Spring is returning! She begins to struggle fo cendency over winter. The ice is quitting the riv the meadows are putting on their verdure. Flow and there, are already blooming, and the tender trembling in the breeze Merrily the lark pours notes in the sky, and every thing around seems to with joy.

Each succeeding day invites us to a ramble in th We are impatient to walk forth, and enjoy the beaut Before the swelling buds have blossome landscape appears in all its glory, we find ourselves ing the thicket, or clambering the mountain's top many ardent hopes are pictured to our adoring sou think of the many pleasant days we shall enjoy, excursions through the country, or in the society we love! What fragrant mornings await us! and licious evenings--full of delight-when the fresh b flowers float upon the air-and the moon pours magic and silver light upon the rocks, and strea quiet habitations of men! We think of the jo are past, and contemplate those that are to come!

d

ready to repeat with David: "bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."

I am never weary of beholding the magnificence of God, or praising his manifold and wonderful works. From my infancy I have surveyed the changing seasons as they pass by me, and in them I always behold the same beneficent and adorable Creator. As I increase in years, the more smiling and blissful to me is every returning spring and summer, and more replete with happiness the autumn and winter. Who indeed is like unto the Lord our God?

When spring returns, all is life, motion and activity. Every thing, too, undergoes a change. Plants that were dead, are quickened into life, and all that has vanished, now re-appears. The dismal and melancholy waste is clothed with flowers and deserts of ice and snow are blossoming with the rose. But the history of a year, with its blossoms, and fruits; sunshine and snow, is but the history of a single moment. This seeming change is but an illusion. The sun that appears to move through the heavens, is stationary. Noon and night; morning and evening; summer and winter-all exist at the same time. If we could take the wings of an angle, and soar above the earth, into the immeasurable regions of space; then would the globe we inhabit move onward in its course, and as it plays in the beams of the sun, we would observe light and shade, and all the variety of the seasons at the same instant. The evening splendor of one country, is the morning light of its antipodes.

One belf the world is lost in slumber while the other is

busy and active. Here is quiet and repose-there and festivity. Here is the brightness of noon; solemnity of midnight. On one side we behold t covered with snow and ice, the inhabitants half be with cold-on the other, the plains smoking, the withering, and the animals dying with the intensity In one place we see the blossoms of spring-in a the ripe and mellow fruits of autumn. What order beauty! what enchantment! And this is called t who occupies but a small portion of the globe, the of the seasons.

As we cast our eyes abroad, we behold innumerable filling the immensity of space. The beings who upon their surface, have, like us, their divisions of th and changes of the year. To them, our earth appe a mere speck -a grain of sand upon the sea shore. we who people it--what are we? What is all our imag wealth and splendor? What are all the thrones, th pires, and the legions of armed men, before whom w accustomed to tremble ?--aye, tremble, while we sca regard the Creator, who called them into existence. exalted, and how insignificant-how.mighty and how does man appear at the same moment!

While I rejoice in the return of spring, I also rejoi the harmony that pervades the works of nature. W ever changes may seem to present themselves, still power that controls and governs them, forever rem the same. The blasts of winter may sweep over the pl

but they will be succeeded by the warm and fragrant breath of summer. Man is fickle and inconstant, but God is firm

and immoveable. Then, why do I not rely more confidently on his assistance? Why do I follow the advice of erring and short-sighted mortals, rather than the wisdom of him who is eternal? whose word endureth forever?

Every

Imperishable are the works of the Creator! Nothing that we behold can be annihilated! The constituent parts of the universe may gradually decay; but in this very corruption, we perceive the source of new life. thing that disappears, is re-produced in a new form. There is an intimate connexion observable throughout the whole natural world. The drop of water that falls to the ground will in time find its way to the ocean, whence it is again taken up, and cast upon the earth. What unfathomable goodness is every day unfolded to our view? Century

upon century has passed away, and yet every thing, save man, remains almost unchanged. The rose and the lilly that we gather in our fields, are like unto those that bloom ́ed in the gardens of the wise king, nearly three thousand years ago. The birds and the beasts, are the same now that they ever have been; the moon and the stars look down upon the earth with their wonted brightness and beauty. Only man has increased in intelligence. He derives instruction from every thing around him. Nations perish, but the learning and wisdom of their sages and philosophers are handed as a rich legacy to succeeding ages. But the human mind is as a flower which only in