Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down his life for us.-1 John, iii. 16.

Oh unexampled love!

Love nowhere to be found less than divine.-Milton.

CONCLUSION.

THEME CIV. Prosperity gains Friends.

INTRODUCTION.

1ST REASON.-Worldly friendships are for the most part formed from motives of self-interest and policy.

2ND REASON.-Friends are sought to add to our happiness, and not to increase our sorrow.

3RD REASON. Many are urged into friendly intimacy with others, merely because they would flow in the stream of fashion and popular favour.

4TH REASON.-Rising talent and prosperity are courted by many merely to gratify vanity, and to aggrandise themselves by the boast of intimacy with the great and

noted.

5TH REASON. The prosperous seek out friends, and are glad to be attended with a host of intimates; but the wretched seek-solitude, and shun the expense of numerous guests..

6TH REASON.--Prosperity is generally an indication of worldly merit, and adversity of worldly imprudence.

7TH REASON.-Probably a species of instinct has much to do with the matter, and friends desert those in adversity, as rats instinctively quit a sinking ship, and dogs flee from a house ready to fall.

8TH REASON. Common prudence urges many to leave the unfortunate, lest they should themselves be drawn into ruin by their endeavour to prop the falling. The same prudential motive would urge them to gather round

the prosperous, under an undefined hope of "gathering crumbs from the rich man's table."

SIMILES.-Trees are full of leaves in summer, but are left bare in winter.

Flies crowd to the brimming milk-pail, but pass by when it is empty.

Insects of every kind swarm in the hot sunbeam ; but when the wintry cold sets in, where are the thousand forms of life which enlivened every bank, and fluttered from flower to flower? All gone! and the dreary wind is left to whistle through the naked branches of the leafless and tenantless grove.

Where the carcase is, there the eagles will be gathered together. Matt. xxiv. 28.

While it is summer there will be many swallows, but at the approach of winter they all fly away.

Horrea formica tendunt ad inania nunquam ;
Nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes.-Ovid.

Ubi mel, ibi apes.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

QUOTATIONS.-My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off.-Psalm Xxxviii. 11.

The poor is hated even of his own neighbour, but the rich hath many friends.-Prov. xiv. 20.

Many will entreat the favour of the prince, and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts; (But) all the brethren of the poor do hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him?-Prov. xix. 6, 7.

Some friend is a companion at the table, and will not continue in the day of thy affliction. In thy prosperity he will be as thyself, and will be bold over thy servants : (But) if thou be brought low, he will be against thee, and will hide himself from thy face.-Eccles. vi. 10-12.

Wealth maketh many friends, but the poor is separated from his neighbour.-Prov. xix. 4.

Some man is a friend for his own occasion, and will not abide in the day of thy trouble.-Eccles. vi. 8.

A friend cannot be known in prosperity, and an enemy cannot be hidden in adversity. In the prosperity of a man enemies will be grieved, but in his adversity even a friend will depart.-Eccles. xii. 8, 9.

There is a companion which rejoiceth in the prosperity of a friend, but in the time of trouble will be against him. There is a companion which helpeth his friend for the belly, and taketh up the buckler against the enemy.Eccles. xxxvii. 4, 5.

Lord. A poor sequestered stag,

That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish ; and indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heaved forth such groans,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears
Coursed one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase.

Duke. But what said Jacques?

Did he not moralise this spectacle?

1. wd. Oh, yes! into a thousand similes :

...

First for his weeping in the needless stream. . .
Then being alone,

Left and abandoned of his velvet friends;
""Tis right! (quoth he,) thus misery doth part
The flux of company!" Anon, a careless herd,
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him,
And never stays to greet him; "Aye (quoth
Jacquès),

Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizen,
'Tis just the fashion; wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?"

Men used to worship the rising sun.
Wealth makes worship.-Ray's proverbs.

Shakspeare.

Friends are the shadow on a dial, which appears in clear weather, but vanishes as soon as the sun is clouded over.-Serj. Palmer's aphorisms and maxims.

If a merchant miscarry, courtiers will say of him, he is a pitiful cat, a sneaking trader, and a coxcomb; if he thrive, they will court him for his daughter. — Serj. Palmer's aphorisms and maxims.

In times of prosperity friends will be plenty,
In times of adversity not one in twenty.

I wot well how the world wags,

Ray's proverbs.

They are most loved who have most bags.

Ray's proverbs.

Prosperity gains friends, adversity tries them.-Pacu

vius.

"Is the sable warrior fled?”

Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead.

The swarm, that in thy noontide beam were born,
Gone to salute the rising morn.

Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows,
While proudly riding o'er their azure realm,
In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes,

Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm ;
Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,

That, hushed in grim repose, expects the evening prey.

On connait l'ami au besoin..

Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur.-Cicero.

Plures adorant solem orientem quam occidentem.

Felicium multi cognati.

Ubi opes ibi amici.—Erasmus.

Cum Fortuna manet vultum servatis amici,
Cum cedit, turpi vertitis ora fugâ.—Ovid.
Donec eris felix multos numerabis amicos,
Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.—Ovid.

Gray.

Fortuna secunda amicos habet plurimos. In angustis amici tantum boni apparent.

Ut aurum igne, sic benevolentia fidelis periculo aliquo perspicí solet.-Cicero.

CONCLUSION.

THEME CV. All Work and no Play makes Jack a

INTRODUCTION.

dull Boy.

1ST. REASON.-Because the mind becomes jaded and As land must sometimes lie fallow, so the mind must have rest, or both will be exhausted.

weary.

2ND REASON. The body becomes burthened with secretions, which oppress the brain.

3RD REASON.-A surfeit of study, like a surfeit of food, spoils digestion: and, without digestion, neither mental nor bodily viands can serve any healthy purpose.

4TH REASON. The mind resembles a tree; if it grows slowly the grain is close and the timber sturdy; but if forced, the grain is coarse, and the wood soft, flimsy, and unsolid. If the mind has no time to meditate, the memory may be crammed with other men's ideas, but the mind will not have time to make those ideas its own, and to incorporate them with reflection and judgment.

5TH REASON. When the mind is compelled to work incessantly it works mechanically. The appointed task is done, and dismissed from thought as soon as possible: How then can the mind be otherwise than dull?

6TH REASON.-He who is never allowed to relax hates his employment; and it is needless to add, that he who loathes learning can never make any great proficiency therein.