rience, the unprofitableness of sin, and he hates it,—the emptiness of human honors, and he despises them,-the worthlessness of earthly pleasures, and he looks beyond them.

Contemplate the servant of Jesus, as, under the guidance of Heaven, he advances through this vale of tears, gradually throwing off the load of his sins,-mixing with the world, that he may learn to despise its follies,-gaining strength by moral discipline, and improving in virtues and graces at every step. In this character, you witness the highest glory of human nature in its state of sin and suffering on earth,—a being, worthy of the approbation of angels. You see, a soldier taught to fight the good fight of faith, and trained to victory amidst hardships, dangers, and death,-a pilgrim travelling through the wilderness, with steady eye fixed on the Holy Land,a pupil of God, instructed in the school of His providence, an heir of immortality, rendered meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.

Clothed now in the armor of God, he goes forth conquering and to conquer ;" surrounded with danger, but trusting in an unseen arm; struggling with sorrow, yet kissing the hand which inflicts the wound; "troubled on every side, but not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair: persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed:" eluding the snares of the world, and even successfully contending with "principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places."

What striking instances of the efficacy of Christian principles, exercised amidst vicissitudes and suffering, do we discover in the Apostles of our Lord, who rejoiced when they were counted worthy of stripes for the sake of their beloved Master, in whom "tribulation wrought patience, and patience experience, and experience hope;" and whom "hope made not ashamed, because, the love of God was shed abroad in their hearts." And, above all, what a dignified and lovely example of the same principle do we behold in Christ, himself, whose whole life was an illustration of the power of Divine grace, in

calling the noblest faculties into exercise, and thus rendering the character of man "perfect through suffering ;" and who could,-at the close of His earthly career, when He saw the time immediately at hand, so full of unutterable horrors, in which the whole world was to be combined against Him, in which His very disciples were to forsake their Master, and allow Him to tread the winepress alone, who could, I say, even in this most appalling hour of the power of darkness, preserve unshaken His confidence in an unseen God, and feeling that He was not alone, for the Father was with Him, could in pious resignation exclaim, "Father! not as I will, but as Thou wilt !"

But there is a far higher consideration, which gives a peculiar character to the troubles of life, and stamps on them an inestimable value. They prepare mortal man for immortality. Here is the true source of Christian consolation. What are a few fleeting years of imperfect enjoyment, or even of positive calamity, when, through that very condition, we shall be rendered meet to enter the kingdom of God, and dwell with Him for ever? Who would not go on a pilgrimage through this dark and howling wilderness, when he sees rising before him, in all their grandeur and beauty, the everlasting mansions of the promised land? Who would not cheerfully bear the light affliction of the present moment, when he knows that it is "working out for him a far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory ?"

FOURTH WEEK-MONDAY.

I THE STARRY HEAVENS.

-GENERAL REMARKS

NOTHING is better calculated to raise the contemplative mind to the great Author of all things, than a view of the starry heavens, when night has cast its deep shade

over the face of Nature, and the frost of winter has not only converted the earth into stone, and the waters into crystal, but has charmed the exhalations from the air, and endowed it with such a beautiful transparency, that each little star shoots its radiance on the eye, and the whole sublime hemisphere seems like an immense and gorgeous dome, studded with diamonds; a fit temple for the worship of the Creator. The untutored savage, though he regards the stars only as so many lamps suspended from the azure vault, to enlighten and cheer his abode, is struck with admiration of the gift; and, with a heart overflowing with gratitude, falls down to bless the Great Spirit who bestowed it. Ignorance and astonishment have gone still further; and, in almost all nations, traces are to be found of the worship of the heavenly bodies,-a rude, but not altogether unnatural form of religion to the uninstructed mind. The "Hosts of Heaven," are assuredly the most striking and appropriate visible emblems of the glory of the Almighty Unseen; and, where the mind has been unaccustomed to reflect on any objects but those which strike the senses, the mistake may, without difficulty, be accounted for. Certainly such a belief, is neither so strange nor so revolting, as the worship of cows and serpents, or even of men and devils, with examples of which the history of heathen mythology abounds.

Science, however, even in its earliest efforts, easily shook off this superstition; and, as it advanced, exhibited new wonders in the sky, which extended the views, while they intensely excited the curiosity, of man, and gave deep exercise to his intellectual faculties. Hence have resulted discoveries which have overwhelmed the mind with astonishment. It does appear little less than miraculous, that a worm of earth, like man, who is bound to a little spot of this remote planet; whose abode upon it is but threescore and ten years; whose bodily strength is inferior to that of many other animals; whose powers of vision are more limited; whose intellect, in ordinary circumstances, rises but little beyond a mere provision for daily subsistence; that this being, with faculties and means apparently so inadequate, should have been enabled,

by dint of an insatiable desire of knowledge, and an unwearied perseverance, to overcome so many difficulties, and to forge a key, by which the mysteries of the universe have been unlocked, and a near view has been obtained of the secret springs, which, under the fiat of the Creator, move the amazing machinery of the material world. Little did the rude inhabitants of the earth think, when they gazed, in stupid surprise, on the tiny sparks which bespangled the heavens, that each of these was a globe of fire, compared with which the earth they inhabited, was but as a ball, which a child tosses in his hand; that the distance at which they were situated, was so amazing, that a hundred millions of miles was but as the length of an infant's step. Yet these are truths now familiar to every mind, and established by demonstrations, on which skepticism itself dare not breathe a doubt.

or,

The world of wonders into which astronomy introduces us, is calculated at once to enlarge and to depress the mind; to depress it with a sense of its own insignificance; to enlarge it with views and exercises so immense, that, as it expands, it perceives more and more clearly the immeasurable vastness of the grasp it is required to take ; and, though constantly enlarging, in proportion to its efforts, feels itself, at every step, left hopelessly behind, till at last it is lost in infinitude.

When a man confines himself to his own little locality, and looks around him on the subject earth, which his plastic hand converts from a wilderness into a garden; or on the lower animals, whom he subdues to his will, and causes, by the superiority of his mental powers, to supply his wants, and administer to his comforts; or, even on the waters of the far-spread ocean, whose proud waves he conquers, and over whose trackless wastes he makes his way; or on the free and capricious air, whose fury he controls, and whose blandness he renders subservient to his pleasures or his profit,-in such contemplations, he may find much to foster self-complacency, and to persuade him that he is, in reality, that lordly being which pride and vanity delight to portray. But the scenes which astronomy unfolds, are altogether of a different tendency,

ance.

and ought to repress those swellings of self-love, which a more partial and contracted view of his situation may excite. The voyager who has compassed the earth, when he returns to his native village is surprised to find that every thing has, to his view, contracted in its dimensions, and become comparatively mean and sordid in its appearThe houses have shrunk into hovels; the villagegreen, from a broad-spread lawn, has dwindled into a miserable court-yard; miles have diminished into furlongs; and magnificent estates into sorry farms. This effect has been produced by a contrast with the expansion of his own views ; and a similar result arises from the contemplations of the astronomer. Expatiating in the infinity of the universe, the things of earth seem to lessen while he regards them. As he pursues his inquiries, the contrast becomes daily more apparent and more humbling. He begins to perceive an emptiness in those things that formerly engaged his attention, and interested his affections, which he did not previously suspect. He finds himself placed on a little planet, whose comparative insignificance is such, that, were it struck from the face of creation, its fate would be but like that of a falling star, which loses itself in the heavens, and is remembered no more. And, as to himself, what an atom is he! How humiliating is the thought!

But the mind cannot rest here. If the creation be so inconceivably extensive, what is the Creator? This is the most interesting and elevating of all inquiries. When the mind has dwelt upon it, till its importance is appreciated, and its various bearings perceived, and then turns back upon itself, the reflection naturally occurs, "Am not I a child of this Almighty Parent? Is it not in His universe that I exist? Has He not constituted me a part of the system which His Infinite Wisdom has established? And what, then, is that system with reference to me, and the race with which I am connected ?"

Such views, open to the inquiring mind, the whole field of Natural and Revealed Religion, and lead irresistibly to the conclusion, that there is no satisfactory account of man's nature and destiny, but in the inspired