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contaminating. The colonel looked at me, and repeated, in Latin, that declaration of Scripture,-"The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." For myself, I said to the infidel," if I had known you were what you have now declared yourself to be, I should not have come in the same carriage with you. But God, who has heard you, is able to convince you that he exists, and that he is your judge." "That is my own affair," replied he, we are each masters of our own faith. Keep yours, since it pleases you: I am contented with mine."- "That is to say, Sir," answered the colonel," that, though you have poison in your veins, those who perceive it, must allow you to perish without making an effort to save you. I trust you will perceive we are more charitably disposed towards you, and that we think it our duty to endeavour to make you sensible of the horrible blasphemy which has made us shudder; and," added he, no one has greater reason than a soldier to acknowledge the truth of the existence of a God, which is indelibly stamped upon every thing. I should think myself worse than a fool, if I did not believe that it was the all-good and all-wise and all-powerful God, who, nearly a year ago, preserved my frail life on the field of battle. I rode before with some brave troops, when a spear pierced the horse on which I was mounted-it fell;—and I Sir, found myself standing three steps from him, without having received any injury. Tell me, Sir, who was it that preserved me from death?" The infidel muttered some unintelligible words, and was silent. The colonel made some useful reflections on what he had said, and as it was now late, we wished each other good night; and all was silent in the coach.

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The next morning, the coach stopped at the foot of a pretty steep hill. As we waited to water the horses, three children came out of a cottage on the side of the road. The eldest of these children held a hazel branch, to the end of which a nosegay was attached, which she held up to the coach-window. I was quite de

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lighted with this proof of their industry, and understanding their meaning, laid a sixpence in the place where the nosegay, which I took, had been fastened. 66 Long live the gentleman who has got the nosegay!" cried the children. "Since you wish me so well," said I, "I will give you more encouragement." And I gave them another sixpence. May he live very very long, very long indeed!" cried they. long, my little girl?" said I to the eldest. "O, as long as possible, Sir."-" I thank you my dear; but how long do you think it possible for me to live here below?" "Oh, Sir, I cannot tell," said the little girl. "And who can tell," I asked. This question seemed to embarrass her. We all waited to hear the answer, which, however no one gave. I then repeated, "Who can tell? Who knows how long I shall live in this world?" The two sisters were silent, but the little boy, looking at me with his pretty blue eyes, and joining his little hands together, replied, "The good God of heaven alone can tell." We looked at the infidel; but his eyes were fixed on the ground. The coach went on, and after a long and solemn silence, the colonel said, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise." "Yes," I replied, "a little child who has just entered into life, knows, and declares with his lisping lips, that there is a God in heaven, while a man, who has lived for thirty or forty years in the world, surrounded by the most undeniable proofs of the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, rises up to silence or to mock this little child." The infidel was silent, and did not raise his eyes-he seemed to feel deeply my last severe words. At length, he who the evening before had ridiculed the Bible, and denied his God, said to me in a mild voice,; "Sir, you said last night to the colonel, that you would to-day read him some portions of Scripture. These gentlemen and myself, Sir, would be very glad to hear you."The colonel started-he looked at me with tears in his eyes, and I could not restrain my emotion. I

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stretched out my hand to the reclaimed infidel, and said to him, "My dear Sir, is it possible that God has made you to hear his voice by the mouth of a little child?" "His words made a strange impression on me," said he, without raising his eyes; "I own I never felt what I have experienced within the last hour; and I.... No, Sir, I would not again repeat what I said last night. I beg of you to forget it, if possible."-He then said to me," Read to us, Sir; read some part of the Word of Life-and may the Lord bless it to us all." The whole morning was employed in reading, and each made some remarks on what they heard. We were particularly interested in the questions of the new disciple. Having arrived at the inn, the excessive cold made the fire as necessary to us as the breakfast which was prepared for us. Our convert appeared happy, and his sincerity was evinced by his no longer shunning our view. In a short time he left the room, but soon returned, bringing with him the two volumes which he read in the boat, and another of the same description. "Here Sir," said he, "here are the books, which, for two years past, have fed me with poison and blasphemy. May the God of heaven, who now sees me, and before whom I speak, consume in my heart all the evil which they have fostered, as these flames shall now consume their execrable pages!" He threw the volumes into the fire, and saw them burn in silence. When nothing remained but smoking charcoal, he heaved a deep sigh and said, Now, I am comforted. May my hand be palsied if ever I peruse such trash again. And may God," added he, pointing to my Bible," teach me, and imprint upon my heart, all that is contained in these sacred pages, which have been already blessed to my soul, and whose glorious light I have, till this day, shunned and rejected." We all said "Amen!" And surely such a wish, which doubtless proceeded from God himself, was more than fulfilled by his abundant mercy.

(From Malan's "Friend of Youth.")-Sent by K.

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THOUGHTS ON THE MERCY OF GOD.

I HAVE sometimes been greatly distressed in my visits to my cottage friends, to hear them declaring their trust in the mercy of God, that all shall be well with them at last, without seeming to have any clear idea of the only way in which mercy can be shewn to fallen man. Their trust appears to me a confused and unscriptural hope. While they dwell largely on the mercy of the Supreme Being, they appear to forget all his other attributes; his awful holiness, truth, and justice: -they think not of his exceeding hatred of sin, and awful threatenings against the sinner. How often do we need to be reminded in this, as in other instances, that God's "thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor his ways as our ways." We are indeed told in the holy Scriptures, that "he delighteth in mercy;" that his mercy is from everlasting to everlasting" that he is "plenteous in mercy," that his "mercy is over all his works," with numerous such blessed declarations; but it is also, as undeniably true that God has declared that he "will by no means clear the guilty :""the soul that sinneth, it shall die ;"-" the wages of sin, is death." Now surely none can think that these fearful threatenings do not affect them. Should any be so ignorant, proud, or presumptuous as to suppose that they are not in danger of the just anger of the Almighty, let them hear God himself declaring, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." "There is none righteous, no not one." "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.”—And have any of you done this? no, "there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not."

Perhaps you may be ready to say, how then are assertions so contradictory to be reconciled? My friends, there are, there can be, no real contradictions in the word of God. "The wayfaring man, though a

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fool," in the proud opinion of some of his fellow-creatures) "shall not err therein," provided he earnestly asks for the light of that Holy Spirit, whereby alone we can "behold the wondrous things of God's law."

You want to know how God can be just, and yet a Saviour? I will tell you. This blessed way of salvation we learn from the Scriptures. In them, Jesus saith, "I am the way," "neither is there salvation in any other." In the cross of Christ every seeming difficulty is explained. There, indeed," mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." There we see God's irreconcileable hatred of sin, in the agony and bloody sufferings of even his own" beloved Son," when he was "made a curse for us;" "when he bare our sins in his own body on the tree :"--there we see the inviolable truth of his threatenings, in that "it pleased the Lord to bruise" his Son, and that he should "humble himself to death, even the death of the cross," when he stood in the sinners' place, that he might suffer for them, what they had so justly deserved for their sins. There, in the cross of Christ, we see the infinite mercy of God, who, sooner than man, lost, guilty, fallen man, should perish for ever, freely "gave his only begotten Son" to be" wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities."" Herein is love," infinite love, and boundless mercy, "the heighth and depth, length and breadth" of which "passeth all knowledge." Cannot we now see that God is indeed a holy God, and yet a God of love? a just God, and yet a Saviour? one. who will not suffer his pure and righteous law to be broken with impunity, and who, therefore, sent his beloved Son to "magnify the law, and make it honourable," that so he might save the wretched and ruined transgressors. David prays, "let thy mercy come unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word." He well knew that no mercy could be extended to him, but in the way of salvation, which God had appointed. In a word, it is only through Christ that