In the Holy Land winter extends from the beginning of December to the end of January, and is often remarkable, especially in the more mountainous districts, for the variableness of its temperature, and the intensity of its cold. Hence those realising descriptions of winter, which abound in Scripture: "He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?" Psalm cxlvii. 16, 17. As in all the other seasons, so in winter, also, we see the wisdom and beneficence of the great Creator.

"These, as they change, Almighty Father, these Are but the varied God. The rolling year Is full of Thee."

The life of spring, the glory of summer, the bounty of autumn, and the mellowing frosts of winter, all proclaim the infinite goodness of that gracious Parent who has said, "While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease,' Gen. viii. 22.

We may regard winter-as a season ; as an emblem; and as an incentive to benevolent actions.

I. Contemplate winter as a season. As such, it presents many themes of profitable meditation. And

1. Winter displays the power, wisdom, truth, and goodness of God. He has so constructed our planet, as by its spherical form, and inclined position to the great central luminary, to occasion all the varieties of heat and cold, from the fervid glow of the tropics, to the perpetual ice and snow of the polar regions. Winter displays God's power: its stormy

John x. 22.

winds; its raging tempests; its darkened skies; its gloomy and cheerless nights; its rattling hail; its drifting snows; its ice-bound waters; its pinching coldare but so many demonstrations of that Omnipotence, which

"Reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year."

Nor does winter less display God's wisdom by the succession of seasons, each one brings along with it its own peculiar provisions and gratifications. Inferior creatures, by instinct, and man, by reason, are taught equally by the great Creator and Benefactor, to provide against the rigours and hardships of the wintry months; and the beauty and loveliness of the other seasons are enhanced by the gloom and cold which precede them.

It

Winter, too, is the standing memorial of Gods faithfulness: it is no less his appointment than the green verdure of spring, the sweet flowers of summer, and the rich fruitfulness of autumn. is His snow that covers the earth like a fleece of wool; it is His ice that is cast forth like morsels; it is His cold before which neither man nor beast can stand. It is "He" that "saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth;" and "by the breath of God frost is given." While the earth standeth, winter shall be one of the memorials of God's unbroken covenant.

Nor is winter less the monument of God's goodness: it is the night of the year, in which the weary soil takes rest, and thereby prepares itself for the vegetative toils of the spring and summer. By the snow the earth is covered from the rigours of the wintry blast, and by

the frost those innumerable insects are destroyed which would eat up its varied productions. By the action of winter both animal and vegetable life are invigorated and improved; while for all his creatures God provides, some by reason, some by instinct, comforts and accommodations calculated to meet the exigencies which press upon them. Truly we may say, Thou crownest the year with thy goodness." But,

2. Winter is a season of trial and privation to many. In polar regions it puts forth a rigour, often, which threatens their scanty and sluggish population with an extinction of existence, and renders it next to impossible to search for their wonted provisions amidst mountains of snow, and oceans of ice. If we would enhance our own comforts, and adore the goodness of God to those who reside in these temperate climes, let us often think of the poor skin-clad savage, in his snow-built hut, amidst continents of ice, shivering on the very confines of existence.

The aged, too, with whom the current of life runs slow, whose limbs are tottering and feeble, and who are but little able to exert themselves to keep up their animal warmth, often feel, most keenly, the rigours of winter. If they are Christians, and know the blessings of communion with God, they will know how to bear the tedious languor of this season; but, if nothing but nature comes in to their aid, they will feel that it is gloomy and cheerless. To many such it is the harbinger of the stillness and coldness of that dreary mansion in which they must lie till they hear the sound of the last trumpet. The reader must have perceived, by the public prints, that multitudes of the aged have been called into eternity since the commencement of the present cold. Happy, thrice happy, they who have entered into the joy of their Lord! But, oh, how sad the death of the aged sinner!

The poor, in particular, feel the pressures of winter. Many of them are shut out from their ordinary labours, and are thereby deprived of their usual means of support. Surrounded by numerous families, and destitute of proper food, clothing, and fuel, they are ready to exclaim, "Who can stand before his cold?" In a country so densely peopled as ours, and more especially in our crowded cities, there are tens of thousands who rise up in the morning with

out knowing where they are to find their next meal. Our poor laws are, doubtless, valuable provisions; but there are multitudes of cases which they can never reach. The poor, indeed, are always with us; but the severity of winter augments their number, and aggravates their privations. The writer could take you, at this moment, to the habitations of many of God's children, pleading his promise, and living on his faithfulness, who are straitened, beyond what he can express, in their circumstances, and who are doomed to feel the pinchings of a scanty diet, a scantier wardrobe, and a cheerless dwelling.

3. Winter is the season of social intercourse. This is one of its comforts, as well as one of its temptations. Social intercourse, when properly regulated, that is, when put under the control of religious principle, is a great solace of existence. The fellowship of kindred minds, more especially where true godliness is the bond of union, is an emblem of heaven itself. It is our duty to "use hospitality without grudging," and always to endeavour to turn it to the best account. It is the height of selfishness, and argues but little of the social temperament of the Gospel, where Christians are content to live in solitude, and are never drawn towards each other by the force of principle, and the attraction of holy love. I am not pleading for worldly parties among Christians, we have too many of them already; but for those intercourses around the social board, which when conducted in the spirit of piety, and terminated by acts of devotion, cannot fail to promote a spirit of love. The children of this world are in their generation, in this respect, wiser than the children of light. They know how to call in the aid of the social principle to promote vanity and folly; and surely Christians should not lose that advantage to their profession which arises from the sanctified intercourse of social life. A dozen respectable individuals, in a Christian congregation, might, at a comparatively small annual expenditure, organise a system of religious conference, and social devotion through the whole community. As winter is the season most commonly devoted to social and friendly intercourse in general, let Christians seize upon the prevailing habit, and turn it to some happy account for eternity. But let it never degenerate into a school for scandal, or into a source

of increased worldly conformity. Let the social meetings of our winter evenings have a sweet savour of godliness spread over them; and yet let them be so cheerful and happy, that the younger branches of our several circles may feel that there is nothing gloomy or repulsive in the spirit and fellowship of Christians. It is earnestly recommended that these meetings should commence at an early hour, and that the members of each family should be in their own habitations by ten o'clock, that no infringement of domestic order or domestic devotion may be the result of the intercourses proposed. If a minister of the Gospel, or some gifted private Christian, can be associated with these meetings, to give a tone to the conversation, to expound, in an engaging manner, some portion of Scripture, and to lead the devotions of the friendly circle, it will greatly enhance their interest and their usefulness; but, where this cannot be attained, let the head of each family be the priest in his own house.

The writer would express a hope that this thought may not be lost sight of by any who have it in their power to exercise the rites of Christian hospitality. It will enlarge the sphere of their own benevolence, by ministering to the instruction and happiness of others. It is not a series of expensive entertainments that is recommended; but rather a succession of love-feasts, such as obtained among the early Christians, and which drew their hearts one toward another, and aided their triumph over the selfishness and carnality of the world.

II. Contemplate winter as an emblem.
All nature is full of beautiful and in-

structive analogies. Winter presents many such analogies.

And

1. In nature it is the emblem of old age and of death. The spring of promise has fled, the summer of bright suns has passed away, the autumn of withered hopes has arrived, and winter, dreary and cold, has followed, in its turn, to complete the round of man's earthly

career.

"Tis done! dread winter spreads his latest gloom,
And reigns trennendous o'er the conquer'd year.
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!
How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends
His desolate domain. Behold, fond man !
See here thy pictur'd life; pass some few years,
Thy flowering spring, thy summer's ardent strength
Thy sober autumn fading into age,

And pale concluding winter comes at last
And shuts the scene!"

With some who may read this article,

the spring of youth has passed, the summer of manhood has faded, and yellow autumn is fast whitening into the snows of winter. As they look around them on that death which now pervades all nature, and feel its chilling and paralysing touch, let them not forget that the signs of their approaching winter are fast pressing onward. Those grey hairs, that decay of animal strength, that dimness which creeps over their vision, that sluggish pulse, that tottering step, that fading memory,-all portend that their autumn is soon to close, and that the winter of death is about to fix them in all the icy coldness and insensibility of the

grave.

How, then, fellow-pilgrim! have your seasons of life been spent? Did the spring-time of your being send forth the sweet blossoms of early piety? Did your summer of life see them advancing to maturity? Is your autumn of life laden with fruits of righteousness? Or are you compelled, by a faithful review of life, to come to a far different conclusion? O forget not, that your autumn hours are fast fading, and that what is done for eternity must be done quickly. If the winter of life seals up your faculties ere yet you begin to live to God, to you there will be no returning spring; yours, alas! will be a resurrection, not to life, but a resurrection to damnation.

That

Christian, your winter is coming, but a bright spring shall follow. which is sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory; and that which is sown a natural body shall be raised a spiritual body." You have nothing to apprehend from age or mortality. The graves of the saints are all perfumed by their dying Lord; and he who said to Lazarus, "Come forth," will speak to the earth and to the seas, and cause them to deliver up, as faithful stewards, all who sleep

in Him.

We must not omit here to observe, that as in the natural world the rigours of winter may obtrude themselves, at times, upon the lovliest seasons, and nip the fairest blossoms, or kill the sweetest flowers; so, in the life of man, his winter may come upon him at any season, from the opening bud of existence to the ripened maturity of old age. The smiling infant, the playful child, the ruddy boy, the vigorous youth, the full-grown man, no less than the tottering pilgrim of fourscore years, may be called to wither beneath the chilling blast of mortality.

Watch, O watch, then, for you know not when your Lord cometh.

2. In grace, winter is the emblem of spiritual death or languor. O what an appalling spectacle, if we had eyes to see it, is the winter of the soul!-No spiritual verdure-not a bud-not a leafnot a blossom to be seen!-all cold, and motionless, and dead, and ghastly, and forbidding! The death of nature is involuntary; but spiritual death is the wilful suspension of all holy functions, and a depraved insensibility to every exercise and engagement suited to our immortal and accountable nature. what a winter spiritually pervades our once happy world! Behold the trees of the forest stript of their leaves; see all nature prostrate in death; and in this cheerless spectacle contemplate the true image of a soul stript of resemblance to God, without holy principles and affections; a stranger to the meltings of penitence, the sighs of contrition, the fervors of devotion, the promptings of new obedience. O that we could lead these victims of this sad death to sigh for the approach of a moral spring! O that it were with them the time of the singing of birds! O that we could see the ice-bound spirit yielding to the softened breezes of heaven! O that we could discern the first tender buddings of spiritual life springing up in their wintry atmosphere! Let them but reflect on the nature of that death which pervades their souls. They are dead to spiritual light and vision. There is a fair and beauteous prospect before them; but they have no eye to discern its lovely forms of grace and excellence. They are dead to all spiritual affections, of love, joy, peace, and holy desire. They are dead to all spiritual exercise, of prayer, praise, and devout meditation. They are dead to God himself, the chief good; and have said within themselves, "We desire not the knowledge of his ways." They are dead to all wellgrounded hope; the world is their portion, and they are hastening to the judgment-seat of Christ with the lie of a self-righteous and deceived spirit. O that over millions of such ice-bound spirits the God of grace would breathe the balmy and refreshing air of a moral spring!

And are there not some who, after having passed the winter of an unrenewed state, and entered on the spring and summer of the new and heavenly

life, have suffered a temporary decay and death of their spiritual graces? It is surely not with them now as it was in months past, when the candle of the Lord shone round about them, and when the life of prayer and communion with God was their chief delight. They have lost their first love. The enemy of souls has been sifting them as wheat. They have fallen from their stedfastness. Their faith is weak, and is ready to die. There are the signs of approaching winter in their souls. "O backsliding Israel, return unto Him from whence thou hast departed." Cry for the quickening energies of the Holy Spirit! Shake off that spiritual lethargy which has crept over your faculties. Breathe after the return of a moral spring. Look out for the early and latter rain. "Repent, and do your first works." Fall down upon your knees and entreat God to restore unto you "the joys of his salvation, and to uphold with his free Spirit." Then may you hope to be richly laden "with those fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God."

III. Contemplate Winter as an incentive to benevolent actions.

There is something in every season to teach us to imitate the never-failing bounty and goodness of our Father in heaven. Winter has its peculiar lessons, especially to those on whom God has bestowed more of this world's good than is necessary for the supply of their own wants. By partially withholding from many of his creatures the supplies of other seasons, he teaches those in affluent and easy circumstances to sympathise with the poor and necessitous; thus constituting them the ministers of mercy to certain portions of their fellow-creatures. While our cup runneth over with the rich abundance of God's mercies, surely we cannot but think with tender pity of multitudes for whom nothing has been provided. Why is it so that we have plenty, and they are destitute of all things, but that the bounty of Heaven which has flown so liberally into one channel, may find its way, by our own voluntary agency, into another? The whole amount of supply is God's, but he has seen fit to limit it to certain channels, that one class of his creatures may exercise sympathy and generosity, and another gratitude and becoming respect. Now, if this supply, which is all from God, is consumed luxuriously, or hoarded

selfishly, instead of being given forth like the bounty of the seasons, then will the gracious Parent of all call us to a dreadful reckoning for our unfaithful stewardship.

This work of charity to the poor must not be left to occasional impulse or mere animal sympathy; it must take the place of a Christian grace, and be provided for, with a rigid fidelity, according to the means of doing good which God has conferred on us. As the Lord hath prospered every man, it becomes him to lay by in store for the necessitous poor, that he may "do good to all, but more especially the household of faith."

If he is but little acquainted with the habitations of poverty and wretchedness, he will find no difficulty in discovering a proper almoner of his bounty in the person of some one addicted to works of faith and labours of love.

Ministers of Christ, from their continual intercourse with the humbler classes of society, are eminently fit persons to be intrusted with a portion of their people's substance to distribute among the afflicted poor. Yet, I fear, if their testimony could be faithfully and largely collected, it would be found that but a scanty pittance is thus committed to their care. The writer had one dear friend, now in heaven, from whom he always, during his life-time, received one hundred pounds per annum to distribute among the poor; but, beyond this, he does not believe that, in the space of three and twenty years, he has had a sum equal to this intrusted to him

by all his other friends, to aid him in his visits of mercy. He has conversed with other ministers, who have told him that their experience has corresponded with his own. These circumstances are often the result of thoughtlessness; but it is earnestly hoped, that in this age of active benevolence, it will not be forgotten by wealthy Christians, that "Blessed is he that considereth the poor."

The present season has been severe beyond all ordinary precedent; and the writer would earnestly beseech all those who have a measure of this world's good, to think of the scanty boards, the partial clothing, and the shivering habitations of the poor. May he be allowed to hope that amidst all their devisings, the wealthier members of our churches will not forget the destitute and afflicted poor. Let them reflect what pensioners we all are upon the Divine bounty; and let it be seen, by the sympathy and kindness of their deportment, that they claim relation to Him whose blessed distinction it was, that "he went about continually doing good."

In conclusion, let all aspire after that distinction which consists in poverty of spirit. As poor, and needy, and dependent on God for all things, let us draw near to him and plead for mercy. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich."

J. M.

decent respect, and good manners, could a sensible man derive from Abraham treating with the sons of Heth for the cave of Machpelah; and William Penn treating for the tract of land now called Pennsylvania! I leave others to draw the parallel, and to show how exactly the conduct and spirit of patriarch the first were exemplified in the conduct and spirit of patriarch the second. "Let the

brance."

Gen. xxiii.-What lessons of honesty,

Deut. xvii. 16. "He shall not multiply horses.”—As horses appear to have been generally furnished by Egypt, God