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gardens of Damascus, not only their admirer but their owner. The Astronomer, poring upon the heavens till they give out, at the spell uttered by knowledge, perseverance and faith, their hidden mysteries, experiences greater rapture, when some new body occupies or traverses the field of his telescope, than the merchant whose fleets have returned home, laden with the wealth of half the Indies. The Moralist, who consigns days and nights to meditation on the beauty and sublimity in human life and conduct, on the best means of elevating the mass of mankind in wisdom and in joy; on the prospects unfolded from progress already made, that virtue and happiness shall one day triumph even on earth; has thoughts and prophecies visit him, which he would not exchange for mightiest crowns or most puissant sceptres. In these and similar beatitudes, every student, even the humblest, to a certain extent participates, The purity and the height of a pleasure may be estimated by the sacrifices we are willing to make for its attainment; and, so measured, how greatly are mental pleasures valued by their sincere votaries! Ease, health, corporeal gratifications, wealth, station, a position of rule among our fellows, the joys of home, the prospect of a long life, these are the things chiefly longed for, strived for, by the majority of our race. Yet all these the seeker after wisdom voluntarily foregoes, freely immolates, that he may continue his bright career. Now, the mind of man came from God, and is what it is by his sovereign fiat; the capabilities of enjoyment He has bestowed upon it, and the means of enjoyment with which He has surrounded it, demonstrate therefore His essential Benignity.

From the exercise of man's social affections arise feelings and relationships, which shed much, both of brightness and of solace, upon the pathway of his life. How tender our recollection of the parents who protected and guided our infant years, and nestled us so softly in their bosoms, and directed our aimless eye to the beauty and sublimity that lay about us! How sweet the memories of our brothers and sisters, with whom we walked, hand in hand, when the earth and nature seemed as fresh and young as our own hearts, and all was loveliness and mystery! Most dear, in later times, the friend, in whose society we trod the paths of literature or science, or honourable ambition, and conversing with whom our moral nature first gained its true powers and strength. In later years came the bliss of first, and afterwards of wedded love; that intense converging of all our powers to bless on

one dear object, which made our affections ultimately embrace with greater tenderness the whole human family. Passing sweet, also, and perhaps the sweetest earth can give, the tearful rapture, still because of its very depth, with which we fold our first infant in our embrace, and marvel, while we adore, that God has sent an angel to be a constant dweller at our hearth. What were life, divested of these, its very chiefest benedictions? A world without its flowers, a sky without its stars! What were that man who had never stood to others, or had others stand to him, in these dear relationships; who had no father or mother, sister or brother, wife or child, friend or prized companion? An undeveloped orb, left half-finished, cast aside to wander alone, before the brightness and the warmth had been bestowed upon it! Yet few indeed are they who are cut off from all these sources of happiness. They penetrate alike the palace of the prince and the hut of the peasant; and are to the ignorant as to the wise, to the poor as to the rich, to the savage as to the civilized, the well-springs of their most enduring felicities. God made us capable of loving and of being beloved; made the giving or the receiving affection among our greatest joys; placed around us beings calculated to excite in us these delicious emotions; is to be esteemed the direct Author of them all; and is thereby proved to be a God of marvellous Beneficence.

Man further possesses a devotional instinct, whose enlightened and consistent gratification affords him pleasure of a highly elevated character. To seek in the heavens, and earth, and waters under the earth; to interrogate the sun, and moon, and stars, and all the productions of our world, and of our own bodies, minds, and hearts; and find them all join in united testimony to the existence of a GOD, from whom they drew their being and their properties; is of itself an intellectual exercise, which brings with it the greatest enjoyment. To find that the Great Being whom the universe has revealed is infinite in Power and in Wisdom; and to acquire the habit of never going abroad, at morn, or noon, or night, without finding in each object, the lowest as well as the loftiest, new and perhaps unexpected proofs of these great attributes; adds a bliss to our commonest intercourse with nature, and makes us desire to manifest in our own lives a conformity to what we admire and adore. But above all, to reach at length the greatest truth which Creation reveals; which we are all of us so slow to receive, and which so few of us hold consistently; that God loves what he has made ;

to find it written across the sky, breathing in the atmosphere, shining in the sun, glistening in the dew, beaming from the face of the flower, quivering from the wing of the insect, reflected from the countenance of each brother man, musicked in the tones of all we love, pouring along our veins, throbbing at our pulse, beating in our heart, spoken or written every where; the man who finds this truth, so recorded and revealed, and opens his whole nature to give it a willing and a glad reception, is blessed indeed. To him the thunder and the zephyr, storm and calm, darkness and sunshine, joy and sorrow, come much alike; for the one is proof of the lovingkindness of the Creator, as much as the other. Nor till this conviction is attained, can man be as happy on earth, as he is capable of being; but this truth once embraced, alike by the understanding and the affections, he who holds it can never, even on earth, be really miserable. It is evident that the capacities of mind, or heart, or spirit, which prompt us to engage in, and enable us to effect these researches; and the qualities of the universe, which, acting on our inner being, beget in us these momentous and joyous conclusions, are alike the gifts of the Creator; and thus the intense pleasures derivable from tracing Him in his works, afford additional proofs of the goodness of God.

No metaphysical classification of the various powers and capabilities of man's very composite nature has been here attempted, so there may be groups of faculties or susceptibilities pertaining to humanity which have not been noticed. If there be in reality, or if any one fancy there be, it will doubtless be found that they are surrounded with excitements to their exercise, and that the due and harmonious and moral exercise of all of them is highly pleasurable. Enough has been said, however, to prove, that whether man or the lower animals are considered; and whether in the former we turn to his Senses, his Mind, his social Affections, or his Devotional Instincts; they every one of them shed a bright demonstration over the truth, that GOD IS GOOD.

C. Y. M.

AGAINST God and Truth there lies no prescription; and therefore, certainly, it must be great wisdom to forsake ancient errors for more ancient truths. One God is rather to be followed than innumerable worlds of men."-Chillingworth.

WORK-A-DAY HYMNS.

No. II.

(BY JOSEPH DARE, AUTHOR OF THE GARLAND OF GRATITUDE, ETC.)

NIGHT is dreary, but the morning

Ever breaks in cheering light;

Evil thus to good is turning,

Dawn of Love and Truth, how bright!

"Onward!" is the impress written,
On all works, in earth and sky:
Evil at her birth was smitten,

And piece-meal the worm shall die.

Every hope that thrills the bosom,
Every aspiration pure,

Shall unfold some lovelier blossom,
Shall some better fruit secure.

Faint not sister, fail not brother,
They who suffer, conquer fate;
One firm footstep leads another,
One soft answer stifles hate.

Lift a little height the Swallow,

And its wing shall sweep thro' Heaven;

Thus may each assist his fellow,

By small helps if rightly given.

Every pure and noble action

Wins or gives some blessing still,
Checks corruption, scatters faction,
Soothes the heart, or guides the will.

Self-respect and self-reliance,

Frame the heart to highest good;

Bid all outward ills defiance,

Lead the world to Brotherhood.

CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE.

THERE has been much discussion recently in our Periodicals, as well as in diverse pamphlets, regarding the best form and basis of religious association. There has been much bandying about of words on the question. To our minds the matter is very simple. If persons who have not yet attained definite views of Religious truth and obligation, wish to associate together as religious inquirers, their course is plain and open. If worship constitute one purpose of public assembling, definite views of the OBJECT to whom that worship is to be addressed, are essential to its fulfilment. If individuals who have given themselves to the anxious and serions search after Divine Truth, have been led to the heartfelt conviction of certain principles, as essential to human duty and happiness, that conviction is their obligation to uphold and live them. The proposal for fusing these various purposes of religious association into one heterogeneous assembly, seems to us to be very crude and short-sighted. Such an assembly could only hold to gether through the compromise or sacrifice of principle. To the devoted student of the Oracles of God, whose prayerful investigations have led to the abandonment of error, and superstition, and bigotry, and the soul-felt reverence, and mind-elevated belief of the religion of love, of power, and of a sound mind, these blessed results are realities, not speculations, living, vital convictions, not mere negations, and he cannot sacrifice these for the condition of those who are ever learning, and never arriving at a knowledge of the truth. To the mind convinced by faithful examination and consideration of its evidences, of the truth and divinity of the religion of Christ, its doctrines, morality, spirit; its discoveries, hopes, consolations; its threatenings, warnings, promises, blessedness, are yea and amen. The truth as it is in Jesus is his guide, directory, strength, landmark. He is a disciple of Christ, whose example he must follow. He has a Lawgiver to whom he owes fealty. He has a Judge to whom he must finally render account. Christianity without Sect" appears to him very similar to Christianity without Christ. Christianity is a Sect, a small one com. paratively amongst the beliefs of the world. It is his Sect, his opinion, choice, preference, amidst multitudinous claims on human credence. How can he sink that preference, choice, Sectarianism, and yet be honest? How can he feel

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