thy presence; for tasting the pleasures of religion, and securing the riches of eternity. "How various is thy beneficence, O thou Lover of souls! It has unsealed a thousand sources of good; opened a thousand avenues of delight; and heaped blessings upon me with a ceaseless liberality. If I should attempt to declare them, they would be more than the starry host which glitter in this unclouded sky; more than the dewy gems, which will adorn the face of the morning. "And shall I forget the God of my salvation, the Author of all my mercies? Rather let my pulse forget to beat! Shall I render him no expressions of thankfulness? Then might all nature reproach my ingratitude.Shall I rest satisfied with the bare acknowledgments of my lips? No; let my life be vocal, and speak his praise, in that only genuine, that most emphatical language, the language of devout obedience. Let the bill be drawn upon my very heart; let all my affections acknowledge the draught; and let the whole tenor of my actions, in time and through eternity, be continually paying the debt, the ever pleasing, ever growing debt of duty, veneration and love. "And can I, O thou Guide of my goings, and Guardian of all my interests, can I distrust such signal, such experienced goodness? Thou hast been my helper through all the busy scenes of day; therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I repose myself, during the darkness, the danger, and deathlike inactivity of the night. Whatever defilement I have contracted, wash it thoroughly away, in redeeming blood; and let neither the sinful stain, nor the sinful inclination, accompany me to my couch!-Then shall I lay me down in peace, and take my rest; cheerfully referring it to thy all wise determination, whether I shall open my eyes in this world, or awake in the unknown regions of another." ON THE STARRY HEAVENS. THIS evening, I exchange the nice retreats of art, for the noble theatre of nature. Instead of measuring my steps, under the covert of an arbor, let me range along the summit of this gently rising hill.There is no need of the leafy shade, since the sun has quitted the horizon, and withdrawn his scorching beams. But see, how advantages and inconveniences are usually linked, and chequer our affairs below! If the annoying heat cease, the landscape, and its pleasing scenes, are also removed.. The majectic castle and the lowly cottage, are vanished together. I have lost the aspiring mountain, and its russet brow. I look around, but to ΠΟ purpose, for the humble vale, and its flowery lap. The plains, whitened with flocks, and the heath, yellow with farze, disappear. The advancing night has wrapt in darkness the long extended forest, and drawn her mantle over the windings of the silver stream. I no longer behold that luxuriant fertility in the fields; that wild magnificence of prospect, and endless variety of images; which have so often touched me with delight, and struck me with awe, from this commanding eminence. The loss, however, is scarcely to be regretted; since it is amply compensated by the opening beauties of the sky.— Here I enjoy a free view of the whole hemisphere; without any obstacle from below, to confine the exploring eye, or any cloud from above, to overcast the spacious concave. 'Tis true, the lively vermillion, which so lately streaked the chambers of the West, is all faded. But the planets, one after another, light up their lamps; the stars advance in their glittering train; a thousand and a thousand luminaries shine forth in successive splendors, and the whole firmament is kindling into the most beautiful glow. The blueness of the ether, heightened by the season of the year, and still more enlivened by the absence of the moon, gives those gems of heaven the strongest lustre. One pleasure more the invading gloom has not been able to snatch from my sense. The night rather improves than destroys, the fragrance which exhales from the blooming beams. With these the sides of this sloping declivity are lined, and with these the balmy zephyrs perfume their wings. Does Arabia, from all her spicy groves, breath a more liberal, or more charming gale of sweets? And, what is a peculiar recommendation of the rural entertainments presented in our happy land, they are alloyed by no apprehensions of danger. No poisonous serpent lurks under the blossom; nor any ravenous beast lies ready to start from the thicket. -But I wander from a far more exalted subject. My thoughts, like my affections, are too easily diverted from the heavens, and detained by inferior objects. Away, my attention, from these little blandishments of the earth; since all the glories of the sky invite thy regard. We have taken a turn among the Tombs, and viewed the solemn memorials of the dead, in order to learn the vanity. of mortal things, and to break their soft enchantment.--We have surveyed the ornaments of the Garden; not that the heart might be planted in the parterre, or take root among the flowery race; but that these delicacies of a day might teach us to aspire after a better paradise, where beauty never fades, and delight is ever in the bloom.-A third time we lighted the candle of meditation; and sought for wisdom, not in the crowded city, or wrangling schools, but in the silent and lonely walks of ancient Night.* Let us once more indulge the contemplative vein, and raise our speculations to those sublimer works of the great Creator, which the regions of the sky contain, and the dusky hour unveils.† Referring to the several subjects of the preceding essays. And deep reception in th' entender'd heart. Night Thoughts, No. IX. If we have discerned the touches of his pencil, glowing in the colors of Spring; if we have seen a sample of his beneficence exhibited in the stores of nature, and a ray of his brightness beaming in the blaze of day; what an infinitely richer field, for the display of his perfections, are the heavens! The heavens, in the most emphatical manner, declare the glory of God. The heavens are nobly eloquent of the Deity, and the most magnificent heralds of their Maker's praise. They speak to the whole universe; for there is neither speech so barbarous, but their language is understood; nor nation so distant, but their voices are heard among them.*-Let me, then, in this solemn season, formed for thought, and a calm intercourse with heaven; let me listen to their silent lectures. Perhaps I may receive such impressive manifestations of "the eternal power and Godhead," as may shed religion on my soul, while I walk the solitary shades; and may be a tetulary friend to my virtue, when the call of business, and the return of light, expose me again to the inroads of temptation. The Israelites, instigated by frenzy, rather than devotion, worshipped the host of heaven. And the pretenders to judicial astrology talk of, I know not what, mysterious efficacy, in the different aspects of the stars, or the various conjunction and opposition of the planets. Let those who are unacquainted with the sure word of revelation, give ear to these sons of delusion, and dealers in deceit. For my part, it is a question of indifference to me, whether the constellations shone with smiles, or loured in frowns, on the hour of my nativity. Let CHRIST be my guard; and, secure in such a protection, I would laugh at their impotent menaces. Let CHRIST he my guide; and I shall scorn to ask, as well as despair of receiving, any predictory information from such senseless masses...... What! shall the living seek to the dead?"+ Can these bodies advertise me of future events, which are unconscious of their own existence? Shall I have recourse to dull unintelligent matter, when I may apply to that all wise Being, who, with one comprehensive glance, distinctly views whatever is lodged in the bosom of immensity, or forming in the womb of futurity?Never, never will I search for any intimations of my fate; but often * Psalm xix. 2. A a † Isaiah viii. 19. trace my Creator's footsteps,* in yonder starry plains. In the former case, they would be teachers of lies; in the latter, they are oracles of truth. In this, therefore, this sense only, I profess myself the pupil of the stars. The vulgar are apprehensive of nothing more, than a multitude of bright spangles dropt over the etherial blue. They have no higher notion of these fine appearances than that they are so many golden studs, with which the empyrean arch is decorated.But studious minds, that carry a more accurate and strict enquiry among the celestial bodies, bring back advices of a most astonishing import. Let me just recollect the most material of those stupendous discoveries, in order to furnish out proper subjects for contemplation. And let the unlearned remember, that the scene I am going to display, is the workmanship of that incomprehensible GOD, who is "perfect in knowledge, and mighty in power;" whose name, whose nature, and all whose operations are "great and marvellous;" who summons into being, with equal ease, a single grain, or ten thousand worlds.-To this if we continually advert, the assertions, though they will certainly excite our admiration, need not transcend our belief. The earth is, in fact, a round body; however in may seem, in some parts, to be sunk into vales, and raised into "It is most becoming," (says a great author (" such imperfect creatures as we are, to contemplate the works of GOD with this design, that we may discern the manifestations of wisdom in them; and thereby excite in ourselves those devout affections, and that superlative respect which is the very essence of praise, as it is a reasonable and moral service."-ABERNETHY on the Attributes.--And, indeed, if we are sincerely disposed to employ ourselves in this excellent, this delightful duty of praising the infinite Creator; the means and the motives are both at hand. His works, in a wonderful and instructive variety, present themselves with pregnant manifestations of the most transcendant excellencies of their Maker. They pour their evidence from all quarters, and into all the avenues of the mind. They invite us; especially in the magnificent system of the universe, to contemplate counsel, consummately wise, and execution, inimitably perfect ;-power, to which nothing is impossible; and goodness, which extendeth to all, which endureth for ever.-To give, not a full display, but only some slight strictures of those glorious truths, is the principal scope of the following remarks. |