verted into a land of fertility and luxuriance, as the result of his industry. The ferocious and noxious creatures with which it was infested, either disappear or are tamed to his uses; while the more docile and useful kinds increase in numbers, in beauty and usefulness. His will becomes the law of their actions, and in yielding obedience to it, they, in the general, experience a great accession to their own enjoyments. The resources of his ingenuity in converting the rude materials of nature to his various purposes, are wonderful even in his own eyes; nevertheless they are as nothing compared with what is effected by the co-operating energies of the Creator. If the desert is seen to smile on the industry of the agriculturist, it is because the germinating power of the Almighty crowns his labours with rich and abundant blessings. If the husbandman selects the useful seeds and plants, and prepares the earth for their reception, it is God who expands them into trees and fruits and flowers, and renders the single grain the source of manifold increase. It is his fashioning hand which, concurring with the attentions of man, adapts the several orders of domestic animals to his wants, wishes and inclinations. Thus the Creator is seen continually conferring blessings on all the varied exertions of human intellect and industry, and promoting the advancing enjoyments of man, and those also of the inferior animals, with his advancing capacities to receive and communicate them. This tendency to progressive improvement may be said to mark the great plan, the comprehensive outline, of the Divine proceedings, by which the scale of excellence and happiness is in the most effectual manner extending, and, in my apprehension, is a decisive proof of the infinite goodness of God.

If we turn our attention to the natural relationships which are established between creatures of the same species, we perceive that they are admirably adapted for the maintenance of their mutual well-being. In all the orders of animals in which we have opportunities of observing it, the ardent affection of parents towards their offspring is conspicuous. It is a principle of sympathy or benevolence which, in the ardour of its solicitudes, is often found to equal, if not exceed, the strongest impulses of self-love. It is the source of the most amiable emotions, and of the most useful and energetic exertions. Not only are the tender offspring thus preserved and cherished, but the pa

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rent in whose breast such excellent affections predominate, and whose every faculty is thus excited to such kind and arduous exertions, is by this principle greatly elevated in the scale of being and happiness. These affections, while they have for their object the well-being of those young and lively creatures which are unable to sustain them, selves, but are thus rendered healthy and joyous, are at the same time sources of exquisite enjoyment to the breasts which they animate. The feelings of sympathy and goodness are those of the purest happiness. We see with

amazement their operation in raising the intellects and refining the passions of the four-footed and feathered tribes. We witness with delight their influence on human life in almost every state of society. It is so predominant in all societies, that a departure from it is marked with odium, as a violation of one of nature's strongest laws. We may see in an affection which continually draws forth the milk of human kindness, which exalts every faculty and nerves every action, not only a proof, but a lively emblem, of that parental benevolence which superintends the whole system of animated being. And with the same manifest reason that we exclaim, "He that fashioned the eye, shall he not see?" we may add, "He that inspires each parent with affection toward his offspring, that lights the eye with sympathy, and actuates the life with ardent usefulness, is not HE the fountain of beneficent affections, of active goodness ?"

Besides the provision which is thus made for the sustenance and enjoyment of every creature in the young and helpless state, by which it is left free to expand its faculties and receive pleasure in the first stages of its existence, we might instance the obligations which each human being is under to the society and attentions of others for those various attainments by which he is enabled to recommend himself to notice, to forward his own improvement, to obtain a maintenance, and to contribute to the general benefit; as also the advantages he enjoys from the constant concurrence of his fellow-creatures for almost all that he can effect or obtain. By the combined skill and industry of various artizans, the agriculturist is furnished with the implements necessary to till and dress his ground. It is by mutual exchange that the several classes of society are furnished both with the various necessaries and blessings of life, and with the means by which they are procured.

Thus mankind are united by an almost infinite number of links, either essential to the subsistence or conducive to the enjoyment of each individual. While this should engage their mutual good-will and benevolence, it should raise their common gratitude to that Providence which has so admirably entwined their destinies, and rendered them so productive of reciprocal benefits.—We might moreover notice the various advantages which every observant per son may remark in the incidental circumstances of his life; some of them he must feel to have been greatly advantageous, and others, though attended with pain and disappointment in the first instance, yet are afterwards, perhaps, productive of some of the best influences on his temper and character, being in the number of those kind chastenings of our heavenly Father by which the heart is made better; and though under the immediate pressure of evil the ultimate beneficial tendency may be far from apparent, yet to the more cool reflections of after-times it may often be rendered evident; and well-disposed minds will in general discern upon the whole a great preponderance in the beneficial over the unfavourable incidents attendant on their lives. Though they are merely incidental as it respects ourselves, they are all appointed by our Creator, without whose superintendence not a sparrow falleth to the ground, and should therefore call forth the lively emotions of gratitude and the softened feelings of resignation, from the conviction that, whether felt as benefits by us or not at the present moment, they are really ordered for the best, and that the few instances in which we perceive it not, assume this appearance through the imperfections of our judgment, and indicate no deficiency in the goodness of God-that God, whose breath animates, whose sun warms and illumines, and whose intellectual ray informs and exalts us!

But we hasten to remark his goodness in the Christian revelation, which brings life and immortality to light. Can imagination form an idea of a greater instance even of divine beneficence than that manifested in the predicted transformation of this mortal existence into a state in which there will be no more death, and from whence every evil attendant upon mortality will be absolutely removed? -a state in which, provided there is a suitable preparation for it in this, by a moderate use and grateful return for its blessings, there will be fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore This felicity it proposes to accomplish through the

only effectual means, the correction of our errors, the ame lioration of our hearts, the general improvement of our minds. The Christian revelation was not consequent to the prevalence of virtue in mankind; it did not proceed from the favour of God to his obedient children. No; it arose from his compassion to a world so deeply immersed in error and sin, that nothing short of such a supernatural communication of his will could dispel their mental darkness, and recall them to a state of penitence and amend, ment. Powerful was its influence, by the evidence of its miracles, the purity of its doctrine, and the weight of its sanctions, in converting the Gentiles from insane, lewd and cruel idolatries, to the knowledge and worship of the one true God-from vices most debasing to humanity, to the virtues of men and of Christians. 66 The most turbulent and vindictive spirits," observes one of its early converts and martyrs, 66 were transformed into quite another nature, meek and gentle as the lamb. The amiable manners, the cogent arguments, the steadfast fortitude, the unwearied perseverance, and the patient sufferings of its professors, wrought so favourably on its determined enemies, that they gradually dropped their resistance, relinquished their bloody persecutions, and at length came over to its standard. With this reformation in religion, morals and manners, civil institutions participated; those murderous combats which Paganism sanctioned for popular amusement, were abolished by royal authority, and all those vile and criminal practices which were the attendants of Heathen worship, and arose immediately out of the vices it created, in a great measure ceased with it. Slavery was gradually abolished in Europe through the influence of Christianity, and the rigid aspect of war considerably relaxed its features. Science, learning and right reason, in all their more useful applications, are much indebted to the illuminating, the animating and benign influences which the Christian revelation sheds in every direction. But if such are the beneficial effects of the mere revelation or disclosure of the gracious purposes of God, what will the realization of them be but "life. from the dead," in a moral as well as in its literal and proper sense? If the glad-tidings of immortality awakened so many gross idolators from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, what shall immortality itself effect but a far more complete deliverance from error and vice? When both these objects are accomplished, and sin and

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death are cast into the lake of destruction, what will remain but life without death, virtue without impurity? The felicity which will result from this state of things must vastly exceed what eye hath yet seen, ear hath heard, or hath entered into the mind of man. In these circumstances, indeed, the votaries of vice will lose all the favourite objects of their vicious gratifications; virtue alone will receive its pure enjoyments. The proud will suffer a most humiliating debasement, and the humble as glorious an elevation. Those in whom each genuine virtue has taken root here, will there unfold their richest foliage, and yield their best fruition, while each weed of vice must wither and disappear. Then will the infinite benevolence of God shine forth in unclouded splendour, and bring its gracious purposes to their full accomplishment.

E. S.

Letter of the late venerable Ex-President Adams's on Intemperance.

WE hear that the patriotic and virtuous JOHN ADAMS, formerly President of the United States of America, and one of the enlightened and intrepid band that drew up the Declara tion of Independence, died by a singular coincidence on the 4th of July, the day of the celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and in fact the Jubilee or 50th Celebration. [By another still more remarkable coincidence, the venerable Ex-President JEFFERSON died, it is reported, the same day.] Every writing of his appears now to be valuable, and we extract, in order to preserve on our pages, the following letter lately made known to the American public in a periodical directed against the habit of intemperance. The letter from "the Sage of Quincy," as Mr. Adams is denominated by the American Editor from his residence, was occasioned by a communication from a society having the same laudable object.

"DEAR SIR,

Quincy, Feb. 21st, 1819. "I THANK you for your address to the New Bedford auxiliary society for the suppression of intemperance, which I have read with pleasure and edification; it is elegant and pathetic; it is pious and virtuous; it addresses itself to the understanding and the heart.

"A drunkard is the most selfish being in the universe. He has no sense of modesty, shame or disgrace. He has