shall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing where unto I sent it.

Nature, at length, puts off her lucid veil; she drops it in a trickling thaw. The loosened snow rolls in sheets from the houses. Various openings spot the hills, which, even while we look, become larger and more numerous. The trees rid themselves, by degrees, of the hoary incumbrance. Shook from the springing boughs, part falls heavy to the ground, part flies abroad in shining atoms. Our fields and gardens, lately buried beneath the drifted heaps, rise plain and distinct to view.Since we see nature once again, has she no verdant traces, no beautiful features, left? They are, like real friends, very rare, and therefore the more particularly to be regarded, the more highly to be valued. Here and there the holly hangs out her glowing berries; the laurustinus spreads her graceful tufts, and both under a covert of unfading foliage.-The plain but hardy ivy clothes the decrepit, crazy wall; nor shrinks from the friendly office, though the skies frown and the storm roars.-The laurel, firm, erect, and bold, expands its leaf of vivid green. In spite of the united, the repeated attacks of wind, and rain, and frost, it preserves an undismayed, lively look, and maintains its post while withering millions fall around: worthy, by vanquishing the rugged force of winter, worthy to adorn the triumphant conqueror's brow.-Nor must I forget the bay tree, which scorns to be a mean pensioner on a few transient sunny gleams; or, with a servile obsequiousness, to vary its appearance in conformity to the changing seasons: by such indications of sterling worth, and staunch resolution, reading a lecture to the poet's genius, while it weaves the chaplet for his temples.-These, and a few other

Isa. Iv. 10, 11.

plants, clad with native verdure, retain their comely aspect in the bleakest climes, and in the coldest months.

Such, and so durable, are the accomplishments of a refined understanding and an amiable temper. The tawdry ornaments of dress, which catch the unthinking vulgar, soon become insipid and despicable: the rubied lip and the rosy cheek fade; even the sparkling wit, as well as the sparkling eye, please but for a moment. But the virtuous mind has charms which survive the decay of every inferior embellishment; charms, which add to the fragrancy of the flower, the permanency. of the evergreen.

Such, likewise, is the happiness of the sincerely religious; like a tree, says the inspired Moralist, "whose leaf shall not fall." He borrows not his peace from external circumstances, but has a fund within, and is "satisfied from himselft."

"How little does God esteem the things that men count great; the endowments of wit and eloquence, that "men admire in some! Alas! how poor are they to him! "He respecteth not any who are wise in heart: they are "nothing, and less than nothing, in his eyes. Even wise "men admire, how little it is that men know; how small "a matter lies under the sound of these popular wonders, "a learned man, a great scholar, a great statesman. How "much more doth the all-wise God meanly account of "these: He often discovers, even to the world, their "meanness: he befools them. So valour, or birth, or worldly greatness, these he gives, and gives as things he "makes no great reckoning of, to such as shall never see his face; and calls to the inheritance of glory poor despised creatures, that are looked on as the off-scourings " and refuse of the world."

Thus says an excellent author; who writes with the most amiable spirit of benevolence; with the most unaffected air of humility; and, like the sacred originals from which he copies, with a majestic simplicity of style: -whose select works I may venture to recommend, not only as a treasure, but as a mine of genuine, sterling, evangelical piety.-See page 520 of Archbishop Leighton's select Works, the Edinburgh edition, octavo which it is necessary to specify, because the London edition does not contain that part of his writings which has supplied me with the preceding quotation.

† Prov. xiv. 14.

Even though impoverished by calamitous acci dents, he is rich in the possession of grace, and richer in the hope of glory: his joys are infinitely superior to, as well as nobly independent on, the transitory glow of sensual delight, or the capricious favours of (what the world calls) fortune.

If the snow composes the light-armed troops of the sky, methinks the hail constitutes its heavy artillery. When driven by a vehement wind, with what dreadful impetuosity does that stony shower fall! how it rebounds from the frozen ground, and rattles on the resounding dome! It attenuates the rivers into smoke, or scourges them into foam. It crushes the infant flowers, cuts in pieces the gar dener's early plants, and batters the feeble fortif. cation of his glasses into shivers. It darts into the traveller's face: he turns with haste from the stroke, or feels on his cheek for the gushing blood. If he would retreat into the house, it follows him even thither; and, like a determined enemy, that pushes the pursuit, dashes through the crackling panes. But the fierce attack is quickly over; the clouds have soon spent their shafts, soon unstrung their bow. Happy for the inhabitants of the earth that a sally so dreadfully furious should be so remarkably short! What else could endure the shock, or escape destruction?

But, behold a bow, of no hostile intention! a bow, painted in variegated colours on the disbur dened cloud. How vast is the extent, how delicate the texture, of that showery arch! It com passeth the heavens with a glorious circle, and teaches us to forget the horrors of the storm. Elegant its form, and rich its tincture; but more

He casteth forth his ice like morsels. Psal. cxlvii. 17. which, in modern language, might be thus expressed: He poureth his hail like a volley of shot. The word inadequately translated morsels, alludes, I think, to those fragments of the rock, or those smooth stones from the brook, which, in the day of battle, the warriors hurled from their slings.

delightful its sacred significancy. While the violet. and the rose blush in its beautiful aspect, the olive-branch smiles in its gracious import. It writes, in radiant dyes, what the angels sung in harmonious strains: "Peace on earth, and good "will towards men." It is the stamp of insurance, for the continuance of seed-time and harvest, for the preservation and security of the visible world. It is the comfortable token t of a better state, and a happier kingdom-a kingdom, where sin shall cease, and misery be abolished; where storms shall beat, and winter pierce, no more: but holiness, happiness, and joy, like one unbounded spring, for ever, ever bloom.

Gen, ix, 12-16.

S2

+ Rev. iv. 3.