So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom,-PSALM XC. 12.

NOW IS THE APPOINTED TIME.

O-MORROW, Lord, is thine,
Lodg'd in thy sov'reign hand;

And if its sun arise and shine,
It shines by Thy command.

The present moment flies,
And bears our life away:

Oh, make Thy servants truly wise,
That they may live to-day!

Since on this winged hour
Eternity is hung,

Awake, by Thine almighty pow'r,

The aged and the young.

"One thing" demands our care;

Oh, be it still pursued;

Lest, slighted once, the season fair

Should never be renew'd!

Doddridge.

REFLECTIONS.

THERE is no method more certain to know whether we walk uprightly before God than to consider whether we are in such a condition as to be ready to die whenever God thinks fit; and the best way to clear this is to reflect whether, in the constant course of our daily actions, death would not surprise us.— NELSON.

Say not thou I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.—PROVERBS, XX. 22.

As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field so he flourisheth.—PSALM ciii. 15.

THOUGHTS ON LIFE.

AND what's a life? A weary pilgrimage,
Whose glory in one day doth fill the stage
With childhood, manhood, and decrepit age.
And what's a life? The flourishing array
Of the proud summer-meadow, which to-day
Wears her green plush, and is to-morrow hay.

Read on this dial, how the shades devour
My short-liv'd winter's day! hour eats up hour;
Alas! the total's but from eight to four.

Behold these lilies, which Thy hands have made
Fair copies of my life, and open laid

To view, how soon they droop, how soon they fade!

Quarles.

REFLECTIONS.

AN Italian philosopher expressed in his motto, that time was

his estate; an estate, indeed, that will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly repay the labours of industry, and satisfy the most extensive desires, if no part of it be suffered to lie waste by negligence, to be overrun by noxious plants, or laid out for show rather than for use.— DR. JOHNSON.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, probideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.—Proverbs, vi. 6–8.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.—Romans, xiii. 12.

W

A RULE OF LIFE.

THAT art thou, Life? The saint and sage
Have left it written on their page
That thou art nothing-dust, a breath,

A glittering bubble burst by death,
A ray upon a rushing stream,
A thought, a vanity, a dream.

Yet thou art given for mighty things:
To plume the infant angel's wings;
To bid our waywardness of heart,
Like Mary, choose "the better part ;"
To watch, and pray our guilt away,
To-day, "while yet 'tis called to-day."
If sorrows come, redeeming God!
By Thee the path of thorns was trod ;
If death be nigh, shall man repine
To bear the pangs that once were Thine,
To bleed, where once Thy heart was riven,
And follow from Thy cross to heaven?

REFLECTIONS.

Croly.

BEHOLD, the longest day hath his evening, and that thou shalt enjoy it but once, that it never turns again; use it, therefore, as the spring-time, which soon departeth, and wherein thou oughtest to plant and sow all provisions for a long and happy life.-SIR W. RALEIGH.

Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go; keep her, for she is thy life.—PROVERBS, iv. 13.

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest; Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.-ST. JOHN, iv. 35.

SOWING FOR ETERNITY.

O MY SON !

The ostentatious virtues which still press
For notice and for praise; the brilliant deeds
Which live but in the eye of observation—
These have their meed at once; but there's a joy
To the fond votaries of fame unknown,—
To hear the still, small voice of conscience speak
Its whispering plaudit to the silent soul.
Heaven notes the sigh afflicted goodness heaves,
Hears the low plaint by human ear unheard,
And, from the cheek of patient sorrow, wipes
The tear by mortal eye unseen, or scorned.

Beattie.

REFLECTIONS.

EARLY you may learn that it is not on the external condition in which you find yourselves placed, but on the part which you are to act, that your welfare or unhappiness depends. Now, what can be of greater moment than to regulate your plan of conduct with the most serious attention, before you have yet committed any fatal or irretrievable errors? If, instead of exerting reflection, you deliver yourselves up to sloth and pleasure, what can you expect to follow from such beginnings.BLAIR.

He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity; and the rod of his anger shall fail.—PROVERBS, xxii. 8.

I have been young and now am old; yet have E not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. -PROVERBS, xxxvii. 6.

LIFE-YOUTH AND AGE.

IFT up thine eyes, afflicted soul;
From earth lift up thine eyes;
Though dark the evening shadows roll,
And daylight beauty dies;

One sun is set, a thousand more

Their rounds of glory run,

Where science leads thee to explore
In every star a sun.

Thus, when some long-loved comfort ends,
And nature would despair,

Faith to the heaven of heavens ascends,
And meets ten thousand there.

As stars that seem but points of light,

The rank of suns assume,

First faint and small, then clear and bright,
They gladden all the gloom.

J. Montgomerv.

REFLECTIONS.

SHERLOCK, the pious father-in-law of the excellent Bishop Wilton, exhorts all attendants upon public worship in these words:" Remember whose service it is you are doing, and continue therein from the beginning to the end, that you may reap the benefit of the whole office, both of the absolution in the beginning and of the blessing at the end, and of the amens throughout.'

Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.—PROVERBS, xxii. 6.