"2. Let your hope be warrantable. The hopes of some men are but like the vagaries of a disordered imagination, or the proud, presumptuous claims of self-conceit, 'I hope to obtain so and so ; for there is nothing too great or too good for me to expect.' This is anything but hoping humbly or reasonably.

"3. Hope consistently. Hope for good results from your good exertions, not without them. We have no encouragement to hope for any good, for which we do not diligently strive, and use all appointed means to attain. He who hopes to reap a crop, while he has neglected to cultivate the field, hopes presumptuously and sluggishly, and his hope will make him ashamed.

6

"4. Hope dependently. However well laid your plans, and however well directed and diligent your exertions, never lose sight of your entire dependence on the blessing of God for success in your undertakings. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it,' Psa. cxxvii. 1. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart,' Psa. xxxvii. 3, 4.

"5. Hope submissively. Not merely hoping for success as the gift of God; but resigning your hope to his disposal, to be succeeded or frustrated as his unerring wisdom suggests. If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that,' James iv. 15. With submission to his holy will, we may hope for life, health, comfort, prosperity, and temporal good in general; but whether, in these respects, success or disappointment awaits us, we may, while confidently relying on the mercy of God in Jesus

Christ, unhesitatingly hope that either will work together for our good and while thus hoping humbly, we shall often, even in worldly things, find that though our fondly cherished hopes have been in some instances frustrated, on the whole they have been far exceeded by the providential goodness of God. Jacob hoped that he should see his ten sons back from Egypt with a supply of corn; and he hoped that he should be able to avoid parting with Benjamin. In both these particulars his hopes were frustrated. One of the ten was detained a prisoner in Egypt, and no second supply could be obtained, unless Benjamin accompanied the remaining nine; and Jacob, on the brink of despair, exclaimed, 'All these things are against me,' little thinking that the purposes of Divine Providence were ripening fast to accomplish for him far more than he even dared to hope for. Not only Simeon and Benjamin were restored to him; but also he found his long-lost Joseph raised to eminent honour and usefulness. Gen. xlii.-xlv.

While, therefore, we hope. humbly,' we are warranted to hope always,' notwithstanding difficulties, delays, and discouragements, because we rely on the power, promise, and faithfulness of God. There is no difficulty which Omnipotence cannot surmount or obviate; there is no good which our God cannot bestow; no distress from which He cannot raise us up; no effort of ours, however feeble, which He cannot crown with success. Then we have his gracious word of promise, that these things he will do for us, and will not forsake us, Isa. xlii. 16; and that no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly,' Psa. xxxiv. 11.

"And hope deferred,' if fixed on God, should not 'sicken the heart;' for though it seems to us to be delayed, it will not tarry a moment -beyond the appointed, the best time, Hab. ii. 3.

Then wait His seasonable aid,

And though it tarry, wait;
The promise may be long delay'd,
But cannot come too late.'

But, however it may be in respect to worldly things, there is one hope which may be absolutely cherished, and which will certainly be fulfilled, without any limitation or qualification whatever. It is a good hope through grace,' 2 Thess. ii. 16; a hope of salvation in Christ Jesus, secured by the immutable promise and oath of God to all who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,' Heb. vi. 18; the hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began,' Tit. i. 2; that blessed hope,' Tit. ii. 13, which every one that hath in him, purifieth himself even as the Lord is pure expecting, ere long, to be like him, and see him as he is, 1 John iii. 2, 3."

GREENWICH HOSPITAL;

OR,

"NOTHING TO DO."

The

My first visit to the metropolis was in company with my Uncle Barnaby and cousin Frank. former kindly determined that we should be gratified by visiting most of the objects of curiosity and interest in London, not then quite so numerous as at the present day. Some of these I have since often seen, some of them never; but of all I retain a very distinct and vivid recollection. I think, with a very slight effort of memory, I could now write a journal of the whole month-from the morning when Mrs. Rogers tied the silk handkerchiefs round our necks, and furnished us with ginger cakes to keep out the cold on our journey, and repeated her charge to us to be sure and not lose sight of my uncle in the streets, lest we should lose our way, and get taken away by kidnappers, or gipsies to the evening when we again drove into the grounds, and I felt as though I could have kissed the grass, for very joy to see the country once more.

We spent a long morning in Westminster Abbey, surveying the architectural beauties of that venerable pile, and the monuments of the illustrious dead. A vast deal of time and money are spent in vain on sights, especially with the pro

fessed intention of gratifying children; and that, not because the objects are in themselves void of interest, but because they are not rendered interesting by being made intelligible. Often have I pitied the children taken out for "a day's pleasure," and dragged with wearisome indifference through halls and libraries, by pictures, and statues, and painted windows, of which they knew nothing, nor were likely to learn anything from the showman's monotonous gabble about gothic arches, tessellated pavements, and composite pillars, and the celebrated sir Christopher Wren, or the famous sir Godfrey Kneller. How gladly, if it had not been for the name of the thing, would such a day's pleasure have been exchanged for a ramble in the woods, or the fields, to fly the kite, or gather cowslips, or do whatever else they pleased!

Sights seen in my uncle's company were never uninteresting. He had such a happy art of awakening the curiosity of young people, keeping up their attention, and storing their memory by anecdotes connected with the objects they beheld. Westminster Abbey has been called a dull sight for children, and it is so, if they have a dull conductor. My early visit there with Uncle Barnaby, imparted a reality to the persons and events there recorded, more vivid and interesting than I should have acquired in seven years by reading English history as a school task, and committing to memory chronological tables. From that day, I took delight in the study of history; and so identified it with my relative, and Westminster Abbey, that whenever I met with a name that I recollected as recorded there, I invariably went to my kind uncle