CHRIST'S SYMPATHY. 141 islands behind those which thou here discoverest, reaching farther than thine eye, or even thine imagination can extend itself. These are the mansions of good men after death, who, according to the degrees and kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are distributed among these several islands, which abound with pleasures of different kinds and degrees, suitable to the relishes and perfections of those who are settled in them. Every island is a paradise accommodated to its respective inhabitants. Are not these, O Mirza, habitations worth contending for? Does life appear miserable, that gives thee opportunities of earning such a reward? Is death to be feared, that will convey thee to so happy an existence? Think not man was made in vain who has such an eternity reserved for him. I gazed with inexpressible pleasure on those happy islands. At length, said I, shew me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie under those dark clouds that cover the ocean on the other side of the rock of adamant. The genius making me no answer, I turned about to address myself to him a second time, but I found that he had left me; I then turned again to the vision which I had been so long contemplating; but instead of the rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the long hollow valley of Bagdat, with oxen, sheep, and camels grazing upon the sides of it. CHRIST'S SYMPATHY WHEN gathering clouds around I view, He sees my griefs, allays my fears, If aught should tempt my soul to stray ACCOUNT OF THE SILK-WORM. Still, He who felt temptation's power, If wounded love my bosom swell, When vexing thoughts within me rise, ***And sore dismayed my spirit dies ; Yet He who once vouchsaf'd to bear When mourning o'er some stone I bend, Thou, Saviour, mark'st the tears I shed And, O! when I have safely past ACCOUNT OF THE SILK-WORM. THE silk-worm is produced from a small egg, not much bigger than a mustard seed, is of a pale ash colour, and feeds on mulberry leaves, or, for want of these, on leaves of lettuce. During its continuance in this state, it suffers four returns of sickness, each lasting about three days, wherein it feeds not at all, but EXCELLENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. $143 grows thicker, shorter, and clearer, and in each sickness changes its skin. Soon after this, it begins to wind itself up into a silken bag or case, about the size of a pigeon's egg, in which state it lies enclosed about fifteen or twenty days without any food, and seemingly without life or motion, and is then transformed into an aurelia, or chrysalis, and, eating itself a passage out of the end of its silken sepulchre, becomes a moth, which is its last state, the state in which it lays eggs and dies. These eggs are kept for about ten months, till the proper season returns, which is the beginning of May, and then they hatch of themselves into silk-worms. Those who keep these insects never suffer them to eat their way out of their silken habitation, because that would spoil their work; but towards the end of their continuance in that state, they wind the silk from off them, and the enclosed worm assumes its new state of a moth, as well as if it had continued the whole time in its silken covering. The quantity of silk generally wound from one of these balls or cases is about 930 yards: but so extremely fine is the thread, that the weight of it is not above two grains and a half. THE EXCELLENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. CHRISTIANITY founds her claim to general reception upon doctrines most abasing to human pride, and facts calculated rather to repel than to invite human credulity. Her cardinal doctrine, which all the rest subserve, is the justification of a sinner, his deliverance from the bondage of sin, and perfect happiness in heaven, through faith in a Saviour who himself fell a victim to his enemies, and expired as a malefactor, under the infamy of the cross. Nothing more repugnant to their preconceived notions was ever proclaimed in the ears of men. It is the object of their dislike, their derision, and their scorn. "We preach," says the Apostle, "Christ crucified; unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." it was at the beginning; so it is at the present hour; and so it will remain to the end. The cardinal fact of Christianity, without which all her other facts So 144 THE VOICE OF DIVINE COMPASSION. lose their importance, is the resurrection from the dead of this same crucified Saviour, as the prelude, the pattern, and the pledge of the resurrection of his followers to eternal life. Against this great fact the "children of disobedience," from the Pharisees of the primitive age down to the scoffers of modern times, have levelled their batteries. One assails its proof-another, its reasonableness-all, its truth. When Paul asserted it before an audience of Athenian philosophers, " some mocked,"'—a short method of refuting the Gospel, and likely, from its convenience, to continue in favour and in fashion. Yet with such doctrines and facts did the religion of Jesus make her way through the world. Against the superstition of the multitude-against the interest, influence, and craft of their priesthood-against the ridicule of wits, the reasoning of sages, the policy of cabinets, and the prowess of armies against the axe, the cross, and the stake, she extended her conquests from Jordan to the Thames. She gathered her laurels alike upon the snows of Scythia, the green fields of Europe, and the sands of Africa. The altars of impiety crumbled before her march-the glimmer of the schools disappeared in her light. Power felt his arm wither at her glance; and, in a short time, she who went, forlorn and insulted, from the hill of Calvary to the tomb of Joseph, ascended the imperial throne, and waved her banner over the palace of the Cæsars. Her victories were not less benign than decisive. They were victories over all that pollutes, degrades, and ruins man; in behalf of all that purifies, exalts, and saves him. They subdued his understanding to truth, his habits to rectitude, and his heart to happiness. THE VOICE OF DIVINE COMPASSION. OH! sweet is morn's first breeze that strays on the mountain, And sighs o'er its bosom, and murmurs away; And bright is the beam which upsprings from day's fountain, And breaks o'er the East in its golden array APPEARANCES OF NATURE IN AUGUST. $145 And lovely the riv'let incessantly flowing, Which winds, gently murm'ring, its course through the plain; And welcome the beacon which faithfully glowing, But sweeter, my God, is thy voice of compassion, Oh yes! I have known it, when kindly and cheering, And still may I hear it, while crossing life's ocean, And utt'ring the promise that never shall fail. 'Tis the still voice of Him who expir'd on the mountain, And breath'd out for sinners his last dying groan; That voice, Oh believer! shall cheer and protect thee, When the cold chill of death thy frail bosom invades : At its sound shall the Day-Star arise to direct thee, And gild with refulgence the valley of shades. APPEARANCES OF NATURE IN AUGUST. Fair plenty now begins her golden reign; WHAT remained to be perfected by the powerful influence of the sun is daily advancing to maturity. The H |