which He has breathed into us, and by which He has made us lords of His fair creation, and which should never be dragged down to a vassalage baser than that of the brutes that perish? Is it for an heir of immortality, for whom Christ died, to say to his soul, Soul, eat, drink and be merry; if thou hast not many years, thou shalt have jovial years; if it must be a short life, in the devil's name, let it be a merry one?" But the truth is, men do not look for a short life; they calculate on length of days. If these vices have killed thousands before them, and filled a hundred graves from the ranks of their own acquaintance, still they cling to the mad belief that they shall be an exception to the rule, and bear the brunt, and wear and tear of dissipation with impunity, and without bearing its searing brand upon their health, their vigour, and their life. And yet, how often does death surprise men in the midst of their business,-and sometimes too in the full flush of their basest orgies. How often does it come at a moment when it is least expected,-when the pulses throb with another kind of expectancy, and the thoughts are clinging around other hopes.

It was but a while ago a stately ship steamed into the channel with sails outspread, breasting the element like a stately bird, and freighted with an expectant crew who almost felt the embraces of their friends around them, and heard their welcomes ringing in their ears, as the shores of fatherland greeted them after years of lingering absence; and the sight of England, home, and beauty, called tears of joy into their eyes and surges of gladness to their hearts. In a moment, as if by the blow of the wand of some enchanted hag of hell, she opened her bulging timbers like soft lips, and sucked the salt and swelling sea into her bosom, until, gorged by the fatal draught, she sank with all these throbbing souls into that briny sepulchre whence not the cry of bride or lover, nor the plea of friend or sister, shall recall them, and swamped them in a sleep from which nothing but the last trumpet shall arouse them. How happy they who, in their

mining after riches in foreign climes, had digged for, and found the pearl of great price, which they shall wear in their tiara before the throne of God, and who, with their passage by the ship which bore them so near their wished-for home, had purchased, through faith in Christ, a royal charter to His own right hand! But O, what shall we say of those hapless ones whose preparation was not made! What a weird and doleful eloquence there is in the roaring requiem which the restless sea is chanting over their unfound bodies; and what an awful revelation will that be concerning them, when, at the mandate of the God who quelled the billow to a wavelet, and calmed the surge to a ripple, the sea shall render up its dead! Talk of sudden deaths! Don't you remember the lewd monarch of Babylon, when he had assembled his nobles around him to revel in unhallowed orgie, and to pour his vicious draughts into the sacred vessels of the Lord? how fared it with him ?"There was a sound of revelry by night;

And Chaldea's capital had gathered then

Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men.

A thousand hearts beat happily; and when

Music arose, with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell."

In that night, the night of his intemperance and debauchery, the night of his sacrilege and violence, the night of his hoarse revel and foul sin, that night was Belshazzar the King of the Chaldeans slain. Do you remember what the Saviour said of a certain rich man, whose ground brought forth plentifully, and he thought within himself, saying, "What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits; and he said, this will I do, I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods; and I will say to my soul, Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry." But that night

66

he died. In a richly-furnished room, amid a perfumed atmosphere, on a bed of down,the highest medical skill in attendance, plenty of weeping relatives and assiduous servants, but that night I tell you he died. Next morning came the workmen to pull down the old barns and build new ones, but before they went to work they were told, "You are not wanted now, put by your tools, for the master is dead." Dead!" "Yes, he died last night,-quite unexpectedly,only ill a few hours, everything was done that could be done, there was a long consultation, but it was no use!" So the workmen had a holiday; they turned into the first public house they came to, and passed a jolly day over the death of the rich fool. So runs the world away. Lay up treasurein heaven, Seek a patrimony above. Aim at the prize of a high and glorious calling of God in Christ Jesus, and press forward towards that mark, looking unto Jesus, forgetting the things that are behind, and pressing forth to those that are before. O snatch the prize and let no man take thy crown.

"Lo! on a narrow neck of land,

Twixt two unbounded seas I stand,
Yet how insensible !

A point of time, a moment's space,
Removes me to that heavenly place,
Or shuts me up in hell!

O God! mine inmost soul convert,
And deeply on my thoughtful heart
Eternal things impress;

Give me to feel their solemn weight,
And tremble on the brink of fate :
And wake to righteousness.

Before me place in dread array
The pomp of that tremendous day,
When Thou with clouds shall come

To judge the nations at thy bar :
And tell me, Lord, shall I be there

To meet a joyful doom?

Be this my one great business here,
With holy joy and holy fear,

To make my calling sure!
Thine utmost counsel to fulfil,
To suffer all thy righteous will,
And to the end endure.

Then, Saviour! then my soul receive
Transported from this vale, to live
And reign with Thee above:
When faith is sweetly lost in sight,
And hope is full, supreme delight

And everlasting love."

"Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the

way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." all they that put their trust in Him."

"Blessed are

Wild Cats."

It is a very common excuse-often charitably urged by those who kindly desire to screen the follies of youth from censure— that the delinquent in question has not sown his wild oats yet. This sowing of the wild oats is regarded as an essential part of a young man's experience. And it is gratuitously assumed that it is impossible for a person to grow up from youth to manhood without running through the gauntlet of a series of transgressions in which the laws of God and man are to be set entirely at nought. We hear of a certain young gentleman having been picked up by a policeman from the gutter in the public street, and removed, in an incapable condition, to the Town Hall Buildings for the night. We hear of this same young gentleman being arrested shortly after, for disturbing the public repose at three o'clock in the morning, by provoking a street fight with some inoffensive passer-by. We hear of his being taken up by constables, turned out by publicans, fined and reprimanded by magistrates, and undergoing every other low disgrace and degradation which could mark him out as a thorough-going blackguard, and yet society, in the largeness of its heart and the tenderness of its Christian charity,