in authority, and it is well to have a clear view of what we should especially ask on their behalf. The poor race-horse takes his turn for torture this month. Ascot, and similar places, will now be yielding the annual harvest of souls to Satan, in the gambling, the drunkenness, the universal depravity among the lower orders, drawn there to gaze on the courtly throng, who go to patronize the more refined wickedness of the race-stud and the winning-post. I do wish that the Lord's people would make that week an especial season of importunate, irresistible prayer for the speedy coming of Him who alone can set right the foundations of the earth, now completely out of course.'

'I wish they would, and I hope they will! It is when one class are defying, and another crying unto him, that He will come. It is when the hope of his people is chilled by delay, and the scoff of the world demands, "Where is the promise of his coming?" that he will appear. But, "who may abide the day of his coming?" Not they who, professing separation from the world, are mixed up in heart, if not in practice, with its usages and feelings. It is very possible to "live after the flesh" in total retirement from, and with a loud testimony against, the vanities of a dissipated life, and the frivolous amusements of the world. The spirit of pride, of vain-glory, of domination over others, accounted weaker brethren, is too rife among us. The love of worldly distinction, the thirst for worldly praise, though it be confined to what we term the religious world, and look no farther, is a fearful snare to some; while others, conscious of their freedom from such poor thirst of man's applause, may find their feet entangled in

some net of a different colour, but woven by the same crafty hand. Every day, every hour, as I look round me, and then look within, I feel more impelled to cry unto the Lord for what alone can remedy the abounding evil. Satan's increasing usurpations; man's pride, cruelty, and unbelief; the whole inferior creation groaning and travailing in pain together, while almost every new attainment in knowledge leads man deeper into presumptuous sin;— all these things combine to infuse new energy into the prayer, "Lord Jesus, come quickly!"'

'Amen! My soul is as weary as yours, and if it were possible to desire too ardently his approach, I should feel guilty of that excess. It is too true that our advance in science is, generally, an advance in sin. Look at the enormous power of steam, recently applied to facilitate our commercial and social intercourse; a boon for which we cannot be thankful enough to God, from whom cometh every good gift; but which is used as the most efficient and extensive means for sabbath desecration. It is really dreadful to contemplate the wide sweep of this outrage against God, rendering that a national crime and a national curse which he bestowed to be a national blessing.'

'Ay; France, which, with the exception of a small unrecognized body of private Christians, is a compound of Popery and Atheism, and as such openly flings off God's laws, and laughs at his ordinances; France has received her warning on that head, directly from the Lord's hand; but England, who professes to legislate on the foundation of scripture, holds the word by which she shall be judged, and is warned by God's voice daily. Our rulers hear the

gospel, if not from the pulpit, certainly from the desk, and the law, as written on the two tables is distinctly proclaimed in their ears. In no country are congregations so compelled to hear, and ministers to declare the unadulterated truths of revelation as in England, within the pale of her national church: and this, while it places in a startling light the inexcusableness of not following those truths, may encourage us to pray that the word may indeed profit them, being mixed with faith in them that hear it.'