A Goodly Heritage

How many are the calamities of old age, and that if we should live to be old, our days will be such as we shall have no pleasure in, which is a good reason why we should return to God, and make our peace with him, in the days of our youth, and not put it off till we come to be old; for it will be no thanks to us to leave the pleasures of sin when they have left us, nor to return to God when need forces us. It is the greatest absurdity and ingratitude imaginable to give the cream and flower of our days to the devil, and reserve the bran, and refuse, and dregs of them for God; this is offering the torn, and the lame, and the sick for sacrifice; and, besides, old age being thus clogged with infirmities, it is the greatest folly imaginable to put off that needful work till then, which requires the best of our strength, when our faculties are in their prime, and especially to make the work more difficult by a longer continuance in sin, and, laying up treasures of guilt in the conscience, to

Her Last Words. This martyr, though both young in years and of the weak sex, was so singularly assisted of the Lord in his cause, and had such discoveries of his special love to her soul, that she was nothing terrified by her adversaries. When she was brought from the tollbooth to the council-house, to be carried to her execution,—as she came out of the tollbooth door, several friends attending her,—she was observed to say with a surprising cheerfulness and air of heavenly ravishment, "Behold, I hear my beloved saying unto me, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." And being brought to the council, bishop Paterson being resolved,—seeing he could not destroy her soul,—yet to grieve and vex it, said,—"Marion, you said,you would never hear a curate, now you shall be forced to hear one;" upon which, he ordered one of his suffragans, whom he had prepared for the purpose, to pray.* So soon as he began, she said to her fellow prisoner Isabel Alison; "Come Isabel

"O dear friends, I would, as one going to eternity, ob test you, that you make good earnest in religion, and be restless until you get a clearness of an interest in Christ; for it is a dangerous time to live in the dark. I would have you consider what a weighty business it is, to deny the Lord of glory before men. There has strange things of this nature fallen out, in this our day. O I look to yourselves, I would entreat you, to be for God, and he will be for you; confess him, and he will confess you. As good soldiers, endure hardness; wax valiant in suffering. Resist unto blood, for it is the cause of God, that is at stake. O! there are none of you lamenting after God; ah! is there none of you that hath love to the Lord, and will take part with him, against all his enemies? O I but it be sad to see you with such whole hearts, and so little grief among you, for the robbery that the Lord of glory is getting. I declare, my suffering is nothing; but, when I see you who are professors

WALTER MILL. [The death of this martyr is said to have contributed most effectually to the downfall of popery, in Scotland. He was born about the year 1476, and, having taken orders in the church, became priest of Luna n, in Angus-shire. But having imbibed the reformed opinions, and left off the saying of mass, he was so early as the year 1538, arrested and condemned. He escaped, however, for his life into Germany, where he remained about twenty years. He then returned home, and having attempted to render himself useful, by instructing his neighbours in the protestant faith, he was again taken and condemned as a heretic. His conduct whilst on trial, powerfully evinced the sincerity of his faith, and made a deep impression on all who witnessed it. The following is a short account of what took place at his death :] All things being prepared, he was led forth with a guard of armed men to execution. Being come to the place, some cried out to him to recant, to whom he answered, "I marv

Think not strange of the Lord’s method with his church, in bringing her to so low and desperate a posture many times. Can she be in a condition more seemingly desperate than was her Head,—not only in ignominious sufferings, but dead and laid in the grave, and the stone rolled to it, and sealed, and all made sure? And yet, he arose and ascended, and now sits in glory, and shall sit “till all his enemies become his footstool.” Do not fear for him, that they shall overtop, yea, or be able to reach him who is exalted higher than the heavens; neither be afraid for his church, which is his body, and, if her Head be safe and alive, cannot but partake of safety and life with him. Though she were, to sight, dead and laid in the grave, yet shall she arise thence, and be more glorious than before, Isa. xxvi. 19. and still, the deeper her distress, shall rise the higher in the day of deliverance. Robert Leighton

At Kurnalpi I took my lamp and went to the place of meeting. A gentleman had offered me his auctioneer’s box as a pulpit. I fixed my lamp beside me in the box so that I could read by its light. When I mounted the pulpit, there was not a soul about me that I could see in the darkness, so first lifting my heart for a moment to my Master, I next lifted my voice and shouted “Gentlemen, the sale is about to commence!” You should have seen the response. They came running out from everywhere, like ants from an ant-hill, and rushed to get a good place near the auctioneer. There was a billiard saloon not far away, and though it was crowded a little ago, it was emptied quicker than it takes me to tell about it. Soon I had between two hundred and three hundred men around me. In my travel during the day I had learnt something of the open, unblushing sin prevailing here, and as I reasoned of righteousness and judgment, the Power of God fell on those men. This was my pioneer gospel service. I had ri

BREAD UPON THE WATERS. A SCOTCH lady of social distinction, whose name for obvious reasons need not be mentioned, and whose husband had left her a competence, had two profligate sons, who wasted her substance with riotous living. When she saw that her property was being squandered, she determined to make an offering to the Lord. She took twenty pounds and gave it to the London Missionary Society. Her sons were very angry at this, and told her that she might just as well cast her money into the sea. “I will cast it into the sea,” she replied, “and it will be my bread upon the waters.” The sons, having spent all they could get, enlisted in a regiment, and were sent to India. Their positions were far apart, but God so ordered, in his providence, that both were stationed near good missionaries. The elder one was led to repent of his sins and embrace Christ. He shortly afterward died. Meanwhile the widowed mother was praying for her boys. One evening, as she was taking down her family bible

Among the many deep truths which the early chapters of the Book of Genesis enforce, there is none which strikes the thoughtful inquirer more forcibly than does THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE DISORDER OCCASIONED BY MAN'S SIN AND THE REMEDY ORDAINED BY THE WISDOM AND THE MERCY OF GOD. This connection may be traced in a very remarkable manner in the appointment of the rainbow as sign and pledge of the covenant. Rainbow equally dependent for its existence upon storm and upon sunshine. Marvellously adapted, therefore, to serve as type of mercy following upon judgment — as sign of connection between man's sin and God's free and unmerited grace. Connected gloomy recollections of past with bright expectations of future. Taught by anticipation the great lesson which it was reserved for Christ's Gospel fully to reveal, that as sin had abounded, so grace should "much more abound." II. Further, not only is the rainbow, as offspring equally of storm and sunshine, a fitting emb