of the life of man he proceeds to give a detailed, but highly figurative description".

It may be well perhaps to add the whole of this picture of old age, together with one of the fullest explanations that have been given of it.

The Preacher (Eccles. xi. 2.) speaks of old age as a time,

2. When the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;

3. When the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders shall cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,

4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;

5. Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fear shall be in the way, and the almondtree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: 6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern:

The melancholy view which is taken by the book of Ecclesiastes of human life

7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return to God who gave it. In old age the sun, and the moon, and the stars are darkened; the superior powers, which rule in the body of man, as the heavenly luminaries do in the world, the understanding and reason, the imagination and the memory are obscured, as when the clouds interpose between us and the lights of the firmament. In the earlier season of life, the clouds of affliction having poured down their rain, they pass away, and sunshine succeeds; but now the clouds return after the rain; old age itself is a continual sorrow, and there is no longer any hope of fair weather. The keepers of the house, the arms and hands, which are made to guard and defend the body, begin to shake and tremble; and the strong men, the shoulders, where the strength of the body is placed, and which were once able to carry every weight, begin to stoop and bow themselves; and the grinders, the teeth, begin to fall away, and cease to do their work because they are few. Also those that look out of the windows are darkened; the eyes, those windows of the body, through which we look at all things abroad, as we look out from the win

and human pursuits, is taken of them as unconnected with religion. Religion is

dows of a house, become dim; and he that uses them is as one that looketh out of a window in the night. Then the doors are shut in the streets; difficulties and obstructions attend all the passages of the body, and the digestion becomes weak when the grinding is low. The youthful and healthy sleep sound; but the aged sleep with difficulty, and rise up at the voice of the bird; they are ready to leave their disturbed rest at the crowing of the cock. The daughters of music are brought low; the voice fails and becomes hoarse; the hearing is dull; and the spirits, now less active than they used to be, are less affected by the powers of harmony. Old age being inactive and helpless, becomes afraid of that which is high ; it is fearful of climbing, because it is in danger of falling; and being unfit to endure the hardness of fatigue, and the shocks of a rough journey, the fears which are in the way discourage it from setting out. Then the almond-tree flourishes; the hair of the head becomes white, as the early almond-blossoms in the hard weather of the winter, before the snows have left us; and even the grasshopper becomes a burden; the legs, once light and nimble to leap, as the legs of that insect, and which used with ease to

the pursuit which above all others is worth attending to. It is that which can

bear the weight of the whole body, are now become a burthen, and can scarcely carry themselves: and when the faculties thus fail, the desire fails along with them, for nothing is desirable when nothing can be enjoyed.

Such are the evil days which come upon us when our youth is past, and prepare the way for that last and greatest evil of our death, when man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets lamenting his departure. Then the silver cord, the nerves, whose coat is white and shining as a cord of silver, is loosed, and no longer do their office. The circulation of the blood stops at the heart, the fountain of life, as when a pitcher, which draws water, is broken at the well; or the watering wheel, circulating with its buckets, which it fills and empties at the same time, is broken at the cistern. Thus do the vital motions all cease in death; and the dust returns to the earth, to become such as it was, before man was made out of it; and his immortal spirit returns unto God, the fountain of immortality, from whom it proceeded.' See the "Book of Nature," by Jones of Nayland. See also King Solomon's Portraicture of Old Age, by John Smith, M. D. first published in 167§.

in great measure solve all the perplexing difficulties, which suggest themselves on the contemplation of the life of man when not viewed in connection with a future state, or examined by the light which religion supplies. Old age, which in itself may seem to be made up of weakness and infirmity, to be an evil time of gloom and sadness, of labour and sorrow, becomes, when influenced by religion, honourable, and amiable, and happy. "The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righte

Let us shortly consider some of the duties which peculiarly belong to this advanced period of life, some of the features of character which are able to render old age honourable and lovely in the sight both of God and man.

The foundation of all must be firmly laid in deep principles of religion, in "re