of the spheres....Listen, my Miranda, listen O my soul, for meditation has an ear can catch the most distant sound; softly wafted on gentle echo's wing it

comes.

Fly, shadows fly, bright Sol appears,
Obtrusive darkness, haste away;
His flowing robe of light he wears,
And pours around a flood of day.

Rejoice ye grove-crown'd hills rejoice,
Ye humbler yallies laugh and sing;
Let universal nature's voice

Raise the loud triumphs of her king.

God of the sun, his brightest rays
Sink into night, compar'd with thine;
In his refulgent noontide blaze,

The glimm'rings of thy glories shine.

Yes, O sun! bright and glorious as thou art, how infinitely brighter, how inconceivably more glorious must he be, who called thee into being by his word, created and upholds thee by his power, and from whom, as the great fountain of light, thou receivest all thy splendors. And who is this infinite being, this glorious God, but the Lord Jesus Christ? Col. i. 16. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers, all things were created by and for him. Yes, O my soul, he that created the heavens and formed the

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earth, is no other than the great God thy Saviour! how sweet, how delightful a reflection; the Creator and preserver of all the grand and noble objects around me, became a babe at Bethlehem, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, for me....lived for me, died for me! O how grand, how noble, how sufficient and infinite must that atonement, that righteousness and intercession be, which is the work of no less a person than the author of universal nature: Is his work of creation perfect? so is his grand work of redemption. Yes, my soul, his works are all perfect, all complete, and thou art complete in him, Col: ii. 10.

How cheerful, my dear Miranda, appears the face of nature; a little while ago it was covered with the shades of night; all was silent and solemn; but now the rising sun has dissipated the gloom, the fields look gay, the flowers open to drink in the dew and the first gales of the morning, while the little feathered warblers of the grove are sending up a sweet song to their great Creator and benefactor, without whose permission a sparrow cannot fall to the ground. And O how cheerful is the believer in Jesus, when after a long night of sorrow, the sun of righteousness rises upon him with healing in his wings, heals his sorrows, speaks peace to his soul, discovers some of the glories of his person and offices, and gives the soul to see and enjoy a little of the wonders of redeeming grace and dying love how sweet, how inexpressibly sweet is such a transition? then the believer experiences the truth of the psalmist's assertion, "sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

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Now blooms the rose, now the noble lily rears its stately head; the garden puts on its most lovely appearance, and emits its most fragrant perfumes; while the fields look gay, though clad with more artless attire; there the yellow butter-flower, the humble daisy, the sweet smelling violet and spiral sorrel, mingling with the tender grass, form a delicate carpet of the most varied colors....and the softly breathing zephyr, carries on his gentle wings far and wide, the healthful and pleasing effluvia of the new made hay. How delightful and wide extended is the prospect around us; the meadows are covered with flocks; here are sheep feeding in green pastures, while the playful lambs are frisking hither and thither, and the contented shepherd sitting under yon lofty oak, diverts himself with his pipe, enjoys the beauteous scene, unenvious of the pomp and magnificence of the great. On the other hand, see that vast ridge of hills that rises as it were half way to heaven, and forbids our sight to penetrate any farther: how sublimely majestic they appear. O! my Miranda, who would not leave the confinement and confusion of the city, for the calm delights of so sweet a retirement, and to contemplate the beauties of such a prospect as this; and yet how far more noble a prospect, how infinitely more grand a scene does the believer in Jesus behold, when he is enabled to view by faith, Immanuel's land, the the kingdom of grace and glory, where his inheritance is. "All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's," 1 Cor, iii. 21, 28.

Here are heights and depths of salvation; lengths and breadths of astonishing grace: and all this our own; yes, my friend, it was for us and all the heirs of glory that the heavens and the earth were created; it is for us they are still continued; for us the sun shines, the rains descend, the dews distil; for us the earth is crowned with fruitfulness and fragrance: the wicked partake of the bounties of providence, but they are not the proprietors of them. This world is a grand school, erected by the omnipotent God, in which he chuses to educate his children, and when their education is complete, he will present them to himself, a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; and then he will pull down the school as a useless place then sun, moon, and stars shall be swept away, and all the wonders of the first creation sink into nothing to make room for the superior glories of the second; that brighter, better world, where the sun of righteousness shall shine in his meridian splendor, and to which the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come with singing and everlasting joy upon their heads.

Upon what swift pinions doth time fly! already hath the sun entered the zenith: all nature seems to faint under his scorching beams; the flowers droop, the cattle take refuge under the wide spread shadow of the oak, the elm or the walnut tree. Come, my Miranda, let us retire to yonder rural bower; it is composed of laurel and bay, it is ornamented with jessamine and honeysuckles; O how sweet, how delightful a retirement. The robin has come hither be

fore us; see he sits on yonder bough and whistles forth his joy. Here let us sit down and recollect for a moment, that if this retreat from the sultry beams of noon is so welcome, so desirable, so refreshing to our wearied bodies and fatigued spirits, how precious, how inexpressibly precious must the Lord Jesus Christ be to that soul, who when fainting under the fiery temptations of Satan, the scorching heat of persecution and overwhelming afflictions is brought to sit down under his shadow; for one of the glorious characters he sustains, is that of a shadow from the heat, Isaiah xxv. 4. "The shadow of a great rock in a weary land."

"Tell

The Lord Jesus may be compared to a rock, because of his immutability, and everlasting strength; and to a great rock, because he is the great God. me," says the spouse in the Canticles, "tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest? where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon?" the good shepherd leads his flock to green pastures; he feeds them under his own shadow, and upon the finest of the wheat; his everlasting love, his exceeding great and precious promises, his unchangeable veracity, his allsufficient power, the riches of his grace, the infinite merit of his life and death, his covenant and oath. O my dear friend, are not these some of the branches of that glorious apple-tree, under whose shadow you and I have oft-times sat down with great delight? are not these some of the rich fruit upon which we have fed, when the king has taken us into his banquetting house, and made his banner over us to be love? These are soft