Only the wakeful lark had left her nest, and was mounting on high, to salute the opening day. Elevated in air, she seemed to call the laborious husbandman to his toil, and all her fellow-songsters to their notes.-Earliest of birds, said I, companion of the dawn, may I always rise at thy voice! rise, to offer the matin-song; and adore that beneficent Being, "who maketh the out"goings of the morning and evening to rejoice."

How charming to rove abroad, at this sweet hour of prime! To enjoy the calm of, nature; to tread the dewy lawns; and taste the unrifled freshness of the air!

Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,
With charm of earliest birds.

What a pleasure do the sons of sloth lose! Little, ah! little is the sluggard sensible, how delicious. an entertainment he foregoes, for the poorest of all animal gratifications.

The greyness of the dawn decays gradually. Abundance of ruddy streaks tinge the fleeces of the firmament; till, at length, the dappled aspect of the East is lost in one ardent and boundless blush. Is it the surmise of imagination, or do the skies really redden with shame, to see so many supinely stretched on their drowsy pillows? -Shall man be lost in luxurious ease? Shall man waste these precious hours in idle slumbers, while the vigorous sun is up, and going on his Maker's

See how revelation and reason, the scriptures and the classics, unanimously exhort to this most beneficial prac tice. They both invite us to early rising by the most engaging motives and the most alluring representations.

Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth. Cant. vii. 11, 12.

Luciferi primo cum sidere, frigida rora

Carpamus: dum mane novum, dum gramina canent,
Et fos in tenera pecori gratissimus herba est.

Virg. Georg. lii.

errand? While all the feathered choir are hymn. ing the Creator, and paying their homage in harmony?-No. Let him heighten the melody of the tuneful tribes, by adding the rational strains of devotion. Let him improve the fragrant oblations of nature, by mingling, with the rising odours, the more refined breath of praise.

'Tis natural for man to look upward; to throw his first glance upon the objects that are above him:

Strait towards Heav'n my wond'ring eyes I turn'd,
And gaz'd awhile the ample sky.

Prodigious theatre! where lightnings dart their fire, and thunders utter their voice. Where tempests spend their rage, and worlds unnumbered roll at large!-O the greatness of that mighty hand, which meteth out this amazing circumference with a span! O the immensity of that wonderful Being, before whom this unmeasurable extent is no more than a point!-And O (thou pleasing thought!) the unsearchable riches of that mercy, which is greater than the heavens! Is more enlarged and extensive in its gracious exercise, than these illimitable tracts of air, and sea, and firmament! Which pardons crimes of the most enormous size, and the most horrid aggravation; pardons them in consideration of the Redeemer's atouement, with perfect freeness, and the utmost readiness! More readily, if it were possible, than this all-surrounding expanse admits within its cir. cuit, a ridge of mountains, or even a grain of sand.

Come hither, then, ye awakened, trembling sin-
Comet, weary and heavy laden with a

Psalm cviii. 4.

The lines which follow, are admirably descriptive of the spirit and practice, hinted above. In them desire pants; prayer wrestles; and faith, as it were, grasps the prize. I take leave to transplant them into this place;

sense of your iniquities. Condemn yourselves. Renounce all reliance on any thing of your own. Let your trust be in the tender mercy of God, for ever and ever.

In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun*.— Behold him coming forth, from the chambers of the east. See; the clouds, like floating curtains, are thrown back at his approach. With what refulgent majesty does he walk abroad! How transcendently bright is his countenance; shedding day and inexhaustible light, through the universe! Is there a scene, though finished by the most elaborate and costly refinements of art, com"parable to these illustrious solemnities of open" ing sunshine? Before these, all the studied

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pageantry of the theatre, the glittering economy "of an assembly; or even the heightened orna"ments of a royal palace, Bide their diminished. "heads, and shrink into nothing."-I have read of a person so struck with the splendors of this noble luminary, that he imagined himself made on purpose to contemplate its glories. O! that Christians would adopt his persuasion, and transfer it to the sun of righteousness! Thus applied,

and I could wish them a better, a more conspicuous situation, than either their new or their native soil. Their native soil, is no other than The Lamentation of a Sinner, written by Mr. Sternhold. Notwithstanding the unpro mising genius of the performance, I think, we may challenge the greatest masters, to produce any thing more spirited and importunate; more full of nature, or more flushed with life.

Mercy, good Lord, mercy I crave;

This is the total sum;

For mercy, Lord, is all my suit;

Lord, let thy mercy come.

The short sentences-Not a single copulative-The frequent repetition of the divine name-The almost incessant reiteration of the blessing, so passionately desired, and inexpressibly needed-This is the genuine language of ardor; these are beauties obvious to every eye; and cannot fail, either to please the judicious taste, or to edify the gracious heart.

Psal, xix, 4.

it would cease to be a chimerical notion, and become a most important truth. For sure I am, it is the supreme happiness of the eternal state; and therefore may well be the ruling concern of this present life; to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent.-Nor do I stand alone in this opinion. The very best judge of whatever is valuable in science, or perfective of our nature; a judge, who formed his taste on the maxims of Paradise, and received the finishings of his education in the third heavens; this judge determines to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. He possessed, in his own person, the finest, the most admired accomplishments; yet pronounces them no better than dung, in comparison of the supereminent excellency of this saving knowledge.

Methinks I discern a thousand admirable properties in the sun. 'Tis certainly the best material emblem of the Creator. There is more of God in its lustre, energy, and usefulness, than in any other visible being. To worship it as a deity was the least inexcusable of all the heathen idolatries. One scarce can wonder that fallen reason should mistake so fair a copy for the adorable original. -No comparison, in the whole book of sacred wisdom, pleases me more, than that which resembles the blessed Jesus to yonder regent of the dayt; who now advances on his azure road, to scatter light and dispense gladness through the nations.

What were all the realms of the world, but a dungeon of darkness, without the beams of the sun? All their fine scenes hid from our view; lost in obscurity.-In vain we roll around our. eyes, in the midnight gloom. In vain we strive to behold the features of amiable nature. Turn whi

• Το υπερέχον της γνώσεως. Phil. iii. 7.

Unto you, that fear my name, shall the sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings. Mal. iv. 2.

ther we will, no form or comeliness appears. All seems a dreary waste, an undistinguished chaos. Till the returning hours have unbarred the gates of light, and let forth the morn.-Then, what a prospect opens! The heavens are paved with azure, and strewed with roses. A variety of the liveliest verdures array the plains. The flowers put on a glow of the richest colours. The whole creation stands forth, dressed in all the charms. of beauty. The ravished eye looks round, and wonders.

And what had been the condition of our intellectual nature, without the great Redeemer, and his divine revelation?-Alas! what absurd and unworthy apprehensions did the Pagan sages form of God! what idle dreams, what childish conjec. tures, were their doetrines of a future state!How did the bulk, even of that favoured nation, the Jews, weary themselves in very vanity, to ob tain peace and reconciliation with their offended Jehovah! Till Jesus arose upon our benighted minds, and brought life and immortality to light; till He arose, to enlighten the wretched Gentiles, and to be the glory of his people Israel.

Now we no longer cry out, with a restless impatience, where is God my Maker? For we are allowed to contemplate the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, in the face of Jesus Christ.-Now we no longer inquire, with an unsatisfied solicitude, "Which is the way to "bliss?" Because Jesus has marked the path by his shining example, and left us an unerring clue in his holy word.-Now we have no more reason to proceed with misgiving hearts in our journey to eternity; or to ask anxiously, as we go, "Who "will roll away the stone, and open the everlast"ing doors? Who will remove the flaming sword, "and give us admission into the delights of Para"dise" For it is done, all done, by the Captain of our Salvation. Sin he has expiated, by the un