No. IX.

I have been young, and now am old.

PSALM XXXvii, ver. 25.

THIS sentence is well calculated to impress the mind with some of the most solemn and momentous thoughts that can occupy it on this side the grave. It is a subject in which both youth and age are equally interested, as its tendency is, as well to check the impetuosity and regulate the future course of the one through this wilderness world, as to correct and amend the short residue of the other.

Especially, youthful traveller, be admonished to suspend, at least for a moment, your eager pursuits, to contemplate those hoary heads and those decrepid forms, and to be instructed; nor seem as if you esteemed them as the dregs

and refuse of our nature; done with, and fit for nought but to be now thrown aside as utterly useless. Ah! for your own sake, deal not thus with them; rather gather up these fragments of humanity, cherishing them while yet they may be preserved, that nothing be lost.'

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Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, for it is a crown of glory, when found in the way of righteousness;' and even when unhappily this is not the case, there is no provision made in the divine command, whereby you can be released from these claims, nor can any circumstances absolve you from your obligation to respect the hoary head as such, although you are compelled to withhold that respect from the individual character.

The progress of society, in knowledge, in refinement, in active benevolence, and we would hope also in personal piety, is a pleasing characteristic of the present age; and whenever this amiable temper is superadded, it embellishes the character in a high degree; for certainly those who

have arrived at the further confines of this wilderness, need not that their path should be rendered more difficult and rugged by slight and unkindness, when it is generally made sufficiently so by feebleness and infirmity. The genuineness of that benevolence may fairly be questioned, which does not extend to the aged, because they are aged; as well as to the poor, because they are poor: for age has claims of its own, quite independent of adventitious circumstances, and makes its imperious demands on the persons of the rich as well as of the poor, who every succeeding day approach nearer to a level.

The aged poor! Ah! that is a piteous spectacle but are there not some of the number who became poor by their own prodigality and improvidence? Here, youthful traveller, you are furnished with another impressive lesson: we hope you are ready and willing, according to your ability, to alleviate the wants, and supply the necessities of these claimants on your

compassion. But you naturally wish, when you shall yourself have arrived at that advanced stage of your journey, to be in a condition that shall render you independent of such gratuitous services, and to be amply furnished with resources of your own : embrace, then, your present opportunities, and provide, by all lawful means within your power, for this time of extreme need. So says worldly wisdom; and so saying, it administers sober counsel: while that wisdom which is from above, has an infinitely higher aim; for after all, what a forlorn being is he, who has made this the primary object of his life! Those bags and those treasures, thus accumulated, are of no further value, beyond the confines of this wilderness; he will soon become an inhabitant of a country where they cannot purchase him one drop of water to cool his tongue. O! traveller, ' remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, in which you shall say, you have no pleasure in them.'

Whatever your earthly treasures are, 'count them but as dross, that you may win Christ, and be found in him:' then shall you be well provided for, though poor in this world; for Christ's poor are rich in faith, and heirs of a kingdom;' rich for both worlds, with durable riches and righteousness.'

Aged traveller, if hitherto this has not been your grand concern, surely it is now high time to take a serious retrospect of your past journeyings: yet, were your eye less dim than it is, it could no longer effectually penetrate yonder blue distance behind you, where lie hid the scenes of former activity; and where, perhaps, many a fond hope sprang up, was nurtured and cherished, and withered ere matured: where you revelled in many a delight, or groaned under many a disappointment. Yes, once you were young; once it was the seed-time of your future character, and in some degree of your future lot. What seeds were then sown? Did parental culture perform its part? or were you destitute of those inestimable