Let us press on in patient self-denial,

Accept the hardship, shrinking not from loss

Our guerdon lies beyond the hour of trial;
Our crown beyond the cross.

Prospect of Heaven.

ISAAC WATTS, D. D.

THERE is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.

There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flow'rs;
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heavenly land from ours.

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living green;
So to the Jews old Caanan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.

But timorous mortals start and shrink To cross this narrow sea;

And linger, shivering on the brink,

And fear to launch away.

Oh could we make our doubts remove

Those gloomy doubts that rise

And see the Caanan that we love
With unbeclouded eyes;

Could we but climb where Moses stood,
And view the landscape o'er,

Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood,
Should fright us from the shore.

As an aged man, I would say to my fellow-pilgrims who are also in this advanced stage of the journey of life, ENDEAVOUR TO BE USEFUL as long as you are continued upon earth. We are, it is true, subject to many peculiar infirmities, both of body and mind, to bear up under which requires much exertion, and no small share of divine assistance; but still we have some advantages not possessed by the young. We have received important lessons from experience, which, if they have been rightly improved, are of inestimable value. The book of divine providence, which is in a great measure sealed to them, has been unfolded to us. We can look back and contemplate all the way along which the Lord has led us. We can now see the wise design of our Father in many events which, at the time, were dark and mysterious. The knowledge to be derived from studying the book of God's providence cannot be communicated to

another; the lessons are like the name upon the white stone, which none can read but he that has it. The successive events of our lives we can make known, but the connection which these events have with our character, our sins, and our prayers can be fully understood only by ourselves. He who neglects to study the pages of this book deprives himself of one most important means of improvement; yet many professors of religion appear to pay little or no attention to the providence of God in relation to themselves. If they meet with some severe judgment or some great deliverance, their attention is arrested, and they acknowledge the hand of God in the dispensation; but as to the succession of ordinary events, they seem to have no practical belief that they are ordered by divine providence, or have any important relation to their duty or interest. I would affectionately entreat my aged brethren to make the dealings of God's providence towards themselves a subject of careful study. There is within our reach, except in the Bible, no source of instruction more important. And to aid you in this business permit me to recommend to your careful perusal two little volumes on Providence, which I have found useful and comfortable to myself. The first is Flavel's "Mystery of Providence Opened;" and the other is Boston's