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that when they should see him they would not desire him; but, though they as yet have esteemed him not, there is a day approaching when they shall be gathered to Shiloh, when they shall seek after him whom they pierced, and mourn because of him; they will yet hail the Christians as brethren, and revive, as it were, the ashes of the dead; they will rejoice together in Shiloh, and sing the songs of Zion even in foreign lands. "They shall rejoice, and be glad, and their former sorrows shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." May that day soon arrive, when Jew and Gentile shall, with one eye, look unto Jesus! "Then their watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion."

LETTER XIII.

HAIL, holy light, offspring of heaven first born,
Or of the eternal, coeternal beam!

May I express thee unblamed since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee;
Bright effluence of bright essence uncreate.

Thee I revisit safe,

And feel thy sov'reign vital lamp; but thou
Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs,
Or dim suffusion veil'd.

MILTON.

Edinburgh, 1st March, 1821.

MANKIND boast themselves in that which, when examined with a philosophic eye, adds not to intrinsic worth. The linguist is proud of the acquirement of tongues, which an Arab in the desert, or a wandering Tartar, can speak with fluency and write with accuracy. The beau struts with importance, decorated with the tailor's handiwork, and were poverty to overtake him, he would shrink from the face of his fellow-men. The belle considers her fantastic display of dress, which only re

quires wealth to buy, and her warbling the soft airs of Italy, (which the Italian milk-maids touch with a finer grace,) of more importance than the symmetry of the human form, and the sublimity of cultivated intellect.

Men of wealth are proud of their possessions, which cannot enhance individual character; and men of distinction bring forward their line of ancestry as a title to respect, though the only resemblance they may have to their forefathers is the human form.

Without self-cultivation man is a being rude, selfish, and cruel. His station in life may dazzle the vulgar eye, and throw a false lustre around his character; but to the refined mind, an uncultivated man, though enthroned in majesty, is an object of pity. It is the power of intellect that exalts a man above his fellows; and when that intellect is cultivated, and enlightened by the gospel of Jesus, the individual becomes an object of the highest importance in the scale of being, and is raised far above this transitory scene,-he has taken hold of the heavens.

To rise in the scale of being, to acquire affability of manner, and sweetness of disposition, it is not necessary to visit the different quarters of the globe, or mingle with the varied shades of the human race. The sailor may plough the seas from pole to pole, touch every port in the known world, mingle with

men of every colour and every clime, and after all remain as ignorant as when he first set sail, except the knowledge of his profession, and the remembrance of the storms he weathered, and the dangers he escaped, without their ever once having raised his eye to the GREAT SUPREME. A soldier may have traversed the burning sands of Egypt, or the more, salubrious clime of Europe to its farthest bounds; he may have fought in the thickest of the battle, seen the vales of his native land watered with the blood of her sons, and towns and villages laid waste, without it once making him seriously think on that awful hour when the earth shall vanish away, and the heavens disappear.

True happiness is only found in the Christian life, and the acmé of self-cultivation is, when all is subdued to the obedience of the faith of Jesus Christ; and none has a claim to the Christian character who does not overcome their habits of vice, and acquire the graces of a Christian. To put on Christ, or, more properly, personally to become a Christian, is a work of the greatest magnitude and the most serious import; it is only personal religion that will stand in the hour of trial; all other works shall be destroyed but the labours of love. Human nature shall dissolve, and its finest bands of affection be broken; the dearest friends must separate; and the labours of man, which have stood for ages, will disappear; none will survive in peace

the universal wreck, but those who are born again in Christ Jesus. The first work of a Christian is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; as he is the author and founder of the Christian religion, without belief in him there can be no work acceptable in the sight of God, because he is the mediator, the author, and finisher of faith. We cannot repent of sin with a sincere repentance, without belief in him who is the atonement for iniquity, be. cause we know not the heinous nature of sin, unless we look unto Jesus on Calvary's cross: there his obedience unto the law, even unto death, pourtrays sin in its darkest colours. We cannot hate sin without a belief on him who cannot look upon iniquity.

To believe aright on the Lord Jesus Christ we must do it without wavering; believing that he is the Messiah foretold by the prophets; that he hath made atonement for iniquity; that he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to him; that his promises and threatenings will assuredly be fulfilled, and that we shall be saved by believing on him.

When we look up to the heavens, and around on the surface of the earth, the unbounded space, successively radiated with sun, moon, and stars, fills us with wonder at the greatness of the Deity; and the earth abounding with every thing necessary for the nourishment of mankind, shews us his goodness. When we think of the littleness of a human body,

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