WHAT is Time? Think for a moment and try if you can tell. Perhaps you have tried before and failed, for it is easier to explain what time does than what it is. It JANUARY, 1859.

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comes and goes so silently, softly, and surely, that we are more apt to waste than "redeem" it. We see the marks of time almost everywhere.

One warm, lovely day, I stood at the door of an old broken-down church. The roof was off, the walls were

covered with ivy or grown over with moss. It had once been a grand and noble building, the walls and foundations very strong-but time was stronger! All things about seem mouldering, changing, and decaying. And yet there was a time when that old church was new, when the walls were clean and bright; and on the first Sabbath it was opened, hundreds of boys and girls, with their fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers, filled all the passages and pews.

Where are they now? Gone! all gone. Not one left behind. Even the boys and girls are all away. Some of them died early and were laid in little graves; others grew up to be men and women, and as they lived day by day, week by week, time was changing them—silently printing marks on their faces that no water could wash away. At length most of them gradually disappeared, until the few that remained were wrinkled, grey, and feeble; and, one by one, time laid them in the grave. Broad mosscovered stones mark the places where the dust of some of them repose; and if you will persevere you may be able to read the rude letters that have been hewn out by some kind hand. Ah! some of these rude lines are very touching. See, under this unpolished stone there lies the dust of one who was persecuted to death because he would not deny the Saviour; there is another who, for the same 'reason, "suffered the loss of all things" that he might win Christ; and here is one who was cruelly killed by his persecutors, but not until he had first borne witness to the truth.

NEW YEAR'S HYMN.

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These men will live for ever; their names shall be held in "everlasting remembrance." "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."

This is the true way to live long. Let your lives be active, holy, and useful-devoted to the Lord Jesus, and you will never die. Bodies perish; castles and crowns decay; young men and maidens grow old and die; but the true servant of Jesus shall be roaming on the hills of immortality after time itself is away for ever.

Begin this year well. Bind up all your bad habits and bad company in one bundle, and cast them from you. You must get rid of them.

"Lay hold on eternal life" at once, if you have not done so already.

Be holy, be useful, be generous, be true: live in Christ: live for Christ: and "all things will work together for your good."

A NEW YEAR'S HYMN.
How fragrant is the rose that blooms

On Sharon's plain so fair!

Immanuel is more sweet than all

The roses that are there.

The Maker of the heavens and earth
For us became so low,

As to be likened to the flowers
That in the valley grow.

This precious Saviour for our sakes
Was once a little child,

A child of sorrows, woes, and toils-
Few pleasures on him smiled;

FEARFUL STORM AT SWATOW.

THE newspapers told us lately that a very fearful storm had broken out at Swatow (in China), that many houses had been destroyed, many persons killed; and so we began to get rather anxious about the safety of Mr. Burns, for it is the place where he has been preaching for a long time past. We were very thankful to receive a letter from him lately, telling us that he was quite safe and well. He says the storm did not last longer than three or four hours, but in that short time it swept away a great many houses, ships, &c. But you must read the narrative in his own words :

"The storm, which lasted in its fury only from midnight until from three to four o'clock in the morning, has swept away a great many houses in this island, and completely cleared the harbour of every vestige of shipping-eight or nine vessels including the opium store ships being driven on shore, and one opium clipper, the Gazelle, having sunk at her anchors with mate and crew on board! Around this house almost all are in ruins, and several of the highest are completely levelled with the ground. In the great mercy of God, this house is but little injured, and