are committed to our trust, we shall not let the day pass without an effort for their spiritual good; if children, we shall delight in leading them to Him who has said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me."

The poor, and the children of the poor, have an especial claim upon us-to them the Sabbath is peculiarly valuable, and we shall desire that they may derive from it, the benefits intended for them.

If we are by illness, or any other cause, prevented from attending public worship, what improvement should we make of the sacred hours?

Such opportunities admit of peculiar improvement. At the time when multitudes of Christians, in different parts of the world, assemble to worship God, we should retire into His secret presence, and adore the Divine Majesty, before which the heavenly Hosts fall prostrate.-We should call our ways to remembrance, and bring ourselves into judgment, acknowledging our sinfulness, as we would escape the last judgment :-we should ask for all that we need; for pardon, peace, and holiness-we should seek to hold communion with the interceding Saviour, through the presence of the Spirit-we should draw near to God in the power of realizing faith, and the spirit of fervent prayer. Hours thus spent, might be among the most blessed of our lives, and bear fruit in Eternity.

III.

We have considered the outward Sabbath; we will now take an internal view of the Sabbath.

There is a spiritual rest of the soul, a ceasing from our own works. (Read Heb. iv. 9, 10.) In the process of conversion, there are successive states of toil and conflict, through which the soul has to pass: these may be compared to the six days of labour. During these weary days, by the influence of the divine grace, we labour, and do all our work. God has appointed that it should be so :-but when the Sabbath of rest comes, we work no more-God works in us, and the soul, like Mary, sits at the feet of Jesus.

Do you know any thing of this Sabbath? Perhaps you have not yet, even entered upon the first of the six days' labour. Consider the exhortation of the Apostle, Heb. iv. 1, 11.

Is there likewise a rest, after the labours of this world?

And may there not be an antecedent Sabbath, in the reign of Christ with His saints? [Rev. xx. 4-6.]

We may then consider the outward Sabbath as an emblem :—

1st. Of the spiritual Sabbath of the soul.

2dly. Of the first-fruits of rest and glory :of the period when Christ shall reign upon

earth-when His Kingdom shall come in peace and righteousness. [Rev. xi. 15.]

3dly. Of eternal rest: the six days of labour may typify the labouring, toiling, and fallen state of the world-the seventh, the peace, repose, and joy of endless ages.

If we love the Sabbath aright, we shall press forward to the state of spiritual rest: if we love the Lord of the Sabbath, we shall long for His appearing. If we desire the blessing of all mankind, we shall pray for the GREAT EVERLASTING SABBATH, the Jubilee of man.

"The groans of Nature in this nether world,
Which Heaven has heard for ages, have an end.
Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung,
Whose fire was kindled at the prophet's lamp,
The time of rest, the promis'd Sabbath, comes.
Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh
Fulfill'd their tardy and disastrous course
Over a sinful world; and what remains
Of this tempestuous state of human things
Is merely as the working of a sea,
Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest:

For He, whose car the winds are, and the clouds

The dust, that wait upon His sultry march,
When sin hath mov'd Him, and His wrath is hot,
Shall visit Earth in mercy; shall descend
Propitious in his chariot pav'd with love;
And what his storms have blasted and defac'd
For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair."

Sacred Poetry conducive to early Piety.

As a means of encouraging a devotional spirit, young persons will find it useful to commit to memory, select hymns, and pieces of sacred poetry: from poetical works which corrupt the imagination and deprave the heart, they cannot be too sedulously guarded; but poetry which is consecrated to the praise of God and our Redeemer, will attune the soul for heaven, will raise the mind from debasing objects to the purest intellectual delight. When we have been engaged in contemplating the works of creation, how congenial to us is a hymn of adoration! The heart may then delight to give utterance to its feelings in the words of Milton

“These are Thy glorious works, Parent of Good," &c. Thomson's hymn on the seasons; Addison's hymn on gratitude, his version of the 23d Psalm, and reflections on the heavens-with various select passages of sacred poetry-may be impressed on the youthful mind under the direction of a tender parent, or kind instructor—whose aim should be, as much as possible, to keep the imagination pure, free from corrupt images, and to render it conversaut with those only which tend to elevate and improve it. While on the one hand, we must industriously guard the dear objects of our charge from the contamination which may be insinuated into their hearts, through their noblest faculties, we must on the other, remember that no faculty given by God is without its proper use and object; that God is glorified, not by the suppression, or inaction, of any faculty of our own being, but by the right use

and direction of every faculty. Imagination is perhaps that one mental power which is most liable to abuse-it follows, that we should develope and direct it with peculiar care. It is vain to seek to quench its fire-we may pervert, we may controul and moderate it, but we cannot extinguish it. Let the flame, therefore, be directed upwards; let it become the purified flame of the sanctuary; let it be trained to ascend there, where alone it will find its proper element-to the heavenly region, that it may delight itself in the splendours of the Majesty on high, and lose itself in uncreated glory.

May we be permitted affectionately to suggest that young persons should be early instructed to redeem time for God?-when the morning sun arises, tinging the heavens with his golden flame, then is the time especially to pray for the illumination of the Sun of Righteousness; to pray that as the natural sun arises to gladden the earth, so He may arise upon our souls with healing in His beams: -then is the time for the heart to awake; to call upon all our faculties to praise the Lord:-then may the rapt spirit, when all is still around, and the busy hum of men has not yet commencedalmost hear the harps of the angels, and join their melodious notes. Though the praises of God may be uttered in the family, and in public, the value of a habit of early rising for secret prayer and thanksgiving, cannot now be estimated-it may be blessed a hundred-fold in eternity. (Matt. vi. 6.) Oh, did the young but know the blessedness they might find in an hour passed in hymns of thanksgiving, they would willingly relinquish self-indulgence, and the vain adorning of the body, that they