nineteen surviving comrades standing around me in thoughtful silence. They, with myself, were so many living instances of a great, a watchful, and a gracious Providence; and had the circumstances of time and place permitted, I should gladly have improved it, and said, “O that ye were wise-that ye understood these things-that ye would consider your latter end!" "O that ye would praise the Lord for his goodness!" and so reflect on that goodness as to be led to repentance!

"CAST THY BREAD UPON THE WATERS; FOR THOU SHALT }

FIND IT AFTER MANY DAYS."

BLESSED be God for such a command, and blessed be his holy name for such a promise; and blessed be the man who seeks and obtains grace to "work while it is called to-day: who continues stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the works of the Lord:" occupying, with his ten or his two intrusted talents, until his Lord shall come! Yes! I pray that such may, and I know they will, be blessed. Not that the imperfect services, the deficient obedience of the creature, can look for a reward of merit at the hands of the eternal Jehovah, whose every command all the sons and daughters of Adam have more or less broken: but that it is a present blessing, as well as the earnest of a future one, to be disposed and permitted to unite our instrumentality in the work of him, who, with infinite ease, could accomplish every purpose of his divine will without our agency.

The fact is, what we call our duty, should be

called and esteemed our privilege. Most men would consider it a great honour, an enviable distinction, to be made the frequent and familiar companion of their monarch's leisure hours-to assist him in arranging the papers of his portfolio, or in adjusting the trifling disorders of his library. These little offices would be esteemed, not as a task, a labour, or a burden, but as a pleasure, a privilege, and a mark of kind condescension; especially if the parties knew their monarch could himself do the thing much better, but that he chose this method of showing his attention and love to them. Well, then, my Christian readers, let us endeavour to esteem it our privilege to do the will of Him who sent us hither. And when he invites and directs us to cast our bread upon the waters, to sow our seed in the morning, and in the evening not to withhold our hand, let us learn to go about the work, not as a task, a labour, or a burden, but as a pleasure, a privileged employment in the service of One, who, though King of kings, and Lord of lords, hath nevertheless shown us this mark of distinction; "that we should be workers together with God."

But here, perhaps, two classes of people will step forward and throw in their complaints; the first lamenting that their situation in life is and has been such as to exclude them from doing

any thing for the glory of God and the spiritual good of others: the second, that they have "all day long stretched forth their hands to a stiffnecked and gainsaying people:" that they have long continued casting their bread upon the waters, but that the stream of sin and rebellion has uniformly swept all their labours into the ocean of forgetfulness, and none have believed or remembered their report.

To the former class of my complaining brethren I would beg leave to observe, that nothing is more common than for Satan and our own hearts to lead us into wild speculations, and fanciful plans and persuasions, how we would act were we in this man's situation, or in the other's -what we could and would do, were we possessed of this man's wealth, or of that man's talents and influence. Many a time, my dear reader, have I caught myself thus building up goodly castles in the air, wasting, and worse than wasting, my time in idle Don-Quixote-like reveries, to the overlooking and forgetting that I had my work to do, and my station to act in; and that, hereafter, I should have to give up my account, and be reckoned with, not according to what I had not, but according to the talents I possessed.

Be assured, my reader, there is not a situation under heaven wherein the real Christian is

utterly debarred of all opportunities of acting for the honour of God and the good of souls. The poor man on his crutches, and the destitute widow on her sick couch, may honour, and often have honoured, God and edified others. When bereft of every thing this world calls great and good, they have possessed a contented mind as their continual feast. If their neighbours have witnessed the rod of affliction enter their dwelling, they have also witnessed their cheerful resignation to the will of Him who breaks and makes whole. Many a precious and scriptural word of exhortation hath proceeded from the lips of poor and rustic Christian sufferers, to the edification not only of the poor and simple, but of the more prosperous and learned also. As an individual I hesitate not to confess, in the face of the world, that, on many occasions, when I have visited the poor and afflicted of Christ's flock, in the character of a teacher, I have myself been taught, both by their words and example.

As to the poor man who is in health, if he have any portion of the love of God shed abroad in his heart, by the Holy Ghost, sure I am, he need not, he will not look far for opportunities of glorifying God, and benefiting others. His own family or fellow-servants, or near neighbours, will present a field for all his talents and