that I do not exclaim, as the disciples once said to Jesus, "abide with me, for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent." Abide with me O Jesus, and in my heart, that through thee I may be animated with fresh power for my future daily labours. Abide with me, never vanish from before my eyes, that I may always aspire after thee. Often have I forgotten thee in the turmoil of the world, on my busy, troublesome days; but in the evening I belong to myself and to Jesus. Abide with me, with thy inspiring power, and with thy grace until the evening of my life, until death appears at my bed-side in the place of sleep. Abide with me, when in my last hours, I cast a parting look upon the whole of my life, like one great day of labour that has been accomplished, and from which I am now to rest. Let me then direct my look to thee and thy merits, in order that I may derive consolation for myself; let my weary spirit hear the inspiring words. "come to me ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give ye rest.” Abide with me, O my Jesus, when the world is about to sink before my breaking eye into eternal night, and let me hear the hopes and the blessed words, "enter thou into the joys of thy Lord."

MARCH XXII.

THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CONTEMPLATION OF NATURE.

O GOD! O Creator! how inexpressibly glorious, how inexpressibly beautiful thou art. When I reflect upon thy wondrous works, and their celestial beauties; when the splendour of extended nature lightens me around; when the breath of spring pervades my being; when the jubilee of an enraptured creation surrounds me, and I perceive the joy of man and the smallest worm, then I feel, as if it were my desire to be dissolved in this beautiful, immeasurable universe, in order that I might be wholly in thee, my God. Where, O God of creation! can I contemplate thy majesty

more profoundly than in the b ok of nature? where can I behold thy wisdom, thy omnipotence more distincty than in that book, which thou every where spreadest open before me? where is there a season of the year more inviting, to meditate on thy glorious works, than that of the general awakening of all things in the spring? Is not the spring the holy day of the resurrection of the earth? Is it not the high feast of memory which nature solemnizes to the first days of creation, when glittering with a thousand wonders, it sprang for the first time from the Almighty hands of God?

And God lives, the Great Jehovah! It is his will that life and blessedness should be diffused over the whole of his creation. Unchangeably proceeds the great machinery of nature, as it was at the beginning regulated by the wisdom of God. A series of dark and hidden powers are the secret main-spring, by which everything is kept in its proper sphere and motion. But why should I soar aloft into the Heavens, and look for the wonderful hand of the Creator in the circling motions of distant worlds?

It exhibits itself to me everywhere, and the history of the minutest plant reveals to me the wisdom, the order, and beneficence of the creation, with the same splendour as the course of the earth, the sun and the stars, on which depends the change of the seasons.

Every thing is regulated with love and foresight by the divine hand of creation, every thing stands in the closest connexion, nor is anything created in vain. One thing serves as a support to another throughout the whole circle of creation. Thus to the attentive observer of nature, every thing is of importance and signification, when he steps forth into the wide circle of created life. The Christian beholds in every flower, the wise and unfathomable regulation of the world; every blade of grass, directs him to his heavenly Creator, every leaf speaks to him of the love and glory of God.

But it is impossible, to contemplate and investigate every thing which God has created around me; my life is

too short, to acknowledge and observe all things which are daily spread out before me. Infinite, illimitable, and incomprehensible, as the Supreme Being himself, are the glorious works of his hands.

And how many pass through this enchanting scene of wonders, without being in the slightest degree affected by their glories? Man, the last and noblest work of the days of creation; man, who alone of all creatures walks upright on the earth, his countenance directed to Heaven, and who is born for dominion and immortality; man, who alone is endowed with superior intellect, above all the other creatures by whom he is surrounded, invested with the light of reason and the precious jewel of speech, in which he can envelope the sublime idea of the Deity; can he, that man, remain insensible, amidst the splendour and beauty of nature?

No, I am a Christian. With Christ I behold in creation not the terrestrial, but the divine, efficient power of my Heavenly Father; I behold not the perishable, but the permanent, the eternal, the immutable in the mutability of his works. I am also amongst the innumerable wonders of the divine power, myself a wonder, which I cannot comprehend, and of those wonders, I am not the least. The human mind soars above the terrestrial; it encompasses the vast variety of things, and carries in itself the image of the world and the Deity. He is the crown, the last and most beautiful flower of the works of Creation, holding, it is true, fast by the roots of the earth, but raising his head through the sky to the Deity.

Therefore let my prayer, my rejoicings mingle in the great jubilee of thy creations. My soul is also thy work, Father of all worlds, thou ruler and controller of my des tiny. I am also thy child, whom from nothing thou didst call to life and blessedness. Yes, I am also permitted to rejoice over thy greatness in the glorious sanctuary of thy universe; I dare appear before thy face, and fall prostrate in adoration of thee

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Who am I.? Earth from earth-dust from dust; and yet, O thou compassionate God, thou deemest me worthy to contemplate thy splendid work, and in thee to glorify their Creator. Humble and lowly as I am, thou pourest bliss and blessedness upon me, and in the raptures with which the view of thy works fill my breast, thou givest me a presentiment of my future exalted destination.

MARCH XXIII.

THE REUNION WITH THE DEAD.

EXALT thyself, O my soul, from the turmoil of this life, to thy freedom; aloft from the pressure of thy cares, to the presentiment of everlasting peace; aloft from the bustle of all earthly amusements, to the view of thy better destination.

For what is the dross of the terrestrial life, in which thou here livest to the ocean of infinite glory, which shall excite thy wonder on the other side of this fleeting, visionary ex istence? What is all the pomp of this universe? What is all the glitter of the golden dust, in comparison with the splendour which beams upon thee, from the gates of Eternity? O why dost thou admire the flickering flame of thy taper, with which thy chamber is illumined? what is it in comparison to the force of the sun, in whose floods of light, float immeasurable worlds, imbibing warmth, life, and light?

Yes, Eternity! thou last aim, towards which all things hasten the happy and the wretched, the king and the beggar, the sage and the fool, the seer and the playful child. Eternity! thou who art waiting to receive us all, be thou this evening my only thought. My soul feels itself freer, more sublime, more pure, when it thinks of thee, or even pronounces thy name. The terrestrial, which has hitherto enraptured me, or which wounded me with its thorns, is before thee, little and contemptible. Religion ap

pears to me more amiable, more divine, more edifying, whilst it instils into my breast, the wonderful presentiments of a future existence. Thou Eternity! before whom folly shudders, and sin trembles, and the sceptic quakes with a painful uncertainty; Eternity! thou born of God, thou universal reconciler, thou retributor with the sword of condemnation, or the palm of victory; thou Eternity art the consolation of the wise, and the joyful hope of the Christian.

To me shalt thou also be consolation and hope; consolation when I weep at my miserable fate; hope, when in the joyous circle of my friends, I feel the enjoyment of life. Thou shalt be my consolation, when my earthly prospects are dim around me; thou shalt be my hope, when in the lap of fortune, the thought steals over me, all things are mutable, and that which man possesses, will be again. taken from him; thou shalt be my consolation when the hand of death snatches from me my beloved, and I sit mourning by his bed side, and with weeping eyes, look upon his pale, cold, and inanimate features, which in this world can never smile upon me again; and thou shalt be my hope, when the hand of death is upon me, and I must part from those beings, whom on earth, I have so dearly loved.— O Eternity! my hope and consolation; thou, who hast been revealed to me by Jesus; it is thou, who preservest for me the whole treasure of thy joys which have in this world flown from me. Why then, tremble before thee? the storm has wafted to thee the beautiful blossoms, which it bore from the garland of my joys. Why then tremble before thee? It is only in thee, and no where else that I can again find what I have lost on earth; and what I must leave behind me on earth.

How deeply, and solemnly does the thought pervade my whole soul, that I shall find again, that which I have lost. That I possess the blessed hope, of seeing those again, whom I saw and loved in this world. O ye my dear, and fervently beloved parents! O ye tender playmates of my