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 the foes of his own house. His state has been formed by the precepts of God's Word: this has been to him his Book of Knowledge and his outward Book of Life, by the truths of which his inner life has been perfected. His quality is therefore heavenly, and his name will not be blotted out.

Think, then. O man! that every evil and sin loved and practised, is as a black mark, made by thine own hand, which has the tendency to erase the kingdom of heaven from the soul, and to blot out for ever thy name from the Book of Life! It is a serious truth that "There shall in no wise enter into heaven any but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." (Rev. xxi. 27.)

HESE words, which are also found in Mark x. 25, and Luke xviii. 25, are indeed of a most extraordinary character; and happy will it be for the human race if, by a system of false interpretation, their true meaning be not perverted, and the poor be thus led to imagine that their poverty may entitle them to an entrance into heaven, while the rich may be depressed under the supposition that earthly riches are some kind of check to their attainment of final bliss. This fallacious notion, arising from a literal interpretation of the sacred text, without any regard to its spirit and life, may be further strengthened by