ney, and now supports your tottering steps in old age. Besides, what I may call a domestic staff, is highly desirable. I mean a cordial and firm friend, on whom you may rely for numberless comforts which your feeble state requires. You know that Zacharias said unto the angel, I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. Luke i. 18. No doubt, as this venerable couple were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, they were a staff and a comfort to each other. And although it is seldom the lot of mortals that the man and his wife are permitted to live together to so great an age, still, when death separates them, the survivor looks to a child or a grandchild, to be something like a staff to support and encourage the feebled mind. But after all, the promise of the Lord is the best staff for the aged, for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Heb. xiii. 5. And when this staff is grasped in the hand. of faith, it is both safe and pleasant walking down the hill of life to the vale of death. IV. Let us at least indulge a supposition of the peculiar gratification which these aged men and women must have derived from seeing the streets of Jerusalem full of boys and girls engaged at their innocent diversions. I call them innocent, because they had not retired into the lanes, alleys, and dark corners, to practice wickedness and commit depredations upon the persons and property of the inhabitants, but they were employed at their passtime in the open streets, where every eye could inspect their conduct. Air and exercise are equally necessary for the growth and health of children, and it iş of equal advantage to unbend the mind, and give a spring to pursue the advantages of their education. While these aged people were amused by seeing these children at their different diversons, it could not fail to bring to their recollection the scenes of their own childhood and youth. And as it is generally calculated that one half of the human race die before manhood, and very few live to old age, so it could not fail to excite the warmth of their gratitude, that the Lord had preserved them to so late a period of life. Besides, it is a subject of their rejoicing, that God had not forgotten his Jerusalem, that her population was abundantly increasing, and that a new generation was rising up, who should fill the places which would soon be made vacant by their passing away to the world beyond the grave. Let the reader say whether similar scenes of rising youth do not produce corresponding feelings of pleasure and joy in his own breast. Yes! delightful to see the young progeny arise to take our places, and act their part on the stage of life, when we shall lie silent in the grave. And does it not confirm the truth of God's promise, that instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. Psalm xlv. 16. V. Our concluding observation shall be on the place where these aged people resided. It was Jerusalem; the meaning of which is, the vision, or possession of peace, because there, in the fulness of time, the Messiah, Prince of Peace, was to live, suffer, and die, making peace by the blood of his cross, and where his first spiritual church was to be established. In the preceding verse, Jerusalem is called Zion, a city of truth; the mountain of the Lord of hosts, and where the Lord promised to dwell among the people of Israel. And while this was literally true of that ancient city, on the return of the captive Jews, it was an emblem of the spiritual and glorious church of Christ, the new Jerusalem, which is from above, to be an habitation for God through the Spirit, and which continues and increases to the end of the world! I will only add, that this is the best and most honourable place of residence for the aged and the young, who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and who are looking for that celestial city, whose builder and maker is God. THE ELEVENTH HOUR. Of some we hear, of others read, Medleg.. NONE who read the New Testament but will perceive that our Lord Jesus frequently taught his hearers by parables. This mode of instruction was admirably adapted to engage the attention, while the several parts of the picture of which it was composed elucidated the subject it was intended to convey. By this method it was immaterial whether the story of the parable were real or apparent, the design of the instruction was the same: For instance, in the parable of the prodigal son, whether there were then known such a certain man that had two sons, and that the younger of them acted the part of a prodigal, could have been of very little consequence, as such an unfortunate occurrence as this too frequently happens in family connexions. The design of our Lord in that parable was to vindicate his own conduct in associating with sinners; and by this, and the two other parables recorded in the same fifteenth chapter of Luke, were to illustrate the important fact, that he came into the world not only to save sinners, but to receive them as prodigals to the arms of his compassion. The parable of the householder going out at different parts of the day to hire labourers for his vineyard, recorded in the twentieth chapter of Matthew, and now selected for our meditation, is of the same kind; and whether the case literally took place or not, we must believe that it is admirably calculated to convey the most important lessons of instruction on the different stages of life, and particularly so to those who may have stood idle in the great concern of their salvation, until the eleventh hour, just as the day of life is closing, and the night of death begins to produce its darkness. Under this impression we will indulge a few reflections. upon this portion of Scripture, in the hope that the gracious Householder, the Lord Jesus, may grant us his sacred visitation. It cannot be doubted but that God, since the expulsion of Adam from Paradise, has had a vineyard of grace growing and progressively increasing in the world. And to a person whose mind is interested in searching the Scriptures, this parable will be found admirably calculated to assist him in his inquiries concerning the different periods when the |