1. Wind.

TO WHAT IS LIFE COMPARED ?

"O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good." (Job vii. 7.)

2. Vapour.

"For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." (James iv. 14.)

3. Smoke.

"For my days are consumed like smoke.” (Ps. cii. 3.) 4. Weaver's Shuttle.

"My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope." (Job vii. 6.)

5. Swift Post.

"Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good." (Job ix. 25.)

6. Swift Ship.

"My days are passed away as the swift ship." (Job ix. 26.) 7. A Shadow.

"For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth, are as a shadow, and there is none abiding." (1 Chron. xxix. 15.)

8. A Declining Shadow.

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My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass." (Ps. cii. 11.)

9. A Passing Shadow.

"Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.” (Ps. cxliv. 4.)

10. The darting of an Eagle.

"As the eagle that hasteth to the prey." (Job ix. 26.)

11. A Flower.

"He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.'

12. A Flower of the Field.

(Job xiv. 2.)

"As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth." (Psalm ciii. 15.)

13. An Hand-breadth.

"Behold, thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth, and

mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity." (Psalm xxxix. 5.)

14. Vanity.

"I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.” (Job vii. 16.)

15. Mere Flesh.

"For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again." Psalm lxxviii. 39.)

16. Only Dust.

"For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." (Psalm ciii. 14.)

17. Clay.

"O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” (Jeremiah xviii, 6.)

REMARKS.

The above comparisons are what the Holy Ghost has given us in the Word of God as descriptive of life. Oh! what a view do they give us of the uncertainty and shortness of that period, from the birth to the death of every human being. And yet life on earth is only lent us, as a season of preparation for a life hereafter; a life of never-ending bliss, or a life of never-ending misery. But how Satan blinds our eyes to the real nature and end of life! We live, forgetting why we live, and how rapidly we are living. Yesterday will never come again, to-day can never come again. May the Holy Spirit deepen our impressions of this truth, and our earnest prayer be, "So teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto wisdom."

THAT TIME WILL COME.

THAT time is coming. That month, that day, that hour, that moment is coming on apace, and draws nearer and nearer, with every rising and with every setting sun. What time? Do you ask, reader? It is the time most solemn, most important and full of surpassing interest to you, reader, of any moment of your existence. It is the time when you will die. It will be the end of time to you. Then you will pass out of time. You will then cross the last boundary of time. You will have done with time. At that time you will change your mode of existence. You will enter on

new and untried scenes in a world of spirits, and become the companion of good or evil angels. That hour, that moment will stamp on your destiny the seal of eternity. What a time that will be to

each individual! How near and full of interest! And yet how little think the gay and pleasure-loving people of that coming hour! Could they lift life's spy-glass and look away into the coming future, and see that messenger on the pale horse approaching with every passing hour, how different would be the conduct of many from what it is now! Yet that hour, that moment is coming. The time to die will come.

Death is to every man a serious matter. It makes us serious to think of it amidst the gayest and most trifling scenes.

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Reflections on death have no affinity for light and vain amusements. Mirth flees instinctively at the very mention of the name of death. If but one thought of the future world come in amidst the thoughts of vanity, it scatters them as the tempest scatters the chaff. two kinds of thoughts, the serious and the vain, cannot exist together. And since the one must exclude the other, it becomes a solemn question, which of the two are the better for our happiness? How often and to what extent will it be more profitable to cherish mirth than solemnity? Which may be most safely established with the habits of the mind? Which will most confirm your peace, most elevate your character, and lead you most directly to holiness and heaven?

Youth is prone to levity. It has no natural love for serious meditations; and hence it finds no season appropriate to them. It has time for social amusements, often those of the vainest and most foolish kind. It has time for idleness in its various forms, and, in many cases, for indulging the vicious propensities; but no time which invites to serious thought. If our maxim be true that there is a time for all things, we may ask, when is the time for serious thoughts with the young ? When is the time to repent, and become reconciled to God, and to prepare for death? It is natural to put off all these things for the present; to postpone them to all other matters; and it proves true of thousands who go to the judgment-seat of Christ, that their time for repentance never came.

Yet these solemn things will have their time. Whatever be your engagements, your inclinations, your responsibilities, you will soon find a time to die. The hour will come for all other thoughts to be laid aside, except the thoughts of death. The cares of this world will no longer oppress. Death will demand attention, and will have it. The attention of the dying man, and the attention of friends, will be given with one accord to the presence of death. It will be exclusively death's time. A word or a thought of this world would do violence to the feelings awakened by the scene. Every word that is uttered in the apartment, every moment will indicate that death is there; and death will seem to reign over all the thoughts and all the feelings of every actor in the proceedings. Especially will its power be felt by its individual victim. Its dominion will be manifested by the weakness and pain of the body. Strength, beauty, and activity will fall before it. The soul will feel the pangs of the moment. The time, the thoughts, the feel.

ings, every arrangement, every circumstance, will lead you to recognize the presence of death. It is the time to die.

When will men find time to think of death and eternity? What occurrences of their life call them naturally to reflections upon Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and to seek their comfort by the exercise of faith and hope in him? There is a time for all things. This is their motto. But when is there time for prayer to God; for confessing their sins, and imploring pardon; for giving thanks to the giver of innumerable mercies, and commending themselves in humble confidence to preserving and redeeming love?

THE LONG ETERNITY.

TIME rolls on! centuries glide away! Ere long, we shall look back from our remote position in the eternal world, as the associates of Noah now look back to the scenes they witnessed while on earth. Think of those spirits now in prison; think what must be their reflections in view of the fact, that they have bartered eternal joy for the sins of a moment on earth! Oh! how must remorse prey upon them as they at this moment lift up their voices in woe, exclaiming, "The harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."

And is it so? Have thousands of years already elapsed, while they still continue the victims of sin? So says unerring truth. They wearied out the long-suffering of God, and grieved away his Spirit. And shall eternity still roll on while they remain in their abode of sorrow? Nothing can be more sure. Their own hand has planted thorns in the pillow upon which they will for ever in vain seek repose.

And is this our danger? Are we exposed to so fearful a doom? "Verily," saith the Scripture to us, "unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Yes, very soon the graves, in which our bodies have mouldered to the dust, will disappear under the influence of time. Centuries will pass away, and not an individual shall know our names; not a vestige shall remain of our ever having existed. The world shall be busy; the hum of business and the notes of pleasure shall be heard. The sun shall shine; the rain shall fall; the storm shall rage; but we shall be far, far away-the veteran souls of many centuries. Oh! what is life, when we look forward to explore those regions where we must for ever dwell? What are earth's joys, when we think of heaven's undying glory? What are earth's trials, when we think of banishment eternal from the presence of God? But heaven's gates are now open wide. Hea ven's smiling fields now invite our steps. The angels' cordial welcome now bids us enter. The Father pleads; the Saviour invites ; the Spirit strives. Oh! let us all hear, and accept, and live.

DISTRESS IN IRELAND.

[The following letter, lately received from a devoted clergyman, now resident at Ventry, in Ireland, who was formerly a Popish priest, gives but too true a picture, not only of the distress which prevails in that country, but of the peculiar pressure with which the general distress falls on the converts from Popery. They claim our special sympathy in this time of trial. We must give that sympathy, not in words only, but in our prayers, and in our money as far as we are able. The Editor will thankfully forward any sums to Mr. Moriarty that may be entrusted to him for this purpose.]

MY DEAR MISS M.,-I return you my grateful thanks for your Christian sympathy under our present difficulties. I do not exaggerate when I say, that another month passed as I have spent the last, would put me out of this place, or out of this present evil world. I could not possibly stand it. I had no money, public or private, and my people were starving. They were tempted, too, by the support offered and freely given, through an association lately established here by the priests, with the view of seducing our people. They also promise to give them free passages, as emigrants, in the spring. This is strong temptation to a poor man who has nothing in hand to keep his family from starving, and who has no prospect of being able to live in this country, after the destruction of the potatoes. You know very well that whatever distress we have had to bear during the summer months, we were relieved heretofore when the people were able to go to their potato grounds, and we enjoyed comparative ease and independence for months after; and had the potato crop prospered this year, our people would have been above want. But the Almighty has, for his own wise purposes, willed it otherwise, and we are in a most trying position. It went to my heart yesterday, to hear that your old friend Paddy Sanders, and family, had gone to bed the night before without having eaten anything since their scanty morning meal; but such cases are common amongst us at present. The people have barely existed all the last week on such wretched potatoes as they could get out of the ground; but now they know not what to do, and the prospect before us for the winter is most discouraging-in fact, it is awful. I am not without hope, thank God, though in fear and trembling. My little flock at Donquin is truly to be pitied. Distress in any shape, at this season, is so unusual, that we are the more at a loss what to do. It is most painful to see crowds of people returning from Dingle to the remotest part of the district, with their scanty supply of Indian meal. They are glad to succeed in getting half a stone, after waiting long, and crushing in the crowd, and often they return without any. Our poor people have no chance among them. They would not only be insulted, but pulled about, and crushed to death perhaps, there is