POSSESSION AND PROFESSION: NOON-DAY MEDITATIONS FOR THE THOUGHTFUL AND THE THOUGHTLESS, A SUGGESTIVE COMPANION FOR SUMMER STROLLS COLLECTED BY A ROVING BEE, Hesketh WHO HAS FLOWN OVER MANY FLOWERS AND SOUGHT TO EXTRACT There may be much profession without possession, but there can be LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO. 21 BERNERS STREET. M.DCCC.LXX. k. 141. K. 330 MAL. iii. 2. Who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? PROV. viii. 21. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance 'Tis not for man to trifle! life is brief, And sin is here. Our age is but the falling of a leaf, A dropping tear. We have no time to sport away the hours, Not many lives, but only one have we- How sacred should that one life be, That narrow span! Day after day filled up with blessed toil, Hour after hour, still bringing in new spoil. In the course of our reading, we should lay up in our minds a store of goodly thoughts, in well-wrought words, which would be a living treasure, always within us, and from which, at various times, and in shifting circumstances, we might draw comfort and guidance.-A. Helps. PRINTED BY NEILL AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH. EDITOR'S PREFACE. As it was in the days of Solomon, so it is now, "of making many books there is no end;" and no one ought to inflict another on the reading public without earnest pains and definite purpose. Only those should write who have ideas which crave an outward vent-ideas which have given a powerful impulse to their own lives, and an intense longing that others should receive the same influence. Such words will probably find echoes in many hearts, and are not sent or written in vain. Such words seem to be photographs from the "Sun of righteousness," from Him who is the giver of every good gift, "with whom the light dwelleth" (Dan. ii. 22). Artists tell us that photographs gradually lose their colour and effect when shut up, and require to be afresh displayed in a strong light. Therefore some of these soul-photographs have been searched out from a variety of portfolios, and carefully arranged a |