lose it. Be contented to plod on slowly, but certainly. What is gained by patient industry usually wears better and lasts longer than that which is won in a lottery.

Especially watch against a want of commercial principle. In the fierce conflict for success in a young settlement, this is one of the dangers to which all who enter into it are exposed. Go out determined to follow the "whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report." Make up your mind to the truth of God's holy word, that " Better is the little that a righteous man hath, than the riches of many wicked." Failure is to be infinitely preferred, when it comes with a good conscience, than success procured by iniquity. As a general principle it will be found true that "honesty is the best policy."

Keep up correspondence with some in your native country, especially if you have left in it friends who take an interest in your welfare. There is something immoral and unchristian in a disposition to forget the home and friends of your childhood, and something positively cruel, in keeping your parents, brothers and sisters, ignorant of your circumstances. This is sometimes not sufficiently thought of by those who leave their country. But the soil in which early and home affections all wither and die, cannot be favourable to the growth of piety or virtue; it is cold and stony.

Be very cautious about choosing your companions. Characters of all varieties, and many of them of the worst kinds, are to be found in the colonies. How many are obliged to emigrate, and find in those distant retreats a shelter from the finger of scorn, the tongue of reproach, and, in some cases, from the visitations of justice; men who go out unreclaimed, and who carry all their bad principles and evil dispositions with them! Many of them are clever, specious, and plausible; but they carry the serpent's cunning and venom under the variegated colours of his skin. Never give your company, your ear, your

hand, or your confidence, to any one, till you have proved that he is worthy of them. A stranger in a strange land, you will feel your loneliness, and in your craving after social intercourse, will be in danger of falling into the snares of those who lie in wait to deceive. One of the members of my church, who carried out with him a considerable sum of money, gave his confidence, and with it a considerable portion of his property, to one who professed for him great friendship; and but for most determined proceedings would have lost it. Men prowling about society to prey on the unwary, are to be found everywhere, and they are not wanting in the colonies.

And now let me direct the attention of all to what the apostle has said of the holy patriarchs of Canaan, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." Be this the view you take of your earthly sojourn, as a pilgrimage to the skies; and this the spirit you cherish in reference to it. Your circumstances forcibly remind you of it. By faith in God's blessed word, look up to that better country which is above and beyond the boundaries of earth and time: the land of the holy, the good, and the blessed; where there is no more sea, and where there shall be no more death, or sorrow, or crying; neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things shall have passed away; where the fears, the anxieties, and the labours of this world have no place, and the turmoil of life, and the strifes of business are unknown; where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at

The hour

rest; where temptation will be over, and conflict will cease. Blessed country! Be it your chief solicitude to emigrate to that joyful and glorious land. From this world you must depart. No choice is left you. of your departure draws on; but whether it will be in youth, manhood, or old age, is known only to God. Shall there be no preparation for that voyage and settlement? How much your thoughts are now occupied about the new country to which you are going, and how anxiously busy you are in preparing for the voyage and your future residence and shall less thoughtfulness, less preparation, less anxiety be given to the emigration to eternity? You have exercised much thought in choosing the colony where you mean to settle for life. There are but two places of settlement beyond the grave, heaven and hell; between these lies your choice; to one or other you must soon depart; which will you choose? Which?

CHAPTER X.

DISAPPOINTMENT OR FULFILMENT OF PARENTAL

HOPES.

And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: and he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands. GENESIS V, 28, 29.

And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! 2 SAMUEL Xviii, 33.

WHEN Lamech, one of the few antediluvians mentioned in the fifth chapter of Genesis, selected a name for his son, he determined to call him Noah, which signifies. "rest;" for he said, "This same shall comfort us concerning our labour." The history of this Lamech is involved in impenetrable obscurity, which no conjecture can remove. But you are not to confound him with the Lamech mentioned in the preceding chapter, who was a descendant of Cain. It is probable that in naming his son, Lamech the father of Noah was guided by a reference to some circumstances of disquiet and discomfort connected with his own life, of which no mention is made in the Scriptures. Whether the selection of the name was the result of prophetic inspiration, or merely of parental solicitude and hope, we cannot tell. The event however justified the selection, and the life of Noah answered to his name. With his early history the Author

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of revelation has left us almost entirely unacquainted. All that is said of him before he is introduced to us as the patriarch of the new world's inhabitants, is, that Noah walked with God, and was perfect in his generation." In the midst of a corrupt age, he dared to be singular, and was not ashamed or afraid to avow his piety amidst the scoffs of the impious. For five centuries his parents lived to witness his holy conduct and his high calling, as the preacher of righteousness, and the preserver of the human race from utter destruction. What a lengthened period of parental enjoyment! *

A melancholy contrast is presented to all this, in the history of Absalom. His name signifies, "the father of peace." Alas, alas, what a contradiction was there between his history and his name! He was evidently his father's favourite son. We discern and condemn the weakness of David, whose partiality was, in all probability, called forth by the extraordinary beauty of Absalom, an unworthy motive. He gave him a name expressive of his fondest wishes and affections. He watched with more than ordinary interest and regard, the development of his beautiful form, the increasing attractions of his winning and fascinating manners, the nobleness of his bearing, and the displays of his genius. Even Solomon was little thought of compared with Absalom. In this

*We are not permitted to know all God's reasons for the extreme longevity of the Patriarchs of the antediluvian world. But we can see that it tended, by oral tradition, to preserve uncorrupted the original revelation made to our first parents in Paradise. At that time, most probably, alphabetic writing was unknown; and it was important that the transmission of the account of creation, of the origin of the human race, of the primeval prophecy concerning the seed of the woman, and of the divine institution of sacrifice, should pass through as few hands as possible. It is not absolutely certain that this extreme longevity was granted to any but the persons mentioned in the book of Genesis; if it was, there may have been reasons for this extraordinary length of human life before the flood, with which we are not acquainted. This is one of the many things of revelation which we must take upon its own wellaccredited testimony, without making our experience or observation a standard by which to try them, or a reason for rejecting them