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HYMN III.

BACKWARD with humble shame we look
On our original :

Here is our nature dash'd and broke,
In our first father's fall.

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To all that's good averse and blind,
But prone to all that's ill!

What dreadful darkness veils our mind:
How obstinate our will!

What mortal pow'r from things unclean
Can pure productions bring?
Who can command a vital stream
From a corrupted spring?

Yet, Mighty God, thy wondrous Love
Can make our nature clean;
While Christ and grace prevaй above
The tempter, death, and sin.
The Second Adam shall restore,
The ruins of the first:

Hosanna to that Sovereign Power
Which new-creates our dust!

GENERAL DEPRAVITY OF MANKIND IN ALL COUNTRIES AFTER THE FALL. MR. Fairchild had a little tame hare, which he kept in his study. He had had it many years. This hare had a little wooden house, with a small door, in the study; and, whenever any thing frightened it, it used to run into its house, where it remained in safety. Emily, and Lucy, and Henry, used to go every morning into the garden, to get parsley and other green things for the hare. One day, when they came in with the hare's food, they saw their papa sitting at his study table examining a large round ball, or globe, which was fixed upon a stand before him. The children had never seen this before, because it was just come from London, a present from Mr. Fairchild's uncle.

"Oh! Papa! Papa! what pretty thing is that?" said the children: " pray let us see it."

"It is a globe, my dears," said Mr. Fairchild: "your kind uncle sent it from London, for your use." "Oh, that was good, Papa!" said Lucy. "It is very pretty."

"Yes, it is very pretty indeed," said Henry; "but I do not understand its use."

"My little people, come here," said Mr. Fairchild," and stand round the table, and I will try to make you understand what is the use of the Globe." So the children gave the hare his parsley, and gathered round their papa.

"Of what shape is this thing, my dear?" said Mr. Fairchild.

"It is round, Papa," said Lucy: “ round, like an apple."

"This thing, my dears," said Mr. Fairchild: " is called a Globe: it is the shape of the world in which we live; and upon it are drawn, as in a picture, all the countries of the world."

"Oh, Papa! how pretty," said Emily: " and is the world in which we live round, like this?” Mr. Fairchild. 66 Yes, my dears; and it hangs in the heavens as the Moon does, kept there by the almighty power of God."

"Papa," said Henry, " will you teach us where all the countries are upon the Globe?”

Mr. Fairchild. "Yes, my dear; you shall come into my study, and I will teach you a little every day; and we will talk about the various nations and people who live on this Globe."

The next morning the children came again into Mr. Fairchild's study, and he gave them the instruction he had promised them. And first he taught them that the Globe was divided by general agreement into four unequal parts—namely, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. "Asia is that part of

the world," said Mr. Fairchild," in which the Garden of Eden, or Paradise, was supposed to have been placed, where the first man, Adam, lived.”

"Oh, Papa!" said Emily, "shew us where the Garden of Eden was."

"Here it was," said Mr. Fairchild, " as is supposed, upon the borders of the river Euphrates, which was one of the four rivers of Paradise."

Papa," said Henry, "I can repeat the verses in Genesis about Paradise. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good there is bdellium, and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it.' (Gen. ii. 8-15.)"

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Paradise, my dears," said Mr. Fairchild, was a most lovely place, such as we never saw; for there is no place now in this world in which the ruin caused by sin does not appear.. But when Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil to eat the forbidden fruit, they were cast out of Paradise; their bodies became subject to sickness and death; and their hearts became exceedingly corrupt, and all

their children, who have since been born in their likeness, are utterly and entirely sinful: so that of ourselves we cannot do a good thing, or think a good thought."

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Papa," said Lucy, “ may we say some verses, about mankind having bad hearts?"

"Yes, my dear," answered Mr. Fairchild.

Then each of the children repeated a verse from the Bible, to prove that the nature of man, after the Fall of Adam, is utterly and entirely sinful.

Lucy's Verse." And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth—and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart....The earth also was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." (Gen. vi. 5, 6, 11, 12.)

Emily's Verse." And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour: and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth: neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done." (Gen. viii. 20, 21.)

Henry's Verse." For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." (Rom. vii. 18.) "You find by these verses, my dear children," said Mr. Fairchild, "that the heart of every man is entirely and utterly corrupt; that there is no good in us whatever; so that we cannot, without God's help, think even one good thought. This is the dreadful state into which Adam brought himself and his children by his disobedience; he made us

children of wrath and heirs of hell. But, at the very time that Adam fell and was turned out of Paradise, God, in his very great goodness, gave him a promise, to be his comfort: this promise was, that One born amongst his children should destroy his enemy the devil, and save his brethren." "I know who that is," said Lucy, who was to be born amongst the children of Adam to destroy the works of the devil: it is the Lord Jesus Christ; who, though he is God, took the body of a man, and was born like a baby, and died for us all."

"Oh!" said Henry, "I wish I could love the Lord Jesus Christ more than I do; but my wicked heart will not let me."

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"Ah! my boy," said Mr. Fairchild, we may all say the same: but there is one comfort, that we could not wish to love him if he did not put this wish into our hearts. And now, my dears," said Mr. Fairchild, "let us pray, that God will give us a knowledge of the exceeding wickedness of our hearts; that we may, knowing our wretched state, look up to the dear Saviour who only can save us

from hell."

So saying, Mr. Fairchild taught his children a prayer: after which he kissed them, and sent them to play in the garden, telling them to come to him at the same hour the next day, when he promised to shew them more of the countries upon the Globe. As I think Mr. Fairchild's prayer may be useful to you, I will put it down in this place, together with a hymn, which he taught his children to sing.

A Prayer that God would give us a Knowledge of the Wickedness of our own Hearts.

O Lord God Almighty, hear the prayer of a

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