a great deal to do. They will find that Christianity without a Pneumatology has been shorn of more than half its power. They will find that when they have withheld from plain and common minds all that is positive and tangible respecting the future life, those minds will have become "empty, swept and garnished" for that gross and degrading materialism through which vulgar enthusiasts inflame the popular mind and scare it with visions of hellfire. Those minds will be ready to be borne along with the ravings of false prophets; with those who, like the Jews of old, are watching for an outward coming of the Messiah. Or worse still, having no definite views of a hereafter, they will sink into that secret and pernicious skepticism respecting the grand realities of eternity whose wasting influence has already been felt in our churches. There is a singular contrast between those bold and graphic delineations of Scripture which seize the imagination and hold it captive, and the timid and feeble generalities in which allusion is now made to the things that shall be hereafter. And the efficiency of the latter contrasted with the former is as the misty star-beam upon the waters to the sun when walking the heavens in the fervors of noon-day brightness.

E. H. S.

EARLY PIETY.

THERE is beauty in all holiness, under whatever circumstances and at whatever age it may exist. Yet the highest grace consists in giving the heart to God when the dew of youth is upon us. "The earth affords no lovelier sight Than a religious youth."

Early piety presents a peculiar attractiveness. It exercises a power over all who see it. Even the skeptical before such a sight dismiss their gloomy doubts, and believe God, the soul, and heaven must be realities. The irreligious are almost persuaded to become themselves that which they cannot but admire. Let a young man come forth and take a stand for Christ, and let him live the praises of godliness, and none can resist the loveliness of that picture. Go where he may, he gathers round him a charmed cir

cle; he is throwing silken cords over other souls, drawing them toward holy thoughts and a divine life. Like the Prophet of old, he hath taken those "two staves, Beauty and Bands," and he is leading out "a flock."

How many are the recommendations of early piety. It furnishes that preparation of the heart so needful for the encounter of temptation and sin. We can meet evil, come in what shape it may, if we but contemplate the struggle and make ready for it. David was a young man, Goliath was mature and mighty in strength, yet because that youth put his trust in the Lord of hosts, his fine smooth stones laid prostrate his foe. If we live on till manhood, servants of sin, our cause is always in peril. We contend against fearful odds; we may, it is true, be victorious; but we may also fall to rise no more. Jesus Christ did not commence his work until he had thoroughly prepared his spirit. No one should enter this great world of moral exposure, contagion, and guilt, until he also has first gone into the wilderness. There, in the morning of life, should we meditate and pray and resolve, and set up an altar unto God. He who does this need not fear the issue. Let the heart be once set right, let it be “fixed, trusting in the Lord," and the devil leaves us-we have renounced all connexion with him; we have said to him, "Get thee hence," and he has fled, and angels come and minister unto us.

Early piety is a foundation for a life of virtue. We see many attempt to build who have never yet laid the true corner-stone. They trust in opinion, accident, custom, penitence; but all these are a sandy foundation. He who does not commence his work aright can make no progress. The more he toils the less indeed does he accomplish, for all he is now doing must be one day undone. Strange is it that man deals so differently in his mortal and his immortal concerns. If a pestilence rage near us, we listen eagerly to every means of preservation, we say to ourselves, I will not risk the disease, and imagine I can cure it when fastened upon me. No, I will prevent its attack.' Why then should we in our early days, when told that the pestilence, sin, is near us, why should we neglect preventives? O inconsistent mortal! seek in thy youth the grace of God, his preventing grace, and put not thy confidence in the soul-risking remedies of a late repentance.

Early piety should attract us by its power to ward off presumptuous sins. Many do wrong knowingly and confessedly, they break the law of God and repent of their violations of duty, and plead perhaps that fate urges them onward in their course. When their time comes God will lead them, they think, to repentance; so kind and good a Being will not permit them to be lost. But what is the ground of this trust? Why should the Judge of all flesh suffer any sin, or any retribution of evil, if he be a God of mere mercy? This self-indulgence is, also, a fatal lure. It has destroyed the high and the low; and it has set up everywhere false lights for the young. We are told that the Duke of Orleans, who was regent after the death of Louis XIV., gave himself up to all manner of vice, in the belief that when he desired it, he could break off his corrupt habits and turn to God and duty. But when the time for effort came, and he would fain repent and reform, his strength was exhausted, his sensuality and abominations bound him to earth and sunk him in woe. He died immaturely, a warning to the millions who trust in a late repentance.

Youthful piety is recommended by the fact, that holiness is the only true preparation for death. It cannot be too often affirmed that we must give the morning of life to God if we would spend its evening in peace and hope. Paul declares that for him to die will be gain; but remark the ground of this assertion. "For me," says he, "to live is Christ," and he then adds, " to die is gain." There may be a false confidence generated by artificial stimulants, in the hour of death. There may be, it is true, a sincere and saving return at that time to God, but Scripture gives encouragement only to a life of piety. "They that seek me early shall find me," they that seek me late may find me,-is the alternative.

There is nothing which so disarms "the king of terrors"-as death has been too long called-of its ghastly aspect, as early piety. The Father has provided in this manner a compensation for what were else a most gloomy lot. To see a young man, full of hope and of the fairest promise, one especially on whom others are leaning as their chief earthly stay,-to see such an one arrested by sickness, taken from his occupation, compelled to relinquish the bright light of day, to quit every joy of this life, and amid decline and pains and pangs called to lie down and die,—it is a sad

scene. But let that young man be devoted to God, let him be imbued with practical holiness, and we feel that the scene has changed. We can now look upon him, not as a deformity amidst the fair doings of Providence, but as a "lovely sight." The "beauty of holiness," when do we so perceive and feel it as at the death-bed of the youthful saint?

Taking this as our stand-point, there is nothing mysterious in the appointment of early death. It does not jar on the harmony of our Father's ways, but seems, on the contrary, a token of his unfailing mercy. A religious life transforms the grim countenance of death into the welcome face of a friend. It impresses on our minds the great truth, that there is nothing so ill-favored as a godless life; that to him who has escaped that unnatural state and become sincerely holy, all else is bright and beautiful. Come sickness, come the weariest ills of the flesh, nay, come death itself, even in the season of youth, still all seems right, all beautiful.

I do not write thus from fancy; no, I thank the Father that I have seen this truth illustrated in real life. One has recently passed from this earth to whom I would point as a pattern of the beauty of holiness. He came to the door of the tomb, in the morning of his days, though he was undismayed and quil joy. Need I say, there was no mystery in this missiveness?

with a transtriking sub

God had given him a he was 66 a choice young

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There had been beauty in his active life. fair form and a face comely to look upon; man and a goodly," and seldom do we see pondence between outward and inward grace. It was pleasant to contemplate him, because we knew that his character was as lovely as his person. In the domestic circle faithful, tender, assiduous, what a son and brother were lost in him. Nay, a father he was, for sedulously did he occupy the place of one whom Providence had withdrawn from that station. The same fidelity marked his deportment in every relation and duty. Early and late he gave himself to the service of his employers; confidence was placed in him, and always did he prove himself worthy of that confidence. He was deeply interested in the sanctuary of God. He gave cheerfully of his time and substance to the welfare of the society with whom he worshipped. With a beautiful consistency he early

offered himself at the altar of his Saviour; and few scenes are more grateful than was this. He was accompanied to the table of Jesus by two other young men, and there, with hearts knit together in a common faith and love, the three individuals jointly pledged themselves to Christian holiness.

From his boyhood he was engaged in the pursuits of religious education. He was a pupil, and early a teacher, in the Sunday School. It gave him joy to lead souls by the still waters of righteousness, while yet the dew of their youth was upon them. Perhaps no one among us felt a deeper interest in the character of other young men. If he saw such an one transgressing, he was touched at the spectacle and would say, 'Ah! how can he do right, he has no starting-point, he has not laid the true foundation, he has no principle to rely upon in temptation.' And cordially did he commend the virtuous youth. His counsel to his younger acquaintances was the same that had been given by his deceased parent to himself-"Seek always, for companions, those superior to yourself." Nothing so won him toward another as the manifestation of sincere piety. There seemed a halo, to his view, round a godly youth; the highest charm of life with him was "the beauty of holiness."

He was a member of the choir in his church; and who but such as he should bear on their lips the melody of the Christian worshipper? The music of the sanctuary was not to him a mere exhibition of science, or of vocal and instrumental art; it was all devotion, the offering of the heart-in its varying moods of gratitude, praise, penitence, and holy purpose-to the Inspirer of all good. How easy seems the transition of a spirit, thus attuned to celestial harmony, from the sacred songs of our earthly courts to those strains in which angels join.

And now let me say, that the same beauty which radiated from his life shone also amid his sickness and death. It pleased the Father to afflict him with illness for long years. He left his secular pursuits however only when compelled to it at seasons of extreme debility. He resorted at length to the healing waters of the South, but neither this change nor all the medical aid which was liberally rendered him could stay the inroads of the destroyer. He anticipated the issue with calmness, for he felt that his soul