Ocean were called Nereids; those who dwelt in rivers and fountains were named Naiads; and those who resided in marshes and pools were styled Lymniades. Sacrifices of milk, honey, oil, and sometimes goats, were offered them.

HALCYONS.

These were sea birds, which built their nests on the waves, and had the power of calming the tempests of the sea even in winter, during the time of their incubation. The sailors called this period Halcyon Days.

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REFLECTIONS.

They that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters, these

men see the works of the Lord, and his wonders "in the deep." Whether the idolatrous nations of antiquity considered the beauty of this element, its fertilising influence, or its tremendous power; the limpid stream winding its playful course through beds of flowers; the majestic river rolling its proud waves, and bearing on its bosom the riches of different climes; or the boundles expanse of ocean, which the eye could not reach, nor the plummet fathom, dividing states, assigning to each its limits, and rising the bulwark of all: they raised in their astonished bosoms alternate feelings of delight or terror, and were equally the theme of admiration and We cannot, therefore, be surprised

reverence.

that a mighty ruler, co-eval and co-equal with Jupiter, should have been imagined to have dominion over the seas, whose power they invoked and whose wrath they deprecated, when the storms and tempests of this boisterous element threatened to overwhelm their feeble

1 Psalm cvii. 22, 23.

bark, which crept timidly along their shores. For it was reserved to bolder navigators, who acknowledged the protecting arm of a more powerful God, to traverse the unfathomable deep, and bring home the tributary riches of distant shores. That God, at whose command the storm ceases, and the winds are calm; "For though the waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly, yet the Lord, who "dwelleth on high, is mightier."

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If, from the terrors of the great waters, they. turned to the consideration of its hidden treasures, objects more pleasing, but not less wonderful, met their eye; trees of coral rising like forests beneath the waves, marine productions of vegetable nature, beautiful in texture and vivid in colors, and shells of varied forms and exquisite workmanship, peopled by instinctive life, from whose craft and skill human ingenuity might derive a useful lesson;

"Learn of the little Nautilus to sail,

"To spread the oar, and catch the flying gale."

1 Psalm xc. 5.

They might have exclaimed, in the language of the holy Psalmist, "O Lord, how manifold are "thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all."

If, in this favored age, truth has withdrawn the veil of prejudice, and experience dissipated the illusions of error; if no Naiads sport to the eye of fancy in the crystal streams, nor playful Nereids dance round the fabled car of Neptune; yet, the river fertilising the meadows through which it flows, and the vapors of the sea descending in refreshing rains on the parched earth, are blessings, for which we may "offer "the sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, and "tell out his works with gladness?" If we no longer dread the enchanting Siren to rise from her coral palaces and sea-weed bowers, to allure, by the chords of her lute, and the melody of her voice, the enchanted mariner to shipwreck and death, have we no other temptations to fear?-does not pleasure, even in the Christian World, assume as many forms as the fancied Proteus? does not poison mingle

Psalm civ. 24. 2 Psalm cxvii. 22.

in the sparkling bowl, and destruction lurk beneath the smile of beauty? Have we not a course more difficult to steer than the fabled adventurer through the dashing currents and dreaded gulph of Scylla and Charybdis, even that narrow path which leadeth to salvation, "for strait is "the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth "unto life, and few there be who find it."1

In this time of temptation, in this hour of peril, where is the hand to sustain, and the pilot to direct us? To whom shall we flee for succour, but to thee, O God, in whose promises we trust, in whose mercy we hope, and for whose grace we pray, who to our weakness hast given the aid of thy strength, to our bounded view thy all-seeing providence, to our tottering steps thy protecting arm, to the bewildering mazes of false philosophy the light of thy Gospel, and, finally, the atoning blood of Christ to purify us from our sins?

If they raised their altars to the Nymphs and

'Matth. vii. 14.