"When all thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,

Transported with the view, I'm lost

In wonder, love, and praise.

"Thy providence my life sustain'd,
And all my wants redress'd,
When in the silent tomb I lay,
And hung upon the breast.

“Unnumber'd comforts to my soul
Thy tender care bestow'd,
Long ere my infant heart conceiv'd
From whom those comforts flow'd.

"When in the slippery paths of youth
With heedless steps I ran,

Thine arm, unseen, convey'd me safe
And led me up to man.

* Thro' hidden dangers, toils, and deaths,
It gently clear'd my way,
And thro' the pleasing snares of vice,
More to be fear'd than they."

How sweet, how blessed a subject is this for both youth and old age to meditate on! If every wayfaring pilgrim on earth were but duly impressed with the universal and particular provi dence of his Heavenly Father, how many rough places would be made plain, how many crooked things would then be made straight! How refreshing is it to those on whom the storms of ad÷ versity and trouble are breaking, to bear in mind,

that not a sparrow falls to the ground without divine permission; and that the hairs of our head are all numbered! (Matt. x. 29-31.) How cheering, under every gloomy cloud, to remember, that the same Omnipotent Being, who hath drawn the boundaries of the great deep, and restrained their proud waves with this decree: "Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further;" that He is the same gracious God who provides for the half-famished young ravens when they cry, and superintends all, even the most minute affairs of men! This is a subject ever big with matter for admiration and praise. It is a theme which opens an unbounded field; where the grateful heart may expand in love and adoration; until it is carried to that mount from whence David formerly looked round, and exclaimed, "O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!"" Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; if I should declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered." In ten thousand instances is the Almighty about our beds, and about our paths, for good, when we neither know of our dangers nor of our deliverances. But will these, at present unseen, interpositions

be always unseen and unknown? I think not:certainly it is not stepping beyond the bounds of scriptural authority to say, that, hereafter, when the dark glass of mortality is taken away, we shall see our Redeemer face to face, and "know him, even as we are also known." In that clear vision, and mighty enlargement of knowledge, the redeemed in heaven will be able to look. back, and see all the way by which the Lord led them, and to discover all the links which composed that chain of providences which, at last, conducted them to a city of habitation.-On earth we know how much

"Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan his works in vain."

But, in heaven, the Eternal Author of all grace and providence will be "his own interpreter," and enlarge the faculties and conceptions of his children to an extent that no human intellect can listen to or understand. Now, indeed, our apprehensions of the Divine Being go but little beyond those of the children's in the boat; and, as touching what remains to be revealed, we speak as children, we understand as children, we think as children. But when the soul has put off this mortal coil, and has attained the full stature of a perfect and glorified saint, then our present limited and imperfect knowledge will be done

away; then the Saviour himself, and all the hicrarchy of heaven, will make known to us ten thousand circumstances connected with our pil· grimage state, which we neither did nor could enter into while tabernacling in the body. This, I conceive, is no flight into the wild regions of fancy, but scriptural soberness and truth. And oh! what an inexhaustible source of increasing gratitude and pure delight will it be, from one period, so to speak, of eternity to another; to look back from the heights and joys of heaven, to those days when we sailed the ocean of life, and were so often" tempest tossed, and half a wreck." How inexpressibly delightful, at every glance, to discover additional instances and fresh proofs of that providence and grace which attended us through the whole voyage of our probationary and perilous state! Then shall we in an especial manner see, and exultingly acknowledge, that

"In childhood and in youth

His eye was on us still,

Tho' strangers to his love and truth,

And prone to thwart his will."

No. III.

THE FLEET SAILING OUT OF PORT.

"YE KNOW NOT WHAT SHALL BE ON THE MORROW."

James, iv. 14.

THE inhabitants of our mercantile ports are frequently gratified by the sight of a numerous assemblage of vessels going to sea at the same time. A cloud of shipping, embracing the same tide, and spreading their sails to the same auspicious breeze, are, in two or three hours, found to quit the harbour, and proceed on their various and respective voyages. This is so interesting a sight, that it appears to rouse the attention of the most phlegmatic and sordid of the inhabitants. They all stand, and, for a season, gaze, and make their observations, and express their admiration. Yet the generality of these spectators are caught only by the appearances of the moment. The scene which engages their eyes is particularly calculated to interest and edify the reflecting mind. But alas! few men ever reflect; and therefore the fleet sails, and its remembrance vanishes as soon as the hazy horizon conceals the distant canvass from their view.