Sin adapts itself to the various depraved appetites or propensities of man. To all its votaries it promises the pleasures of this life. But "the wages of sin is death." To all likewise it offers perfect security; crying peace, safety, when sudden destruction is at hand.

As sin is thus deceptive in its promises and fatal in its results, so also is it in its influence on the human mind. It blinds the eyes, it hardens the heart, it sears the conscience, it fascinates the imagination, it perverts the judgment, it gives a wrong bias to the will, it effaces from the memory recollections of the beautiful and the good. In a word, it throws the pall of the grave over the whole man, and hides from his view, his guilt, his danger, and his immortality.

The man is now wrapped in the mantle of "carnal security;" he is insensible to all around him. The path of sinful pleasure is strewed with Plutonian flowers. They breathe the odour of the pit, stupifying to the senses. The bewitching music of the great enchanter casts the soul into a deep sleep. It is like the sleep of the grave.

Perhaps he is dreaming of happiness that he will never enjoy; perhaps of home, that he shall never behold; or of friends, whom he shall embrace no more for ever. In the midst of his dreams of delight, the bow of the Almighty is strung; the arrow is made ready; the dart of death is uplifted, ready to fall upon the unconscious victim; the pit has opened its mouth to receive the prey. Nothing but the voice of God can arouse him from his lethargy. "What meanest thou, O sleeper! arise and call upon God, if so be that thou perish not. Awake, thou that sleepest; and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth; walk thou in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thy eyes. But know, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."

"Ye sons of Adam, vain and young,
Indulge your eyes, indulge your tongue;
Taste the delights your souls desire,
And give a loose to all your fire.

"Pursue the pleasures you design,

And cheer your hearts with songs and wine;

Enjoy the day of mirth; but know,

There is a day of judgment too."

,' Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."-JAMES iii. 16. "Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?"-PROV. xxx. 11.

Lo! where the threefold demon stalks along,
The work of desolation to prolong;
Envy, and hate, and malice, all combined,
To make affliction, and torment mankind.
Forward the demon strides in sullen mood,
And chews a viper for her daily food;
Loaded with slanders, and with poison strong,
She deals them largely to the gaping throng:
Her eyes are weak, and in disorder'd plight,
And hence a blinder to keep off the light.
To show that from without proceeds her pain,
She leans with anguish on a thorny cane:
At others' excellence she pines, straightway
Hate brings her malice into active play;
Good name she tears, and scatters to the air
All other epithets of good and fair:

A spotless character, wherever found,
With hate she tramples on the miry ground;
While in her train behold a tempest rise,

That swells and reaches to the topmost skies.

IN the engraving is represented a threefold demon striding forward, with sullen pace, in order to torment mankind. On her back she carries a pack of slanders, under her arm a quantity of

poison: thus she is thoroughly furnished for her hellish work. She is chewing the flesh of a viper, which, thus introduced in her system poisons her heart and disorders her eye-sight. In her left hand she grasps a thorny staff; this is to show that she torments herself voluntarily. She banquets on the destruction of human happiness. See how she tramples upon character, and scatters to the four winds the reputation of others. She leaves behind her, and following in her train, a gathering, blackening tempest, surcharged with the " fire of hell," soon to burst upon mankind.

This emblem represents Envy, Hatred, and Malice, united in one person, and forming a being of extraordinary malignity. There are many such in human shape, demons wearing the mask of human form, beings whose eyes are pained at the sight of either excellence or happiness, whose heart is corroded with the poison of envious and malicious thoughts, self-tormented with the thorns of their own creation-beings who never smile but at the tears of others, whose hellish joy consists in the wreck of human happiness, and whose only music is the voice of lamentation and woe-beings of Satanic inspiration. They are always well furnished with slanders, and never want for opportunity to vent them. In this they copy after their great father, the prime enemy of man, when beholding the original happiness of the first human pair in the bowers of Eden, ere he effected their overthrow.

There is great propriety in representing the union of envy, hatred, and malice in one individual. Envy itself is defined to be "pain felt, and malignity conceived, at the sight of excellence or happiness." But when envy conceives, it brings forth hatred; and hatred, when it is finished, brings forth malice. We have a striking example of this union in the conduct of Joseph's brethren towards him. First "they envied him," probably on account of his superior excellence; then " they hated him," in consequence of the partial conduct of Jacob their father; and finally in their malice" they sold him" for a slave.

A still greater example occurs in the conduct of the Jews towards the blessed Redeemer, in whom all excellences met, when "for envy they delivered Him" into the hands of the Romans; they envied Him for the splendour of holiness that shone around His path. In their hatred they exclaimed, "He hath a devil;" and in their blood-thirsty malice“ they cried out the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified.".

.While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not. seen."-2 Cor. iv. 18. "For we walk by faith, and not by sight."-2 COR. v. 7 CHRISTIAN FAITH, OR RELIGION.

High on the world, see where Religion stands
And bears the open volume in her hands;
With eyes upraised, she seeks for heavenly light,
To know its doctrines and its laws aright:
The cross of Christ she bears, and walks abroad,
And holds communion with her Father, God.
Thus with the Christian: filled with love divine,
Above the world he soars in heavenly clime,
The sacred cross his only hope and stay,

The Book of Truth his guide from day to day.

CHRISTIAN Faith or Religion is here represented standing upon a globe. This denotes that like the Christian, although he is in the world, yet, like a ship at sea, he is above the world. In her hands she holds the opened volume of God's Holy Word. She is looking upward, to show that she expects light from above to shine upon the sacred page. With one arm she embraces the cross, signifying that her only hope of Salvation is founded on the death of Jesus Christ.

This is an emblem of that religion which God in his mercy has given to mankind. He who possesses it rests his all-his soul and body, his time and his eternity-upon the atonement of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. While some are trusting to the mercy of God out of Christ, and others to their self-righteousness; others

again to the intercession of men, women, and angels, his language is, 'Tis all my hope, and all my plea, for me the Saviour died. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ is the mighty lever that is to roll the world back again to God. All true Christians have so understood it.

Constantine the Great took advantage of this fact—the common faith of the early Christians in the power of the cross. When going to fight against Maxentius, he related to his army that he saw (some say in a vision) a cross in the sky bearing this inscription, ευ τούτῳ νικα, By this conquer." It inspired the soldiers with courage. The cross was seen inscribed on every banner; the emperor led his army to triumphant victory.

66

The Holy Scriptures are very precious to him who has true faith. He regards them as the words of God—as a divine proclamation of grace to man-as a record of parental love as a history of his dear Redeemer, and of his own redemption—as the title-deed of his own glorious inheritance-as the only rule of his faith and practice. With its sacred leaves open before him, he looks upward and prays. "O Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." While some neglect and despise the Holy Book, and others depend upon human creeds, and the musty traditions of "the Fathers," he exclaims, "O how I love thy law! Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage."

By his faith in the cross, the Bible, the power of prayer, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, the Christian overcomes the world, enjoys communion with God, becomes meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, and finally to join in the song of Moses and of the Lamb for ever.

Then embrace Religion, " and you shall be presently installed in the possession of all the benefits and immunities of the Redeemer's purchase without deduction, and without qualification you shall emerge from under the dark shadows of the fall, into the effulgence of the light, and the plenitude of the joy of a renovated, heaven-born nature; and the silent tide of oblivion shall instantly close for ever over all your past sins, and you shall be immediately admitted into the circle of the redeemed of the Lord.

"Your brow shall be incircled with a double diadem of life and righteousness; a patent to all the titles and illustrious dignities of the nobility of heaven shall be made out for you, which nothing in