Call forth the dead, and re-unite the dust Every one has experienced how much contrast enhances pleasure and aggravates pain. Perhaps in created beings, perfect happiness is impossible, without the contrast of recollected misery. This consideration affords an answer to those persons, who censure the resurrection of the body as a provision unnecessary and unwise,-who say, that the joys of a blessed spirit cannot be increased by a union with a material body, however excellent in form, structure, and powers. I would ask, what other provision could possibly furnish the pleasure derived from contrast, so vividly, so constantly? A celestial form, the habitation of that being, who formerly dwelt in a body, frail, diseased, mortal!-To the man who had been blind in his earthly abode, what a change! His sightless orbs transformed into eyes of telescopic ken!-To the palsied! To the body which could not move itself-endowed, perhaps, with electric velocity! that once feeble, faltering voice-attuned to the harmonies of the heavenly choirs, "who sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are all thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints: Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!" To think that now the townsman wanders forth.-P. 83. 1. 10. "There cannot be a more pleasing or more consolatory idea presented to the human mind, than that of one universal pause of labour throughout the whole Christian world at the same moment of time; diffusing rest, comfort, and peace, through a large part of the habitable globe, and af. fording ease and refreshment, not only to the lowest part of our own species, but to their fellow-labourers of the brute creation. Even these are enabled to join in this silent act of adoration, this mute kind of homage to the great Lord of all and although they are incapable of any sentiments of religion, yet, by this means, they become sharers in the blessings of it. Every man of the least sensibility must see, must feel, the beauty and utility of such an institution as this; and must see, at the same time, the cruelty of invading this most valuable privilege of the inferior class of mankind, and breaking in upon that sacred repose, which God himself has, in pity to their sufferings, given to those that stand most in need of it. It was a point in which it highly became the majesty and goodness of Heaven itself to interpose. And happy was it for the world that it did so. For had man, unfeeling man, been left to himself, with no other spur to compassion than natural instinct, or unassisted reason, there is but too much ground to apprehend, he would have been deaf to the cries of his labouring brethren, would have harassed and worn them out with incessant toil; and when they implored, by looks and signs of distress, some little intermission, would perhaps have answered them in the language of Pharaoh's task-masters, "Ye are idle, ye are idle. There shall not aught of your daily tasks be diminished; let more work be laid upon them, that they may labour therein."-Exod. v. 9. 11. 17. "That this is no uncandid representation of the natural hardness of the human heart, till it is subdued and softened by the influences of divine grace, we have but too many unanswerable proofs, in the savage treatment which the slaves of the ancients, even of the most civilized and polished ancients, met with from their unrelenting masters. To them, alas! there was no Sabbath, no seventh day of rest! The whole week, the whole year, was, in general, with but few exceptions, one uninterrupted round of labour, tyranny, and oppression."-BISHOP PORTEOUS. Your helpless charge drive from the tempting spot. During the winter season there are many shepherds lost in the snow. I have heard of ten being lost in one parish. When life-boats, for the preservation of shipwrecked mariners, and institutions for the recovery of drowned persons, obtain so much of the public attention and patronage, it is strange that no means are ever thought of for the preservation of the lives of shepherds during snow-storms. I believe, that in nine instances out of ten, the death of the unhappy persons who perish in the snow is owing to their losing their way. A proof of this is, that very few are lost in the daytime. The remedy, then, is both easy and obvious. Let means be used for enabling the shepherd, in the darkest night, to know precisely the spot at which he is, and the bearings of the surrounding grounds. Snowstorms are almost always accompanied with wind. Suppose a pole, fifteen feet high, well fixed in the ground, with two cross spars placed near the bottom, to denote the airts, or points of the compass ;-a bell hung at the top of this pole, with a piece of flat wood attached to it, projecting upward, would ring with the slightest breeze. For a few hundred pounds, every square mile of the southern district of Scotland might be supplied with such bells. As they would be purposely made to have different tones, the shepherd would soon be able to distinguish one from another. He could never be more than a mile from one or other of them. On coming to the spot, he would at once know the points of the compass, and of course the direction in which his home lay. And with the forming mass floated along.-P. 88. 1. 4. May we not suppose, that the mass of the earth, while yet forming, received its progressive and rotatory motions? The dumb cured.-P. 98. This miracle, the reality of which the Pharisees could not deny, (Matth. ix. 34.), is one of a higher order than those which consisted in healing diseases. Dumbness implies, in general, not only a defect in the organs of speech, or of hearing, or of both, but ignorance of language. Here, then, was a miracle performed on the mind. The Judge ascended to the judgment-seat.-P. 101. 1. 15. This representation of Paul I have not founded on the circumstance of any one of his appearances before the Roman governors. I have alluded to facts which happened at his apprehension, as well as his arraignments before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa. |