and blindness of the mind induces this false joy, and prevents a real concern for the one thing needful.' False reasonings, presumptuous hopes, and views of religion different from those of the openly profane; these act as mighty persuasives on the imagination; and speak, 'peace, peace, where there is no peace.' Like children amused with a rattle, such persons take up with the carcase and shell of religion, and are ignorant of the vital principle within. An outward form of godliness satisfies for the inward power of it.

And

thus resting upon the means, and unconscious of the end, their forms and ceremonies of devotion, instead of leading the heart to God, tend to carry the heart from GOD, and they know nothing more of religion than the name. And herewith their conduct uniformly corresponds. You will find such characters as well at the playhouse as at the Church. They can sit both at the Lord's table and the card table, and are as well known at the one as the other. Thus they live in the vanity and ignorance of the mind; and thus not unfrequently they die; ignorant of themselves, ignorant of their own corruptions,

strangers to all the principles of grace, without GOD, and without Christ. The portrait of these persons is accurately drawn by the pencil of GoD in holy Scripture, and you may view two correct outlines of it in the 21st chapter of the book of Job; and the 73d Psalm of David. Very different is that which the Blessed Spirit hath given us in sweet miniatures. of his people, throughout his whole word. But come, Sir, as you have seen the gaiety of the formal worshipper, let me lead you into the assembly of the real. I am just going to a prayer-meeting, where you will be introduced, if you think proper, among that poor and afflicted people, which the Lord said he would leave in Zion.'

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-I arose, and followed my guide towards the place, with strong expectations of improvement.

The Prayer-Meeting.

****My guide led me into a room upon the first floor of a dwelling, in which every thing around indicated the humble circumstances of the owner, where we found sev

eral persons assembled for the purpose of devotion. They had just began their evening service, and were engaged in singing an hymn as we entered. The words of the hymn were interesting; and, as I thought, not inapplicable to my state and circumstances:

"Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched, Weak and wounded, sick and sore; Jesus ready stands to save you,

Full of pity join'd with power," &c.

-The hymn was followed up by prayer, which issued from a voice that I thought I had heard before. And it was an agreeable surprise to me, at the close of it, to recognize in the person praying, the countenance of the Poor-Man, whose observations at the church-porch had made such impressions upon me. He noticed me also, and with that kind of regard which seemed to say, 'I am glad to see you here.' But the purport of the meeting so occupied his whole attention, that he appeared to have no leisure for other objects. By what followed, I was led to conclude, that if any place of pre-eminence was found in this humble circle, it was his province. For as soon as the prayer was ended, and the

company seated, he took up the Bible, which lay upon the table before him, and read, from the part where it happened to open, the 16th Psalm. I could not be mistaken as to the number of the Psalm, by what followed in his observations upon it.

The Poor Man's Experience.

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IN relating my experience, (he said,) of the LORD's gracious dealings with my soul, I desire to acknowledge, to the praise of the glory of grace, wherein he hath made me accepted in the Beloved,' that I can, with all humility of mind, adopt this language of the Psalmist, and say as he did, The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup. He maintaineth my lot. Since that blessed period, when it pleased GoD to call me by his grace, and to quicken my soul which was before dead in trespasses and sins,' through a long series of five and twenty years, I have been learning, by little and little, to discover more and more of my own emptiness and poverty, and of the infinite fulness and suitability which is in the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus to supply all my wants. And the attainment to

which at length, under the teaching of GOD the Holy Ghost, I am arrived, is to know, that Jesus is the only portion of his people, for there is salvation in no other. The inheritance lost in the first Adam can only be recovered in the second. Jesus is the fountain of all blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. Men shall be blessed in HIM.' And out of him there is not a single favour provided for any of the bankrupt race of Adam's children. And it is my peculiar mercy, and a lesson which I have learnt from our Great Master in the Lord's school, that while the Blessed Spirit declares in his Church, that the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot to his inheritance;' my heart can make reply to the sweet sound, from the persuasion of a reciprocal interest in the Redeemer, the Lord is the portion of MINE inheritance, and of MY cup. Thou main

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tainest my lot.'*

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'It hath not been, however, without many hard lessons to flesh and blood, with which I have been exercised, that I have arrived to this knowledge. It was a long

* Compare Deut. xxxii. 9, with Psalm xvi. 5, for a precious evidence of this doctrine.