LOVING COUNSELS

Being an Address to his Parishioners

BY THE

AUTHOR OF "THE PATHWAY OF PROMISE,"
"ABLE TO SAVE," &c.

THE BY-GONE TIME.

"While the coming year ye greet, with many a merry chime,

I sing a solemn dirge to-night, a dirge for the by-gone time :

Yea, from the soul within me, most bitterly I

mourn,

For the many wasted moments which never can return;

For the many lost occasions for working something good,

For the promptings of a better will-most wilfully withstood

For the many mercies unobserved, and thank lessly received,

For the many chastenings sent in love, at which my spirit grieved,

For the many restless longings against God's sovereign will,

For the countless Christian duties I strove not to fulfil,

For the many gentle words of truth, I mightbut did not speak,

Which might have soothed the broken heart, and strengthened the weak;

For these and for a thousand sins, and failings of the past

Upon Thy mercy, oh my God! my trembling

soul I cast;

And, kneeling at the

Throne of Grace,' with

earnest faith draw near,

To pray for strength to walk with Thee through

out the coming year."

ADDRESS.

MY DEAR PARISHIONERS,—

At this season, so long as

the state of my health permitted me to address you from the pulpit, it was my custom to direct your thoughts to a consideration of God's goodness in the past, and to the duty of more humble trust and confiding reliance on Him for the future. Standing, as it were, on the border-line of two years, I endeavoured to point backward to the path along which you had