neglecting to use the light, the feast, the riches, so freely placed within my reach? It is a solemn inquiry; because the Lord will not pass over the neglect of one, while he marks the diligence of another, in respect of his great gift.

LOST TIME.

IT is a hackneyed subject, but one of such growing importance in the history of each individual, that too much stress can hardly be laid on it. The simple fact of a past hour being totally irrecoverable, would alone stamp it with awful interest; but when to this is added the equally cer

or unrecorded by the Most High, and that what is our loss is also our theft, a robbery committed against Him,-we may well mourn the past, and watch unto prayer for a right use of the future.

And what a plea is here for increased zeal in circulating this blessed book! A few pence in the purchase, a little thought and exertion in the giving of a Bible, may bring life to the dead in a whole family---tain truth that it has not passed unmarked a whole district. Ask the poor, toil-worn labourer, who has found in those pages wine and milk without money and without price, what he will sell them for? Ask the desolate widow, who there has found a heavenly husband--the sorrowing mother, who has learned there the way by which she may surely go at last to the child that cannot return to her---the transgressor, who had long felt his sins to be a burden too heavy for him to bear, and who has received in the Gospel the rest which Christ alone can give to the weary and heavy-laden,---ask these the same question, and then judge what you are withholding from their companions, in sorrow, by neglecting to give, yea, to force upon them, the blessing which as yet they know not, or value not. Recently, I was reproved by my own earnestness in persuading a person who had received some trifling hurt, to apply a remedy, the efficacy of which I greatly confided in. The thought would occur, "This poor creature has a far deeper and more dangerous wound, which admits but of one cure; I have the recipe, I know its infallible power; and why do I not with equal, or greater importunity, press its application here?" O that we could number our sins of omission, remembering that "to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." A multitude of these transgressions are not even acknowledged, far less repented of, so much is the heart hardened and the conscience seared through neglect of that command so repeatedly, so solemnly enforced, "Watch." How can we suffer one poor fellow-sinner to lack the treasure which would enrich us in the giving, as well as him in the receiving of it?

Time-losers form a very considerable majority in the upper classes of society, and no small proportion even among those on whose daily labour their daily bread depends. The former, by late rising, by lingering at the toilet and over the breakfast and dinner-table, squander so many hours, that they may almost be said not to live out half their days, such inaction being unworthy of the name of life. When to this is added the frivolous employments of what are termed morning calls, the needless lounging in shops, and the utterly useless occupation of writing letters full of gossip and egotism, it is fearful to calculate the amount of the robbery. TI. humbler sort of people appear, on a comparison with these, to pass a life of incessant labour; but they too are chargeable with much sinful waste of what they are equally bound to improve, though happily exempt from many of the temptations that assail others. Are we, then, to stigmatise as criminal the occasional relaxation of mind and body, that experience shows is necessary to the health of both ? By no means: we do wrong when neglecting to ensure it to ourselves, and to those under our authority, or within our influence. Rest and recreation too are among the blessings provided for us, and which we have no right to reject. Unbelief alone can lead us to sacrifice them to an over-anxious care for the morrow's supply; and I do not consider the time so spent as being lost, any more than the moments which the mechanic sets apart for sharpening the tools necessary to his especial work, are lost to him. Deduct from all unemployed hours a fair propor

tion for such rest and refreshment, and ac- | sus," in a three-fold light, is the remedy. count only for the remainder,-it will prove a formidable arrear.

Look to him as an example; watch his course when on earth, going about doing good; speaking words of heavenly truth, warning, invitation, consolation, to all around; finding it meat and drink to do the will of his Father. Look to him as able to supply all your need, to overcome your besetting sin, to strengthen and cheer you in the struggling race. Look to him as the end and object of that race; as the great arbiter, holding forth the crown of life, not as a reward for the victor's exertion, but as the free gift of his own grace, the purchase of his merit, the token of a love for which the devotion of every energy, feeling, word, and thought to his service, is so poor and mean an acknowledgment, that the same mercy which impels him to confer the boon, can alone induce a reception of our praiseful thanksgivings.

THE CANADIAN LAKE.

"I am always employed in one way or another," is the remark frequently heard from busy idlers, who fancy that, so long as their bodies are not stretched on a couch, or their hands folded before them, they may be said to be up and doing. But what is it to be employed? Johnson defines the word "business," object of labour. We have, therefore, only to inquire, what is men's business in the world? what is the object pointed out to them as most worthy to be laboured for? If they be of the Israel of God, the answer is given by him, "This people have I formed for myself, that they may show forth my praise." If they be not of that Israel, O how awfully startling is the cry of every squandered hour while they linger unmindful of the thrilling call, "Escape for thy life; flee to the mountain!" That is lost time in which the follower of Christ does nothing to glorify his Master; and that is lost time, involving a lost eternity too, wherein the soul that has not yet DURING a very severe winter in British found peace through the blood of the North America, I was much delighted to cross, does nothing towards seeking and trace all the splendid phenomena of frost finding it. That the angels of God take and thaw. The intensity of the first was a lively interest in the concerns of our inconceivable by any who have not expeworld, is unequivocally shown in Scrip-rienced it; consequently a description ture; and often do I think with what wonder and indignation these heavenly creatures, who, for ages that we cannot number, have been serving the Lord day and night, with an eternity of such joyous service still before them, must look on man. Limited, at the utmost stretch of his mortal existence, to a few fleeting years, to work out his own salvation, and to glorify God, who works in him both to will and to do, man, who might be expected to number his moments as a miser numbers his golden pieces when compelled to deal them out, will fling away hours, days, months, years, as though he too had an eternity in possession, with no object but to gratify his own capricious will. Surely these two words, LOST TIME, will be found engraven on the gates of hell.

What is the remedy? For the past, none, save in the cleansing stream of a Saviour's blood, washing out the sin. For the present and future, "looking unto Je

would, to some readers, be incredible. The beauty and magnificence displayed in many instances through the operation of the latter, were captivating. On one occasion, I was watching the struggle between a full volume of water flowing in from the sea, through the channel of a noble river, and the blocks of ice that, though broken, still disputed the passage; and tracing the process by which, as I knew, the grand rivers of that region were cleared of their obstructions, I called to mind a small, beautiful lake, embosomed in the woods a few miles from my dwelling, and so completely land-locked, that it was impossible for the broken ice to find an outlet. I also knew the depth and solidity of the congealed mass, and that it must require a length of time to dissolve such a body where woods and hills overshadowed it from the sun's ray. Mentioning this difficulty to a friend, he gave me the following solution:

"The lake of which you speak, and

And if in the temporary difficulties of this life, how much more strikingly does the type apply to that which is of eternal

others like it, are frozen more deeply and | to despondency, the offspring of unbelief, firmly than you suppose; and if no me- when a thought of the Canadian lake has thod of removing the ice, except by dis- revived my confidence, and enabled me to persion or solution, had been provided, the cast anew all my care upon Him, who has dwellers in their vicinity would be in a given me proofs, as unnumbered as the pitiable plight. But a most extraordinary sands, that he careth for me. Almighty phenomenon, such as you would never to deliver and to save, there is no restraint imagine, is connected with the subject, with him; but, without causing events to and 1 will endeavour to describe it. As diverge from the wonted calm and orderly the season advances for setting the waters course of his providential government, he free, the surface of the frozen lake is ob- puts aside whatsoever menaces the secuserved to become porous; and this increa-rity of his people'; forcing them to acses, until it almost resembles a honey- knowledge that glorious proclamation of comb. Some indications are then per- his name and attribute, "I am the Lord: ceived round the edges, so well understood I change not." by the surrounding people, that they can calculate with tolerable exactness when the expected event will take place, and many assemble to witness the singular moment! Tied and bound in the chain spectacle. It usually occurs in a bright of its sins, the soul lies pressed under that day, when the sun is high. With a ponderous burden; no way of deliverance mighty crash, the ice at once separates open, no hope of casting off the frozen from the banks to which it had adhered; fetter. The sun may shine on all besides, the water bubbles up through thousands and all other things may fill their sphere and thousands of the little apertures that of usefulness; but the spirit, conscious of I have described; and the ponderous its own hopeless imprisonment, can neimass, thus broken from its hold and over-ther itself rejoice in the light of heaven, whelmed, sinks, with a sound resembling nor minister refreshment to those around. no other that I ever heard, to the bed of "Who shall deliver me from the body of the lake. this death?" is a query that could never be answered, had not the Lord provided a way inconceivably wonderful, perfect, and sure. He speaks the word, and the fetter falls: the dark and heavy burden of sins is "cast into the depths of the sea,” no more to be seen or remembered but in connexion with the stupendous deliverance wrought. The freed spirit swells and sparkles in the gladsomeness of unclouded day; and hastens to glorify the God of its salvation, by communicating to others, as a good steward, the manifold gifts received from him,-this its present and never-failing theme of gratitude and confidence: "Is there any thing too hard for the Lord ?"

"It is a moment of great joy to the spectators, who have suffered many inconveniences from the lengthened frost; and the blue waters, dancing freely in the sunshine, seem to participate in their delight. You may imagine what a change passes over the face of the country; bird and beast hastening to quaff the tide, while the Indian prepares to launch his canoe, and the hunter exchanges his weary circuit for a light paddle across the lake. I have stood for an entire day enjoying the scene,-not one of the least wonderful in this land of wintry wonders."

THE CARDINAL.

Had circumstances allowed it, I should have been found among the watchers for this enfranchisement of the waters; but I was disappointed. The description, however, made an impression on my mind that I could not afford to lose. Obstructions have often been thrown across my THERE lately came into my possession path, as insurmountable by any power of a very fine bronze medal, of exquisite mine as the deep, thick, solid body of ice workmanship, bearing on its obverse the was unremoveable by human hand; and bust, en profile, of a man of noble lineaI have looked around, and seeing no way ments, robed, with the tonsure, and, susopen, have been on the point of yielding | pended from his neck, a crucifix. The