Seek wisdom to know, and power to do, and patience to suffer all the will of God. Seek grace that you may be prepared for all that lies before you in the futurities of the year. It is a dark unknown. "Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." At present you may have comforts, but how soon may God give you the bread of affliction! You have health now, but before the end of the year you may be made to possess mouths of vanity, and wearisome days may be appointed to you. Perhaps though now you are surrounded by endeared connections, before the end of the year you may have cause to say, "Lover and friend hast Thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." haps this may be the last New Year's Day with regard to some of you. If I had now the gift of prophecy, I might see the mutes and hearse before your door, ready to convey you to the tomb; and before this season returns you will be sleeping in the dust. Perhaps before this season returns, another may be occupying this pulpit; and others may be in this or that pew.

Per

If at the coming in of the year you have found no Redeemer, O sinner, delay not now to seek Him; and if the year is opening upon you, Christian, with dark clouds of the sky, still

"Ye feeble saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread,
Are big with mercy and will break
In mercy on your head."

Your God has provided for every case in which you may be. If the road be rough, He has promised that "your shoes shall be iron and brass, and as your day so your strength shall be." What, Christian, if this should prove the year of release? O ye nations of the sky, ye cannot continue much longer here. A very few more rising and setting suns, and you shall see Him who has found a way to your hearts, and who has promised that you shall dwell with Him above. Yes, and there will He wipe away all tears from your eyes, and you will be like Him, too, as well as see Him as he is. You shall be caught up together with the redeemed in the clouds, and shall dwell for ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. "Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord."

There are those of our brethren and sisters who are gone

before and are beyond the reach of suffering and temptation and sin.

"Once they were mourning here below,
And wet their couch with tears;
They labor'd hard, as we do now,
With sins and doubts and fears."

They, too, were exercised with an evil heart within, and a wicked world without, and a body of sin and death; but they have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of His testimony. They once mourned, but the days of their mourning are ended. While we sigh they sing. They once fought their way to the Kingdom, but they now wear their crowns and carry their palms of victory. But their joys and their songs cannot be complete till we are called up to join them. See how they beckon us to come and call us away from these low and grovelling scenes of earth and time. And we hope ere long to join this blissful throng, and with angels and the multitude of the redeemed from amongst men will we sing

More sweet, more loud,

And Christ shall be our song.

"See the kind angels at the gates
Inviting us to come;

There Jesus, the Forerunner waits,
To welcome travellers home."

Thus have we observed the coming in of the year requires Reflection, Humiliation, Thanksgiving, Resolution, and Prayer. May you meditate upon these things.

And what more remains, but for me to give you the congratulations of the season, and wish you all a happy new year? But then I have no notion of happiness separate from holiness. Good Mr. Henry says, “A year cannot be a happy one without the the peace of God." It can be a happy one with it. I have passed through many such, and now I am looking for a more happy day.

May the God of all grace bless this people! May He bless our Sovereign, our rulers, our magistrates! May He abundantly bless our dear missionaries, and be a little sanctuary to them! May He bless all the ministers of Christ of every name, and make them blessings to the Church and the world! The Lord bless our families, our wives, and our children! "Let

Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children; and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it." "The Lord bless you, and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.' "And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." Amen.

(Preached on Sunday Morning, January 2nd, 1848.)

"These days should be remembered.”—ESTHER ix 28.

HERE is a part of Scripture in which the name of God is not mentioned. But how is His agency, and how is His glory displayed! and at each execution and development we are constrained to exclaim, "The thing proceedeth from the Lord, who is wonderful in counsel, and mighty in working."

Were we to cast a general glance over the contents of the whole Book, we should here observe facts which took place in the history and experience of individuals varied and striking. There are some whose course of life passes on evenly and smoothly, but others are a wonder unto many. Take David, for instance, who was called from the sheepfolds: "from following the ewes great with young, He brought him to feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance." Here again, we see a little ark floating along the water, in which we see a babe weeping. That babe becomes the wonder of ages, the scourge of Pharaoh, the destroyer of the Egyptians, the king in Jeshurun, and the prophet who saw God face to face. Here is a poor young female, who was early left an orphan, brought up by her uncle Mordecai, becoming the wife of Ahasuerus, and the queen of a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. "This is the Lord's doings, and is marvellous in our eyes."

We further observe, that "the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation," while He reserves the wicked for punishment. Thus we see Noah preserved while the ungodly perished. So, in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot was remembered, whose "righteous soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked." So again, the Lord placed a fiery cloudy pillar between the Israelites and the Egyptians, having a dark side to the one, and a light side to the other.

And here we see the Jews delivered from sore destruction, while their bitter adversaries were disappointed in their wicked devices, and Haman was hanged on a gallows fifty cubits high.

Thirdly, we see here that our extremity is God's opportunity. He loves to display His glory on the dark ground of human despair. He waits to be gracious. Then we should learn to trust Him in all future difficulties. Thus the altar was raised,

and the wood laid upon it, and the victim bound, and the hand had seized the knife, before the voice was heard—“ Abraham, forbear; the Lord hath provided Himself a ram for a burntoffering." So here everything seemed on the very brink of ruin. The decree was passed; the decree was sealed; the decree was sent forth, and the execution seemed to be inevitable, when the triumph of divine providence appeared. "When the Lord turned again their captivity, they were like men that dreamed. Then was their mouth filled with laughter, and their tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad."

What now should we have thought of them, if they had not endeavoured to perpetuate the memory of such deliverances? But they did. They made these days" days of gladness and of feasting, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor; wherefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore the Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they should keep these days, according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year. And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed."

Marcus

My brethren, we wish to bring this home to you. Aurelius was one of the Roman emperors, and one of the best of all this bad body of monarchs. He is reported to have said that we ought to give the future to providence, the present to duty, and the past to oblivion. Now I hope you will remember and admire the two former of these admonitions, but not the third. We should give the future to providence, "casting all our care upon God who careth for us." "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass"; and say, "The Lord shall choose my inheritance for me." You should give the present to duty, by letting the