improvement. And we may be certain that He who granted not to the anxious sage the wisdom which he bestowed on the simplest peasant when taught by Jesus, can as well give the same blessing to the heathen, by any instrumentality he shall choose, or with none at all. As it seems good to him, so is it best for us, that this and every other interest of our race should be furthered, just in the way, and just at the time when he appoints. And just at the time and in the way which He appoints, it is good for us to be successful, and good for us to be disappointed; good to toil, and good to be cut off from all power to labor; good alike to be instructed or to be ignorant, to stand in the light or grope in the darkness; to be encompassed with kindred minds, or exiled without sympathy; to have the heart trained about many objects and no blight ever reach them, or to have but few to love and those few fail us; to live in possession of all that makes life happy, or to die with the feeling that we have nothing to quit, but the burdens that were heavier than we could bear and live. All-all is right-if the spirit itself be right—and in all it is alike our duty and our privilege to say with Jesus,-Even so, Father! for so it seemed good to thee!

PIOUS GRATITUDE.

THERE are creatures, who partake with us in the streams of bounty which are ever flowing from the Fountain of all good, on whom no capacity of feeling or expressing thankfulness has been conferred. From them we wonder not if there be no ascriptions rendered

to the God who feeds and blesses them. But man is a different being. His frame was fashioned in a nobler mould, his soul has susceptibilities which elevate him to another sphere of action and happiness, and therefore of duty. He can, and if he can, he ought to devote his powers in praise-to yield his heart in love to God; to be grateful is his prerogative-for all which he receives himself, and for the bounties lavished on the tribes of creatures over whom he reigns; it is his proper province and his noble privilege to offer thanks to the majesty of heaven. He that "satisfieth the desire of every living thing," has made but one among the host of his dependents here below, capable of knowing from whence his life and joys proceed. Shall that one ask to share the apology of the rest, and in dumb ingratitude partake of mercies which might almost draw forth praise from inanimate nature on his behalf? Shall man be ever less worthy of his Creator's care for the very circumstances which most prove that care? To what purpose is it that we possess the divine gift of intelligence-" the feeling heart, the reasoning head," powers that elevate us in happiness as well as dignity so high, if we are as insensible in our enjoyments to the claims of the God who gives them to us, as the very creatures who, if happy at all, are glad they know not why, or by whose will?

Gratitude belongs as a part to almost every species of love of which our natures are susceptible; and never do we dispense with it as an unnecessary, or unfit emotion. Nay, this very feeling is made a test of the truth of other affections; and we pronounce that a false and sordid sentiment which receives kindnesses from its object without tenderness or a sense of obligation. What parent is

"that

there that does not feel with the poet, who tells us sharper than a serpent's tooth is an unthankful child?" What child that would not blush and hide its guilty head, to be detected in an act of cruelty to a faithful parent; who would dare to hope for happiness while conscious that he had left those, who gave him life and with unwearied goodness ministered to his support and comfort in his helpless years, to suffer in sight of abundance which their child will not share with them. On the other hand, how beautiful is that spectacle which, thanks be to God! we not seldom see-of an aged, care-worn parent seeking a refuge from the woes of life in the bosom of the children he brought up, and leaning, without fear of being forsaken, on them; while they feel that nothing is too much to do for him, in return for his former care; and would be unhappy if they had not the power of expressing that gratitude which can never cease to glow within their hearts.

If a friend thinks of a friend, what a multitude of reciprocal favors rush in upon his remembrance--how grateful does he feel for the happiness conferred on himself by one whose bosom he is sure is the seat of an equal gratitude to him? And what man is there of soul so dead, as not to burn with indignation at the discovery that the friendship which led him to bestow kindnesses on one in whom he trusted, has been abused by a return of ungrateful and perfidious deeds? The voice of mankind is hardly more loud in condemning frauds of the deepest die and most abominable consequences, than in its outcry at an act of ingratitude in a case where gratitude and not justice was what we wished. These sentiments, which are so common-so universal I might say, 20*

VOL. II.NO. V.

prove to us the sense which all men have of the obligations and fitness of those affections of which a benefactor is the object.

And can we doubt, that an unthankful reception of that profusion of benefits which we all owe to divine munificence, is a crime and a disgrace-equally as much as the ingratitude of a child to its parent-or a friend to his friend? Rather, is it not plain, that the criminality and baseness of an unthankful disposition, is infinitely greater when God is the benefactor, and where every favor is unmerited, as the sum of them is momentous ? Nor let it be said that, because we can render nothing in return for what we receive, since our Almighty Benefactor is so raised above all possibility of being made more or less happy by any disposition in us, therefore we are released from the necessity of a grateful spirit while enjoying his bounty. Would it be taken as an apology for being insensible to the claims of an earthly friend, that it was a matter of indifference, so far as his happiness was concerned, in what manner we received and used his gifts? So far from it, that gratitude never seems to us more worthy of applause, than in those cases where the absence of it would do least honor to the benefactor who demands it, and where it is of course most disinterested and pure. All that is generous and excellent in human virtue would be for ever sullied and debased by such sordid calculations. We should despise him who would never express himself gratefully to those who do him service, without first considering how much was expected of him, and how ungrateful he might be without injuring the authors of his happiness.

No-there can be no real excellence of character,

where the heart is unmoved when it has been blessed, by emotions of thankfulness to the great Source of bless. ings. To be able to receive with a cold and sullen, or even a languid and careless mind, the unnumbered favors which load us with obligations to God, is to possess a spirit unsusceptible of anything permanently and purely good; it is to have lost those qualities which shed most dignity on man, and mark the character with the impression of immortal worth. Gratitude is the virtue of heaven-it is that sacred, eternal sentiment, which actuates the spirit of just men made perfect, through every portion of their progress in the great march of the soul. It is that exalted, spiritual passion, which prostrates adoring seraphs at the throne of God, with a devotion increasing in ardor as it is repeated, and which shall never cease to burn. It is that incorruptible, alltranscending virtue, which must exist wherever God is known, and flourish till He tires of doing good. And shall we not be ambitious of distinction in a quality so noble-to possess which is to have the spirit of Heaven -to want which is to sink below the brutes? Oh, yes; let us cherish the least spark of gratitude within us with devoted zeal; fan it till it kindles to a flame; and watch and feed that sacred fire, till it shall mingle with the very essence of the soul it warms, and life itself become a sacrifice of praise. "I will go unto the altar of God— unto God my exceeding joy. I will extol thee, O God, my king; I will bless thy name for ever and ever, I will sing praises unto my God, while I have any being."

Nor will it seem a hard duty to discharge, which the call of gratitude demands of us to pay to the Author of all good, if we consider, further, the relation which that