Remember, as your present life is spent,
Future reward or punishment is due;
Oh! then improve the precious moments lent,
And everlasting life shall wait on you.

"Praise God, I have a partner desirous of joining heartily in the
Christian warfare; often are we blest while we pour out our souls
together before the Lord, O for a closer walk with God."




V.

SHOWER AND SUNSHINE.

"NOW MEN SEE NOT THE BRIGHT LIGHT WHICH IS IN THE CLOUDS;
BUT THE WIND PASSETH, AND CLEANSETH THEM." Job xxxvii. 21.


That stage of life which immediately precedes a ripe age, when man is
in the full vigour of his strength, is not unfrequently like an April
day mingled with sunshine and shower. The care of a rising family,
and the accumulating interests of business and society, bring constant
alternations of joy and sorrow; designed by God to soften and
fructify the heart, which might otherwise become too callous under the
scorching blaze of the world. Happy is it, when these kindly workings
of a sublimer providence, cause the graces of his spirit to shoot
forth like "the tender grass springing up out of the earth by clear