but we really think the grave things you have been writing about more suitable for older persons. Do not too easily put away such serious matters from your mind. It is true that now is the springtime of your life, and you may be thoughtless as the butterfly flitting in the summer sun; but, much sooner than you would like to think, solemn scenes and bitter trials may and will surround you.

And now, with the permission of our kind friend the Editor, I wish to rear some of these beacons to your view in a simple narrative of facts which have been brought under my own observation.

I first became acquainted with

about

eleven years ago. He was at that time about sixteen years of age, a youth of engaging and affectionate manners, very open, generous to a fault, kindness and love sparkling in his dark, expressive eyes, and written on every feature of his amiable countenance.

It was about a year from this period that he made an open profession of religion, and I have no reason to doubt his sincerity in his profession; yet I look on this as his first wrong step. His was rather a natural enthusiasm, wrought upon by others among whom his lot was cast, than deep or spiritual conviction of his state as a sinner, or the solemnity of the step he was taking in thus professing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; consequently, as the novelty wore off, and temptations were placed in his way, having no vital principle to withstand them, he became ensnared, and gradually threw off the restraints of a profession which evidently had no good foundation. And

here, my young friends; I shall place beacon No. 1 before your mind's eye. Many youthful minds are very susceptible of religious impressions, and

consequently easily wrought on, especially if the subjects of early religious training. Do not listen to any well-meaning though superficial friends who would flatter you into an open profession of religion before you are really brought to Jesus. Let this great matter be one of sober thought and prayerful consideration between the living God and your own conscience.

I only occasionally saw my dear young friend from the time above referred to until about three years ago; but I have every reason to believe that through this part of his life he was at times the subject of convictions, and that he well knew the end of the course of life that he was pursuing, which caused him many unhappy hours. I believe he disliked the thought of a deceptive religion, and yet felt that he had allowed himself to be deceived, which thought (unhappily for him), instead of bringing him to God in prayer for mercy and forgiveness, rather drove him farther into sin. He loved the world's gay deceptions, though at the same time he felt they were empty of real good, and that he could not draw lasting pleasure from them; yet into them again and again he would plunge, as though determined to gratify a wicked heart even at the risk of the loss of his soul.

Oh, dear young reader, are you trifling thus, with God, your soul, and sin? If you are, believe me there are bitter days in store for you, and, if God's rich mercy prevent not, a bitter, long, long night, too, where the lip of Truth hath said: "The worm (of conscience) dieth not and the fire (of God's wrath) is not quenched."

Well, about the time referred to above, my young friend joined a Volunteer Corps. And here we must place our second beacon, as a warning to some readers of the GLEANER who may have a

similar temptation placed before them. It is no doubt thought by some to be a fine thing to be a soldier, a voluntary protector of our loved country's hearths and liberty. But how much more truly noble is it to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ! Such, and such only are the real bulwarks of their country, who, by God's rich grace, are enabled to make the Lord their strength.

If you value your soul have nothing to do with such amusements, which I believe have been the first downward step with many a young man. "Avoid it, pass not by it turn from it, and pass away."

Thus he continued, slighting the counsel of friends who dearly loved him, until a Sabbath day in the spring of we find him travelling from

to -, to be present on the following day at a Volunteer Review. Oh, what a change had taken place! A few short years previously the writer had bowed with him at the family altar, while he led the petitions which were offered at the throne of God's grace; but now, he can devote God's Sabbath day to what is too often a profane amusement, and stifle every rising conviction of the evil of the course that he is thus pursuing. Alas! dear young man; God's eye follows him, though hitherto he heeds it not-his course is almost run, yet he lays it not to heart. His day of pleasure is over; he is 1eturning; he has succeeded in driving the black, lowering future for the moment from his mind. Like some warrior in the heat of a bloody encounter with the foe, who has brought all the powers of body and mind thereto, he has no | thought but to kill, and this pervades his entire soul, while himself, may-be, is blindly rushing on to a death infinitely more awful than that of the body. So likewise our dear friend's chief pursuit

was to destroy those gloomy apprehensions of the unknown yet dreaded future; and in this he for the moment succeeded. But can a worm of earth contend with the Most High and prosper? He may seem to do so for the short moment of a frail life, yet at the very farthest how soon his very thoughts perish.

His homeward journey is broken to oblige a friend; he is waiting for his train to go onward; a thoughtless step and he is mortally injured, with only twelve short hours to contemplate the solemn change from time to eternity. Yet in the midst of awful judgment there are seen mercy's rays, though but faintly rising.

The shock is so great to the nervous system that excruciating bodily suffering is not realized, but reason retains her seat, and life gently though quickly ebbs away. The dear sufferer, turning away from the companions of his earthly delights, and reading his approaching end in the countenance of the medical attendants, says, "There is but one Physician can help me now." Oh, that we knew that, like another dying one of whom we read in sacred story, who at the eleventh hour found mercy, this poor erring one, in the closing struggle, realized in truth the fulness and freeness of that grace which he slighted in life and health; but this we must leave with an allwise God, who doeth nothing in vain. He only knoweth, and eternity alone will unfold it. It was in silent sadness, and with a sinking heart, that I gazed on those eyes that had been so bright, now closed for ever, and on that countenance, which had beamed with affection, but now to be the prey of worms.

"O thou hideous monster sin,

What a curse hast thou brought in."

Dear young friends, are you prepared to die? Oh, that while in health and the bloom of youth you may be brought to know indeed, by the Holy Spirit's teaching and His sacred quickening and enlightening, that "There is but one Physician can help you now." You may die thus violently and suddenly. Die you must, and nothing but a real change of heart can prepare you for the solemn change.

Are you loving and dutiful? so was once the subject of this brief paper. Has your conscience testified against you that you are unfit to die? so did his also. Do you know the right way, and what is truth? so did he. Do you stifle your conscience, and vainly flatter yourself that you have time enough to prepare to meet God by-and-by? he did so until he could do so no longer.

How it would have rojoiced my heart to have been able to tell you of his godly sorrow for past sins, and of bright hope in a Saviour's forgiving love; but no,-God draws a veil over the scene, which bids us look and fear, and erect a way mark that others may be warned thereby, and avoid the devious paths of sin which lead down to death.

POPERY.

We believe in perfect freedom of conscience being allowed to every member of the state; but we do not believe it right to pay traitors to the Government and enemies to the Bible more than £1,000 daily (as our nation does) to sow rebellion and persecuting doctrines.

Read and ponder, the following notes from the Popish Bible, published at Dublin in 1818, under the sanction of Dr. Troy, the Romish Archbishop,