children, when they get together, boast of their fathers and mothers; and old men, with hoary hairs, speak with pride of the great things they have done, and the great people they have known: so that young and old wish to be thought "somebody."

There are in God's word a great number of precious promises to the humble, and a great number of awful threatenings to the proud. I will give you one of a sort, by way of sample. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up," James iv. 10.-"Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though hand join in hand he shall not be unpunished," Prov. xvi. 5.

Now, the promises are made to the "nobodies," and the threatenings to the "somebodies" of the world: have a care then to which class you belong.

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No doubt you remember reading of Haman, who was as proud a somebody" as ever lived. He was determined to get up above his neighbours, till, at last, he got fifty cubits higher than he himself desired, being hoisted upon a gallows; but when this proud "somebody" came down to the dunghill, Mordecai, whom he had treated as a "nobody," was raised up to sit among princes. "Be not high-minded, but fear," Rom. xi. 20.

You have heard the parable of the rich man, who was so fond of fine clothes and good living:

no doubt he thought himself "somebody," and made other people think so too: but what did it all come to? You have heard, too, of Lazarus, who was a "nobody," for he asked only the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, and yet you know what became of him. It happened to them both exactly according to the texts that I have given you: the proud "somebody" was brought low, and punished "where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," while the humble "nobody" was lifted up, even to heaven.

Though the giant oaks and lofty cedars of the earth are laid low, yet do we lift up our heads like them, defying the storm. What a world of trouble, what a number of losses and crosses, what a succession of afflictions are necessary, to convince us that we are "nobodies!" Indeed, Divine grace alone can effectually teach us true Christian humility.

David was taught this lesson, when reflecting on the vast and mighty works of creation. "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him?" Psa. viii. 3. If David was a "nobody" when he reflected on God's creation, surely you and I ought to be "nobodies" when reflecting on his grace.

ON MORNING WALKS.

IF you are sluggards, my address will give you but little satisfaction.

When the body is in health, and the mind at ease, a morning walk before breakfast is a very delightful thing; but if, in addition to this, the morning be a fine May morning, the scene a pleasant one, and the heart in a happy frame, then it is more delightful than ever. It is said that those who rise early only now and then, love to talk of early rising all through the day, while those who are accustomed to it, enjoy it heartily, as a thing of course, without prating about it. You must not, however, because I speak in praise of early rising, look on Old Humphrey as a liea-bed.

There are times and seasons when things which have been common to us, suddenly appear to greater advantage. It was thus with me the other morning, when walking abroad before the hum of the busy world had broken on my ear.

The clear bright blue sky set me thinking of heaven and of angels. If the under-side of heaven be so beautiful, what must the upper be! If the very floor of our heavenly Father's abode so delight the eye, how will his mansions of eternal glory overcome us with delight and surprise!

The balmy breath of the morning, in the neighbourhood of a nursery-ground that I passed, was sweet indeed; and the herbs and flowers, and rows of fresh-springing peas and beans, and strawberry plants, and the fresh ruddy shoots of the hawthorn, and the bulby clusters of young leaves on the top of the sycamore, about to burst into form and beauty, all spoke of hope and cheerfulness to the heart. At last I came to a spot so truly beautiful to the eye; a spot where wood and water, heightened by the jubilee of the rejoicing birds, so affected me, that I gazed upon it, and thought that if sin, and sorrow, and death could be banished from the world, earth would then become a kind of heaven.

For a moment I was half inclined to doubt whether aught in the heavenly world could exceed in beauty the earthly one; but this was but for a moment, for the thought occurred to me, If God has so clothed the grass of the field, so adorned with beauty the dwelling-place of

sinners, how much more will he adorn the dwelling-place of saints! If the footstool of the Eternal be thus unutterably lovely, what will be the splendour of his everlasting throne?

The heavens to which we are journeying, will, doubtless, as much exceed the earth we inhabit, as spiritual things exceed temporal things. Here we can see, and hear, and conceive, what God has spread around us; but “ eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him," 1 Cor. ii. 9.

On my return, when the sun was higher in the heavens, I passed by a pleasant house with a stone front. The windows were open, and the clean table-cloth was seen spread, with the coffeepot standing on the table. The tones of a pianoforte were heard, while a low, but melodious voice, chanted forth the morning hymn. The garden was in full bloom; the shrubs were green as the very grass; the flowers under the veranda were beautiful; the very cat, sunning herself on the stone step, looked comfortable; and Old Humphrey stepped along with so light a foot, and so happy a heart, that he felt more like a young man than an old one.

If you are early risers, if you are walkers abroad while the east is glowing with the beams