repulse, but to continue in hope to the end. Not to give over from appearances, for if the woman of Canaan had so done, she would have lost her cause. We may learn to endeavour to work up our hearts to feel our wants; and then we shall urge our requests with importunity. We may also learn that nothing is too hard for faith and prayer combined: "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you."

My Christian readers, let me persuade you to meditate much upon the word of God; it will inflame your zeal, enkindle in your bosoms fervent desires, as it did in David's :-" My heart was hot within me; while I was musing, the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue." Meditation will give an energy, an earnestness to prayer; prayer will reach the throne of God; God will open the windows of heaven, and pour out the blessing; and IT WILL BE UNTO THEE EVEN AS

THOU WILT.

HARVEST TIME.

THE seasons all contribute something to the enjoyment of man. The spring may be considered the season of hope and expectation; the autumn, the season of realization.

It has been said, the young are

most pleased with the spring, because it accords with the cheerfulness and hilarity of youth; the more advanced in life take most delight in the autumn, because it is the season of plenty; the spring is cheerful, the young are in quest of pleasure; the autumn is productive, the middle-aged are toiling for gain; and in these respects, these seasons are suited to those periods of life.

Again, a cheerful man is best pleased with the morning; a man of melancholy temperament, with the evening; the cheerful man is delighted with the springing of nature, he is pleased to behold the vivid green of vegetation; the melancholy man prefers the seared leaf; the fall and decline of nature have a charm for him that harmonizes with his feelings, his taste, and his inclination.

Again, the benevolent man, if affected at all by the change of seasons, might be supposed to be most delighted at the time of Harvest, because it is a season of general happiness. He beholds the Governor of the

Universe opening his store-house, and pouring out plenty upon the earth; he sees the floors full of wheat, and the fats overflowing with wine and oil, and he looks forward with hope of the perpetuation of these blessings; he remembers the promise of God unto Noah-"While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." And how is the Christian affected with the scene of things at this season of the year? Is he less disposed to be cheerful than the young, and gay, and thoughtless? Is he less disposed to be pleased at the time of harvest, than the man who is only intent upon gain? who is thinking of pulling down his barns and building greater, because he has not where to stow his goods? Is he less disposed to participate in the general joy than the man of mere benevolence ? Is he willing that a stigma should be put upon religion? that it should be said religion is gloomy and melancholy, and does not allow its votaries to exhibit any marks of pleasure? Far from it. Religion sobers the otherwise uncurbed passions of youth; it regulates and sanctifies the efforts of the man of business; it moderates and improves the extremes of constitutional temperaments, so that the man of melancholy propensities finds cause for cheerfulness, and the man of sanguine habits becomes calmed in his pursuits; the man also of a benevolent turn is actuated by motives unknown before.

The Christian can feel the revivifying power of spring with as keen a pleasure as the gay; he can enter into the business of life, and the occupations of the day, with a calmer dependence upon God for a blessing, than ever the worldling feels of satisfaction in the means to which he has resort for success.

The Christian can glance over the ripened fields of

corn trembling before the reaper's hand he beholds the waving stores with joy and gratitude to the God of harvest; and if there is any drawback to his pleasure, it is when he sees a foolish and unthinking people partaking of the bounties of Providence, and yet withholding the meed of praise from him who crowns the year with his goodness; and he calls to mind the words of the prophet-" Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, who giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest." To the Christian, all things with which he is conversant are full of language; he cannot take a walk into the fields at any season of the year, but objects and circumstances present themselves to his attention that give him a lift towards heaven. If his soul is tuned for praise, the language of nature elevates his mind; the birds that flit lightly on the wing, in his ear chirp the key-note of heaven's melody; the rustling of leaves which play before the passing wind reminds him of that celestial chorus that is chanted by the multitudinous hosts of the redeemed; the waving fields of corn bring to his recollection the period when all nations shall bow before Jehovah, and his enemies shall lick the dust; and the time of harvest conducts his meditations forward to the end of the world, "when the Husbandman will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn."

The time of harvest is a season of plenty. I have sometimes thought, in meditating upon the word of promise given to Noah after the deluge, in which God says "Neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done"-notwithstanding this

is God's promise, and therefore in the letter of it infallible, yet he has not so tied himself, or confined the workings of his providence, as that this promise must necessarily be universally fulfilled. For if we refer to the former verse, we read- "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake." Jehovah herein declares, he will not again visit the whole earth with this kind of curse. The words used are precisely the same as those which we read in the third chapter, ver. 17th: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." And by that expression is intended the whole earth. There is therefore no reason to suppose that in one place it intends the whole of the earth, and in the other place only a part, or a particular province. We are witnesses that the whole earth is under the curse, that in sorrow do men eat of it all the days of their lives: and therefore, I apprehend, when God assured Noah, and with him all his posterity, that he would no more curse the ground with the waters of a flood, it is to be under stood, he would no more bring a universal deluge upon the earth; but, at the same time, he did not confine himself, so that he would not bring a flood of waters upon any particular part or province. God's word being his law, of course that word will be fulfilled. He has also in his mercy given us a law for our observance, and he expects it will be kept on our part; a law easy to be fulfilled; and to it he has annexed promises of mercies. That to which I allude is-" Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." In the event of this command being broken by any particular country, or district, or people, the Eternal has not so confined himself but that he has reserved the power, without breaking his general promise, of destroying the hopes of that wicked and rebellious people. It would be an easy matter for him to bring