To recommend you to take Jesus as your guide, I will tell you some of his excellences, that you may be encouraged to place yourselves at once under his watchful guidance and gracious care. Carefully attend to the following account of his excellences as a guide.

He is a wise guide. Amid the greatest dangers, and the greatest perplexities, and in the darkest night, he is able to guide you with the utmost safety. This he can do, for he is the "only wise God our Saviour." Jude 25.

He is a powerful guide. He is the "Mighty God," Isa. ix. 6. He will beat down all your spiritual enemies like the dust. "He is the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle," Psalm xxiv. 8. Oh, place yourselves under his powerful care!

mercy.

He is a merciful and faithful guide. He is full of He is more merciful than the most tenderhearted mother that ever lived; and many of you have tender-hearted compassionate mothers. Come, and see how kind he is to the little delicate feeble lambs he guides to heaven :—

"See, the kind Shepherd, Jesus, stands,

With all engaging charms;

Hark! how he calls the tender lambs,

And folds them in his arms."

Oh, place yourselves under his merciful, faithful care!

He is a constant guide. He never gives up, he never leaves those who commit themselves to his care. Hear what the young pilgrim says, (Ps. xlviii. 14;) "For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death." Be persuaded, my young friends, to place yourselves under this constant guide, and he will lead you at last to your heavenly home.

IV. Let us consider the young pilgrim's FooD.

The word of God is the food of his soul. As really as his body is fed, and nourished, and comforted by natural food, so his soul is fed, and nourished, and comforted by the word of God. What does the young.

pilgrim say about this spiritual food? I will tell you with pleasure. He says, (Jer. xv. 16,) "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart." Oh, what blessed children you shall be, when enabled, with the heart, to use this language!

you are

The promises are his food. When the young pil

grim is ready to faint, he takes up the delicious promises, and feeds upon them. Then his soul revives within him, and he is filled with heavenly joy.

Divine precepts are his food. The young pilgrim says that these precepts are sweeter to his taste than honey, yea, even than the honey-comb. Young children, may you feed upon the divine precepts! that is, may you think upon them, admire them, and delight in them. Then you will "run in the way of God's commandments," with liveliness and vigour. What is the most wonderful of all, the young pilgrim feeds on Jesus. Have you not read that Jesus is the "bread of life?" Jesus calls himself the bread of life, John vi. 48: "I am that bread of life;" ver. 51, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever; and the bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Now, is not this wonderful, that a young pilgrim should feed on Christ? But what is it to feed on Christ? It is to believe in him as our Saviour. It is to trust in him; it is to hope in him; it is to love him; it is to delight in him. Young children, if you are taught by the Spirit to do these things, you feed on Jesus, and you shall live for ever. Oh, may the Spirit teach you these lessons!

V. We will now consider the young pilgrim's Death. Many young pilgrims do not live till they are old. Many of them are taken away from this wilderness when they are youths. Many of them are taken away when they are children.

1st. The young pilgrim's death is a valley. It is a short valley. He walks through the valley, leaning on

the arm of Jesus; therefore he is not afraid.
how he sings in the valley :-

"Though I walk through the gloomy vale,
Where death and all its terrors are,

My heart and hope shall never fail,

For Christ my Shepherd 's with me there."

Hear

2d. At the farther end of the valley is the pearly gate of heaven. When the young pilgrim enters the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus says to him, "Behold yonder lovely pearly gate." The young pilgrim looks, and at the end of the valley he sees a gate more glorious than the starry sky. He sees angels standing at the gate. Then he says, in holy rapture, "Soon I shall pass through that pearly gate. Soon I shall enter the celestial city. Soon I shall be ever with the Lord." At last, he reaches the end of the valley; angels lead him through the gate; they conduct him to the throne amid the hallelujahs of the blest.

VI. Lastly, consider the young pilgrim's HOME.

Heaven is his home. Jesus has prepared this home. He says, (John xiv. 2,) "I go to prepare a place for you." It is a holy home; there is no sin there. It is a safe home; there is no enemy there. It is a happy home; there is no sorrow there. It is an eternal home. You must leave your earthly home, my dear young friends; but if you become young pilgrims, you shall reach a heavenly home, which you shall never leave.

Oh! seek grace, that you may do two things, then heaven will be your holy, happy, and eternal home. Receive Jesus as yours; give yourselves to Jesus as his, and, in the hopes of heaven, you will sweetly sing

"Up to my home, beyond the skies,

My hasty feet would go,

There everlasting flowers arise,
And joys unwith'ring grow."

A. F.

"And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it be tween two upon a staff."-Numb. xiii. 23.

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GRAPES are the fruit of the vine, a very peculiar tree, and frequently mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. At present, I shall say little about the vine itself, as, on some future occasion, I may furnish a full account of the history of this remarkable tree. Grapes grow clusters. As to many trees, their fruit grows in a divided, detached, scattered state upon the branches,—such as cherries, pears, and apples,-but grapes grow uniformly in clusters, rich, pleasing, and alluring to the eye. We can scarcely imagine anything in the vegetable king

dom so agreeable to the eye as bunches or clusters of grapes, suspended from the branches of the wide-spreading vine.

Grapes contain that rich, delicious, and generous juice, which in a fermented state constitutes wine. Never was fruit so honoured; for it is employed, according to the example of our Lord, as an element in the Sacrament of the Supper, to represent that blood which our Saviour shed, to make atonement for the sins of men.

Syria and Judæa are those portions of the globe where grapes have been produced in the greatest excellence and abundance. At Damascus, the capital of Syria, bunches are often found to weigh each from twenty to thirty pounds. Modern travellers relate having seen bunches of grapes in the mountains of Judæa, which measured half an ell in length.

The most remarkable example of the largest clusters of grapes is that recorded in the book of Numbers, and particularly stated in the passage of Scripture at the commencement of this article. One bunch was gathered in the valley of Eshcol, and so rich and heavy, that two men were employed to carry it, and the branch to which it was suspended, upon a staff, to the camp of Israel, at Kadesh-barnea. Travellers affirm, that in the valley of Eshcol there are bunches of grapes to be found still, of ten and twelve pounds weight.

In Scripture, an almost total destruction is described by a vine completely stripped of its grapes, so that none were left for the gleaner. Isa. xxiv. 13: "Thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people; there shall be as the gleaning grapes, when the vintage is done." And Jer. vi. 9: "They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine."

Judah's prosperity is thus described by Jacob, when he blessed his sons before his death, Gen. xlix. 11: "Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood," or juice, "of grapes."