FRAILTY OF AGE.-It is as natural for old age to be frail, as for the stalk to bend under the ripened ear, or for the autumnal leaf to change its hue.-Blair.

CHRIST'S SPIRIT OF FORGIVENESS.

WHEN on the fragrant sandal-tree

The woodman's axe descends,

And she, who bloomed so beauteously,
Beneath the keen stroke bends,

E'en on the edge that wrought her death,
Dying she breathes her sweetest breath,
As if betokening in her fall

Peace to her foes and love to all.

How hardly man this lesson learns,

To smile, and bless the hand that spurns;

To see the blow, to feel the pain,

But render only love again!

This spirit not to earth is given;

One had it, but He came from heaven.
Reviled, rejected, and betrayed,

No curse he breathed, no plaint he made;
But when in death's deep pang he sighed,
Prayed for his murderers, and died.—Anon.

DEATH A SLEEP.

THOU art afraid of death-when thou art

weary of thy day's labor, art thou afraid of rest?

Hear what thy Saviour, who is the Lord of life, esteems of death:-" Our friend Lazarus sleepeth."

So, the philosophers of old were wont to call sleep the brother of death: but God says, death is no other than sleep itself: a sleep both sure and sweet. When thou liest down at night to thy repose, thou canst not be so certain to awake again in the morning, as, when thou layest thyself down in death, thou art sure to awake in the morning of the resurrection. Out of this bodily sleep thou mayest be startled with fearful dreams, with tumults, or alarms of war; but here, thou shalt rest quietly in the place of silence, free from all inward and outward disturbances: while, in the meantime, thy soul shall see none but visions of joy and blessedness.

66

But, oh the sweet and heavenly expression of our last rest, and the issue of our happy resuscitation! For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him." So, our belief is antidote enough against the worst of death. And why are we troubled with death, when we believe that Jesus died? and what a triumph is

this over death, that the same Jesus who died rose again! and what a comfort it is, that the same Jesus who arose shall both come again, and bring all his with him in glory! and, lastly, what a strong cordial is this to all good hearts, that all those who die well do sleep in Jesus! Thou thoughtest, perhaps, of sleeping in the bed of the grave, and there, indeed, is rest; but he tells thee of sleeping in the bosom of Jesus, and there is immortality and blessedness.—Bishop Hall.

BENEFIT OF TRIALS.

If the Lord is pleased to sanctify the infirmities to which our present mortal frame is subject, we shall have cause to praise him at last, no less for the bitter than the sweet. I am convinced in my judgment, that a cross or a pinch somewhere or other, is so necessary to us, that we cannot go on well for a considerable time without one. We live on an enchanted ground, are surrounded with snares, and if not quickened by trials, are very prone to sink into formality or carelessness. It is a shame it should be so, but so it is, that a long course of prosperity always makes us drowsy.

Trials, therefore, are medi

cines, which our gracious and wise physician prescribes because we need them; and he proportions the frequency and weight of them to what the case requires. Many of his people are sharply exercised by poverty, which is a continual trial every day, and all the year round. Others have trials in their families. They who have comfortable firesides, and a competence for this world, often suffer by sickness, either in their own persons, or in the persons of those they love But any or all of these crosses are mercies, if the Lord works by them to prevent us from cleaving to the world, from backsliding in heart or life, and to keep us nearer to himself. Let us trust our Physician and he will surely do us good. And let us thank him for all his prescriptions, for without them our soul-sickness would quickly grow upon us.-John Newton.

If we saw our Father's house, and that great and fair city, the New Jerusalem, which is up above sun and moon, we would cry to be over the water, and to be carried in Christ's arms out of this borrowed prison.-Rutherford.

THE CHRISTIAN'S HOPE.-Time flies apace, and past troubles will return no more: every pulse we feel beats a sharp moment of the pain away, and the last stroke will come. Then sorrow and sighing shall flee away, and joy and gladness shall come forth to conduct us home.John Newton.

COMPLETE IN CHRIST.

O HOW Sweet to be wholly Christ's, and wholly in Christ! to be out of the creature's owning, and made complete in Christ, to live by faith in Christ; and to be once for all clothed with the created majesty and glory of the Son of God, wherein he makes all his friends and followers sharers! to dwell in Immanuel's high and blessed land, and live in that sweetest air, where no wind bloweth, but the breathings of the Holy Ghost: no seas nor floods flow, but the pure waters of life, that proceed from under the throne, and from the Lamb: no planting, but the tree of life that yieldeth twelve manner of fruit every month! What do we here but sin and suffer? O when shall the nights be gone, the shadows flee away, and the morning of that long, long