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alas, the precious words seemed to make no impression on the poor despairing mind.

Several months after this incident, the lady was astonished at receiving a letter from a person who stated that she had been an inmate of the same asylum mentioned above, and was only just discharged therefrom; but as she felt she had much cause to thank God for having been present at the time of the incident recorded, she thought it only right to tell the lady what the Lord had done for her soul, by means of the words spoken to the poor woman in her hearing, though not meant for her; and that her mind was in such a rebellious frame at that time, that she would most probably have struck any one who had dared to speak to her about her soul, but that ever since her heart seemed melted to think of the love of Jesus in thus coming to seek out and save her lost soul.

The above facts are recorded as testimony to the truth of God's own gracious promise, given in His Word, "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow, from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it "(Isa. lv. 10,11).

May many Christians be encouraged thereby to be always ready to speak a word in season, and to leave results to God.

H. E. S.

THE HEART MADE CAPTIVE.

BRITISH merchant who had taken his passage in a Turkish vessel on the Levant, had his attention directed during the voyage to an interesting man, a slave, a Mussulman, with whom he soon fell into conversation. He found him intelligent, quick, and of strong lively affections. He drew from him some particulars of his history, and found that, having been free-born, he had been made captive in war. His misfortunes pressed heavily on his spirits; he was keenly sensitive to the degradation of his condition; and he felt the full weight of the miserable fate he was doomed to bear. The merchant was touched with sympathy for this helpless captive; the more he knew of him, the deeper was the interest he felt in his welfare; and he actually began to entertain the thought of effecting his release.

Cautiously inquiring as to the sum requisite for this purpose, he found that it was considerably greater than the mercantile profits of his entire voyage. Still, he could not abandon the thought. He spoke to the captain, to whom this interesting Mussulman belonged, and offered him a price for his ransom. His offer was accepted; but the slave, hiding, overheard part of the conversation between

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the captain and the merchant, and mistaking the design of the latter,-supposing, in fact, that he was purchasing him to retain him in slavery for his own use, he sprang forward, his eyes gleaming with indignation, and cried out, " And do you call yourself a free-born Briton, and an enemy to slavery wherever it exists, and yet purchase me? Have I not as much right to freedom as you have yourself?"

He was proceeding in this strain of burning indignant invective, when the merchant turned his eyes affectionately upon him, and said, "I have bought you to set you free." Instantly the storm of passion was hushed; the Mussulman slave burst into tears; and, falling at the feet of his deliverer, he exclaimed, "You have taken my heart captive! I am your slave for ever!"

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Reader, this narrative is placed before you as an illustration of what most closely and deeply concerns yourself. You may perhaps congratulate yourself on being a free-born Briton, and be ready to say with the Jews of old, "We never were in bondage to any man." But this, however true as regards your social state, is, in respect to spiritual condition, a complete mistake. Unlike this Mussulman, you and I were not ever free-born. Man, indeed, was created free, but our first parents became the slaves of Satan, who deceived them, and all their offspring have been born in slavery. The Mussulman felt the yoke, and pined and groaned beneath it. We, alas, naturally love the yoke of

Satan, and never dream that we are his slaves. We suppose that we are pleasing ourselves doing our own will, gratifying the lusts of our own hearts, while in reality all this is the service exacted of us by our relentless oppressor. So completely are we in bondage, that our minds are enslaved, and we hug the chains by which we are enthralled. The Turkish captain detained the Mussulman slave for profit to himself; and what, think you, is Satan's object in enslaving us? It is to destroy us for ever! for ever! He is "a murderer," and his design in deceiving and enslaving us is to effect our eternal destruction. The laws of Turkey-cruel and unjust as they may be-gave to the conqueror of this Mussulman, and the captain to whom he had been sold, a title to detain him in bondage, even, I suppose, in certain cases, to take his life. The law of God, dear reader, infinitely holy and just-and because it is sopronounces sentence of eternal death upon the

sinner.

Satan knew this, and led us into sin, that the holiness and justice of God might be arrayed against us, and that we might become obnoxious to the inexorable claims of His holy law upon the transgressor. Duped by Satan, we have sinned. willingly, and with all our hearts; and the more you assert your freedom, the more clearly do you own your own responsibility for all the sins which are brought upon you, and fostered upon you the sentence of eternal death. The merchant com

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passionated the condition of the poor slave; and has not God, has not Christ, had compassion upon Desirous as the merchant was to emancipate the slave, the only way he could effect it was by paying the ransom price. The law, iniquitous as it was, rendered this indispensable.

And think you, dear reader, that the infinitely righteous holy law of God can more easily be set aside than the puny laws of unjust arbitrary men? For God has said, "The wages of sin is death;" and we having performed the work, the wages must be received, if not by us, by a substitute, a victim, provided in our stead. But where is there one, competent on the one hand, and willing on the other, to ransom us from the bondage which oppresses and the destruction which awaits us? Ah, there is One! Ah, there is One! Do you ask His name? That very name expresses the work He undertook. "His name shall be called Jesus, because He shall save His people from their sins." We think it a noble, munificent act of the English merchant to ransom this poor slave at the cost of more than all the profits of his voyage. And so it was. It was a large sum, and he thought it large; but his pity for the slave outweighed his value for the treasure, and he freely expended it on his ransom. But what is all this to the love of Jesus, or to the cost at which He "gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time"? Oh, that this love might win the confidence of your heart!

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