ones the power does not seem to exist; it is like putting a magnet to a lump of clay. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; and the time in which a good book thus dies in the soul, is particular, and analagous to the springtide of the seasons. An ear of corn may fall into the ground and die in midsummer; but it will not be reproduced; and just so with books and principles in men's minds: if the sowing of them be deferred till the midsummer or autumn of the soul, though they may enrich the soul, they will not produce a harvest; there may be the green blade, but the full corn in the ear you will never see.

So also it is with the seeds and habits of our piety; our character and attainments, not only in this world, but in eternity, will be the fruits of the germination of divine things in our souls now.

Let me pray you, therefore, to take care of the germinating period of your being; for when you have passed through it, though you may have the same books to read, and the same means of study, they will not affect you as they once would. There is a tide in the deep souls of men, as well as in their affairs, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; and if you omit it, the loss and the misery will be yours. Suffer me now to leave your minds beneath the influence of one more aphorism from the wisdom of Lord Bacon. "For if you will have a tree bear more fruit than it hath used to do, it is not anything you can do to the boughs, but it is the stirring of the earth, and putting new mould about the roots that must work it."American Biblical Repository.

MISSIONARY ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG.

SUGGESTED BY THE CLAIMS OF THE PRESENT CRISIS.

It is the year of jubilee! The London Missionary Society anoints her head with the oil of joy, and arrays herself in white garments. Fifty summer suns have shone on the field of her toil. Her beginning was small, but her latter end is greatly increased. At first she laboured in a corner, unknown and fainthearted-sowing the seed, and reaping no harvest; but now

many a desert place, through her exertions, enriched with the river of God, is filled with fruit, and the valleys also are covered over with corn. "The voice of joy and thanksgiving is heard in the tabernacles of the righteous" on this, the year of her jubilee. “The right hand of the Lord is exalted, the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly."

Beloved young friends, this year has claims on you, beyond any that have been urged on you before. The long tried and faithful supporters of the London Missionary Society are becoming old and grey-haired. They have borne the heat and burden of the day, and they are worn out with hard service; the shades of evening are gathering round them as precursors of the shadows of the grave. Soon it shall be said of them, "They rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." It is to the rising generation that they intrust the charge they have so ably sustained. O youth of this favoured land! a goodly host ye are, girt with the strength and fervour of a life not yet worn with care, and not yet dimmed by disappointment: what might ye not do in the cause of God, if, to the energy and warmth of your early years, there were added the fire of a holy ambition kindled by the Saviour's love? What might not your religious fervour avail? Where might ye not carry the gospel of the kingdom? From the days of infancy your hands have clasped your Bible, and on your opening minds were the truths of revelation poured. Many prayers ascend for you to heaven; many hearts are intensely interested on your behalf; and, when the people of God speak of you to one another, their eyes are filled with tears. The church of Christ cherishes you as her children. She regards you as in a state of training preparatory to your being employed in her cause; and, when the number of her agents is thinned by the hand of death, as it must be in a dying world, she looks to you to take the vacant places of those who are gone to heaven.

And who is it that has caused you to be thus nurtured on the bosom of Christian love? Who has gathered you round the well of the water of life, and permitted you to let down your buckets, and draw,--while multitudes of your fellow-creatures are afar off, dying of thirst in the desert? It was He who, while He communicated to you this abundance of privilege, accompanied it with an equal abundance of obligation. There is no greater

care.

work before you than to fulfil the obligation. Receive the deposit which the people of God solemnly commit to your The eye of the church is fixed on you, to see if you will discharge your responsibilities. The eye of a dying world is turned towards you, tearfully gazing to know whether you will pity its need. Awake to the greatness of the demand which is made upon you. Awake to the Divine strength in which alone you will find your ability to meet it. Awake to some perception of that love, which led the Son of God for your sake to deny himself, and which should constrain you to practise self-denial for his sake. Let the word be recalled! Shall we speak of self-denial, when the honour of our Master is concerned? Shall we hesitate about sacrifice, when the sacrifice is made to God? Can that be a sacrifice which is given to Him? "There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come, life everlasting." The question must be put to our consciences-"How much owest thou unto thy Lord ?" Let pastors ask of their people, "How much owest thou ?" Let parents ask of their children, "How much owest thou?" Let brothers and sisters say to each other, "How much owest thou?" Let friend ask of friend, "How much owest thou?" Christian, take the inquiry with you into your closet, in the still hour of communion with your own heart; and in the apprehension of the vastness of redeeming love, question yourself" How much do I owe unto my Lord? If I am pardoned through his blood, --if I am justified through his righteousness, if I am sanctified by his Spirit, if I am saved by his mercy,-eternity will fail to unfold the length and breadth, and depth and height of what I owe.

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all."

Dear friends, eternity will cast a new and strange light on what the world accounts great and noble. He alone shall be found rich who is rich towards God. The poor widow that cast into the treasury all her living, and they who, like her, prize

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God his own.

We must make this missionary

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is no end to the wants laid before us. It is true, friends; and
I just bought and paid for, and now comes a new claim. There
the shall be no end to them, so long as there is no end to your
obligation to supply them. There is no end to your blessings.
The liver of every good and perfect gift bestows on you richly

Home may. We are weary of these constant appeals. The ship

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s to enjoy. Evening and morning bear witness to his d care. And so long as his mercy endures, your moliberality endure. "Freely ye have received, freely

"Let not

! Shall we say, There must be an end to our liberality, here is no end to the wasting destruction that daily enenighted souls? So long as the heathen remain ignod wretched, we must give, and labour, and pray. They athens still; and shall not we continue to practise self? For fifty years have labourers been sent into the rd, but they have been as a bare handful in the midst of tions of the earth. For fifty years there have been toil › part of man, and benediction on the part of God, but yet irse remains. 'Mid the exultations of our jubilee we hear ailings of the dying. Tears mix themselves with our reg. The sorrows of the world are not yet assuaged. The ids which sin has inflicted are not yet healed. that girdeth on the harness boast as he that putteth it off." have yet to learn the full extent of the duties resting upon Never was the Christian church invested with so awful a onsibility as now. She must not measure her liberality and exertions by the liberality and the exertions of her forehers. The times are altered. The fearful reign of evil in › world has become better apprehended. The number of her emies, although not actually greater, is more fearfully realised. arming yourselves for the conflict, my young friends, you ust not expect that the trials you will undergo will be less an those which have been suffered in days past. On the conary, you must be prepared to find them greater than ever. he actual encounter between light and darkness has not yet ome on. Light, skirmishing parties only have been engaged. Here and there has been some small conflict, and here and there champions have fought hand in hand. But the great armies have not yet looked one another in the face. Perhaps they have hardly yet been mustered. The antagonist principles of good and evil have not yet summoned up their respective powers, and met in that determined and deadly encounter which shall end in the complete extermination of one of them. The signs of the times would indicate that this crisis is approaching. The prince of the power of the air seems to be calling up his legions. Be