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CLABACH.

BORTH.

TOWYN.

STRATA FLORIDA.

TREGARON.

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EDWARD ELLIS,

A BOY KILLED AT BORTH. -

CHURCH AND CHAPEL.

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CHURCH AND CHAPEL. THE RELIGIOUS MAN AS A BUILDER. The Rev J. Pugh, vicar, was the preacher at the English service at Llanbadarn Church on Sunday morning, when there was a large congregation. The rev gentleman founded his remarks on Luke vi., 48 and 49 verses, namely, the parable of the two bn/ld ers. He said the text taught them the nature of true religion; it was something more than a creed, a form, or a theory. The Lord distinguished the real from the formal Christian in the text. Men might be of the same form of worship, but beneath this outward resemblance there lay an unseen and unthought of dissimilarity of the utmost importance. He first noticed the similarity between the two characters in the text, and he observed in the first place that they were both builders, and both were described as being actually at work. They had no- thing to do in this case with the openly profane and careless, and their Lord was speaking of an alto- gether different class—not such of their neighbours as were profaning that sacred (Sabbath) day, for each of the persons in the parable had set to work; they both built a house of the same description intended to answer the same purpose, to be a dwelling-place. a place of safety; their object was to find a shelter, to get something that wouid support them; the houses were raised with these objects in view, and in appearance they were the same. They all heard the same gospel, called upon the same Christ, and desired to dwell in the same heaven. He also noticed that the houses of these builders were severely tried-the rains descended, the floods came, and the winds blew. All Christians must expect that their religion would be brought to the test. Perhaps it had been tried already, but if not the time of trial would surely overtake them; the world and Satan would not quietly let them go-it was temptation, affliction, disappointment, sickness, and persecution-these were the things which would show them what manner of men they were. But even if they could escape all these they could not escape that day which would lay bare the secrets of all men's hearts, which would leave not a single self-deceiver undeceived, and not one trembling believer disappointed or unble,t. He next considered the dissimilarity between these two men. One built his house with foresight, the other heedlessly. When they began there were no storms or ftoods-the air was quiet, and the sky clear. One of the two builders was deceived by the calm, and built his house as though there would be little or nothing to trouble, it. The other, on the contrary, expected winds, rains, and the rushing torrent; he acted accordingly, and built a house to withstand every shock. So there were men who were aatiafied with a religion that would answer present purpose8. to quiet their own conciences, and make them respectable. Not so the true Christian; the Holy Spirit had shown him the misery of a lost condition, I and had enabled him to see his present wants, there- fore he laboured for something that would stand the storm, something that would support him when everything else gave way. Another difference be- tween the two men was that one of them was a pains- taking builder and the other a superficial builder. The one built on the suface. while the other built on a rock, and therefore while the structure of the other was rapidly rising he waa employed below the surface. It was easy to make a show of piety, but true religion was a laborious piety. There was still a more important point of difference between these builders: one looked well to the foundation of his house, tke other was indifferent. The building of one had a foundation, and that foundation waa a rock the structure of the other had no foundation. They here discovered the difference between the true believer and the aelf-deceiver. The Lord Jesus was the rock on which one stood the true Christian cast away his own righteousness, and trusted himself on the righteousness ef the Lord Jesus Christ. The preacher also noted the difference between the end of these two men, pointing out the forcibility of the parable by noting that the rains in Eastern countries were heavier and continued longer than in our own. There the two houses stood; the one shook for a moment, and the next moment it was gone—it was a house erected upon sand; it fell in the storm, in the very hour when the man had most need of it, and expected the most from it, and thus did the self- deceiver fall; in the great day of judgment the house would not stand, and the ruin of that house was very great. But the house on the rock stood; let the judgment come that man who was on the Rock was still unmoveable. Thousands might fall at his side, and ten thousand at his right hand. but there stood his house, an everlasting and glorious monument to Jehovah's praise. The preacher then drew some excellent deductions from the text, among them Deing the value of true religion, and the great hope of the believer in being founded upon the Rock Jesus Christ.

DIVISION OF THE PARISH.

BOROUGH MAGISTRATES' COURT.

ABERYSTWYTH.