O pity, great Father of light! then I cry'd, From doubt, and from darkness, thou only canft free.” So breaks on the traveller, faint, and aftray, AS the pleasures and advantages of religion, are inexpreffibly great here and hereafter, fo the madness and misery of irreligion, are inexpreffibly dreadful, both in this world and the next. PERHAPS nothing affords greater encouragement to ferious minds than to find that men of like paffions, placed in the fame dangerous circumstances, and furrounded with equal trials and temptations, have, by the affiftance of Divine Grace, bravely conquered the difficulties of the Christian life, and run with patience the race fet before them. HUMILITY, patience, felf-denial, and forgivenefs of injuries, carry their own reward with them, by establishing the mind in tranquility and peace: while pride, envy, wrath, and revenge, embitter the fpirits, corrode the vitals, and devour every eafy thought. AMBITIOUS men can conceive no good or happiness, but that which they imagine must arife from greatness ; yet he is often the object of envy, who, if the fecrets of his heart were known, might more properly be faid to deserve pity. HE who is puffed up with the firft gale of profperity, will be likely to bend beneath the first blaft of adversity. LET LET your morning facrifice ftatedly afcend as a fincere token of the gratitude you feel for the mercies of another night; and your evening devotion as a renewed teftimony of the fenfe you have of God's kind protection and goodnefs through the viciffitudes of another day. In fo doing, you will experience a delight and pleasure that will induce you to perfevere in the midft of furrounding oppofition; and it is this pleafure, that will ftrengthen and fupport you under many of the trials you must expect to meet with, in civil, in domeftic, and religious life. It is this that will make the most preffing difficulties appear comparatively light; and if they are fet in competition with the many fpiritual bleffings with which you are indulged, they will dwindle into nothing. WHEN Snows defcend, and robe the fields Struck by the Sun, the luftre yields, The Violet blue, which fpring fupplies, But, oh! how foon the fragrance dies! The Summer Rofe, at morn full blown, With ftreaming fire, a meteor gay Streaks autumn's ev'ning skies; And in an instant dies Such are the charms adorn the face, So every beauty, every grace, The fair poffeffor fly. K 2 DOWN DOWN the fmooth ftream of life the ftripling darts, THIS may be laid down as a general maxim, that whofoever is not fincere to man, can never be fincere to God; nor can he that is unfincere to God, be ever fincere to man : for without fincerity there can be no virtue, either moral or divine. IF we do not believe God to be infinitely wifer than ourfelves, why do we worship him? if we do, why do we not with an happy affurance commit ourselves, and all that belongs to us, entirely to his will and difpofal? THERE are two extraordinary virtues to be learned from human imperfection. The imperfections of others j may teach us patience; and our own may teach us humility. BY fo much the more are we inwardly foolish, by how much we strive to feem outwardly wife. TRUE wit confifts in retrenching all useless difcourfe; and in faying a great deal in a few words. TO be peaceable, and to be candid, is not all that is required of a good man, He muft cultivate a kind, generous, and fympathizing temper, which feels for diftrefs, wherever it is beheld; which enters into the concerns of his friends with ardour; and to all with whom he has intercourfe, is gentle, obliging, and humane. FROM an humble and contented temper, will spring a cheerful one. This, if not in itself a virtue, is at least the garb in which virtue should be always arrayed. HOW HOW little does he know of the true happiness of life, who is a stranger to that intercourfe of good offices and kind affections, which, by a pleafing charm, attach men to one another, and circulate joy from heart to heart. GREATNESS confers no exemption from the cares and forrows of life: its share of them frequently bears a melancholy proportion to its exaltation. O! then of what avails the pompous hour? IF we compare our adverfities with thofe of other men, we shall always find something that equals, if not exceeds our own. LET us not inquire into the affairs of others that concern us not, but be bufied within ourselves, and our own fpheres; ever remembering, that to pry into the actions or interefts of other people not under our charge, may minifer to pride, to tyranny, to uncharitableness, to trouble, but can never confift with modefty, unlefs where duty, or the meer intentions of charity and relation do warrant it. HOW swiftly glide the fleeting years! Their rapid course can stay; Time blafts, alas! the faireft face, He mocks the feeble pow'rs of man; Protract the final doom: The rich, the poor, the great, the finall, And fill alike the tomb. THE humble addrefs which the prodigal made to his father, (in that excellent parable given us by Chrift) the father's return to it, and the manner of his reception into favour, is exceedingly expreffive of the becoming penitence of the one, and the mercy of the other: "I have finned against heaven, and in thy fight, and am no more worthy to be called thy fon, make me therefore as one of thy "hired fervants.” The tender parent compaffionates his diftrefs, takes the prodigal in his arms, owns him for his fon; orders the fatted calf to be killed, and rebukes the envy of his elder brother with, "this my fon was dead, but is alive again; was loft but is found!"-O the heighth and depth of the goodness and mercy of God! Look unto him all ye ends of the earth, and be THE virtuous mind takes no alarm, ye faved. AN inadvertent ftep may crush a snail LET me, oh! let me, e'er the tempeft roar, Catch the first gale, and make the nearest shore; In facred filence, join the lowly train, Where humble peace, and fweet contentment reign. I'LL range the mead, Or flow'ry lawn, crop each luxuriant shrub, And court fimplicity. Of blushing innocence. She-madeit maid, Is ever feen to tread the lovely paths COULD I the fpacious earth command, Or was the ocean mine, For but one hour at GoD's right hand, I'd gladly both refign. WHO |