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ing of our days with the remembrance of its triumphs, and with the sight of the crown of immortality. How glorious is a life of faith, and within reach of every believer in Christ Jesus! That we may live such a life, let us obey the commandments of Jesus, and we shall reap the eternal reward promised in the gospel.

LETTER XIX.

O Sympathy, sweet bosom friend!
With thee grief melts in bliss ;
The joys of heaven's existence blend
In all the sighs of this.
Friendship may lull the gay of mind
In Folly's careless dream,
But firmer far her hand will bind,
Bath'd in Affliction's stream.
Fortune may flush in joyance wild,
Her heart may wilder beat;

But the lone cot where ne'er she smiled
Can offer joys more sweet.
Unknown to her the speechless bliss
Thy power alone imparts,
When bright Affection's glowing kiss
Dries every tear that starts.

For good to every state below
Hath given the power above,-
To Fortune, Pleasure's deeper glow,
To Sorrow, Sympathy, and Love.

HENRY STAB

Edinburgh, 24th July, 1821.

“THAT there is a God our bodies declare;" the eye that delights in the beauties of nature, and can penetrate far in unbounded space, must have had its origin from an All-seeing and Infinite Being.

The

heart that sends forth the genial springs of life, and beats with emotion at friendship's grasp, must have got its first impulse from him who is life and liveth for ever. The body The body so modified to our present state of being, nourished by the earth, unconfined to place; with the expression of the soul delineated on the countenance; but when forsaken by that immortal spark moulders to dust, could only be formed by him who said, " Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return!" The soul, whose existence is independent of the body, and which is capable of holding high converse with its Creator, at whose volition the body acts, and which sits enthroned in majestic greatness in its temple of clay, revolving on ages that have passed away, and periods yet to be unrolled; which, with angel's flight, can soar to the heaven of heavens, and sink to the lowest hell; whose secret thoughts cannot be penetrated by fellow-men; no, not even angels or devils, by none but him who is its Creator, even this living, subtle, and immortal spirit in man that is not visible to the material eye, that exalts him above the brutes, and connects him with the world of spirits, could only be created by the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent Jehovah. If the statuary, who can shape out the human form, and give expression to the countenance; or the artist, who can delineate on canvass the symmetry of man, and give

expression to all the passions of his soul, receives unbounded praise, and if his works are preserved with the utmost care, and shewn to posterity with wonder and admiration, how worthy of praises must he be who formed man from the dust of the earth, and breathed into him a living soul!

That God is a spirit infinite in holiness as well as in being, and that they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, the Scriptures declare. Were we without a revelation of his will, we would be left to wander in midnight darkness, become the prey of designing knaves and speculating metaphysicians; but since he has broadly declared his will, revealed his character, and how he is to be worshipped, with the promise of grace and strength to all who seek him in sincerity, we are left without excuse if we neglect so great salvation. Like the shipwrecked mariner who has caught hold of a floating plank, and who holds with unremitting grasp till it float him ashore, I will by faith in Jesus Christ rest in assured confidence, that he will bear me safe amid the shocks of life, and pangs of death, unto the place of rest prepared for his friends.

The sorrows of life exalt in our esteem the love of Jesus; when we see our fellow-men dry the tear of pity, and stem with indignation the sigh of commiseration; when we see them immuring in prison

their debtors, and pursuing even to death the delinquent who has deviated from the paths of honesty, how rejoicing is it to hear this beneficent one lifting up his voice and saying, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and drink, and he that hath no money, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price!" He opens the door to the weary prisoner, and unfetters the fastbound convict. To offend this holy one, to sin against so much love, how awful!" Let the potsherds of the earth strive with the potsherds of the earth; but woe be to him who striveth with his Maker!" The greatest offence against man is less than the least against God.

On a review of sin, it is consoling to have Jesus as our advocate with the Father. His character of unspotted benevolence should of itself draw all the sons of sorrow to him; but when he comes as mediator between God and man, "as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," who gave himself a ransom that sinners might be saved, it leaves us to wonder with astonishment that there should be men to revile his character and cause. What offends you at this Jesus, ye sons of Infidelity and Deism? Is it because he is the future rest to the sinner who is pining with disease, and near the gates of death? Is it because he is a feast to the hungry, and a consolation to the afflicted? Is it be

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