benevolence and charity which the necessities of our neighbors may require. While we endeavor to confirm our own faith in the over-ruling providence of our heavenly Father, let us excite and strengthen that of others. Let us, as good citizens, give all our aid and influence to the carrying into effect every measure for the general security and health, which the administrators of our civil government, aided by medical science and experience may suggest. Let us set examples of temperate living, of personal and domestic cleanliness, of calmness and composure of mind and manners. While we thus use all the means placed in our power by our Maker, and aim at a right improvement of the threatening visitation, we have nothing further to do but piously, firmly but not presumptously, in a devout and humble trust in His guardian care, to await His will.-Are our lives spared? Let us be grateful-and when the danger appears to be past, let us only be the more disposed to love and serve Him. Are the lives of some of our friends to be taken, or we ourselves to falllet us remember the Christian's hope, and let it be to our souls an anchor both sure and steadfast.' Then shall the pestilence that walketh in darkness,' result as it may to any of us, be only another means of preparation for the felicity of the blessed! Then may we exclaim with the meek Psalmist of Israel, Jehovah !

We need not dread the terror of the night,
Nor the arrow, that flieth by day;

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Nor the pestilence that walketh in darkness,
Nor the plague, that wasteth at noonday.
Because we have made Jehovah our refuge,
And the most High our shelter!'-

THE GOSPEL VIRTUE OF TEMPERANCE.

AMIDST the excitement which prevails in the community respecting that vice which is emphatically called intemperance, it is not unseasonable to offer some general reflections on the fundamental principle of the gospel virtue of temperance, and to suggest some applications of that principle which perhaps are not so much thought of as they ought to be.

I conceive that the ground and the extent of this virtue are laid down by the apostle, in his first epistle to the Corinthians. Every man,' says he, that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.' He here uses an illustration which was familiar and must have been very striking to his Corinthian converts. He alludes to the great games which were periodically celebrated at their city. Those games consisted of various kinds of athletic contests. The victors in them were rewarded with a simple crown of pine leaves, and with glory in the eyes of all Greece which assembled on the occasion. Success was consequently a very high distinction. Eminent men were accustomed to contend for it. During a long time pre

vious to the celebration, those who intended to engage in any of the contests, subjected themselves to a severe course of training. Nothing was neglected that might contribute to success. Exercises were daily practised to invigorate the body, and every indulgence which might impair its strength was scrupulously avoided. Such, we may suppose the apostle to say of the Corinthians,--such you know to be the zeal and the care with which your countrymen make preparation for those celebrated games. Now they do it, to obtain what?— A vain glory in the sight of frail and short-lived men like themselves. A glory which will inevitably grow dim and vanish, and will at some future period seem scarcely of longer endurance, than the perishing crown which is the emblem of it. But, in the gospel, is set before you, a crown of happiness that shall never fade away, an eternal and spiritual glory,-a glory in the sight of God, and of all pure and holy spirits ;-a glory which is not of this world and will not pass away with it. Will you not be at least equally anxious to make every preparation for striving after this exceeding great reward? Will you not be as careful to avoid every thing which may disqualify you from exerting your utmost vigor; every thing which may put at hazard your success?

And what is this preparation? It is temperance. Why then are we called upon to practise it, and what is implied in the practice of it?

It may be said that temperance is essential to the preservation of health, and to the longest continuance and most rational enjoyment of life. This assertion is undoubtedly true. But does it furnish the highest, the

ultimate ground of the obligation of temperance? Is it our principal business in this world to secure our longest possible continuance in it? If the whole of a man's care and time were consumed upon this object might he not for all useful purposes of life, as well be dead as living? It is our duty under all ordinary circumstances, to take care of our health, and to preserve our lives; but it is our duty as a means to a farther end—a higher duty; that we may be qualified more effectually to do the will of God; to accomplish more good in our day and generation; to prepare ourselves more perfectly for heaven. I say, this is a duty under ordinary circumstances. There may be extraordinary circumstances which render it a duty to disregard health and to expose life for the attainment of a great and good end. Who does not admire the disinterested spirit with which Howard exposed himself to dangers, sufferings and contagion, in his work of philanthropy? Who does not admire the faith and constancy with which martyrs have laid down their lives for the truth. Jesus declared, Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it; and his faithful apostle Paul said, Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus.

I have already anticipated in some degree the true ground of the obligation of temperance. It removes many obstacles which would interfere with the great purpose of our existence-our religious developement -the cultivation of our moral and spiritual capacities. We have a great work before us ;-one which demands

the unceasing and concentrated energies of all our powers. If we could sustain them every moment at their highest point of efficiency, we should have no superfluous time or energy beyond what are necessary for the accomplishment of our task. We are to cherish a devotional spirit; to cultivate our sense of connexion with God and of our intimate dependence upon him, and to maintain a purpose of entire obedience to his holy will. And this is not a definite and limited work. This spirit may be continually expanded and deepened. We can never gain an adequate conception of the divine perfections. But we may be constantly gaining more enlarged views of them, and therefore exercising a warmer and stronger affection towards God, and feeling a more perfect devotion to his will, and receiving new light and strength in his service. We have social duties to perform ;-deeds of benevolence to do to our fellow-men. The various relations of life, the various means we possess of affecting our neighbor's welfare of body or of soul, of condition or of mind, are intimations of duty and calls to action.— Neither is this a limited work. We can do good indefinitely. If we have the inclination, we never need be at a loss for the methods and the objects of benevolent action. We have intellectual powers to unfold; -boundless capacities of knowledge to exercise; and above and around us are the infinite works of God, on which they may be exercised. It is our duty thus to employ them. We may be continually expanding our faculties, and adding to our stores of useful truth. 1 say then that the work which religion sets before us, the formation of a holy character in all its parts, is an