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LESSON LXXI.

Importance of Personal Piety.-JANE TAYLOR.

The following excellent advice was given by Jane Taylor, in a letter to some young friends, just before her death.

I KNOW not where to begin, nor how to find language to reach the heights and depths of this boundless subject. No language, indeed, can do this: and, therefore, we find in the Scriptures no attempt is made beyond the most plain and simple statements; but which are, on that very account, the more striking. What, for instance, could the utmost powers of language add in force to that question—“ What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

And, my dear friends, there is very great danger, notwithstanding all the warnings and admonitions we receive -there is very great danger of losing our souls! It is so easy to pass on from one stage of life to another, from youth to age, with good intentions towards religion, and with a common, respectable attention to it, without once coming to the point, without once tasting the happiness of a good hope, or enjoying the supreme satisfaction of making a full surrender of our hearts and lives to God. Multitudes of the professors of religion thus live and thus die-making their comfort and prosperity in this life their chief object of pursuit, and paying only so much attention to religion as they deem absolutely necessary to escape eternal destruction.

But this is not Christianity, as the Scriptures describe it; and it is surprising that, with the Bible in their hands, any person can make so great a mistake about it. If God has not our hearts, we are not his. He will accept nothing less. If our affections are not in heaven, we shall never reach it. I remember that, during my youth, I was for many years greatly discouraged, and almost in despair at last, on this account-feeling the impossibility of bringing my earthly mind to prefer spiritual things-to love God better than the world.

At length, in a letter from a pious friend, I was reminded that this great work, though impossible to me, was easy

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to him; and that he had promised to do it for all who ask. From that time, my difficulties began to yield. I saw how absurd it was to doubt the promise of God; and that it was in respect to these very difficulties that he says, Seek, and ye shall find." So that I began to see, with unspeakable joy, that the hardness, reluctance, and earthliness of my heart were no real obstacles, provided that I did but apply to him for a cure. Yes, to cast ourselves entirely on God, to do all for us, in the diligent use of means, is the sure, the only way, to obtain the benefit.

But it is surprising what reluctance there is in the mind to do this; and how ready we are to try every other means first; especially, we are unwilling to come, by a simple act of faith, to the Saviour, and to accept from him a remedy for all the evils of our nature, although there is no other way. How much labor is often lost for want of this! Come to him, my dear friends, and "he will not cast you out." He declares he will not: and come as you are. It is Satan's constant artifice to persuade us that we must wait till we are fit to come; and as this faith, that believes and lives, however simple, is the gift of God, pray incessantly, importunately, till you receive it.

To use means is our part; it is a comparatively easy part; and if we will not even do this, it shows that we are not at all in earnest on the subject. I will mention, then, as the first and the last,—as that which is indispensable to our making any progress in religion,-daily, constant, private prayer. I am aware that where this habit has not been formed very early, there may be a sort of awkwardness and false shame felt in the commencement of it in a family; but it is false shame, which a little effort will conquer, and a short time entirely remove.

I believe you know that it was my intention to have recommended this practice to you, if not already adopted; and now I cannot feel satisfied without doing so; for if ever I was sure that I was giving good advice, I am sure of it in this instance; and I will, I must, most earnestly request your attention to it. Perhaps some of you might reply that, seldom feeling inclined to prayer, it would generally be a formal and heartless service; but this is the very reason why it must never be neglected.

This reluctance to spiritual engagements is what the best of Christians have to combat with; and it can only

be overcome by prayer. If, then, you are to wait till you are of yourselves so disposed, depend upon it, you would pass through life, and plunge into eternity in a prayerless state; and although you may often engage in private devotion with little feeling, and no apparent benefit, yet there is one certain advantage gained by it, namely, that the habit is strengthened; and as we are creatures of habit, and God has made us so, he requires us to avail ourselves of its important advantages.

If there is any one thing more than another, among the many privileges of a religious education, for which I feel thankful, it is the having been 'trained from my early years to retire, morning and evening, for this purpose. I found that a habit, thus early and strongly formed, was not easily broken through, notwithstanding all the vanity of my youthful years; and however much I have to lament the abuse of it, yet, if ever I have known any thing of religion, it is to the closet that I must trace it; and I believe that universal experience testifies that our comfort and progress in the divine life are entirely regulated by the punctuality and fervency of our engagements there.

There is no need that the exercise should be tedious; a short portion of Scripture read with thought, and a few simple sentences uttered with the whole heart, are far preferable to a much longer address, in which the same heartless phraseology is continually repeated. But as your desires enlarge, so will your petitions; and the more you are in earnest, the less liable you will be to fall into hackneyed and formal expressions.

There is another practice which, next to prayer and reading the Scriptures, I have found most profitable. I mean, reading, once every day, at the time either of morning or evening retirement, a few pages of some pious book -selecting, for this purpose, not the light productions of the day, but the writings of the most eminently useful and impressive authors. Christian biography also is peculiarly profitable.

This custom need not add more than ten minutes to the time of retirement; and it is, I think, one of the very best means for retaining a daily impression of serious things. Habit also y it for one month, and see if it is not so) will render this pleasant, even though it should seem irksome at first. If you will excuse my entering

into such minute particulars (which I should not do on any other subject), I will add that the most advantageous time for the purposes I have recommended is not that of retiring for the night; drowsiness will generally invade us then; besides, few young people can be quite alone at that time, and a prayer said by the bed-side, with a companion present, is not, I might almost say, cannot be personal prayer. It is a good, I will call it a blessed custom, for a family to disperse to their respective places of retirement half an hour before supper.

Nor is it, you must be aware, from my own experience alone that I recommend it; for it is a practice which I know to be strictly observed by all my pious friends, and which I have remarked in every serious family in which I ever visited. As to the morning, it is highly desirable that it should take place before breakfast, as afterwards it interferes with other duties, and is in great danger of being quite neglected.

Besides, it is as essential to the health of the body as of the soul, to rise, at least, early enough for such a purpose. I fear I shall tire you, and will mention but one other thing, and that is, the advantage of a more particular improvement of sabbath evenings, as the time most suitable for longer retirement and deeper thoughtfulness than the engagements of other days will admit.

And let me affectionately recommend you early to seek to be engaged in some sphere of active usefulness. Doing good is the most excellent means of getting good. There is no mistake greater than to suppose that we are sent into the world only to attend, however industriously, to our own personal, or even family, interests. Love to our neighbor demands our active exertions in his behalf; and we are all required, more or less, "to go and work in the vineyard." We have all a talent intrusted to us; and what shall we say when our Lord comes, if we have not improved it?

LESSON LXXII.

The Aurora Borealis.

MR. DALTON, a distinguished meteorologist, who has paid particular attention to this subject, observes, that the appearances of an aurora borealis come under four different descriptions. First, a horizontal light like that of the morning. Secondly, fine, slender, luminous beams directed toward the zenith, in arcs of great circles; well defined, and of a dense light; sometimes apparently at rest, but oftener with a quick, lateral motion, and of a duration from fifteen seconds to one minute. Thirdly, flashes following the direction of the beams, but more diffuse, and of a weaker light, and growing fainter as they ascend, without a horizontal motion, sudden and momentary in their appearance, and repeated many times in a minute. Fourthly, arches nearly in the form of a rainbow, crossing the beams at right angles, and being concentric with the more permanent horizontal light, and tending towards the same points.

But one of the most remarkable circumstances attending this phenomenon, is, that it sometimes does not appear for many years together. It is but a little more than a century since it has been so frequent and conspicuous as to attract any considerable attention. No appropriate name was given to it by the ancient philosophers, and no very distinct account of it is to be found among their writings. In the book of Job we read, "Men see not the bright light which is in the clouds, but the wind passeth and cleanseth them. Fair weather cometh out of the north with God is terrible majesty."

The original word here rendered fair weather, answers to the Latin word aurum, which is used figuratively for almost any thing of a bright gold-color, and especially for the light of the sun and other celestial phenomena. It will certainly bear to be rendered a yellow light, as well as fair weather; and, considered as referring to the aurora borealis, it agrees much better with the succeeding part of the verse-"with God is terrible majesty." Fair weather is rather emblematical of mildness and benignity than of terror; and with what propriety can it be said to

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