love, our attention can scarcely fail to be directed to the precious doctrine that "he first loved us”—a doctrine plainly manifested to us in the book of nature and providence.

That this book, as far as relates to the attributes of God, is very imperfectly read without the aid of revelation, the history of mankind affords abundant evidence. We find that evidence in the works of the ancient heathen philosophers, whose views of the Supreme Being were, after all their researches, partial and incomplete. Still more perceptible and glaring is it, among a certain class of modern philosophers, who have disregarded Christianity; and who, in the midst of a wondrous development of nature's secrets, have forgotten and even denied nature's God. But to contemplate God in his works, under the beaming light of the religion of the Bible, is one of the most profitable exercises of the human mind; it cannot fail to imbue us with filial love and gratitude towards the Author of our being.

If we would love God sincerely and fervently, let us first contemplate him as our Father by creation; let us call to mind, that a few years since we were not, but now are—that we possess not only animal life, but a rational and imperishable soul—and that both are his gift—the spontaneous results of his wisdom, power, and love.

On the gift of our being, all his other gifts to us

are obviously contingent; but let us reflect on the manner in which he has formed us-on the capacities of body and mind with which we are endowed! “I will praise thee," said David, "for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well." 1

These words of inspired thanksgiving are in full agreement with the wonders of modern anatomy. What Christian, who knows any thing of these wonders, can consider his own bodily frame, without being astonished at the wisdom and goodness of God? The complexity and nicety of the machine; the perfect ease with which it works,—every part being made for use and comfort, and no part for pain; the various joints, each of that peculiar mechanism which suits it to its place; the muscles, with their power of contraction for the purpose of motion, and pulling against each other, to keep the body even; the heart, a forcing pump, beating a hundred thousand times in a day, but never growing weary; the blood, for ever circulating, fed with chyle in one part of its passage, and enlivened with pure air in another; the conversion of that blood, by some mysterious action, into all the other fluids of the body; the chemistry of the stomach; the sensibility and sightliness of the skin; the organs of sense, each furnished with its own class of nerves, and fitted with the most consummate skill to its pecu

1 Ps. cxxxix, 11—16.

liar object; the scientifically formed cavities and tight drum of the ear; the refracting lenses, the directing muscles, the cleansing tears, the protecting lids and lashes, and the pictured retina of the eye-all these, and a multitude of other particulars, are worthy of our grateful meditation, and ought surely to excite both our wonder and our praise.

But how much more admirable is the constitution of the mind, with all its subtle powers of sensation, consciousness, reflexion, reasoning, memory, invention, and imagination! Shall we mark these powers and enjoy their action---shall we delight ourselves in the facility with which our thoughts range

the universe—and not learn to love that bounteous Being who made us what we are?

But our capacities would be of little worth without corresponding objects; and we must contemplate the Deity, not only as our Creator, but as the gracious Author of those provisions by which our faculties are excited to action, and all our wants supplied. External nature teems with such provisions; and the exactness of their suitability to us, affords sufficient evidence, that if man is made for the world, the world is also made for man. Here we may freely mingle the most obvious and familiar observations, with the discoveries of modern science; all combine to multiply our proofs of the benevolence of our heavenly Father. It seems almost needless to advert to par

ticulars; but the religious man will find abundant cause for gratitude towards his Creator, when he meditates on the existence and properties of light and heat; on the alternations of day and night; on the arrangement of the seasons; on the nature of the atmosphere; on the magnetic influence, directing the mariner's compass; on the even and moderate temperature of the earth's surface; on the universal law of gravitation; on the endless supplies, and multiplied uses, of water; on the ocean, with its faculty of evaporation; on the mighty agency of steam; on the gradual detrition of rocks into fertile soils; on the vast provisions of animal and vegetable food, each zone of the earth producing the kind of aliment which its inhabitants require; on the green carpeting of nature; on the profusion of her flowers; on all her glorious scenery!

Did not the earth turn upon her axis-had she no motion round the sun-was her bulk less or greater than it is was the law of gravitation reversed-was the atmosphere differently composed, or did it refuse to vibrate so as to convey sound-was light incapable of refraction-did water exist only in the form of ice-had the rocks of the earth's surface never crumbled-was nature destitute of vegetation-was she clothed in scarlet instead of green-where would be the happiness or even the life of man?

The harmony which is, on a broad scale, so obvi

ous between the faculties of man and his circumstances, is the general result of innumerable pairs of things; every one of which affords a distinct evidence of the goodness of God. Take, for example, the lungs and the air. Viewed in connexion with the cavity of bones in which they are safely lodged, with their peculiar set of blood-vessels, with their wrapping membrane, with their air-tubes, and with the muscles which keep them in perpetual motion, the lungs present an illustrious example of mechanism adapted to its end. No less remarkable is the chemical science displayed in that peculiar combination of pure and impure gases, which forms the air. The mechanism can have had no tendency to give birth to the chemistry, nor the chemistry, to construct the machine; but both are found working together, in perfect harmony, for the health and life of animals. Was either the machinery of the lungs, or the combination of gases in the air, in any respect different from what they now are, (and different they might have been in ten thousand ways) all would have been pain and misery, or, perhaps, death, to living creatures. Why, then, are these operations of nature precisely what we find them to be? Why are they thus matched and assorted for our good? Surely, because the hand which formed the lungs, and composed the air, is a hand, not only of unrivalled skill, but of tender