nected with her in the bonds of a friendship founded on a community of religious interest.

The history does not tell us how long this affection continued. They were lovely in their life; we know not at what distance one followed the other to the tomb. They were blessed by God with great prosperity and happiness, and now they rejoice together. But, superior to all these reflections, let every reader learn the everlasting importance of true religion, and the indispensable necessity of a choice between God and the world. The final state of the departed is a matter now hidden from our view only to be fully revealed at that tremendous day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, and the destiny of men determined by the irrevocable decree of heaven. We are permitted, however, to form a humble opinion, from the life and conversation of the individual; and if we judge by this rule, the destiny of Orphah and of Ruth will be as different as the choice

which they made on earth. Upon our choice will depend our position on the right or the left hand of the Judge; and we may rest assured that while eternal life is the rich provision of the mercy

H

and grace of God in Christ Jesus, the sinner's everlasting doom is that which he will have brought upon himself by his continued rejections of that tender mercy which founded a way of salvation for poor and perishing sinners. O, let us be wise,

grace

of God; if

and let us make that choice of which we shall never repent. If we shall ever cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart, it is necessary that our hearts be renewed by the ever we expect to be true followers of those who have left all and followed Christ, we must be delivered from the power of that attachment to the things of this present world, which not only keeps many even from a solitary thought about religion, but which, to the detriment of the Christian cause, makes so many unstable in their ways. Ours should be the con

If we are left to

stant, the earnest, the persevering prayer to God that he would put his fear in our hearts, for then we should not depart from him. the natural impulse of our hearts, however amiable those hearts may be, we shall inevitably follow, not the example of Ruth, but of Orphah, who kissed and left Naomi. How lamentable is the fact, that while there are many who have a sort of external

respect for religion, few, very few, decidedly espouse it; and still more melancholy is the truth, that to all such who are half-way, or almost, or lukewarm, or indifferent, or careless, there 'remaineth nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.'

One remark, and we have done. Death, instead of parting Christian friends, brings them into a nearer and immediate union. Death, which sunders natural, strengthens spiritual ties; and in that eternal and glorious kingdom which, through the merits of a Saviour's blood and his free gift, believers shall enjoy, nothing can ever separate friend from friend-all is life, happiness and immortality.

B.

EVIDENCES OF A CHRISTIAN
CHARACTER.

My dear friends, I have delayed writing to you, because there are so many demands now of the same kind. You want the evidences of a Christian character; it is a voluminous subject. All I can

do is to expand the idea that 'if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.' If you are converted, your views, feelings, purposes, objects of affection, train of thought, topics of conversation, objects of pursuit, and your conduct, will be new, your judgment of men and things altered essentially. Your feelings towards sin, yourselves, God, Christians, sinners, time, eternity, are new. When pride, ambition, selfishness, solicit gratificationwhen the world presents its allurements-you answer, No, I am not my own, for 'to me to live is

Christ,' his approbation is my highest ambition, his sacrifice the source of my hope, his intercession and his glory my chief desire, his will my rule of action.

I think it is not so difficult to ascertain whether we are Christians as is generally imagined. We can tell what objects we love supremely, what gratifies and what distresses us most. Is the blessed and ever-glorious Jesus the Alpha and Omega, the all and all with us? Can we find our chief enjoyments in serving, praising, supplicating him? Does nothing distress us so much as the dishonour we and others cast upon him? Does nothing delight us so much as to see sinners turn to him? What think ye of Christ? is the question to try both your state and scheme. But I always feel an objection to dwelling upon the evidences of Christian character-for this reason, that so many rest in what they call examining themselves. There is much selfdeception in it; there are two laws of human nature, which ought to be borne in mind on this subject; first, no feeling can be excited except by an appropriate object. Now, you are chasing a rainbow when you are searching your heart for love to God,