whenever its doors shall be opened, to enter into the dwelling-place of God. The image of God is upon him; and the likeness of Deity is always attended with something of the happiness of the Deity.

Oh! the bliss of that state, where the faculties of the mind, inconceivably expanded, shall let in the full streams of the Divine beneficence, and open themselves to the uttermost to comprehend the length and breadth, the depth and height of that love which passeth knowledge; where Divine goodness will so act directly upon the soul, as to raise it to a state of holy enjoyment, surpassing all our present imaginations.

What a motive to go on in the pursuit of charity! Who does not wish to become better acquainted with his eternal state? Who does not wish to have a more correct knowledge of that eternal state in which he is to remain for ever? Who does not wish to behold the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, and feel it taking possession of his heart in the spirit of love?

Rarely indeed do Christians attain, in the present state, to that calm repose of mind, that serene en

joyment, attendant upon the subjugation of the passions to the gentle dominion of benevolence, which conveys to them any great degree of the supreme felicity which must be connected with the consummation of such a temper. Happy seasons do occur; but alas! how seldom, when they are so far released from the influence of every selfish and angry affection-when they so far feel the transforming influence of that Divine beneficence which they contemplate-as to be conscious of the perfect felicity which must arise from their being filled with all the fulness of love!

Let us seek more and more after these anticipations of our eternal state; we have not already attained, neither are we already perfect, but leaving the things that are behind, let us reach onward, that we may apprehend that for which also we are apprehended in Christ Jesus. Let us become more and more anxious to accumulate, not the perishing riches of silver and gold, but the imperishable wealth of a holy and heavenly temper.

Let us aspire to immortality beyond the grave, and to the spirit of it on earth, ever remembering, that a Christian is one who is born from heaven,

and is bound to it; one who has more of heaven than of earth in his disposition; one who already dwelleth in heaven by dwelling in God; one who is fitted for converse with the innumerable company of angels; one who bears the impress of eternity, and is irradiated with some beams of the celestial glory.

JAMES.

TO A WATERFOWL.

WHITHER, midst falling dew,

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far through their rosy depths dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler's eye

Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.

Seek'st thou the plashy brink

Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,

Or where the rocking billows rise and sink,
On the chafed ocean's side?

There is a Power, whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coastThe desert and illimitable air

Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold, thín atmosphere,
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end,

Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend Soon o'er thy sheltered nest.

Thou'rt gone; the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet on my heart
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart.

He, who from zone to zone

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone,

Will lead my steps aright.

BRYANT.