conscience in any thing. I would have you then treasure well that sentiment in your mind. If we are not careful in this matter, if we do not watch our hearts narrowly, ah what risings of envy and jealousy will then be! What thousand other things will continually arise to harass us (as the true disciple of Christ will readily acknowledge) if these things be not watched against, but allowed from time to time. They waste the strength of the soul, they cut as it were its sinews: by custom they become familiar, and the mind gradually loses its tenderness and feeling. Depend on it there will not be a conscience void of offence towards God and man preserved long, where seemingly smal evil is not continually watched against and disallowed. Would you be willing that disease in its beginnings should rankle in your constitution? And yet if any one suffers the least impure or unholy thought to have place, to build a tabernacle in the heart, shipwreck is made of faith and a good conscience. And while I am speaking of little sins, I would have you guard especially against the sins of the tongue, that UNTAMEABLE MONSTER which does so much mischief in the world. To the scandal of our profession it has been said by the world, we make no conscience of tongue sins ;' this is not without some occasion. Many among us disregard the command of the Holy Ghost, "Speak evil of no man." They take a delight in exposing the follies, and weaknesses, and sins of their fellow-sinners; they delight in laying bare the wounds which sin has made; but surely if that love which is from above thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity, they are verily guilty in this matter. As a general rule then I would advise, if you have no good to say

of a man, speak no evil concerning him. "Judge not that ye be not judged of the Lord." "Speak evil of no man."

7. "A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another."

I have thus reminded you of some of the duties of our holy religion; and I assure you, my dearly beloved, that I can have no greater joy than in hearing that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, in all lowliness, in stedfast faith, and in fervent love. It will grieve me to the heart to hear of any inconsistency, or falling away among you. My earnest prayer for you all is that you may live, and stand stedfast in the ways of righteousness. Forget not you will always carry about with you a body of sin and death-a law of sin; that Satan is ever going about seeking to devour you, and an envious world ever ready to say, 'Aha! so would we have it. Your standing then will doubtless appear to yourselves, as it will to me, a moral miracle, not the less powerful because it is a moral one: and though the Lord does not now display his power in raising the dead, he does greater things than this, in keeping alive a spirit of piety in such hearts as ours, which from first to last, except as his grace worketh in us, are carnal and sold under sin. How closely then should you all look unto Christ, cleave to Christ, and daily, hourly, pray to Christ! for without him you can do nothing; nor abide in the love of God, or do any thing good. If Christ does not live in your thoughts, affections, and aims, you will dwindle, wither, and become nothing. Let your prayer be, "Lord save us in spite of ourselves." Watch over each other in holy love, bearing

each other's burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ. If a brother or sister stumble, you that are strong hold him up; and be not like the selfish herd who scamper away, and leave the smitten deer to its fate. Yea rather feel and act as you would do if it were proposed to sever a limb from yourselves; for ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. Finally, accept a Father's blessing, and a brother's love; and my earnest prayer for you is, that you may long enjoy the Lord's favour, and abound more and more in zeal, and love, and faith, and every Christian grace.

Your faithful brother in Christ Jesus,

VERSE SYSTEM.

Chapter v. verse 5. (May 4.) "To deliver such a one unto Satan," &c.; that this expression refers to the power and duty of excommunication which the Apostle blames the Corinthian Church for not having executed upon the notorious offender mentioned in the first verse, there can be no doubt. If we observe the grand Scripture distinction between those two parties-the Church unto which all such as shall be saved are added—and the world which lieth in wickedness; and remember further that the Church is that body of which Christ is the head, and the world that body of which Satan is styled the "god," we shall see that the expression "to deliver unto Satan," exactly describes the condition of one shut out from communion with that Church to which exclusively the promises of salvation belong, and therefore exposed unprotected

in an enemies' country to the malice of him who goeth about at large in his own grounds-the world -seeking whom he may devour.

The manner in which this solemn act was to be done, as appears from the verse above, was as follows:-When they were gathered together in a public assembly in the name of Jesus Christ, with the concurrence of the spirit or judgment of the Apostle, as their father in Christ spiritually presiding over them, and with the power of Christ committed to, and promised for the confirmation of the acts thus done by his Apostles and their successors in the Pastoral office to the end of the world.* The end for which this act was done is also declared-" for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved," &c.; that through the mortification and punishment which such a sentence of separation from the communion of the saints was calculated to bring upon the offender, his soul, being truly humbled and penitent, might be restored back again to the peace and privilege of the Church, and so be saved" in the day of the Lord Jesus."

* See Matthew xviii. 15-20, compared with Matthew xxviii. 18-20, and John xx. 21-23.

REV. H. A SIMCOE, (Penheale-Press,) Cornwall.

THE DISTRESSES AND DISASTERS WHICH BEFEL THE INHABITANTS.

"There shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be," Matth. xxiv. 21.

"In those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be," Mark xiii. 19.

"For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people," Luke xxi. 23.

Never had words a more sad or full accomplishment than these. For the miseries which befel this people, about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, were such as no history can parallel. Within the city the fury of the opposite factions was so great, that they filled all places, and even the temple itself, with continual slaughters. Nay, to such a pitch did