ON THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.

SUCH is the commencement of the history of mankind; an era, to which we must ever look back with solemn awe and veneration. Before the sun and moon had begun their course; before the sound of the human voice was heard, or the name of man was known; "in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth."To a beginning of the world, we are led back by every thing that now exists; by all history, all records, all monuments of antiquity. In tracing the transactions of past ages, we arrive at a period which clearly indicates the infancy of the human race. We behold the world peopled by degrees. We ascend to the origin of all those useful and necessary arts without the knowledge of which mankind could hardly subsist. We discern society and civilization arising from rude beginnings in every corner of the earth; and gradually advancing to the state in which we now find them: all which afford plain evidence that there was a period when mankind began to inhabit and cultivate the earth. What is very remarkable, the most authentic chronology and history of most nations coincides with the account of Scripture; and makes the period during which the world has been inhabited by the race of men not to extend beyond six thousand years.

To the ancient philosophers, creation from nothing appeared an unintelligible idea. They maintained the eternal existence of matter, which they supposed to be modelled by the sovereign

mind of the universe into the form which the earth now exhibits. But there is nothing in this opinion which gives it any title to be opposed to the authority of Revelation. The doctrine of two self-existent independent principles, God and matter, the one active, the other passive, is an hypothesis which presents difficulties to human reason at least as great as the creation of matter from nothing. Adhering then to the testimony of Scripture, we believe that " in the beginning God created," or from nonexistence brought into be. ing" the heaven and the earth."

But though there was a period when this globe, with all that we see upon it, did not exist, we have no reason to think that the wisdom and power of the Almighty were then without exercise or employment. Boundless is the extent of his dominion. Other globes and worlds, enlightened by other suns, may then have occupied, they still appear to occupy, the immense regions of space. Numberless orders of beings, to us unknown, people the wide extent of the universe, and afford an endless variety of objects to the ruling care of the great Father of all. At length in the course and progress of his government there arrived a period when this earth was to be called into existence. When the signal moment predestined from all eternity was come, the Deity arose in his might; and with a word created the world.What an illustrious moment was that when from nonexistence there sprang at once into being this mighty globe on which so many millions of creatures now dwell!- -No preparatory measures were required. No long circuit of means was

employed." He spake; and it was done: He commanded; and it stood fast." The earth was at first," without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." The Almighty surveyed the dark abyss; and fixed bounds to the several divisions of nature. He said, "Let there be light; and there was light." Then appeared the sea and the dry land. The mountains rose: and the rivers flowed. The sun and moon began their course in the skies. Herbs and plants clothed the ground. The air, the earth, and the waters were stored with their respective inhabitants. At last, man was made after the image of God. He appeared walking with countenance erect; and received his Creator's benediction as the Lord of this new world. The Almighty beheld his work when it was finished; and pronounced it good. Superior beings saw with wonder this new accession to existence. "The morning stars sang together; and all the sons of God shouted for joy."

BLAIR.

THE FATHERLY GOODNESS OF GOD. BUT instead of leaving us to ourselves, or thus entreating us after sovereignty, either of power or of wisdom, mark how he hath actually proceeded, He presents himself as our Father, who first breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, and ever since hath nourished and brought us up as children who prepared the earth for our habitation; and for our sakes made its womb to teem with food, and beauty and life.-For our sakes

no less he garnished the heavens and created the whole host of them with the breath of his mouth, bringing the sun forth from his chamber every morning, with the joy of his bridegroom and a giant's strength, to shed his cheerful light over the face of creation, and draw blooming life from the cold bosom of the ground.-From him also was derived the wonderful workmanship of our frames-the eye, in whose small orb of beauty is pencilled the whole of heaven and of earth, for the mind to peruse and know and possess and rejoice over, even as if the whole universe were her own-the ear in whose vocal chambers are entertained harmonious numbers, the melody of rejoicing nature, the welcomes and salutations of friends, the whisperings of love, the voices of parents and of children, with all the sweetness that resideth in the tongue of man.-His also is the gift of the beating heart, flooding all the hidden recesses of the human frame with the tide of lifehis the cunning of the hand, whose workmanship turns rude and raw materials to pleasant forms and wholesome uses,-his the whole vital frame of man, a world of wonders within itself, a world of bounty, and, if rightly used, a world of finest enjoyments.-His also the mysteries of the soul within-the judgment, which weighs in a balance all contending thoughts, extracting wisdom out of folly, and extricating order out of confusion; the memory, recorder of the soul, in whose books are chronicled the accidents of the changing world, and the fluctuating moods of the mind itself; fancy, the eye of the soul, which scales the heavens and circles round the verge and circuits

of all possible existence; hope, the purveyor of happiness, which peoples the hidden future with brighter forms and happier accidents than ever possessed the present, offering to the soul the foretaste of every joy; affection, the nurse of joy, whose full bosom can cherish a thousand objects without being impoverished, but rather replenished, a storehouse inexhaustible towards the brotherhood and sisterhood of this earth, as the storehouse of God is inexhaustible to the universal world; finally, conscience, the arbitrator of the soul, and the touchstone of the evil and the good, whose voice within our breast is the echo of the voice of God.-These, all these, whose varied action and movement constitutes the maze of thought, the mystery of life, the continuous chain of being-God hath given us to know that we hold of his hand, and during his pleasure, and out of the fulness of his care.

IRVING.

ON THE

INSTABILITY OF EARTHLY THINGS. THE moon is incessantly varying, either in her aspect or her stages. Sometimes she looks full upon us, and her visage is all lustre. Sometimes she appears in profile, and shows us only half her enlightened face. Anon, a radiant crescent but just adorns her brow. Soon it dwindles into a slender streak: till, at length, all her beauty vanishes, and she becomes a beamless orb. Sometimes she rises with the descending day, and be