SCRIPTURES. MR. BOYLE'S REVERENCE THE COMPOSITION OF THE FOR GOD'S NAME. I FIND the following passage in an excellent sermon preached at the funeral of a gentleman who was an honour to his country, and a more filigent as well as successful inquirer into the works of nature, han any other our nation has ever roduced: "He had the profoundest eneration for the great God of heaen and earth that I have ever oberved in any person. The very tame of God was never mentioned y him without a pause and visible top in his discourse; in which one, hat knew him most particularly bove twenty years, has told me hat he was so exact, that he does ot remember to have observed him nce to fail in it." THERE is something remarkable in the composition of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, that, although in every language they are the easiest book to a learner, they are yet dignified, interesting, and impressive. The Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospels, unite, in a singular degree, simplicity, and perspicuity, with force, energy, and pathos. I cannot satisfy myself what the literary peculiarities, the felicities of language are, which make them so universally comprehensible, and yet avoid insipidity, feebleness, and tedium; which display so often such genuine eloquence and majesty, and yet are neither affected nor elaborate, nor, in general, above the unEvery one knows the veneration derstanding of the common reader. hich was paid by the Jews to a-TURNER'S History of England. me so great, wonderful, and holy. They would not let it enter even to their religious discourses. What we then think of those who ake use of so tremendous a name the ordinary expressions of their nger, mirth, and most impertinent assions? Of those who admit it to the most familiar questions and ssertions, ludicrous phrases, and works of humour? not to mention hose who violate it by solemn peraries. It would be an affront to reason to endeavour to set forth the horror and profaneness of such A practice. The very mention of it exposes it sufficiently to those in whom the light of nature, not to say religion, is not utterly extinguished.-Spectator. THERE is many a wounded heart without a contrite spirit. The ice may be broken into a thousand pieces, it is ice still. But expose it to the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and then it will melt.MIDDLETON. IN the time of Henry the Eighth, SUNDAY is not a day to feast our bodies, but to feed our souls. THE DAYS OF OUR YOUTH. ON remembering our Creator in the days of our youth, Bishop Horne says, "Youth is no obstacle in the way of obtaining the favour of Christ. The disciple whom He loved was the youngest of all the Apostles. And certain it is, that religion never appears to greater advantage, than in the persons of those who remember their Creator in the days of their youth,' and are admitted early into the number of the disciples of the holy Jesus. It is then like a diamond set in gold. There is something more noble in renouncing the world for the love of Christ, when the relish for sensible enjoyments is at the highest, than there can be in doing it, when the evil days come, in which there is no further pleasure, or satisfaction to be had in earthly things. He, surely, is not so likely to accomplish his journey, who begins it when the sun is going down, as he is who sets out at the hour of its rising. "Youth, like the morning, is the proper season for every task that requires time and pains. Then all the powers of body and soul are fresh and vigorous, as those of one awaked from a sound and kindly sleep. Then is the golden opportunity, the sweet hour of prime, when the day is before us. The night cometh when no man can work. I have written unto you, young men, (saith John himself) because ye are strong; and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Rejoice, then, O young man. in thy youth; not because thou art able to riot in excess and wantonness, as the heathen, who know not God; but because thou hast it in thy power to become, like the youthful John, the beloved of thy Master, who seeketh such to worship him." THE celebrated Dr. Johnson, when near death, requested three things of his friend Sir Joshua Reynolds:first, that he would forgive him thirty pounds which he had borrowed of him; secondly, that he would read the Bible; and, thirdly, that he would never use his pencil on a Sunday. Sir Joshua readily acquiesced. CHOICE OF SEASONS. How regularly has God determined a set season for all his creatures, both for their actions and their use! "The stork in the heavens," saith the prophet Jeremiah, "knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming." Who hath seen the stork before the Calends of August, or a swallow in the winter? Who hath heard the nightingale in the heat of harvest; or the bittern bearing her base note in the coldest months! Yea, the fishes of the sea know and observe their due seasons, and present us with their shoals only when they are wholesome and useful, the herring doth not furnish our market in the spring, nor the salmon ot mackerel in the winter: yea, the very flies both have and keep their days appointed; the silk-worm bever looks forth of that little cell of her conception till the mulberry pata forth the leaves for their nourish ment; and who hath ever seen a butterfly, or a hornet, in winter! There are flies, we know, appropriate to their own months, from which they vary not. Lastly, how plain is this in all the several varieties of trees, flowers, and herbs! The almond-tree looks out first, the mulberry last of all: the tulip, and the rose, and all the other sweet ornaments of the earth are punctual in their growth and fall: but as for man, God, in his infinite wisdom has indued him with that power of reason, whereby he may make choice of the fittest seasons of all his actions, and appointed a time for every purpose under heaven. and given him wit to find and observe it. Even lawful acts unseasonably done may turn to evil: and acts indifferent, seasonably per formed, may prove good and laudable. The best improvement of morality, or civility, may shame us, if due time be not well regarded. Only grace, piety, true virtue, can never be unseasonable.-BISHOP HALL. CONFIDENCE IN PROVI DENCE. Look to your heart, and if at any moment the cloud and the darkness come over you, pray for light, and for forgiveness, from that God in whom you live, and move, and have your being! The earthquake may crush, and the flood overwhelm, and the pestilence sweep away the children of men; but are you to be told, that let death, which must come, come when it may, it comes, and can only come, in the order of Providence? How infinitely little then imports it whether it comes soon or late, life being but "a place which God hath given us in time, for the desiring of eternity!"-SOUTHEY. ON THE LOVE OF GOD. THE following beautiful passage is from a volume of Bishop Heber's Sermons preached in India. "Beware how you neglect that species and degree of intercourse with your Heavenly Father, to maintain which, His mercy permits, and His word invites, and His grace, if you will make use of it, enables you! Beware, lest by thinking of Him but seldom, but seldom addressing Him in prayer, and seldom hearing His voice in His Holy Scriptures and His public ordinances, you estrange yourself, by degrees, entirely from His love, and allow the pursuits and pleasures of the world to establish an empire in your hearts, left empty of holier affec tions! much experience. It is to be expected, that in the earlier stages of our approach to God, we should experience but little of that ardour of devotion, those pleasures of earnest piety, which are in this world the reward of love, as well as its most convincing evidence. "Our prayer at first will often be constrained, our thanksgivings cold and formal; our thought will wander from our closets to the world, and we shall have too frequent occasion to acknowledge with shame and sorrow the imperfection of those offerings which we as yet can make to our Benefactor. A religious feeling, like every other mental habit, is slowly and gradually acquired. A strong and lasting affection is not ordinarily the growth of a day; but to have begun at all, is, in religion, no trifling progress; and a steady perseverance in prayer and praise, will not only, by degrees, enlist the strength of habit on the side of holiness, but will call down, moreover, and preserve to us, that spiritual support and influence, without which all human effort must be vain, but which no one will seek in vain, who seeks for it in sincerity and by the appointed means." CONTINUAL USE OF RELI GION. RELIGION should enter into everything that we think, or feel, or speak, or do. Each morning, we should reflect that we are about to enter on a day, which is the gift of "It is by daily prayer, and daily God, and which is wholly due to thanksgiving, by patient study of God, and of which we must hereGod's word, and by patient medita- after render account at the judg tion on our own condition, and on ment-seat of God: and, having thus all which God has done, and will do reflected, we should frequently, in for us, that a genuine and rational the course of each day, recall these love for Him is kindled in our thoughts, and apply to God for his hearts and that we become un-all-powerful grace, that we may feignedly attached to the Friend of continually feel ourselves in his whose kindness we have had so most holy presence, and conduct ourselves as exposed to his all- | evil, and make his very dreams deseeing eye. vout!-BISHOP JEBB, Each night, we should examine ourselves wherein we have offended, wherein we have omitted any duty, or committed any fault; we should humble ourselves for every such neglect or offence before the throne of grace; and we should entreat for strength and power from on high to amend our lives, and to proceed in all virtue, and godliness of conversation. THE LAST GREAT DAY. To the righteous at the last great day, the Judge will say “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." When the trial is ended, and the final allotments of angels and men are determined, flaming fire from the presence of the Judge will kindle this great world with a univers conflagration. All the works of man, his palaces, towers, and tenples; his villages, towns, and cities: his wonderful displays of art, his haughty piles of grandeur, and his vast labours of defence and dominion, will be lighted up in a single blaze, and vanish from the creation Nor will the desolation be limited to the works of man. The earth on which we stand, the hills and moun tains, the valleys and plains, the lakes, the rivers, shall all pass away; "and like the baseless fr bric of a vision, leave not a wreck And conscious that, though placed in God's empire, we are surrounded by hosts of darkness, we should never lie down to rest without fortifying our souls by devout and fervent prayer. The devil will flee from him who is shielded by this divine armour. If such a man be sleepless, he will have recourse to the best and only sure fountain of consolation and enjoyment. Like David, like Silas, like St. Paul, | and like our blessed Lord himself, his prayers and praises will ascend at midnight unto God; and amidst his quiet and refreshing slumbers, that God will shield him from all behind."-DWIGHT. SCRIPTURAL EXPOSITIONS, ILLUSTRATIONS, &c. Bottles of the East. Food of the Ancients. Water in Hot Climates. City of Jerusalem. Solomon's Temple. Present Condition of Jerusalem. Contentment. Sea of Tiberias. Island of Patmos. The Date Tree. The Sacred Beetle. |