he runs the race set before him, and hope grows so exceedingly bright as he quickens his speed, that the once feeble soul, with exultation, exclaims, "Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." How happy for many, into whose hearts this world has crept, could they but have known first how utterly incapable it was of filling the "aching void" within. When Severus, Emperor of Rome, found his end approaching, he cried out, “I have been everything, and everything is nothing;" then ordering the urn to be brought to him in which his ashes were to be enclosed, on his body being burned, according to the custom of the Romans, he said, "Little urn, thou shalt contain one for whom the world was too little." He who possesses this world only, is poor indeed!

VAIN world, thy weak attempt forbear,
We all thy charms defy,

And rate our precious souls too dear
For all thy wealth to buy.

XXVIII.

No Home here.

"WE are journeying unto the place of which the LORD said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the LORD hath spoken good concerning Israel."-NUMBERS X. 29.

I Go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”—JOHN xiv. 2, 3.

THIS is not thy dwelling;

Let whatever come,
Thou art but a Pilgrim;

Make not here thy home.
Life has joys to try thee.--
False-fair lures to prove
Whether thou art worthy
Of a Father's love.

Life has storms to warn thee,

That this barren sand

Is but thy rough passage,

To a better land.

TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY.

CAN it be a thought entertained by, and

allowed for one moment to disturb,

the mind of a Christian, that he has no If such were the case what a

home here? barrier to progress would it prove. How much oftener then than even now would men be found building up for themselves a lofty name, or fixing the foundations of a mansion, that would in the natural course of events crumble into ruin! How sweet is the word home! What a host of tender and beautiful associations cluster around it. The soul is stirred to its very depths the warm pulse quickens-and all holy desires receive a new activity as from the sound of some lips we catch that one word, home! We are now not at home. But as we journey on "unto the place of which the Lord said I will give | it you, we feel that we have a strong conviction, that we are going home.

How

many wanderers in the ways of wickedness has this word recalled. How often has it rushed into the mind of the poor exile as scenes long past have floated through his recollection. And so of the Believer, who knows that there is laid up for him, in heaven, an inheritance incorruptible.

This word pre-supposes the existence of a family, of which Jehovah is the head. Where there is one Father, and one elder Brother; and where multitudes of the blessed household of faith are assembled, never again to separate. It is a picture, too, of the whole elect people of God, gathered into one: where the one fold is presided over by the one Shepherd! And where perfect peace, love, and harmony reign. For, without these, even heaven itself could not be home!

Moreover the word home gives us the solemn assurance that all who ever reach those many mansions will be welcome! Oh the greetings that will be there

What warm embraces of joy and gladness! What noble anthems of exalted praise. To see Jesus!

To behold the glories or

the Lamb! To walk with the redeemed in white! To mingle with that bloodbought throng; where will be seen parents and children, pastors and teachers, walking along those golden streets, or standing on that sea of glass; and happy in the knowledge that this is to be their HOME for ever! When the Rev. Thomas Scott lay a-dying, he adopted the language of good old Simeon, "Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." Through the remainder of the day, and during the night, he continued in a very happy state of mind. The next morning he repeated, most emphatically, the twelfth of Isaiah. He then said, "This is heaven begun; I have done with darkness for ever-for ever: Satan is vanquished, and nothing now remains but salvation with eternal glory-eternal glory."