death of a Redeemer, is the great ground of consolation and support upon a sick bed. We should fix our meditations upon that gracious dispensation in which mercy and truth so wonderfully met together, and implore the divine Spirit to increase and strengthen our faith in that and the other fundamental doctrines of our holy religion.

A sick man,-especially if his sickness is likely to be unto death,-will do well to take that opportunity of addressing some serious advice and admonition to those about him. Advice given under such circumstances is very likely to be attended to. The last words of a dying man have in them something of a solemn impressiveness. When a man is upon the point of quitting this present world, what he says may well be supposed to proceed from the real conviction of the heart, and it is an affecting consideration for those

Let

to whom he addresses himself, to think that they, in all likelihood, shall not listen to him again, but that the tongue which now speaks to them will soon be silent in the grave. His words consequently are likely to sink deep into their hearts. him therefore, if able, embrace such a favourable opportunity of strengthening their impressions of religion, of kindly pointing out any fault or failing which he may have observed in them, and, in general, of promoting God's kingdom and glory among men. Let him impress upon his sorrowing friends the serious lesson taught by a death-bed, that the care of the soul is indeed the one thing needful; that "to fear God and keep his commandments, is not only the whole duty"," but the truest interest," of man;" is that, which through faith in the atonement of Christ, will be effectual in bringing him peace at the last. • Eccles. xii. 13.

And very earnestly and diligently should we endeavour in sickness, to fix such impressions of religion vividly upon our own souls, and to preserve ourselves in a spiritual frame of mind. More and more must we strive to set both our thoughts and "our affections on things above, not on things on the earth," to fix our contemplations, not on those temporal things which are the objects of our bodily senses, but on those unseen things which are eternal. It may be difficult, even in sickness, to acquire this heavenly temper. The world, which we are just going to quit, will still continue to hang about us, and to clog and fetter the soul with its low cares and anxieties. But this superiority to the world, like all other Christian graces, must be sought for by earnest prayer to the Almighty.

Though our "soul cleaveth to the dust" of this lower world, yet He can "quicken

it according to his word." He alone can effectually raise our soul and spirit to the contemplation of that blessed place from which sorrow and sickness and death are for ever excluded, and into which we humbly hope to be admitted through the merits and atonement of his Son.

Prayer for the sick.

(Abridged from Spinckes's Sick Man Visited.)

O LORD our heavenly Father, who as thou multipliest thy benefits upon mankind, dost likewise at other times send sickness and diseases for their correction and amendment, comfort and support us under all thy fatherly visitations. Sanctify them to us, that they may be the means of purifying our hearts and raising them to things above. Strengthen our weak and languishing souls; confirm all our good purposes and resolutions; and grant that the result of all may be glory to thee, and salvation to us thy unworthy servants, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMONG the several offices of Christian charity, the performance or the neglect of which is represented by our Lord as influencing the sentence to be passed on each of us at the day of judgment, we find a place assigned to attention to the wants and sufferings of the sick. "I was sick, ye visited me."

and

The state of sickness has a just claim to compassion, in whatever rank of life, and in whatever outward circumstances, the sick man may be. If he is possessed