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the time of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." The gracious answer to prayer is for the most part gradual, but it is sometimes astonishingly sudden. Several instances of this latter have occurred in the experience of believing souls. The case of an intimate female friend of the writer of these remarks will serve to illustrate what I have said. She is, I would hope, a beloved child of God, having "chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her." She has, however, been called to experience her share of conflicts in the path which leads to Zion, and can bear feeling testimony to the truth of the Saviour's remark, "In the world ye shall have tribulation."

Not many years since, Miss G. (as the young lady herself informed me,) laboured under a very painful depression of spirits, which continued on her for several months without any apparent relief. She was in a most distressing state of mind, and in an almost literal sense went mourning all the day long. She appeared to take comfort from nothing. All her evidences were fearfully darkened: she more than doubted the reality of her interest in the Covenant of Grace; fancied her hope in Christ was a delusion, and that God had forsaken her. There was however one thing which this poor tried soul was enabled to do ; she was enabled to pray: she prayed earnestly and perseveringly for deliverance. No answer appeared to be vouchsafed to her prayers. Still in spite of discouragement she prayed on; she felt a something like relief and composure in the exercise of prayer. At length the hour of mercy came. The Lord looked in pity upon his handmaid. She had gone out for a

little walk, in the same distressing state of mind as usual, when all on a sudden the burden with which she had been so long oppressed, dropt off; she became light, she became free, she became happy. Then might she well exclaim in the language of the song of Solomon, "Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib!" There was a sweet manifestation of divine love to her soul. She saw every thing under an altered a spect. The face of creation seemed to smile with a smile of congratulation upon her. She hardly seemed, in the full joy of her heart, to touch the ground on which she trod. She had indeed received "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." The restoration of my dear young friend to peace and comfort was sudden, and it was lasting. The infidel may, if he ple ases, ascribe it to some merely natural cause, but it was manifestly the work of God. It was in answer to daily repeated prayer. It proves, as strikingly as any thing can prove, the value and the efficacy of prayer under all the changes and chances of mortal life. "Lord, teach us to pray!"

C. S.

A CATECHISM, CONTAINING A SHORT acCOUNT OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES.

SECTION. IV.

Question. Is there any other work of the Spirit? Answer. His saving sanctifying work has been described already; yet he acts also as a Comforter.

Q. What do you mean by a Comforter?

A. One who cheers and supports another under afflictions.

Q. Is the Spirit promised for this purpose?

A. Yes; and more particularly since the coming of Christ than before.

Q. Do believers need the comforts of the holy Spirit?

A. Yes, continually; because of the continual trials they have to go through from without, and especially from within.

Q. How does the Spirit administer his consolations?

A. By representing to the mind the Gospel promises in a distinct and engaging light; and at the same time stirring up faith to apprehend them.

Q. Doth the Spirit always administer his consolations alike?

A. No; he acts herein as he pleases; yet regarding our profit more than our pleasure.

Q. What must be done when he withdraws his comforts?

A. We must humble ourselves before him, hold fast by Christ, and be patient.

Q. What may we suppose to be his design in seeming to leave us?

A. To prove and strengthen our faith, and to shew us our nothingness.

Q. What may we think of extraordinary comforts? A. When the Spirit with clearness and delight reveals to believers their interest in Christ it should be regarded as a foretaste and pledge of their in heritance.

Q. How are such consolations to be received?

A. With great humbleness of mind, and fear of being puffed up; with thankfulness, and more exemplary zeal for God's glory.

Q. Ought a believer to look for the comforts of the Spirit?

A. Yes; he must wait for them in constant prayer, hearing the word and other means of grace.

Q. How should we esteem the consolations of the Spirit?

A. As gracious encouragements to us in our work.

COLD CHURCHES AND COTTAGE

MEETINGS.

THERE is a good deal said now-a-days about the coldness of our churches: truly, a new kind of complaint! And, I am grieved to observe that Ministers themselves are apt to bring it forward as an excuse for the occasional thinness of their congregations during the winter months.

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Now, I would ask, are the parish Churches colder at present than they used to be, when our pious forefathers thronged to them to worship? To be sure, the warm and comfortable Meeting-houses, as they are called, were not then so frequent in the land to draw away the unwary, and spoil the good old religious predilections of the simple-minded poor, as they are at present. But how is it that there is such a change in the feelings of the people? That we so often hear these chilling complaints, O, the Church is so cold! I cannot go to Church to-day, for the Church is so cold!

I am afraid we must look for the true cause of this lamentable change, in a decrease of zeal for God's worship, and a decrease of love and reverence for his Sanctuary.

I am one of those, Sir, who altogether disapprove of substituting, except under very peculiar circumstances, school-room and cottage lectures for services in the Church. In my humble opinion, the evils that must result to the establishment from such a course are miserably counterbalanced by a few present apparent advantages.

Many persons, I am well aware, will go to a school-room or cottage Lecture, who cannot be induced to go and hear the same Minister at the Church. But is this feeling of indifference or dislike to the regularly appointed places of divine worship to be sanctioned and encouraged? Would any true Minister of our Apostolic Church wish to encourage such a feeling as this?

The writer of this knew a Clergyman who collected a great number of people once a week in a large room in his parsonage, but finding that his congregation in the Church, which adjoined the parsonage-house, on another evening, was diminished by the practice he thought it is duty to discontinue it.

J. R.

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION.

“It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

THE spiritual part of the curse pronounced upon the devil when he had tempted Eve to sin, as you may read in Genesis iii. 14, 15, how must it have spoken

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