regards of all who came within the sphere of his influence, than was BISHOP HEBER. A striking testimony to his excellence as a Christian prelate has been borne by an American missionary employed to explore new fields of labour in the East. This fellow-labourer in the vineyard thus writes from Trichinopoly: "The last days of HEBER were spent laboriously in this city; and here, as a thief in the night' his hour came. No one can follow in his steps, as I have done, without hearing enough to prove, that HE WALKED with God. I stood over his grave in the church, and surveyed the bath from which his lifeless body had been taken, with feelings of sacred brotherhood."

Bishop Heber won the love of the poor natives of India by the humility and unaffected simplicity of his demeanour, his affability, and his benignity; and these qualities, springing, in common with all his other virtues, from the Christian graces of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and being united with a sound judgment, a firm resolution, and an indefatigable and self-denying activity, he exhibited during his life a bright example of Christian excellence, in a high and arduous position. His memory will be held in enduring honour; and on the morning of the resurrection many will rise up from the East and the West, and call him blessed.

A FANCY.

BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE LAKE AND OTHER POEMS."

GAZING one night upon the glittering vault.

A sight still viewed with wonder unabated;

And musing with an earnestness unsated

The meaning of the characters there wrought;

(For surely for some further end, methought,
Was that celestial labyrinth created,

Than to display to visions elevated

The might of Him, who all from nothing brought ;)
The fancy struck my mind, how vain soe'er,—

What if each star the name should

represent

Of some believer, saved by grace divine;

And thus if that most glorious firmament
Should symbolize the mystic register

Of those who as the stars for aye shall shine?

THOUGHTS ON THE CHRISTIAN'S COURSE.

(Continued from page 141.)

HE emblem of a pilgrimage, under which we have lately considered the Christian character, represents the Christian as passing away from sin; as turning aside from temptation; as looking forward to something beyond this world; and as using even the most lawful gratifications of the present life with moderation and caution; and this because, having fixed his affections and supreme regard on joys above the sphere of earth and overpassing the range of time, he desires to make every earthly acquisition, occupation, or delight, subordinate and subservient to the attainment and full enjoyment of the highest good.

The simile of the soldier, to which we are now to turn our attention, suggests the more positive characteristics which distinguish the Christian; and leads us to consider him as engaged in his more active avocations of striving against sin; resisting the assaults of the tempter; ever alive to every possible danger; standing on his guard, and watching lest he be taken unawares; and defending all points where the enemy might gain an advantage over him. The duties of the soldier are manifold; he must be at once prepared to repulse with vigour and judgment; and to assail with wisdom, resolution, and effect. That our spiritual enemies are various, powerful, and numerous, we learn from several passages of Scripture; but we are taught by the same high authority, that when enlisted as the soldiers of Jesus Christ, we are engaged on the side which must ultimately prevail; and that by taking to us the whole armour of God, we may, individually, be enabled to stand in the evil day, and having overcome all,* to stand. We may also rejoice in the assurance drawn from the inspired records, that the Captain of our salvation hath already conquered the Prince of this world; and has decided the great question whether Satan or Jehovah shall bear rule in earth and heaven: and that it is only left for us to follow up the victory; and to keep the spoil from the hands of the • Marginal reading.

vanquished, though still mighty adversary. By the mortal conflict of the Saviour's life, death, and resurrection, our souls have been delivered as from the snare of the fowler; and the snare being broken, it remains but for us to maintain our escape in the manner prescribed to us. Nor are we left to ourselves in any part of the struggle; our weapons for attack and defence, and the 'power and will to turn them against the enemies of our salvation, are alike bestowed by Him who has already "led captivity captive, and received gifts for men." That armour of God wherewith we are to be invested is a panoply forged and framed, as it were, out of the trophies of the victory of Christ; and is so fashioned, that in its due use, the Christian is made to share in his strife; is guided after the pattern of his conflict; and is drawn onwards to follow in the footsteps of his victorious course. In collating those passages of Scripture in which the various elements of the Christian character are compared to different portions of armour, we find between those passages, a close correspondence, which proves that the several points of resemblance which are particularized, are not chosen arbitrarily, but are selected with a peculiar reference to the functions of each piece of armour mentioned; and without tracing this adaptation into its minute details, an examination of these texts may lead us to form on this subject, clearer conceptions than would result from the mere reception of the general idea which they convey; and to observe the coincidence of some parts of the Christian's armour, with that wherewith the Saviour was arrayed when he took upon him the robe of humanity, wherein to accomplish the work of our redemption, and to leave us an ensample that we should follow his steps. At the same time, we may learn the close correspondence which exists between the work wrought by Christ for man, and the subsequent work which is wrought by him in the Christian's soul.

Thus the soldier of Christ is to be girded with truth. The girdle serves to retain in their places the several articles of accoutrement; and to restrain whatever might interfere with convenience or activity. Such a place does TRUTH hold in the Christian economy. In whichever of its varied though intimately connected senses we consider it, TRUTH, is an element of righteousness and faithfulness, and with these the Lord Jesus Christ is ever invested; whether we view him as engaged while on earth in the work of redemption; or as dwelling in the heavens, to carry out and effectuate its provisions. From the truth and faithfulness of God, the spiritual being of the Christian derives its origin and by them is it continually sustained and strengthened, to an extent which

we cannot fully appreciate, and which we too often fail to recognize; but in proportion as the mind is enabled clearly to perceive, and fully to apprehend, the attributes and works of God in Christ, there is awakened in the soul, and cherished in the life, the responsive characteristic of Christian truth or sincerity; and as this quality expands and is invigorated, the more will it fix itself upon the assurances and the manifestations of the Divine truth, and be developed as a badge of the new man and the soldier of Christ, in that uprightness of life, and perfectness or singleness of heart, which is distinctly predicated of God's people, and without some measure of which, none can truly serve the Lord. We may not pause to dilate on the importance to the Christian character of this element of singleness, sincerity, loyalty, and true. devotion, further than to note, in general terms, how much it must contribute to the stability and consistency of that character, and by putting aside, and as it were absorbing and neutralizing every rival interest, and leaving every truth and every duty to occupy its right place in the heart and conduct. Righteousness was the breastplate of the Lord our Saviour. Being inherent, it ever sustained him; yet as man's representative, he might be said to put it on, when in order to engage in the warfare of our redemption, he took upon Him our human nature. He was tried and found perfect as a Son, and a servant; and He was also proved infinitely holy and all-sufficient as a priest, a mediator, and an atoning sacrifice. His immaculate righteousness rendered Him proof against every assault of the Evil One, and victorious in every conflict; and in virtue thereof, after having submitted Himself, with an infinite capacity for endurance, to bear the penalty due to the sins of the whole world, He stood as Mediator between God and man, bearing in His person and His work a character of unsullied and perfected righteousness sufficient for the justification of the whole human race. The righteousness of Christ is at once the pattern, and the origin and source, of that wherewith his followers are to be clothed. Possessing in himself neither purity of nature, nor merit of performance, to serve as a defence against just judgment, or against the continuous influence of sin, the Christian's security and strength must lie not in a mere attempted imitation, but in a righteousness derived from the Redeemer's fulness yet the correspondence between the Christian and his Lord must be comprehensive and universal; and the gift sought and received by the soldier of Christ, must include not only the transfer of his Saviour's merits, but the transcript also of his Master's holiness; his

* Isaiah xl. 5.

bosom must bear the token, not alone of full and free admittance into the kingdom of God, but likewise of meetness to participate in the blessings of the inheritance of the saints in light. The Christian is exhorted by St. Paul to put on the breastplate of faith and love; but though the terms employed be different, the simile is essentially the same with that which is presented in his epistle to the Ephesians; for these Christian graces are at once the manifestations of the gift of righteousness imparted by God to man, and the instruments or channels, by which man derives the sustenance and increase of the life of righteousness. It is through faith that man receives and appropriates the offered benefits of Christ's justifying righteousness; a righteousness perfect in character and infinite in value, because Divine; and therefore adequate to supply all the requirements of the most just Judge, and all the deficiences of created beings. Yet this faith, if it be genuine and efficient, is only one branch of the spiritual life implanted by God; and if so to speak-it strike root downwards, and draw from Christ's work its sustenance and strength, it will not fail also to expand upwards in a growing likeness to the Divine nature, and an earnest striving to work the work of God. It is the seal of mercy already extended, and the pledge and earnest of glory yet to be revealed. By the twofold gift of righteousness, the breast of the Christian is fortified against external assaults, and peace is implanted there; peace with God, in the removal of wrath on the one hand, and of fear on the other, by the intervention of a righteous Mediator; and peace in the extended and pervading influence of that reconciliation, and in the removal of the barriers of an opposed will, which the natural heart presents to the life-giving and illuminating righteousness of Christ, offered by imputation as the sinner's refuge and plea before the judgment-seat, or transfused into his heart by the Spirit of grace.

As the Christian soldier is fortified against fear, and armed against temptation by that breastplate which the past and present work of Christ has furnished for him, yea, fastened upon him ; so, in the provisions of the gospel, does he find also that which makes his religion active, diffusive, and extensive in application. He is not only made ready for defence and resistance, but prepared to go hither and thither in the Lord's work, to walk up and down in his name; to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint. He is fitted to follow in the footsteps of his Master's course, and qualified to go forth as a messenger of peace; as one who through the gospel has found peace himself; and who, urged by the constraining influence of love, would bear the glad tidings