brooks? And have you ever, in such a case, found the words of eternal life as balm and wine to you; oil to your joints and marrow to your bones?

Have you known the agony of a parting moment, bending a lingering gaze on some loved object, dearer than all the earth besides, about to bid you farewell for years? Have you caught the last look, and followed the fading form, until, dimly descried, it has at last disappeared in the distance, leaving you

"Alone! alone! all, all alone!"

in a cold and cheerless world, reft of joy, and refusing to be comforted?

Have you walked abroad when the all-glorious sun has shined, not on your path only, but into your soul; when, careering like a conquering king, in his flaming chariot, gorgeously attired in purple and gold, your mind has been filled with transport and you have clasped your hands together, and lifted up your heart to his and your adorable Creator, with emotions which words could not express? Have you gazed on the moon and stars, till the beauty and immensity of God's glowing creation has filled to overflowing the measure of your joy; and have the words been wrung from your heart," Lord, open

thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth. thy praise?"

Have you known trouble, until the earth has appeared brass, and the heavens iron? Have you felt so utterly destitute as to be in love with calamity, willingly hardening your heart, and sternly determining to suppress every pleasant emotion? And have you, with all the contrition, humility, and simplicity of a child, committed your ways to the High and Holy One that he might direct your paths?

Have you felt in your bosom envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness? Has your heart glowed with affection for mankind, and have you looked around you to do a deed of kindness; improving all your own means, and longing for wealth and power that you might scatter happiness far and near?

Have you, in your Christian pilgrimage, been shut up in Doubting Castle, calling in question the plainest truths, tempted in your own heart to say with the fool, "There is no God?" And have you known such a flood of faith come over you, that you could have laid down your life, yea "played the man in the fire," to bear testimony to the truth of the ever-blessed gospel of Jesus Christ?

If you have known these things, you are no

stranger to strong emotions, and will agree with me, that they ought ever to be placed under strong control. I have, as it were, but just entered on my subject; you may, perhaps, pursue it with some advantage.

ON THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN..

AN hour ago, I was gazing on the setting sun. It was not lost to human vision in its own unendurable splendour. It flung not around, on earth and heaven, insufferable beams of brightness, banishing and interdicting the eye from an admiring participation of its visible glories; nor yet did it light up and gild the skirts of a gorgeous retinue of accompanying clouds. Hanging in mid air, like the shield of a warrior, intelligible to the sight, the dull, red orb gradually approached the horizon.

Often have I gazed (who has not?) on the declining sun, till my eyes have swam in tears, and my heart dissolved within me in silent ecstasy at its overpowering magnificence; but in this instance it was delightful, unblinded by its beams, to watch its perceptible withdrawal from the world.

As I stood rooted to the spot, the huge red orb entered a coal-black cloud that lay beneath it. A third of it was soon gone; a half of it disappeared

as if severed by an Almighty hand, a moiety only being left to illuminate the skies. Still lower it descended, till the rim of it alone was visible; and then rushed upon me the arresting thought, which had before occurred, that the united power of men and angels could not, for an instant, arrest its course. Had a moment been wanting, in which to offer an effectual prayer for the pardon of individual transgression, or the eternal welfare of a sinful world, it could not have been obtained. How invaluable to me did even a moment of that time appear, which, by hours, and days, and months, and years we are wasting as a thing of nought.

"We toil and spend our lives for trifles vain,

And waste what worlds of wealth could ne'er obtain."

Accustomed as I am, when opportunity allows, to watch, with an intensity of interest, the sun going down in the skies, it would be hard for me to impart to you my emotions, when it was made known to me that an aged New Zealand chief had cried out in his own emphatic language, when the probability of sending out missionaries to New Zealand had been intimated to him, "Make haste! my sun is fast going down." I saw in my fancy, the fierce, the treacherous, the man-devouring savage: the ignorant, the implacable, and cruel cannibal, whom God had made willing, in