fore, spared no pains to render their impressions deep and lasting. The people were called together at Mizpeh, in order that they might enter into an express and public engagement, by sacrifice, fasting, and prayer, to serve the Lord; and while they were employed in these religious services, the Philistines came upon them and filled them with terror. The attack was sudden and furious; but Samuel's confidence in God remained unshaken, and while he interceded for the people with a burnt offering and fervent supplications, deliverance came; and it came in such a way as to prove that it came from the Lord. "The Lord thundered with a great thunder that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel."

It was on this occasion that, "Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, that is, The Stone of Help, saying, hitherto hath the Lord helped us." His design was to perpetuate the remembrance of this remarkable interposition of Providence. The design was pious and laudable. Many instances are recorded in Scripture of monuments erected to commemorate important events, or signal deliverances, in times of danger. The custom has been adopted by all nations; and it may be complied with, in its spirit, if not in its form, by individuals. Indeed this is the most profitable way of setting up an Ebenezer. And it is in this point of view that the subject is commended to serious attention.

We have all abundant reason to say, with Samuel, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us!" We should always endeavour to cherish a grateful sense of God's goodness to us; but there are some occasions on which it is peculiarly proper for us to call to remembrance his past favours, and render him special praise and thanksgiving. Such is the present occasion. We are just ending one of those periods by which our short continuance in this world is meted out. Here, then, as on an eminence, let us pause, and look back upon the dangers and hardships which we have passed safely, by the good Providence of our Heavenly Father. "Having obtained help of God, we continue till this day." The Lord has hitherto helped us in various respects.

I. In the first place, He has helped us, by the common care and bounties of his Providence.

We came into the world altogether helpless and dependent. He had, therefore, provided for us, without our asking, the affection of parents, or the kind attention of guardians and friends. But for this provision of our God, we had perished as soon as we were born. Through the period of childhood, we were fed and clothed and protected, amidst innumerable dangers which must have proved fatal to us, had we been left to ourselves. And as we grew up, we were made acquainted with useful arts, and admitted to the various enjoyments of civilized and social life. We have had a home

we have lived in the midst of friends, who stood ready to minister to our comfort, by their acts of kindness, their sympathies, and counsels. All these advantages we owe to divine Providence. Parents, friends, and benefactors, are but instruments which our Heavenly Father employs to do us good. With the pious old Jacob, we should therefore acknowledge that "God hath fed us all our life long unto this day." "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." "He openeth his hand, and filleth every living thing with plenteousness.'

When we look back, as far as memory will carry us, what numbers do we recollect that have died, that have been in want, that have lost their property, their limbs, their health, or their reason. Some have fallen in the field of battle, at a distance from their kindred, and in an enemy's land. Some have died by famine; some swallowed up by earthquakes; some have perished in the flames, and others have been drowned; while thousands drag out a miserable life as convicts or maniacs, in imprisonment and chains!! If then, we find ourselves in comfortable circumstances, blessed with health, and reason, and encompassed with the conveniences of social life, at the end of another year, are we not under infinite obligations to Heaven's distinguished goodness? Shall we not raise our Ebenezer, and say, with devout and unfeigned thankfulness, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us ?"

II. The Lord hath helped us in affliction.

Of affliction we have probably all had less or more. We have all had enough to teach us that we live in a vale of tears — that everything in this world is unstable and unsatisfactory. If we have been at all attentive to the language of Providence, we have heard the sad speak often enough to teach us that "he aims too low, who aims at happiness beneath the skies." One has met with crushing disappointments in business; another has been sick, nigh unto death; a third has buried a near and dear relative; a fourth has been assailed by the tongue of slander. But whatever may have been our troubles, we have lived through them, because the Lord has sustained us. We have seen our gourds wither; our hopes blasted, and our friends die. We have wept, and mourned, and sympathized. We feel our losses. We perceive a void in our kindred circle, never to be filled. We have the wormwood and the gall still in remembrance. We have been humbled, disappointed, grieved, and cast down, but not forsaken. God, whose beneficent nature is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, has been with

us.

To Him, through a gracious Mediator, we have been allowed to tell our sorrows; and He is a present help in time of need. He has been with us in our trials. He gave us strength from on high. He mingled in our cup of bitterness many pleasant ingredients. Cannot some of us say, with David, "It was good for me to be afflicted?" "I know, O Lord, that in faithfulness, thou hast

afflicted me?" Have we not found on reflection, that our afflictions came seasonably? We were becoming too worldly-minded; it was necessary, therefore, that we should be admonished not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God. We had permitted that beloved relative, whose loss we now bewail, to engross our heart, to the neglect of God and religion; it was needful, therefore, that the idol should be removed, that we might return, and say, "Now Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee!" We had begun to imagine that our constitution was proof against disease-our bones were full of marrow and the thoughts of death were put far from us. It was, in mercy, therefore, that God commissioned sickness to visit us, and put us in mind that we were born to die. But we were unprepared for the great change-we wished and prayed for a little more time and space for repentance; and we promised, if our request should be granted, to give diligence to secure an interest in the Saviour. Our request was granted. Are we fulfilling our promise? If not, let us neglect it no longer. It is recorded in heaven, and at the judgment day, when the books are opened, we shall see it; and this promise will be among the witnesses that will rise up against us and condemn us.

III. The Lord hath hitherto helped us, by indulging us with the means of grace.

He has placed us in the most favourable circumstances for securing the good part, for laying up treasure in heaven, for obtaining a good hope. And this is a kind of help, for which we can never sufficiently bless and magnify God's holy name. "The lines are fallen to us in pleasant places: we have a goodly heritage." We were born in a Christian land; where we have been taught, from our infancy, to worship the Lord, who made the heavens. From our youth up, we have had access to the Holy Scrip. tures, in our mother tongue,-those stores of divine truth which, through faith, are able to make us wise unto salvation. We have heard the Gospel preached, and seen its ordinances dispensed. We have had an opportunity of being consecrated to the Lord in baptism; and in the symbols of the Saviour's body and blood, we have been taught where to look for the pardon of our sins. The dayspring from on high has visited us; life and immortality are brought to light. With us, it is not a matter of doubtful disputation whether we shall live after death. When we part with our pious friends, at death, if we are Christians indeed, we know and are assured that we shall meet them again, in heaven. When impressed with a sense of sin, we know there is forgiveness with God; we are invited to the throne of grace; the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, and his righteousness is commensurate to all the demands of the law.

Christians have abundant reason to say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." He laid help on one mighty to save. And, having provided a Saviour, He helped them to believe on Him; He

helps them to persevere; He helps them to deny themselves, to bear the cross, and strive against sin. He helps them to fight the good fight of faith. He furnishes them with sacred armour, and teaches how to use it. He has engaged, by covenant, never to withdraw his saving help from them; the word has gone out of his mouth: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Christians always need God's help. Without Him they can do nothing. Salvation is wholly of the Lord. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? The world is full of snares, allurements, and temptations. The devil, our grand adversary, goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. In such circumstances, our own strength is weakness. But with Christ formed in us, the hope of glory, we cannot fail of ultimate victory. Our prospects, may, at times, be gloomy. Weeping may continue for a night, but joy will come in the morning. He who has brought us out of the horrible pit, and the miry clay, who has set our feet upon a rock, and established our goings; He who has put a new song in our mouth, even praise to our God, will help us quite through the warfare, and put a crown on our heads, that fadeth not away. The redeemed of the Lord shall stand on Mount Zion, and exclaim in triumph, and with everlasting thankfulness, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."

A single remark will conclude our article. Let us all resolve to trust the Lord for the remainder of life. We know not what is before us. We cannot tell, nor need we be anxious to know, what events the new year will bring forth. But the Lord reigneth, and his kingdom ruleth over all. His providence touches us in every point. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." Let us lay aside, therefore, all anxious thought for the morrow-and let us rejoice that our times, our changes, our comforts, our sorrows, our friends, and our lives are in God's hands, and completely at his disposal. Be it our great concern to despatch the daily and hourly duties of life, in the fear and love of God, casting our cares on Him who careth for us, and who, if our hearts are devoted to his service and glory, will never leave us, or withdraw from us his saving help. Let us regard the finger of Providence in every event that occurs, both small and great. This is one of the best means of cultivating communion with the Father of our spirits, and of securing, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that peace of God, which the mutability of this ever-changing world cannot disturb. And let me counsel you, brethren, as you would have God continue to you his saving help, all along life's toilsome journey, as you would enjoy his gracious presence in death, and his complacent smiles through eternity, make it your business, regard it as your privilege, to honour Him with your bodies and spirits, which are his. Worship Him daily in your closets, and in your families. He is ever mindful of you-let not his goodness pass without your stated acknowledgment by prayer and praise. W. N.

THE LESSONS OF OLD AGE.

OLD age may teach us many useful lessons, of life, death, and eternity.

I. First, let us consider Old Age, as the EXTREME LIMIT OF NATURAL LIFE. Death is a fixed incident in our being. Immortal as we are, we must all lie down in the dust. The corruption of the body precedes its resurrection to an eternal state. Human life has indeed every variety of period for its termination; from the babe of a day, who enters life with a tear and dies in a smile, to him of hoary head, who has been an infant, a youth, and a man, and is now tottering on with his staff to the end of his mortality. But, however long man may live, he must at last die. The waves of his restless being dash against, but cannot remove, the landmarks of omnipotence. The extreme limits of our earthly existence, as described in the Bible and marked out by Providence, are threescore years and ten; the exceptions beyond being few and far between, like white-crested waves in the subsiding ocean.

If old age be the utmost boundary of life, how forcibly are we reminded by it of the certainty of death. Though we may attain to manhood without a perceptible diminution of strength, yet will gray hairs, feeble steps, and failing senses, be at last the monitors of our decay. From death old age brings no deliverance, but is on the contrary a delayed assurance of its final doom.

As the limit of life, old age likewise reminds us of the sin, which thus consigns the body to degradation. "Death by sin," is the explanation of all our miseries. Our return to dust is a sentence incurred by Adam's transgression. Every symptom of disease we feel, every pang we suffer, every infirmity we bear, is an expression of our depravity. In Paradise, infirmity was no element in our constitution. The decay of age, as of death, is the sinner's punishment.

Every old man, therefore, presents in his body the testimony of nature to SIN and DEATH. Two dread realities! sufficient to make the living learn wisdom. Oh, aged friends, and young! inheritors of guilt and dust! there is a way to live above the power of sin, and above the fear of death! Press ye forward in it! Life has the limit of old age; but eternity-illimitable thought-has no termination of Heaven and Hell.

II. OLD AGE IS A PERIOD OF CARE AND SORROW. "Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward." Every season of life has its trials. Numerous as the passing clouds, are the shadows which fall across our path, lengthening as the sun goes down. In addition to the general disappointments and calamities of our pilgrimage, the peculiar sorrows of old age are the bereavements of friends, no longer to be replaced-the infirmities of the senses,