to keep holy. When man ate the forbidden fruit, the ground was cursed, because of man's sin, and brought forth thorns and thistles, and sin and death came upon the transgressors. How can he hope to prosper when he puts forth his hand to profane

the sacred, the forbidden day? Look well to it. Sabbath gains will turn to corruption and ruin.

But we are not merely to consider the observance of the blessed sabbath as a duty to be performed, but as an inestimable gift and privilege to be enjoyed. Men who love the world and hate religion, feel the sabbath to be a weariness. They wish to banish reflection by the usual round of business and amusement. But what great mercy accompanied the Divine sentence cursing the ground because of sin, in that man was not doomed to incessant labour! After his daily task, the working man refreshes his weary limbs with sleep; and after his six days' labour, a day of rest and refreshment for soul and body has been mercifully set apart for him. Then, the sound of the workman's tool is no longer heard in the city, the spade and the plough lie idle in the field, and the toil-worn horse seems happily conscious that there is a sabbath, even for him. And who shall rob the labouring man of the time which God has given him, and which the law of his country has secured to him? When he puts his hand to work on that sacred day, he is his own worst enemy.

Sabbath-breaking is injurious to others. It is a public crime a national sin, and therefore a national curse. It exposes the land wherein it is practised to the curse of God. The sabbath-breaker also makes light of the blessings of the sabbath, and goes his way regardless of them. He loses all the means of grace, puts away from him all the most favourable opportunities of instruction, and spurns the methods which God has appointed for the good of his soul. What hope is there of such a man that he will ever learn what he must do to be saved-that he will ever be converted to God-that he will ever be brought to repentance-that he will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that he may be saved? Is it any wonder that sabbath breakers come to their dying beds in a state of ignorance and impenitence, with the guilt of all their sins upon their heads, and in a state of terror at the thoughts of eternity? The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and they are not saved.' Then they have all that to learn, all that to do, and all that to be done for them, which they ought to have spent their lives in learning, in doing, and in seeking to have done for them; but all of which they have wilfully neglected."

THE GERMAN WATCHMAN.

CHRISTIAN MENDE was born in a little village among the mountains of Bavaria, during the latter half of the last century. In his youth, he thoughtlessly entered the Prussian army. As a soldier, he was involved in great distress; and in his distress, he was led to turn towards God.

After spending many years in the army, he became a watchman, or night patrol, in the city of Berlin, to which period of his life this narrative refers. He entered on his duties with much pleasure, and performed them for five-andtwenty years, during which he used to say, "It is a most delightful thing to watch by night. I can sleep in the daytime, or else work at my trade (he was a tailor), and the whole night I can be alone with my Lord." His district was first in the New Frederick-street, as it is called. There was then a praiseworthy custom in Berlin for the watchmen, when they proclaimed the hour, and gave the signal with the horn, to sing a verse from some well-known hymn. Mende was a living hymn-book. He sang the oldest and best German hymn tunes so well, and so heartily, that very few other watchmen were equal to him.

The second day of his service was a very trying one to him. He found himself surrounded by the company of soldiers among whom he had so long lived. He felt disposed not to sing, lest they should laugh at him; yet he knew that his silence would be a denial of his Master. He therefore resolved to sing, as this was a part of the work to which God had called him; and having respectfully saluted his captain, he raised the tune of the morning hymn, with his powerful bass voice. Not a sound of scorn or mockery was heard, and the honest man resolved never again to listen to the fear of man or the voice of Satan. The hymn which he sang was this, "Christe wahre Seelenlicht," Christ the soul's true light, an expressive German melody.

Some time after, he was appointed to a superior district, in which it was complained that his loud singing disturbed the rest of a person of consequence, which led to his being removed from that post also, in a manner that he felt to be very hard upon him. He had discovered a band of smugglers, and was expecting the reward of his fidelity, but he was told that he must have neglected his duty, or he would have found them out sooner. Although this charge could in no way be proved against him, he was removed to a lower district in Frankfort