Yea, ye imagine mischief in your heart upon the earth and your hands deal with wickedness.

The ungodly are froward, even from their mother's womb: as soon as they are born, they go astray, and speak lies.

They are as venomous as the poison of a serpent: even like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears;

Which refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer charm he never so wisely.

Break their teeth, O GOD, in their mouths; smite the jaw-bones of the lions, O LORD: let them fall away like water that runneth apace, and when they shoot their arrows let them be rooted out.

Let them consume away like a snail, and be like the untimely fruit of a woman: and let them not see the sun.

Or ever your pots be made hot with thorns: so let indignation vex him, even as a thing that is raw.

The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his footsteps in the blood of the ungodly.

So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: doubtless there is a GOD that judgeth the earth.

Glory be to the FATHER, &c.
As it was in the beginning, &c.

APPENDIX.

A MEDITATION WHICH MAY BE
USED DURING ADVENT.

The same may serve also for the last day of the Year.

"Man goeth to his long home."-Eccles. xii. 5.

Even JESUS was 66 a stranger upon the earth." He was born in an Inn. He was compelled to fly into Egypt. And though He tarried for some years at the house in Nazareth with His holy Mother, and the saintly Joseph, yet He had no home in this world, not even in His "FATHER'S House," as He called the Temple at Jerusalem. All the days of His appointed time He waited; till having endured the Cross, and passed through the grave and gate of death, He went up in His risen Glory, to

A MEDITATION DURING ADVENT. 189

"sit down at the Right Hand of the throne of GOD." And I, as a follower of JESUS, and looking unto Him as the Author and Finisher of my faith, must endeavour to run with patience the race that is set before me, till I also, having passed through the grave and gate of death, shall rise to a joyful resurrection, and enter into the true home, "the long home" of eternity. "For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come." And "we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of GOD, an house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens."

Remember then, my soul, that thou art but a passenger in this world; do not place thy affections on what thou seest, look and pass on, and seek for thyself a good home, where thou mayest dwell for ever.

Oh

Oh beautiful House in Heaven. City of the Saints! He that enters into thy courts shall have nothing more to desire. He will live in continual joy. Oh friends of my youth, and of my later years, who are already at home in Paradise, when shall I be once more united with you, and rejoice with you for all eternity?

But in this going to his long home, man is placed between two things-he must choose or lose the everlasting reward. He

is not carried to Heaven by force; he goes to it of his own accord, through Divine grace. GOD wishes all men to be saved; but He will not compel us to be saved. And the choice is not between a house more or less convenient, but between an abode full of every delight amidst the friends of GOD, or a pit full of every torment with the company of devils and of the wicked. And for how long? Not for twenty or forty years; but for all eternity. Choose then, my soul, and be wise in thy choice.

But, ah! foolish and blind that I have. been. I have known long since of my "long home," and yet I have been planting and building here as if this home were the enduring one. But when I look on all the works that my hands have wrought, and on all the labour that I have laboured to do for my own interest, and apart from GOD, behold it is all vanity and vexation of spirit, and there is no profit under the

sun.

And, O ye past and bygone years, what witnesses ye are of my soul's waste, and of my forgetfulness of GOD. But "I believe in the life everlasting." I believe that after this life there is another life which never ends, and in this belief I will rekindle my faith; and with this thought

ever before me, I will adopt every means to secure my salvation. I will frequent the Sacraments and all means of grace. I will reflect and meditate. I will fly dangerous occasions. And if it be necessary to leave the world, I will leave it, because no precautions can be too great to secure eternal salvation. "No security is too great where eternity is at stake."

My GOD, I have deserved to dwell with everlasting burnings, but Thy mercy has waited for me, and given me time to repair the evils I have done. For ever blessed be the Blood of JESUS, which has obtained this mercy for me. Never more, O GOD, never more let me offend Thee, or abuse Thy patience. Never more let me abuse Thy will, and Thy Infinite Goodness. For what dost Thou desire, O my GOD, but my welfare and my salvation? O happy me, if I live during the remainder of my life, and end my life, in loving Thee, and doing Thy will.

O JESUS, obtain for me, through Thy Mediation, the gift of final perseverance, that I may endure to the end in Thy grace and love, and may go to Thy long home!

O most pitiful GOD, I fly to Thee for help, because I know that Thou art ready to be found of them that seek Thee, and