as the morning dawns, or the shades of evening close around us. On our sabbaths, and other solemn seasons, the birth, life, and death of our Redeemer, may be dwelt upon with peculiar and blessed effect; but yet they belong to all times, and afford, on all occasions, appropriate themes of meditation. O, then, let the rising orb of day be ever linked in our minds with the Sun of Righteousness, and let the sweetest star of eve ever remind us of the Star of Bethlehem!

EIGHTH WEEK-SATURDAY.

NO SEASON UNPLEASANT TO THE CHEERFUL MIND.

THIS is a season set apart, by almost universal consent, in the Christian world, as a time of festivity. The friendly greetings of the season owe their origin, in a great measure, to religious feelings, although they are very seldom conducted in a religious spirit. There is much. reason to regret the abuse, while we cannot condemn the principle on which the enjoyments of this anniversary were originally founded. To the Christian, the advent of the Son of God is indeed "good tidings of great joy ;" and when his rejoicings truly take their rise from a grateful and pious recollection of this most glorious event, which was the harbinger of "peace on earth," and the pledge of " good-will towards men," it cannot but produce a salutary effect upon the mind.

"There is something in the very season of the year,' says Washington Irving, taking another view of the subject, "that gives a charm to the festivity of Christmas. At other times, we derive a great portion of our pleasures from the mere beauties of Nature. Our feelings sally forth, and dissipate themselves over the sunny landand we live abroad and every where.' The song scape, of the bird, the murmur of the stream, the breathing

fragrance of spring, the soft voluptuousness of summer, the golden pomp of autumn, earth with its mantle of refreshing green, and heaven with its deep delicious blue, and its cloudy magnificence,-all fill us with mute but exquisite delight, and we revel in the luxury of mere sensation. But, in the depth of winter, when Nature lies despoiled of every charm, and wrapped in her shroud of sheeted snow, we turn for our gratifications to moral sources. The dreariness and desolation of the landscape, the short gloomy days, and darksome nights, while they circumscribe our wanderings, shut in our feelings, also, from rambling abroad, and make us more keenly disposed for the pleasures of the social circle."

There is truth in this view, as applicable to a rightly constituted mind; but, on the temper and feelings of the selfish and querulous, a very different effect is produced. A person of this disposition usually gives way to a feeling of bodily uneasiness, and is visibly disturbed by the coldness and fog of the atmosphere, and the unpleasant state of the ground. He exaggerates the peculiar inconveniences of the season, and invests the gloom of the longcontinued storm with his own deeper gloominess. He dwells, with a sort of satisfaction, on every circumstance of annoyance, and rejects every ray of comfort; unlike the more grateful earth, that in the midst of almost incessant darkness and storm, so soon as the sun scatters for an instant the thick clouds, is kindled into a smile, and seems to anticipate the coming gladness of spring. But these are the symptoms of a mental disease not uncommon at this period.

Whatever be the cause of this disorder, it is undoubtedly heightened in its virulence by the high notions and exquisite feeling of comfort, consequent upon the great progress of society amongst us, and the still ascending scale of our enjoyments. Our remote British forefathers, even in the depth of winter, could repose their weary limbs upon a pillow of heath in the open air, gathering, like the oaks of their country, strength and hardihood from the storm. They seemed utterly insensible to the numberless small discomforts that their descendants make

or find in the gloomy weather and bleak dominion of winter. They had neither the defences against the inclemency of the season, nor the resources of domestic recreation, that we enjoy ; and yet we are apt to murmur and complain, as if our circumstances and theirs were exactly reversed. We have secure and comfortable homes, conveniences in clothing and shelter, of which they never dreamed, the sweets of refined society, the mental luxury of books, and numerous fascinating amusements, equally innocent and useful; and yet, notwithstanding these multiplied blessings, we can yield to low impatience and despondency, if, haply, the wintry tempest, however magnificent and sublime in its appearance and effects, hinder our rural excursions, or transiently affect our frames with its moisture and its cold.

Into such ingratitude are we ever disposed to fall. Instead of cultivating cheerfulness at all times and in all seasons, we too frequently lapse into moroseness and melancholy. If, in place of allowing ourselves to be disturbed by any state of the weather or of the country around us, we kept steadily in view the various comforts and enjoyments within our reach at every period of the year, we should only be fulfilling an important duty; and we should also be on the surest way to attain that serenity of mind which is its own reward. That habit of cheerfulness would thus be formed, which constitutes no small portion of the philosophy of daily life; and cheerfulness, when once it becomes an habitual feeling, finds food and nourishment in all scenes and seasons. As the man who is keenly alive to the sublime and the beautiful in Nature frequently finds the cherished feelings of his soul ministered unto by objects that to other minds have in them nothing to attract or enliven, so the cheerful mind derives enjoyment from scenery the most unpromising, and perceives, even in the desolation of winter, a beauty and an expression of its own.

It has been said, that the bee extracts honey, and the spider poison, from the same flower; but, perhaps, with greater truth may this be figuratively affirmed of men of different dispositions, for, whatever be the condition of

the fretful or the self-indulgent, the cheerful man finds the prevailing feeling of his mind reflected back upon him, as it were, from all the varied phenomena of the seasons. He looks at Nature through a medium that has to him all the effects of fabled enchantment. As the eye of the painter or the poet is quick to discern, in every landscape, the subtile elements of his creative art, SO does he, by a seeming intuition,-by an almost unconscious alchymy of the mind,-select from the concomitants of every passing season all that is fitted to compensate his incidental privations, and to inspire that tempered gladness which it is his object to attain. The winds of winter may blow coldly over the ravaged earth, and bewail the departed glories of the year; the mountains may be hid from his eye in thickest clouds; the fields and groves may be verdureless and dead; but these only enhance the endearments of his home, and heighten his gratitude for all the blessings congregated there.

I have already dwelt on the peculiar delights of the domestic hearth at this season; and I need not here remark, that these can only be enjoyed in all their power, by the bosom in which contentment and tranquillity reign. The fine enjoyments of home shun the stormy breast, and take up their abode with him who is of a cheerful temper, and who finds, in "all seasons and their change," matter of gratitude and delight. Winter, "stern ruler of the inverted year," may ravage the loved scenery around his dwelling; but, within his own breast, and in his dear family circle, there reigns a summer of social and domestic joy. The glories of the calm autumnal day may have vanished; but the sublimer glories of the nocturnal heavens more frequently greet his enraptured sight, brightly beaming through the clear frosty air. In the deadness of Nature he sees her necessary repose before another spring; the rain, the frost, and the snow, are, in his regard, sent by the Almighty Father, to fertilize the soil, and herald the bounty of another harvest.

Thus it is beneficently ordained, that the happy and contented spirit should find, at all times, the means of enjoyment. The great Framer of the human mind has

exquisitely adapted the external world to its various feelings and powers; and when these are in healthful action, Nature, in her wintry as well as her vernal aspects, is full of beauty and harmony. Though the flowery and the fruitful seasons of the year may be over and gone, and the blasts of winter howl among the desolate mountains, the past is without regret, the present full of enjoyment, and the future rich in hope. How should we then adore that Divine goodness, which has given us power to enjoy the seasons as they pass in grand succession before us; and, even among the sternest scenes of winter, to behold in vision the luxuriant beauty of spring! J. D.

NINTH WEEK-SUNDAY.

PROOFS OF DIVINE BENEVOLENCE IN THE WORKS OF CREA

TION.

"CONTRIVANCE proves design," argues Dr. Paley; "and the prominent tendency of the contrivance indicates the disposition of the designer. The world abounds with contrivances; and all the contrivances we are acquainted with, are directed to beneficial purposes. Evil, no doubt, exists; but it is never, that we can perceive, the object of contrivance. Teeth are contrived to eat, not to ache; their aching now and then is incidental to the contrivance, perhaps inseparable from it; or even, if you will, let it be called a defect in the contrivance; but it is not the object of it. This is a distinction that well deserves being attended to. In describing implements of husbandry, you would hardly say of a sickle, that it is made to cut the reaper's fingers, though, from the construction of the instrument, and the manner of using it, this mischief often happens. But, if you occasion to describe instruments of torture or execution, this, you would say, is to extend the sinews; this to dis

had