What blessings thy free bounty gives, Let me not cast away; For God is paid when man receives; Yet not to Earth's contracted span Let not this weak unknowing hand If I am right, thy grace impart, Save me alike from foolish pride, And impious discontent Teach me to feel another's woe, Mean though I am, not wholly so, Since quickened by thy breath: 1) lead me, whereso'er I go, Through this day's life or death! This day be bread and peace my lot: To thee, whose temple is all space, A THOUGHT ON ETERNITY. [John Gay; born in 1688; died in 1782.] ERE the foundations of the world were laid, From angry heaven when the keen lightning flies, When fervent heat dissolves the melting skies, Thou still shalt be; still as thou wert before, And know no change, when time shall be no more. THE DIVINE GOODNESS APPARENT IN THE ADAPTATION OF THE EARTH TO MAN. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. THE universe may be considered as the palace in which the Deity resides, and the earth as one of its apartments. In this all the meaner races of animated nature mechanically obey him, and stand ready to execute his commands without hesitation. Man alone is found refractory; he is the only being endued with the power of contradicting these mandates. The Deity was pleased to exert superior power in creating him a superior being-a being endued with a choice of good and evil, and capable, in some measure, of cooperating with his own intentions. Man, therefore, may be consid ered as a limited creature, endued with powers imitative of those residing in the Deity. He is thrown into a world that stands in need of his help; and he has been granted a power of producing harmony from partial confusion. If, therefore, we consider the earth as alloted for our habitation, we shall find that much has been given us to enjoy, and much to amend; that we have ample reasons for gratitude, and many for our industry. In those great outlines of nature, to which art can not reach, and where our greatest efforts must have been ineffectual, God himself has finished every thing with amazing grandeur and beauty. Our beneficent Father has considered these parts of nature as peculiarly his own; as parts which no creature could have skill or strength to amend; and he has, therefore, made them incapable of alteration, or of more perfect regularity. The heavens and the firmament show the wisdom and glory of the workman. Astronomers, who are best skilled in the symmetry of systems, can find nothing there that they can alter for the better. | the prospect, and give a current to the God made these perfect, because no subordinate being could correct their defects. stream. Seas extend from one continent to the other, replenished with animals that may he turned to human support; and also serving to enrich the earth with a sufficiency of vapor. Breezes fly along the surface of the fields, to promote health and vegetation. The coolness of the evening invites to rest; and the freshness of the morning renews for labor. Such are the delights of the habitation that has been assigned to man; without any one of these, he must have been wretched; and none of these could his own industry have supplied. But, while many of his wants are thus kindly fur nished, on the one hand, there are numberless inconveniences to excite his industry, on the other. This habitation, though provided with all the conveniences of air, pasturage, and water, is but a desert place without human cultivation. The lowest animal finds more conveniences in the wilds of nature than he who boasts himself their lord. The whirlwind, the inundation, and all the asperities of the air, are peculiarly terrible to man, who knows their consequences, and, at a distance, dreads their When, therefore, we survey nature on this side, nothing can be more splendid, more correct, or amazing. We there behold a Deity residing in the midst of an universe, infinitely extended every way, animating all, and cheering the vacuity with his presence! We behold an immense and shapeless mass of matter, formed into worlds by his power, and dispersed at intervals, to which even the imagination can not travel! In this great theater of his glory, a thousand suns, like our own, animate their respective systems, appearing and vanishing at divine command. We behold our own bright luminary, fixed in the center of its system, wheeling its planets in times proportioned to their distances, and at once dispensing light, heat, and action. The earth also is seen with its two-fold Jotion; producing, by the one, the change of seasons; and, by the other, the grateful vicissitudes of day and night. With what silent magnificence is all this performed! with what seeming ease! The works of art are exerted with in-approach. The earth itself, where huterrupted force; and their noisy progress discovers the obstructions they receive; but the earth, with a silent, steady rotation, successively presents every part of its bosom to the sun, at once imbibing nourishment and light from that parent of vegetation and fertility. But not only provisions of heat and light are thus supplied, the whole surface of the earth is covered with a transparent atmosphere, that turns with its motion, and guards it from external injury. The rays of the sun are thus broken into a genial warmth; and, while the surface is assisted, a gentle heat is produced in the bowels of the earth, which contributes to cover it with verdure. Waters also are supplied in healthful abundance, to support life, and assist vegetation. Mountains rise, to diversify man art has not pervaded, puts on a frightful, gloomy appearance. The forests are dark and tangled; the meadows are overgrown with rank weeds, and the brooks stray without a determined channel. Nature, that has been kind to every lower order of beings, seems to have been neglectful with regard to him; to the savage uncontriving man, the earth is an abode of desolation, where his shelter is insufficient, and his food precarious. A world, thus furnished with advantages on one side, and inconveniences on the other, is the proper abode of reason, and the fittest to exercise the industry of a free and a thinking creature. These evils, which art can remedy, and prescience guard against, are a proper call for the exertion of his faculties; and they tend still more to assimilate him to his stream Lacing the meadows with its silvery band, Creator. God beholds, with pleasure, | And her fair daughters 'mid the golden spires. that being which he has made, convert- Tending their terrace flowers; and Kedron's ing the wretchedness of his natural situation into a theater of triumph; bringing all the headlong tribes of nature into subjection to his will, and producing that order and uniformity upon earth, of which his own heavenly fabric is so bright an example. BEAUTIES FROM WILLIS. [A little boy of nine years of age, one day in early autunin, stood under the leafy shadows of the proudly-arching elms on the green at New Haven, watching a joyous group of students of Yale playing ball. One of them, whom he then saw for the first time, from his graceful, aerial like beauty of person, so struck the child with a sense of admirapleasant vision in the memory of the man. The student was N. P. Willis, then a tall, slender, blue-eyed youth, with sunny flowing curls, mild and gentle expression, and a complexion soft and delicate as a girl's. The exquisite aroma of his sacred poems can but touch and comfort Christian hearts.] tion, that now, after the lapse of forty years, it remains a CHRIST'S ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM The dew's last sparkle from the grass had As he rode up Mount Olivet. The woods The summit's breezy pitch, the Savior raised stood Jerusalem-the city of his love, would He thought not of the death that he should die He thought not of the thorns he knew must pierce His forehead-of the buffet on his cheek- Gethsemane stood out beneath his eye Were sleeping, he should sweat great drops of Praying the "cup might pass." And Golgotha feet Th' insulting sponge was pressing on his lips- Were quite forgotten. Was there ever love, There stood Jerusalem! How fair she looked-In earth or heaven, equal unto this? The silver sun on all her palaces, HUMAN LOVE. On, if there is one law above the rest The ministry of ill-'tis human love! The law of heaven is love; and though its name Has been usurped by passion, and profaned The lavish measure in which love is given THE PLEASANT PATH IN LIFE. THERE is a softer winding path through life, And find calm thoughts beneath the whispering And from the spell of music to awake, CONTEMPLATION. "THEY are all up-the innumerable starsAnd hold their place in heaven. My eyes have been Searching the pearly depths through which they spring Like beautiful creations, till I feel As if it were a new and perfect world, Gather my wings, and like a rushing thought The sparkling gladness of a heart that lives, That flees away into the depths of heaven, Is deep as his young heart; his very breath, To ravish him, and like a thrilling touch He feels each moment of his life go by. Beautiful, beautiful childhood! with a joy Freshly flung upon the river, that will dance INTERESTING INFORMATION IN REGARD TO THE BIBLE MOSES was the earliest of the sacred writers. Genesis and Job appear to have been compiled by him when an exile from Egypt, during his forty years' residence at Midian. They were probably sketched in hyerogliphical characters, and written out for the use of the people, while he was employed to lead and instruct the Israelites during forty years, in the deserts of Arabia. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were written by Moses some time time before the close of his extraordinary ministry, A. M. 2453, B. C. 1551, for the instruction of the Israclites in their obedience to God, and for the regulation of their civil, judicial, and religious affairs. Some few additions were made to the five books of Moses after his death, especially the last chapter of Deuteronomy, probably by Joshua or by Samuel. Moses, though "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" (Acts vii. 22), did not acquire from that people the art of alphabetical writing; neither was it an invention of his own ingenuity: Various expedients have been devised to solve the difficulties with which the subject is involved-by some letters are supposed to have been a merely human invention, ingeniously contrived to facilitate the invaluable purposes of commerce; many of the heathen considered letters to have been the gift of their imaginary gods; but Christian and Jewish authors of the greatest judgment believe that letters were given to Moses by the immediate inspiration of JEHOVAH, the true GOD. Joshua wrote the former part of the book bearing his name, which Samuel completed; that venerable prophet compiled the books of Judges and Ruth, and commenced the first book of Samuel, the latter part of which and the second book were written by his successors in the prophetical office, probably by Nathan and Gad. The books of Kings and Chronicles are compilations from the national records, by various prophets and scribes, and from the public genealogical tables, made or completed by Ezra, on the return of the Jews from Babylon. Ezra and Nehemiah are historical collection; from similar records, some of which wer originally written by themselves. Es ther was written by some distinguisher Jew, perhaps Mordecai, though some conjecture that it was composed by Ezra The Psalms were written mostly by David, some by Asaph, Moses, and other pious persons, all, or most of the book of Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, and the book of Ecclesiastes, by King Solomon; the latter book was composed when that prosperous king, toward the latter end of his life, had been led to reflect upon the vanity of all human gratifications, and to repent of his foolish and criminal idolatry; his penitence and his writings were influenced by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah, Jeremiah, with the book of Lamentations, Ezekiel, and the other books of the prophets, were written by the several holy men whose names they bear, on occasions arising from their connection with the succeeding ages, as fore appointed by the infinite wisdom of God. Ezra labored in revising the sacred books, aided by the Great Synagogue, consist |