O HAPPY Soul! when the offices of religion do measure out to thee the time and the year, and devotion in its decent dress is thy calendar; when as thou dost receive with pleasure the fruits of each season, which the bounty of thy God causeth the earth to bring forth to thee; the sun and heaven yielding successively their grateful changes, so thou mayest measure out thy time with suitable variety of praise and devotion; aspiring in each season after some new grace in return, till thou hast run the circle of them all with the year, and summed up thy gain at last in a happy eternity.

Happy soul! to whom each new week is welcome, and known not by the almanack, or the outward face of the year, but by the grace it proposes to thy meditation and practice in its Collect, while thou dost join with the whole Church in making this theme thy study and thy care; when each month is known to thee, not by the old heathen name it bears, but the blessed saints it commemorates, welcoming with joy their holy festivals.

O happy souls, who unite in this blessed study! may my soul enter into your secrets, and dwell with you in this sacred exercise. May I ever rejoice in this orderly revolution of time; ever be with you, the children of the kingdom, the favourites of Heaven, the delights of my soul, and heirs of eternity, in all the happy periods of this revolution; and thus employed, through the mercies of our good God, may we roll insensibly on from grace to glory, from time to eternity, and from commemorating the saints here, to enjoying our Lord and them for ever hereafter. Amen.

Life of James Bonnell.

SING the song unheard before,
Sing the GOD Whom we adore,
Sing, all earth, unto the Lord,

Praise His Name, and bless His Word.

Tidings tell, from day to day,
Of His high and saving way;
Shew all lands His glorious light,
Heathens all His deeds of might.

Tell them, GOD is great always,
Prais'd, and high above all praise;
Thron'd in awful majesty,
Far above all gods

He.

Heathen gods-frail gods are they-
Heaven He made Whom we obey;
Grace and honour round Him shine,
Power and splendour in His shrine.

B

Households of the realms abroad,
Bring ye to the Lord our God,
Bring ye to the Lord aright,
Glory and eternal might.

To the LORD Whom we proclaim,
Bring the glory of His Name;
With th' unbloody offering come,
Enter in the holiest room.

Own the LORD with prostrate heart,
In His beauty high apart;
Shrink, all earth, before His face;
Speak to every realm and race;

Tell it out, "Jehovah reigns:
Fix'd and sure the world remains ;
Fix'd, and leaning on His hand,-
Righteous Judge of every land."

Heaven is bright with bliss and mirth;
Springs for joy the solid earth;
Ocean, with His thundering tones,
Through his worlds the rapture owns ;

Field exults, and meadow fair,
With each bud and blossom there;
In the lonely woodlands now
Chants aloud each rustling bough,

Chants before th' all-judging Lord :-
See, He comes, He comes ador'd;
Comes to judge the world aright,
Nations by His own true light.

First Sunday in Advent.

"Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off."—Isaiah xxxiii. 17.

YEAR after year, as it passes, brings us the same warnings again and again; and none, perhaps, more impressive than those with which it

comes to us at this season. The very frost and cold, rain and gloom, which now befall us, forebode the last dreary days of the world, and, in religious hearts, raise the thought of them. The year is worn out; spring, summer, autumn, each, in turn, have brought their gifts and done their utmost; but they are over, and the end is come. One year goes, and then another; but the same warnings recur. The frost or the rain comes again; the earth is stripped of its brightness; there is nothing to rejoice in: and then, amid this unprofitableness of earth and sky, the wellknown words return; the prophet Isaiah is read; the same epistle and gospel, bidding us "awake out of sleep," and welcome Him "that cometh in the name of the Lord;" the same collects, beseeching Him to prepare us for judgment. blessed they who obey these warning voices, and look out for Him whom they have not seen, because they "love His appearing!"

Before us lies a time when we must have the sight of our Maker and Lord face to face. We are destined to come before Him. -nay, and to come before Him in judgment; and that on our first meeting, and that suddenly. We have to stand before His righteous presence, and that one by one. One by one we shall have to endure His holy and searching eye. At present we are in a world of shadows. Suddenly it will be rent in twain and vanish away, and our Maker will appear. He will look on us, while we look on Him.

We are told in Scripture that good and bad shall see God.

On the one hand, holy Job says, "Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another" (Job xix. 26, 27).

On the other hand, unrighteous Balaam says, "I shall see Him, but not now; I shall behold Him, but not nigh; there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel" (Numb. xxiv. 17).

lift

Christ says to His disciples, "Look up, and for up your heads; your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke xxi. 28); and to His enemies, "Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matt. xxvi. 64).

And it is said generally of all men, on the one hand, 66 Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him" (Rev. i. 7).

And on the other: "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John iii. 2).

Again: "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face" (1 Cor. xiii. 12).

And again: "They shall see His face; and His Name shall be in their foreheads" (Rev. xxii. 4).

And as they see Him, so will He see them; for His coming will be to judge them. "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ," says St. Paul (2 Cor. v. 10).

Again: "We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live,