evince a proper spirit and temper towards my Christian brethren, and others? Have I exercised patience, meekness, and fortitude, as becometh a Christian, under circumstances of provocation, difficulty, and trial? Have I resisted and overcome the temptations to sin by which I have been plied, and have I thus preserved a "conscience void of offence"? Have my business transactions been free from trickery and deception, and characterized by unsullied integrity and uprightness? Have I constantly endeavoured to avoid even the appearance of evil? Have I discovered a sympathizing heart, and extended a helping hand to the suffering and distressed? Have I attended to closet duties with undeviating regularity, and in the true spirit of piety and devotion? Have I there, from time to time, renewed my strength, and had my spirit refreshed and quickened? Have I shown a proper attachment to the means of grace? Have I made it a point of conscience to attend not only the public services of God's house on the Sabbath, but also the week-night preaching, the prayer meeting, and the class meeting, as it has been my duty and privilege to do? Have I done this even when it has involved some sacrifice of temporal profit or ease? Have I read and studied the Holy Scriptures as regularly, attentively, and devoutly as I ought? Have I exerted myself to the utmost of my ability and opportunities to promote Zion's welfare, avoiding lukewarmness and indifference as I would the destroying pestilence? Have I endeavoured, by precept and example, to excite others to love and good works? Have I longed, and prayed, and laboured for the salvation of souls? Have I exhibited a deep and full sympathy with the spirit, purposes, and work of the Son of God? Have I rendered pecuniary support to the Saviour's cause to the extent of my means? Have I come up to the Scripture standard in this matter, allowing neither covetousness on the one hand, nor any kind of extravagance on the other, to interfere with the discharge of my duty? And what is my experience, and what my conduct at present? Can I now say, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me"? Have I the "witness of the Spirit," that I am a child of God? Is my heart filled with "perfect love"? Am I every moment living for heaven? Am I commencing this year better than I ever commenced one before? Am I desiring, and purposing by the grace of God, to spend this year more prayerfully, more holily, and more usefully than any previous one, doing more for Christ and souls? Am I resolved to put aside all hindrances, to avoid both giving and taking offence, to be willing to be anything or nothing, a hewer of wood or a drawer of water, to labour in any sphere, so that I may be instrumental in doing good and glorifying God? Shall this year, if my Heavenly Father spare me, be the best year, so far, of my life?

Let questions like these be seriously and prayerfully pondered, and the exercise cannot but lead to the most salutary and beneficial results. Our souls will, by such a process of inquiry and examination, be greatly quickened, and we shall be stimulated to greater spirituality, diligence, zeal, and devotedness. This method of searching self-inquiry will have a powerful corrective tendency. It will discover to us our faults, and failings, and shortcomings. It will humble us in our own estimation.

It will

It will cause us to realize our dependence on Jehovah's grace. lead to ingenuous confession of sin where it has been committed, to earnest prayer for a renewed application of the blood of Christ, to amendment of conduct, to increased holiness, and to a more rapid growth in Christian experience and practice. Heads of families, officebearers in the church, &c., will do well, in the performance of this duty, to propose and consider such other questions as they will find to arise out of the positions they occupy. Let all who are wishful for the year 1858 to be a good year with them spiritually, engage sincerely and heartily in the work of self-examination.

3. The commencement of the year is a proper time for a fresh consecration of ourselves to God and his service. We have spoken of selfexamination, and recommended and urged attention thereto. Selfexamination will prepare the way for that renewed consecration to Jehovah and his service which we would now enforce. With the new year there should be a renewal of our covenant with God—a starting afresh in the way to heaven-a girding of ourselves anew for the Christian race. And what will be the characteristics and evidences of this fresh devotion of body and spirit and soul to the Lord? Proof there should be, and proof there will be, if this renewed consecration have taken place. It will not be concealed. We have no idea of an invisible piety. Religion is a fruit-bearing tree, and the more vigorous the tree the more abundant will be the fruit. "By their fruit ye shall know them." As certainly as spring follows winter, developing itself in loveliness and beauty, and is itself succeeded by summer and autumn, each yielding its appropriate treasures, so surely will a life full of the lovely blossoms of piety, and the beautiful fruits of righteousness, follow the full surrender of ourselves to God. All that is cold, and bleak, and barren, will disappear, and be succeeded by heavenly warmth, and animation, and fruitfulness. "He that abideth in me, and I in him," says Christ, "the same bringeth forth much fruit." Happy are they who fully abide in the Saviour! They shall flourish like palm trees, and grow up like cedars in Lebanon; they shall be like trees planted by the rivers of water, which bring forth fruit in their season; they shall grow as lilies, and cast forth their roots as Lebanon. The best evidence of our love to the Redeemer is to keep his commandments. What, then, shall be our course during the year on which we are now entering? Shall it be one of unreserved devotion to Christ, holy earnestness, living faith, and noble deeds? Is this the resolve of our hearts, the uncompromising purpose of our souls, God being our helper? Has the advent of the year already witnessed in us deep heart-searchings, severe self-scrutiny, the acknowledgement of past unprofitableness, and a fuller consecration to God and duty? What answer shall our subsequent conduct furnish to these queries? As, during the rebuilding of the dilapidated walls of Jerusalem, under the direction of Nehemiah, "the people had a mind to work," so may it be with us. This is the will of God concerning us. "Occupy till I come." To this we are called by him who redeemed us, by our own solemn obligations and responsibility, by the state of the church, and by the perishing condition of multitudes of souls around us. If the

present times be distinguished by a stirring earnestness, as is undeniably apparent, why should not that earnestness be manifested in relation to religion, as well as with respect to projects and enterprizes of an infinitely less weighty and momentous character? Is not this meet and right? Is it not, indeed, the great thing needed? Unhappily, in great numbers of instances, even on the part of professors, attention is given to the world to the sad neglect of religion. By how many are the precious" means of grace" wilfully and criminally neglected? These "wells of salvation,”—these sources of spiritual strength, and refreshment, and comfort, are treated as though they were of little value, and as though regular attention to them were neither obligatory nor very desirable. Once going to the sanctuary on the Sabbath is, in too many cases, made to suffice; and as to the week-night prayer meeting, and the class meeting, they are, by such parties, almost wholly ignored. There is, it is clearly evident, but little desire to "dwell in the house of the Lord, to behold his beauty, and to inquire in his temple." By this not inconsiderable class of professors, little effort is put forth, little zeal manifested, little active co-operation exercised for the good of Zion, the conversion of souls, and the glory of God. And is there not reason to fear that along with this palpable and glaring inattention to the ordinances of the Lord's house, and other duties pertaining to church membership, there will also be neglect of private devotion, the reading of the Holy Scriptures, &c.? Alas! there is too much of the leaven of the world in the church, and its influence is most deleterious and soul-destroying. The church needs re-converting. She needs to be more alive, more devoted, more energetic, more holy, and to possess a larger measure of the Holy Spirit's influence. How may all this be effected? By that renewed dedication to God to which we have directed attention. Let it, then, be made (supposing it not to have been done already)—made at once-made fully-made by alland results the most delightful in their character will flow therefrom. Fully devoted to God, we shall be found in the diligent employment of those means which have by infinite wisdom and goodness been ordained to conserve and encourage piety in our own hearts, to build up the church in her most holy faith, to make her "fair as the moon, bright as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners," and to spread the triumphs of the cross among our fellowmen everywhere. Whether officers or private members of the church, becoming attention to duty will mark our deportment. Whatever relations we sustain, no miserable attempt to transfer to others duties which devolve on ourselves, will be made. We shall be ready to perform our own part, and do our own work, according to the position we occupy and the talents we possess. It has been observed of England's greatest general, that the word "glory "—so often used by martial men-never occurred in his despatches; but that all he did was from a sense of duty to his sovereign and his country. In a better cause, a similar motive will, if we be under a right influence, sway our minds a sense of obligation and duty to him whose we are. With warm hearts, and loving, earnest souls, we shall not inquire how little will suffice, but try how much we can do. Nor will our zeal be like the transient glare of a

meteor, suddenly filling observers with astonishment and then vanishing away; it will rather resemble the shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day. We shall be "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." Love will abound, the means of spiritual improvement and edification receive due attention, church duties be punctually performed, the Spirit's influence largely realized, sinners brought to God, and general prosperity shared. "The church," it has been well observed, "should be an evangelizing corps." It will be so when the church is in a right state. And when it is so, heaven will smile, the waste places of Zion be repaired, and Jerusalem be made a praise in the earth. May we have this delightful condition of things in 1858.

4. The new year admonishes us to reflect on our mortality. Another yearly stroke of the great pendulum of time has been accomplished. With thirty millions, or thereabouts, of the human race, it has been the closing one. Who that now lives can tell that the stroke of 1858 will not be the last one with him? Reader, the decree may have gone forth, "this year thou shalt die." What is our life? It is as a vapour that appeareth but for a little season-or a race that is quickly runor an arrow flitting through the air. Death is busy, ever busy, and none can stay his hand. He is a stranger to sympathy, and knows no mercy. Beauty cannot charm him, power cannot withstand him, wealth cannot bribe him, and even the possession of virtue and religion cannot ward off his approach. He may come upon us in a moment, without warning, and in a form totally unexpected; or his approach may be indicated by the existence of some fell disease. Often does "the wind's unkindly blast" nip the tender bud ere its petals have expanded; and often, too, does the full-blown flower, stricken by some unfriendly influence, prematurely wither and die. How many who, at the beginning of 1857, bade as fair for life as any of those around them, are now in the dark, cold, silent grave! Some of those whose eyes will fall on the words we now write, will have had, during the past year, to mourn the loss of those they dearly loved. May the sympathizing Saviour be their comforter! Truly, in the midst of life we are in death. How salutary the Saviour's admonition" Be ye also ready." And how wise and important the counsel "What thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." How solemn are these things! What need for watchfulness, and prayer, and faith, and labour ! Should this be the last year of our life, may we be found to have acted the part of good and faithful stewards!

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Important, however, as are the considerations we have named, and solemn as are the reflections they are adapted to excite, still the season is not one of gloomy character. The new year! The very phrase is one of cheering import. Let it be rightly improved, and God will bless us. Let us cherish feelings of thankfulness for the mercies received, examine ourselves as to our state before God, consecrate ourselves anew to His service, and properly regard the admonitory language of the revolving seasons; and the influence of the whole on our

hearts and lives will be most benign and profitable. While we are led to abase ourselves, we shall be furnished with the strongest - motives for trust in God, and full devotion to him; we shall walk in the light of his countenance, and be refreshed with the dews of his grace. And when the old year of mortality expires, we shall, having obtained redemption in the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of our sins, enter on a new year of heavenly blessedness and glory, in a world where it will be spring-time for ever: "where no cold chills, and no heat scorches; where there is bloom without decay, and a sky without a cloud." May that eternal spring be ours!

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

L. SAXTON.

ENTIRE CONSECRATION.

"Unworthy is that man to live on the earth who liveth only to himself. As self is the chief interest of an unsanctified man, so Christ and the will of God is the chief interest of the sanctified; so that he hath now no business in the world but God's business; he hath no honour to regard but God's honour; he hath none to exalt but the King of kings."-BAXTER.

A POPISH book has recently been published with the title, "ALL FOR JESUS." As might have been expected, the title is deceptive, and covers the errors and traditions of the great apostacy. A specimen may suffice to show how boldly Mariolatry is inculcated::-"It is impossible to know Jesus, much more to love him, if we have not a warm devotion to his ever blessed mother. If his sacred heart be mercifully bent upon the salvation of souls, he has chosen Mary as the refuge of sinners and the advocate of souls. Whatever you are going to offer, remember to commend it to Mary. Take care, if you do not wish to be repulsed, to give it to Mary, to offer with those most worthy and acceptable hands of hers. For those hands are as whitest lilies, and the lover of lilies will never reprove as not found among the lilies what is found in Mary's hands." By teachings like these, the Scripture is made of none effect, which presents to us One Mediator and advocate with the Father-Jesus Christ the righteous.

But the title is expressive of a great truth. "All for Jesus:" all things were created by him, and FOR HIM, and we are laid under everlasting obligation to consecrate ourselves, without reserve, and for all coming time, to his service.

It is rare to find a man wholly consecrated to one great purpose. Most frequently men pursue a variety of objects, their energies are diffused over a wide surface, and rendered comparatively feeble. Occasionally, indeed, there have appeared individuals who, fixing their eye upon one object, regarding it as of commanding importance, and, collecting all their forces, have perseveringly aimed at its accomplishment. The world has marvelled at their achievements-all things have fallen into their train, and augmented their resources. The great conquerors, poets, and orators, of antiquity, are examples of this entire concentration of power. And loftier examples are not wanting; witness the