sk ourselves the question,--How shall I
feel, looking at my past chances of usefulness from the observatory of
the sick room and dying bed? Are we to fill our dying pillows with
thorns, as we remember Sabbaths when we gave way to indolence and self-
indulgence, instead of crowding them with well-aimed efforts after
usefulness, and diligently employed occasions for study and teaching.

To the unconverted reader we say,--Beware, lest this New Year be wasted
as its predecessors were. Is it to be like all the rest? Is that which
comes to thee as a friend, wishing to give thee space for repentance and
faith, to become another lash in the scourge which is to punish thy soul
for ever? Is God's ledger still to chronicle thy unforgiven debts;
unforgiven, not because there was no mercy, but because thou wast too
indolent to pray. Rouse thyself, sinner, lest these very opportunities
should add to thy doom! They fly past thee, but where do they go? They
are on their way to the bar of God, to witness against thee. What a
crowd of them to testify! Wouldst thou silence them? Come, ere this
year closes, and the new one begins, to the feet of Jesus, where thou
shalt find pardon and peace, and where thou mayst receive power to live a
life of devotion and holy labour--thus making opportunity thy willing and
true yoke-fellow.

PRAYER A VITAL NEED.

A Poet has said, that Prayer is the Christian's native air. It seems as
if some Christians who are doomed to die of soul decline, might live if
they would go back to their native air. Reader, do you need this
prescription?

XLIV. THE BRITISH BAYONET.

A great deal has been said in the newspapers lately on the subject of
Faulty Bayonets. It seems that from some cause or other these arms have
been found out to be faulty and unworthy of trust. Some of them are
brittle, and break, others are soft, and bend, so there are a large
number of those in use which will have to be discarded on account of
unfitness. Where the blame lies we don't know, but doubtless some one
has been unfaithful to their trust, or the thing could not have been
done.

It set us a thinking the other day--Here is something that no one
doubted, has proved unreliable; and the thought flashed across our mind:
Is there not something like it in the Church of God to-day?

IT IS THE WEAPON OF THE RANK AND FILE THAT IS FAULTY!

It is not the General's brain, or the Officer's weapon that is unworthy,