is a friend or foe; or to an impatient messenger, who runs away before his errand is completed. It is therefore necessary that we exercise self-command. "Let every one be swift to hear, slow to wrath."

3. This passion, against which we are frequently cautioned in the divine volume, is that, to which many are exceedingly prone, hastiness to anger. It therefore requires to be watched against, striven against, prayed against.

Let us look at this passion (when it is yielded to), in the light of Scripture. Examine some of the excuses which are made for it, and give a few brief rules for the government of our tempers.

I. Let us look at this passion, when it is cherished, as it is presented in the sacred Scriptures.

It is thus spoken of as a work of the flesh, and classed with other works of the flesh. See Gal. v., 20.

As such it is expressly forbidden. It exposes to imminent danger. "Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Matt. v., 22. Dearly beloved, saith Paul, "Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath." Rom. xii., 19. And again, "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice." Eph. iv., 31. Again," Put off all these, anger, wrath, malice," &c. Col. iii., 8.

It is characteristic of fools. "A fool's wrath is presently known." He that is hasty in spirit exalteth folly." "A stone is heavy and the sand weighty, but the wrath of a fool heavier than both."

It stirreth up strife. See this painfully exhibited in the conduct of the Tribes of Israel, when they all combined against Benjamin, and nearly cut off that tribe from the earth. See also it exemplified in the men of Israel and Judah, Judges xx. and xxi. 2 Sam. xix., 43.

On many other occasions what unhappiness has it produced in families, and what heart-burning does it now excite among those who ought to be dear friends to neighbourhoods and nations it not unfrequently extends, and for the time at least destroys all real comfort. "Grievous words stir up anger." Read the whole of the xvii. of Prov.

It is connected with pride. Yea does it not spring from pride? Does it not arise from our pride being touched? Proud and haughty scorner is he who dealeth in proud wrath.

It is cruel. See this exemplified in the case of Simeon and Levi: "Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel " Gen. xlix., 7. Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous.

• He

It brings its own punishment. "Wrath killeth the foolish, and envy slayeth the silly one." A man of wrath shall suffer punishment." that hath no rule over his spirit, is like a city that is broken down without walls."

It totally unfits for prayer, How can a man who gives way to anger, go into the presence of God? The peaceful dove flies from the bosom as well as from every other place, where anger dwells, takes up its abode, rests. Dr. Watt's beautifully expresses it:

"The spirit, like a peaceful dove,

Flies from the scenes of noise and strife."

Bishop Taylor still more beautifully speaks, when he says:-" Anger is a perfect alienation of mind from prayer, and therefore is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to God. For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass and soaring upwards, singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven and climb above the clouds-but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighing of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconstant, descend more at every breath of the tempest than it could recover by the vibration and frequent wrigling of his wings, till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was ovor: and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as if it had learned music and motion from an angel, as he passed sometimes through the air, about his ministering here below. So is the prayer of a good man when his affairs have required business, and his business was a matter of discipline, and his discipline was to pass upon a sinning person, or had a design of charity, his duties met with the infirmities of a man, and anger was its instrument, and the instrument became stronger than the prime agent, and rained a tempest and overruled the man, and then his prayer was broken, and his thoughts were troubled, and his words went up towards a cloud, and his thoughts pulled them back again, and made them without attention; and the good man sighs for his infirmity, but must be content to lose his prayers; and he must recover it when his anger is removed and his spirit is becalmed-made even as the brow of Jesus, and smooth like the heart of God; and then it ascends to heaven upon the wings of the Holy Dove, and dwells with God, till it returns like the useful bee, laden with a blessing, and the dews of heaven.

II, We will now examine some of the excuses which are made for giving way to anger.

1st. We are naturally of a hasty temper? or are of such a warm temperament that we cannot help it.

Persons of such a temperament should be more on their guard. Warmth may pre-dispose, but cannot necessitate to that which is sinful. The reason and resolution should command and master the passion. See the care of Socrates, he was naturally of an excitable temper, but by reason, philosophy, and resolution, he so governed himself, that when a physiognomist declared in after life, that his heart was the most depraved and corrupt within a human breast," they were filled with indignation, and were about to inflict summary punishment upon this individual, till their master assured them of the correctness of the statement.

2nd. The provocation was so great it would have moved any one.

So much the greater would you have looked in overcoming it. Then, what appears to you great would perhaps have appeared to you small, had your minds not have been in so excitable a state. You should rather say, God's majesty and holiness are such, that I dare not give way to anger, whatever may be the provocation. Has not God given you greater cause to obey him, than man to sin?

3rd. We were not prepared for the thing, it came upon us so suddenly and unexpectedly.

Hath

Then you ought to have been prepared. What is reason given for? Is it not to be exercised? To say nothing about God's word, &c. not God given us reason, and thus taught us better than the beasts of the earth, and made us wiser than the fowls of heaven." Job xxxv., 11.

4th. Our anger is but short or soon over, and we are sorry for it afterwards. So much the better, and the shorter and sooner over the better; but if it be mixed with bad feeling towards him who excites it, would it not be best for it not to exist at all? Certainly it is a sin to be avoided, and when you know before you must be sorry after, why make matter for future sorrow? Are not the common sorrows and calamities of life sufficient, that you must make some extra ones? Is this wise, is this rational?

5th. There are none but will be angry sometimes, even the best. As this is common, the greater is the reason why you should not be; there are enough angry without you. Fools think it manly, but wise men know it to be folly. Then what have you to do with others in this matter? You will neither have to answer for others, nor be punished for others; but you say the best are sometimes angry, this is not true with respect to sinful anger-there are some who are never thus angry-but should you live in a house or place where all are angry sometimes, the more need that you should never be, that you may set them a good example.

We think that such excuses as these, and all that can be made for sinful anger are untenable, and the wisest way for those who have been in the habit of giving way to angry tempers, and then excusing themselves in the best way they are able, is to ingenuously confess their sin and watch and pray for the future, that they may not be taken off their guard.

III. We will now give a few rules for the government of our tempers. We must, however, apprize our readers that those rules will be of no use unless they are attended to. We are sure they will not be attended to without watchfulness, pains-taking, and prayer.

Remember your

1st. Do not entertain a high opinion of self, Pride easily takes fire and makes a great explosion. sinfulness and disobedience to God. Cherish a lowly and humble mind. This will cool naturally hot tempers, and do wonders in preventing sinful

anger.

2nd. When things greatly excite and stir the passion of anger, if you find the feeling too great for your strength, leave the place and company of the party which annoys you.

Be sure, if you are with angry men, you are in danger. Who could stand still in a nest of hornets? When you have left the exciting cause you will grow cool. There is more valour sometimes in retreat than in tarrying.

3rd, Do not concentrate your thoughts and mind on the injuries which may have been done you.

Suffer not your thoughts to feed on them, they are bad food, and never will administer wholesome nourishment to the soul. If you dwell to much on these injuries you will be devilish to yourselves and tempt yourselves, when you have no others to tempt you.

4th. Set the example of Jesus before you, and be determined to follow it, who "when He was reviled, reviled not again," &c. Learn of Him, "who was meek and lowly in heart," &c.

5th.

seest me."

and ways.

6th.

Try always to realize God's presence.

Say, "Thou, God,

Thou art cognizant of all my thoughts, feelings, tempers,

Look on others when angry. See how unlovely they are. See

Look at

their scowling countenances, their flaming eyes, their enraged and frightful appearance. Would you like to be like them? Can you conceive anything more fiend-like than an enraged man or woman? them giving way to angry passion, letting loose the filth, hate, and malignity, which has been pent up within them till a seeming opportunity has occurred for them to let their passions run over. Are they not boiling furious? and did you not know better, would you not conclude they were some unhappy beings who by some means or other had made their escape from the nether world ?

7th. Betake yourselves to God's word. Read and think till a holy peace, a heavenly calm steals over your bosoms, then you will know something of the sweet peace which keeps the heart and mind. Then you will have a taste of the heaven which awaits those who are conquerors of themselves.

8th. Fly to the throne of grace: wait constantly there. There you shall get your strength increased, and find power to help you to overcome the first rising of anger. You will grow in manliness, and set a pattern, to those around, worthy of imitation. You shall obtain that which will make you equal to every duty, God's grace shall be sufficient for you, and his strength shall be made perfect in your weakness.

9th. Do not depend on your resolution, watchfulness, prayers, or grace already received. Walk watchfully, prayerfully, and as resolutely as you can, but let your dependence be in the Lord and in the power of His might. You are safe and only safe when kept by God. "He will keep the feet of His saints, not one of them shall be removed, and though He may have been angry His anger will be turned away, and He

will administer comfort to them who trust Him.

We close by commending the reader to God and the word of His grace, that God, who is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them that are sancitified by faith that is in Christ Jesus.

Selections.

THETA.

USES OF NIGHT AND GRIEF.-Experience has decided that the early morning air is much more inspiring and vigorous than the evening. What is the law? Is not the atmosphere, like all other substances and tissues, spoiled of its energy by the action of light and heat? Does it not, like the vegetable and animal kingdom, require rest? After a night's rest it is recruited and young again. Joy fatigues the spirit in the same way; which requires rest from delight, no less than the body requires rest from labor.-Grief, like night, is salutary. It cools down the soul, by putting out its fires and if it oppresses her, it also compresses her energies. The load once gone, she will go forth with greater buoyancy to new pleasures. The night of death is a wise and merciful conclusion to the excitement of mortal life; with a calm, beautiful, wonderous strength, the regenerate spirit enters upon its new life.

NEGLECTING THE GREAT SALVATION.-Most of the calamities of life are caused by simple neglect. By neglect of education children grow up in ignorance; by neglect a farm grows up to weeds and briars; by neglect

a house goes to decay; by neglect of sowing a man will have no harvest; by neglect of reaping the harvest will rot in the fields. No worldly interest can prosper where there is neglect; and why may it not be so in religion? There is nothing in earthly affairs that is valuable that will not be ruined if it is not attended to, and why may it not be so with the concerns of the soul? Let no one infer therefore, that because he is not a drunkard, or an adulterer, or a murderer, that therefore he will be saved. Such an inference would be as irrational as it would be for a man to infer that because he is not a murderer his farm will produce a harvest, or that because he is not an adulterer therefore his merchandize will take care of itself. Salvation would be worth nothing if it cost no effort; and there will be no salvation where no effort is put forth.-Barnes.

THE COMPANY OF HEAVEN.-It is pleasant, amid the jars and discords of this lower world, to meet and mingle with the great and good and noble spirits that are to be found among us, and to refresh the weary, world worn mind by asscciation with the pure and holy hearted; after the busy cares and petty trials of this work-day world are over, to sit quietly down by the fireside, or among the two or three who have met together and converse of that home to which each closing day is bringing us nearer, and toward which our united hearts and hopes are tending.

And if the communion of saints on earth is so sweet, if the society of the good and lovely is to be desired, what must it be to mingle in the grand assemblage above? Heaven has been gathering to itself through countless ages whatever is congenial to its nature, and enriching itself with the spoils of earth. Whatever we look upon as holy and excellent, elevated and worthy to be loved in the character of man, is found gathered and still gathering in that multitude which no man can number in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

From every century, every generation, out of every people, and nation and kindred, and tongue, since the world began, a long procession has ascended, and still passed onward, comprising all that is best, and noblest, and brightest in man, all that is holy, all that is true, all that makes earth safe and pleasant to dwell in, and joining itself to that church of the first-born which is written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. There are those whom we have known and loved.-The hoary head walking among us for so many years in the ways of wisdom, the soldier of the cross, who had learned to live not unto himself, but unto Him who died-the gentle, pure hearted, loving ones-the tender infant-all taking their place in the ranks of those who are "" without fault," before the throne. Once safe within those portals, how glorious their communion, how pure their intercourse. Nothing but holiness, and happiness and love bind together the family of heaven. Is this the companionship in which we trust to spend our eternal years? What manner of persons ought we, then, to be, in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for, and hastening unto the day when we, to, shall join in that innumerable multitude, and unite with them in the ever new song of praise to Him who hath covered us with a righteousness, and made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.-Christian Witness.