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painful anxiety we, in these latter days, are happily relieved. To us immortal life is clearly revealed,-more clearly than it was even to those ancient worthies to whom God graciously revealed himself and committed his oracles. During the dispensation under which they lived, the prospect of a better world was afforded them; but by dark and distant allusions. The city of God was seen only from afar-its glory was obscured by intervening shades. But by the gospel these shades are dispelled: the Sun of righteousness has arisen: eternal objects brighten: heaven, with all its glory, opens to our eyes. There we behold the "righteous," those who are justified by grace, and devoted to the service of their Saviour, adorned with all the holiness, filled with all the happiness, and clothed with all the honour, which can be conferred upon their nature. Here they are as a city set upon a hill: they are the light of the world: but all this is not worthy to be named, when we think of what they shall be when they "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.' There sin and pain shall never enter: old things shall have passed away, and all things have become new. The happiness here enjoyed shall have every thing to increase, and nothing to diminish its value. its nature, it shall be full and satisfactory; and as to uration, it shall be lasting as eternity.

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SAVILE.

47. ON THE WORKS AND ATTRIBUTES OF THE ALMIGHTY.

CONTEMPLATE the great scenes of nature, and accustom yourselves to connect them with the perfections of God. All vast and unmeasurable objects are fitted to impress the soul with awe. The mountain which rises above the neighbourng hills, and hides its head in the sky-the sounding, unfathomed, boundless deep-the expanse of heaven, where above and around no limit checks the wondering eyethese objects fill and elevate the mind-they produce a solemn frame of spirit, which accords with the sentiment of religion. From the contemplation of what is great and magnificent in nature, the soul rises to the Author of all. We think of the time which preceded the birth of the universe, when no being existed but God alone. While unnumbered systems arise in order before us, created by

his power, arranged by his wisdom, and filled with his presence the earth and the sea, with all that they contain, are hardly beheld amid the immensity of his works. In the boundless subject the soul is lost. It is he who sitteth on the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. He weigheth the mountains in scales. He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him!

The face of nature is sometimes clothed with terror. The tempest overturns the cedars of Lebanon, or discloses the secrets of the deep. The pestilence wastes the lightning consumes-the voice of the thunder is heard on high. Let these appearances be connected with the power of God. These are the awful ministers of his kingdom. The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble. Who would not fear thee, O King of nations! By the greatness of thy power thine enemies are constrained to bow.

MOODIE.

48.-ON THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE.

PAUSE for a while, ye travellers on the earth, to contemplate the universe in which you dwell, and the glory of Him who created it. What a scene of wonders is here presented to your view! If beheld with a religious eye, what a temple for the worship of the Almighty! The earth is spread out before you, reposing amid the desolation of winter, or clad in the verdure of the spring-smiling in the beauty of summer, or loaded with autumnal fruit ;-opening to an endless variety of beings the treasures of their Maker's goodness, and ministering subsistence and comfort to every creature that lives. The heavens, also, declare the glory of the Lord. The sun cometh forth from his chambers to scatter the shades of night-inviting you to the renewal of your labours-adorning the face of nature-and, as he advances to his meridian brightness, cherishing every herb and every flower that springeth from the bosom of the earth. Nor, when he retires again from your view, doth he leave the Creator without a witness. He only hides his own splendour for a while to disclose to you a more glorious scene to show you the immensity of space filled with worlds unnumbered, that your imaginations may wander without a limit, in the vast creation of God.

What a field is here opened for the exercise of every pious emotion! and how irresistibly do such contemplations as these awaken the sensibility of the soul! Here is infinite power to impress you with awe-here is infinite wisdom to fill you with admiration-here is infinite goodness to call forth your gratitude and love. The correspondence between these great objects and the affections of the human heart is established by nature itself; and they need only to be placed before us, that every religious feeling may be excited. MOODIE.

49.-
-ON AUTUMN.

LET the young go out, in these hours, under the descending sun of the year, into the fields of nature. Their hearts are now ardent with hope,-with the hopes of fame, of honour, or of happiness; and in the long perspective which is before them, their imagination creates a world where all may be enjoyed. Let the scenes which they now may witness moderate, but not extinguish their ambition: while they see the yearly desolation of nature, let them see it as the emblem of mortal hope;—while they feel the disproportion between the powers they possess and the time they are to be employed, let them carry their ambitious eye beyond the world;—and while in these sacred solitudes, a voice in their own bosom corresponds to the voice of decaying nature, let them take that high decision which becomes those who feel themselves the inhabitants of a greater world, and who look to a being incapable of decay.

Let the busy and the active go out, and pause for a time amid the scenes which surround them, and learn the high lesson which nature teaches in the hours of its fall. They are now ardent with all the desires of mortality;—and fame, and interest, and pleasure are displaying to them their shadowy promises :-and in the vulgar race of life, many weak and many worthless passions are too naturally engendered. Let them withdraw themselves for a time from the agitations of the world; let them mark the deso. lation of summer, and listen to the winds of winter, which begin to murmur above their heads. It is a scene which, with all its power, has yet no reproach :-it tells them, that

such is also the fate to which they must come; that the pulse of passion must one day beat low; that the illusions of time must pass; and "that the spirit must return to Him who gave it." It reminds them, with gentle voice, of that innocence in which life was begun, and for which no prosperity of vice can make any compensation; and that angel who is one day to stand upon the earth, and to "swear that time shall be no more," seems now to whisper to them, amid the hollow winds of the year, what manner of men they ought to be who must meet that decisive hour.

There is an eventide in human life, a season when the eye becomes dim, and the strength decays, and when the winter of age begins to shed upon the human head its prophetic snow. It is the season of life to which the present is most analogous; and much it becomes, and much it would profit you, to mark the instructions which the season brings. The spring and the summer of your days are gone, and with hem, not only the joys they knew, but many of the friends who gave them. You have entered upon the autumn of your being, and whatever may have been the profusion of your spring, or the warm intemperance of your summer, there is yet a season of stillness and of solitude which the beneficence of Heaven affords you, in which you may meditate upon the past and the future, and prepare yourselves for the mighty change which you are soon to undergo.

If it be thus you have the wisdom to use the decaying season of nature, it brings with it consolations more valuable than all the enjoyments of former days. In the long retrospect of your journey, you have seen every day the shades of the evening fall, and every year the clouds of winter gather. But you have seen also, every succeeding day, the morning arise in its brightness, and in every suc ceeding year, the spring return to renovate the winter of nature. It is now you may understand the magnificent language of Heaven,-it mingles its voice with that of revelation,-it summons you, in these hours when the leaves fall and the winter is gathering, to that evening study which the mercy of Heaven has provided in the book of salvation; and while the shadowy valley opens which leads to the abode of death, it speaks of that hand which can com

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fort and can save, and which can conduct to those " pastures, and those still waters," where there is an eternal spring for the children of God.

ALISON.

50.-EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH OF JAMES WILSON, IN THE CONVENTION FOR THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA, IN VINDICATION OF THE COLONIES, JANUARY, 1775.

MR. CHAIRMAN,-Whence, sir, proceeds all the invidious and ill-grounded clamour against the colonists of America? Why are they stigmatized in Britain as licentious and ungovernable? Why is their virtuous opposition to th illegal attempts of their governors, represented under the falsest colours, and placed in the most ungracious point of view?

This opposition, when exhibited in its true light, and when viewed, with unjaundiced eyes, from a proper situation, and at a proper distance, stands confessed the lovely offspring of freedom. It breathes the spirit of its parent. Of this ethereal spirit, the whole conduct, and particularly the late conduct, of the colonists has shown them eminently possessed. It has animated and regulated every part of their proceedings. It has been recognised to be genuine, by all those symptoms and effects by which it has been distinguished in other ages and other countries. It has been calm and regular: it has not acted without occasion: it has not acted disproportionably to the occasion. As the attempts, open or secret, to undermine or to destroy it, have been repeated or enforced, in a just degree, its vigilance and its vigour have been exerted to defeat or to disappoint them. As its exertions have been sufficient for those purposes hitherto, let us hence draw a joyful prognostic, that they will continue sufficient for those purposes hereafter. It is not yet exhausted: it will still operate irresistibly whenever a necessary occasion shall call forth its strength.

Permit me, sir, by appealing, in a few instances, to the spirit and conduct of the colonists, to evince that what 1 have said of them is just. Did they disclose any uneasiness at the proceedings and claims of the British parlia ment, before those claims and proceedings afforded a rea

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