home has been such a happy one? How many homes, as bright and happy as yours, have been completely broken up during the bygone year! You and I, whose homes still remain to us, owe God a large debt of gratitude for that great blessing."

"You are right, sir," said Mr. Henry. "One is strangely forgetful of these things, however."

"When we talk about mercies," said Mr. Johnson, "it is difficult to know where to stop. I might recount a great many things which are present and earthly, every one of which has come from God, for which we ought to be deeply thankful. But, after all, by far the most precious blessings God has given us relate to our immortal souls and to eternity. Ah, Mr. Henry, how I wish you were a Christian!" "A Christian! Mr. Johnson," said Mr. Henry, somewhat am I not a Christian? I am neither an infidel

offended;

nor a heathen." "Forgive me, Mr. Henry," said Mr. Johnson; "I had no wish to offend you. I will tell you what I mean by a Christian; and then you shall tell me whether you are a Christian or not. I mean not just one who admits that the Bible is true, and assents to the great facts of Christianity, and attends a place of Christian worship—I mean a sincere and lowly follower of the Lord Jesus Christ-one who, having felt himself to be a sinner, believes in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, and who, having obtained mercy, has devoted himself wholly to Christ, and takes the law of Christ as the guide of all his life. I cannot tell you what a joy it would be to me to think that you are thus a Christian. Are you?"

Mr. Henry hesitated. After a moment or two, however, he said, "Well, Mr. Johnson, honestly, in that sense, I hardly think that as yet I am one."

"If you had really been a Christian," said Mr. Johnson, "I should have had to claim your gratitude for the enjoyment of the greatest of all mercies-for a year's forgiveness, granted day by day; for a year's experience of the grace of the Holy Spirit; for strength for conflict; for rich con

solation in trouble; for deep and abiding peace; and I can scarcely tell you what besides. Ah, you don't know what you have missed through not giving your heart to Christ!"

"I have had a great deal to make me happy," said Mr. Henry; "but I can readily believe I might have been far happier if I had only been a real Christian—a Christian, I mean, in your sense of the word."

"And yet," said Mr. Johnson, "although you cannot thank God for the actual enjoyment of such blessings as He gives to none but His own children, how much you owe Him for mercies by whose gift He has bought your salvation. He has prolonged your life; He has kept you from that greatest of all calamities, a hardened heart. I think His Word has sometimes come to you with power; and then the troubles through which you have passed, and the mercies He has shown you in connection with them, have led you to feel how strong His claims were on your trust and love. Am I not right in saying all this?"

"Yes, sir, I think you are," replied Mr. Henry. “Certainly you are right in what you say about God's great forbearance and goodness; and I hope also in what you say as to its influence on my heart.”

"Then, putting all together," said Mr. Johnson, “your temporal and your religious mercies, is it not true that, of all the debts you owe, beyond all comparison the largest is the debt you owe to God?"

"Yes, yes, sir," said Mr. Henry, with deep feeling. "How strange it is that I should have so forgotten it!"

"You told me," said Mr. Johnson, "that you had no debts you could not pay, even though a few accounts should come in which you had overlooked. But we can never any of us pay the debt we owe to God. acknowledge it, both in our words and our life. you how ?"

Still, we can
May I tell

"I think," said Mr. Henry, "I have some idea of what you mean; but do tell me."

"You remember," said Mr. Johnson, " those words of the

6

apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans: 'I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.' The first thing for you to do is to confess your sin, in having so long withheld the surrender; and yet not that sin only, but all your sins. What a joy it is to know that through the precious blood of Christ' all our sins can be freely and completely forgiven, and that we have only to believe in Him in order to have them for ever washed away! Then, too, He is willing to grant us His Holy Spirit to change our hearts, and to make us able and glad to serve Him. Of all things, the wisest you can do is, to begin this new year by thus repenting of sin and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then to yield to Him your whole self, that you may be His servant for ever."

"Thank you, Mr. Johnson," said Mr. Henry. "Will you pray for me that from this day I may lead a new and better life ?"

"When this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon radiant sun,
When I stand with Christ on high,
Looking o'er life's history;
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.

When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own;
When I see Thee as Thou art,
Love Thee with unsinning heart;
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.

Now on earth, as through a glass,
Darkly let Thy glory pass;
Make forgiveness feel so sweet,
Make Thy Spirit's help so meet,
E'en on earth, Lord, make me know

Something of the debt I owe."

S. G.

True Faith.

AVING faith is our believing the record that God hath given us of His Son. This is the testimony which God gives, that great and sacred truth which He Himself bears witness unto-namely, that He hath freely prepared eternal life for them that believe, or provided a way of salvation for them. Upon our acquiescing in this testimony, on our approbation of this way of saving sinners, or our refusal of it, our eternal safety or ruin doth absolutely depend. And it is reasonable that it should be so; for in our receiving of the testimony of God, “we set to our seal that God is true;" we ascribe unto Him the glory of His truth. By a refusal of it, we do what lieth in us to "make Him a liar ;" and by thus acting, we virtually renounce His being. Bring your faith to the trial on this principle: What do you judge concerning God's way of saving sinners by Jesus Christ, as proposed in the gospel? Are you satisfied in it, that it is such as becomes God, and answers all the glorious attributes of His nature? Would you have any other way proposed in the room of it? Can you, will you, commit the eternal welfare of your souls unto the grace and faithfulness of God, in this way, so as that you have no desire to be saved in any other way? Doth the glory of God, in any measure, shine forth to you in Jesus Christ? Do you find a secret joy in your hearts upon the satisfaction you take in the proposal of this way unto you by the gospel? Do you, in all your fears and temptations, in all approaches of death, renounce all other reserves and reliefs, and betake your whole confidence unto this way alone, and the representation of God made therein? Herein lies that faith and its exercises which will be an anchor unto your souls in all your trials.-Owen.

"They feared as they entered into the Cloud."

A

NIGHT-LIKE cloud hangs o'er the scene
Where once the sun's glad light has been,
And the sad heart looks forward anxiously,
Fearing what ill in store for it may be.

Oh, faithless heart, why thus opprest?
Canst thou not turn away and rest
On the strong Friend who, watching still,
Will guard thee from all threat'ning ill?
Canst thou not mark the glancing ray
That soon will turn thy night to day?
Canst thou not trust that love Divine
Will soon, for thee, the Sun bid shine?

Canst thou not see the cloud is silver-lined?
Canst thou not mark its edges well defined?
Dost thou not see "the bright light in the cloud,"
E'en while thou fear'st to hear the thunders loud?
Shall not the cloud which now awakes thy dread
In showers of blessing fall upon thy head?
Look up, then, see the falling raindrops glow,
Melted by love into the radiant bow.

"Wait patiently"-trust Him who, when 'tis meet
For thee, from bitter will bring forth the sweet,
E'en though the lesson hard and long may be,
Nor read aright save in eternity.

There standeth One by thee willing to teach
To profit. Now, with childlike spirit reach