the step, even if you could not rejoice that you had taken it. O, no; the tears you shed at the Lord's Table were not from any regret that you had ventured there; but shame and sorrow, that you could not be more collected, composed, and grateful. You wanted to have taken "the cup of salvation" from the hand of Christ, as you hope to take the crown of glory from his hand, with a heart burning with wonder, love, and praise. You wished and hoped to be absorbed, and lost to every thing earthly, whilst sealing your allegiance and consecration by the blood of the Lamb. But you failed, perhaps, to communicate as you expected to have done. Well; even if you did, what you lost in enjoyment, you gained in humility and caution for you retired from the Sacrament penetrated both with a sense of your own weakness, and with a conviction that more than Sacraments were wanted, in order to keep your heart and habits right with God.

Judge now of the entire influence which sacramental duty has had upon your whole character.

Could you have been what you are in heart or life, had you not thus taken " the vows of God" upon you? Do you not see, and feel with all the force of a keen sensation, that you would sink rapidly, both in character and enjoyment, were you to forsake the Table of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Saints." If so, do tell your undecided friends, in some way, your own convictions and experience on this subject. You cannot do them a greater kindness. There is no lesson they need more than the one you have learned-that the Sacrament tests and strengthens piety, by the self-examination it calls for.

No. V.

DEVELOPMENTS BY ZEAL.

ANY one can condemn Zeal which is "not according to knowledge; and every one ought to dread blind Zeal, especially in religion. Zeal for God, when not according to knowledge, may not only do more harm than good, but it may do nothing but harm.

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Very true," said a young man, whose thirst for knowledge was great, and whose love of solitude was strong; I often tell my sister, that her Zeal outruns her knowledge, and may implicate her discretion.

She will talk to the

poor

in

their cottages about religion; and even in the Sunday School, she tries to explain to the children whatever she has taught them to read. And, besides lending Tracts to the young and the old in the neighbourhood, she urges

them to subscribe for Bibles, and even to save some money for sending the Gospel to the heathen."

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Well," said a friend, “what answer does your sister give to this charge?" "O, she evades or retorts it, by saying that my knowledge outruns my Zeal. Indeed, she is as much afraid of knowledge, which is not according to Zeal, as I am of Zeal not according to knowledge. She calls knowledge without Zeal, a sun without heat-a rose without fragrance—a fountain sealed-a miser's chest, without its chance of circulation at his death."

She who said so, had evidently more knowledge, both of human nature, and of divine truth, than her brother gave her credit for. Knowledge without Zeal is, at best, but a seraph's eye, without his wings; a cherubic wheel, without its motions.

It is high time "to turn the tables" thus, upon all who love knowledge merely for its own sake, or solely for their own gratification. The zeal which they condemn by the language of

Paul is not the zeal Paul condemned in the Jews. That was a legal effort to establish their own pharisaic righteousness. Hence he says, "I bear them record, that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge: for they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness, unto every one that believeth," Rom. x. 3, 4. Thus Paul's argument has no reference whatever to the Zeal which speaks, and acts, and gives, for the glory of Christ and the spread of the Gospel. Indeed, his argument is, itself, a fine specimen of that Zeal. It sprang from his "heart's desire and prayer for Israel, that they might be saved." How weak, yea, how wicked, then, to quote it against Zeal for the glory of God in the salvation of souls! If any thing be "according to knowledge," Zeal to win souls to Christ is so. That, in fact, is in accordance with angelic knowledge; yea, in harmony with divine wisdom: for all heaven,