Star that proclaims eternity,

O'er the lost sun when twilight weepeth,
Thou light'st thy beacon-tower on high,
To say "He is not dead but sleepeth."
And forth with dawn thou comest too,
As all the hosts of heaven surrender;
To prove thy sign of promise true,
And usher in day's glorious splendour

CONTEMPLATION OF GOD

IN THE WONDERS OF HIS CREATION.

Love kindles as we gaze! We feel desires
That give assurance of their own success;
And that infused from heaven must thither tend.

COWPER.

EVEN in the most dreary pathway of this wilderness of sorrow, a bereaved heart, if but at peace with itself, may find a countless multitude of partial enjoyments: but, alas! such is the absorbing nature of grief, that the sufferer, under its influence, seems, too frequently, unconscious of their existence. The soul seems open but to one impression that agitates, corrodes, and consumes it.

It is the benign office of true religion to direct the thoughts to those objects which shall rescue the mind, at least in a measure,

from the oppressive weight which paralyzes its powers, and to infuse those soothing impressions which they are calculated to inspire.

To those who feel a conviction that God is verily a God of love, the contemplation of him as he is manifested in the wondrous works of his creation affords one of the most pleasing and efficient sublunary sources of alleviation to the agonies of grief, gently directing the affections towards him who is so worthy of our unbounded and exalted love; to him who is the eternal model of perfect wisdom and unlimited goodness! We know not where to begin, or where to stop, when we expatiate on the wonders which on every side meet our adoring vision. "How great is the Creator, how profound and infinite the source from whence such life, such splendour, and such goodness flow! If there is so much to admire, so much to astonish, within the bounded compass of our view, what will it be when the curtain of all worlds shall be raised for us, and we shall see the wondrous work complete and without end, in the eternal presence of our Creator and Redeemer!"

Surely the most noble of all these wonders is the faculty which has been bestowed upon us of admiring and conceiving them! Well may the grateful tongue exclaim, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."

How astonishing and sublime is that relation that exists between the innumerable beauties of creation, with the intelligence which permits us to enjoy and to be made happy by them!

What relation, we would ask, is so surprising as that of the order and harmony of the universe, with the moral intelligence which enables us to anticipate the enjoyments of wisdom, and unclouded knowledge? All is harmony, consistency, and grace through the whole of the divine plan, from the smallest to the most magnificent of the works of God. The adaptation or congruity between cause and effect is everywhere the same, and in all things equally exquisite and perfect: all manifesting the boundless love of the Creator, and prompting us to raise to him our highest songs of praise.

"A voice is heard that mortal ears hear not;
A loud hosanna sent from all his works;
Which he that hears it, with a shout repeats,
And adds his rapture to the general praise."

Beauty, wisdom, and beneficence are every where about us: "There is a soul in all things and that soul is God." For our own sakes, as well as to praise his glorious majesty, we ought then to cherish a relish for the contemplation of these attributes of our Creator; for such is the soothing effect of this mental exercise, that it cannot be practised without a sensible pleasure accompanying the perceptions it evokes; for it seems to win the soul to a closer communion with that holy and compassionate Being, upon whose everlasting arm the exhausted and bereaved spirit may confidently and sweetly repose. Let us then enquire diligently of our own hearts, with deep seriousness, when our eye observes with admiration that "the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord," if we have not ample and substantial reason to repose our dejected spirit upon a Being so excellent in power, wisdom, and goodness, displaying in every part of his