might be laughed at, if it did not do so much mischief as it does; but when a quack doctor persuades a poor afflicted being to depend on his useless, if not injurious stuff, instead of applying to a skilful professor of medicine or surgery, he is trifling with the life, and sacrificing the happiness of a fellow creature. And here I would just notice that almost all the tinctures, elixirs, balms, and other wonderful quack medicines you read about, contain a large quantity of spirits, or alcohol.

If ever you should be afflicted with disease, at any period of your life, never go to a quack doctor: avoid him as you would plague, pestilence, and famine. Go to one whose days have been devoted to the acquirement of knowledge and skill as a doctor; let him have your money, and, with God's blessing on his assistance, you may hope for a cure. Nay, if you have no money to give, do not be down-hearted on that account, for though quack doctors are not fond of giving their advice for nothing, many wise and kind-hearted surgeons and physicians do so continually.

I hate quack doctors, or rather I hate their guilty practices; for I hold it a fearful thing to tamper with the afflicted bodies of human beings. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and he who pretends to understand, and to relieve diseases,

when he knows that he is ignorant of them; yea, when he knows that he is living on the very lifeblood of his fellow creatures, has a dreadful account to give of his sinful career.

But though it be, as I said before, a fearful thing to tamper and trifle with men's bodies, it is a still more fearful thing to tamper and trifle with their souls! And there are thousands who set up as spiritual quack doctors in the world, ever ready to persuade people to take their advice instead of that of the faithful ministers of Christ, who plainly point out the diseases of our souls, and the proper remedies for our sins.

Every one who lives in the world is liable to some particular bodily disease, more than to another, and it is the very same with the soul; we each of us have a besetting sin. These spiritual quacks often try to make people believe that the disease of sin is not so general, or not so dangerous, as it really is. Some of these quacks are very ignorant, and others, very designing; be then upon your guard, "for they lie in wait to deceive," Eph. iv. 14. Sooner or later they will be found out in their evil practices.

It is enough to sink us to the dust, to know that we are all affected with the leprosy of sin ; but it is enough to raise us up with joy, to be assured that there is a great Physician, who cures all

who apply to him. He has a fountain open for all uncleanness; he heals every disease, and bids the bones that are broken to rejoice. These things he does without fee or reward, without money, and without price.

This great Physician is the Redeemer of the world, even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He "died for our sins, and rose again for our justification," and now sits on the right hand of God, "able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him," Heb. vii. 25. I cannot tell you half the wondrous cures he performs by his Almighty power: not only "the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk: the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear," but the "very dead are raised,” Matt. xi. 5 ; and those who once looked forward to eternal death, he makes partakers of everlasting life. Have nothing to do with the quack doctors of the soul, any more than with those of the body. The soul is of too great a value to be trusted in their hands. Go to the great Physician, as you have need of his assistance, for "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," Rom. iii. 23. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness," 1 John i. 8, 9.

ON SUNSHINE.

A WORD with you about sunshine. When I look at the sun, and call to mind that it is a million times the size of the earth, and ninetyfive millions of miles from us, it so oppresses my brain with thoughts of infinity, that I am glad to turn off to something a little better suited to my weak understanding. It is no use grappling with conceptions beyond our power. My head can no more bear to reflect on the magnitude of the sun, than mine eye can endure to gaze upon its brightest noon-day beams.

I would willingly keep within compass, and say in reference to God's creation, as I would ever wish to say in regard to the hidden things of the Almighty, "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me," Psa. cxxxi. 1.

But I was about to speak of sunshine. Oh, how gloriously it arrays the heavens and the earth with brightness! The scenes are very beautiful

that present themselves to the eye in spring, when the trees put forth their green leaves, and the birds warble the joy that they do not know how to keep to themselves. And not less so in summer, when the blossoms and flowers abound, and the woods are fully clothed. What can be more attractive than autumn, with its fruit and corn, and its trees with coloured leaves ! And who is there that will deny that the bare branches of winter's oaks, and elms, and thorn bushes, when sprinkled with snow, or sparkling with hoar frost, are lovely to look upon ? and yet to each and to all of these, what a wondrous additional beauty does sunshine give!

Look at sunshine on the snowy cloud, or on the clear blue sky; the green meadow spotted with crocuses; the hay-field, when the country people are at work there; the waving corn, while the reapers cut it, and bind it into sheaves; the broad-breasted mountain, or the sharp-pointed crag. Or, look at it when glittering on the murmuring brook, the weather-cock of the village church, or the window-panes of a cottage. Oh, it is a glorious thing! But this is only the sunshine of the eye. The sun must be visible, or we cannot enjoy it.

There is another sunshine, and I hope that you are no stranger to it. It is not confined to times