stop with you but a few minutes longer. Permit me, therefore, my aged friend, to say that I have long cultivated an opinion, that the world is to us as we are to it. I think I now see the reason why you are overloaded, for it does not appear that you are seriously engaged to derive strength from God to support you under your bereavements and disappointments; and I really wonder that your load does not feel heavier. You profess to be a worshipper in the Lord's house, but I am afraid you are too forgetful of him in your own. I know the unavoidable infirmities of your age must haye a serious effect upon your animal spirits, and that you are less able to bear the weight of earthly cares now than you were in younger days. Be assured, however, that God lays no greater burden upon children than he will enable them to bear. I wish, therefore, you would seriously compose your mind, and see whether the overload may not be of your own making! If so, plead with God to give you grace to lay it aside; lay up all your good in the rich Saviour, and walk humbly and thankfully with your God, for it is a pity that an old woman should overload herself with the world just as she is going out of it."

his

FALL OF THE LEAF.

See the leaves around us falling,
Dry and wither'd to the ground;
Thus to thoughtless mortals calling,
In a sad and solemn sound.

Venerable sires grown hoary,

Hither turn th' unwilling eye,
Think, amidst your falling glory,
Autumn tells a winter nigh.

On the tree of life eternal,

Man, let all thy hopes be staid;
Which alone, for ever vernal,

Bears a leaf that shall not fade.

Bishop Horne.

SCARCE any thing around us gives a stronger intimation of approaching winter than the change and fall of the leaf; and few emblems can be selected more expressive of the natural and mental infirmities attendant on the last stages of human life. For we all do fade as the leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, carry us away. Isaiah lxiv. 6. When our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned against their Creator, they in vain covered themselves with fig-leaves; and no wonder that, as sinners, our leaves should fall and drop into the dust of death. This fall of the leaf of man is very far

from being always reserved to old age, for few comparatively live to that late period. Youth, that cometh up like a flower, producing the buds of intellect, and whose leaves afford the most exquisite delight to a parental heart, frequently suffer depredation by disease, the leaves fade and fall to the dust of the earth. In the meridian of life, the busy merchant, the wise statesman, the valiant warrior, the philosopher, and the divine, with every grade of society, rich or poor, may unexpectedly meet with a blast, their leaves fall, and the tree is levelled in death. The comparative few who are permitted to live and be familiar with old age, are still more competent to learn useful lessons on their own frailty, from the natural fall of the leaf in autumn. To assist your reflections upon this expressive emblem of declining age, I shall employ this paper in making a few observations upon the subject.

I. It will bring to your recollection your former standing and appearance in life. The tree produces its buds in the season of spring, gradually by the warming rays of the sun, aided by rain and dew, every branch is adorned with foliage, and flowers and fruit succeed. The intense heat of the summer, accompanied with occasional storms and tempest, so far from destroying the leaves, occasioned a sort of perspiration, which promoted their growth and beauty, while it materially contributed to the strength of the twigs and the tree which bear them. See then your own pictured life. You have had your charming season of youth, when

your leaf was green. As a tree you have stood in your day and generation, passing the seasons of the sunshine of prosperity, and enduring the alternate storms of adversity; and happy will be the result of your reflections, if by the fruits of righteousness you have honoured your God, who hath so long continued you in life, and that you have contributed to the benefit of your fellow creatures. These will afford you a pleasure, now the autumn of life arrives, and the season admonishes you to contemplate the falling of the leaf.

II. Suppose we examine the causes of the falling of the leaf. At this season a great proportion of the vital sap of the tree which has produced, nourished, and supported the leaf upon its twig, gradually descends to the root, leaving only a sufficiency in the branches for the preservation of life during the season of winter. And it likewise may be added, that the gradual advance of a chilled and cold atmosphere, materially aids in changing the colour of the leaf, and facilitating its fall. This is precisely like the cause and the symptoms of old age. The spring of animal life relaxes; the blood, which is the vital sap or fluid, grows cold and languid; the powers of the mind become heavy; while the whole system gradually becomes feeble; and, like the tree, so much life and animation are only retained as shall be sufficient to perform the last solitary duties of expiring nature. Under such serious impressions as these, you no doubt frequently adopt the request of David, Cast me not off in the

time of old age; O Lord forsake me not when my strength faileth. Psalm lxxi. 9.

III. Leaves of a tree, in many respects, are equivalent to the use of lungs in the animal body. There are no leaves but what possess a vast number of extreme fine vessels, and to what purpose would be this arrangement of the leaves, if they were of no other use than merely to adorn the tree, please our eye, or afford us shade? for the fruitfulness of the tree materially depends upon its leaves, as the health of the body does upon the soundness and health of the lungs. The pores of the leaves serve to suck in the moisture of the atmosphere, the rain, and the dew, and to communicate them to the whole tree; and this is the reason why many trees wither and die after their leaves have been gathered. Admitting this analogy between the leaves of the tree and the uses of the lungs in the human body, we are confident that the lungs are as subject to diseases, decay, and eventually prove mortal, as the leaves of the tree first fade and then fall. The contemplation of this subject by an aged person, will easily aid him to account for the debility of his appetite, the failure of the voice, and likewise what is generally called " the old man's cough."

IV. Attention to the process, easily observed in the falling leaf, will afford you very serious lessons of instruction, as its similitude to the last stage of life is extremely expressive. No sooner than the sap of the tree begins to decline than the beautiful