Bright spring water is delicious to the taste and excellent for health: Whereas stagnant ditch-water is nauseous, and productive of many painful disorders. A bright sun vivifies and gladdens all the animal and vegetable world, which droops and languishes under the oppressive influence of dull weather. The dove, the cow, and the sheep, convey to the mind the notion of innocence and happiness; while the serpent, the scorpion, and animals of prey, are emblematical of wickedness and its torments. Thus the Scripture speaks of "the worm that dieth not;""Thou shalt lick the dust as a serpent;" "Their torment was the torment of scorpions;" and so on. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.-Enoch walked with God, and never saw death. Noah, for his righteousness, was saved from the flood. Lot feared God, and was delivered by an angel when the cities of the plain were consumed by fire from heaven. Abraham was blameless before God, and God said to him, "Fear not, for I am thy exceeding great reward." -Gen. XV. Job.-Job, xlii. 10–17. Catharine of Livonia, a common peasant girl, attracted by her modest and virtuous conduct the attention of Peter the Great; became his wife; and, after his death, was proclaimed his successor in the Russian empire. "Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath When nature sickened, and each gale was death?" says Pope, alluding to Henry François Xavier Belsame, called the "good bishop," whose disinterested benevolence during the plague of Marseilles, in 1720 and 1721, proeured him the love and admiration of all Europe. Though offered a ducal coronet, he refused to accept it, declaring that his flock was far dearer to him than either the wealth of Laon, or the honours it conferred. The cheerfulness and unbroken tranquillity of mind showed by Socrates during his thirty days' imprisonment, forcibly demonstrate the power of virtue in supporting the soul under injustice, and the prospect of an ignominious death. The virtues of Zeno (the founder of the Stoic philosophy) shine even through the ridicule of the comic poets; and his happy frame of mind was proverbial amongst the ancient Greeks and Romans. The last hours of all the martyrs illustrate the sustaining power of a good conscience under bodily suffering, and " its recompense of reward" in giving songs in the night." QUOTATIONS.-A life separate from good actions is a curse.-Lord Bacon, The noblest reward of virtue is virtue itself; and the extremest punishment of vice is vice itself.-Lord Bacon. A good action is never lost. Blessings are upon the head of the just.—Prov. x. 6. Know then this truth, enough for man to know, Oh! blind to truth and God's whole scheme below, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all things (else) shall be added unto you.-Matt. vi. 33. Quæ vobis, quæ digna, viri, pro laudibus istis Præmia posse rear solvi? Pulcherrima primum Palma sua virtuti. Gloria virtutis umbra. Virtus lucet in tenebris, splendetque per se semper.Cicero. Integra mens augustissima est possessio. Rex eris si recte facies. Divitiarum et formæ gloria fluxa atque fragilis, virtus clara æternaque, habetur.-Sallust. Dos est magna virtue. Vita beata in virtute posita est. Gloria virtutem, tanquam umbra, sequitur. Est demum vera felicitas, felicitate dignum videri; vera felicitas est hic, est ubivis, animus si non te deficit æquus. -Pliny. Virtus est per se ipsa laudabilis, et sine quâ nihil laudari potest.-Cicero. CONCLUSION.-Let us therefore . . . . THEME XXVII. Vice brings its own Punishment. INTRODUCTION.-Wickedness carries with itself a torment by way of chastisement, independent of the awards. of law. 1ST REASON. The very pre-meditation of evil has torment, as the very conception of virtuous intentions is pleasurable. 2ND REASON.-There is a bitterness in the affection and frame of mind which entertains evil thoughts. 3RD REASON.-Such is the make or mechanism of our nature, that it is put out of sorts by evil passions and actions, irrespective of the adverse moral judgment which conscience passes upon them. REASON. The incessant corrosion of heart which cts the wicked in unhappy peevishness all day long is another bitter punishment of vice. 5TH REASON. There is, furthermore, a torment in the retrospection of evil, even in the hour of triumph, before the mind has had time to pass its censure on the deed. 6TH REASON. The agony of remorse and upbraidings of conscience consequent upon sin, are far more painful to bear than any corporal punishment. 7TH REASON. The wicked sustain another punishment in the consciousness that " every man's hand" and heart are against them. 8TH REASON. The fear of detection and the punishment of a broken law haunt the wicked with painful pertinacity. 9TH REASON. The intuitive terror of an offended God, which revelation serves to confirm, will sometimes steal upon the most hardened sinner, and make life insupportable. SIMILES.-Isaiah saith, "The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." The Fox always seems to live in terror; and therefore, immediately it has stolen its prey from a farm-yard, starts off into concealment, instead of devouring it on the spot like other animals. The ancient Furies are represented by the Greek tragedians with serpents twining about their head for hair, and blood constantly dripping from their eyes; which may well be regarded as emblematical of self-torment. The Greek tragedians feign that the Erinyes haunt all wicked men, to take away their peace of mind, and lead them into misery and misfortune. Vice, like a scorpion, is its own torment.-Rev. ix. 5. As the pelican feeds upon its own blood, so vice preys проп its own heart. As the gall of the asp, so the heart of the wicked causes "his meat in his bowels to be turned."-Job, xx. 14. Tradition says, that toads often burst with their own venom. As the organs of taste are offended by unwholesome food, so unwholesome morality is offensive to the moral taste. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. Orestes, the matricide, escaped the punishment of law, but was haunted by the Furies, who tormented him to madness. It is said of Cain, "that his countenance fell" from mental agony, when he conceived evil against his brother; and after he had committed the murder, "the earth opened her mouth to receive his brother's blood," the "voice of which cried from the ground" against him: and Cain said, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." Lamech said to his wives in deep remorse, "I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt." (Gen. iv. 23.); referring to the self-infliction of his own sin. St. Peter, in the judgment hall, was guilty of great sin, "but he went out and wept bitterly."-Matt. xxvi. 75. Judas, the traitor, unable to bear the stings of conscience, "went and hanged himself."-Matt. xxvii. 5. Dionysius, the Locrian, is represented by historians as a tyrant of the blackest colours, but so fearful and suspicious that he was afraid even of his nearest friend; and the precautions he made use of to guard against treachery afford a most striking proof, that "the wicked are their own tormentors.”—Cicero, Tusc. v. 20. Catiline, the conspirator, is represented by Sallust as exhibiting all the symptoms of an uneasy mind. 1. He always kept his eyes fixed on the ground. 2. His gait |