the Almighty of a partial distribution of his favours, or murmur because the summer declines, and the rays of the sun do not for ever beam upon our soil, nor an equal degree of warmth cheer the inhabitants of our zone? What ingratitude, and what ignorance! We know not what we desire, nor of what we complain. Seeing that God has peculiarly favoured our climate, is it through pride or inadvertency that we acknowledge not his goodness? We often repine at the rigours of winter, and envy those who know no vicissitude of season; but let us remember, that what we most dread, the keen air of winter, perhaps, renders our climate the most salubrious of any on the globe. Observe the languid, exhausted frame of the inhabitants beneath a cloudless sun, the diseases that prey upon them, and the indolence which they are of necessity obliged to endure. When even the cold in our climate is felt most severely, we may comfort ourselves that this, compared with the cold of more northerly countries, is no more than the temperature of autumn. How different is our lot from that of the shivering natives near the north pole! Here, even in winter, the friendly rays of the sun enliven the days, and incite universal gaiety. There, the day, dreary as the night, receives no light from the sun. Here, in perfect security, whether reposing in our beds, or indulging over the blazing hearth, we defy the rigours of the season; the charms of society soften its asperities, and the constant succession of day and night cheers and revives; but in those frozen regions, the miserable huts form a poor shelter from the pitiless pelting of the storm, and the wild savages of the woods and the deserts keep the starved inhabitants in a state of constant alarm and danger, by the loudness of their roar, and the frequency of their wild horrific cry; and with them a perpetual winter reigns. Whilst we, after a few stormy months, are visited by a season whose charms console us for all that we have suffered; and, amid the joy and harmony inspired by a vernal VOL. I. C sun, we forget the name of winter. Let us then bless the beneficent hand which has assigned us so happy an inheritance; let us glorify God, who has regulated our present allotment with so much wisdom and goodness; and let us joyfully render thanks unto Him who has fixed our abode in a climate, where, in each succeeding season, his bounty is displayed with magnificence, and diffused with abundance, throughout the creation. JANUARY XI. Snow conduces to the Earth's Fertility. REGARDING appearances only, we might be induced to say, that snow, so far from being useful to the earth, was by its cold and moisture of detriment to trees and plants. But the experience of centuries teaches us, that to preserve grain, plants, and vegetables, from the effects of cold, nature can give no better protection than by shielding them with snow, which, though seemingly cold, yet shelters the earth's surface from freezing winds, and preserves a due degree of heat for the preservation of seeds. Thus God provides what is necessary for the support and nutriment of the works of his creation. Nature is always active, even when she appears in a state of perfect quiescence, and renders us real services at the time she appears most to deny them. Observe the providence of God exerted for our good in the roughest season, and preparing, without any assistance on our part, all the treasures of nature. With such proofs of Divine protection, who can doubt or mistrust? The wonders that God performs in nature every winter, he also daily effects for the preservation of mankind. What at first often appears useless or prejudicial, ultimately contributes to our felicity; and often when we imagine that God has ceased to interest himself in our welfare, he is, perhaps, completing a part of his glorious scheme, impenetrable to our view, but which unfolding, may be the means of delivering us from some impending calamity, or procure us some benefit beyond the flight of hope to aspire after. Snow, however, is not merely destined as a covering to the earth, it tends also to assist its fertility, by penetrating beneath the surface, and supplying a proper degree of moisture. "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither again, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it."-Isaiah lv. 10, 11. We live in an age in which this prediction, through the mouth of the prophet, is accomplished in a remarkable manner. Whole provinces and kingdoms, which formerly, shrouded in the gloom of ignorance, of superstition, and of credulity, were oppressed by slavery, and deluded by the dreams of idolatry, in this glorious day of gospel dispensation, cheered by the blessed light from heaven, have emerged from darkness and obscurity, have aroused their slumbering faculties, and have embraced the great truths of Christianity. Over how many obdurate hearts has it triumphed! How many good works, how many blessed fruits of piety, has it brought to maturity! May the Divine grace be so poured into our hearts, that we may ever feel its quickening, saving influence ! JANUARY XII. Contemplation of the Heavenly Bodies. THE heavens present to our view, in the night season, a scene of grandeur and sublimity, which forcibly impresses the attentive observer of nature. But how few are capable of receiving the great and noble ideas which the contemplation of the firmament calls forth in a philosophic mind! How few even observe it at all! This, I imagine, can only proceed from ignorance; for it is impossible to take an extensive range through nature, and view the majestic objects every-where presented, without at once being led through nature up to nature's God, and feeling the power of the mind expand in our vast flight through the regions of space, till we are lost in admiration and rapture, and feel a celestial radiance illume our souls. Oh that every human being would partake of this Divine pleasure! that they would elevate their thoughts beyond the confines of earth, and, ranging above the spheres, repose on heaven! It is enough merely to name those immense bodies, each in itself a world revolving in space, to fill the mind with awe and astonishment at the mighty power of the Creator. In the centre of the planetary system, the Sun, more than a million times larger than our earth, and at the distance of 82 millions of miles, rolls his majestic orb, round which revolve seven planets with their attendant satellites, all deriving their lustre from the central luminary. These planets are known to the astronomers by the names of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, the Earth, Mercury, and Herschel *. Of these the nearest to the sun is Mercury; it is * Discovered first at Bath, March 17, 1781, by the philosopher whose name it bears. much smaller than the earth, its diameter being only 2600 miles, and from its proximity to the sun, round which it performs its course in eighty-eight days, rolling at the rate of 95,000 miles an hour, is seldom visible to our eye: the light and heat it derives from the sun are nearly seven times as great as ours, being distant from that luminary only 32 millions of miles. Next comes Venus, completing her revolution round the sun in about seven months, at the computed distance of 59 millions of miles; she is larger than our earth, and shines when west of the sun as a morning star, and when east as an evening star, with astonishing splendour, moving hourly in her orbit 69,000 miles. The third circle is the orbit of the Earth, revolving round the sun at the rate of 58,000 miles an hour; which, though little more than half as swift as the motion of Mercury in his orbit, is one hundred and twenty times swifter than that of a cannon-ball. The Earth's diameter is 7970 miles, and the moon rolls round it as an attendant satellite, performing her course in 29 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes. The moon's diameter is 2180 miles, and her distance from the Earth's centre 240,000. The planet next in order is Mars, about 125 millions of miles distant from the sun, and travelling round him in 686 days and 23 hours, at the rate of 47 millions of miles every hour. The diameter of Mars is 4444 miles, his quantity of light and heat equal but to half of ours, and the sun appears to him but half as large as to us. The fifth, and the largest of all the planets, is Jupiter, distant from the sun 426 millions of miles, and going every hour in his orbit 25,000 miles. He finishes his annual period in 11 of our years, 314 days, and 12 hours. He is above one thousand times larger than our earth, and is surrounded by faint substances called belts; they vary considerably in appearance, and sometimes disappear altogether; hence they have been supposed to be clouds. Four moons |