died of hunger. "I commiserated their condition," says the naturalist," and gave them one of their negro servants. This individual alone, and unassisted, established order, formed a chamber in the earth, gathered together the larvæ, extricated several young ants that were ready to quit the condition of pupæ ; and, in a word, preserved the life of the remaining legionaries."

Singular as this arrangement of Providence is, it is scarcely more so than that by which another species of ant has been taught to employ an entirely different race of insects as their domestic animals,-in the same manner as we do the cow,-feeding and protecting them, that they may extract from the bodies of these subject creatures a nourishing liquor for food. While we experience surprise, and even perhaps some degree of revulsion of feeling, at the existence of a regular system of slavery among these insects,-a practice which we so justly condemn, as it exists among human beings,-it must be remembered, as Kirby and Spence most truly remark, that there is a wide difference in the two cases, since the subjection of these creatures does not, like human slavery, prove a source of misery; for their situation is little, if at all, different from what it would have been, had they never been carried from their native colony. They are altogether unconscious of degradation,—indeed, in some respects, they act as masters, and they pursue their instincts, and exercise their faculties, as freely, and with as much enjoyment, as they would otherwise have done. Looking back, indeed, to the origin of this condition, we find rapine and spoliation on the part of the invaders,—— privation, injury, and distress on the part of the invaded; but this is nothing more than a new mode in which the evil is exhibited inherent in a fallen world; and that evil is, not only in the way already mentioned, but by various other means, tempered and alleviated, if not compensated. How curious it is to observe, throughout universal Nature, as it exists in this sublunary state, the same chequered scene of good and evil, enjoyment and

suffering! This condition comes more strikingly home to the mind, when, as, in the present instance, we see the virtues and vices of human beings, as well as their joys and sorrows, imitated and acted over again, as it were, by inferior and irrational creatures.

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SEVENTH WEEK-SUNDAY.

SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION.

THE changes we have been considering are peculiar and strange ; and, in contemplating them, we are apt to forget that this class of transformations forms only a particular modification of a law that is universal among organized existences. The change of a seed into a plant; its development till it produces leaves, and flowers, and new seeds; its decay and resolution into its original elements; and the combination of these elements, again, into new forms of vegetable or animal life,—all these are as truly transformations, and, in their kind, as wonderful and admirable, as that of the insect egg into a worm, the worm into a chrysalis, and the chrysalis into a fly. Among animals, the changes are still more striking. The embryo in the womb, and the egg which the mother hatches, have already undergone an astonishing transformation, and are destined to undergo other alterations of so extraordinary a nature, that they may well be compared to a metamorphosis. Being destined, in their earliest stage, to exist in a fluid, they are then possessed of organs, resembling the gills and corresponding organs of a fish, which disappear as the lungs are developed, and as the animal becomes fitted for breathing the vital air. Birth is a transformation as complete as the escape of an insect from its pupa-case. The creature appears in a new element, and has acquired new faculties adapted to its altered condition. As it grows, new developments take place, and corresponding powers and instincts are implanted; till at last the system decays, the powers of life give way; it dies, and returns to its kindred dust. Nor is this the last change in one class of beings. The lower animals may, like plants, be destined to give forth

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the particles of which their bodies are composed, in contributing to the subsistence of other organized beings; and this, to a certain extent at least, is also true of man. But, besides this, the descendant of Adam has a peculiar privilege belonging to him, as a rational creature redeemed from death, and destined for immortality. There is an indestructible germ in his earthly part, and from this shall spring forth a celestial body; for "the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live."-It is the last and greatest transformation of his material frame.

But, corresponding to these bodily metamorphoses, there is also a transformation of the mental powers, which takes place in those who are the objects of heavenly influences; nor is this without its analogy in the inferior creatures. Bodily transformations are always attended with some remarkable changes in the habits and functions of the animals which are subjected to them. The chick in the egg is quite a different being from the fowl, not merely in its corporeal frame, but in its capacities and its instincts; and, in the same manner, the change wrought in the redeemed at the resurrection, will doubtless be of amazing extent, comprising all the powers and faculties of the soul.

Before this final transformation, there is one of a nature scarcely less surprising, though more imperceptible, and generally more gradual, that passes upon those who, while they remain in the regions of time, are undergoing that process, which is finally to fit them for eternity; and who cease to be conformed to this world, being "transformed by the renewing of their minds."

The necessity of this change depends on a fact in the human constitution, undeniable in itself, yet so strange and unaccountable to all who reject the Gospel, that many ingenious attempts have been made to explain it away. I need scarcely observe, that I allude to the natural depravity of the human heart. Moral philosophers have exercised their talents in describing what consti

tutes the perfection of the human character; and they have drawn many beautiful and fascinating pictures of the mind of man, in the full development of its moral faculties. These are pictures, however, which, throughout the thousands of ages that have rolled away since man was called into existence, have never been realized, except in one individual, and He more than man. Why is this? Assuredly there are not wanting motives, strong, pressing, and paramount, to induce human beings to adorn their lives with those virtues and graces, which form the perfection of mankind, and which contribute so essentially to promote their happiness. Above all, these motives come home with tenfold weight to the heart of the professing Christian, who views this character embodied so beautifully in the life of Jesus. Yet he too remains, for the most part, unaffected by the very incentives, the force and importance of which he freely acknowledges; and when, at last, he feels them moving his heart, and influencing his conduct, he is forced to confess, that the change was not wrought by his own unaided exertions; that it was always superinduced on a powerless, frequently on a rebellious, nature. For many revolving years, perhaps, a thousand impressive appeals had been made to his sense of duty, interest, and gratitude; but in vain. In vain had he been exhorted to obey his Creator and Redeemer ; in vain had he been warned to flee from the wrath to come, and reminded of the glory, honour, and immortality which await believers in the world of spirits. These appeals perhaps roused him for a moment; but he fell again into his deep sleep, or he only remained awake to drown his convictions, by drinking the intoxicating cup of the world to the very dregs.

Neither has the warning voice of Providence power to gain admittance to the heart in its natural state. In what expressive language does God speak to our souls, in the events that are passing around us! How solemnly -how pathetically-does he warn us, that our treasure