ing of responsibility. He cannot bear to think that he has a post assigned him, and that there is a necessity of his keeping it. A sense of obligation goads him. When the hour arrives for the assembling of the Sabbath School, or the assembling of the Church for her appropriate business, he wishes to feel that it matters nothing whether he be there or not; that everything will move on as well without him, and that he can go where he lists. On this supposition he acts; and certain it is that no one can be of much avail to any active association, who recoils from all sense of responsibility, who does not regard his presence with it as having any importance, and who, as the Prophet would express it, pulleth away his shoulder, and refuseth to bear, like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke.

2. Akin to this evil tendency is another cause of weariness in well-doing-namely, a cultivated taste for novelties. Constituted as we are with the love of what is new, it is right to gratify it, if it do not lead us to give up what is old and of tried worth for what is strange and uncertain.

Then it becomes mere fickleness, makes the mind whimsical, corrodes its moral elements, shakes all its purposes, destroys the grounds of confidence in character, and causes a man to become habitually double-minded and unstable in all his ways. When such a process is completed, a man will be mocking himself with vain crosses, and others with vain pretensions. The proper symbol of his genius would not be "Industry with a lamp burning before her, but Caprice with a monkey sitting on her shoulders."

In his case much will

be tried, yet nothing done effectually. This principle rules in the bosoms of that class of inquirers, writers, and talkers on religion, who are "" ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Paul in his journeyings often met with lion-hearted men, and grappled successfully with their opposition, for, with all the roughness of their mould, there was some substance to receive an impression of the truth; but when he stood amidst the devotees of novelty on Mars' Hill, he seemed to be really baffled, and to have soon given them up in despair. The wise men of

Athens in that day had not sufficient sobriety of soul or steadiness of purpose to examine the new religion and to discern its real excellence.

May you (especially at this season of the year, when our faculties are so prone to droop), in view of the grandeur of your work, and the obstacles which beset it, be gifted with the needed grace of self-denial for your Master's sake, and a state of "high resolve" to subordinate all your plans and powers to the promotion of his cause. General desires to do good, or to get good, will not much avail. There must be a plan of action, and a resolution to pursue, or else, difficulties will appal, or temptations will allure, or torpor will benumb the soul. But where there is piety at the outset, and where that is concentrated in a fixed and hearty decision to regard Christ's glory as the guiding star of his course, the Christian gains fresh strength as he proceeds; and like the skilful pilot, who, standing at the helm on a stormy night, making progress his single aim, causes those winds and waves which would terrify the irresolute, to speed him on his way to his destined port.

THE FLIGHT OF TIME.

BY REV. H. WINSLOW.

How fleeting and changing is Time!

LREADY are the youthful and merry dances of Spring succeeded by the sober step of grey Autumn. Another year has passed its season of youth and manhood, and is fast descending to the great tomb of time. How soon-how very soon shall we mortals have done for ever with this world! It is a thought that has pressed heavily upon reflecting minds of every age. The great Lyrist of Venusia often adverted to it with inimitable sweetness and elegance and so deeply were the sentiments of human frailty and vanity impressed upon his spirits, that even while sitting at the royal banquet of Augustus, Virgil being seated on the

other side, the Emperor is said to have exclaimed, Ego sum inter suspiria et lacrymas-"I am sitting between tears and sighs."

Yet Horace was a follower of Epicurus. He derived no other inference from the brevity and shortness of life, than that it is wise to fill the cup and intoxicate with pleasure as fast as possible, since all will so soon be over! O had that fine intellect been illumined by the light, and sanctified by the grace of Christianity-but I forbear. If ever my spirit sighs, it is when I think of such minds descending to the tomb in the darkness and corruption of Pagan night.

As a specimen of the operations of his mind. upon the shortness and vanity of life, I have selected the following ode.

For the use of the English reader, as well as for the purpose of consecrating the sentiments to a higher end than was contemplated by the poet, I have made the following free translation, and applied the whole to a Christian purpose.

Stern winter hides his frowning face,

His frost dissolves again;