AN UNEXPECTED SERMON.

SERMONS are not always preached from the pulpit; for the other day I unexpectedly heard a very good, though a homely one, under the portico of a theatre in the Strand! It was an odd place, to be sure; but a smart shower had driven me there for shelter, and soon after an old man took shelter there also, who began to talk of the best things. "Sir," said he, "I am eighty-two years of age, and God has graciously given me, among many mercies, the mercy of being made sensible of his goodness. I remember, in my boyhood, hearing an aged minister declare from the pulpit, that when he was forty years old he considered himself so good, that he believed the temptations of Satan had no power over him; but when he was threescore and ten, he was obliged to confess that Satan had a bait for old birds still. I am, Sir, as I told you, eighty-two; and as the minister found at threescore years and ten, so I find at eighty-two, that I am a poor, weak, worthless creature, totally dependent on God's goodness and grace, feeling every day of my life that Satan has a bait for old birds still.”

THE FIT OF ABSTRACTION.

It was on a sharp, frosty day at the latter end of December, when, standing up at the window to look at the trees, powdered over as they were with snow, and at the poor half-famished birds that were rendered tame by the severity of the season, that I gave way to a fit of benevolent abstraction. I will endeavour to set down my ruminations.

"Oh!" thought I, "that it were possible for me to do some kindly deed to every man, woman, and child under the canopy of heaven! Oh that I could for once in my life make every eye sparkle, every pulse throb, and every heart beat with delight! Had I the power, the poor should be made rich, the rich more affluent than they are, and the one and the other should have heavenly hopes added to their earthly enjoyments !"

Now this was all very beautiful; and I no doubt 'hought so, for I continued my musings of benevolence.

"How delightful it would be to comfort the afflicted, to raise the fallen, to liberate the captive,

THE FIT OF ABSTRACTION.

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to heal the sick, to bind up the bruised and broken, and to scatter abroad, wide as the world, the elements of peace, comfort, satisfaction, happiness, and delight!"

If any thing, this latter burst of philanthropy was finer than the former; and most likely, at the moment, my countenance brightened up in contemplating the fair picture which my fancy in such glowing colours had drawn. But not yet was the fountain of my good intentions dry, or the treasure-house of my munificence exhausted; for thus did I continue my abstraction.

"Had I the power and the opportunity to bless mankind, friend and foe should alike be the partakers of my bounty; misery should be unknown; unkindness should be banished from the world and the nations of the earth should celebrate an unbroken jubilee of joy."

By the time that I had arrived at this exalted climax of philanthropy, I stood tolerably high in my own estimation, and how much higher I might have elevated myself it would be hard to say; but, at the moment, my opposite neighbour opened his door to let in a strange cat, which had, for some time, been mewing in the cold; he brought out, too, directly after, some broken victuals to a shivering lad, who had undertaken for a trifle to sweep away the snow from his door; and scattered

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THE FIT OF ABSTRACTION.

a liberal handful of crumbs around for the benefit

of the poor birds.

With shame and confusion I reflected on my useless thoughts, and on my neighbour's deeds. I had stood stock still, idly dreaming on imaginary kindness, while he had really performed three acts of unobtrusive charity. When shall we learn that benevolence consists not in thinking, but in doing! A real penny outweighs an ideal pound; and a cup of cold water given with kindness, is better than rivers of oil flowing only in the imagination.

THE COAT OF MANY COLOURS.

THE other sabbath morning I overtook an aged man, whose threadbare coat was well patched with cloth of different hues, so that it was indeed “a coat of many colours." As I walked behind him, musing on his grey hair, his bent body, his humble mien, and slow movement, he turned into a place of worship. "Well," thought I, "I took him for a pilgrim, and a pilgrim he is, I doubt not, to the city with the golden gates. He appears to be low in the world; but there was one who wore, if not a coat of the same kind as his, at least a coat of many colours, who was brought much lower, and yet afterwards was raised to a high estate, even to sit among princes."

However much there may be to discourage a man in so humble a garb from thriving in this world, there seems to be no impediment in the way of his arriving at high honour and dignity in the world that is to come. Earthly kings may not covet his company; but if his heart be right with God, however lowly his apparel may be, he shall share the glory of the King of heaven. It must comfort such an one to know, on Divine authority,

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