the contact of almost every thing we have occasion to touch-the pleasure attached to eating, drinking, muscular motion, and activity-the luxuriant profusion, and rich variety of aliments which the earth affords-and the interchanges of thought and affection-all proclaim the Benevolence of our Almighty Maker, and show, that the communication of happiness is one grand object of all his arrangements.

For, these circumstances are not essentially requisite to our existence. We might have lived, and breathed, and walked, though every thing we touched had produced pain; though every thing we ate and drank had been bitter; though every movement of our hands and feet had been accompanied with uneasiness and fatigue; though every sound had been as harsh as the saw of the carpenter; though no birds had warbled in the groves; though no flowers had decked the fields, or filled the air with their perfumes; though one unvaried scene of dull uniformity had prevailed, and beauty and sublimity had been swept from the face of nature; though the earth had been covered with a mantle of black, and no radiant orbs had appeared in our nocturnal sky.

But what a miserable world should we then have inhabited, compared with that which we now possess ! Life would have passed away without enjoyment; and pain would have overbalanced the pleasure of existence. Whereas, in the existing constitution of things, all the objects around us, and every sense of which we are possessed, when preserved in its natural vigour, have a direct tendency to produce pleasing sensations, and to contribute to our enjoyment: and it is chiefly when we indulge in foolish and depraved passions, and commit immoral actions, that the benevolent intentions of the Deity are frustrated, and pain and misery produced.

If we consider, farther, that the inexhaustible bounty of the Creator, and the numerous pleasures we enjoy, are bestowed upon a guilty race of men, the benevolence of the Deity will appear in a still more striking point of view. Man has dared to rebel against his Maker; he is a depraved and ungrateful creature. The great majority of our race have banished God from their thoughts, trampled upon his laws, neglected to contemplate his works, refused to pay him that tribute of reverence and adora

tion which his perfections demand, have been ungrateful for his favours, have blasphemed his name, and have transferred to "four-footed beasts, and creeping things," that homage which is due to him alone.

It has been the chief part of their employment, in all ages, to counteract the effects of his Beneficence, by inflicting injustice, oppression, and torture, upon each other; by maiming the human frame, burning cities and villages, turning fruitful fields into a wilderness, and, by every other act of violence, carrying death and destruction through the world. And, if water, air, and the light of heaven, had been placed within the limits of their controul, it is more than probable, that whole nations would have been occasionally deprived of these elements, so essential to human existence.

Yet, notwithstanding the prevalence of such depraved dispositions, the streams of Divine benevolence towards our apostate race, have never yet been interrupted. The earth has never stopped in its career, and thrown nature into a scene of confusion; the light of heaven has never ceased to illume the world; the springs of water have never been dried up, nor has the fertile soil ceased to enrich the plains with golden harvests. God" hath not left himself without a witness" to his beneficence, in any age, in that he hath unceasingly bestowed on the inhabitants of the world, "rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness."

This is one of the characters of Deity which forms the most perfect contrast to the selfish and revengeful dispositions of man, which as far transcends human benevolence, as the heavens in extent surpass the earth-a character calculated to excite our highest love and admiration, and which we are called upon, in the Sacred Oracles, to imitate and revere. ແ Be ye merciful, as your Father who is in heaven is merciful: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." "O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men."

From such considerations, we learn, even from the system of nature, that mercy is an attribute of the Deity; for, if mercy consists in bestowing favours on those who are unworthy, or who merit punishment, the greatest sinners in

all ages have shared in it, and every individual of the human race, now existing, enjoys a certain portion of those comforts which flow from the benevolent arrangements which the Creator has established. "He maketh the sun

to arise on the evil and on the good." Though the nations in ancient times, as well as at present, "walked in their own ways," indulging in impiety, falsehood, lewdness, war, devastations, revenge, abominable idolatries, and every other violation of his law, he still supported the functions of their animal frames, and caused the influences of the sun, the rains, and the dews, to descend upon their fields, that they might be refreshed with his bounty, and filled "with food and gladness."

If mercy were not an essential attribute of the Deity, he would have cut them down in the midst of their first transgressions, shattered to pieces the globe on which they dwelt, and buried them in eternal oblivion. But whether Divine mercy will extend to the final forgiveness of sin, and the communication of eternal happiness to such beings, can be learned only from the discoveries of Revelation.

In relation to the inferior animals-the immense multitude of living creatures with which the earth is replenished, is a striking evidence of the vast profusion of Divine Beneficence. More than a hundred thousand species of animated beings are dispersed through the different regions of the air, the water, and the earth, besides myriads which are invisible to the unassisted eye. To estimate the number of individuals belonging to any one species is beyond the power of man. What countless myriads of herrings, for example, are contained in a single shoal, which is frequently more than six miles long, and three miles broad!

To estimate the number of individuals in all the different species would, therefore, be as impossible as to count the grains of sand in the Arabian deserts. There is not a single spot, in any region of the globe, but what teems with animated beings. Yet, all this vast assemblage of sensitive existence is amply provided for by the bountiful Creator. "These all wait upon him, and he giveth them their meat in due season." They enjoy not only life, but also a happy existence.

The sportive motions, and gesticulations of all the animal tribes-the birds skimming through the air, warbling

in the groves, and perching on the trees-the beasts of the field, bounding in the forests, and through the lawns -the fishes sporting in the waters-the reptiles wriggling in the dust, and the winged insects, by a thousand wanton mazes-all declare that they are rejoicing in their existence, and in the exercise of those powers with which the Creator has furnished them. So that wherever we turn our eyes, we evidently perceive, that "the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord," and that "his tender mercies are over all his works."

LESSON V.

The same Subject.—WILCOX.

OF God's Benevolence, proof in his works
From their beginning, and in all his ways,
Illustrious shines. What motive, but desire
To give felicity, called forth his might
To build this fair creation; to surround
His dwelling in the immensity of space
With orb encircling orb, to give to dust
The happiness of life in countless forms
Delightful, and to creatures rational
His pure immortal nature to impart?
Was it his glory? "Twas his goodness still;
For both are one, inseparably one.

God seeks not his, as men their glory seek;
From vain ambition. Earth and heaven sublime
Were not created for the mere display

Of power and skill immeasurably great;
Nor men and angels merely to admire
The wondrous fabric, and its author praise
With lofty songs. The whole grand universe
Is not an empty monument of fame;
Nor yet a monument, on a wide waste
Erected, for no purpose known to man.
'Tis not a pageant bright, o'er an expanse
Illimitable, moving with vain pomp,
In revolutions vain. The glory sought
In its creation, is but that which flows

From giving happiness with bounteous hand.
Its Maker, full of goodness infinite,

Self-moved, in acts beneficent poured forth
Of his abundance, as the sun, all light
And heat itself, cannot but shine and warm.

That God is good, and nothing does but good,
Is the one truth of his whole written word.
'Tis the deep root, that to this tree of life
All its vitality and beauty gives.

Turn we again to nature, with the book
Of inspiration open in our hands

To be our guide, no longer need we seek
For single tokens of Jehovah's love.
All things declare it, and with accents loud
Call for loud songs of gratitude and praise.
The gifts of heaven, innumerable, descend
On all the earth, silent, and uniform,
Like dew distilling from a smiling sky,
Or like the steady falling of a shower
When the sun shines, and gilds the drops in air,
And on the quivering leaves, and bending grass.
Look where it may, the opened eye of faith
Beholds the fulness of benevolence,
And oft its overflowing, as in showers
Falling on seas, on barren rocks and sands;-
In wholesome fruit within the wilderness,
Growing each year, and perishing uncropt;-
In myriads of living atoms, found

In every turf, and leaf, and breath of air,
Too small indeed for unassisted sight,
But not too small to feel the good they have,
Nor yet unworthy care that knows no bound.
Illumined by the rays of truth divine,
The universe a lovely aspect wears,
From its Creator's universal smile.
About its vast circumference his arms
In tender love are stretched, in one embrace
The whole encircling, as the milky zone
Surrounds the starry firmament immense.