xv.
Thy hand, my God! is oper'd wide, T
And ev'ry creature's wants supply'd,

Jugliol
But thou thy face wilt hide, and they
Shall all by death beswept away; 92:

Let them be merry, grave, or iñourn,
All creatures must to death return,
But thou wilt send thy spirit's wind,
And life renewed all shall find.

XVI. ."
Thou wilt earth's faces 'gain restore,
Never to be destroyed more ;
In thee shall all thy works abide,.
And thou, my God, be glorify'd.
Thou, I.ord, wiltin thy works rejoice,
For earth shall hear thy mighty voice;
Her mountains smoke and melt away,
Whilst thy fierce light'nings blaze bright day.

XVII.
Whilst I exist, the song I'll raise,
The joyful song of grateful praise,
Still uningling it with rev'rence low,
Whilst I thy pow'r and goodness show.
Praise to iny God, who on this earth
Will give creation a new birth;,
But now, my soul, Jehovah bless,
With grateful songs his praise confess.

THOUGHTS

Which occurred to a Husband, while his Wife was in great Agony

IN LABOUR.

O LORD! 1 pray thee, send salvation down,

Hear now the earnest pleas from hearts distrest,
And graciously make good thy promises,
For in thy faithfulness is all our hope.

Oh! how sad are th' effects of baleful sin !
Thousands of years have roll'd their course along,
Since 'twas decreed 'gainst Eve, whose sin we feel,

Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply,
And in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children;"
And millions still prove all thy truth stands firm,
By groans from agonies beyond expression,
While quivering hope itself is scarce alive.

This day-e'en nowm-my panting heart,
With sorrow fraught, and yearning sympathy,
Weighs heavy down. A chill o'erspreads my frame;
Thought crowds on thought tumultuous, each one

More anxious than the other. Wife! children!
Oh! my torn heart! look up again to him
Whose word stands sure, whose gracious word has said,
+ She shall be sav'd in the hour of childbirth,
If she is found in faith and charity,
And holiness with sobriety."
To thee, great God, I lift my anxious pray’r;
O hear me for my much-lov'd suffering wife,
Now feeling pains, and sorrows multiplied,
By thee decreed when first her sex transgress d.
"Twas God decreed and all his ways are right,
For wisdom infinite can never err.
"Tis just that punishment should follow sin,
And just and holy is his rev'rend name.

But mercy is a partner in the throne,
Made known to man by Christ his only son.
The Father's heart's compassionate and kind;
His ear is open to his people's cry;
The pray'r of faith is prevalent with God;
For Christ himself's the faithful advocate;
Who in his body on th' accursed tree,
Bore all the curse, and sanctified their grief,
And is become their righteousness and strength.

Not for our merits, Lord! but his dear sake,
Hear now our pray's, and send salvation down.
Give strength; for now th' important hour is come.
Shorten the time of suffering, and grant
'That beam from heav'n-thatexquisite delight,
A perfect child to bless the mother's heart..!

Then shall our praise, heartfelt, ascend to thee,
Thou God of truth! while lowly down we bend
In humble grateful joy, before the throne.

R. H. M.

WE have before observed the utility of the various motions of the sea

in keeping its waters from putrefaction, but of all the motions which are observable in it, that of the tides is the most remarkable, both for its utility and regularity,

Probably it was of the tides which the sacred writer spake when he tepresented Jehovah as having set bounds to the sea and said, Hitherto shall thy proud waves come, and here shall they be stayed.,

The importance of the tides to all commercial nations is such, that they have in all ages been much attended to. The cause of them was not so soon known as their use. Ancient navigators took the advantage of them without being able to give a scientific account of their origin. In the same manner our mordern saitors take the advantage of the winds for the purposes of commerce; but very few even think of the cause of them, and even our most profound philosophers are 'not agreed' on

this point.

Homer is said to be the first profane author who speaks of the tides. Indeed it is not very clear that he alludes to them when he describes Charybdis as rising and retiring thrice in every day. The Greeks, from their situation, had but little opportunity of observing the tides. The conquests and commerce of the Romans afforded better opportunity of acquaintance with them: "and after some wild conjectures of the earliest philosophers, it became well known in the time of Pliny, that the tides were, in a small degree, under the influence of the sun;

but ia á much gréăter of the moon,

FIRY TV !!

VOL. IV.

xiith book of the Odysses.

Da

To describe the nature of the tides we must observe, that there is a certain depth of the waters of the ocean wbich would obtain, if they were perfectly at rest; but observation shows thit they are constanily varying from this level, and that variation which we call the tides, is regular and periodical. It is found that on the shores of the ocean, and in bays, creeks, and harbours, which communicate freely with the ocean, the waters rise up above this meau height twice a day, and as often sink below it, forming what is called a flood and an ebb, a high and a low water. The whole interval between high and low water is called a tide; the water is said to flow and to ebb; and the rising is called the flood tide, and the falling is called the ebb tide.

Thus the sea is observed to flow for about six hours from south to north, so that entering the mouths of rivers, it drives back the river waters towards their sources. After this continual flux of six hours the sea seems to rest for about a quarter of an hour, and then begins to ebb, or retire back again from north to south, for six hours more ; in which time the waters sinking, the rivers resuine their natural course. After a seeming pause of a quarter of an hour the sea again begins to flow as before: and thus it has always continued to do ever since the creation. It is no wonder that this amazing appearance" early excited both the attention and wonder of mankind.

The connection betwist the moon and tides was long observed before the particular manner of the moon's operation was even guessed at. It was found that there was a flux and reflux of the sea, in the space of twelve hours fifty mir.utes, which is exactly the time of a lunar day. It was observed also, that when the moon was in the meridian, in other words, as nearly as possible over any part of the sea, that the waters flowed 10 that part, and inade a tide there; on the contràry, it was found, that when the moon left the meridian, the sea began to flow back again from whence it caine. Thus far the waters of the sea seemed very regularly to attend the motions of the moon. But it appeared, likewise, that when the moon was in the opposite meridian, as far as possible on the other side of the globe, that there was a tide on this side also; so that the moon produced two tides, one by her greatest approach to us, and another by her greatest distance from us : in other words, the moon in going round the earth, produced two tides, always at the same time; one on the part of the globe directly under her, and the other on the part of the globe directly opposite.

Kelper was the first who conjectured that attraction was the principal cause of those appearances; asserting that the sphere of the moon's operation extended to the earth, and drew up its waters. The precise manner in which this is done, was discovered by Newton. Heluid hold of this class of phenomena as the inost incontestable proof of universal gravitation, and has given a beautiful and synoptical view of the whole subject; contenting himself, however, with meerly exhibiting the chief consequences of the general principle, and applying it to the phenomena with singular address. But the wide steps taken by this philosopher in his investigation leave ordinary readers frequently at fault;