thoughts, we know well what are our own. The churchyard is before us as well as before him; what, then, do we think of our latter end? Are we so living that we may die the death of the righteous? Are we in time truly preparing for eternity?

HALLELUJAH!

THERE are some words that require others to make them intelligible; some are perfect in themselves. Some have but little force and meaning when they are understood; others are full of power and significancy. Of this latter kind is the word Hallelujah! or, Praise ye the Lord!

But Hallelujah is not only a word, but a sentence and a song. Does the lowliest sinner, melted with a sense of the grace and mercy of his redeeming Lord, attempt to give utterance to the thankfulness of his heart? his language is, Hallelujah! Does the highest archangel desire to magnify the name of Him that sitteth on the throne of heaven? a Hallelujah bursts from his lips, resounding through the mansions of the skies. Hallelujah is the language of sinners and saints, men and angels, earth and heaven. "Praise ye the Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy en

dureth forever:" Ps. cvi. 1.

Hallelujah is thanksgiving, praise, and exultation. Fill the heart with hallelujahs, and it will give glory to God in the highest, and manifest goodwill to men. It has been said that it would be no

bad method to find out the lawfulness or unlawfulness of our pleasures and the spiritual or worldly state of our affections, were we to ask ourselves this question in the midst of every enjoyment: "Can we put up a hearty hallelujah at the end of it?"

When we regard ourselves and our Almighty Maker, when we look at our lowliness and his loftiness, our weakness and his power, our folly and his wisdom, our exceeding sinfulness and his unsullied holiness, well may we lie down in the dust; and when from the dust he lifts us up, when from the dunghill he raises us to be princes, can we do less than offer him our reiterated hallelujahs?

Let earth and heaven his righteous praise resound,
And endless hallelujahs echo round.

The young should praise the Lord for their youth and for the hopeful prospect that is before them of health and length of days. The old should praise the Lord for their years and for all the benefits bestowed on them in their past pilgrimage. Those who have neglected to call on the Lord have cause to thank him for his forbearance in allowing them time for repentance. And such as have been taught that the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, even to the pardoning of their sins, being justified through faith in the Son of God and sanctified by his spirit, should be loud in their thanksgiving; so that the young and the old, the awakened and

the unconverted, have reason to mingle together their hallelujahs.

Hallelujah is the aspiration of a spirit longing to manifest its grateful emotions and to glorify the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. The incense of praise is an acceptable offering to him; and Christians should be ready at all times to raise a real "Non nobis," a true and hearty "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake." When the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord, praise will be the universal language. The people will rejoice in thanksgiving,

And countless millions join the sacred song,
And hallelujahs burst from every tongue.

Do you love the Lord? Where, then, are your hallelujahs? Do you praise him for your common mercies, for the faculties of your body, soul, and spirit, renewed as they are day by day?-for air, food, water, and the light and warmth of the sun glowing in the skies? Do you praise him for spiritual blessings, for his holy word, a mercy-seat, the means of grace, and the hope of glory through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ? The love to God that has no hallelujah may well be doubted, and the hallelujah that has no love to the Lord is a shadow, a deception, a mockery. The grateful spirit will speak, and so long as there are pardoned sinners in

the world, so long will ardent hallelujahs ascend to the skies.

There are different kinds of hallelujahs, from the loud and triumphant shout, "the Lord God omnipotent reigneth," to the lowest whispered praise. Nay, there are inaudible hallelujahs, unheard by the ears of man, but clear and intelligible to Him who receiveth the sighing of the prisoner, who knoweth the desires of the heart, and by whom a book of remembrance has been written for such as fear the Lord and think upon his name. The lowest thanksgiving of the lowest repentant sinner will be accepted at that heavenly throne

"Where pure devotion meets with equal grace,
Wrapp'd in the simple strains of human praise,
Or bursting from the seraph's lip of fire."

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto the name of the Most High. Day after day ascend psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to the heavenly throne, but the sabbath-day gathers a harvest of hallelujahs into the garner of God. We cannot truly praise God without feeling that we have something to praise him for; nor can we know ourselves without knowing that we have to praise him for every thing.

Reader! the holy word of God tells us that the time is short; that there is but a step between us and death, and that we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. Man dead in trespasses