" " (Psalm xxxix. 5.) The figures by which the brevity of human life is represented, are striking; "a tale that is told;" a weaver's shuttle;" a vapour;" a post ;" a hand-breadth;" "a shadow." When compared with eternity, it is a point, a speck. "Mine age is as nothing before (or in comparison of) Thee." What is any period of time, or even time itself, when contrasted with the duration of God, with whom "one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day?" We are but as of yesterday, and know nothing. No circle bounds His being. No point terminates His knowledge. From everlasting to everlasting He is God, and his years never fail. We may learn the brevity of human life by examining the circle of our relatives and friends, and marking the vacancies that time has produced. Who has not lost a father or mother, a brother or sister, an intimate friend or companion ? "Lover and friend hast Thou removed far from me; mine acquaintance into darkness." (Psalm lxxxviii. 18.) Adam mourns his Abel. Abraham his Sarah. Isaac his Rebekah. Jacob his Rachel. David his beloved Jonathan. Where are those to whose voices, directing us to the Lamb of God, we once listened with profit and delight? And where are those with whom we once "took sweet counsel, and walked to the house of God in company?" Time is short, if we consider the work that is to be accomplished. The first part of life is devoted to education, in which great responsibility attaches to parents, especially to the mother. The second period is spent in qualifying the youth for his future position in the world. The third portion is spent in carrying out the principles previously imbibed, in the pursuits of commerce, or in professional duties. Here we see the man thinking and toiling for the bread that perisheth, seeking ardently and diligently the emoluments and dignities of life and lastly comes old age, with its weakness, infirmity, and often dotage. How small a portion of life is spent in the far greater and nobler work of serving God, and securing a bright and unalienable inheritance in the world to come! How few like Moses, prefer even affliction with the people of God, to the transitory enjoyment of the pleasures of sin ! Thousands pursue the world as their chief or only good. Only here and there, we discover a pilgrim to Zion, one who dares to be singular, one who truly devotes himself to God: his eye full fixed on heaven; his object, the favor of God; his determination, to win Christ and be found in Him. He heeds not the reproaches of the world; he imitates not the timid and the lukewarm; he presses toward the mark; prepares to meet his God. His place in the house of the Lord is never vacant; the prayer meeting never neglected; the Lord's supper never slighted; such is the man of God, "the freeman whom the truth makes free;" whose faith is evinced by his works; whose conduct is consistent; whose temper is subjected to the discipline of religion. Courteous, meek, affable, and agreeable; honest, upright, and of good report; his eye, his hand, his heart, his feet, like a well tuned musical instrument, all in unison, all in harmony. The course of life properly viewed, will lead every reader of this magazine to pray for Divine mercy, compassion, and strength, under all the cares and afflictions that may happen, relying on the gracious promise, As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” 66 66 Strength for the day!" soul-cheering word! Sweet promise of my gracious Lord! In every dark and trying way, Should deep distress my mind annoy, When youth departs and age comes on, If sickness should my frame arrest, How gladly will my spirit soar Where time and death are known no more; And sing with grateful heart the lay, 'Strength has been equal to the day.' Watchfulness is necessary in our course that time may neither be abused by unholy living, nor squandered in the pursuit of trifles light as air. Every day should be employed in getting good, or in doing good; ever remembering that the great object of our short life is to be ready for a long eternity-ready to die; ready for heaven; ready to sail on the mighty ocean when God shall give the signal. And what is it to be ready? Momentous question! Reader, seek it in Christ, and in Christ alone. Live every day as though it were your dying day: looking for heaven, as the sailor looks out for the port clinging to Jesus as friend clings to friend: not indifferent to the close of life; not presuming on the repentance of a sick or dying bed, but dying daily to the world, and living constantly to God. R. C. Penryn. EARLY RISING. FREDERICK II. of Prussia, even after age and infirmities had increased upon him, gave strict orders never to be allowed to sleep later than four in the morning. Dr. Doddridge remarks, "I will here record the observation which I have found of great use to myself, and to which, I may say, the production of this work, (the Exposition of the New Testament,) and most of my other writings, is owing; viz., that the difference between rising at five and seven in the morning, for forty years, supposing a man to retire to rest at the same hour at night, is nearly equivalent to the addition of ten years to a man's life!" Franklin says, "He who rises late, may trot all day, and not have overtaken his business at night." Dean Swift remarked, “That he never knew any man arrive at greatness and eminence, who lay in bed of a morning." Peter the Great, whether at work in London, as a ship carpenter, or at the anvil as a blacksmith, or on the throne of Russia, always rose before day-light, "I am," said he, "for making my life as long as I can, and therefore sleep as little as possible." HEBREW POETRY. To the Editor of the Youths' Magazine. DEAR SIR, It is the happiness of those who build their hopes for eternity upon God's Word, that they have such a warrant for their faith, as, unlike all spurious or pretended revelations of the Divine will, may be critically examined with the happiest results. The more closely we look into it, the greater will be the number and magnitude of the beauties discoverable in its sacred pages, even when we go no farther than our own majestic English version. But to the Hebrew student it opens a wide field of interest, the very structure and arrangement of the original text being fraught with new points of interest. These thoughts have been suggested by a glance at the “Hebrew Reading Lessons in Prose and Poetry," just published,* and respect more particularly the poetical books of Scripture. Bishop Lowth, in the preliminary remarks to his beautiful translation of Isaiah, describes the great peculiarity of Hebrew poetry as consisting in an arrangement of its paragraphs into synonymous or contrasted sentences, called parallels; and it is a circumstance highly consolatory to the christian, that although our translation of the scriptures was made before these principles of construction were understood, even by the translators themselves, it is nevertheless almost as perfect, and as well calculated to represent the original, as if the system of parallelism had been at that time well known. I think this will be readily granted when the following translation of the eighth chapter of Proverbs, in which we have mainly followed the Hebrew lessons,' is compared with that given in our authorized version. THE PLEA OF WISDOM.-(Prov. viii.) |