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ON SEEING TWINS LYING DEAD.

to every succeeding generation. In addition to the blessing of life, how many pleasures does the Creator grant to animals, and particularly to man! How magnificently has he adorned and beautified the world which he has assigned him for his habitation! What comforts has he bestowed upon him as a social being! What tender ties, what warm affections, and what delightful sentiments has he prepared the heart to enjoy! Let us never be ungrateful to such a bountiful Creator: but since we are endued with reason, and are capable of knowing, of loving, and of praising him, let us acknowledge with thankfulness and with gladness that "the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord."

ON SEEING TWINS LYING DEAD.

'Twas summer, and a Sabbath eve,
And balmy was the air,

I saw a sight that made me grieve,
And yet that sight was fair;
For in a little coffin lay

Two lifeless babes as sweet as May.

Like waxen dolls that infants dress,
Their little bodies were;

A look of placid happiness
Did on each face appear;

And in a coffin short and wide
They lay together side by side.

A rosebud, nearly closed, I found
Each little hand within,

And many a pink was strewed around,
With sprigs of Jessamine.

But all the flowers that round them lay

Were not to me so sweet as they.

Their mother, as a lily pale,

Sat near them on a bed,

And, bending o'er them, told her tale,

And many a tear she shed;

ANECDOTE OF CANUTE. THE HERMIT.

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But oft she cried, amidst her pain,
My babes and I shall meet again."

ANECDOTE OF CANUTE.

THERE is a remarkable passage in the life of Canute, king of England, containing instructions both to prince and people. His courtiers (ever too prone to magnify and flatter those whom they think to please by so do ing) would frequently extol his power and wealth, and pretend sometimes almost to adore his person. Canute was a man of too good understanding, not to see the folly of such flattery, and of the persons from whom it came. But for their effectual conviction, and to shew the small power of kings, he caused his royal seat to be placed on the sea-shore, while the tide was coming in ; then in the midst of his flattering nobles and great lords, whom he caused to assemble together for that purpose, arrayed in robes of gold, with his crown on his head, with all the state and royalty he could command, he thus addressed the sea: "Thou, sea, belongest to me, and the land whereon I sit is mine, nor hath any one unpunished resisted my commands: I charge thee, therefore, come no farther upon my land, neither presume to wet the feet of thy sovereign lord." But the sea came rolling on, and without reverence, wet and dashed the king. Then rising from his seat, and looking around him, he desired all present to behold and consider the weakness of human power; and that none truly deserved the name of a king, but he whose eternal laws both heaven, earth, and seas obey. From that time he never wore a crown, esteeming earthly reyalty nothing else than poor contemptible vanity.

THE HERMIT.

Ar the close of the day, when the hamlet is still,
And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove;
When nought but the torrent is heard on the hill,
And nought but the nightingale's song in the grove :

'Twas then by the cave of the mountain afar, A Hermit his song of the night thus began; No more with himself or with nature at war,

He thought as a Sage, while he felt as a Man: "Ah! why thus abandoned to darkness and woe, Why thus, lonely Philomel, flows thy sad strain? For spring shall return, and a lover bestow,

And thy bosom no trace of misfortune retain. Yet if pity inspire thee, ah! cease not thy lay,

Mourn, sweetest complainer, man calls thee to mourn; O soothe him, whose pleasures, like thine, pass away— Full quickly they pass but they never return.

Now gliding remote, on the verge of the sky, The moon, half extinguished, her crescent displays: But lately I marked, when majestic on high,

She shone, and the planets were lost in her blaze. Roll on, thou fair orb, and with gladness pursue The path that conducts thee to splendour againBut man's faded glory no change shall renew;

Ah fool! to exult in a glory so vain!

you

“'Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more;
I mourn, but, ye woodlands, I mourn not for
For morn is approaching, your charms to restore,
Perfum'd with fresh fragrance, and glitt'ring with

dew:

Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn;

Kind Nature the embryo blossom will saveBut when shall spring visit the mouldering urn? O when shall it dawn on the night of the grave?

"'Twas thus, by the glare of false science betrayed,
That leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind,
My thoughts wont to roam, from shade onward to shade,
Destruction before me, and sorrow behind:

O pity, great Father of light,' then I cried,

Thy creature who fain would not wander from
Thee!

• Lo, humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride;

. From doubt and from darkness, Thou only canst free.'

SCRIPTURE REVEALS THE WAY OF SALVATION. 79 "And darkness and doubt are now flying away, No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn : So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray,

The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn. See Truth, Love, and Mercy, in triumph descending, And nature all glowing in Eden's fair bloom!

On the cold cheek of Death smiles and roses are blending,

And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb."

THE SCRIPTURES REVEAL THE WAY OF SALVATION.

THE Scriptures contain an authentic discovery of "the way of salvation." They are a revelation of mercy to a lost world; a reply to that most interesting inquiry," What must we do to be saved?" The distinguishing feature of the Gospel system, is the econo my of redemption, or the gracious provision the Su preme Being has thought fit to make for reconciling the world to himself, by the manifestation in human nature of his own Son. It is this which constitutes the Gospel, by way of eminence, or the glad tidings concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ, on the right reception of which, or its rejection, turns our everlasting weal or woe. It is not from the character of God as our Creator, it should be remembered, that the hope of the guilty can arise; the fullest developement of his essential perfections could afford no relief in this case, and therefore natural religion, were it capable of being carried to the utmost perfection, can never supersede the necessity of revealed. To inspire confidence, an express communication from heaven is necessary; since the introduction of sin has produced a peculiarity in our situation, and a perplexity in our prospects, which nothing but an express assurance of mercy can remove. In what manner the blessed and only Potentate may think fit to dispose of a race of apostates, is a question on which reason can suggest nothing satisfactory, nothing salutary; a question, in the solution of which, there being no data to proceed upon, wisdom and folly show alike, and every order of intellect is re

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THE MELODIES OF morn.

duced to a level, for "who hath known the mind of the Lord, or being his counsellor, hath taught him?" It is a secret which, had he not been pleased to unfold it, must have for ever remained in the breast of the Deity. This secret, in infinite mercy, he has conde scended to disclose; the silence, not that which John witnessed in the Apocalypse of half an hour, but that of ages, is broken; the darkness is past, and we behold in the Gospel, the astonishing spectacle of "God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing to them their trespasses," and sending forth his ambassadors to "entreat us in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God." "It gives the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." While we contemplate it under this its true character, we view it in its just dimensions, and feel no inclination to extenuate the force of those representations which are expressive of its pre-eminent dignity, There is nothing will be allowed to come into comparison with it—nothing we shall not be ready to sacrifice for a participation of its blessings, and the extension of its influence. The veneration we shall feel for the Bible, as the depository of saving knowledge, will be totally distinct, not only from what we attach to any other book, but from that admiration its other properties inspire; and the variety and antiquity of its history, the light it affords in various researches, its inimitable touches of nature, together with the sublimity and beauty so copiously poured over its pages, will be deemed subsidiary ornaments, the embellishments of the casket which contains the pearl of great price.

THE MELODIES OF MORN.

BUT who the melodies of morn can tell?

The wild brook babbling down the mountain side; The lowing herd; the sheepfold's simple bell;

The pipe of early shepherd dim descried