might by His Spirit," and thus enabled to apprehend" more effectually these boundless and inspiring consolations. Still must we implore, without ceasing, the aid of that Eternal Spirit, that "Communicative Love,” (as an old divine has styled the heavenly Comforter,) to touch our spirits with the feeling, though our reason cannot grasp the thought. For it must needs be with this attribute of mercy as with every attribute of Him who is in all things infinite: when it is presented to the intellect, we labour as it were to grasp a globe upheld by the enthroned King of Kings, and we discover only, as we gaze and reach forth towards it, that it is incomprehensible; that "the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea:” yet let Him who bears it deign, with condescending sovereignty, to incline his sceptre gently towards us,—and a quick radiation from all that orb of mercy shall flow into the heart, and we shall feel with transport, in our child-like littleness, what angels in their elder greatness cannot comprehend.

We may, as professed believers, have contemplated this doctrine of superabounding mercy, or at least have had it presented to us, in modes and at times unnumbered. But yet is it now, through its own augmented agency and power, poured into our souls with a new and healing vividness? Surely so divine an infusion, if we quench it not, will mightily enlarge

and gladden them, will animate and impel every pulse of spiritual life, will prompt us to that growing forbearance and sympathy, without which we can never advance in his resemblance who "multiplieth pardons," and will quicken every aspiration towards that realm of love where the redeemed must eternally outvie each other in the praise of his surpassing grace.

VIII.

ON THE PAIN ENDURED IN THE WANT OR LOSS OF SOCIAL BLESSINGS WHICH WOULD BE PECULIARLY DEAR TO US.

SOLITUDE is but a comparative and indefinite term. The isolated Selkirk, as his complaint is pathetically imagined by Cowper, felt himself in loneliness, though "lord of the fowl and the brute." Yet, had his islet been even by these unpeopled, void of all other life, or only of the larger animals, that "monarch of all he surveyed" must have been much more desolate still. "Their tameness" was

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shocking," but their disappearance would have been doubly so; especially as he had found means to induce in some a sort of attachment to himself, and thus to indulge, however inadequately, the social and benevolent affections*. Where solitude has

* See the account of Selkirk given by Captain Woodes Rogers in Harris's Voyages.

been meant and deemed to be cruelly complete, the discovery of but one living inmate of the cell, even a mouse or spider, has afforded solace. Something to feed and to welcome, something to be aided or attracted by the captive's care, has been a matter of soothing interest. To have sentient creatures round us, which—though we may fastidiously decline to name them fellow-creatures-show an instinctive sense that they are the better for our presence, is a relief which must needs make the penalty of solitude less rigorous and less absolute. But even

to witness animation and enjoyment, to watch the sea-birds wheeling round the cliff, or the herd resting in the shade, though they may see our "form with indifference;" and though it may, in one sense, aggravate solitude to feel that they all have the kindred society which to us is wanting, is yet a source of pensive pleasure. It must have been so, one would think, to our first parent, before his Eve was formed; a pleasure felt indeed to be exceedingly defective, but which he would not have lost without regret. On the other hand, the mere presence of human beings, without any intercourse, as when we pass through crowded streets, and meet perhaps through the hour or day no one with whom to interchange a thought or feeling,-this, it has often been observed, if not solitude, is as surely not so

ciety*. Yet how preferable this to the compulsory intercourse of those from whom the mind revolts; which were far worse than solitude! Thus Trenck or Bonnivard might willingly abridge the brief visit of a coarse unfeeling keeper, to resume their intimacy with the little speechless comrades of the cell.

Nay, in cases far removed from such, there is a sort or degree of solitariness which some minds habitually endure, amidst associations necessarily constant. There are those who find in the small social sphere to which sex, or youth, or age, or want of wealth restricts them, no mind of like capacities or tastes, or none possessing those highest, deepest sympathies with their own, which embrace "the things eternal;" and without which other affinities of taste and habit are but shallow and inconstant.

Such privations, where, by the supposition, deep affections, earnest sentiments and intellectual activities are peculiarly excitable but wholly ungratified, -must needs deepen every natural yearning for the most intimate attachments.

But let this case be even reversed. Let the social circle be extensive and acceptable, and nearer unions of kindred and friendship enjoyed. Still may the heart in secret sigh for more. A tender or a fervent spirit

"this crowded loneliness,

Where ever-moving myriads seem to say,

Go-thou art nought to us, nor we to thee-away!"

KEBI.E.