of her pious care.  On Saturday he was visited, as he lay very low, by Rev. Mr. C., who held a plain and satisfactory conversation with him.  Passages of Scripture and hymns were read to him, which gave him pleasure, and to the import of which he responded.  He expressed to him the blessed hope of soon reaching heaven.  He sank during the night, and died at half-past one o’clock, of the morning of the blessed day of the Lord, January 11, 1852, surrounded by weeping but comforted Christian friends.  T.D.W.

TO BE CONTINUED.

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John Newton one day called upon a family whose house and goods had been destroyed by fire.  He found its pious mistress in tears.  Said he, “Madam, I give you joy.”  Surprised and almost offended, she exclaimed, “What! joy that all my property is consumed?” “I give you joy,” he replied, “that you have so much property that no fire can touch.”

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Original.

THE BENEFITS OF BAPTISM.

BY REV.  WM. BANNARD.

Son.—­Father, how do you reconcile the distinction which the apostle Paul makes in 1 Cor. 7:14, between children as “holy” and “unclean,” with the fact that all the descendants of Adam inherit a corrupt nature?

Father.—­The distinction is not moral, but federal or ecclesiastical.  The apostle is speaking, you perceive, of the children of believers and unbelievers.  The one, he says, are “holy,” the other “unclean.”  But he does not mean by this that the children of pious parents are by nature different from others, or that, unlike them, they are not tainted with evil.  He means that they stand in a different relation to God and his church. “Holy,” in Scripture, means primarily “set apart or consecrated to a sacred use.”  Thus, the temple at Jerusalem, its altar, vessels and priests, were holy.  The Jews themselves, as a people, were in covenant with God.  They belonged to him, were set apart to his service, and in this sense “holy.”  Now, the apostle is to be understood as teaching that children of believing parents, under the Gospel, are allowed to participate in this heritage of God’s ancient people, and hence are holy.

Son.—­But how can this be?

Father.—­I will tell you, briefly, though I cannot now go into detail.  In virtue, then, of their parents’ faith in God’s covenant, into which he entered with Abraham, and through him with all believing parents, their children, also, are brought into covenant with him and entitled to its privileges and blessings.  They are set apart and given to him by their parents when they are sealed with the seal of his covenant in baptism.  In this manner, and in this sense, they become “holy.”

Son.—­In what sense are all others “unclean?”