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the sorest calamities, it is a conclusive evidence that our love of the truth is sincere and genuine.

The following brief exercises, intended for the Christian's daily perusal, are based upon a few of those divine injunctions which the Saviour delivered, and which relate to the spirit we should cherish, and the conduct it becomes us to pursue. Favoured with such lessons from the mouth of the great Teacher, all of which are most impressively enforced by His own bright example, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness! May each reader of this small volume aspire to reach that high standard which is laid down in these sacred precepts, and thereby afford a living demonstration of the unspeakable superiority of the Christian system to all that ancient sages ever taught, or the most enlightened moralists of more modern times ever inculcated.

THE PRECEPTS OF JESUS.

1ST DAY OF MONTH.

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment."-Mark xii. 30.

The Great Of all the precepts of Jesus, this is, undoubtCommandment. edly, the chief. What it enjoins is love to God, even the highest, warmest love of which we are capable. True love to Him cannot be a secondary or subordinate feeling. We cannot love Him sincerely, unless we love Him supremely. He is not loved at all, unless He is loved above all. "Love," as one remarks, "when creatures are the objects of it, should, like ordinary rivers, be kept within

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banks and bounds; but when God is its object, it should overflow like the Nile, or spread itself like a sea without limits."

That the Divine Being is worthy of our supreme love, appears from two considerations. The first is, what He is in himself. He is the perfection of moral beauty, the source and centre of all excellence, infinitely holy, just, and true. Whatever is lovely and of good report, in created intelligence, is only a dim shadow of His underived attractions; nothing but feeble rays from His ineffable light and glory. If we are for ascertaining what the blessed God is, let us ask those who know Him best. What are the feelings of the angelic legions who surround His throne, and of the spirits of the perfected just who have been feasting for ages upon His smiles? They know full well that their highest admiration of His matchless character falls unspeakably short of what it deserves, and that their affection, if intensified to a degree of fer