exercise, always rising, till they became mere points in the air, and the young ones were lost, and afterwards their parents, to our aching sight." "What an instructive lesson to Christian parents does this history read! How powerfully does it excite them to teach their children betimes to look towards heaven and the Sun of Righteousness, and to elevate their thoughts thither, more and more, on the wings of faith and love; themselves all the while going before them, and encouraging them by their own example." * Many are the thoughts that crowd upon us in October; we would willingly retain them all, but so rapidly they follow one another, that, like the flight of the hummingbird, looking, in its resplendent dress, like a blazing meteor, as it darts through the air with the velocity of lightning, they are gone, ere memory can store them; they speed on and are lost, as the huntsman, in hot pursuit of the flying stag, appears for a moment in an open space, and is quickly hid from view by hill and wood. We must, however, pause awhile upon the hunt; it is a favourite October sport, and distinctively the national sport of England. Hunting has been a favourite sport, it would seem, in every quarter of the globe, in all ages. In Genesis we read that Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, was a mighty hunter;" and downward to the present day this original sport has been continued, varying according to the country and its inhabitants, but still eagerly followed, and an exhilarating scene it is. *Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise. to grace his hall; the fox, a brush to deck his hunting cap. We cannot but feel, exhilarating as we admit the scene to be, when, on a bright October morning the hounds throw off, and the huntsmen in their bright scarlet jackets, mounted on fleet steeds, dash across the country, that disappointment on the one hand, or suffering and death on the other must close the day's sport; and we do seriously question whether man is justified in seeking amusement where the suffering and death of even the meanest of God's creatures forms the basis of it, and the only result, the only aim, a trifling, and at best a useless triumph. Those (and they are many) who hold the dangerous doctrine that "the end justifies the means" might here apply it advantageously; and bright was the smile, and hearty, and well-deserved the welcome, which greeted the ancient Briton on his return from a successful day's sport in the woods, when, on his skill in drawing the bow, depended the comfort and provision of a family.-In our day it is not so amusement is the only aim—but, "These are not subjects for the peaceful Muse, More in accordance with our feelings will it be to retire to the warm fire-side which in so many English homes glows brightly at this season, and, thankfully acknowledging uncounted mercies, close a happy October evening in the words of Pope * Thomson. "Father of all! in every age, By saint, by savage, and by sage, "To Thee, whose temple is all space; Whose altar-earth, sea, skies; One chorus let all Being raise! All Nature's incense rise!" K November. "Like leaves on trees the race of Man is found- They fall successive, and successive rise. So generations in their course decay, So flourish these, when those have pass'd away."* How beautifully typical of life are the seasons! Spring, the childhood of the year, comes clad in freshness and purity, like the young, glad hearts which make the world in which they live, seem filled with melody: they spring up in our path like flowers, and light up our homes as sunbeams; and when Jesus looks down from His mansion in the skies, and sees some fair young flower, His love would transplant to the Paradise above; or descends to His earthly garden to gather lilies, their removal casts a shadow over the scene, which nothing but a glimpse, by faith, of the bright track along which they were * Pope's Homer. borne, and the changeless and unfading bowers in which they were placed by the hand of Him who gathered them, can brighten :-but, when they are, in mercy, spared to deck our homes on earth, and bloom brightly through a spring-time of delight, and love, and joy, how sweet is their companionship, and how highly we should prize and treasure them! Like the early days of Spring, they deepen in beauty as each day passes by; and hourly ripening to perfection, under the fostering hand of a heavenly Master, glide almost imperceptibly into glorious Summer. Crowned with maturity, for a time they tread a height, around which floats an atmosphere of delight and pleasure; clouds, if any appear, are so shadowy and seemingly unreal, that the bright sunlight is seen through them, and they but add to the loveliness of the scene, as a veil shades, while it heightens, the blushing beauty of a bride. And from every side of that gay height appear, stretched out in lavish profusion, gardens where all is fair-and opening vistas, across which a sunbeam or a happy thought casts a glow of beauty; and entranced, the gazer still looks on, and images a far-off sunny spot, dreams of some distant moment of joyous happinesswhen, perchance, a loved companion, a treasured friend, a sharer of our contentment in the present and unclouded hopes for the future, vanishes from our sight, and a thought steals over our senses, the Summer is over and gone." So, when the sun goes forth in his Summer strength, rises high in the heavens, spreading his glorious beams far and wide, nor hastens to go down, till, at the close of a long day, he retires in setting splendour, to rise |