MANY among you may think it inexpedient to speak frequently, or indeed ever, except on occasions of great solemnity, of religion, and to this I shall not attempt to reply. But the world cannot forbid you to manifest the spirit of religion in a holy life. You may therefore show forth its essence in every act and deed; even the most ordinary and trivial affairs and relations of life need not be devoid of the expression of a pious heart. Let the deep and sacred feeling which inspires and governs all your actions, show that even in those trifles over which a profane mind passes with levity, the music of a lofty sentiment echoes in your heart; let the majestic serenity with which you estimate the great and the small, prove that you refer everything to the Immutable-that you perceive the Godhead alike in everything; let the bright cheerfulness with which you encounter every proof of our transitory nature, reveal to all men that you live above time and above the world; let your easy and graceful self-denial prove how many of the bonds of egotism you have already broken; and let the ever quick and open spirit from which neither what is rarest nor most ordinary escapes, show with what unwearied ardour you seek for every trace of the Godhead-with what eagerness you watch for its slightest manifestation. If your whole life, and every movement of your outward and inward being, is thus guided by religion, perhaps the hearts of many will be touched by this mute language, and will open to the reception of that spirit which dwells within you. -SCHLEIERMACHER.

OFTEN as you have been refreshed by sleep, this is perhaps the first time that you have been led to reflect on this state, or perhaps you may think that there is nothing remarkable about it; but it is one of the wonders of Divine goodness, and it is worth while well to reflect upon it.

It is a proof of the wisdom of God, that we fall asleep imperceptibly to ourselves. Endeavour to discover in what manner

sleep steals upon you; that very attention will prevent its approach, nor can you fall asleep till the power of thought is suspended. Sleep comes unbidden; it is a change in our state in which reflection has no part, for the more we strive to procure it, the less successful we are. Thus God has rendered sleep an agreeable necessity to man, and has made it independent both of his reason and of his will.

Pursue these reflections still farther, and consider the wonderful state in which you exist during sleep. You live without knowing, without being sensible of it. The pulsation of the heart, the circulation of the blood, the digestion of the aliments, the secretion of the various juices-in a word, all the animal functions are continued without interruption or derangement. The soul is reduced to a temporary inactivity, and gradually loses all distinct ideas and sensations. The senses become languid, and cease to perform their respective functions. The muscles by degrees move more slowly, till at length all voluntary motion is suspended.

In a word, the state of a person asleep is in every respect wonderful; and perhaps there is only one other state to which man can be reduced that is equally remarkable. Who can think of sleep without being reminded of the other state-death. As imperceptibly as you now fall asleep shall you one day fall into the slumber of death. Oh! be prepared for its approach. Redeem the time, and so number your days that you may apply your hearts to wisdom.-STURM.

THE stateliness of houses, the goodliness of trees, when we

behold them, delighteth the eye; but that foundation which

beareth up the one, that root which ministreth unto the other nourishment and life, is in the bosom of the earth concealed; and if there be occasion at any time to search into it, such labour is then more necessary than pleasant, both to them which undertake it and for the lookers on. In like manner, the use and benefit of good laws all that live under them may enjoy with delight and comfort, albeit the grounds and first original causes from whence they have sprung be unknown, as to the greatest part of men they are. Since the time that God did first proclaim the edicts of his law upon the world, heaven and earth have hearkened unto his voice, and their labour hath been to do his will. He made a law for the rain; he gave his decree unto the sea, that the waters should not pass his commandment.1 Now, if Nature should intermit her course, and leave altogether, though it were for a while, the observation of her own laws; if those principal and mother elements of the world, whereof all things in this lower world are made, should lose the qualities which now they have; if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions, and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it might happen if the prince of the lights of heaven, which now, as a giant, doth run his unwearied course, should, as it were, through a languishing faintness, begin to stand and to rest himself; if the moon should wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture, the winds breathe out their last gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth be defected3 of heavenly influence, the fruits of the earth pine away, as children at the withered breasts of their mother, no longer able to yield them relief; what would become of man himself, whom these things do now all serve? See we not plainly that obedience of creatures unto the law of nature is the stay of the whole world?

Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God; her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage; the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power. Both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy.-HOOKER.

1. Psalm civ. 9. 2. Psalm xix. 5.

3. Apparently" deprived of;" but the word is now obsolete."

ALL events, all things and persons, are bringing temptation before us; no man is out of the reach of it who is in God's world; no man is intended to be out of the reach of it who is God's child. He himself has led us into this wilderness to be tempted of the devil; we cannot fly from it; we cannot find in one corner of it a safety which there is not in another; we cannot choose that we shall not have those temptations which are specially fitted to reach our own feelings, tempers, infirmities; they will be addressed to these; they will be aimed at the heel or head, at whatever part has not been touched by the fire, and is most vulnerable. We must not crave quarter from the enemy to choose for ourselves when we shall meet him, is to desert that guardianship in which is all safety. But we may cry, "Lead us not into temptation:" and praying so, we pray against ourselves, against our evil tendencies, our eagerness for that which will ruin us. Praying so, that which seemed to be poison becomes medicine; all circumstances are turned to good; honey is gathered out of the carcase; death itself is made the minister of life.

Away, then, with that cowardly language which some of us are apt to indulge in, when we speak of one period as more dangerous than another; when we wish we were not born into the age of revolutions; or complain that the time of quiet belief is passed, and that henceforth every man must ask himself whether he has any ground to stand upon, or whether all beneath him is hollow. We are falling into the temptation when we thus lament over it. We are practically confessing that the Evil Spirit is the lord of all; that times and seasons are in his hand. Let us clear our minds from every taint of that blasphemy. God has brought us into this time; he, and not ourselves or some dark demon. If we are not fit to cope with that which he has prepared for us, we should have been utterly unfit for any condition that we imagine for ourselves. In this time we are to live and wrestle, and in no other. Let us humbly, tremblingly, manfully look at it, and we shall not wish that the sun could go back its ten degrees, or that we could go back with it. If easy times are departed, it is that the difficult times may make us more in earnest, that they may teach us not to depend upon ourselves. If easy belief is impossible, it is that we inay learn what belief is, and in whom it is to be placed. If an hour

is at hand which will try all the inhabitants of the earth, it is that we may learn for all to say, "Lead us not into the temptation" of our times; that so we may be enabled with greater confidence and hope to join in the cry of every time, "Deliver us from evil."-MAURICE' On the Lord's Prayer.'

Humble.
Unfeignedly.

A GENERAL THANKSGIVING.

Preservation.
World.

Inestimable.
Grace.

Redemption.
Through.

ALMIGHTY GOD, Father of all mercies! we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and lovingkindness to us and to all men; we bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen. Book of Common Prayer.'

1. Amen is a word as old as the Hebrew language itself. It means, in that tongue, true, faithful, certain. Employed in devotions, at the end of a prayer, it implies, so be it; at the termi

nation of a creed, so it is. It has been generally used, both in the Jewish and Christian churches, at the conclusion of prayer.