pears; she holds in her hand a scroll-see its burden! She is in earnest. She looks benignly and compassionately as she passes by. She makes known to man his highest good. Above her head is seen a crown of glory; this she promises to all who will obey her voice, and improve the present time.

The past is gone. The castles, the mansions, the green oaks, and the towers and let them go! The monuments of the pride and ambition and wickedness of kings and conquerors are crumbling into dust-and let them crumble! The glory, splendour, and renown of heroes, are fast fading away—and let them fade! But the dead shall live again—they that sleep in the dust shall awake —that which is sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory.

The past is gone-time once lost is lost for ever. Past oportunities for doing good and for getting good are gone, and gone for ever. ""Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, and ask them what report they bore to heaven." Happy he,

"Whose work is done; who triumphs in the past,
Whose yesterdays look backward with a smile;
Nor, like the Parthian, wound him as they fly:
That common, but opprobrious lot. Past hours,
If not by guilt, yet wound us by their flight,
If folly bounds our prospect by the grave."

It haunts us

Yet there is a sense in which the past never dies. like the ghost of the murdered-it is ever present-an angel of light, casting upon us a look of heavenly love, or a demon of darkness, scowling with malignity and hate. The memory will exist for ever; the remembrance of past actions will, therefore, live for ever. for yesterdays to come!"

66

"Oh

The future is concealed-clouds and darkness hide it from our view. We know not what a day may bring forth, nor what an hour; we know, however, that death is there, and after death the judgment, and after the judgment the issues thereof-" eternal life" or eternal death.” But this is all we know, and this is enough, if we are wise. How much of joy or sorrow there may be for us in the future, we know not; whether our path will be strewed with roses or with thorns, we cannot tell-most likely they will be mixed. What opportunities for improvement in religious duties and privileges, or what hindrances, we may have, we know not-how much of life-who can tell? A man may plant, and build, and lay up goods for many years, and yet to-day may be his last day-to-night his soul may be required of him.

If, then, the past is gone, and if the future may never come to us in life, it behoves us to improve the present. God, in His mercy, offers salvation now. Now is the accepted time-now is the day of salvation. What is it that is offered? Salvation. Thou canst not do without salvation; without it thou art lost, and lost for ever. Seize then, oh seize the angel as she passes, nor suffer her to go until she blesses thee. The present time, how important! It includes the vast concerns of the eternal state. Destroy it not; there is a blessing in it. "Throw years away, throw empires, and be The present seize.

blameless.'

"Oh what heaps of slain

Cry out for vengeance on us! Time destroyed

Is suicide, where more than blood is spilt ;

Time flies-death urges-knells call-heaven invites-
Hell threatens-all exert, in effort all;

More than creation labours-labours more:

Man sleeps, and man alone; and man, for whom
All else is in alarm; man, the sole cause

Of this surrounding storm; and yet he sleeps,
As the storm rocked to rest."

Now is the accepted time; God will accept thee now; He nowhere promises to accept thee to-morrow. Think, oh think of thy soul, and its value; think of Jehovah and His love; think of Christ and His precious blood; think of heaven and its eternal blessedness; of hell and its terrible torments. Upon thy present conduct rests thy eternal destiny. What art thou sowing? what art thou working? what art thou treasuring up? Let conscience answer. Think of the past, and all its guilt of the future, and its great uncertainty of the present as thine. To-morrow may be too late; now is the day of salvation. Now thou mayest wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord-inspire a new liferejoice in glorious hope-enrol thy name among the children of God, and become a glorious citizen of immortality in heaven.

Improve the present. See, look on that beach; there is a boat high and dry with a man in it-he is asleep. The ship to which he belongs is in the offing; she will sail the next tide. The tide rises the man sleeps on-the tide ebbs―he awakes the water is gone, the ship is gone, and he is left to perish on a desolate island. There is a tide in man's spiritual affairs, which, when taken at the rise, leads on to heaven-omitted, he may be left to perish. "My Spirit, saith the Lord, shall not always strive with man."

Now is the accepted time. Behold that railroad car; it has just started. Look again; there is a person with his hands upraised, exclaiming, "Alas, too late!" He is left behind—his friends are

all on board, and he is not with them; great is his grief. Man is a stranger here—God sends the chariot of His love to bear him home. Again and again it comes—it is here now-O sinner, step on board. The Saviour is there-He invites thee to leave thy sins and sinful companions, and get on board of the heavenly car-the car of mercy. It is ready to start-all things are now ready-some of thy friends are there. Hesitate not-delay not-or, like the passenger, thou mayest find thyself in a more mournful sense late," and a moment you may wish when worlds want wealth to buy."

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"O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.

Thy word commands our flesh to dust,
'Return, ye sons of men ;'
All nations rose from earth at first,
And turn to earth again.

A thousand ages, in thy sight,

Are like an evening gone;

Short as the watch that ends the night,

Before the rising sun.

The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,

Are carried downward by the flood,
And lost in following years."

WATTS.

too

66

For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things."-ROM. xi. 36. "Time is short."-1 COR. vii. 29. "Which is, and which was, and which is to come."-REV. i. 8.

PROVIDENCE, TIME, ETERNITY.

Upon a narrow isle, 'mid waters vast,
By stress of tide the voyagers are cast;
Beneath-around-a dark and boundless sea;
Above, thick clouds wrap all in mystery.
The ocean wears the shore on every side,
As time decreases 'neath the eternal tide;
Yet one-deluded man!-strives much to reach
The shells and pebbles on the crumbling beach.
The waves dash on-another pondering stands,
And sees destruction come with folded hands.

Not so the third-he turns his longing eyes,
And views a chain descending from the skies,
The providential chain, with links of love,
Watched by an eye that never sleeps above;
He grasps the chain-from all his fears it saves,
While his companions perish 'neath the waves.

In the engraving is seen a representation of the all-seeing eye. It is placed above everything else, to show that the eye of God's Providence watches over all creation, taking notice of every event throughout all time and space. Though to human vision there may be clouds and darkness about the throne of the Eternal, yet, to His all-seeing eye, darkness is as noonday. All things are before Him, and nothing is too minute for His inspection. He sees the rise and fall of empires, and with equal attention sees the sparrow fall to the ground; for, in a certain sense, nothing is great or small before Him. Throughout all time and space, the eye of Providence penetrates; yea, more, it reaches farther; eternity itself, to the human mind dark, fathomless, boundless, endless, is penetrated and comprehended. A chain is seen descending from above, of which we can neither see the beginning nor the ending; but, as far as we can discover, it is but a small part of a mighty whole. It is true a man may see a few of the links of the chain before him, and their connection with each other; but how far they may extend above or below his vision, he has no knowledge. This shows us that the great chain of God's providential dispensations in the universe is but partially seen or comprehended. It is true, while on these mortal shores we may see a few of the connecting links of this chain; but to what heights it reaches, or to what depths it penetrates, we have no adequate conception.

"In what manner, indeed," says a celebrated writer, " Providence interposes in human affairs; by what means it influences the thoughts and counsels of men, and, notwithstanding the influence it exerts, leaves to them the freedom of choice, are subjects of a dark and mysterious nature, and which have given occasion to many an intricate controversy. Let us remember that the manner in which God influences the motion of all the heavenly bodies, the nature of that secret power by which He is ever directing the sun and the moon, the planets, stars, and comets, in their through the heavens, while they appear to move themselves in a free course, are matters no less inexplicable to us than the manner

course