undue portion of your affection? Do none of these idols interfere with the supreme, unmingled devotion of your hearts to the King of kings and Lord of lords? This is a home question; but it shall be put as plainly to Old Humphrey as to yourselves.

How is it with you as to your worldly possessions? Can you commit yourselves and all belonging to you, without anxiety, to Him whose are "the silver and the gold, and the cattle on a thousand hills?" or are you labouring unduly to add shilling to shilling, pound to pound, field to field, and house to house? Does the love of money, and what money will obtain, never enter into your heart, and render you for a season more desirous to get the gold that perishes here, than the treasure that will endure for ever?

Are you quite sure that you are using what you possess of this world's wealth, and not abusing it? This question ought to be answered honestly, and faithfully, not only by you, but by Old Humphrey.

To what use are you putting your health and strength, your reputation and influence in the world? for these ought not to be abused. Are you employing them for mean and selfish ends, or devoting them to high and holy objects? The fashion of this world passeth away, and you are passing away, too, and should, therefore, while

you possess them, promote glory to God in the highest, and goodwill among mankind. Is this then, the case? I ask you, and I also ask Old Humphrey.

It is a much easier thing to ask such questions than to reply to them; and yet the reply is as necessary as the question. The sun, the moon, and the stars, that so gloriously adorn the heavens; the mountains and valleys, the fields and the foliage, the fruits and flowers, that beautify the earth, are grateful to look upon, and the Father of mercies has given us intellect to enjoy them, but are we using or abusing this intellect? Do we regard these created things as the express workmanship of God, and seek, through a knowledge of them, to glorify him more, whose goodness and whose mercy endureth for ever? or do we merely regard them as beautiful objects of the creation, calculated to afford us pleasure? What is your reply, and what is the reply of Old Humphrey ?

Not our years,

How are we using our time? our months, our weeks, and our days only, but our hours, our minutes, and our moments; for moments are more precious than diamonds. How are we using our time? What is called a long life soon runs away; and a short one is short indeed. You may not have so many grey hairs on

your head as I have, but your lives are equally uncertain as mine. However profitably we may appear to be using our time, we are abusing it, and spending it unprofitably, if therein we are not preparing for eternity. Let the question be repeated, then, till it tingles in our ears, How do you use your time?

How do we use the losses and crosses, the trials and afflictions of the world? for these are among the good things that we ought not to abuse. Do we allow them to sour our temper, to make us despond and repine? Do we complain that God deals hardly with us; or do these things render us more humble, dependent, prayerful, and thankful? Can we, and do we, thank God

that we have been afflicted?

If we can, we are

are abusing what Let us, at least, be

using, but if we cannot, we ought to be a blessing to us. close and honest in putting the inquiry to our hearts.

If "the fashion of this world passeth away," 1 Cor. vii. 31, there is the greater need to be preparing for another. How are we using our sabbaths, and our sabbath sermons? How are we using our hours of reflection, and seasons of devotion ? Are we using them, as especial mercies, vouchsafed to us for especial purposes? or abusing them by a worldly, cold-hearted, and selfish par

If we

ticipation of the benefits they afford? could answer this inquiry in a satisfactory way, it would be well for you, and equally well for Old Humphrey.

To sum up the whole matter. Is every faculty of our bodies and our souls devoted to God? Is every thing we possess considered as His, and not as our own? Do our gains and losses, our pleasures and our pains unite us more closely to him? In one word, do we use the things of this world, by regarding them as helps to heaven, or abuse them by allowing them to enchain our hearts and affections to the earth? No questions can be put plainer than these have been put to you, and they have not been put plainer to you than to the heart of Old Humphrey.

ON ATTENDING THE SICK.

My good friends, had I my will, every man and woman, ay, every child too, above seven years old, in Great Britain, should be, in some measure, qualified to wait upon the sick.

But

why should I limit my good wishes to Great Britain? I would extend them to the wide world, for the sick in one country require alleviation and comfort as well as in another.

The proper end of education is to give us a knowledge of our duty to God and man, and to make us useful in our generation. Where, then, can we be more useful than at the couch of sickness and pain?

It is not the wish of Old Humphrey that every one should become a nurse, and understand the whole mystery of caudle-making and saucepanry; all that he desires is, that every one should be moderately endowed with the most necessary qualifications to alleviate and comfort the sick.

Show me one who has never received the assistance of others when in sickness; one who