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yet, alas! many of us, like the rich man, have sat down and said to ourselves, we have "much goods laid up for many years, we will take our ease, eat, drink, and be merry:" and have such no reason to fear an equally awful doom? So long as the gospel has not been preached "to every creature," the Christian is under an obligation which nothing can annul; and the question with him is not, "What shall I eat, or what shall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be clothed ?" but, how shall my agency be most effectual for the conversion of the world?-M'Combie's Hours of Thought, 2nd Edition.

ELEGIAC STANZAS.

Addressed to my UNCLE, on seeing him fast declining to the tomb.

'Ah! little think the gay, licentious, proud,
Whom pleasure, power, and affluence surround;
Ah! little think they while they dance along,
How many feel this very moment death,
And all the sad variety of pain.-THOMSON.

THE freshness of thy days is o'er,
And soon will come the final day,

When we must part to meet no more,
Till heaven and earth are pass'd away.

How pale and languid is thy brow;
How rayless is thy sunken eye;
How alter'd is thy face, which now
Minds me of thy mortality!

The things of earth will charm no more,
The pent up soul with pain oppress'd,
Which longs on seraph's wings to soar,
To yon bright world of endless rest.

UNCLE! how oft when none were nigh
But he thy earnest prayer to hear!
Thou'st breathed to heav'n the deep-fetch'd sigh,
And shed the penitential tear!

Thy God I hope has heard thy prayer,
And sent thee comfort from above;
Then fear not, UNCLE, God is near,
To bless thee with his boundless love!

He will support thee here below,

And when the pains of death are past,
He will give grace and glory too,
Which will for ever ever last.

Soon will the last sad tear be shed,
Soon will thy throbbing heart be still;
And thou wilt rest thy weary head
Within a voiceless silent cell!

Soon will thy spirit triumph where
Disease and death can never come;

In yonder bright empyreal sphere,
In heaven's eternal blessed home.

Then ne'er indulge a gloomy fear,

Ne'er think thy present poignant pain

Is more than flesh and blood can bear,

'Twill soon be o'er, and thou appear

In heav'n-for ever there to reign.-JOHN COTTON.

Trenance Cottage, St. Columb Minor, March 14, 1840.

Rev. H. A. SIMCOE, Penheale-Press, Cornwall.

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Now it remaineth we speak of the delectation and pleasure which the word of God giveth. The word of God is full of sad and grave counsel, full of the knowledge of God, of examples of virtues, and of correction of vices, of the end of this life, and of the life to come. These are the contents of the word of God. These things (say you) are great and weighty of themselves, there is no vanity or pleasure in them.

They are great and weighty, I grant; and because they are so weighty they be the more worthy that we hear them. But we must take a delight and settle

our fancy that it may like of the weight and greatness. They were unto the prophet David " more sweet than honey and the honeycomb." If we taste them with such an affection as he did we shall feel and see the great, and weighty, and heavenly pleasure which is in them.

Many are delighted in the stories of Julius Cæsar, of Alexander the Great, of mighty and victorious princes; they have pleasure to read of their wars, of their victories, and of their triumphs; and many take their pleasure in travel to far countries, to see the divers fashions and behaviour of men.

If it were possible we might stand upon such a hill, from which we might at once see all parts of the world, the cities, and towns, and mountains, and forests, and castles, and gorgeous buildings, and all the kings and princes of the world, in their princely estate; if we might see the variety of the whole world, how some live quietly in peace, others are turmoiled in war, some live in wealth, others in poverty and misery; some rise, others fall; to see and behold so great variety of things, it cannot be but it would delight us.

Such a hill, from whence we may take views of so great variety, such a story in which we may read of noble princes, of their wars and victories, is the word of God. Upon this hill you may at once behold all the works of his hands, how he made heaven and earth, the sun and the moon, the sea and floods, the fishes in the water, the fowls in the air, and the beasts in the field. Upon this hill you may stand and see his angels, and his archangels, and blessed spirits, how some of them fell, and some continued in glory;

how God hath sent them in message, how they have come down from heaven to serve the sons of

men.

Here we may read of the wars of the God of Hosts, how he hath pitched his tents in the midst of his people, and hath gone before them, and fought for them; how the Amorites and Canaanites were rooted out; how the Amalekites were overthrown by the lifting up of Moses' hands in prayer; how the wall of Jericho fell down flat at the sound of a trumpet and the shouting of the people; and how one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians were slain in one night by the hand of one angel, when God raught out his hand from heaven to give victory to his people.

Here may you see how God plagued and overcame his enemies; how he drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and his horses, and men, and chariots, all together. Here may you see Nebuchadnezzar, a mighty prince, so bereft of his wits that he forsook his palaces, and the company and order of men, and lived in the fields after the manner of beasts. Here may you see how God struck king Antiochus and king Herod with filthy diseases, and caused lice to eat their flesh; how he sent down fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins; how he made the earth open and swallow up Dathan and Abiram; how king Uzziah was striken with leprosy, and carried from the temple, and cut off from his kingdom.

What stories of any princes or people in any age can report unto us so strange battles, so mighty conquests, so wonderful deliverance in extremities, so

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