was not far off, "and oh!" he continued, "how wished it is to look back on my life of sin for sixty years; how clear I can see all I have been doing, as if it was all written down on a piece of paper, and put on the stool by the side of the bed for me to read things that I thought nothing of before, or had quite forgotten. I wonder I was not cut down in the midst of them; but Jesus Christ had compassion, and died for me, and rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven, where he makes intercession for me. Yes, that is a fine thing, indeed-ever maketh intercession for poor sinners." He was asked, "What do you think is meant by that?" "Why, up there," he said, "praying to the Father to pardon my sins, and to take me there when I die. I hope I shall go there, and not be miserable for ever, without any end to it; for when," he said, "he had been there one thousand years, he should still have thousands and thousands over and over again, that he thought it must be even worse than he could understand from the Bible, and yet how terrible that says it is, where the worm dieth not, and the fire will never be quenched, and where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth! How thankful I ought to be that I am not there! It is bad, indeed, for me, after Jesus had created me, died for me, and is interceding for me, still for so many years to turn away, and as good as say, 'I will not come to be saved.' How very bad and wicked it is! and yet I think he is still ready to save my poor soul, if I will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart that's the whole thing."

After these conversations, the poor man lived for some years a great sufferer; but being removed some distance from me, I could seldom see or converse with him, and therefore cannot say, with certainty, as I could if I had seen him myself, what his end was; except that we know, from the testimony of Scripture, that no poor sinner, led by the Spirit to Jesus, and under a sense of his lost, ruined state by nature, crying for mercy, believing that he was able and willing to save him, could

be cast out. Still, could my dear readers have witnessed what I did in his chamber of sickness, the misery he endured, the fears, the uncertainty of what awaited him in the prospect of death, after living without God in the world, with his mind at enmity against him, not caring any thing about his soul in health, though whenever the subject of death, especially his own, forced itself upon him in misery and anguish, O! if some of my dear readers could have seen him, I think they would have seen the evil of such a life. May they now be stirred up to seek an interest in the precious blood of Jesus; for "now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." He, dear man, was laid upon a bed of sickness, and had time and opportunity for fleeing to Jesus from the wrath to coine; but you, if you neglect this great salvation, may be cut down in a moment, without another warning, another intreaty. Flee, then, to Jesus, without delay; and when tempted to put it off, think of poor R. H.

THE NEW YEAR.

L. R. C.

WE have entered upon a new year. Let us look back on the old one just passed, and think over some of the events which have happened in the course of it.

Perhaps some of my readers have been oppressed with poverty, and have hardly known how to get on. In that poverty, did you hear no secret voice saying to you, "Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven"?

Some have been afflicted with sickness and disease of body during the past year. When all the powers of nature failed, and your strength was brought low, and sickness wasted your frame, so that you were brought to the very brink of eternity; did you then hear no whisper within, saying, "Prepare to meet thy God"?

It may be the Lord has snatched away from you in the past year some idol of creature love-some object which was very dear to you; and did he not in this blow say to you, "Set your affections on things above, not on things on this earth"? But perhaps none of these trials have been yours. All seems to have smiled on you. You are not in want: you are blessed with health; you have lost no dear friend; and you say within yourself, "Surely the Lord

life

has not spoken to me." Ah! my reader, whether you be young or old, I know not; but what year can you point out in your time in which the Lord has not spoken to you?

During the past year, can you remember no day, no Sabbath, on which a minister of Christ entreated you to give your heart to the Lord?

Can you say, "During the past year, I have had no one to care for my soul, no friend to warn me"?

I believe that most of my readers have been urged, and warned, and entreated to turn quickly off the road to destruction, and to turn into the road to heaven.

Then, if this be the case, the Lord has spoken to you. Yes, and even if no earthly friend has cared for your soul, still the Lord has spoken.

"Does He never speak?
O! yes, for in His word
He bids thee come and seek

The God that Samuel heard:

In almost every page you see

The God of Samuel calls to thee."

My readers, how have you answered your Saviour? When he has said, "Seek ye my face," have your hearts answered, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek"? Perhaps you have received all these calls to no purpose whatever. Jesus has knocked again and again; but sin bars your heart fast against him. And the old year has gone: yes, gone, never to retun. And many invitations are gone with the past year. O! what will you do?

Dear reader! a new year has greeted you. It comes to you loaded with mercies: it comes to you with another invitation. The Lord might have cut you off during the past year; but he has been full of long-suffering and tenderness.

And now a new year is before you, how will you spend it? Will you go on spurning all the offers of mercy? O! I trust not. I hope for better things from you. I pray that the Holy Spirit may open your eyes, and keep you from being cruel to your own soul. Jesus still knocks at the door of your heart: he now says to you, "Let me in." Then, if you wish to know what is your first step, it is to fly to your Saviour, and to beseech him to send his Spirit to change your heart.

Reader, now go, fall down on your knees, and pray. Do you say, "I cannot pray"? I say to you, Go and pray, "Lord, teach

me to pray." How are you to pray? In your own simple words. Yes, if you long after grace, you may tell your Saviour your wants in your own words; and the most humble, broken, and earnest petitions wing their flight to a throne of grace, and will bring answers of mercy to your soul.

I beseech you, trifle not with your precious time, lest the heavenly Husbandman should say of you this year, "Cut him down." Reader, think! perhaps the Lord may no longer bear with you, but send a command, “Cut him down." Perhaps the bell may toll for you this year, and you may be hurried into eternity.

O! lest this should be your case, begin to pray now. Go, and seek a new year's gift, even the gift of a new and contrite heart.

EUNICE.

THOUGHTS ON ZECHARIAH xiii. 7.

This is clearly a prophecy concerning the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. We will consider them in the following order, viz:

1. "The Man."-This shews that Jesus was really and essentially man, possessing all the faculties and powers of humanity, and susceptible of all the feelings of man.

2. "My Fellow."-This proves His Godhead, for what mortal can presume to call himself God's fellow, or equal?

3. "The Man that is my Fellow."-This is undoubtedly an announcement of the union of the Godhead with the manhood, and so making one Christ.

4. My Shepherd."-In this is implied the mediatorial office of the Lord Jesus, interceding with His Father, on behalf of His Church, as also His guidance and government of it, until the consumation of all things.

5. "Awake, O sword, against" &c.-The word "sword" here, has a judicial signification, and refers to the atonement which the Lord Jesus Christ made upon the cross.

Now this view of the subject is full of comfort to the awakened sinner; for in it he finds Jesus clothed with the same humanity (sin only excepted) as himself, and therefore can be touched with the feelings of his infirmities; but then he sees the enormity of his transgressions, and the vast distance between himself and an holy God, and that no created being can stand between the offended Majesty of heaven and a hell-deserving sinner like himself; and

then it is that the Godhead of Jesus as the co-equal and co-eternal Son is his only hope, and that none but an Omnipotent arm can save him.

Then comes the question; how can the Godhead suffer by paying the penalty due to sin? And this brings us to the union of the two natures in one Christ, which fully shews that Jesus is that Saviour which he requires.

He still requires something more, which is an advocate with the Father, to plead his cause, and to offer that atonement as the price of his pardon. This Jesus accomplishes in His character of Mediator, and this intercession is needful at every period of the divine life; for the believer requires supplies of grace to withstand the remains of corruption; the allurements of the world; the lusts of the flesh; the assaults of Satan, and the workings of his own evil heart; and these can only be overcome by the strength of Christ, as the guide and governor of His people, until they enter the heavenly Canaan.

And lastly, the believer continually feels his need of the atoning blood of Jesus, not only to take away all his remaining corruptions, but that his best services and his very repentance has need to be washed in that fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, even the blood of Emanuel.

Let all those learn their perilous situation who are either denying the efficacy of the blood of Jesus, or who are substituting any thing in its stead. And, finally, let all pray for the influences of the Holy Spirit to apply these truths to their hearts: and that the writer and the reader may realize them by happy experience, is the earnest prayer of

London, 7th October, 1844.

J. H.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FRIENDLY VISITOR.

MY DEAR SIR,-If the enclosed copy of a letter from Bryan M., an agent employed by the Irish Society, as a Scripture reader, appears suitable for your very valuable little periodical, hope you will make any use of it that you like. The writer left the Roman Catholic Church, not only convinced of her doctrinal errors, and of the contrasting truths held by the Established Church of Ireland, but having been brought to an experimental knowledge of the power of divine grace, through the instrumentality of the Rev. T. Moriarty. His district is in the north of Ireland