FOR ME. The sunlit clouds above me fair and free, And changing seasons, onward roll for me. 209 When I hear the winds gently breathing at ruddy morn or dewy eve, or when they rush forth resistless in their course when I regard the ebbing or flowing tide of the world of waters, or gaze with wonder on its mountainous billows chafed into fury by the storm, the same thought pervades my mindit is for me these changes are made. For me the winds on urgent errands ride, The moon, that glides so peacefully through the blue vault above me, is distant two hundred and forty thousand miles. The sun that gilds creation with its beams is ninety-five millions of miles removed from this habitable globe; and the glittering stars that stud the skies are said to be at least nineteen millions of millions of miles separated from us; and yet as an intelligent being and an heir of immortality, profiting by their existence and admiring their beauty, I may say, in grateful acknowledgement to their almighty Maker, Ye glowing balls! ye shining orbs of heaven! HOW OLD ARE YOU? "How old are you?" said a woman to an aged man, who was leaning upon two sticks. I lingered to hear the old man's reply. "I shall be fourscore," said he, "if I live till next Easter.” Many a word dropped by the way-side has been picked up and pondered on with advantage in an after hour; let me, then, ask you, "How old are you?" have ten Are you ten? because if you are, you thousand sins to repent of, and ten thousand mercies to be grateful for. What a thought! Did you ever think of it before? If not, it is worth your while to think of it now, and very seriously too, bearing in mind that youth is the time to serve the Lord; that a good beginning bids fair to be followed by a good ending; that "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," Gen. iii. 19; and that "we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ," Rom. xiv. 10. Are you twenty or thirty? If so, you have still more sins to forsake, and more mercies thankfully to acknowledge. You are in the meridian of your day, the prime of your life. If you have allowed your youth to pass unimproved, run no further risk, HOW OLD ARE YOU? 211 Up and be doing; try to make amends for the past. call upon the name of the Lord. get a thousand things, never forget "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment," Heb. ix. 27. Are you forty or fifty? If this be the case, What What are More than there is no time to lose. You must look about you, lest the shadows of night overtake you. have you done for the glory of God? you doing? What do you intend to do? half your life is gone by, even though your days should be long in the land. If you have not yet made up your mind to forsake sin, and to cling to the cross of the Redeemer, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the following passage in the word of God: "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom. vi. 23. Yes. Are you sixty or seventy? Do you answer, Then I hope that while your feet are on the earth, your eyes and your heart are fixed upon heaven. Is it necessary to remind you, that your days are drawing to a close, that your life is as a spider's web? "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away," Psa. xc. 10. Death is at the very door. Flee from the wrath to come, and ponder on the passage, 212 HOW OLD ARE YOU? "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord," Rev. xiv. 13. should you say, If to the question, "How old are you?" you can give the same reply as the old man did, "I shall be fourscore, if I live till next Easter," you are absolutely beside yourself if you are not daily looking forward to eternity. If the warning voice whispers to youth, and speaks audibly to manhood, it cries aloud to you. Not only with your mouth, but with your heart "There is but a step between me and death," 1 Sam. xx. 3. If you have not, long ago, fled for refuge to the cross, and obtained mercy from the Saviour of sinners, go now, even at the eleventh hour: think of the innumerable, the heaped up transgressions of your youth, your manhood, and old age. Lose not a day, an hour, a moment, in applying to Him who "is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them," Heb. vii. 25. Since you first drew breath, more than four thousand sabbaths have passed away. The sun has risen and set between twenty and thirty thousand times, and thousands of millions of human beings have passed from time into eternity. Still there is mercy. But, if your treasure and your heart be in heaven, why then, be of good courage; though flesh and heart fail you, God will be the heart, and your portion for ever. strength of your Go on, traveller; for you may even now see the end of your journey. You have born the heat and burden of the day; you have passed through briers and thorns; you have but a little further to travel; endure to the end, and you shall be saved. The older you are, the nearer to heaven! the heavier your load, the greater your deliverance! The darker your pathway below, the brighter your glory above. Sin, and tears, and sorrow shall pass away; and "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory," Col. iii. 4. "I WISH," says a town friend, "you had accompanied me to Exeter Hall; there is something so animating in the addresses of Christian men, when their eloquence is that of the heart, called forth by a grateful sense of the abundant mercies of their heavenly Father. 66 "I wish," says a friend in the country, you could see the primroses, the cowslips and the blue bells around me, with the golden green of the beeches bursting forth in the woods, and then you would not be surpised to find that halleluiahs are irrepressible. The Psalmist found them so; and I, |