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such final impressions, we submit ourselves gladly to the destiny of our being. While the sun of mortality sinks, we hail the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, and, in the hours when all the honours of nature are perishing around us, we prostrate ourselves in deeper adoration before Him" who sitteth upon its throne."

ALISON.

REFLECTIONS

ON THE RETURN OF SPRING.

THE words uttered by Job* are still applicable to us. Even now, the greatest and most important part of our religious knowledge, our knowledge of the nature and attributes of "Him that made us" is acquired solely "by the hearing of the ear." The early instruction of the parent, the occasional hours of reading and meditation, and the public exhortations of the pulpit, constitute all that the generality of men know upon the most momentous subject of human information. There are few who have been taught in infancy to raise their minds to the contemplation of his works; who love to kindle their adoration at the altar of nature, or to lose themselves in astonishment amid the immensity of the universe; and who thus "seeing him with their eyes" learn to associate the truths of religion with all the most valued emotions of their hearts. It is the natural consequence of these partial views of the Deity

"I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee." Job, xlii. 5.

to narrow our conceptions of his being; to chill the native sensibility of our minds to devotion; and to render religion rather the gloomy companion of the church and the closet than the animating friend of our ordinary hours.

Reflections of this kind seem very naturally to arise to us from the season we experience, and the scenes we at present behold. In the beautiful language of the wise man," the winter is now over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." In these moments, we are the witnesses of the most beautiful and most astonishing spectacle that nature ever presents to our view. The earth, by an annual miracle, rises again, as from her grave, into life and beauty. A new creation peoples the wintry desert; and the voice of joy and gladness is heard among these scenes, which but of late lay in silence and desolation. The sun comes forth, "like a bridegroom from his chamber," to diffuse light and life over every thing he beholds; and the breath of heaven seems to brood with maternal love over that infant creation it has so lately awakened into being. In such hours there is a natural impulse which leads us to meditation and praise. We love to go out amid the scenery of nature, to mark its progressive beauty, and to partake in the new joy of every thing that lives;

and we almost involuntarily lift up our eyes to that heaven from whence cometh the hope of man, "which openeth its hand, and filleth all things with plenteousness." Even upon the most uncultivated minds, these seasons have their in

fluence; and wherever, over the face of the earth, the spring is now returning, even amid nations uncheered by the light of the Gospel, the poor inhabitant is yet everywhere preparing some rude solemnity, to express the renewal of his joy and the return of his praise.

ALISON.

THE CONGREGATION OF THE WICKED SUFFICIENT TO CONSTITUTE HELL.

Now this is precisely the state of things in the nether world. There is no hope, there is no end, there are no good beings to hold the balance against evil, and there is no restraining providence of God. Were there nothing more, I hold this to be enough to constitute the hottest, cruelest hell. I ask no elemental fire, no furnace of living flames, no tormenting demons, nothing but a congregation of the wicked, in the wicked state in which they died and appeared at the tribunal, driven together into one settlement, to make the best or the worst of it they can. Let every man arise in his proper likeness, clothed in his proper nature, which he did not choose to put off, but to die with; let beauty arise with the same pure tints which death did nip, and wit with all its flashes, and knowledge with all its powers, and policy with all its address; let the generations of the unrighteous gather together;—and because of their possessing none of the qualities which God approves in his volume, nor caring to possess them, let them be shipped across the impassable

gulf to some planet of their own, to carry on their several intrigues and indulgences for ever ;-then here were a hell, which neither fire nor brimstone, nor gnawing worm, are able to represent. For observe, it is such only in whom godliness could take no root that were transported thither, in whom selfishness carried it over benevolence, lust over self-control, interest over duty, the devil over God; and that in a world where hope and encouragement were all thrown into the good scale. Now, if the evil principle predominated here, where it was discountenanced by the institutions of God, and many institutions of men, and most of all by the shipwreck of present and eternal good which it brought on-much more there, where no checks exist, nor tendency in things to right themselves. It must be that seeing the good would not flourish here, where the whole atmosphere and influences of heaven wooed it, die it must there, where not one genial ray can reach it. Angels and ministers of grace come not there; salvation of Christ comes not; hope comes not; and the determination of death comes not there are no just men to parry off mischief, or to overawe it. Every one is condemned for the predominancy of evil in one shape or other. How can it otherwise be, then, but that the good principle will die and be forgotten, the evil principle rise in strength, and riot in the activity of the unhappy people.

IRVING.

THE

ADVANTAGES OF EARLY PIETY,

CONSIDER further, If we will deny God the hearty and vigorous service of our best days, how can we expect that he will accept the faint and flattering devotions of old age? wise men are wont to provide some stay and comfort for themselves against the infirmities of that time; that they may have something to lean upon in their weakness, something to mitigate the afflictions of that dark and gloomy evening; that what they cannot enjoy of present pleasure, may in some measure be made up to them in comfortable reflections upon the past actions of a holy and well-spent life.

But on the other hand, if we have neglected religion days without number; if we have lived a vicious life; we have foolishly contrived to make our burden then heaviest, when we are least able to stand under it; we have provided an infinite matter for repentance, when there is hardly any space left for the exercise of it; and whatever is done in it will, I fear, be so done, as to signify but very little, either to our present comfort, or to our future happiness.

Consider this, O young man, in time; and if thou wouldst not have God "cast thee off in thine old age, and forsake thee when thy strength fail, do thou remember him in the days of thy youth; for this is the acceptable time, this is the day of salvation."

Acquaint thyself with him, and remember him NOW; defer not so necessary a work, no not for a

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