ling with revivals, and meeting with perhaps an hundred cases more, he began to suspect that we were liable to persuasive spiritual influences, both good and bad.

CURE OF INFIDELITY.

Illustrative Incidents-Events asked for take place contrary to the most probable appearance of things.

CASE 5.-A man once lived who was naturally bashful, but in concerns of religion he was especially diffident. He was a hundred times more ashamed to be heard to pray than he once had been to be heard to swear. This detestable cowardice crippled and tormented him for many years. His son was constitutionally diffident like himself, and should he ever forsake the world, the almost certain result would be a similar backwardness in the service of the Lord. These thoughts, and the fear that his son would serve satan long, perhaps until almost middle life, before he gave himself to God, threw the father on his knees to ask a double favour, viz. the conversion of his son in the days of boyhood, and the victory over cowardice in the Redeemer's army. A sacramental meeting approached. He believed his prayer answered, (for a reason only understood by those who have felt it, and therefore need not be explained or described here.) He did not converse with his son, but he watched him. He saw him unite with the church, and he heard him pray in public without delay as soon as called on. During the course of a few years, when many improbable events asked for had thus taken place, he could say, "If these things happen, they happen with strange uniformity, and contrary to probable appearance."

SECOND REMEDY.- Who may use this remedy?—All may use this remedy except those who incapacitate themselves by sin. Those who incapacitate themselves are not excusable because of their inability. The man who bores out his own eyes has not the light of the sun to complain of, because he cannot see. The man who corrodes his palate until his taste is destroyed, cannot blame his food for his want of enjoyment in eating. Reader, if you will take the ten commandments in all their spirit and all their bearing, also the sermons, parables, and all the sayings of the Redeemer, as uttered by him, unite them together, and meditate upon them, you will then, we have no doubt, tell us that the practice of each one would be very lovely. We presume this, because it is acknowledged, and has been asserted by the leaders of the infidel forces in different generations. If you can find any Bible precept which is unjust, immodest, or immoral, we may well say do not practice that. If all the precepts of the Scriptures are correct, we are not acting amiss to obey them, and to exhort others to obedience. They must suffer in some way who do not observe that which is excellent in itself. None ever become infidels but those who cease to obey the precepts of the Bible, more or less, or those who were reared to disregard them from infancy. The spirit of all truth and purity influences us toward truth The most wicked of men is still a debtor to the Holy Spirit for what little religious truth he may still retain. A man has not

abandoned all Bible truth, nor is he totally forsaken by the Holy Spirit, until he becomes a thorough atheist, either in creed or practice. We do not mean a wavering atheist, but a hearty one. The spirit of truth does not abide in a bosom filled with pollution. He takes up his constant residence in the breast of those who obey, and those alone. He begins to withdraw his influences from those who begin to hug enormities, and from those who turn their backs on God's injunctions. They begin to question truth, from whom he begins to retire. The light of heaven begins to appear dimness in the eyes of those who have insulted the spirit of truth until his agency is weakened. The loveliness of truth begins to resemble darkness and deformity, in the view of all those who are more or less left to themselves. If the commands of the blessed volume are good, let us exhort all to obey them. Reader, if you wish to be instructed by the God of heaven, if you desire to be led by the Being who made you, if you are willing to be guided by the author of all truth, do as he tells you. You will find his orders in the Bible. Practice heartily and industriously all that is commanded there, and you will have heavenly communications and light from on high. If you are one of those who have neglected the precepts of Holy Writ, and the system of Christianity begins to appear uncomely in your sight, and cold unbelief begins to freeze your ability to pray, listen what the wonderful Counsellor says, "Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord." Some will make the following difficulty when called on to begin to do right.

"Do you ask it of us, who disbelieves the Bible," say they; "do you ask it of us to begin to obey it?"

Before we answer your question, fellow immortal, we must mark the difference between those who do not be

lieve, and those who really disbelieve the book: and we must take pains to avoid any mistake respecting our meaning. Attend then to the following illustration.

Suppose that a man of standing and of truth were to awake you at midnight, and to tell you concerning your farm and house, some miles distant, that the fire was approaching it, and that its, danger was imminent. Suppose, whilst you are preparing to go to its relief, another man of equal verity and respectability rides by and tells you that he has just passed your property, and that there is a total mistake: that there is no fire there, and no danger exists. Here we might say, there is such an equilibrium in testimony, that you scarcely know how to act. Then suppose a third messenger, somewhat inferior in credibility, comes along and tells you the fire is approaching your estate. Here you might say, "I scarcely know what to believe; but I must act. Indolence is not correct where there is any preponderance on the side of danger. It is safer to act." You are not confirmed in your belief of the advancing conflagration; but you are unwise if you neglect exertion. Go now and act for your soul. If you tell us that you cannot believe the Scriptures, we answer, go and obey them. It is true, if you are a confirmed disbeliever, we have but little hope of your action; but all who sincerely and earnestly obey these precepts, receive the same evidence of their truth, that the man who approaches the fire receives of its warmth. If he were to stand at a dis

tance and say, "Oh that I could believe there was heat in that fire," we might offer many strong arguments to prove it; but the most convincing measure would be to prevail on him to approach. If it were true that he had a strong aversion to the exercise of walking, and a disrelish for the look of fire, and were to tell us that he

was confident, and without a doubt, that no warmth existed there, we would have but little hope of prevailing on him to act, nevertheless thorough action would produce a certain result. He might advance a few feet, and then call out exultingly that he felt no warmth. He might approach a short distance again, and then turn away, calling out with indignant vehemence, "I knew it was so; I feel no heat;" but all this has been only a sham trial. So it is with many who say they have complied with the dictates of Revelation. It was only a half-way obedience, a partial action, a sham compliance with those blessed commands. All who walk up to the fire know of its efficacy. So long as they remain there, they remain convinced. Those who stand nearest, have the least perplexing doubt. Reader, do you say to us, "Shall I act, although I doubt ?" This is the reason why you should act speedily and decisively. Let us now tell you some things which you believe, and others which you know. If you are an atheist, we are not addressing you just now; but if not the following facts fit you. You believe,

1st. That God is a being of purity. You believe,

2d. That if he is pure, he will not be disposed to take pollution into his immediate habitation, or near to himself. You yourself do not tolerate that which you esteem filthy. He may deem that unclean which we do not hate. A man hates what the hog does not, because of his superiority over that animal; but the Lord's exaltation above us is immeasurable. If you say that you cannot understand how that may appear sin to God, which seems very passable with us, you speak a falsehood. Now for that which you know. You know,

1st. That if you stood in a room where were collected a hundred persons, male and female, your fellow worms