How can we end of all things is "not near at hand?" depend on a single hour's safety from "the pestilence that walketh in darkness, or the sickness that destroyeth in the noon-day?" Death is to us "the end of all things;" and who knoweth upon whom its stroke may fall? whether upon him who is in his full strength"," or upon him who cometh to the grave, like a shock of corn in his 2? season The only security, for one and all of us, is in constant watchfulness, in maintaining always such a sense of the uncertainty of life, as will cause us to "live each day as if the last." Let us only ask ourselves, what would be our conduct if we were told, that, in a certain number of days, we should be summoned to give an account of our lives before the judgment-seat of Christ? How should we employ the short remaining space of trial? How frequent and earnest should we be in prayer! how sober in all our enjoyments and amusements, not suffering them to interfere with the important business in which we were engaged! in our dealings with each other, how charitable, kind, and ready to forgive! For would any one bear malice towards those whom he was so soon to leave for ever? In the duties of our calling, how diligent and active should we be! Whatever were our talents, how eager should we be to make the best use of them, lest we should fall into the condemnation of the slothful servant, who hid his lord's money! Knowing who had given us the ability and strength to do His work, how anxious should we be to finish it before the night, when there would be no longer any time to work! My Christian friends, all these things we ought NOW to do, all these things we may now do, through the grace of Him who has placed us all here in our appointed stations, to await our trial, and who has wisely hidden from all the day and hour when the account shall be required of the manner in which we have performed our allotted tasks. Let none say, "It will be time enough a few years hence to think of these things." Let none say, "When I have a convenient season, I will think upon God." Brethren, "now is the accepted time, now is the 1833.] RESOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR. 3 day of salvation. "To-day," must ye "hear His voice:"-for perchance to-morrow your ears may be closed in the silence of the grave. "Then shall it be too late to knock when the door shall be shut; and too late to cry for mercy when it is the time of justice. Therefore, brethren, take we heed betime, while the day of salvation lasteth; let us, while we have the light, walk as children of the light, that we be not cast into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth 1." L. S. R. RESOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR. BEFORE taking any important step, much consideration is needful. Nothing prospers that is begun without thought. Surely we are on the very threshold of a new undertaking. Are we not beginning a new year?-God only knows how much of it we may live to see; but, at all events, we shall do well to remember that, as our days here are passed, so will be our happiness or misery in the long hereafter. The hours allotted us here, are as the talents spoken of in Scripture; and, like the servants to whom those talents were entrusted, we must render an account of the way in which we have employed our time. Let us resolve, then, to employ these talents profitably. Let us never neglect to attend divine worship every Sunday of our lives, if it be possible. By regularly joining in public worship on the sabbath, we shall be led to think of the duties to be performed during the following week. Let us resolve to bear in mind, on working days, the lesson learnt on Sundays. And, in order to ensure this, let us, each night and morning, pray to God for protection against the sins and snares of the world; and let us earnestly entreat him to pardon, for the sake of our Saviour's sufferings, the offences we have committed. Vain are all resolutions unless supported by Almighty aid; if this aid be sincerely asked, we have a promise that it will be granted. Let us resolve, during the coming year, to encourage a spirit of contentment and cheerful Christian thankfulness. Such cheerfulness is a Christian duty; and if we live like 1 Commination Service. Christians, and trust in God like Christians, we shall find support and comfort even in the worst of times, and be enabled to feel what the Apostle means when he speaks of rejoicing in the midst of sorrow. Those whose hopes are anchored beyond this stormy sea of troubles, will not allow outward trifles to grieve them:-they will remember that earthly woes, however great, are but for a day, compared with the eternity in store for those on whom they produce their proper effect. And if real woes are not to be permitted to oppress the soul of the true Christian, what place can be allowed for the insignificant annoyances that vex the minds and destroy the peace of thousands? Let us resolve to give such grievances no place, no rest, in our thoughts. I repeat the resolution; let us strive to be cheerful! cheerful as Christians. No real cheerfulness can be expected, unless industry, honesty, sobriety, and true Christian feelings, both towards God and man, form its ground-work. Are the idle cheerful? No. Life stands still with them; they kill time, not live it. Are the drunken happy? Look at the premature old age of the drunkard: look at his ragged children, his wretched cottage; the question is answered. Are the dishonest happy? Let the calendar at the Assizes be referred to; a miserable end here, a miserable state hereafter. Are backbiters and slanderers happy? They can have no friends; wretched must it be for them to be judged by the golden rule, "Do to others as you would they should do to you.' Now this is the end of the whole matter-God has sent us into this world to prepare for a better: woes are inseparable from the condition of human nature, for this is a state of trial; but those who go on in the path of duty, who go strait on, turning neither to the right nor left, but making the law of God their guide, those persons, despite misfortunes, will be cheerful. Let us then 66 cast all our care upon God," knowing assuredly that "he careth for us ;" and let us be earnest in the performance of what we have to do, and in the avoidance of what we ought not to do, so may we hope to obtain the inestimable blessing of a spirit of Christian contentment, cheerfulness, and peace. F. 1833.] TEXTS FOR NEW YEAR'S DAY. A PRAYER FOR THE NEW YEAR. 5 ALMIGHTY FATHER, give me grace to offer up my poor tribute of praise and thanksgiving, for the innumerable blessings thou hast showered down upon me from the moment of my birth to this hour.-Thy destroying angel has been abroad; thousands, tens of thousands have fallen during the last year, and yet I am spared,—in mercy spared!-Grant that I may prove my sense of thy never-failing goodness by the whole tenour of my life.Teach me to repent truly of my former sins, and to show forth my contrition by obedience to thy laws.-Let me entreat especially that thou wouldst give me a contented spirit and a composed frame of mind, that I may bear the trials which thou mayest see fit to send me, as one whose resting-place is not here.-For my dear relations and friends, I implore thy protection, entreating that we may be enabled so to rest our whole confidence in our blessed Saviour's merits, and so to order our lives, that death may be only a temporary separation, and that heaven may behold us again assembled together.-Take from me all feelings of enmity or unkindness towards any of my fellow creatures: let me be at peace with all the world:-look down on my native land, Almighty Ruler of the universe:-turn us, as a nation, from the error of our ways; increase the spirit of true religion amongst us; that, trusting to thee for protection, we may be blessed with everlasting peace, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. TEXTS FOR NEW YEAR'S DAY. F. St. James iv. 14.-What is life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Job xiv. 1, 2, 5.—Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee: thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. Psalm xc. 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12.-For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday: seeing that is past as a watch in the night. As soon as thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep and fade away suddenly like the grass. : In the morning it is green and groweth up: but in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered. For we consume away in thy displeasure: and are afraid at thy wrathful indignation. For when thou art angry all our days are gone: we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told. The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years, yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow; so soon passeth it away, and we are gone. So teach us to number our days: that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. 2 Esd. iv. 26.-The world hasteth fast to pass away. Ecclus. xiv. 12, 17, 18.-Remember that death will not be long in coming. All flesh waxeth old as a garment: for the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the death. As of the green leaves on a thick tree, some fall, and some grow; so is the generation of flesh and blood, one cometh to an end, and another is born. Ecclus. xviii. 9, 10.-The number of a man's days at the most are an hundred years. As a drop of water unto the sea, and a gravel stone in comparison of the sand; so are a thousand years to the days of eternity. Isaiah Ixiv. 6.-We all do fade as a leaf. Psalm ciii. 15, 16.-The days of man are but as grass, for he flourisheth as a flower of the field. For as soon as the wind goeth over it, it is gone: and the place thereof shall know it no more. Wisdom v. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.—All things are passed away like a shadow, and as a post that hasteneth by; and as a ship that passeth over the waves of the water, which when it is gone by, the trace thereof cannot be found, neither the pathway of the keel in the waves. Or as when a bird hath flown through the air, there is no token of her way to be found, but the light air being |