IV.

The Circle of Human Life.

Oh who will teach me, ere it fleets away,
To make the most of life's brief winter day ?-
Behold, the Church extends the hand of grace,
To help the pilgrim entering on the race,
And ere the threatening storms obscure the sky,
Vields him a refuge in her sanctuary.
That hand he holds until, in strength increased,
The Master calls him to the holy feast;
Where the new man receives congenial food,
As died the old in the baptismal flood.

Thus trained by home and Church to meet the strife,
In manhood's strength he takes the field of Life;
And first the wide and various scene explored,
Selects some spot on which to serbe the Lord.
Next, that the hours of toil may sweetly glide,
He calls the gentle helpmate to his side;
And labours on, till, old and weary grown,
Kind death approaching mows the beteran down.
Then meet the mourners round his silent grave,
And God adore for the dear friend He gabe.

68.

New-Year's Day.

The world is slippery, walk with heed-
Points GOD the way, there show thy speed.

Fortune is round and foils the hand

Built on GOD's Word, thy work shall stand.

Satan is cunning, fear his wiles

If mocked, the mocker he beguiles.

Strait is the gate, strive to pass through—

If hard the strife, thy load undo.

Life's fleeting, make of it the most

Count every step, or all is lost.

Time's short, let there thy stake be small—
In vast eternity embark thine all.

PSALM XC.-A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.— Verses 1, 2. "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God."

HOW

OW beautiful a prayer for New-Year's Day! Moses was an old and much-tried man, but age and experience had taught him that, amidst the perpetual changes which are taking place in the universe, one thing at least remains immutable, even the faithfulness of Him who is "from everlasting to everlasting God." How far back into the past may the patriarch have been looking when he spake these words?

The burning bush, the fiery furnace of Egypt, the Red Sea, Pharaoh with his chariots of war, and the weary march of Israel through the wilderness, were all before him; and in all of them he had experienced that "God is the rock, His work perfect, all His ways judgment." "1 But Moses was looking beyond these scenes of his personal history when he said, "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations," and we may be sure that he was also looking beyond them when he indited the song, "Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations." Yes; he was casting in his mind how God had been the refuge of Jacob and Isaac, of Abraham, Noah, and all the patriarchs. Moses could take a retrospect of above a thousand years, which had all confirmed the truth. I can do more. At this point of time I can look back to the days of Moses and Joshua and David, and descending thence to the days of the Son of God upon earth, and of Paul and Peter, and all the saints of the Church down to the present hour; and what a thousand years avouched to Moses, three thousand now avouch to me: the Lord is the dwelling-place of those that trust in Him from generation to generation. Yes; and to Him who was the refuge of a Moses and an Abraham, I too in the day of trouble can lift my hands. Delightful thought! That great Being who, during the lapse of three thousand years, amidst the countless changes of the universe, has to this day remained unchanged, is My God.

Verses 3, 4.

"Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night."

From life to death there is but a step, and that step a moment. All, indeed, seem to calculate that to them it will be a step of immeasurable length, one counting upon fifty, another upon sixty, a third upon seventy or even a hundred 2 Deut. xxxii. 7.

1 Deut. xxxii. 4.

years. But long steps always involve a risk, and often wholly miscarry. The fifty, or, it may be, the eighty years for which they look, seem to them a fortune too vast for any spending to exhaust. But, ah me! every moment I live is so much subtracted from my life, and life is really little else than a lingering death. Of all fleeting things, what is there so fleeting? Is it not swifter than the ship that passes over the waves-than a weaver's shuttle that is never at rest 1-than a post who fleeth away 2-than the rush of waters when the drought dissolves the snow 3-than the smoke that vanisheth into the air-than the shadow of a cloud coursing over the plain? And yet, so thoughtless is man, that he fancies life to be of all funds the most inexhaustible. Let who will say if this be not playing the fool. It is, in fact, the very conduct on account of which the name of Fool is applied in Scripture. "Soul," said the wealthy husbandman to himself, when he had built his barns,-"Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." But death sang to him in another strain, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." 5

How transitory we are Moses clearly shows in the words before us, by contrasting man's brief span of life with the eternity of God. Such a comparison of man with God affords the best means of knowing either what we are or what we are not. And yet who ever tries to estimate the shortness of his own existence by comparing it with God's eternal duration ? It is true that here, as in all other respects, God can challenge us, and say, "To whom will ye liken me and make me equal, and compare me that we may be like?" In the passage before us Moses at least makes the attempt, saying that "a thousand years in His sight are but as yesterday when it is past." To a being of whom this can be affirmed, how brief must appear the whole successive generations of mankind! As morning succeeds night, so one race another, and 2 Job, ix. 25. 5 Luke, xii. 20.

1 Job, vii. 6.
Psalm cii. 4.

3 Job, xxiv. 19.
6 Isa. xlvi. 5.