licate appearance. the forests, and the groves all sparkling! What a delightful combination these objects present! Observe the brilliancy of those hedges! See the lofty trees bending beneath their dazzling burden! The surface of the earth appears one vast plain mantled in white and splendid array.

How beautiful to see the white hills,

Little, indeed, are the feelings of those to be envied upon whom these grand phenomena make no impression; beings who can contemplate with indifference a spectacle which ought to gladden their hearts and fill their souls with the majesty of Heaven, and the boundless wisdom and immeasurable goodness of an all-powerful God. Such reflections arising from the contemplation of his works, always produce satisfaction and delight. The heavens may lower, the agitation of the air portend a storm, and nature, losing her sweetest attractions, appear bleak, wild, and desolate; yet the soul, retiring within itself, derives energy and an exalted pleasure in tracing, by his works, the power, the wisdom, and benignity of the Godhead.

JANUARY VIII.

Of the Vegetables which preserve their Verdure through the Winter. Ar this season of the year the earth, losing the variety of charms which so lately beautified her surface, seems solitary and destitute; and may be compared to a tender mother, who has been bereft of her dearest children, and is seen to mourn and lament. But she is not deprived of all her offspring; here and there plants are seen to brave the rigours of winter, and by their verdure relieve the sterility of the scene. Here the hawthorn's tempting berries offer the feathered race a sweet repast; the ever-verdant laurustinus now delights with its clustering flowers; and the never-fading yew-tree forms a dark shade. The creeping ivy still winds round the mouldering battlements, and defies the whistling wind and the storm's loud roar; the laurel blooms with verdure undiminished; and the lowly box looks green above

the snow.

These, with many other plants, preserve their verdant hue amid every severity of season and rigour of climate. They may present a pleasing emblem to the everdurable advantages he possesses, whose mind is amply stored, and whose amiable disposition makes all around him smile with joy and pleasure. The splendour of dress, and the profusion of ornaments, which dazzle and fascinate the weak and the vulgar, are vain and transitory; colours that vie with the rainbow in brilliancy fade; the pride of youth, beauty smiling with every grace and symmetry of form, flutter awhile amid the sun-beams, and are seen no more; but the charms of virtue last for ever. The man who fears God ' resembles a tree which, planted on the banks of a rivulet, as it grows to maturity expands, and stretches forth its branches far round with unfading verdure, and produces its fruits in season; it offers an ever-refreshing shade, and the weary traveller blesses it.'

How amiable is the truly pious man! His ornaments are within, and his virtue shines forth with beauty unborrowed of the external and adventitious smiles of fortune. The storms of adversity may shake, but can never overpower him; though for a moment cast down, his bold front soon towers above the tempest. If misfortune darkens his horizon, and poverty frowns, he is still blessed with riches that wealth cannot purchase--the love of God, a good conscience, and the bright hope of a glorious immortality.

This reflection leads me to the idea of a benevolent old man, who in the winter of his life resembles those plants which at that season still preserve their verdure. How many storms of fortune has he not braved with constancy! How many dear attracting objects have withered in his sight! He yet exists, whilst many of his contemporaries are mingled with the silent dust. A mild cheerfulness still plays on his cheeks. Though his forehead be wrinkled, and the strong hand of time mark his venerable countenance, and render feeble his frame, his virtues recompence his lost vigour, he lives again in his offspring, and his wisdom, his integrity,

rience, are held up as a noble example to his ildren.

1

JANUARY IX.

Singular state of Man during the time of Sleep.

We need not have recourse to extraordinary events to be convinced of the inconceivable power and wisdom of God; we have only to look around us. He shines conspicuously in the least of his works. Of the many remarkable things of which he is the author, I wish to call your attention to one, which, because it daily occurs, is not the less deserving of your observation. Often as you have been refreshed by sleep, perhaps you have never reflected upon this singular state, nor regarded it as one of the most extraordinary effects of Divine goodness. When sleep overpowers us with a pleasing forgetfulness, we do not think it wonderful: we believe our body is formed for such a state, and that the inclination, prompting us to indulge in sleep, proceeds from natural causes. But perhaps we may with propriety consider sleep under two points of view. On the one hand, there is nothing to be observed which may not result from the peculiar nature of our organization; on the other, there is something so striking and wonderful in this natural effect, that any labour bestowed upon the consideration of it will be amply compensated.

Sleep comes upon us imperceptibly; if we endeavour to ascertain the exact moment, the attention we give will be an obstacle to its approach; nor shall we be able to sleep till all such ideas are dissipated. Sleep comes unsolicited; the more efforts we make to obtain it, the less likely are we to succeed. God has so appointed sleep that it becomes an agreeable necessity; and he has rendered it independent of our reason and of our will. Let us pursue this consideration, and muse upon the wonderful state we are in durt sleep. We live without being conscious of our existence. functions all act with their wonted regularity. The advity

of the soul, for a space, seems to be suspended; the senses are benumbed, the muscles inactive, and all voluntary, motion ceases. In short, the state of sleep is truly wonderful, and very much resembles that of death: who can think of sleep without being at the same time reminded of death; which sooner or later, will imperceptibly steal upon us, or seize us without warning, unwished for and unexpected?

The senses, whose functions are suspended during sleep, are equally incapable of action at the near approach of death. The ideas also are clouded; we notice not surrounding objects, and a dark oblivion veils our faculties. Let devotion often present this meditation to our minds. 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 temperate 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 murmur because the sumdeclines, and the rays of the sun do not for ever beam in our soil, nor an equal degree of warmth cheer the inhabitants of our zone? What ingratitude, and what ignorWe know not what we desire, nor of what we com

ance!

plain. 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 pray 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 re posing 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 ver al 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.