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النشر الإلكتروني

Wifdom, and experience age,
Then fhall foothe the cares of age;
Thofe with time fhall never die,
Those will lead to joys on high;
Those the path of life difplay,
Shining with celeftial day;
Blifsful path! with fafety trod,
As it leads the foul to God.

ON

HAPPINESS.

LONG have I fought the wish of all,
True happiness to find,

Which fome will wealth, fome pleasure call,
And fome a virtuous mind.
Sufficient wealth, to keep away

Of want the doleful scene,
And joy enough to gild the day,
And make life's courfe ferene.
Virtue enough to ask my heart,
Art thou fecure within ?

Haft thou perform'd an honeft part?
Haft thou no private fin?
This to perform, these things poffefs,

Muft raise a noble joy,

Muft conftitute that happiness,

Which nothing can destroy.

O! THOU, whofe pow'r o'er moving worlds prefides,
Whose voice created, and whofe wisdom guides,
On darkling man, with fond effulgence fhine,
And chear the clouded mind with light divine.
'Tis thine alone to calm the pious breast,
With filent confidence and holy reft;

From thee, great God! we spring, to thee we tend,
Path, motive, guide, original and end.

IT was a common faying among the Heathens, that the wife man hates nobody, but only loves the virtuous. The Christian owes a more general love.

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A Thought on Death.

DEATH, to a good man, is but paffing through a dark entry, out of one little dusky room of his father's house, into another, that is fair and large, lightsome, glorious and divinely entertaining.

THERE is nothing of greater importance to us, than to fift our thoughts, and examine all the dark receffes of the mind, if we would establish our fouls in fuch a folid and fubftantial virtue, as will turn to account in that great day, when it must stand the test of infinite wisdom and juftice.

ALL the real pleasures and conveniencies of life, lie in a narrow compafs; but it is the humour of mankind, to be always looking forward, and ftraining after thofe who have got the start of them in wealth and honour.

A GOOD confcience is to the foul, what health is to the body; it preferves a conftant eafe and ferenity within us, and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can poffibly befal us. I know nothing fo hard for a generous mind to get over, as calumny and reproach; and cannot find any method of quieting the foul under them, befides this fingle one, of our being confcious to ourselves, that we do not deferve them.

The Rural Scene.

SWEET contemplation to purfue,
Behold a rural scene in view,

The bleating herds, the lowing kine,
The spreading oak, the tow'ring pine;
The air, from noxious vapours free,
Whilft fquirrels trip from tree to tree,
And the fweet fongfters hover round,
Fruit, herbs, and flow'rs, enrich the ground,
And each, their various fruits produce,
Some for delight, and fome for ufe.

Behold,

Behold, O! youth, this fcene, and fee
What nature's God hath given to thee,
With wonder view his great defigns,
In which fuperior wisdom, fhines
Revere his name, admire his love,
And raise thy thoughts to worlds above.

;

TO THE POOR.

THE Providence of Almighty God has placed you under difficult circumstances of life, and daily reads you a leffon in a more particular manner to depend upon him. This you may be affured of for your comfort, that you are under God's conftant and immediate care: And one advantage you enjoy above the rich, in your journey to Heaven, is, that you are not clogged and hindered in your courfe thither, by thofe manifold incumbrances which lie on them; of whom our Saviour hath faid, "That it is very hard for them to enter into the kingdom of Heaven." Their temptations are propor tioned to their abundance; their cares are more, and their diftractions. greater; fo that you have no reason to envy them, nor repine at your own condition; and these are chiefly your temptations, and against these you muit be more particularly watchful. Certainly, if you confider things aright, you will find that your ftore-houfe is the most fure, your fupply moft certain; for you are immediately in the hands of God, of him who feedeth the ravens, and cloatheth the grafs of the field; fo that you may be much more affured that he will clothe you. Endeavour to be humble, holy, heavenly-minded; always remembering, that he is the poorest man, who is poor in grace. Your Saviour had not where to lay his head; let his example ferve to reconcile your low condition to you; and let your religious behaviour under it be the means to fanctify it.

WHEREVER we turn our eyes, we find something to revive our curiofity, and engage our attention. In the dusk of the morning, we watch the rifing of the fun,

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and fee the day diverfify the clouds, and open new profpects in its gradual advance. After a few hours, we fee the fhades lengthen, and the light decline, till the fky is refigned to a multitude of fhining orbs, different from each other in magnitude and splendour. The earth varies its appearance, as we move upon it; the woods offer their fhades, and the fields their harvests; the hill flatters with an extenfive view, and the valley invites with fhelter, fragrance and flowers.

LET not the curious from your bofom steal
Secrets, where prudence ought to fet her feal;
Yet be fo frank and plain, that at one view,
In other things, each man may fee you thro'.

GOD of my foul! without thy ftrength'ning grace,
How weak, how poor, how blind, is human grace!
To found thy praife, ten thousand worlds agree,
And nature lifts the grateful fong to thee;
To thee, with awe, the brute creation bends,
When thunder burits, or ftormy rain defcends;
Obedient to thy will, the rocks and trees
Now reft in fnow, now blefs the vernal breeze;
Yet man, prefuming on his glimm'ring fenfe,
Rafh man alone difclaims thy Providence;
The truths he dare not controvert, denies,
And 'gainst conviction fhuts his ears and eyes.

OUR follies, when difplay'd, ourselves affright,
Few are fo bad, to bear the hideous fight;
Mankind in herds, thro' force of custom stray,
Mislead each other into error's way,

Pursue the road, forgetful of the end,

Sin by mistake, and without thought offend.

SHE who values not the virtue of modesty in her words and drefs, will not be thought to fet much price upon it in her actions.

IN cafe of temptation, it is a prudent caution to avoid the encounter, when we are confcious of weaknefs, or unable to withstand it.

MOST men are ready enough to reckon up the in come of their eftates, and compute how it will answer their several expences; but few employ their arithmetic to calculate the value of their life and time, or confider how they may be expended to the best advantage. In thefe the beggar has as large a revenue as the king, though they are justly accounted the more valuable treafure.

THE foul, agitated with paffions, fares like a weak bird in a ftormy day; fhe is not able to make a straight flight, but is toffed from the track fhe would purfue, being loft and carried in the air at the pleasure of the winds. In this condition is the foul, till, by a conftant meditation on God, and application to him, it has obtained a strong and vigorous faith to ballaft and ftrengthen it, and enable it to maintain the ftraight and steady courfe of virtue.

STILL as thro' life's meandring paths I ftray,
Lord! be the fweet companion of my way;
A kind conductor to the bleft abode
Of light, of life, of happiness and God.

RELIGION's facred lamp alone
Unerring, points the way,
Where happiness forever fhines

With unpolluted ray.

Written on a Watch.

WERE but our minds, like this machine,
Unmov'd by paffion, or by fpleen,
And, true to nature's guardian pow'r,
Could mark, with goodness, ev'ry hour,
Then health and joy would follow too,
As laws of thought and motion do;

Sweet

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