eligible, we owe to her provident contrivance and management! The influence of the soul extends to spiritual as well as sensual objects. We are sometimes struck by particular instances of might. They surprise, by surpassing the former effects of a similar agency. The prowess of the champion who has often fought and has never been overcome, we seldom contemplate without a mixture of admiration and wonder! But what are the feats of the most extraordinary corporeal vigour, to those of pure intellect? It is by man's understanding that he has been enabled to assert, extend, and maintain, the dominion assigned him over the inferior creatures. The victories of heroes, of armies, and navies, depend more on skill than strength. How often does the greatest brutal force shrink before the influence of reason! This is the true Herculean club, which, in the hands of genuine philosophy and religion, has always triumphed over the grossest instances of human barbarism and absurdity. The rude passions of the multitude, which, inflamed with rage, are as fierce and unmanageable as the fellest monsters, as irresistible as a torrent, as loud and as furious as a whirlwind, are sometimes hushed into a calm, or soothed into silent acquiescence, by the charms of persuasion. It is thine, O Intellect! to conquer our wildest inclinations, regulate our passions, mortify our appetites, and establish a throne more permanent, more honourable, and more blessed, than that of the mightiest monarch on earth, in the virtues of moderation and self-government.

Of what the human soul is farther able, how much higher she may ascend in the great scale of moral excellence, what sublimer degrees of divine science her faculties may hereafter embrace, can only be learned from the spirits of just men made perfect, from the redeemed from among men, and from all the ages of eternity! It is in these holy and exalted scenes, where her powers will have full scope to operate, and her virtues to mature; where she will see such prospects, be engaged in such employments,

form such attachments, keep such company, and feel the influence of such examples, as must afford the best exercise to all her best qualities; and where she will be placed in no situation to which she is not equal, have no duties which she cannot perform, and do nothing by which she will not be made better. Heaven is her native land, and her father's house The business there assigned her will suit her nature and inclination. It is her element to be absorbed in the contemplation and imitation of divine perfection, and to make habitual progress in knowledge and virtue, without any interference from the pollutions of life, ignorance, iniquity, or impenitence! And when sense is exchanged for sight, a wavering faith for open vision, and an evanescent hope for full fruition, she will prove herself capable of such things as eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive!

Who would not regret that these sublime and spiritual properties should be doomed to share the same fate with the brittle tabernacles they inhabit? But from every aspect of nature, from every sentiment of the human heart, and from every page of divine revelation, we have the deepest and most substantial assurance that the souls of men have a much superior destiny. We cannot even suppose the possibility of their ceasing to be. Every thing in them and about them indicates an existence that can have no end. The soul moves of herself, and all her movements and exertions are those of an agent perfectly free. Without any such parts as can be dissipated, she admits not of either measure or division, can act upon herself, send forth her ideas and desires to any distance; though full of images, conceptions, and designs, occupies no space; and, notwithstanding various faculties, is of an essence absolutely simple. Apart from her immortality, her natural efficiency, ends, and uses, all are involved in absurdity and mystery; the works of the Almighty are without meaning or design; man is deprived of hope, and his Maker of goodness! Destroy our connection with futurity, and you render

the whole creation unintelligible. Better put out the light of heaven at once, and wrap the universe in impenetrable darkness, than deprive us of the only cordial which can support our spirits when our heart and flesh both faint and fail. But all that plenitude of argument which reason and philosophy have discovered, with the accordant voice of all civilized nations and ages, the accumulated suffrage of all the greatest and best men in the best of times, and the whole body of evidence in favour of a God and a provi dence, substantiate also the soul's immortality.

This great doctrine, and all expectations connected with it, are, moreover, established beyond a doubt by the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Here a flood of divine light breaks in upon our benighted minds, and dispels that awful gloom which filled our apprehensions of futurity with unutterable dread. Under all our anxieties about what is now to come, we no longer walk in darkness, but have the light of life. By this earnest of better things, this heavenly in structor, this new guide to glory, honour, and immor tality, the mysteries of providence, the transactions of an hereafter, the government and catastrophe of the universe, these deep things of God, are all unfolded, brought within the ken, or made level to the capacity, of mortals:

Sceptic! whoe'er thou art, who say'st the soul,
That particle divine, which God's own breath
Inspir'd into the mortal mass, shall rest
Annihilate, till duration has unroll'd

Her never-ending line: tell, if thou know'st,
Why ev'ry nation, ev'ry clime, though all
In laws, in rites, in manners disagree,
With one consent expect another world,
Where wickedness shall weep? Why Painim bards
Fabled Elysian plains, Tartarean lakes,

Styx, and Cocytus? Tell why Hali's sons
Have feign'd a paradise of mirth and love,

Banquets and blooming nymphs? Or rather, tell
Why on the brink of Orellana's stream,
Where never science rear'd her sacred torch,
Th' untutor❜d Indian dreams of happier worlds
Behind the cloud-topt hill? Why in each breast

Is plac'd a friendly monitor, that prompts,
Informs, directs, encourages, forbids?
Tell why on unknown evil grief attends;
Or joy on secret good? Why conscience acts
With tenfold force, when sickness, age, or pain,
Stands tottering on the precipice of death?
Or why such horror gnaws the guilty soul
Of dying sinners; while the good man sleeps
Peaceful and calm, and with a smile expires?

GLYNN.

The holy Scripture is the test of divine truth. We should try all principles and maxims presented to us by this infallible test.-Says the World, "Man, with the best intentions, sins daily?"-Scripture says, " He that is born of God (he that is a true Christian) sinneth not:" that is, not wilfully, voluntarily, and deliberately. Says the World, "We cannot, however, be perfect? It is said in the Scripture, "Let us go on to perfection: be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect."-Says the World, "We should merrily enjoy life?"-So says the Scripture, but "rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice as Christians, with discreet selection and prudent moderation."-If it be said among men, "We are weak, depraved creatures, of whom not much is to be expected, and whom God will not judge with rigour;"--we read in Scripture, "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might; be strong as Christians, who have so many means and motives to goodness. He that is born of God overcometh the world. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. God will render to every man according to his works." It is said in common life, "We should not be particular, we should not be conscientious and too scrupulous."-We are taught in the school of Jesus, "If you love only your friends and brethren, what do you remarkable, what more than others? Be as shining and burning lights in the midst of the crooked and perverse generations of this world." Whatsoever is not of faith, whatsoever is not done from conviction that it is just and proper, is sin. Does the World say, "We cannot have all the virtues?"-yet the Scripture says, "Study whatever is

true, whatever is honest, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, whatever is virtuous."-Do men say, that we should daily repent because we sin daily?-Yet Jesus, the instructor of men, says, "The whole need not the physician, but the sick. I am come, not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."-We hear it said, "that devotion and worship are of more value than all the moral virtues, and that the former are adapted to supply the deficiency of the latter;"-yet we are told in Scripture, that "mercy is better than sacrifice; whosoever keepeth my commandments, he it is that loveth me. Whoso loveth not his brother, or his neighbour, neither can he love God."-Are we told, that "the world is too corrupt to allow of a man's living virtuously and holily in it; we cannot swim against the torrent?"-Yet the Scripture says, "Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise; be the salt of the earth, be the light of the world; let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."-Is it said amongst those who would fain spare themselves the trouble of leading a good and godly life, that "we may and ought to expect and hope for every thing of the divine grace?-Yet it is said in the Scripture," Knowest thou not that the goodness of God should lead thee to repentance? The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."--Does the World say, "that all rests on faith, and that works can avail us nothing?"-Yet the Scripture says, "Faith without works is dead, it must be active by love. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."Are we told by some, "that we need not any righteousness of our own, but should rely alone upon the righteousness of Jesus?"-Yet we learn from Scripture, that Christ is no such convenient substitute for