therefore they so fondly cling. Their views are bounded by the horizon of this wilderness, and beyond it they have no desire to pry, no ambition to explore: they feel themselves urged on from stage to stage; yet gladly would they retrace their steps and recommence their journey, whatever unknown perils may infest the path, and in full view of all its inevitable woes.

Into what an inhospitable region did the Sovereign Lord and Saviour of mankind descend, for the recovery of a lost and guilty world! Of all the tents spread abroad on the surface of this wilderness, it was amongst the meanest and the most humble that he obtained shelter; and oftentimes even these were closed against him, so that he had not where to lay his head.' Yet here he sojourned, till the arduous work which he came to perform was completed; that work, the design of which was to turn men from their dumb idols, around which we behold them assembling, to serve the living God;' to destroy the love of the world; to

supply the place of the withered gourd, by a covert which shall effectually defend against every storm of adversity; to teach us to number our days, that instead of forgetting their speed, or wishing to live them over again, we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, and thereby wean our affections from this wilderness to which we are so fondly attached, and from which, with all its woes, we are so reluctant to depart; to fix our affections on things above, where this Divine Benefactor, after all his toils and sufferings on our account, now lives, and where it is his will and pleasure that the people of his love, whom he purchased at so dear a rate, should live also.

Happy those children of his love who have learned the true character of this wilderness, through which they are at present doomed to travel, and who, instead of taking up their rest here, account themselves but pilgrims and strangers, seeking a better country. If any among the multitudes that we meet, these, and these

only, are the people who can justly estimate the various events that befall them, who understand the true nature of prosperity and of adversity, and who, as far as they are able, smooth the path, and render it safe and pleasant to their fellowtravellers, as well as to those who shall hereafter follow their footsteps, in the way to the heavenly Canaan. Numberless are the perils and trials of this inhospitable wilderness, which cannot be averted by human foresight, or human skill; but they are needlessly multiplied, by those which mankind unnecessarily invent for each other. Let not us, fellow-traveller, add to the sad catalogue: rather, in the hope of mitigating some of these evils, let us indulge such reflections as the scenes around may suggest, and thereby endeavour to regulate our future conduct, for the benefit of ourselves, and the good of others.

THE ITINERARY, &c.

No. I.

There was not a house in which there was not one dead. EXODUS, chap. xii, ver. 30.

:

WHEN the king of terrors has his commission to enter a dwelling, although it should not be that of a near relative or valued friend, the solemn event naturally diffuses an awe over our minds; and at least impresses our spirits with a transient gloom but if, ere this impression is erased, the stroke is repeated in another quarter, the lesson comes home with additional force and solemnity. At certain seasons, indeed, the grim tyrant is busied in his work of destruction; and then especially it is, that, with increasing solicitude, we watch his progress, not knowing

at which of us his next stroke may be levelled for when general sickness, the harbinger of death, extends its ravages from house to house, then it is that our dormant feelings are aroused, and mortal man feels himself to be, what in the midst of health, and life, and prosperity, he had almost forgotten that he was a creature of dust, ready to crumble away, and mingle with his mother earth, at the summons of Him,' who sendeth man to destruction, and sayeth, Return, ye children of men.'

But how can we adequately realise the terrors of that memorable night, when all the first-born of the devoted land of Egypt were cut off by the destroying angel! In how many families were parent and child alike devoted to the common ruin! The father, if unhappily the firstborn of his house, must obey the imperious summons, along with that son who might have stood in the gap, to defend and protect his orphan brethren; while many a mother, in the like case, must be torn from her tender charge, and descend