over a wall of adamant-clouds chasing each other athwart a boundless plain.

Of nothing are we more slow to think than of the nature and value of time, both as regards its highest present uses and its relation to that eternity from which, by Divine fiat, it was first drawn, and into which it shall finally return. Hence, the sacred writers, aware of this as well as all other evil conditions of our nature, seek, by numerous affecting sentiments and analogies, to awaken our most serious thoughtfulness to the solemn realities by which we are surrounded, the vast capabilities and possibilities of infinite good which every hour of continued existence places within our reach, and of the fleeting nature of that possession for which we shall at last be held accountable to God.

Many weighty reasons can be adduced to show that it is of unspeakable consequence for us all calmly, steadily, and impartially, to mark the kind and the degree of influence which time is producing on our souls and their eternal interests.

"The past" is a very solemn word. It is irrevocably gone, marked on the part of us all by manifold follies and sins; replete with painful accusations of conscience, reminding us that important interests have been trifled with, precious time misspent, important and urgent duties - delayed, golden opportunities lost, and a large and solemn space of our brief life for ever gone from our reach. We must all feel-the holiest will feel it most poignantly-that a serious retrospection of the past will excite the pensive and accusatory regret, “We are all unprofitable servants." Although the past is so irrevocably gone from our reach that it cannot be used for the purpose for which it was originally given, -that of living in its duration to God,-yet a serious review of the past year, for instance, may, and, if rightly made, must, be productive of profit to us all. Just as the ship which has been totally wrecked, although it can no more traverse the sea, yet its shattered planks may be rendered serviceable for many useful purposes; or, as a departed wise and pious friend, although his presence can no longer gild our path with its sunshine, or his voice cheer and direct us through this chequered world, yet the fragrance of his memory and the remembrance of his illustrious example may, from the silence of death, shed a holy and useful influence over our whole future course; so a thoughtful retrospect of the past year may serve to rectify our present feelings, and teach us to make a more wise and profitable expenditure of whatever amount of future time God may see fit to confer.

Let us ask of the days that are past,—

I. That we may entertain a humbling consciousness of our own unprofitableness in the use we have made of our time.

Constituted as we are, it is imperative upon us that we should give much of our attention to the care of the body and to the regulation of our temporal affairs; yet it is a humbling reflection that beings possessed of such amazing capacities as those enfolded in every human soul, should have so much of their attention engaged in things which bear unequivocal marks of insignificance. This necessity of our con

dition, limiting our souls so much to things of time and earth, reminds us of an eagle whose pinions have been cut to bind him to the earth. Much of the past year has passed in sleep, in providing and partaking of food, in humble domestic arrangements, in the dull routine of business, or the idle lassitude of relaxation. There is, however, no positive evil in these things, if moderately "followed in the fear of God," -that adds dignity to the lowliest occupation. George Herbert finely says,"Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, Makes that and the action fine;"

and Keble,

"The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves-a road
To bring us daily nearer God."

If, however, we allow the tendency of these things to absorb more than their lawful share of attention and time; if we pursue them without a sense of the claims of God and His truth and the welfare of our fellow-men; then we “walk in a vain show," and our life becomes a laborious trifling, and our time has been squandered in guilty waste. And who amongst us can plead guiltless to such charges as these? Who can say of the past year, "Its time has gone just as I could have wished; I could not desire any future year to be better spent than this has been"? Alas! none. When we reflect, not only upon its absolute unprofitableness as to the great purposes of existence, but also upon its positive sins,-those positive violations of the Divine will which, like dark spots, rest painfully on its memory,—our most becoming sentiment is a sense of our deep and prevalent worthlessness; our most appropriate prayer, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified."

Let us ask of the days that are past,—

II. That we may have a grateful sense of the Divine goodness and forbearance.

There is something very touching and appropriate in the admonition which Moses addressed to Israel: "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no." So, with grateful emotions, let us remember the past. Chequered, indeed, have been its scenes, with afflictions and comforts, "smiles with tears meeting," wants and blessings, dangers and deliverances, sins and forbearing mercy; and various must be the feelings with which we regard them, yet grateful emotions to our Divine Benefactor should mingle with them all.

The people of God, amidst a humbling sense of manifold failures and unworthiness, can yet, relying on the blessedness of that glorious Sacrifice that took away their sins, on that Divine Benignity that for His sake "suffers our manners in the wilderness," raise their "stone

of help," and inscribe upon it, "Ebenezer." Here, and in gratefu reliance on the same Almighty Helper, they can leave every untried scene in calm complacency in His hands, whilst their full hearts find relief as they say,—

A

"His love in time past

Forbids me to think
He'll leave me at last
In trouble to sink;
Each sweet Ebenezer
I have in review,

Confirms His good pleasure
To help me quite through."

The ungodly, too, ought to raise their pillar of grateful recollection, inscribing on it, as they view their aggravated guilt, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." Nor should their retrospection fail to work a salutary change in their future lives. The continuance of past forbearance towards their impenitence should admonish them solemnly that, if they continue in sin, there is less probability of its protraction, from the very fact of its having suffered their "evil behaviour" so long. If the goodness of God fails to lead the ungodly to repentance, it will aggravate the weight of their final perdition. Despise not then, ye ungodly, "the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering," lest, after your hardness and impenitence, the "fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God" descend upon yon. Remember, that all your sins, if not repented of and forsaken, will some day meet you again, "like so many phantoms from the land of shadows," to rob you of your peace, to embitter your last hours, and to hurry you from the judgment-bar to eternal death.

Let us ask of the days that are past,

Lastly. That we may, by Divine help, resolve to correct in the future those things which have been evils in the past.

Through the Mediator let us seek pardon for the wretched waste and sinfulness of the past. This, like the light transfused over chaos, can alter entirely the prejudicial portions of by-gone existence. There shall be no condemnation then. Let us keep in memory the vanity of the world. Our past experience of life must have taught us that every man walketh in a vain show, and is disquieted in vain." The tumult and toil, the care and turbulence, the plans and pursuits, of this world are all vain. We have no continuing city-no satisfying restno peaceful haven, where the storms of calamity can never invade. Let the knowledge of this truth teach us to rely upon the immutability of our God and Father. Amidst the night of time, that will illuminate our course gentle as moonlight on the wave. He never changes. As He was to our fathers, so He abides to us, an unfailing refuge. Under the seal and hand of the immutable God we have the promise, "I will never leave thee." Amidst all the decays of nature and the dissolutions of time, be it ours, even when the universe gives way at our feet, to say, in strong faith, "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all

generations." Let us keep in constant view our future and final destiny in another life. Life is fast ebbing away. Every passing moment deteriorates the value of our remaining existence; for it contracts its span, and is leading on to days of feebleness and age and decay. Then the days shall draw nigh when, in your dim senses and impoverished existence, you shall say, "I have no pleasure in them." Or, if this gradual decline be not yours, then some earlier, steeper, sharper way awaits you to bring you to the "house appointed for all living." We are like "hirelings accomplishing our day": soon the gathering shadows will come, soon the night close in around us, and we shall have had and spent our time; then the period will have arrived when we shall have finished our term of probation, and retired into the great darkness, never more to return.

Christian brethren, let us then be diligent, patient, and watchful. Let us now resolve that, whatever may be the number of our days, they shall be filled with true and God-given work,

"Day after day filled up with blessed toil;

Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil;"

live so that all our energies shall be bent to that great object which God has set before us. Let each hour, day, and year, as it passes, be full fraught with scenes on which memory will love to dwell,-things done, thoughts generated and uttered, influence created and used for God and man ;-then, beyond the sway of time and the sweep of its desolations, there shall be the crown of righteousness for every faithful soul.

Milton, Oxon.

"Life is swift: the years go by;
A story told, and then we die:
Life is glory, all things holy:
Conflict done, victory won;
Clad in white, crowned in light:
Angels' songs shall tell its story."

THE CZAR AND THE PSALM. WHEN Alexander I., Emperor of Russia, came to the throne, few Bibles were found in his empire, and great carelessness in reference to religion almost universally prevailed. A high place in the church soon became vacant, and the emperor appointed his favourite prince, Alexander Galitzin, to fill it. He at first declined the appointment on the plea of his entire ignorance of religion; but the emperor overruled the objection as of no weight. Constrained to accept the position, the

prince on his first interview with the venerable Archbishop Platoff, requested him to point out some book which would give him a concise view of the Christian religion, that he might be better qualified for his official duties. The archbishop, rather surprised at the prince's professed ignorance of religion, recommended the Bible. The prince said he could not think of reading that book. "Well," replied the archbishop, "that is the only book there is, or ever will be, that can give you