calling the noblest faculties into exercise, and thus rendering the character of man "perfect through suffering ; and who could, at the close of his earthly career, when He saw the time immediately at hand, so full of unutterable horrors to His human nature, in which the whole world was to be combined against Him, in which His very disciples were basely to forsake their Master, and allow Him to tread the wine-press alone, and in which, during the agony of mysterious sufferings, such as the Son of God alone could endure, the blood-drops of anguish were to burst from every pore of His sacred body, -who could, I say, even in this most appalling hour of the power of darkness, preserve unshaken His confidence in an unseen God, and feeling that he was not alone, for the Father was with Him, could in pious resignation exclaim, Father, not as I will, but as thou wilt!"

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But there is a far higher consideration which gives a peculiar character to the troubles of life, and stamps on them an inestimable value. They prepare mortal man for immortality. Here is the true source of Christian consolation. What are a few fleeting years of imperfect enjoyment, or even of positive calamity, when, through that very condition, we shall be rendered meet to enter the kingdom of God, and dwell with Him for ever? Who would not go on a pilgrimage through this dark and howling wilderness, when he sees rising before him, in all their grandeur and beauty, the everlasting mansions of the promised land? Who would not cheerfully bear the light affliction of the present moment, when he knows that it is "working out for him a far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory?"

FOURTH WEEK-MONDAY.

I. THE STARRY HEAVENS.-GENERAL REMARKS.

NOTHING is better calculated to raise the contemplative mind to the great Author of all things, than a view

of the starry heavens, when night has cast its deep shade over the face of Nature, and the frost of winter has not only converted the earth into stone, and the waters into crystal, but has charmed the exhalations from the air, and endowed it with such a beautiful transparency, that each little star shoots its radiance on the eye, and the whole sublime hemisphere seems like an immense and gorgeous dome, studded with diamonds; a fit temple for the worship of the Creator. The untutored savage, though he regards the stars only as so many lamps suspended from the azure vault, to enlighten and cheer his abode, is struck with admiration of the gift; and, with a heart overflowing with gratitude, falls down to bless the Great Spirit who bestowed it. Ignorance and astonishment have gone still further; and, in almost all nations, traces are to be found of the worship of the heavenly bodies,rude, but not altogether unnatural form of religion to the uninstructed mind. The "Hosts of Heaven," are assuredly the most striking and appropriate visible emblems of the glory of the Almighty Unseen; and, where the mind has been unaccustomed to reflect on any objects but those which strike the senses, the mistake may, without difficulty, be accounted for. Certainly such a belief is neither so strange nor so revolting, as the worship of cows and serpents, or even of men and devils, with examples of which the history of heathen mythology abounds.

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Science, however, even in its earliest efforts, easily shook off this superstition; and, as it advanced, opened up new wonders in the sky, which extended the views, while they intensely excited the curiosity, of man, and gave deep exercise to his intellectual faculties. Hence have resulted discoveries which have overwhelmed the mind with astonishment. It does appear little less than miraculous, that a worm of earth, like man, who is bound to a little spot of this remote planet; whose abode upon it is but threescore and ten years; whose bodily strength is inferior to that of many other animals; whose powers

of vision are more limited; whose intellect, in ordinary circumstances, rises but little beyond a mere provision for daily subsistence; that this being, with faculties and means apparently so inadequate, should have been enabled, by dint of an insatiable desire of knowledge, and an unwearied perseverance, to overcome so many difficulties, and to forge a key, by which the mysteries of the universe have been unlocked, and a near view has been obtained of the secret springs, which, under the fiat of the Creator, move the amazing machinery of the material world. Little did the rude inhabitants of the earth think, when they gazed, in stupid surprise, on the tiny sparks which bespangled the heavens, that each of these was a globe of fire, compared with which the earth they inhabited, was but as a ball, which a child tosses in his hand; or that the distance at which they were situated, was so amazing, that a hundred millions of miles was but as the length of an infant's step. Yet these are truths now familiar to every mind, and established by demonstrations, on which scepticism itself dare not breathe a doubt.

The world of wonders into which astronomy introduces us, is calculated at once to enlarge and to depress the mind; to depress it with a sense of its own insignificance; to enlarge it with views and exercises so immense, that, as it expands, it perceives more and more clearly the immeasurable vastness of the grasp it is required to take; and, though constantly enlarging, in proportion to its efforts, feels itself, at every step, left hopelessly behind, till at last it is lost in infinitude.

When a man confines himself to his own little locality, and looks around him on the subject earth, which his plastic hand converts from a wilderness into a garden ; or on the lower animals, whom he subdues to his will, and causes, by the superiority of his mental powers, to supply his wants, and administer to his comforts; or, even on the waters of the far-spread ocean, whose proud waves conquers, and over whose trackless wastes he makes

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his way; or on the free and capricious air, whose fury he controls, and whose blandness he renders subservient to his pleasures or his profit,-in such contemplations, he may find much to foster self-complacency, and to persuade him that he is, in reality, that lordly being which pride and vanity delight to portray. But the scenes which astronomy unfolds, are altogether of a different tendency, and ought to repress those swellings of selflove, which a more partial and contracted view of his situation may excite. The voyager who has compassed the earth, when he returns to his native village, is surprised to find that every thing has, to his view, contracted in its dimensions, and become comparatively mean and sordid in its appearance. The houses have shrunk into hovels; the village-green, from a broad-spread lawn, has dwindled into a miserable court-yard; miles have diminished into furlongs; and magnificent estates into sorry farms. This effect has been produced by a contrast with the expansion of his own views, and a similar result arises from the contemplations of the astronomer. Expatiating in the infinity of the universe, the things of earth seem to lessen while he regards them. As he pursues his inquiries, the contrast becomes daily more apparent and more humbling. He begins to perceive an emptiness in those things that formerly engaged his attention, and interested his affections, which he did not previously suspect. He finds himself placed on a little planet, whose comparative insignificance is such, that, were it struck from the face of creation, its fate would be but like that of a falling star, which loses itself in the heavens, and is remembered no more. And, as to himself, what an atom is he? How humiliating is the thought!

But the mind cannot rest here. If the creation be so inconceivably extensive, what is the Creator? This is the most interesting and elevating of all inquiries. When the mind has dwelt upon it, till its importance is appreciated, and its various bearings perceived, and then turns back upon itself, the reflection naturally occurs, "Am

not I a child of this Almighty Parent?" Is it not in His universe that I exist? Has he not constituted me a part of the system which His Infinite Wisdom has established? And what, then, is that system with reference to me, and the race with which I am connected?

Such views open up, to the inquiring mind, the whole field of Natural and Revealed Religion, and lead irresistibly to the conclusion, that there is no satisfactory account of man's nature and destiny, but in the inspired word, and no resting-place for his hopes, but in the life and immortality which have been brought to light in the Gospel of Jesus?

FOURTH WEEK-TUESDAY.

II. THE STARRY HEAVENS.-GRAVITATION AND INERTIA.

Ir it be true, as there is every reason to believe, that the fixed stars, which sparkle in the heavens, are suns like our own, shining, as they certainly do, by their own light, and shedding their radiance on other worlds, a view of creation is opened up to us, which it is both delightful and overwhelming to contemplate; and to this view we shall afterwards turn. At present let us take a rapid survey of the system of which we ourselves form a part.

Our star (for the sun, considered with reference to the universe, deserves no higher name) appears larger than other stars to us, only on account of its nearness; but when we call it near, we speak relatively; for it is known to be separated from us by the amazing distance of 95,000,000 of miles. It is the centre of our planetary system; that is to say, there are certain bodies similar to our own globe, which bear to the sun the same relation, being, like the earth, attracted to it by the allpervading law of gravitation, and only kept from falling