advertisement to the first German edition, were,

First,

to provide a sufficient variety; and, secondly, that the reader might be led to sanctify each day, by contemplating the works of God." These are also the motives of the present writer; but the desultory manner and declamatory style of this author he has endeavored to avoid ; and a more systematic method has been attempted, replete with facts and illustrations, so as to form a whole, containing, what the title expresses, the 'SACRED PHILOSOPHY OF THE SEA$ONS.'

It is customary, in enumerating the Seasons, to comnence with Spring; and it may be proper, in a few words, to state one or two reasons which induced the Author to depart from that order, and begin with Winter.

Winter is not the death of Nature, neither is it merely the season of Nature's sleep after the labors of the vegetable world are finished. A thousand secret operations are in progress, by which the seeds, buds, and roots, of future plants and flowers, are not only preserved but elaborated, that, when the prolific months of Spring arrive, they may burst into life in all the freshness and vigor of a new birth. This, which is both a more important and a more interesting view than that which is commonly entertained, represents Winter as the first stage in the processes and developements of the revolving year, and fixes it as the natural commencement of a Work, which has for its object an exhibition of the SACRED PHILOSOPHY OF THE SEASONS.

There is another circumstance, too, which involves no principle, indeed, like the former, but which renders the plan adopted a matter at least of convenient arrangement. Winter is the season in which, although the hand of a beneficent and wonder-working Creator is every where to be distinctly traced, there are fewer objects of interest, in comparison with the other seasons, to arrest the attention, and to engage the mind in devout contemplation of the

Divine perfections. An Author, studying to gain the public favor, must, doubtless, regard this as a disadvantage in making his first appearance; but then, it has this counterbalancing use, that space is thus gained for some necessary introductory papers on the broader and more general cosmical arrangements, which are peculiar to none of the seasons, but common to them all. As the plan of daily reflections, of a certain moderate length, obliges the Author to stretch his literary offspring, as it were, on Procrustes' bed, the convenience of including such papers in the volume devoted to Winter will be readily acknowledged.

The expressions, "contrivance," "ingenuity," ". compensation for defects," &c., as applied to the operations of the Eternal, seem, in some sense, to detract from the infinite perfection of His character, and to bring the exercise of His attributes too much on a level with the operations of the human mind. But this arises from a defect, not merely in the language, but the conceptions of men; and while we are sensible of the inadequacy of these expressions, we know not how to apply a remedy. In this, the Writer only follows in the track of others.

The Sunday papers contain religious and moral reflections, generally suggested by the subject of discussion on the preceding week.

A few papers have been kindly furnished by ingenious friends, which are distinguished from those of the Author, by being subscribed with their initials.

RUTHWELL MANSE,

October 20, 1836.

SACRED PHILOSOPHY

OF THE

SEASONS.

WINTER.

FIRST WEEK-SUNDAY.

GOODNESS OF GOD TO HIS RATIONAL CREATURES.

WE are about to commence a course of study, which will lay before us, in detail, abundant proofs of beneficent design, exhibited in the various departments of creation; and we surely cannot better employ this first day of the first week of our delightful and edifying task, than in considering some of the more obvious and general evidences of the paternal regard, which the Creator bestows on our race-the chief of his sublunary works.

But the difficulty lies in knowing where to begin, and what to select; for we cannot turn in any direction where His love does not smile around us. In Him we live, and move, and have our being; and all that we possess flows entirely from the exhaustless source of His bounty. From the first moment of our existence, His guardian arm surrounded us, and at this instant we are the objects of His providential care. He listened to our helpless cries, and supplied all our infant wants, before our hearts had learned to acknowledge their Benefactor, or our tongues to pronounce His name. It was He who opened the bosoms of our parents to impressions of tenderness, and taught them to experience a nameless delight in those

little attentions which our tender years required. To secure the good offices of the generous, He clothed our countenances in the smiles of innocence; and, to soften the hearts of the cruel, He caused our eyes to overflow with tears. He strengthened our bodies, and enlarged our minds. Through all the slippery paths of youth, His hand unseen conducted us, guarding us from temptation, delivering us from danger, and crowning our days with His goodness. And whatever period of life we have now reached, we owe our continued lives to His preserving care, and our blessings, both past and present, to His paternal bounty.

Let us look at particulars. If we turn to our connexion with surrounding nature, it is God's air which we breathe, and God's sun that enlightens us. The grateful vicissitudes of day and night, the revolutions of the seasons, marked by the regular return of summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, are all appointed by His unerring wisdom. It is His pencil, which paints the flower, and His fragrance, which it exhales. By His hand, the fields are clothed in beauty, and caused to teem with plenty. At His command, the mountains rose, the valleys sank, and the plains were stretched out. His seas

surround our coasts, and His winds blow, to waft to us the treasures of distant lands, and to extend the intercourse of man with man.

But we are made capable of more exalted enjoyments than can be derived from external nature; and He, who formed us with these capacities, has not left us without the means of exercising them. Originally created in the image of God, the human soul, as if conscious of its celestial origin, finds permanent enjoyment only in the cultivation of those faculties which prove its resemblance to its Creator. Nor has the Father of mercies left us without the means of such enjoyment. In society, the pleasures of beneficence, and the movements of compassion; in friendship, the interchange of good offices, and the balm of sympathy; in domestic life, the tenderness of conjugal affection, and the endearments of filial and parental duty; and, to crown all, in religion, the sublime

enjoyments of devotion, and the blessed hopes of immortality, give an unspeakable charm to existence, and prove the Divine Being who bestowed these gifts, to be full of condescending kindness to his rational offspring.

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"How gracious indeed the care which has provided a remedy for our spiritual wants, and an answer for those longings and fears which look beyond our present dwelling, and make earnest inquiries of eternity! How precious that Divine word, which bears assurance of pardon to the sincerely repentant, and promises of peace and joy to the sorrowful and broken-hearted; which tells of a merciful Saviour, who was wounded for our transgressions, who was acquainted with our griefs, and who died that we might live! These blessings change not with the changing seasons, nor pass away with the rolling years." When the believer thinks of them, his heart overflows with gratitude; and the deep emotion which they excite, finds no language more suitable for its expression, than the short, but emphatic exclamation of an apostle,-"Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!"

FIRST WEEK-MONDAY.

THE CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE.-COMPENSATION.

BEFORE proceeding to the examination of particulars, with the view of exhibiting the attributes of the great Creator, as manifested in the seasons of the year, it is of importance to discover the nature of the principles which are to form the subject of our investigation; more especially, as there is certainly something very remarkable in the character impressed on the created objects within the sphere of our observation. Were we to commence the inquiry without the aid of experience, founding our expectations on the abstract theories of perfection which we might form in the closet, we should assur