will be supplied, and his fears dispelled. Alas! when in the act of realizing all his hopes, he flounders in the mire, into which the wandering wildfire of the marsh has allured him. Commonplace as this illustration may be, it is "faithful to a fault," in setting forth the mistakes of hundreds when afflicted in mind, in body, or estate. The royal psalmist said, "When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I;" but how many are there who, oppressed by the heat and burden of the day, see, or rather fancy that they see, a far better covert to fly to than Him who is "as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land," Isa. xxxii. 2. How many Wills-o'-the-whisp draw aside the trembling heart, and deceive the wounded conscience, promising much, and performing little! Things are not what they seem.

The pale-faced invalid, who has been made to possess days of darkness, and to whom wearisome nights have been appointed, hears of some famous mountebank, some medical charlatan, who, reckless of falsehood and dishonesty, unblushingly undertakes to cure all diseases. To him the sick man hies, sees in him a benefactor, and in his nostrum a healing balm, an infallible restorative to health and vigour. By and by the mountebank is unmasked, and the delusion is made clear; but it is too late-the invalid has

been robbed of his remaining strength. Things are not what they seem!

The thoughtless spendthrift, who has involved himself in numberless embarrassments; who has mortgaged his means, and anticipated all his resources; whose way is hedged up with thorns, by accident casts his eye on a paragraph in some public journal. "Money on easy terms,” seems like a sunbeam to his delighted vision, and with breathless haste he hurries off to the kind-hearted and generous lender. Gladly he puts his name to the proffered bills, and in another hour hopes to receive the seasonable supply. Things are not what they seem ! When he returns, the lenders are vanished! His golden expectations are but a dream; but the responsibility he has incurred is a fearful reality.

One of the most striking instances of a deceitful outside show, in the natural creation, that I ever remember to have witnessed, was in the trunk of an oak. To all appearance, there stood a goodly tree before me, and its giant branches were redundantly clad with verdure; but on a closer inspection I found the trunk to be a mere outside shell. The side opposite to that on which I had at first gazed, had, with the heart of the tree, altogether decayed away. Much of a similar nature may sometimes be found among mankind,

an outside, flourishing appearance, without a heart. In a tree this is to be regretted; but in a human being it is a wretched spectacle.

I once conversed privately with a public jester, whose avocation was, dressed in gay apparel, to excite merriment in the multitude that gathered around him. What a world of comicality could he throw into his expressive face! What an exhaustless fund of drollery did he possess and what roars of irrepressible laughter did he call forth amid the crowd! He was, to all appearance, one of the most light-hearted and happy beings that ever wore a smile. But what did he tell me in private ?-that the colour on his cheek was painted, that the jests he uttered were hackneyed, that the mirth he manifested was feigned, and that he was one of the most miserable of mortals on the face of the earth. This may be no ordinary instance of the striking difference between the fiction and the fact, the shadow and the substance, the outside show and the inward feeling; but approaches to something like the same thing are to be seen around us, every day of our lives.

Thus have I, in a rambling, unconnected way, dwelt a moment on the subject of outside show. Should you pursue the thought, you may be more happy in your reflections than I have been in

mine. Certain it is, that things are not what they seem; let, then, the knowledge of this truth lead us, more and more, to mistrust our own judgment and to look above for wisdom and instruction.

ON OLD TIMES.

To bewail the lamentable changes that have taken place in the world, and to speak in praise of old times, is a kind of charter which has long been enjoyed by old people. Finding that we cannot figure away as we once used to do, we fondly turn to times and seasons when we showed ourselves off to better advantage. This was done by those who went before us, and will, no doubt, be done by those who shall follow after.

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This inclination on the part of age to run back half a century, or perhaps threescore years, is not confined to any particular class of people. It may be observed in rich and poor, whether they live in town or country. "Times are not as they have been!" Things are very different now to what they once were!" and, "Matters are come to a pretty pass now a-days!" are expressions that most aged people have occasionally in their mouths. True it is that they get laughed at for them, and that they do not always make converts