"Whenever his strength would permit, he took great pleasure in conversing with his family on the great subjects of religion. He spoke of the world as a den of wild beasts, and affectionately cautioned his children to beware of its dangers, earnestly praying that God would graciously preserve them from all its entanglements. On seeing Mrs Heber, whose kind and unremitting attentions to him had been such, that she had not exchanged her clothes for some weeks, overwhelmed with grief at the evident symptoms that now appeared of his approaching end, he kindly, and with great feeling, admonished her for sorrowing as one without hope, assuring her that he stood upon the Rock of Ages, and had no doubt of obtaining, through the merits of the Redeemer, a crown of immortality and glory. The next day he received the sacrament, in which he was joined by his family. This most interesting service, and the closing scene of his father's life, Mr Heber thus describes :- On the arrival of Mr Bridge, we all partook of the most solemn communion that we can ever expect to join in in this world, to which indeed my father seemed scarcely to belong. A smile sat on his pale countenance, and his eyes sparkled brighter than I ever saw them. From this time he spoke but little; his lips moved, and his eyes were raised upwards. He blessed us again; we kissed him, and found his cheeks cold and breathless.' Shortly after the death of his father, which occurred in 1804, Heber returned to college, and pursued his studies with unremitting diligence. On the 2d November of that year, he was elected a fellow of All-Souls' College—a situation in which he enjoyed increased opportunities of making progress in literary acquirements. In the following year he carried off the prize for an English Essay on "The Sense of Honour." Though as yet only in his twenty-second year, he had seen but little of the world, and his relatives judged it expedient that he should accompany his esteemed friend, John Thornton, Esq., on a tour through different parts of Europe. He accordingly, in July 1805, set sail with his companion for Norway. They then travelled through Sweden, Russia, Austria, and part of Germany. After an absence of little more than a year, he returned to England, where he was gladly welcomed by his affectionate relatives and friends. He now repaired to Oxford, and applied himself, with his accustomed diligence, to his studies. In the summer of 1807, after mature deliberation, and much prayer for the divine direction, Mr Heber took orders, and was presented by his brother to the rectory of Hodnet, which had been reserved for him from the time of his father's death. Shortly after his induction, he returned to Oxford, and took his degree of Master of Arts; and from this period he finally quitted the university, and dedicated himself, with unwearied assiduity and zeal, to the duties of his ministerial charge. He was, indeed, "a workman that needed not to be ashamed." In all the varied employments of a faithful pastor, he was diligent, active, conscientious, visiting the sick, counselling the perplexed, ministering to the wants of the poor, and pouring the balm of consolation into the wounded spirit. To the poorest of his flock he was at all times accessible, sympathising with them in their sorrows, and with all the tenderness of an affectionate friend, relieving their temporal necessities, and taking occasion, at the same time, to point out to them the way to happiness and heaven. Shortly after Mr Heber was settled at Hodnet, he married Amelia, the youngest daughter of the late Dr Shipley, dean of St Asaph a lady who entered warmly into all his plans for the benefit of his parish. He now opened a school in the village for the instruction of the young, and devoted a considerable time to its personal superintendence. The following instance of good resulting from his labours is exceedingly interesting, and shows Mr Heber in a very beautiful and striking light : "An old man resided in the parish, who had been a notorious poacher nearly all his life, and who, through the combined influence of his irregular mode of life, down into an irreligious old age. drunken habits, and depraved associates, had settled He was a widower, had survived his children, shunned all society, and was rarely seen abroad. The sole inmate of his lonely cottage was a little grandchild, on whom were bound up all the sympathies of his rugged nature, and on whom he lavished the warmest caresses. It was considered an unaccountable departure from his usual line the rector's school, and some one expressed to him surof conduct, when he permitted little Philip to attend prise that such should be the case: Why not?' was the old man's reply. Do you think I wish Philip to be as bad as myself? I am black enough, God knows!' The old man was taken ill and confined to his room. It was winter; he was unable to divert his mind. His complaint was a painful one, and there was every probability that his illness might be of long continuance. grandson should read to him. A neighbour suggested that his little He listened at first languidly and carelessly; by and bye, however, with some interest, till at length he became deeply concerned for his soul: convictions of guilt flashed upon his mind, and he expressed an earnest desire to see Mr Heber. Immediately on its being made known to the rector, he paid him a visit. The old man lay upon his bed in a corner of the room, near a trellised window. His features were naturally hard and coarse, and the marked lines of his countenance were distinctly developed by the strong light which fell upon them. Aged and enfeebled as he was, he seemed fully alive to what was passing around him; and I had,' says the narrator of this anecdote, leisure to mark the searching of his eye, while he gazed with the most intense anxiety on his spiritual comforter, and weighed every word that fell from his lips. The simple phraseology in which Heber clothed every idea, the facility with which he descended to the old mans comprehension, the earnestness with which he strove not to be misunderstood, and the manner in which, in spite of himself, his voice occasionally faltered, as he adverted delicately, but faithfully and most affectionately, to the fundamental points of our holy religion, struck me forcibly; while Philip stood on the other side of the bed, his hand locked in his grandfather's, his bright blue eye dimmed with tears, as he looked sadly and anxiously from one face to another, evidently aware that some misfortune awaited him, though unconscious to what extent. Not long afterwards the old man died, in a state of mind so calm, so subdued, so penitent, and resigned, that I feel myself cheered in my labours,' said Heber, whenever I reflect upon it.' Heber officiated at the funeral; and, says our narrator, I shall never forget, I never wish to forget; if I were cast to-morrow on a desert island, it is one of the few things I should wish to remember of the world I had left behind me, the air, the manner, the look, the expression of hope and holy joy, and stedfast confidence, which lit up Heber's countenance, as he pronounced the passage in the ritual, O Father, raise us from the death of sin into the life of righteousness, that when we shall de part this life we may rest in thee, as our hope is this our brother doth."" To be continued in our next. it admits of the greatest particularity. In conducting the devotions of the sanctuary, or even of the family circle, there is a necessity of shaping the supplications in that general language, and limiting them to those A MINISTER'S NEW YEAR'S GIFT TO HIS general views, which are common to the character and PARISHIONERS. BY THE REV. Robert JAMIESON, Minister of Westruther. "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health."-3 JOHN, 2. state of all. There must be general acknowledgments of praise, and general confessions of sin, and a regard must, in some measure, be paid to those proprieties of thought and expression, which may recommend them to the taste and the acquiescence of others. But in secret prayer, some of the greatest advantages of which it is productive will be lost, if there is a studious con dresses at the throne of grace, you are satisfied with the bare offering of a general supplication, or with presenting a general petition for the blessings of grace. If you are acquainted with your own character, as your daily experience must, in some measure, have made you, you ought to form your petitions with an especial reference to the defects and imperfections of which you are con HAVING exhorted you, my friend, to read the Scrip-formity to these limitations; if, in presenting your adtures under the constant impression that they are addressed to you as a sinner, with an impartial application of them to your own character and condition, and earnest prayer for the blessing of God to make all your reading subservient to your growth in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, I would recommend to you, in the second place, the practice of secret prayer, as another important means for cherishing and esta-scious, and to the particular duties to which you are blishing the power of religion in your mind. I am not now wishing you to consider prayer in the light of a duty, for I take it for granted that you allow it to be a most reasonable service, for a rational creature, to acknowledge his derived and dependent condition, and to consecrate himself to the glory of Him in whom he lives, and moves, and has his being, as well as for a sinner redeemed by grace, to dedicate himself, with all the capacities of his new nature, to the divine author of his salvation. But I am speaking of prayer as a means of confirming and improving your mind in every good and holy principle and practice; and the more that you consider it, the more will you perceive that it must be productive of the best and happiest fruits. In all the sentiments which enter into the exercises of devotion, it is God himself with whom we have special concern; and in the private and unobserved devotions of the closet, it must be, in the nature of things, that these sentiments will have their freest flow,—their most unfettered exercise. Those who have made the greatest advances in the spiritual life, have still reason to lament the deadness of their faith, and the languor of their affections; and if the devotional feelings are so apt to become languid through the inauspicious influence of nature, how much more when they are called into exercise amid the bustle of the world and the distractions of society. I may appeal to every reader who has attended to the state of his own heart, whether, in those moments when he was most ready to resign himself to the glowing impulse of devotion in the sanctuary, he has not often found the pursuits and objects of the world obtruding upon him, to dissipate and materialize his mind; and what, then, can be better adapted to counteract this unhappy influence, and to keep alive in the mind the etherial flame of piety, than frequently to retire into the privacy of the closet, where there is no eye to witness, and no ear to hear you, but the eye and the ear of God; and when the very consciousness of being alone with Him, will summon up to your mind a livelier impression of the divine presence, and check the rise of every sinful emotion, and inspire you with a holy fear of thinking or doing any thing that will expose you to his displeasure. And then, again, secret prayer is attended with this additional advantage, that called. If you have the prospect of any particular duty before you, which either your ordinary station, or specific circumstances, require you to perform, you should pray for the grace which will fit you for the right discharge of that duty; or if you are beset by any particular temptation, you should pray for the appropriate assistance from on high, to enable you to surmount it; or if you are deficient, or weak, in any particular virtue, you should pray that you may be guided and supported in your endeavours to acquire it. In such a way, you can make a full and circumstantial enumeration of all your wants at the throne of grace; and while the very fact of your unbosoming your mind to God, will tend to quicken and elevate your desires, you will find that a special blessing will follow your exercise—such as will provide you with an effectual preparation for all the duties and trials of life. Such has been the uniform experience of all who have walked with God, and sought his counsel and his aid. Alfred, though charged with the cares of an extensive empire, devoted a third part of every day to study and devotion; and he frequently acknowledged, that but for the moral energy he derived from this habit, he would have sunk under the multiplied difficulties by which he was surrounded. Luther, who raised the banner of the Reformation, wrote more treatises, engaged in more controversies, and maintained a more extensive correspondence on the affairs of the Church, than any of his contemporaries. His whole life appeared to be an incessant scene of agitation, and tumult, and public business, for which his mind must have been wholly inadequate, but for the extraordinary resources by which he was fortified; for this man, whom the world knew only as a busy and unwearied disputant, " employed three of his very best hours every day in prayer."-(Milner.) Dr Boerhaave, who had to perform all the varied and laborious duties that are peculiar to a physician of extensive practice in a great city, made it his daily practice through life, to retire for an hour, as soon as he rose in the morning, to private prayer and meditation. This, he often told his friends, gave him spirits and vigour for the active business of the day. And to mention only one example more, the celebrated Dr Beattie, who was tried with a series of domestic afflictions, more severe than has fallen to the lot of many, was enabled, through the constant practice of private devotion, to display a devout acter be promoted so well, as by displaying to them the quiescence in the divine will, and an unruffled cheerful-plate the excellence of that mind which was in Christ, and moral perfections of God, by leading them to contemness, which animated and supported his afflicted family. In these remarks upon prayer as a means of grace, I have considered you, my reader, exclusively as an individual; but if you are the head of a family, and have children and servants under your care, I would impress it upon you, that the same advantages which this religious exercise will secure for yourself, you ought, from duty and love, to seek to obtain for them, by engaging in the regular exercise of family devotion. It is the beneficent ar by bringing them into contact with all those principles elements of a good, and upright, and virtuous character? of purity and spiritual mindedness, which form the true is necessary for the journey of life, and fitted so well for all How can they, in short, be so well equipped with all that the varieties of action and trial that will chequer their future experience, as by interweaving the idea of God with the whole frame-work of their moral nature, by leading them to connect Him with all their associations of thought and feeling, and by furnishing them with an early know blessing? But it is principally in regard to their interests in a future and eternal world, that the establishment of prayer in your family is desirable, and attended with advantages so great, that the bare enumeration of them must be sufficient to gain for this practice the favour master. For, in the words of the excellent Doddridge, "they will be taught to entertain right conceptions of the being and perfections of God, when they daily hear acknowledgments and prayers addressed to him— their hearts will be impressed with a sense of the magnitude and demerit of their sins, when they contrast themselves with the purity and spirituality of the diand what evils to deplore, when they listen to the vine law-they will learn what blessings to supplicate, the intercessions and prayers you may offer for the mode in which you conduct their devotions and by general interests and prosperity of man, a spirit of cha The rangement of Providenee, to commit the infancy and ledge of his word, and an early habit of praying for his youth of man to the care of a parent a faithful and affectionate friend, in order that he may cherish the tender plant, and give direction and strength to its opening blossoms; and what means is more likely, from its nature, or more approved by experience, to aid a parent in the labour of love to his child or depen-able regard of every wise and considerate parent and dent, than frequently to assemble those intrusted to his charge, to read to them the instructions of the Word of God, and to unite together in thanksgivings and supplications to that great Being from whom they derived their common existence, and on whom they acknowledge a common dependence for the bounties of his providence and the blessings of his grace. The advantages resulting from the establishment of this domestic practice, are indeed obvious and manifold, and bear on the world that now is, as well as on that which is to come. is the best way of preparing your family for the duties It and the intercourse of the present world; for what method can be so effectual for the accomplishment of an ob-rity and love will be diffused over their minds. ject so dear to every parent's heart, as by training them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, by enlightening them with a knowledge of his claims, and by impressing them with a reverence for his authority? Not that a knowledge of the one, or a reverence for the other, will impart that acquaintance with the principles and practice of the profession, or the art, they are to follow, or will compensate for the want of that knowledge of men and things which can only be acquired by the actual business and experience of the world; but there is a diligence in worldly business, without which natural and acquired skill will be of little avail; and there is a sense of fidelity, the want of which no professional eminence can supply; and there is an integrity of character, which must be carried throughout all the transactions of life, and for which no fertility of mental resources, no facility of manual execution, will be accepted as a substitute; and how can these be given to your children so well, as by training them up in the knowledge and the fear of God? How can diligence in their worldly calling be enforced upon them so well, as by the consideration, that they are thereby complying with the will of God, and fulfilling the duties of that sphere which he has assigned them? How can fidelity to their earthly master be secured so well, as by impressing them with the practical remembrance, that they have a Master in heaven, that His eye is continually upon them, although they may be beyond the observation of man; and that every act of unfaithfulness, even in the least and most trivial concerns, will be displeasing to Him, to whom all must render an account? How can their integrity of charac combined effect of a service so interesting and so spiformity with the will of God; to grow in wisdom as ritual, will be to induce them to live more in conthey grow in years; and to advance from their present imperfect attainments, till they stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." This is evidently no be the result of the practice of family worship, and, more than a general view of what may be expected to ceptions; for you must be well aware of many instances like all general views and maxims, is liable to many exwhere the future career has formed a melancholy contrast to the excellence which marked the commenceexhibited a woful departure from the path of piety and ment of life; and, you know, that even Solomon himself go. But, notwithstanding the exceptions to which it virtue, in which his godly father had trained him to is liable, the view of Doddridge, as stated above, is of Scripture, but by the testimony of almost univernot only established by the statements and promises sal experience, that those who have been carefully and piously trained by their parents, have come forthose who have been suffered to grow up without ward in the path they were trained to go in-that of the knowledge of God and of Christ, by far the greatest part live and die also without hope; for it has place when the habits are confirmed and that, in been computed, that very few conversions ever regard to such as have happily come to a late repentance after a long course of previous irreligion and vice, it has been generally those who enjoyed the benefit of their memories, was, through the blessing of God, the a pious education, some part of which, lingering on take means of reclaiming them to the ways of duty and sal- | of the sacred day, and that still the important inquiry vation. Flavel used to say, that he blessed God for a religious tender father, who often poured out his soul to God for him, and that he esteemed that stock of prayers and blessings above the richest inheritance in the world. It was a memorable saying of Ambrose to the mother of Augustine, when she lamented to him the indisposition which her son at that time displayed to all religious feeling :-"I have never known the son allowed to perish for whose soul so many prayers and holy tears interceded." The biographer of Scott, the author of the well-known Commentary on the Bible, observes, "that his father, who made a constant practice of worshipping God in his family, and who was uniformly careful that it should be more than a mere formality, had the unspeakable satisfaction of knowing, that not only all his children, but all the servants who had been successively under his roof, received impressions of seriousness that remained with them through life." It remains for me to direct your attention, my friend, to the sanctification of the Sabbath, as an appointed and a powerful means of promoting and establishing religion in your mind. I need not inform you that the observance of the Sabbath, one day in seven, has been appointed by the high authority of God, and that it has been appointed for the promotion of the spiritual interests of man. This, indeed, seems to have been the grand design of it; for the bodily rest, or cessation from labour, which it secures, derives its chief value from its subserviency to those spiritual exercises by which the Sabbath is to be sanctified. Instituted, then, as this day has been, for the advancement of the interests of the soul, it will be an important subject of inquiry with you, as with all who acknowledge the divine authority, and the religious end of the institution, in what way they ought to spend the Sabbath, so as to enjoy the blessings that are suspended on its hallowed uses. The first and most obvious way appears to be, to sanctify the day by a devout observance of the public ordinances of religion, by repairing to the house of God to offer up the appointed sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving, to listen to the expositions of the Divine Word, and the motives and arguments by which obedience to it is enforced. It was in this way that the people of God, in all ages, have employed themselves on the Sabbath. On that day, under the ancient dispensation, the gates of the temple were opened, and its courts were crowded by the people, for whom sacrifices were offered, and the law was read and expounded in the synagogues. It was on that day also that, after the resurrection of Christ, the apostles and early Christians met together to give thanks for that great event, and to perform other acts of social worship. And if, in furtherance of the high and holy ends for which the Sabbath was instituted, the people of God, of whom we read both in the Old and the New Testament Church, assembled publicly for divine worship on that day, ought not we to spend it in a similar manner, out of reverence for its holy nature, and a sense of its use to our eternal interests? But although the public worship of the sanctuary be one obvious way of improving the Sabbath to the real object of the institution, it is plain that the exercises peculiar to that place can occupy but a very small part remains, if one day in seven should be kept holy unto the Lord, how is the larger proportion of it to be spent, which precedes and comes after the interval that is devoted to the sanctuary? If there be any meaning in the language we employ, we must receive the word 'day," when applied to the Sabbath, in the same acceptation that it bears when applied to the other portions of the week. But to pursue a round of religious exercises and duties for a period as long as you are accustomed to consume on the labours and concerns of the world, is a task that seems incompatible with the present constitution of our nature, and therefore, perhaps, the rule of observance that is best accordant with reason and the spirit of the Divine Word, is to endeavour to keep your mind always alive to the great end and uses of the Sabbath. For, as a traveller who is bending his way to some distant place, may stop for his refreshment at different stages, yet never relax his efforts, nor divert his mind from the end of his journey, so you may keep the spiritual end of the Sabbath in view, even although you cannot be uninterruptedly engaged in the duties to which it is specially dedicated, if, at the same time, you endeavour, with all earnestness, to avoid every thing in thought and conversation which either does not directly bear on your spiritual improvement, or that is evidently injurious to it; and just as a traveller will be impatient of every delay, and shorten his necessary stoppages, the stronger the sense he entertains of the importance and urgency of his journey, so the more that you are impressed with a conviction of the magnitude and value of your spiritual interests, the more will you be incited to devote the Sabbath to the spiritual ends for which it was appointed, and the greater anxiety will you feel to withdraw your mind from every object and from every scene that tends to retard instead of advancing them. An interesting anecdote of Dr Johnson may be introduced here, as bearing on the subject of these observations. "After waiting," says Wyndham, some portion of time in the adjoining room, I was admitted to Dr Johnson in his bed-chamber, where, after placing me beside him, he put into my hands two small volumes, which I found to be an edition of the New Testament, as his dying legacy to me. He then proceeded to observe that I was entering upon a life which would lead me deeply into all the business of the world; that he did not condemn civil employments, but that it was a state of great danger; and that he had, therefore, one piece of advice earnestly to press upon me, that I would set apart every seventh day for the care of my soul; that one day, the seventh, should be employed in repenting what was amiss in the six preceding, and fortifying my virtue for the six to come, and that I could not think a day too much for the preparation for eternity." According to this view, then, which appears to be accordant with Scripture, that portion of the Lord's day which, before and after the duties of public worship, is left to the discretionary power of every one, demands still from you a strict attention to sacred things, a continued exercise of the same spiritual affections and duties, which it is the great design of the sanctuary to excite and invigorate; and one principal reason why the impressions of the sanctuary so often prove evanescent, is, that due care is not taken to perpetuate them by congenial occupations in the hours of privacy and solitude. Were you who honour the Sabbath, by resting from your bodily labour, and by engaging in the public worship of God, to spend the morning of the Lord's day in your closet, and with your family in reading the Scriptures, and in joining together in prayer and thanksgiving, you might then hope to be in the spirit, and to acquire that preparation of the understanding and the heart that is becoming the sanctuary. In repairing to it, you would be changing your place, not your occupation; and while you would be led to frequent it in the knowledge that the divine blessing is specially promised in the courts of Zion, you would be enabled to join in the exercises, and listen to the exhortations of God's house with less of that listlessness and distraction of mind, which often renders the ordinances of no avail. And then, again, if, at the termination of public worship, you should resolve to keep the current of your thoughts flowing in the same spiritual channel; if, at some convenient hour, you were to meet with your family, or to shut yourself up in the solitude of your closet, to meditate on the relations you bear to God, the duties he requires of you, and the means by which you may be fitted for the kingdom of heaven; if in this way you were to occupy the close of the sacred day, you would find it, instead of being, as it is to many, a weary and irksome burden, to be a delight, a season of refreshing; and you would experience its spirit and its end gradually realized within you in the enlargement of your knowledge,—in the establishment of your faith,—and in an increasing measure of joy and comfort. Were the Sabbath spent in this way, -the proper way in which it ought to be spent, the private employment of the professing worshippers of God would harmonize with their public exercises, instead of being exhibited, as they too often are, in striking contrast; and the morning and evening devotions of the family and the closet, being undertaken to prepare for, or to implore a blessing upon the meridian devotions of the Church, would shed a mutual influence which could not fail to be happily manifested in the walk and conversation of the future week. Without this union of private and public devotions, it is vain to think that the Sabbath will be any thing else than a mere formal observance; and just as a scholar will never make the attainment, nor reap the advantages of education, unless he bring, to the routine of his lessons, a mind susceptible and studious of learning, so neither will you, who are training up in the school of Christ, be enabled to fulfil the duties and enjoy the blessings of your Christian vocation, unless you infuse the spirit of the Sabbath into the observance of the Sabbath; and along with that bodily service, which of itself profiteth little, you combine a spirit that is open to the impressions of sacredness, and pervaded by a sense of the importance of religion. These, then, reading the Scriptures, prayer, and the sanctification of the Sabbath, are the grand means, by the diligent and persevering use of which, you may, by divine grace, hope to promote the growth and establishment of religion in your soul. You must remember, however, that they are no more than means; "for these performances," says Bishop Burnet, "how good and useful soever, are of little value when men rest upon them, and think, because they do them, they have acquitted themselves of their duty, though they continue proud, worldly-minded, full of deceit, envy, and malice. Even secret prayers, the most effectual means, are designed for a higher end, which is to possess the mind with such a constant and present sense of divine things, as may make them live in it, and govern it, and sanctify our whole nature." Enter on this year, then, with the solemn resolution of endeavouring to use those, as the means which God has appointed and promised to bless, for purifying your hearts, sanctifying and governing your whole conduct, and animating you with growing zeal for the service and glory of God. Be persuaded to adopt this resolution, and you have the divine promise that, "in due time, you will reap, if you faint not. But, reader, it may be that the resolutions you may have been forming, at this season, are hollow and insincere; and that the sun, which has but recently entered anew on his course, will see you, ere he has reached the termination of his annual career, "returning like a dog to his vomit, or a sow that is washed, to her wallowing in the mire." I know not by what arguments I could rouse you from this fatal lethargy,—from those delusive dreams of a better and more convenient opportunity of attending to the things that belong to your peace, than by urging upon you the magnitude of your spiritual interests, the uncertainty of the time allotted for securing them, and the great danger that if you now stifle the convictions of conscience, that faithful monitor may cease any longer to address its still small voice to you. The following affecting declaration occurs in the memoir of Lord Thomas Lyttleton, son of the celebrated writer on the conversion of Paul: "I have had some serious conversations with my father, and one evening he concluded by recommending me to address heaven to have mercy upon me, and to join my prayers to his constant and paternal cares for my reformation. These expressions, with his preceding counsels and his affecting delivery of them, had such an effect upon me that I had bent the stubborn sinews of my knees, when it occurred to me that my devotions might be seen through the key-hole. This drew me from my pious attitude, and having secured this aperture, I thought it would not be a useless precaution to let down the window curtains also; and during the performance of that ceremony, some lively music, which struck up in the street, caught my attention, and gave a sudden flirt to all my devout ideas. So I girded on my sword and went to the theatre, where the entertainment soon dissipated all my gloomy thoughts." GOD HAS NO DELIGHT IN THE DEATH OF THE SINNER: A DISCOURSE. BY THE REV. J. A. WYLIE, Minister of the Associate Congregation of Original Seceders at Dollar. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked."-EZEKIEL Xxxiii. 11. THESE words Ezekiel addressed to the Jews at a period of great national calamity; their homes were in ruins, their altars were deserted, and the daughter of Judah was dwelling in captivity with the daughter of Babylon. All the evils, from which they were at this moment suffering, might be |