and the bleating lambs play amidst the flocks scattered over the neighbouring hills; and

The lark, high poised,

Makes heaven's blue concave vocal with his lay.

As the year advances, summer will again smile, and will cast from her green lap a profusion of flowers; and, when she has fulfilled her course, autumn will return crowned with plenty. Last of all, amidst a thousand varied and most bountiful preparations for the sustenance of animal and vegetable life, during the rigours of an ungenial sky, winter will arrive, and once more prepare the earth, by a night of rest, for the labours of the coming year.

These wonders of Divine providence need only to be mentioned, to show with what consummate skill and goodness God accommodates the seasons to the comfort, the convenience, and the happiness of every thing that lives, and especially of the human family. While the labour to which man is doomed strengthens his bodily powers, and rouses, exercises, and sharpens his mental faculties, the changes, which are continually taking place, are highly conducive to his improvement and happiness. Sameness deadens curiosity, and satiates enjoyment. We are so constituted, as to require constant vicissitudes for stimulating the mind, and giving relish to our exercises; and in each season of the year we find employments suitable to our faculties, and calculated to afford them agreeable and useful occupation. Even in winter, cold and comfortless as it appears, how much do we find to make us both happier and better. The family circle, collected in the long evenings round the cheerful winter fire, feel those affections warmed which soften the heart without enfeebling it, and those domestic endearments increased by exercise, without which life is scarcely desirable; while the soul, enlightened and enlarged, is better prepared to receive impressions of religion,―to love Him who first loved us,—and, rising to

more exalted views, to aspire after the society of the just made perfect, in the world of spirits.

The paternal care of the Supreme Being, thus strongly impressed on the mind, by contemplating the traces of his beneficence, which are every where conspicuous in the seasons as they revolve, are calculated to reassure the mind, in looking forward to that great change, of the approach of which we are forcibly reminded by the passing away of another year, of the short and uncertain period allotted us on earth. We, too, have our spring, our summer, our autumn, and our winter. Will another spring dawn on the winter of the grave? To the encouraging answer which Revelation gives to this important question, is added our experience of the operations of the God of the Seasons. Under his administration, nothing perishes, though every thing changes. The flowers die but to live again. In the animal world, many species sleep out the winter, to awake again in a new season. Nature itself expires and revives; even while she lies prostrate and rigid, an Almighty hand preserves the germs of future life, that she may once more start from the grave, and run a new round of beauty, animation, and enjoyment. Is there not hope, then, for the human soul? Shall not the same paternal goodness watch over it in its seeming extinction, and cause it to survive the winter of death? Yes, there is hope here, but there is no assurance. It is from the word of inspiration alone that the assurance of immortality springs. That book of unerring truth informs us, that after our mortal winter, there comes a spring of unfading beauty and eternal joy, where no cold chills, and no heat scorches; where there is bloom without decay, and a sky without a cloud.

But let it never be forgotten, that the prospect which lies before us is not all bright and smiling. The same book of truth which reveals to us our immortal nature, informs us also, that, in the unseen world to which we are travelling, there is a state of misery as well as a state

of blessedness;-that we are now, step by step, approaching the one or the other of these states ;—and that each successive year, as it passes over our heads, instead of leading us upward to the unchanging glories which belong to the children of God, may be only conducting us downward, on that road which "leadeth to destruction."

This is inexpressibly dreadful! And when we think of our own character and qualifications, we shall find nothing calculated to allay our terrors. We are the children of a fallen parent, ourselves fallen and guilty. If, from the elevated spot on which we now stand, at the commencement of a new stage of our journey, we look back on the scenes through which we have passed, and reflect on the transactions in which we have been engaged, what shall we discover that can recommend us to Him "who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity?” If, again, we look forward, what a scene of turmoil and disorder, temptation and danger, do we descry in a world lying in wickedness? When we think of the weakness of our own hearts, and of the enemies we have to encounter-so numerous and so formidable-we cannot fail to be appalled, and to experience the same kind of misgiving which led an apostle to exclaim, "Who is sufficient for these things!"

But when, in the exercise of faith, we turn to the Gospel, a more blessed view opens to us; for it is full of the most encouraging promises to those who will accept of them. It tells us of "the Lord God merciful and gracious, long suffering and slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness and tender mercy ;" and, in proof of this character, it reminds us of the impartial manner in which the Creator employs inanimate nature for the good of His creatures, "making His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sending rain on the just and the unjust;" it reminds us, also, of the parental affection with which His own exuberant bounty has inspired the animal creation, and, taking an example from the inferior tribes, it beautifully declares, that as an eagle stirreth

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up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wi ngs, so He watches over His rational offspring, delighting to lead, instruct, and bless them: Rising still higher, it reminds us of the tenderness He has infused into the mind of earthly parents, and says, "If you being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him." Nay, it represents the Eternal as condescending to compare his regard for his people, with that of a fond mother for the infant smiling upon her knee, "Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, she may forget; yet will not I forget thee." It does much more; it opens up to us the wonders of redeeming love, presenting to our view the Son of the Eternal humbling Himself for our sakes, to assume the form of a servant,-becoming a man of sorrows,—submitting to ignominy, torture, and death; and then it crowns all, by making this unanswerable appeal, “ If God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, with him, also freely give us all things!"

Such is the unspeakable encouragement which the Christian derives from the Gospel of his Divine Master. And shall we not "work out our own salvation, seeing it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure." In this mighty task, we cannot indeed avoid being affected with "fear and trembling," when we reflect on what we have at stake; but we have also every thing to hope, for He who is for us, is greater than all that can be against us; and the value of the prize which is set before us is inestimable.

NINTH WEEK-SATURDAY.

MIGRATION OF THE LAND-CRAB.

As I do not intend to resume, in any other part of this work, the subject of migration, I shall now notice one other migratory animal, which deserts its.usual haunts for the purpose of finding an appropriate spot for depositing its eggs, and whose instinct, in this respect, is peculiarly remarkable. I allude to the land-crab. It is noticed by Kirby, but I shall chiefly follow the account given in "Goldsmith's Animated Nature,” which contains most of the particulars known of this extraordinary little animal, and from which the description of it, both in the work already mentioned, and in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia seems to be principally drawn.

The crab is of the same kind with the lobster, which in many particulars it resembles. The residence of the greater part of the species is in the waters; but that which I am now about to present to my readers, is entirely an inhabitant of the land, being found chiefly among the mountainous ranges of the Caribbee Islands; and although it has gills like a fish, it speedily perishes when submerged. There is one occasion, however, and only one, when it seeks the sea-coast, and seems to prove, not only by its form, but by its habits, its affinity to its congeners of the ocean; and that is, when it is about to reproduce its species. It would seem that the eggs of this creature, which bear a remarkable resemblance to the spawn of fish, require to be hatched in the sea. The crab is warned of this by its instinct; and, though its usual residence is in mountainous districts, at a considerable distance from the shore, where it lives on roots and vegetables, and where its habits are exceedingly retired, it undertakes a tedious and perilous jonrney, in obedience to the first law of its nature. The form of this animal is little fitted for travelling. It is thus gra