enjoyments of devotion, and the blessed hopes of immortality, give an unspeakable charm to existence, and prove the Divine Being who bestowed these gifts, to be full of condescending kindness to his rational offspring.

"How gracious indeed the care which has provided a remedy for our spiritual wants, and an answer for those longings and fears which look beyond our present dwelling, and make earnest inquiries of eternity! How precious that Divine word, which bears assurance of pardon to the sincerely repentant, and promises of peace and joy to the sorrowful and broken-hearted; which tells of a merciful Saviour, who was wounded for our transgressions, who was acquainted with our griefs, and who died that we might live! These blessings change not with the changing seasons, nor pass away with the rolling years." When the believer thinks of them, his heart overflows with gratitude; and the deep emotion which they excite, finds no language more suitable for its expression, than the short, but emphatic exclamation of an apostle,"Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!"

FIRST WEEK-MONDAY.

THE CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE.-COMPENSATION.

BEFORE proceeding to the examination of particulars, with the view of exhibiting the attributes of the great Creator, as manifested in the seasons of the year, it is of importance to discover the nature of the principles which are to form the subject of our investigation; more especially, as there is certainly something very remarkable in the character impressed on the created objects within the sphere of our observation. Were we to commence the inquiry without the aid of experience, founding our expectations on the abstract theories of perfection which we might form in the closet, we should assur

darkness of a long winter night, were it not cheered and rendered sublime by the splendor of the starry firmament !

Look, again, at the comforts and domestic endearments of a winter-evening fireside. Who, that has experienced these, will allege that winter is inferior to summer, either in its enjoyments or in its means of improvement? When early night has spread its shade over external nature, and labor has ceased in the fields, and the sound of busy feet is more rarely heard along the streets; when the shutters are closed, and the curtains drawn, and the fire blazes in the grate, and the candle stands on the table, shedding artificial day, and a united family, shutting out the world, retire within their own beloved circle, to enjoy the social hours; when the father and mother occupy their wonted chimney corners, and the children, while their hands, perchance, are engaged in some light employment, listen with interest to the instruction of some well-chosen book, or bear their parts in edifying and endearing conversation,-who will not confess that there are advantages in this intercourse, which longer days, and a more genial atmosphere, with all the attractions of vocal woods and flowery meads, can scarcely equal?

Here, then, we have compensation for an acknowledged evil :-we have even more. This evil is converted into means of pleasure and improvement; and such is precisely the character of Creative Wisdom and Goodness, into which we have to inquire. He, who expects to find a higher grade of perfection in those manifestations of nature with which he is surrounded, will assuredly be disappointed.

["The Great Author of our being," says Dr. Roget, in his Bridgewater Treatise, "who, while he has been pleased to confer on us the gift of reason, has prescribed certain limits to its powers, permits us to acquire, by its exercise, a knowledge of some of the wondrous works of his creation, to interpret the characters of wisdom and goodness with which they are impressed, and to join our voice to the general chorus which proclaims 'his Might, Majesty, and Do

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minion.' From the same gracious hand we also derive that unquenchable thirst for knowledge which this fleeting life must ever leave unsatisfied; those endowments of the moral sense, with which the present constitution of the world so ill accords; and that innate desire of perfection which our present frail condition is so inadequate to fulfil. But it is not given to man to penetrate into the counsels, or fathom the designs of Omnipotence; for in directing his views into futurity, the feeble light of his reason is scattered and lost in the vast abyss. Although we plainly discern intention in every part of the creation, the grand object of the whole is placed far above the scope of our comprehension. It is impossible, however, to conceive that this enormous expenditure of power, this vast accumulation of contrivances and of machinery, and this profusion of existence resulting from them, can thus, from age to age, be prodigally lavished, without some ulterior end. Is Man, the favored creature of Nature's bounty, the paragon of animals,' whose spirit holds communion with celestial powers, formed but to perish with the wreck of his bodily frame? Are generations after generations of his race doomed to follow in endless succession, rolling darkly down the stream of time, and leaving no track in its pathless ocean? Are the operations of Almighty power to end with the present scene? May we not discern in the spiritual constitution of man the traces of higher powers, to which those he now possesses are but preparatory; some embryo faculties which raise us above this earthly habitation ? Have we not in the imagination, a power, but little in harmony with the fetters of our bodily organs; and bringing within our view purer conditions of being, exempt from the illusion of our senses, and the infirmities of our nature, our elevation to which, will eventually prove that all these unsated desires of knowledge, and all these ardent aspirations after moral good, were not implanted in us in vain?

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Happily there has been vouchsafed to us, from a higher source, a pure and heavenly light to guide our faltering steps, and animate our fainting spirit, in this

dark and dreary search; revealing those truths which it imports us most of all to know, giving to morality higher sanctions, elevating our hopes and our affections to nobler objects than belong to earth, and inspiring more exalted themes of thanksgiving and of praise." AM. ED.]

FIRST WEEK-TUESDAY.

THE CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE.--CONTRIVANCE.

FROM the example stated yesterday, some idea may be formed of the kind of compensation for permitted evils which is every where to be discovered in the works of creation; but another, and equally marked feature in the face of nature, is that of the most ingenious contrivances, to avoid evils which would otherwise occur, or to insure advantages which could not otherwise be obtained. An example or two of this unequivocal proof of a wise and beneficent Designer will illustrate this subject.

For these I shall take advantage of the ingenious Treatise of Sir Charles Bell on the Human Hand, which is, throughout, a most masterly exposition of the argument, arising from this very view. The first which I select is

taken from his chapter on the "Sensibility of the Surface, compared with the deeper parts." That the skin is extremely sensible to pain, no one need be informed; but few, perhaps, have sufficiently attended to the fact, which is yet within the reach of any person's observation, that the pain does not increase in proportion to the depth of the wound, the sensibility being almost exclusively confined to the outward covering of the body. This has been very convincingly proved to be a contrivance of much wisdom and benevolence. After stating the fact, and showing it to be a matter of daily surgical experience, the author justly observes, that the obvious intention is, that the skin should be a safeguard to the delicate tex

tures which are contained within, by forcing us to avoid injuries; and that it does afford us a more effectual defence than if our bodies were covered with the hide of a rhinoceros.

"In pursuing the inquiry," says he, "we learn, with much interest, that when the bones, joints, and all the membranes and ligaments which cover them, are exposed, they may be cut, pricked, or even burned, without the patient or the animal suffering the slightest pain. These facts must appear to be conclusive; for who, witnessing these instances of insensibility, would not conclude that the parts were devoid of sensation; but when we take the true philosophical, and, I may say, religious view of the subject, and consider that pain is not an evil, but given for benevolent purposes, and for some important object, we should be unwilling to terminate the investigation here.

"In the first place, we must perceive, that, if a sensibility, similar to that of the skin, had been given to these internal parts, it must have remained unexercised. Had they been made sensible to pricking and burning, they would have possessed a quality which would never have been useful, since no such injuries can reach them, or never without warning being received through the sensibility of the skin.

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'But, further, if we find that sensibility to pain is a benevolent provision, and is bestowed for the purpose of warning us to avoid such violence as would affect the functions or uses of the parts, we may yet inquire, whether any injury can reach these internal parts, without the sensibility of the skin being excited. Now, of this there can be no doubt, for they are subject to sprain, and rupture, and shocks, without the skin being implicated in the accident. If we have been correct in our inference, there should be a provision to guide us in the safe exercise of the limbs; and, notwithstanding what has been apparently demonstrated of the insensibility of these internal parts, they must possess an appropriate sensibility, or it would imply an imperfection. With these reflections we recur to experiment, and we find that the parts

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VII.