vices there are such entries as these : Could not attend,' or Business prevented ;' yet, taking the period of six consecutive months, I notice the instructive fact, that he was never absent on one solitary occasion from

any

Sabbath service in connection with the place of worship in Swallow Street, which he usually attended ; while during the same period he was present at eighty week-day services, such as sermons, missionary associations, and teachers' prayer meetings, which gives on an average more than three for every week.

It is impossible to glance at such records without perceiving that every leisure hour he could spare was consecrated to the service of God; and his freedom in early life from the vanities and pollutions of such a city as London may be traced, under the blessing of the Divine Spirit, to the fact of his resorting so frequently to the places where prayer is wont to be made, and having his religious impressions, which the details of a lawful occupation are apt to wear out, deepened and reiterated and matured by means of the devotional exercises, and the heart-searching addresses of so many of the most godly and experienced ministers of Christ.

How pleasant, how divinely fair,
O Lord of hosts, Thy dwellings are !
With long desire my spirit faints
To meet the assemblies of Thy saints.

Might I enjoy the meanest place
Within Thy house, O God of grace !
Not tents of ease, nor thrones of power,
Should tempt my feet to leave Thy door.

Blest are the men whose hearts are set
To find the way to Zion's gate ;
God is their strength, and through the road,
They lean upon their helper, God.

Cheerful they walk with growing strength,
Till all shall meet in heaven at length,-
Till all before Thy face appear,
And join in nobler worship there.'

Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction,

and understanding.'—PROV. XXIII. 23.

S

OME influence for good is also to be

ascribed to the fact, that instead of expending his spare time in the reading

of the light kind of literature which possesses so many attractions for the youthful mind, he purchased, and, as opportunity occurred, he consulted such works as the following: Henry's • Commentary;' Hall's 'Contemplations ;' Missionary Transactions ; Cruden's Concordance ;' Missionary Sermons; Mason's 'History of Jesus ;' Buck’s ‘Religious Experience;' Whitfield's Sermons; and Baxter's Saints' Rest.'

Keeping these facts in view, and looking at the experience of James Nisbet, let me say to young men

6

6

-Take care, Ist, How you pray ; 2d, What you hear ; 3d, Where you go ; and 4th, What you read.

.

All are

architects of fate,
Working in these walls of time;
Some with massive deeds and great,

Some with ornaments of rhyme.

Nothing useless is, or low,

Each thing in its place is best ;
And what seems but idle show

Strengthens and supports the rest.

For the structure that we raise,

Time is with materials filled ;
Our to-days and yesterdays

Are the blocks with which we build.

Build to-day, then, strong and sure,

With a firm and ample base,
And ascending and secure

Shall to-morrow find its place.

Thus alone can we attain

To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,

And one boundless reach of sky.'

• Jacob rose up early in the morning.–Geụ. XXVIII. 18. ' I myself will awake early.—Ps. CVIII. 2.

T

HE habit of early rising was one which he

formed from his childhood, and which he continued regularly to practise, both

in winter and in summer, to the very close of his useful and eventful life. Sometimes he sought to press very earnestly on the attention of those that were dear to him the same practice which he exemplified so faithfully himself. In writing to a young friend, he says, “We find our Lord when on earth rising a great while before day, that He might spend some time in secret prayer ; and David says, • Early will I seek Thee ;” and shall we, who stand so much in need of the Lord's assistance, slumber and sleep away our time?'

By means of this habit he redeemed large portions