Change of Seasons beneficial to the Earth.

admirable wisdom and goodness. That which appears defective and imperfect to me, furnishes more illuminated minds with strong reasons to admire and celebrate the infinite perfections of the Creator. And, supposing I should not always be in a capacity to acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of God, in the creation and preservation of the world; it should ever satisfy me to know, that Jehovah hath done all things well.

Such shall be my judgment henceforth concerning the moral government of God, and his dealings with intelligent creatures. As in Nature he has distributed in an apparently unequal manner, cold and heat, light and darkness; he has shewn also a great diversity in his dispensations towards rational creatures; and has not regulated the lot of each in the same way. But here, as in Nature, his ways are always the ways of wisdom and goodness. Even as our globe could not subsist, were there not heat and cold; it is certain that the world must be destroyed, were there a perfect equality in the lot of all human beings. All that the Lord has regulated and ordered, is perfect and admirable. All his paths are mercy and truth, to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. To him be glory for ever and ever!

FEBRUARY IV.

THE UTILITY OF THE STARS.

IN the eye of every person, who delights to reflect on the works of God, the starry heavens is an admirable theatre of the wonders of the Most High. The order, grandeur, multitude and splendor, of these celestial bodies, present the most magnificent sight to an attentive observer of Nature. The mere view of the stars, supposing we had no knowledge of their nature and design, would be sufficient to fill the mind with admiration and joy. For, what more majestic and beautiful can be seen, than that immense expanse of heaven, illuminated by lamps without number, which the azure face of the sky causes to appear more glorious; and which differ from each other, not only in magnitude, but in brightness!

But could a Being, infinitely wise, have adorned this celestial vault with so many bodies of immense magnitude, only for the gratification of our eyes, and to afford us a beautiful sight? Would he have created innumerable suns, only, that the inhabitants of our little globe, might have the pleasure of seeing certain luminous points in the firmament; the nature and design of which are but very imperfectly known, and themselves but rarely noticed? We cannot indulge such an idea, if we consider, that there is every where in nature, an admirable harmony between the works of God, and the ends which he proposes: and, that in all he does, he not only designs to please, but to profit his creatures. We cannot doubt, but God in fixing

Utility of the Stars.

the stars in the heavens, has had more exalted views, than that of procuring us a pleasing sight. It is true, we cannot determine exactly all the particular ends which the stars may answer: but, at least it is very easy to acknowledge, that they must be designed for the advantage as well as the ornament of the world; and the following considerations will, doubtless, suffice to convince us of it.

Among those stars which we can easily distinguish, there are some which are constantly in the same region of the heavens; and which we always see over our heads. These are guides to those who travel by land or water, during the obscurity of the night. They point out to the mariner his course, and inform him when he may undertake his voyages with the least danger, that he may arrive happily at the place of his destination. Other stars vary their aspects, and though they always preserve the same situation among themselves, they daily change the times of their rising and setting, in respect to us. Even these changes, which are brought about in an invariable order, are of great utility to us. They serve to measure time, and to determine it by settled rules. The constant, regular revolution of the stars, mark precisely the commencement and end of the seasons. The husbandman. knows, in the most correct manner, when it is time to commit his seed to the earth; and in what order he should conduct the cultivation of his fields.

However considerable the advantage may be, which the stars are of to our earth, it is to be confidently presumed that this is neither the only, nor principal end,

Utility of the Stars.

which God has proposed in creating so many globes of such prodigious magnitude. Can any person believe, that the wise Creator would have strewed the immense expanse with so many millions of suns and worlds, for the alone end, that a small number of the inhabitants of our earth might be able to determine times, and to measure the return of seasons! Without doubt, these innumerable globes have more sublime ends; and each of them a suitable and particular destination. All the stars are so many suns, which enlighten, warm, and animate other globes. Is it likely that God would have bestowed this property uselessly upon them? Would he have created suns which can dart their rays to the earth, without producing other worlds which might enjoy their benign influence! Would God, who has peopled this earth, which is but a point, with so many living creatures, have placed in the immense extent of heaven, so many desert spheres? Certainly not. Probably each of these fixed stars, which we see by thousands, has its worlds which revolve round it; and for which it has been created.. Probably, these spheres, which we see above us, serve for habitations to different orders of creatures; that they are, like our earth, peopled with inhabitants which can admire, and celebrate the magnificence of the works of God. Probably, all these globes, as well as ours, send up incessantly to their Creator, prayers, songs of praise, and thanksgivings!

It is true, that these are but probable conjectures : but these conjectures may be very pleasing and useful to every man who truly loves God. What a sublime

Utility of the Stars.

thought is this, that, independently of the small number of rational creatures which inhabit this globe, there are innumerable multitudes in those worlds, which to us appear but as luminous points. It is certain, that the limits of our earth are not the bounds of the empire of the Most High. Beyond this world, there is an immensity, in comparison of which our globe, great as it may appear, may be accounted as nothing. Intelligent beings without number may exist there: all magnify the name of our great Creator: all are as happy as their situations can admit; and perhaps, all aspire after a better world!

O ye unknown creatures! Beings, which have with me proceeded out of the hands of the same Creator; I desire as well as you, to arrive in a better world, where I shall know God and his works, not by conjectures and probabilities; but by the deepest conviction, and by the most clear and distinct view. Then shall I find myself nearer to those immense spheres, which I see so dimly now; and of which I have so imperfect a knowledge in this state of distance and ignorance in which I am found. Then, I shall take my flight, pass rapidly from one planet to another, ascend from star to star, and magnify the name of the Most High!-O! when shall this be!