Whenever we seek for repose upon the downy pillow, let us reflect upon the blessings of sleep, and look up with gratitude to Him, who during our seclusion from toil and labour, watches over our slumbers, and preserves from dangers our helpless condition. For, if a protecting hand did not shield us, to how many perils might we not be subjected during the night-season!

JANUARY X.

Of the Advantages of our Climate.

HAVE we a proper sense of the great happiness which we enjoy in so many respects? The blessings of our Heavenly Father are every where poured out upon us. The view of ample forests, of the rising hills. and the extended meadows; the pure and temporal breezes we inhale, the seasons, with their accompanying variations, and different attractions, all denote the unspeakable beneficence of God, and his wish for the happiness of man. How then can we ever complain of the hardness of our condition, accuse the Almighty of a partial distribution of his favours, or mur mur 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 ery; 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 ver nal 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 shel

ters 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 prepar ing, 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 whereto I sent it.Isaiah iv. 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 objeets 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 Herschell. Of these the nearest to the sun is Mercury; it is much smaller than the earth, its diameter being only 2600 miles, and from its proximity to the sun, round which it

Discovered first at Bath, March 17, 1781, by the philosopher whose name it bears.

when we possess within ourselves the sources of the most pure and refined pleasures? The contemplation of the great works of nature at all times is grand, and filis the mind with wonder and reverence for the Creator. In winter, as well as in the other seasons, they shine for h equally manifest. The starry heavens, the fields, far as the eye can reach, covered with snow, inspire the noblest and most sublime ideas, create a constant succession of pleasure, and elevate and dignify the soul.

JANUARY VL

God's providential Care of the Animal Creation during

Winter.

MILLIONS of rational beings, dispersed among the various nations of the earth, are provided at this season with every thing necessary to supply their wants, or add to their comforts. But Divine goodness is not extended to man alone, it is diffused over the whole creation; and infinitely more numerous than the children of Adam are the animated beings partaking of it. Admirable as is the preservation of the human species, God gives still greater proofs of his wisdom and power in the care which he manifests for the brute creation. That the innumerable tribes of animals existing on this globe find, during the continuance of summer, food and shelter, is not surprising; all nature teeming with fertility conduces to this great end; but that in this season of the year such numbers of creatures -birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, insects, and fishes-should continue to exist, must demand the admiration of every reflecting being. Nature has provided most animals with a covering to defend them from the winter's cold, as well as from the summer's heat. Those wild animals which dwell amid the forest and the desert are so admirably organized, that their hair, as summer advances, begins to fall from their skin, and grows again in winter with such luxuriance as to become a thick fur, capable of preserving them from the severity of the season.