for having preserved us from all the various dangers of life, since the beginning of it; we should also pray that, during the new week on which we have entered, we may be enabled better to obey God's commandments. Let us ever bear in mind that it is but a mockery to say we wish to improve, if we do not try.

At the end of a year, if we continue to possess the blessings which we enjoyed at the beginning of it, we should be very grateful to our Great Protector, and also for having been preserved from many trials which some of our fellowcreatures have suffered. We must, however, carefully avoid thinking that others have had trials on account of their sins, and that we have escaped because we are more virtuous. When our Lord was asked by his disciples, why a certain man was born blind, he said, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God, should be made manifest in him." Those afflictions which are not the consequence of our sins, we should bear patiently, under the belief that they are imposed for some good purpose by that merciful Being who alone knows what is best for us.

We should never allow anything to prevent us saying our prayers morning and night, nor should we defer them till we cannot properly attend to them, or till we have so little time to spare, that we are in too great a hurry calmly to recollect for what we have to pray. Let us not presume to come irreverently into the presence of that awful Being who made heaven and earth; but let our minds, as well as our bodies, bend before Him in prayer and praise.

Sleep is something like death; for while we are asleep we know nothing that happens, and we cannot take care of ourselves; but what comfort is there in the thought that there is an Eye which never sleeps, which watches over the children of men when they lie buried in forgetfulness! How cold must that heart be which, on waking with all its powers strengthened and renewed, does not cast one thought of gratitude towards God for preservation through the dangers of the night!

If, then, sleep is like death, well would it be were we to reflect before we rest at night, that perhaps we shall never wake again in this world. Should we not try so to live as if every day were our last? In the same state in which we are when we go to sleep at night, we shall in all probability be when we fall into that longer sleep, from which there

will be no awakening until we receive the awful summons to appear before our God in judgment.

When death shall be our portion, may no fears, no selfupbraidings disturb our last moments, but may our rest be calm and peaceful as an infant's slumbers; may we, in the expressive language of Scripture, "sleep in Jesus;" and while our conscience whispers peace, may we, encouraged by our faith in him, supported by his promises, and cheered by the glorious scene opening before us, anticipate with joy that happy state, where "there shall be no more sorrow, nor crying, neither any more pain, but where God himself shall be with us and be our God." Let each morning begin with a resolution to improve every opportunity during the day of correcting our faults; and at night, after we have committed ourselves in earnest prayer to the care of God, let us, when all is still and silent around us, examine ourselves to see how often during the day we have broken the commandments of our Maker. "While on earth, let us” try to "have our conversation in heaven." Thus, "living as seeing God who is invisible," may we "so pass through things temporal, as finally not to lose those which are eternal."

Life is short, its pleasures are uncertain; death is certain, and eternity has joys for the virtuous which "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and which it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive." Let each decide for himself whether to set his affections on time or on eternity; and may each, through the mercy of God, be led to resolve, "As for me, I will serve the Lord!"

Text-JAMES V. 15, 16.

THE PRODIGAL SON.

THE parable of the Prodigal Son, from the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, is partly upon the same subject as the parables of the Ten Talents, the Lost Sheep, and the Pieces of Silver, the two latter in the preceding part of the same chapter; but as almost every word in it is of consequence, let us read it through without stopping for remarks, and then begin with it over again, and take it bit by bit.

"A certain man," said Jesus, "had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the

And he divided unto

portion of goods that falleth to me. them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would" gladly have satisfied his hunger "with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in; therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandments; and yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends: but as soon as thy son was come, which hath wasted thy substance with riotous living, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad; for this thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found." "Likewise," says Jesus

Christ unto us all, "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over every sinner that repenteth."

Let us now examine the parable bit by bit, to see what moral for our own conduct, and what knowledge of the mercy and goodness of God, we can draw from it.

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God, the great and almighty God, is represented by the kind and merciful father. We are directed, as you know, in what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer, and which was taught to his disciples by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, to pray to God as our Father in heaven;" and in the Psalms we are told, that “like as a father pitieth his children, even so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." You, my children, cannot know all the strength of these expressions; but who do you suppose on earth loves you the most? Who feels the most sorrow when you do wrong? Who is the most happy when you are good? Who but your earthly parents; and yet their love for you, and their care of you, are far, far less than that which God extends to all his creatures. He is the tenderest of Fathers, the most careful of Parents. He it is who has made us, who hourly watches over us and protects us all, who forgives us, and who will finally, if we pray to him and love him, receive us to dwell with him in everlasting happiness.—But to return to the parable: The two sons represent two classes of persons,the one, those who endeavour to live after the commandments, and as if in the presence of their heavenly Father; and the other, those who forsake his protection, and follow the sinful inclinations of their own hearts. And now, see, what is the first mistaken step of the prodigal son? is the first thing that is told of him? He went and asked his father to give him the portion of goods which belonged to him, and he took his journey into a far country.

What

"He took his journey into a far country;" he left the security of his father's house; he trusted to his own prudence and judgment; he thought that he was able to manage his own affairs better than his father could manage them for him that he needed no assistance, no advice; he "gathered together" the property which was to be his, and which, we must suppose, he ought to have employed, like the "talents," in trading, for the purpose of increasing his stock.

How often do we think that we could arrange things for ourselves better than the providence of our Almighty Father

arranges them for us! How often are we foolishly discontented with trifling things which happen to us, and which, after the momentary vexation is past, have no influence upon our comfort or happiness! Is not this to withdraw ourselves from our Father's house, to take the portion which falleth to us, and to employ it according to our own inclinations and fancies? Why did the father allow his son to take all that money, if he thought he would make a bad use of it? If we are to take the question as of an earthly father, we must suppose that the son was of that age when legally the father could not refuse to allot to him his maintenance. If we are to consider it as applying to "our Father in heaven," we must remember the case of the talents, and that unless we have our portion, in a certain sense, at our own disposal, there can be no trial of our good or our evil dispositions. We have all, even the least among us, something to manage for ourselves, some talents of which we are to make the most. But after the stock, or "the portion that falleth to" us, has been put into our hands, it remains in our own choice how far we will submit the disposal of it to the commands and recommendation of a heavenly Father; how far we will still, though entrusted with the conduct of our own affairs, continue in our Father's house; or how far we choose to wander "into a far country," remove ourselves from his superintending care, cease to consult his wishes, and employ our time, our talents, our fortune, and whatever else is entrusted to us, according to the "devices and desires of our own heart," and not in obedience to his commands and fatherly wishes.

After leaving his father's house, he spent all he had in riotous living. He seems to have got among idle and wicked people, with whom he forgot the order and regularity of his father's household, and the precepts of virtue and of religion which he had learnt there; to have followed a life of extravagance and what is very falsely called pleasure, thinking of nothing but the amusement of the moment, till he found that he had spent all his money, and that in a time of general distress he was in absolute want and famine. And so it will be with us also, if we withdraw ourselves from the protection of our Almighty Father; if we cease to rely upon His guidance left to our own wisdom and strength, we shall soon fall into temptation and vice; for of this be sure, that there is no virtue firm and lasting which is not founded