day! I grant that these are only shadows; yet, when the sun shines brightly, what body is without one? It may be our pride to cast away such shades; but when I can no longer trace them, I am inclined to apprehend, either that the substance has melted away, or that the sun-beam falls not so clearly as it was wont to do.

Yet not alone to the sufferings of a crucified Saviour do I hold the holly sacred. I know that He who once came to visit us in great humility shall yet come again in his glorious majesty, to judge both the quick and dead. I know that he will appear, in the splendours of immortality, in the grandeur of his Almighty power, while the wrecks of all that this world cherishes, of pomp, and pride, and greatness, shall crumble beneath his feet, and pass away like the last fragments of November's shrivelled leaves before the whirlwind Then every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. No longer stained with the crimson drops of his own life-stream, his vesture shall then be dipped in the blood of his enemies. He, who, with tears and groans, achieved, unassisted, the work of our redemption, shall then alone tread the great wine-press of the wrath of God Then his enemies shall feel his hand he will tread them in his anger, and trample them in his fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon

for

his garments. Lovely and precious indeed is the accepted Saviour, to the souls who have made him their refuge terrible, beyond what heart can conceive, will be the slighted, the rejected, Saviour, to those who, going on frowardly in the way of their own hearts, make light of his offered salva tion, and treasure up for themselves the most dreadful of all inflictions-the wrath of the Lamb.

I am deeply convinced, that an apprehension of being led into the unscriptural lengths to which some have carried their speculations on unfulfilled prophecy, drives many into the opposite extreme of shrinking from the contemplation of that which is clearly revealed. Our Lord has given us a solemn, a reiterated injunction to watch for those things that, in the fulness of time, shall come to pass: he has made his warnings profitable to every intermediate period of the church; but, inasmuch as it is not his will to add another revelation to what is already perfect, he has laid down marks and signs whereby his people may safely judge when the events predicted are about to take place. Around us, in this our day, every sign is rapidly accumulating, and shall we close our eyes to the awful fact?-shall we refuse to watch, and to expect the fulfilment to which God himself vouchsafes to direct our attention?-shall we arraign his wisdom, in preparing us for those things that are beginning to come upon the earth? Long has

Satan triumphed over all that was created so beautiful and good, crushing it into a scene of wintry devastation, and sending across it many a storm, originating in the perverted elements of depraved humanity; and surely it is a glorious hope that spreads before us a speedy termination to this sa tanic reign—that gives promise of another and a brighter spring; when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise and shine, throughout the wide range of our beautiful sphere, and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our God, and of his Christ.

14

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CHRISTMAS ROSE.

'A HAPPY new year.'-From how many thousands of voices is that greeting heard! I love to receive it even when friendships are so young, that it is the first occasion offered of exchanging the kindly salutation; but there is a feeling that does not display itself; an under-current, deep and strong, rolling over the graves of by-gone years, and sounding in secret a knell that is not heard amid the cheerful tones of the upper world. True, by the mercy of God, a happy new year may be mine; truly happy, if his grace render it a year of spiritual improvement, of perceptible progress towards the consummation of all real bliss: but flesh is very slow to receive such interpretation of a term long applied to the pleasant things of time and sense; and instead of being rejoiced at having learned the truest meaning of an abused term,-of being brought to understand the right appropriation of the emphatic words, 'Happy are ye,'-how prone are we to look back upon the worldly sub

stance or worldly shadows-that we have bartered; while the pearl of great price, though perhaps acknowledged to be our own, may lie before us almost unheeded-certainly undervalued—as the regretful sigh escapes.

This, at least, is my case: knowing and closing with the announcement, that we must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of heaven; and being well assured, that He who spake the word, "In the world ye shall have tribulation," hath in him no variableness, neither shadow of turning; how wonderful it is that every light affliction, sent to wean me from earth, should be regarded as a strange thing; and a sort of careful account-book kept from year to year, of what has been done against my will, though in answer to my prayers: as I number successive bereavements, and secretly ask, was there ever any sorrow like my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me?" I meet a funeral party, perhaps in my daily walk, and compassionate thoughts may follow the weeping mourners, as they hold their sad, slow progress towards the grave: but the emotion is very transient, and the scene soon fades into forgetfulness; but when I betake myself to the numbering of my past funerals, when I contemplate some dreary blank left in my bosom by the removal of a cherished object, it will almost seem that all other griefs are common and poor