wilderness into an Eden, and causing the desert to blossom as the rose. Like those allies on Crimean fields who forgot their old quarrels, and buried the recollections of the past in oblivion, let us all sit down together before the great fortress of the evil one. They co-operated for the common good. Rebuking our wretched jealousies, and presenting us with an heroic example of generous sympathy and indomitable energy, in the teeth of frost and famine, and pestilence and war, they clung to the rocks of that stormy shore. With mutual understanding and arrangements they threw up their batteriesthey pressed on their lines-they manned the trenches--they rushed to the assault, mingling the shouts of different nations in the same gallant charge, and the blood of different races on the same battle-field. And if nations, once hostile, there fought and fell together, why should not different churches come to as common and cordial an understanding. If we make a united, I believe,

with God's blessing, we shall make an irresistible assault upon the strongholds of sin and Satan."

Blessed God! Thou giver of peace and lover of concord, unite the hearts of all Thy people in holy love and harmony. Thou adorable Jesus! the great object of Thy gracious mission to our sinful and distracted world was, that Thou mightest gather together in one all the children of God that are scattered abroad. Soon let Thy prayer, offered on the night of Thy sore agony, be fully answered,-"That they ail may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me."

4TH DAY.

"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed."-John viii. 31.

Continuance THERE is an account given of a certain slave who had been treated

in

Well-doing. with great kindness by

his master. The favour shewn to him was well deserved, for he appears to have been eminently faithful and devoted. At length the master resolved, as a reward for his good conduct, to grant him his liberty; and he was informed that he could go where he pleased, and serve any employer he thought proper. His instant reply was, "Me leave you, my dear massa; oh no! not for all de world; me want no wages to serve you ; and with special emphasis he added, "if massa turn me out at one door, poor nigger will come in at once through de other."

The spirit which this slave manifested is one after which we ought to

aspire in reference to Him whose servants we profess to be. He loved his master, and the thought of quitting his service he could not entertain for a single moment. He resolved to abide with him, for better and for worse, a resolve to which he gave utterance in the above simple, but very striking and emphatic, words,

What the Saviour demands is not a mere temporary allegiance and devotedness, but He requires us to be steadfast. and immovable to the end of our days. In order to this several things are indispensable; but to have a thorough renewal of heart is doubtless the chief. There may be deep convictions, and warm and lively emotions, in the absence of this great change; but without it there will be nothing lasting. Unless the heart of stone is taken away, and a heart of flesh implanted in its stead, all will be in vain, We may be moved and melted, like stones in damp weather, which are said to give; being covered with moisture, they appear as

if they were beginning to dissolve; but the dampness soon evaporates, and they are found to be stones still-cold, hard, and unyielding. So will it be with us if we are satisfied with any thing short of the fulfilment of the gracious promise, "A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."

If a new heart be created in us, and a right spirit be renewed within us, there will assuredly be patient continuance in the ways of the Lord. That the principles of divine grace in the soul possess a character of permanence, is a truth clearly set forth in the inspired volume. They are not like the summer's brook, which may soon dry up; but they resemble the full and overflowing fountain. "Whosoever drinketh of this water," said Jesus,

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