still more embittered the remainder. But shall it ever be thus? Shall this fair, bright creation lie under the foul blot of satanic despotism, until it is hurled into destruction? Surely not the whole creation which now groaneth and travaileth in pain together, will together rejoice in deliverance from that cruel bondage to which all God's creatures became subject through man's transgression. The meek shall yet "inherit the earth," whereon they were once accounted the offscouring of all things they shall "reign upon the earth," whose dens and caves were once considered too good a lodging for them. The trees of the field that spread a concealing shadow over the afflicted friends, shall" rejoice before the Lord," at his coming to judge the world in righteousness; and the grave in which David laid the relics of his faithful brother, with that exquisitely tender lament which has no equal even in the inspired volume, shall, like the sepulchre of David himself, yield up its deposit, to be re-united to the soul that was knit to its fellow in a love indissoluble as the spiritual existence itself is inextinguishable. How doubly beautiful becomes such a record

as that given by the Holy Ghost of the unshaken attachment of these saints in the flesh, when viewed in conjunction with the glory yet to be revealed! It seems to fill up a sort of chasm, to add a finish to what was imperfect before. In Christ they loved each other under a dark dispensation: with Christ they now rest, in expectation of that day, when with Christ they shall return to inherit the kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the world. And not only Jonathan with David, but every Christian friend with his own chosen companions shall so rejoicean assurance calculated no less to sweeten the intercourse of those who are yet spared to each other here, than to pour the balm of heavenly consolation into the bereaved bosom that is distressed for the departure of a Jonathan, whose love perhaps can never be equalled, nor his loss supplied until the day of future restitution, when each will become a pillar in the Lord's temple, to “go no more

out."

No. IV.

PLAIN DEALING.-JOSEPH.

AMONG the snares in which God's people are apt to entangle themselves, that of over-cautiousness not to shock the prejudices of those with whom they converse, is eminently and mischeviously effectual. When a Christian is led by ordinary business, or in some lawful way, into the society of those to whom the vital believer's faith is fanaticism, his hope a chimera, those, in short, to whom the apostle alludes, when saying, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him;" what is the plan generally pursued? Do we not usually experience in ourselves, and remark in others, a shrinking from the subject that we know to be the most important, and a deliberate avoidance of expressions that would bring to the recollection of our companions

the separating line betwixt us? Many plausible excuses for such a mode of conduct will suggest themselves-unwillingness to give offence-apprehension lest we may startle them away from us, and so deprive them of an opportunity of receiving benefit by more indirect means a persuasion that God's time for working in their hearts is not yet come, and that when it arrives we shall find some opening to encourage us to speak out—and, lurking perhaps near the bottom of the matter, a disinclination to expose ourselves to dislike or contempt; while we probably imagine it is the honour and dignity of the cause, not our own, that we are so loth to compromise.

When a Christian, especially a newlyawakened one, first finds, or fancies himself constrained to keep silence from good words, it is pain and grief to him; his heart is hot within him: he has believed, and therefore he longs to speak. But evil of every kind becomes familiar by tampering with it, and this of unfaithfulness quite as much so as any other. That tender concern for the souls of others, which is so deeply felt by the young

convert, is apt to become deadened, and the feeling blunted, by silently mixing with the worldly, even though we may carefully abstain from doing the things that would best please them, as being most contrary to our own profession; and those who from over caution, or modest mistrust of themselves, at first adopted this plan of reserve, may soon become sinfully ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of his words, if they do not watch, pray, and strive for a more faithful spirit.

Joseph affords a beautiful instance of this plain-spoken sincerity, in his first interview with the mighty monarch of Egypt. The Hebrew captive had already suffered enough to teach him great caution: he had been disappointed in his well-grounded hope of being favourably remembered by the chief butler, and was left to realize the ingratitude of courtiers. God had now again miraculously gifted him with a power to which none of the Egyptian magicians could attain; and he was in a fair position to become great. The king, before whom he was summoned to appear, was an idolater, a polytheist, the upholder of a proud mythology, adopted and rigidly main