Perhaps the "Notes" may be useful to those who, En providence, are led to think of repairing to Madeira. In either case, I shall not be without my reward. For myself, I shall often look back with pleasure to the months which I spent in that island. I shall often remember, with a thankful spirit, the privilege which there was mine, of ministering in the Gospel of Christ the Christian friendships which I formed the Christian communion which I enjoyed -large comfort these in the season of my long separation from my own family. I shall ever feel a deep interest in that lovely island

"Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine, And all, save the spirit of man, is divine."

It shall often be my prayer that the consolations of Jesus Christ may abound to my own countrymen sojourning there, whether they be engaged in worldly occupations, or be seeking that health of which some of them shall never more be partakers-often shall I plead with the Lord that his work among the natives may go on, enlightening, converting, sanctifying many of them-that they may be comforted and supported under the sufferings and persecutions which Popery is now inflicting on them for the truth's sake, and, by their constant stedfastness and holiness, adorn the doctrine of the blessed Redeemer.

** Mr Johnstone begs to acknowledge receipt of 15s., collected by a Little Girl who attended the Scotch Church

last winter in Madeira," to help to build the Scotch Church in that island. He will be happy to take charge of any further sums intended for this interesting object.

DREAMS.

Of all the subjects upon which the mind of man has speculated, there is perhaps none which has more perplexed than that of dreaming.

Whatever may be the difficulties attending the subject, still we know that it has formed a channel through which Jehovah was pleased in former times to reveal his character and dispensations to his people.

We believe that dreams are ordinarily the re-embodiment of thoughts which have before, in some shape or other, occupied our minds. They are broken fragments of our former conceptions revived, and heterogeneously brought together. If they break off from their connecting chain, and become loosely associated, they exhibit ofttimes absurd combinations, but the elements still subsist. If, for instance, any irritation, such as pain, fever, &c., should excite the perceptive organs while the reflective ones are under the influence of sleep, we have a consciousness of objects, colours, or sounds being presented to us, just as if the former organs were actually stimulated by having such impressions communicated to them by the external senses; whilst, in consequence of the repose of the reflecting power, we are unable to rectify the illusion, and conceive that the scenes passing before us, or the sounds that we hear, have a real existence. This want of mutual co-operation between the different faculties of the mind may account for the disjointed character of dreams. This position might be fully substantiated by an appeal to the evidence of facts. Dr Beattie speaks of a man who could be made to dream anything by whispering in his ear. Dr Gregory relates of himself that, hav

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ing once had occasion to apply a bottle of hot water to his own feet when he retired to bed, he dreamed that he was ascending the side of Mount Etna, and that he found the heat of the ground almost insufferable. Persons who have had a blister applied to their head have been known to dream of being scalped by a party of North American Indians. Sleeping in a smoky room, we may dream of a house or a city being in flames. The smell of a flower applied to the nostrils may call forth the idea of walking in a garden; and the sound of a flute may excite in us the most pleasurable associations.

Here, then, we discover one great source of that class of dreams of which Solomon speaks in Eccles. v. 7.

The only one of our mental powers which is not suspended while dreaming is fancy, or imagination. pended and exercised. Sometimes we fancy ourselves We often find memory and judgment alternately suscontemporaneous with persons who have lived ages before: here memory is at work, but judgment is set aside. We dream of carrying on a very connected discourse with a deceased friend, and are not conscious that he is no more: here judgment is awake, but memory suspended. These irregularities, or want of mutual co-operation in the different faculties of the mind may form, for aught we know, the plan by which God gives health and vigour to the whole soul.

How God revealed himself by dreams, and raised up persons to interpret them, the Scriptures abundantly testify. Under the three successive dispensations we find this channel of communication with man adopted. It was doubtless in this way that God appeared to the father of the faithful, ordering him to forsake country, kindred, and his father's house, and to go into the land that he would show him. To this divine command Abraham paid a ready obediIt was by a similar prompt obedience to the admonition conveyed to him in a dream, that Abimelech (Gen. xx. 3) himself, and Abraham too, were saved from the evil consequences of his meditated act.

ence.

When Jacob was, as it were, banished from his father's house, in order to avoid the effects of his brother's implacable rage, he came to a place called Luz (Gen. xxviii. 19), and, whilst there sleeping under the canopy of heaven, he had communication by dream, not only with angels, but with God also: "He dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth," &c. This was an encouraging dream to Jacob, for it filled his soul with holy and awful thoughts of God. On awaking we do not find this patriarch dismissing the thought of the dream from his mind, but he exclaims: "Surely the Lord was in this place, and I knew it not! and he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, this is the gate of heaven!" He even set up a pillar to perpetuate its memory, and made a solemn vow that Jehovah should be his God. And, moreover, such was the deep impression which this dream made upon his mind, that God, who appeared many years afterwards to him when yet in Padanaram, and bade him return to his fatherland, urges this as a motive: "I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me." We are informed in the sequel how God did fulfil to him all that he had then promised.

But though this was the first, it was not the last time God appeared to Jacob in a dream. In Gen. xxxi. 10, Jacob informs his wives that it was God, who saw how Laban oppressed him, who had directed him to take the speckled, &c., cattle for his wages, and had ordered him to return home. He obeyed; and when Laban, designing to do Jacob some harm (Gen. xxxi. 24), pursued, and after seven days over

took him, God, by a dream, prevented the meditated evil.

Joseph, whilst yet a child, had dreams predictive of his future advancement.-Gen. xxxvii. 6-11. These dreams are one, and were repeated under different forms, in order, it would seem, to express the certainty of the thing they predicted. How they formed the first link in an extended chain of God's providential dealings the sacred récord fully informs us. Jealous not only of the partiality of their father for Joseph, but also of that which God would evince by these dreams for him, his brethren hated him, and sold him to the Midianites. From their hands he was transferred to Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh's guard, and by him, under the cruel and unjust accusation of his vile wife, was cast into the king's prison. Alas! in this position Satan might well tempt Joseph to doubt the kind providence of the God whom he served. But no he felt assured that the Lord was with him, and that, in his own time and manner, he would vindicate his innocence, and give him his liberty. Nor was this confidence of Joseph disappointed; for, in the course of time, by being able to give an accurate interpretation of three predictive dreams, he was raised from the prison to a participation with King Pharaoh in the government of Egypt! It is true that a daring infidelity has tried to reduce the first of this series of dreams to a natural principle the constitutional vanity of the dreamer's mind-and thus to set aside its divine character and tendency. But, granting for a moment that Joseph vainly read in the partial feelings of his father his own eventual elevation over his brethren, and that by reason of the impression which this flattering prospect made upon his mind, he was led to dream as above noticed, still, this could not alter the predictive character of the dream: and in proof of this we appeal to the account of its actual fulfilment. It is quite clear from the inspired history that dreams were looked upon by the earliest nations of antiquity as premonitions from their idol gods of future events. One part of Jehovah's great plan in revealing through this channel his designs toward Egypt, Joseph individually, and his brethren generally, was to correct this notion. Hence it was that, on Joseph being brought into the presence of Pharaoh for the purpose of explaining his dreams, he at once says: "It is not in me; God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace." Such were some of the dreams by which God revealed himself under the patriarchal dispensation, and that the same divine mode of communicating with man was continued under that of Moses is evident from an express word of promise (Numb. xii, 6): "If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream." That dreams were one of the ways whereby God was wont to signify his pleasure to men under this dispensation is evident from the complaint of Saul to the spirit of Samuel (whom the witch pretended to raise up). When he asked him: "Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?" Saul answered: "I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answers me no more; neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known to me what I shall do." And, in order to guard against imposition, Moses pronounced a penalty against dreams which were invented and wickedly made use of, for the promotion of idolatry.-Deut. xii. 1-5. Thus Zechariah (x. 2) | complains: "The idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have spoken a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain." And so Jeremiah (xxiii. 25): "I have heard what the prophets said that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed," &c. Yet this abuse did not alter God's plan

in the right use of them; for in the 28th verse of the same chapter it is said: "The prophet that hath a dream, and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord,”

When Gideon warred with the Amalekites, and was alarmed at their vast multitudes, he was encouraged to do God's will by overhearing one of them relate his dreara, and another giving the interpratation.-Judg. vii. Again, it was in a dream that God was pleased to grant Solomon a promise of wisdom and understanding.-1 Kings iii. 5, &c. Here we may perceive what converse the Lord was pleased to hold with Solomon in a dream; and the sacred record informs us how punctually everything herein promised was fulfilled.

But though God speaks frequently by dreams, yet man is often found actually closing his ears against such communications. Thus Job (xxxiii. 14) says: "God speaketh once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumbering upon the bed, then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction."

Sometimes those dreams and visions are of a plensurable, and again of a frightful character: "When I say my bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease me; then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me with visions."-Job vii. 14.

The knowledge of visions and dreams is reckoned amongst the principal gifts and graces sometimes bestowed by God upon them that fear him; so it is said of Daniel and his companions, that God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams."-Dan. i. 17. And the God who had imparted this spirit unto his servant Daniel soon, in the arrangement of his providence, gave occasion for its exercise. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, dreamed a dream, and his spirit was troubled because the thing had gone from him. Having, however, a deep impression that the dream was of portentous meaning, he called together his magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers, and commanded them to recall and explain it to him. These reputedly wise men of Babylon at once acknowledged that to meet the king's wishes belonged not to the capacity of man. Disappointed and enraged at this confessed impotency, he ordered all the wise men of his kingdom to be put to death. Daniel being included in this order, implored God to reveal to him the dream with its interpretation: his prayer was graciously answered.-Dan. ii. 19. Whereupon he acquaints the king that "there is a God in heaven who revealeth secrets, and maketh known to him what shall be in the latter days;" and then proceeds to state the dream, together with the interpre tation thereof. Satisfied with what Daniel stated, Nebuchadnezzar said unto Daniel: "Of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings;" and the divine historian states, that in consequence of this, both the prophet, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were promoted to the highest offices of the State! In this dream a great variety of emis were attained in reference to Babylon, Israel, and indeed the world-all of which were worthy of God's miraculous interference.

That this method of God's revealing himself was not confined to the legal dispensation, but was to be extended to the Christian, is evident from Joel (i. 28): "And afterwards (saith the Lord) I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” Act ii. 17, we find the Apostle Peter applying this to the illumination of the Holy Ghost. Accordingly, we read that when Joseph designed to put Mary

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away, because he perceived her to be with child, he was turned from his purpose by a dream, in which an angel made the truth of the matter known to him.Matt. i. 20. And in the following chapter it is stated, that God in a dream warned the wise men not to return to Herod. Moreover, in verses 13 and 19, Joseph is instructed to flee into and return from Egypt with the child Jesus,

Whether the dream of Pilate's wife was a divine intimation we cannot tell.

We inquire not how far God may have revealed hhmself to man beyond what Holy Scripture records. Some of the dreams, both of ancient and modern times, which lay claim to a divine character, are certainly striking, and may, for aught we know, have bad, and may still have, a collateral bearing on the development of God's purposes.-Kitto's Cyclopædia.

A TRUE CONVERT.

THE well known Rev. Mr Abbot, in addressing a missionary, meeting held last month in New York, mentioned the following remarkable particulars regarding a native convert at Arracan:

There was then a young man of whom you have all read, Bleh Po, and the people requested particularly that I would ordain him, but he desired that he might study for another year, as he did not feel that he was prepared. I agreed that he should study another scason, and then I intended to ordain him; but when I returned there for that purpose he was dead. I will give you a few facts concerning the history of this young man, which was very interesting. In 1837, when I was there (in the Bassein province) Bleh Po was among the first converted. He embraced the Gospel-he renounced all worldly hopes and anxieties, and was allowed to preach, though he was never paid. He sacrificed a great deal for his religion. The parents of his wife, for Karens, were very wealthy, and he expected to receive some fortune through her, but he lost it all, for they would not hear of his becoming a Christian. He lost what would in this country be called a fortune of perhaps one hundred thousand dollars, or in that proportion. He would have been a very rich man, but he gave up all, and his friends and relations turned him out of doors. He was called up before the Governor and threatened with punishment if he preached; but when the Governor threatened, he turned around and preached the Gospel to him too. They all said they could not do anything with that man, for he would preach. He was once fined one hundred and fifty rupees (about seventy dollars), but his friends came forward and paid it for him, and he went on preaching as before. He was the most praying man I ever saw. I have known him to lie on his mat, his face down to the ground all day long, engaged in prayer. He was a good preacher, and an unspotted man, having the confidence of all. In any case of difficulty, when a peacemaker was wanted, Bleh Po was sent for, and his voice acted like the voice of Christ over the stormy waters. There was no one who would settle a difficulty like him, and no one who would build up a Church like Bleh Po. Just about the time he was to be ordained, he was attacked by the cholera, but recovered. Before his attack he was always going about among the sick and dying, with his Bible, or a tract in his hand, preaching to them, and exhorting. After his attack and recovery, he went about as usual with his book in his hand, though he was very weak, of course. His friends tried to keep him still, as they feared he would bring on another attack, which would be fatal, but he could not stop, and went around among the sick for two or three days. On the third day he was attacked again, and even in his

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sickness he kept on preaching. He preached with his book in his hand to the last moment of his life. When he was dying, he said: "My friends, don't think of me; I'm going to heaven," and pulling his cloth over his head he died. I may say he preached to the last second of his life.

ONE'S OWN HISTORY.

THE history of a man's own life, is to himself the most interesting history in the world, next to that of the Scriptures. Every man is an original and solitary character. None can either understand or feel the book of his own life like himself. The lives of other men are too dry and vapid when set beside his own. He enters very little into the spirit of the Old Testament, who does not see God calling on him to turn over the pages of this history, when he says to the Jew, "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years." He sees God teaching the Jew to look at the records of his deliverance from the Red Sea, of the manna showered down on him from heaven, and of the Amalekites put to flight before him. There are such grand events in the life and experience of every Christian, it may be well for him to review them often.-Cecil.

A CHRISTIAN COLPORTEUR. As an instance of the devotedness of this good man (Louis Marie), we may mention, that when he began in the city of Montreal, where he chiefly labours, he was subjected to very injurious treatment, of which, however, he did not complain. One evening when he returned home, he was asked what kind of a day he had had. Christian joy, that he had had a very good day, He replied, with a face full of quiet having only been kicked twice.-Rev. Mr Arnot.

Fragments.

The impartial search of truth requires all calmness and serenity-all temper and candour. Mutual instruction can never be attained in the midst of passion, pride, and clamour, unless we suppose, in the midst of such a scene, there is a loud and penetrating lecture read by both sides, on the folly and shameful infirmities of human nature.- -Watts.

God sometimes gives me a taste of what he will do for me, and takes it away again, to let me see what I cannot do for myself. —Adam.

Casaubon, when shown the Sorbonne in Paris, and told that disputations had been carried on there for above four centuries, asked: "And pray what has been cleared up?"-Chalmers.

Watch against all bitter and passionate speeches against malignant opposers of truth; for meckness of spirit and behaviour is more according to the religion of Christ than wrathful zeal.-Adam.

Experience is rarely of any use collaterally. It does not become efficient till it has been bought personally. It must be paid for, to be well remembered. -Burney.

One sensible, experimental proof of Christ's power and presence in time of conflict, of danger, or temptation, will hardly ever be forgotten, and binds the soul to him in trust and affiance more than a thousand arguments.-Adam.

Man originally fell by losing his confidence in God, and can only be raised by the restoration of his confidence: in other words, unbelief was his ruin, and he now stands by faith.-Jay.

Daily Bread.

FRIDAY.

"Put on the whole armour of God."-EPH. vi. 11.

Stand then in His great might.
With all His strength ended;
But take, to arm you for the fight,
The panoply of God.

It is not the armour of your own resolutions-it is the armour of God, even the graces of the Spirit. It is not some graces, or parts of that armour-it is the whole armour-all the Christian graces. It is not enough to have the armour in the house, or grace in the habit; no, it must be put on-daily worn and exercised. God hath provided different pieces of armour for you the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, the helmet of hope, the breastplate of righteousness; but there is nothing for the back, for God disowns run-aways. Willison.

SATURDAY.

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve."-
Josh. xxiv. 15.

Ready the Father is to own,
And kiss his late-returning son:
Ready your loving Saviour stands,

And spreads for you his bleeding hands. Choose you whom you will take for your Fatherwhether God or the devil. Both are courting your heart-which of them will ye yield to? Is there any so foolish as to halt betwixt two opinions in this case? Is there any so mad as to stand in doubt whether to dwell with Christ or the devil for ever? Now Michael and his angels, and the dragon and his angels, are struggling for your hearts; a cunning devil is holding, and a dying Saviour is drawing; now cast the balance, and show which of them you incline to. The eyes of the glorious Trinity are on you-the eyes of angels and men are on you--to see what the issue will be. O, then, be wise, and come presently, and make a surrender of your hearts to God in Christ. -Ibid.

SABBATH.

"He that walketh with wise men shall be wise."-
PROV. xiii. 20.

Jesus' praise be all our song;
While we Jesus' praise repeat,
Glide our happy hours along,

Glide with down upon their feet!
Far from sorrow, sin, and fear,
Till we take our seats above,
Live we all as angels here-

Only sing, and praise, and love.

Shun the company that shuns God, and keep the company that God keeps. Look on the society of the carnal or profane as infectious, but reckon serious, praying persons the excellent ones of the earth. Such will serve to quicken you when dead, and warm you when cold. Make the liveliest of God's people your greatest intimates; and see that their love and likeness to Christ be the great motive of your love to thern-more than their love or likeness to you.Ibid.

MONDAY.

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven."-JOHN iii. 3.

Unless we put on Thee

In perfect holiness,

We cannot rise Thy face to see-
Thy bright, unclouded face!

If there were no law to exclude the unsanctified sinner from glory, he would necessarily remain miserable. His sin is his hell. His disposition would destroy all the happiness of heaven: the service and the joy would only disgust and torment the mind. God

cannot make us happy with himself, till he has made us holy like himself.-Jay.

TUESDAY.

"Him hath God highly exalted."-PHIL. ii. 9.
Jesus, my Lord, mighty to save,
What can my hopes withstand,
While thee my Advocate I have,
Enthroned at God's right hand?

The thoughts of Christ glorified should raise our hearts to that blessed place where Christ "sitteth on the right hand of God, and from whence we look for the Saviour." When we commemorate Christ's entrance within the veil as our forerunner, and have good hopes of following him shortly; when we think of his being in paradise, and of our being with him; joy of our Lord! How studious should we be to do how should our affections be carried out towards that the work of heaven, conform to the laws of heaven, and converse as much as may be with the glorious society there! Having received the adoption of sons, we should improve our acquaintance with, and raise our expectations of, the inheritance of sons.-Henry.

WEDNESDAY.

"I have set the Lord always before me."-Ps. xvi. 8.
Careless through outward cares I go-
From all distraction free;

My hands are but engaged below-
My heart is still with thee.

of your mind; not only when you approach some Let God be much in your thoughts, and in the view actions-when you go forth, and come in-when you solemn ordinance, but in the whole course of your lie down, and rise up. Let the creatures you converse toward you, present God to your thoughts and the with, the several dispensations of Divine Providence view of your minds. For how can men that have seldom any thoughts of God maintain any communion with him? Our communion with God is not as it is with creatures, in a sensible way; but it is by the inward thoughts and exercise of the mind; which, therefore, we ought to be frequent in. And these thoughts of God should not be slight and transient, but fixed and serious; especially at some times, which we should more peculiarly devote to solemn meditation. Meditation brings the object nearer to the soul, and the soul nearer to it, though locally distant -unites the soul to it-mixeth itself with it; whereby it doth possess it, or is possessed of it.—Singleton.

Men in all ages are hastening to eternity: those that were our ancestors in former ages are already there, and have taken up their lodgings where they must for ever dwell; and we are following after them. And those that shall live after us, when they have been upon the stage of this world awhile, shall follow us and our fathers into eternity, and give place to those that follow after them. Thus this world doth often change its inhabitants. What is the life of man, but a coming into time, and a going out into eternity? Doolittle.

Edinburgh: Printed by JOHN JOHNSTONE, residing at 12. Windsor Street, and Published by him at 2, Hunter Square. London: R. GROOMBRIDGE & SONS. Glasgow: J. R. M'NAIR & Co.; and to be had of any Bookseller throughout the Kingdom.

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It will not admit of a moment's doubt, by any seriously reflecting mind, that the most proper and solemn view we can possibly take of time is the close relation which it sustains, and the proximity it is ever making to eternity. In this light it must be regarded as the brief period allotted to the soul for its preparation and its training for another, a higher and an endless state of being. Before this, all other considerations, circumstances, and events to which, in the present life, we are wont to attach an undue and artificial importance, vanish as into thin air. Yea, everything, however gorgeous and imposing, intellectual and refined it may appear, which would exclude from the mind of man the probationary character which, as a reasonable, accountable, and immortal being, he sustains, and the disciplinary nature of God's dealings with him in his present march to an eternal world, with a view to his entrance upon it, were a splendid impertinence. There is something solemn, I might say appalling, in the fact, that the character of each individual of the human race is every moment forming for a future state. Across the wide and mysterious gulf which separates time from eternity, stretches, in its influence, every step of his life, every event of his history, every act of which he is the author. He is educating for eternity. That eternity receives its complexion and its character from the present. Oh! it is the moral influence and bearing of the present life which gives me a strange feeling of interest in every individual I meet; and which attaches to every circumstance and incident of my own existence a character and an importance infinitely beyond the power of human thought to calculate.

We have already affirmed of the present life that it is probationary. All that follows belongs to retribution. It is, as has been remarked, the causal period, and the only period of causation-everything beyond it is effect. It is the preface to the mysterious volume of eternity, which man will be for ever reading; it is the prologue to the solemn scene hereafter to transpire, when the curtain rises and reveals the great white throne, the judgment-seat, and the books opened. It is the sowing of the harvest then to be reaped. But away with the testimony of man on a question of such moment as this. The Spirit of God shall himself testify. And thus it is written in the Volume of Inspiration, from whose records we shall be judged in the last day: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit No. 47.

reap life everlasting."--Gal. vi. 7, 8. Awful words! Solemn announcement! Yes, reader, on this momentary existence-for what is your life? it is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away-a feather falling from the pinion of eternity, as it rushes on in its interminable course ;-yet on this moment of existence turns, as upon a pivot, the immense realities of your higher and advancing state of being. I know of no consideration of paralleled power and weight with this. What an amazing importance does it give to every breath of air which inflates the lungs, and breathes in the nostrils! On this single breath what mighty results depend! Eternal happiness!-eternal woe! O were we only to remember that we are acting for eternity, what a new mould, and how different a complexion would the thought give to the daily concerns and pursuits of life! Of what incalculable value, then, is the present moment! Suppose the next were to be spent in the eternal world-once the "silver cord is loosed," and the "golden bowl is broken," your destiny is unchangeably settledyour doom irrevocably fixed. A million ages then, supposing you to have lost your soul, would be of less value and importance to you than the moments of time spent in reading these solemn statements of truth, in which it were possible for you to send forth from the very centre of your deeply-stirred spirit and alarmed soul the shortest but the sublimest and most comprehensive prayer that ever passed from earth to heaven: “God be merciful to me a sinner." "Suppose," to quote the illustrations of another, "that a kingdom were offered to a man, and that he must comply with the conditions in an hour, or lose it for ever, how much more would depend upon that hour than upon all the rest of his life! Or suppose that you had been condemned to suffer perpetual imprisonment in chains, and in a dungeon, and that an hour were granted you to sue for pardon, and upon the most humble confession to attain your liberty-how much more valuable would that hour be than fifty subsequent years of night, solitude, and chains!" But O what language can describe, what imagery can depict, what figure can illustrate, the amazing value of a moment of time, the antecedent of a long, long eternity!

"Great God! on what a brittle thread,

Hang everlasting things!"

But these are general statements---let us consider the present life in two of its particulars. Think of the brevity of its duration." What is your life? The dissolving vapour--the weaver's swift shuttle-the fleeting ship--the

January 16, 1946.