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intention; let us do the first work that is before us,-do it thoroughly, or to the best of our ability,-and then rejoice to know that God will say of us, "They did what they could."

NO TIME FOR DEVOTION.

Do we take devotion itself to be no business, or a business of no consideration? Do we conceit, when we pay God His debts, or discharge our duty toward Him; when we crave His mercy, when we solicit the main concernments of our souls, that we are idle, or misemployed? that we lavish our time, and lose our pains? What other affairs can we have of greater moment or necessity than this? Can there be any interest more close and weighty than this, of promoting our own souls eternal health and happiness? Is not this, indeed, the great work, -the only necessary matter; in comparison with which all other occupations are trifling? What are the great businesses of this world? What but scraping for pelf, compassing designs of ambition, courting the respect and favour of men, gratifying sinful curiosity and carnal humour? Shall these images, these shadows of business, suppress or crowd our devotion? that which procureth wealth inestimable, pleasure infinitely satisfactory, and honour incomparably noble above all that this earth can afford? Is it not, besides, no such indispensable business, but rather some base dotage on lucre, some inveigling bait of pleasure, that crosseth our devotion? Is it not often a complimental visit, an appointment to tattle, a wild ramble in vice or folly, that so deeply urgeth us to put off our duty? Nay, is it not commonly sloth, rather than inclination to any other employment, which diverts us from our prayers? Is it not the true reason why we pray so seldom, not because we are very busy, but because we are extremely idle; so idle that we cannot willingly take the pains to withdraw our affections from sensual things, to reduce our wandering thoughts, to compose our hearts to right frames, to bend our untoward inclinations to a compliance with our duty? Do we not betake ourselves to other con

versations and commerces merely for refuge, shunning this intercourse with God and with ourselves.-Barrow.

A CHRISTLESS BURIAL. "So I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done." (Eccles. viii. 10.)

WRAPT in a Christless shroud,

He sleeps the Christless sleep; Above him, the eternal cloud,

Beneath, the fiery deep.

Laid in a Christless tomb,

There, bound with felon-chain,
He waits the terrors of his doom,
The judgment and the pain.

O Christless shroud, how cold,
How dark, O Christless tomb!
O grief that never can grow old,
O endless, hopeless doom!

O Christless sleep, how sad!

What waking shalt thou know? For thee-no star, no dawning glad, Only the lasting woe!

To rocks and hills in vain

Shall be the sinner's call; O day of wrath, and death, and pain, The lost soul's funeral!

O Christless soul, awake

Ere thy last sleep begin! O Christ, the sleeper's slumbers break, Burst Thou the bands of sin!

The Zoology of the Bible.

THE WOLF.

THIS animal is not often alluded to by the sacred writers; but in the few references which occur, his character is strongly and justly drawn. Nature has furnished him with cunning, strength, and agility, to discover, to seize, and to devour his prey. Though naturally clownish and dastardly, want makes him ingenious, and necessity gives him courage. When pressed by famine, he braves danger; he attacks those animals which are under the protection of man, especially those which he can transport with ease, as lambs, small

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night he shall divide the spoil." (Gen. xlix. 27.) The wolf is weaker than the lion or the bear, and less courageous than the leopard; but he scarcely yields to them in cruelty and rapaciousness. So Benjamin, although not destitute of courage and address, nor disinclined to war, possessed neither the strength nor the manly spirit of Judah, whose symbol was the lion's whelp; but yet he was greedy of blood, he delighted in rapine; and in the early periods of Jewish history, he distinguished himself by an active and restless spirit, which commonly, like the wolf among lambs and kids, spent itself in petty or inglorious warfare, although it sometimes blazed forth in deeds of heroic valour, and general utility. He had the honour of giving the second Judge to the nation of Israel, who delivered them from the oppressive yoke of Moab; and the first King who sat on the throne of that chosen people, whose valour saved them from the iron sceptre of Ammon, and more than once revenged the barbarities of the uncircumcised Philistines upon their discomfited hosts. In the decline of the Jewish commonwealth, Esther and Mordecai, who were both of this tribe, successfully interposed with the King of Persia, for the deliverance of their brethren, and took their station in the first rank of public benefactors. But the tribe of Benjamin ravined like wolves, that are so ferocious as to devour one another, when they desperately espoused the cause of Gibeah, and in the dishonourable and bloody feud, reduced their own tribe to the very brink of ruin, and inflicted a

deep wound on the other members of the state.

The ravenous temper of the wolf prompts him to destructive and sanguinary depredations. He issues forth in the night, traverses the country, and not only kills what is sufficient to satisfy his hunger, but everywhere, unless deterred by the barking of dogs or the vociferation of the shepherds, destroys a whole flock; he roams about the cottages, kills all the animals which have been left without, digs the earth under the doors, enters with a dreadful ferocity, and puts every living creature to death, before he chooses to depart, and carry off his prey.

When his hunger is extreme, he loses the idea of fear; he attacks women and children, and even sometimes darts upon men; till, becoming perfectly furious by excessive exertions, he generally falls a sacrifice to pure rage and distraction. He has been accordingly joined with the lion in executing punishment upon wicked men; and it is evident from his character and habits, that he is well adapted to the work of judgment. (Jer. v. 5, 6; Ezekiel xxii. 27; Zeph. iii. 3; Acts xx. 29.)

In the sacred writings, the wolf is everywhere opposed to sheep and goats, as if his cruelty and rage were reserved especially for these creatures. So our Lord informs His disciples, John x. 12. The Prophet Isaiah seems to lead our attention to the same circumstance, when he describes the wonderful change which is to take place in the world, under the benign influence of the Gospel. (Isaiah lxv. 25.)

No. CXXI.

"Love is the fulfilling of the law." (Rom, xiii. 10.)

If we love God as we ought to do, we shall certainly have no other God but Him: much less shall we worship any graven image. We shall not take His name in vain; nor shall we fail to keep holy His holy day. If we love our neighbour, as Christ requires, we shall be sure to render to every man bis due; and

so by consequence we shall honour our parents and superiors, whether public or private, whether ecclesiastical or civil. Then for the neighbour who is equal, or in any degree inferior to us, we shall be sure not to injure him in any kind. From whence it follows, we shall not kill; for that were to injure him in his life: nor commit adultery; for that were to injure him in his wife: nor steal, or plunder; for that were to injure him in his goods: nor bear false witness; for that were to

injure him in his good name.

And as we shall not thus injure him either in deed or in word; so, if we love him as ourselves, or as Christ loved us, we shall not do him any injury, no not so much as in our thoughts. We shall not covet, or be desirous of anything that is our neighbour's. Thus the four precepts of the first table, and the six precepts of the second, or if there be any other precept besides these ten, it is briefly comprehended in this one word, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."-Pierce's Sinner Impleaded, Part iii., p. 152. Edit. 1679.

No. CXXII.

"He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again." (Prov. xix. 17.)

When God professeth to be our Debtor for all we give unto the poor, and gives us His word for a repayment; and Christ becomes our Security, that all we lend shall be returned a hundred-fold into our bosoms; what kind of reason can be imagined why one rich man will lend his money to another for six pounds in the hundred, or lay it out in some trade (at most) for twenty in the hundred, rather than lend it to the Lord, by having pity upon the poor; or lay it out upon life eternal; whereby he shall not only receive six or twenty in the hundred, but exceedingly more than a hundred-fold the very principal? If we inquire into the reason, I am afraid we shall find it to be but this: That they cannot easily trust God, or believe the Scripture, or accept of Christ for their Security. Say we therefore to ourselves, as many of us as

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are rich, that if ever we do expect to be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, we must ourselves be obliged to take Lazarus into our own. Or admit, we may be said to be comparatively poor, yet rather than fail of being merciful, we must work with our hands the thing that is good, that we may have to give to him that needeth. St. Paul's own hands did administer to his necessities; and not only to his, but to theirs also that were with him. (Acts xx. 34.) The strong ought, by their labour, to support the weak. Rather than any man should want, who is not able to earn his bread, he hath a kind of right to eat it in the sweat of our brows. For there is one sort of poor, who are an honourable order or rank of men, being of God's immediate institution: and our Lord Himself was pleased to make Himself free of that company. He did not think it unbecoming Him to be the Head of that order: for whilst He lived, He lived on alms. The foxes were not so poor, for they had holes; the fowls of the air were not so poor, for they had nests; but the Son of Man, said the Son of Man Himself, had not where to lay His head. And then, when He was dead, He was buried upon other folks' charges. We must not, therefore, neglect the poor, unless we dare reproach our Maker; or, unless we dare despise that which Christ Himself, in His own person, was pleased to honour. The infidels provided, as well for those of their own country, as for those of their own house; and St. Paul implies by the word "specially," that Christians ought to provide for both, unless they dare be worse than infidels.-Ibid, pp. 164, 165.

COAST MISSIONS, AND THEIR FOUNDER.*

"WHAT David Nasmyth did for City Missions, Thomas Rosie may be said to have done for Coast Missions." Mr. Dodds makes the remark, and the book

Coast Missions. A Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Rosie. By the REV. JAMES DODDS, Dunbar, Nisbet & Co. 1862. Pp. 258.

true goodness, attention is first called to the commencement of

1. HIS INNER-LIFE.

A book lent to him by a young friend increased a sense of guilt which had been strengthened by his father's death, when he was sixteen years of age. Two appeals to him, as the eldest son, to act as priest at the family-altar, instead of his devout father, who had passed to the skies, gave poignancy to his convictions, for he felt disqualified for the duty by his iniquities. A sermon, about the same time, from the text, "Prepare to meet thy God," greatly troubled him; and, after fruitless attempts to make himself better, he learned to value Christ as a Saviour, before the dawn of day, in a cleft of one of the huge high rocks that look down on the fine old city of Edinburgh. The words of his biographer are:-"His spiritual anxiety at length became alarming, almost overwhelming. His sins were all set in terrible array against him, and their burden was intolerable. He felt them to be unforgiven, and saw, as it were, the Judge at the door. For some time he was plunged into the deepest mental anguish, and found no relief. But one morning he rose very early, like one distracted, and bent his steps towards Salisbury Crags, in the hope of finding, beyond the precincts of the city, a fitting place for quiet meditation and earnest wrestling with God in prayer. In a solitary recess on the lofty ridge, which has so often of old, and in later times, witnessed far other sights, did this stricken youth kneel down to plead with God for the forgiveness of sins. Agonised as he was, he felt the Divine presence. He was brought nigh a throne of grace by the blood of Jesus. Like the patriarch at Peniel, he wrestled till the break of day; and, even after dawn, he continued to offer up his strong and earnest supplication. As he so poured out his heart, he began to feel relief; and the morning light, that broke upon Arthur's Seat, seemed an image of the light that now poured into his soul. It was a new and clear view of the Saviour's love to him, a wretched, helpless sinner, that was the forerunner of joy. He saw how great, and full, and free salvation is as offered in Christ. He got A real glimpse of the glory of the Cross,

and felt, as he had never felt before, the preciousness and power of the blood that cleanseth from all sin. He did not leave that rocky spot till his heart was quite broken, and the great transaction between the Saviour and himself was done. He was constrained to give, and willingly he gave, himself to that Saviour; body, soul, and spirit, a living sacrifice. Having thus got peace, after a great but blessed struggle, he descended from his eminence; his heart joyful, and his face shining, like one who had, indeed, been on the mount with God." Mr. Rosie, in referring to this event in a letter, writes:-"I went home quite happy; feeling that if death were to come, I should not be afraid to die. And from that hour the desire arose in my mind to devote myself to the work of telling others the way to be saved. I felt, also, that if a way were opened up for my being engaged in that work, I should be willing to go to any quarter of the world." When young Rosie obtained spiritual life, his intellectual powers received new strength and stimulus: he became a wonder to many; an outspoken witness for Christ, and worker for souls; and an inexpressible joy to a widowed and pious mother. He took an early opportunity of relating to her all the particulars of his conversion; and she, who had borne him on her heart in prayer from his birth, followed him with delighted eyes as he went in and out rejoicing in a newlyfound Saviour.

II. HIS TRAINING FOR HIS GREAT WORK.

Is there a plan of life in the mind of God for every youth in a Christian family? and, will the Architect of the plan become the Builder, and raise the building from the lowest stone to the top-stone, if the child yield himself to God, and his "members as instruments of righteousness unto God?" These questions are prompted by the fact that the circumstances of childhood often appear to develop tastes and abilities, by the right use of which singular usefulness is attained in the activities of a Christian life. The conditions of young Rosie's boyhood were an unconscious preparation for his future work. He was cradled and nursed on an island in the Orkney group, revelled in