[ 4 i

nonle; and they that weep, as though they wept
not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced
not; and they that buy, as though they possessed
not; and they that use this world, as not abusing
it: for the fashion of this world passeth away." 1
Cor. vii. 29-31.
  My friends, it is no delusion-the time is it hand,
when our wives shall be widows-and our children
shall be fatherless-and our friends shall be, as far
as we shall have it in our power to assist them, with-
out a friend; and when all our enjoyments, and all our
prospects, and all our sorrows, and all our fears and
anticipations, so far as this world is concerned, shall
be at an end-they shall be gone, and gone forever.
  "As for man, his day are as the grass, as a flower
of the field, so he flourisheth; For the wind passeth
over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof
shall know it no more." Fair and flourishing, and
strong and lasting, to appearance, is that son-
that daughter-that husband-that wife-that coin-
panion and friend.-But these are not the strength
and the beauty of the cedar of Lebanon, nor of the
oaks of Bashan; but the strength and the beauty
of the grass, and of the flower of the field-only an
hour hence, and the wind passeth over it, and it is
"one; and the placeX thereof shall know it no inorec
      Few are thy days, and full of woe,
      o man of woman born.
      Thy doom is written, "Dust thou art,
      And shalt to dust return."
      Behold the emblem of flii) state
      In flowvers that bloom and die;
      Or in the shadow's fleeting fortyi.
      That viocks thc gazer's eve.