30. The Christian Traveller.

A BLACK cloud causes the traveller to quicken his pace, and hasten towards his home; whereas a fair day, tempts him to waste his time, and a pleasant way tends to steal away his affections while he surveys the country. However others may think of it, yet I consider it a mercy, that occasionally some clouds interpose my sun, and often that some troubles eclipse my comforts; for I perceive that if I should find too much friendship in my inn, or in my pilgrimage, I should soon forget my father's house and my heritage.

O tell me no more,

Of this world's vain store;

The time for these trifles with me now is o'er. A country I've found,

Where true joys abound:

To dwell I'm determined on that happy ground.

31. The World's Hatred to living Saints.

THERE is a generation of men, that will praise the saints who are gone to heaven, and yet mock and afflict the saints on earth!

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so that were all those saints alive again, whom they now so much honour, I dare affirm, they would persecute them in their persons. Like the Jews, they can garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and yet play the Jew with the persons of the righteous. Dissembling world! thy tongue embalms a dead saint, whilst thy hand inflicts a wound on the living saints! Thou canst praise God for those who are departed in the faith, and yet persecute God in those who will not depart from the faith. O foolish world, thou must of necessity condemn thyself, for thy praise has left thy practice without excuse.

32. The Best Treasures.

ALEXANDER being asked where he would lay his treasure, answered very well, Apud Amicos, among his friends: being confident, that there it would be kept with safety, and returned with use. Why dost thou enlarge thy barns? Knowest thou not where to store thy abundance? Make the friends of Christ thy treasury; let the hands of the widow, the bowels of the poor, be thy storehouse; there no thief can steal it, no time can rust it, no change can lose it, and there it will be improved. A temporal gift will be there turned

into an eternal reward; no ground is so fruitful as the bosom of the poor, that brings forth a hundred-fold.

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33. The World's Worthlessness.

O MY soul, why grovellest thou on the earth? Every thing here is too base for thine excellency; too short for thine eternity thou art capable of enjoying God, and must exist when these poor creatures are reduced to nothing; the world therefore is too base a metal to make thee a crown of glory, too corrupt a vessel to carry thee through eternity. O fill thyself with God, so shalt thou raise thy dignity to perpetuity.

34. Christian Circumspection.

WHEN any thing presents itself, think if Christ were alive, would he do it? or if I were now to die, would I do it? I must walk as he has walked, and I must live as I intend to die; if it be not Christ's will, it is my sin; and if I die in that sin, it will be my ruin. I will therefore in every action so conduct myself, as if Christ were on the one hand, and death on the other.

35. Life with respect to Eternity.”

OUR life is only a moment of time; and yet in this moment of time we sow the seeds of eternity; in this transitory hour I am preparing myself either for a good or a bad eternity. These words that I now speak, these works that I now perform, though they here seem to be forgotten, yet they shall spring up to eternity. As the poet answered one, upbraiding him for being three days in composing three verses, whereas he could make a hundred in one day; O! says he, At tui triduum modo, mei in omne æternum duraturi sunt. Thine are only for three days, as it were, but mine must continue for ever; according to my conduct now, my name must either rise or fall for ever. So may we answer this foolish world which upbraids us for too much preciseness. O have not we cause to be exact, when the works we are performing are not to be written in sand, but in the records of eternity? The lines that we now draw must run parallel with eternity; and according to our conduct in this moment of time, our souls must live or die for ever. O Lord, help me so to improve the brevity of my life, by the integrity of my actions, that I may turn this moment of misery into an eternity of unspeakable happiness.

36. The happy Lives of the Blessed.

THE Soul of man (saith the philosopher) is the horizon of time and eternity. Now if the sun of righteousness be not risen in our horizon, we must expect nothing but a clouded time, and a stormy eternity; gross darkness hereafter for ever. But as for those blessed saints, into whose souls the oriental splendour of the sun of righteousness is shed abroad, how do they live in his sight? What celestial excellencies! What reviving comforts! What advancing principles are darted forth from the face of beauty into their spirits! And as for the triumphant saints in glory, in whose horizon Jesus Christ shines in the eternal meridian of his glory, O what full beams of bliss and consolation, without the least shadow of bitterness and discontent, warm and delight their blessed souls to all eternity! Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance in my horizon, so shall time be the morning, and eternity the noon of glory in my soul.

37. The Sinner's mean Choice.

THE world has many servants because it gives present wages; whereas Christ has but few disciples, because their reward is in an