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word, however, is frequently adopted, | sion calls us to action; and often, if when the thing signified is shamefully we honestly and diligently begin to neglected: I will take an opportunity of doing such a thing,' is, in the mouth of many people, nothing more than an excuse for putting off the doing of a thing which ought to be done at the present moment.'

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My uncle, as I have already observed, when he saw that a word or phrase had attracted our attention, made a practice of desiring us to refer to a dictionary, and trace its derivation and its synonyms, which he justly considered a likely way to fix correct ideas on our minds, and to lodge useful sentiments in our memories; nor were we backward in obeying such a suggestion, as it generally opened the way to conversation, in which we were favoured with uncle's own sentiments on the subject referred to. Opportunity is explained by Dr. Johnson as "fit place, convenience, suitableness of circumstances to any end." "Opportunity," says another writer, "from opportunus, fit, signifies the thing that happens fit for the purpose."

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act, we find that difficulties clear off as we proceed, and unexpected opportunities open upon us, and lead to satisfactory results, far beyond our anticipations. A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds: and it is a mark of wisdom to discern, seize, and improve opportunity; but a mark of gross and sinful folly to resist the claims of duty, and the incentives of opportunity. Never forget, my boys, that in all matters, both great and small, every man is obliged, by the Supreme Maker of the universe, to improve all the opportunities of good which are afforded him. You have many opportunities; how are you improving them?

Too many people, like Richard, spend the first part of their lives in wasting opportunities, and indulging vain hopes; and the last half in bitter disappointment and fruitless regret."

"There is one particular connected with opportunity of every kind, that should stimulate us, promptly and diligently, to improve it. Opportunity is uncertain, both in its continuance and return. Richard, you observe, neglected the occasion when he ought to have attended to it, because he flattered Pray, uncle,' " I inquired, "does himself that the fine weather which furoccasion mean the same thing as oppor- nished the opportunity would last; and tunity? for when Mrs. Rogers told in that he was mistaken. Now he conRichard to take the opportunity of a fine soles himself with the hope that there morning to gather the raspberries, I will be plenty more opportunities before heard him say, 'There is no occasion to the season is over. Perhaps, in this, do that just now; I shall do it in the also, he may be equally mistaken. Cerafternoon.' "No, Samuel, indeed they tainly, no opportunity will recur so fado not; as the result of Richard's neg-vourable as that which he has squandered. ligence fully exemplifies. Occasion signifies that which falls in the way, so as to produce some kind of change, and requires a certain line of conduct. But opportunity means, such a state or concurrence of circumstances as forms the most fit and favourable juncture for pursuing that course with success. The occasion is that which determines our conduct, and leaves us no choice as to the step to be taken. The opportunity is that which invites us to action, and prompts us to embrace the fit moment for taking the step. We do things, therefore, as the occasion requires, or as opportunity offers. A sense of duty will always, to a wise and good person, form a sufficient occasion; and he will desire and embrace every opportunity, or favourable state of circumstances for doing it, though he will by no means wait for them. What is right must be done, however unfavourable and discouraging the circumstances may be in which we find ourselves placed, when the occa

Frank looked very thoughtful. As he afterwards told me, he was engaged in a mental enumeration of his own opportunities, and in self-scrutiny as to his improvement of them." Samuel," he said, "what a highly favoured lot is ours, and how much have we to answer for! We have opportunities for mental improvement; time, ability to learn, tutors, books, and every advantage of education; we ought to become wise men. We have religious opportunities, the Scriptures, the throne of grace, the invitations of the gospel, ministers, pious parents, good examples; we ought to be good men. Then we have abundant opportunities of doing good to others. We have leisure, property, influence, education; we ought to be useful men. Uncle often says, that these things are

not given us merely for our own sakes, but that we may, as faithful stewards, improve them, for the good of those around us."

"Do you remember, Frank, what that minister said, who called last week to see uncle, and stayed to tea? I did not well understand it; but what you just said reminded me of it."

"I know what you mean. He said

cle, "in company with a young officer, who deeply pained me by his flippant, profane, and sceptical conversation. I made several attempts to address a suitable word to him, but he ingeniously warded off whatever I could say, and we parted without any thing like a satisfactory result. I had in my portmanteau The Life of Colonel Gardiner, Doddridge's Evidences, and the Book of Truth itself, the New Testhat no man was converted for his own tament. How suitable would either of sake alone, but also that he might become these have been to him! and, as we stayed an instrument of good to others. He at an inn to dine, I might have opened thought that no good man could be con- my trunk, and presented them to him; tent to go to heaven alone. And he be- but I did not think of it, and the opporlieved that there was no Christian, how-tunity was lost. Very shortly afterwards, ever humble his abilities and attainments, the unhappy young man fell in a duel ; but was privileged with some opportu- and I had, and have ever since had, to nity of being useful to the souls of those reproach myself with neglecting an oparound him. He mentioned several in-portunity of doing good to his soul. stances of very simple efforts having been owned and blessed; and said how much it was our duty to watch for such opportunities, and improve them when they occurred. I recollect he said, there were some poor, simple, unlettered people who, he doubted not, would share largely in the glory promised; They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever, Dan. xii. 3.

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My uncle, who had been called away, seemed pleased on his return to find that we were still talking about opportunity, and again joined in the conversation.

"How is it, uncle," asked Frank, that opportunities of every kind are so frequently lost and suffered to pass unimproved? I know that in general it may be said, it is owing to the corruption of human nature; but that is a vague expression, and seems to convey no specific instruction. I should be glad to know what are the particular hinderances to our improvement of opportunities, that I may set a special guard against them." My uncle paused a moment, as he was wont to do, when asked an opinion on what he deemed a matter of importance, and then replied, I "think you will find on reflection, that opportunities are often lost through inconsideration or carelessness. How very commonly do we hear persons regretting the loss of an advantage, which, say they, I had such a good opportunity of acquiring; but I never thought of it.' Înstances immediately crowded upon the recollection of each of

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"I was travelling," continued my un

"It is thus," proceeded my uncle, after a moment of pensive silence, "that the soul's salvation is neglected, both relatively and personally. How often do we fail to do to others the good we might do, but that we do not consider and improve opportunities that present themselves for making the attempt; and how do sinners personally neglect and slight the great salvation by inconsideration. John Bunyan justly describes the careless sinner as spending all his days in 'raking in the muck,' while a crown of glory is suspended above his head, of which he takes no notice. Moses apprehended the like ruinous inconsideration in his beloved nation, when he aspirated the anxious wish, 'Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!' Deut. xxxii. 29; and Solomon, when he said, as with a sigh, 'Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?' Prov. xvii. 16. And it is that which a greater than either Moses or Solomon bewailed, when he pathetically lamented, 'If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes,' Luke xix. 42. My dear lads, think of that delightful scene at the well of Samaria, John iv., and the glorious results of one wellimproved opportunity, an opportunity which, in all probability, never recurred; and never inconsiderately squander an opportunity of gaining good, especially spiritual good, or of doing good to the bodies or souls of others."

I expressed a wish always to have some

kind friend at hand to point out and remind me of my opportunities, that I might not be in danger of overlooking or forgetting them.

"Ah," said my uncle, "you deceive yourself, if you think that any friend or adviser can secure you against your own negligence. Friends may watch over you for good, and suggest and advise, but it must be your own act and deed to improve your opportunities; and if lost, they will be lost through your own fault. The very counsel and vigilance you desire, is a kind of opportunity which must be made available by your own improvement, but which, it is very possible, you may squander and neglect.

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Indolence, I was about to mention, as one cause of the frequent loss of opportunity. It was so as long ago as Solomon's time; for he tells us that 'The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing;' and 'He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame,' Prov. xx. 4; x. 5; and such sluggards he admonishes by the example of the thrifty ant, who diligently improves the favourable season, and derives the benefit of her forecast in a comfortable provision for the time of need. Guard, my boys, now in the morning of your days, against indulging a slothful indolent spirit. It is a bar to excellence and success of every kind; above all, may you never bear the character of spiritual sluggards, lest, when the seed-time and harvest of opportunity are over, you should have to exclaim, in unavailing bitterness, 'The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved,'" Jer. viii. 20.

My uncle mentioned, as a third hinderance to the improvement of opportunity, a spirit of indecision, and took the opportunity of recommending to our careful and repeated perusal, an invaluable essay, then recently published, on decision of character; a piece which has probably been eminently useful to many individuals, among whom I may presume to class myself. The following brief extracts will show its applicability to the subject in hand.

"It is a poor and disgraceful thing not to be able to reply with some degree of certainty, to the simple questions, What will you be? What will you do ?"

"A person of an indecisive character wonders how all the embarrassments in the world happened to meet exactly in

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his way. Incapable of setting up a firm purpose on the basis of things as they are, he is often employed in vain speculations on some different supposable state of things, which would have saved him from all this perplexity and irresolution. Thus he is occupied, instead of catching with a vigilant eye, and seizing with a strong hand, all the possibilities of his situation.

"The events of life seize such a man as a kind of neutral material, not he the events. Others advancing through life with an internal invincible determination of mind, have seemed to make the train of circumstances, whatever they were, conduce as much to their chief design as if they had taken place on purpose."

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"My dear lads, let your eye be single, and your aim steady and well-directed, and then you will find yourselves free to embrace all favourable opportunities of gaining good and doing good; and like that pattern of Christian magnanimity, the apostle Paul, you will find that all events, however seemingly adverse, fall out rather unto the furtherance' (Phil. i. 12) of the great object of your lives.

"Timidity is another obstacle to the improvement of opportunity. There are many persons who decide in their own minds on the propriety and desirableness of a certain step, and that the present moment is the suitable and favourable opportunity for taking it, but they parley with a spirit of timidity till it brings them back to a state of indecision. 'Will the thing be quite prudent? Many things are to be considered. May there not be some evil in the change, of which they are not aware? May not some other measures be devised which will meet the claims of duty, and satisfy the requirements of conscience, without involving so considerable a sacrifice of worldly interest? Is this a proper time? What will people say ?' etc., etc. Yes, all this reasoning is in the very spirit of him who saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets,' Prov. xxii. 13; of him whose 'way is as an hedge of thorns,' Prov. xv. 19; and of him who buried his talent in the earth, instead of improving it, and out of his own mouth is condemned as a wicked and slothful servant, Matt. xxv. 18. 24. 30. It is a sound precept of Dr. Johnson's, 'Neglect no opportunity of doing good, nor check the desire of doing it by a vain fear of what may happen.'

"Opportunity," continued my uncle,

"is often sacrificed to prejudice. We have set our minds against a certain measure, a certain course, or a certain party, and thus we overlook, and perhaps reject, all the good they might yield us-perhaps the greatest good that was ever within our offer. 'How shall this man save us?' was the scornful tone of the children of Belial concerning Saul the Lord's anointed, 1 Sam. x. 27. Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?' was the language of many who, through prejudice, rejected the Messiah. It was the language of one, who was afterwards brought to a better mind, to lay aside prejudice, to investigate truth, and to embrace the opportunity of conversing with Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, John i. 45, 46. It is through prejudice that many in our day, like the Jews of old, despise the simplicity of the gospel, or dislike its humbling, or its holy doctrines, and say of the Saviour, 'We will not have this man to reign over us,' and ' reject the counsel of God against themselves,' Luke xix. 14; vii. 30.

"Procrastination. Ah, there is no obstacle to the improvement of opportunity more universal and fatal than procrastination! Thousands are every day suffering the loss of advantages which they might have possessed, and fully intended to possess, but delayed to embrace the opportunity, until it eluded their grasp. This is seen alike in trifles, and in concerns of magnitude."

My uncle mentioned a painful instance which had occurred in his own experience. A friend of his was suffering from a formidable malady, for which he had been strongly recommended to apply to a physician in London, who had been remarkably successful in cases of that nature. The gentleman who recommended him, related several signal cures wrought under his treatment, which excited lively hope in the mind of the sufferer, who eagerly inquired the name and residence of the physician. The gentleman replied that he had recently changed his abode, but that on his return he would obtain his address, and forward it to my uncle, who was to be in London on a certain day. Immediately on his arrival, my uncle called at the place appointed, but no direction was left there. It arrived by the next day's post; but then my uncle was so engaged that he could not command time to go to such a distance, and the day was lost. Next day my uncle made it his first business to hasten

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to the address of the medical gentleman. He knocked and inquired if Dr. M. were at home. "This is not Dr. M.'s house,' replied the servant, "it is the next door; but Dr. M. now lies dead. He was taken off suddenly two days ago." So, by a little procrastination, perhaps unavoidable delay, the opportunity was irrecoverably lost, of any benefit that might have been derived from his skill. This circumstance my uncle related with much feeling, and added-"And is it not thus in the affairs of the soul? Do not the spiritually diseased put off, from day to day, application to the great Physician? Do not their friends put off, from day to day, plainly to admonish them of their danger, and urge them to seek the remedy, until it is too late. The spiritual health is not recovered, the sinner dies under his disease, not because there is no Physician or no balm in Gilead, Jer. viii. 22; but because the application is neglected. Thus Satan cheats us of all our time by cheating us of the present time.

| "There is one more cause of the neglect of opportunity, which occurs to my mind as nearly connected with procrastination. It is presumption. We neglect present opportunities because we flatter ourselves, in defiance of all reason, Scripture, and experience, that we shall have plenty more-that opportunity will either be prolonged or renewed. The young let slip the golden opportunity of youth, incomparably the best time for embracing religion, because they presume on its being time enough to attend to it when age advances. The busy neglect religion, while they presume on future leisure. healthy put off repentance to a sick bed. Thus each after his own peculiar manner, like Felix, dismisses the solemn truths that claim immediate attention, by presuming on a more 6 convenient season,' Acts xxiv. 25, which in the vast majority of cases never arrives. Multitudes of lost spirits might now mingle their voices, in tones emphatic with the horrors of despair, to press upon heedless procrastinating mortals the solemn consideration that, to them, 'Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation," " 2 Cor. vi. 2.

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while it is called to-day: 'the night cometh, when no man can work,' Jas. iv. 8; Acts ix. 6; John ix. 4. In the other, 'Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,' Jas. iv. 7. The greatest heroism is at once to quit the field where opportunity invites to evil, saying,' How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God ?'" Gen. xxxix. 9.

AN ARABIAN TALE.

A WHIMSICAL Story, says Lane, is told of a king, who denied to poets those rewards to which usage had almost given them a claim. This king, whose name is not recorded, had the faculty of retaining in his memory an ode after having only once heard it; and had a memlook who could repeat an ode which he had twice heard, and a female slave who could repeat one that she had heard thrice. Whenever a poet came to compliment him with a panegyrical ode, the king used to promise him that if he found his verses to be his original composition, he would give him a sum of money equal in weight to what they were written upon. The poet consenting, would recite his ode; and the king would say, "It is not new; for I have known it for some years,' "and would repeat it as he had heard it; after which he would add, "And this memlook also retains it in his memory;" and would order the memlook to repeat it; which, having heard it twice, from the poet and the king, he would do. The king would then say to the poet, "I have also a female slave who can repeat it;" and ordering her to do so, stationed behind the curtains, she would repeat what she had thus thrice heard: so the poet would go away empty handed. The famous poet El-Asma'ee, having heard of this proceeding, and guessing the trick, determined upon outwitting the king; and accordingly composed an ode made up of very difficult words; but this was not his only preparative measure; another will be presently explained; and a third was to assume the dress of a Bedawee, that he might not be known, covering his face, the eyes only excepted, with a litham, (a piece of drapery,) in accordance with a custom of the Arabs of the desert. Thus disguised, he went to the palace, and having asked permission, entered and saluted the king, who said to him, "Whence art thou, O brother of the Arabs, and what is thy desire ?" The poet answered, "May God increase

the power of the king! I am a poct of such a tribe, and have composed an ode in praise of our lord the sultan." "O brother of the Arabs," said the king, "hast thou heard our conditions ?" "No," answered the poet, "and what are they, O king of the age ?" The king replied, "that if the ode be not thine, we give thee no reward; and if it be thine, we give thee the weight in money of what it is written upon.'

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said El-Asma'ee, "should I assume to myself what belongs to another, and knowing too that lying before kings is one of the basest of actions. But I agree to this condition, O our lord the sultan." So he repeated his ode. The king, perplexed and unable to remember any of it, made a sign to the memlook; but he had retained no. thing, and called to the female slave, but she also was unable to repeat a word. "O brother of the Arabs," said he, "thou hast spoken truth, and the ode is thine without doubt: I have never heard it before: produce, therefore, what it is written upon, and will give thee its weight in money, as we have promised." "Wilt thou," said the poet, "send one of thy attendants to carry it ?" "To carry what?” asked the king, "is it not here upon a paper in thy possession ?" "No, O O. our lord the sultan," replied the poet; "at the time I composed it, I could not procure a piece of paper upon which to write it, and could find nothing but a fragment of a marble column left me by my father, so I engraved it upon this; and it lies in the court of the palace." He had brought it, wrapt up, on the back of a camel. The king, to fulfil his promise, was obliged to exhaust his treasury; and, to prevent a repetition of this trick (of which he afterwards discovered El-Asma'ee to have been the author) in future, rewarded poets according to the usual custom of kings.

This is a story which may be told to the crafty, who, notwithstanding all their cunning, are frequently outwitted. They dig a pit for others, and fall into it themselves. The mortification to be endured in such circumstances must be great, but to practise on the credulity of others incurs guilt also. It is forbidden alike by love to our neighbours and ourselves. The petition of the psalmist should be universally adopted,

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me," Psa. xxv. 21.

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