instructions of Revelation, we would listen also, in our common hours, to the kindred instructions of Nature. It is such habits of thought that best incorporate religion with our souls ;-that make us see the Deity in every scene we visit, and every appearance we behold;and convert the world, in which the ignorant and the thoughtless perceive only the reign of chance and time, into the temple of the living and the present God.

Of the innumerable eyes that open upon nature, none but those of man see its author and its end. There is something very solemn in this mighty privilege. It is the privilege of a being not made to perish with Time, and formed, in some greater hour, to know him who inhabiteth Eternity. It is the privilege, still more, of that being, whom, amid the clouds and darkness of this lower world,

the Son of God came in mercy to seek

and to save.

Let then, my brethren, the storms of winter blow, and the rains of Heaven descend. While every inferior nature shrinks from their approach, let us meet them as the signs of the same goodness, which brings forth the promises of spring, and fulfils the hopes of the harvest;—let us see them, as the evidence of that wisdom, which makes momentary evil the source of final good, and which can make the tears which mortality sheds, in a greater state, to be reapt in joy. Whatever may be the natural or moral appearances which we behold, let us never forget that the same Almighty mind reigns amid them all; -that to the wise and the virtuous" all "things are working together for good;" and that, amid the winter of our moral nature, that mind is formed, and those dispositions are nursed, which are to re

awaken, under the influence of a greater spring; and to exist when the revolutions of nature are past, and when time itself shall be no more.

SERMON XXII,

ON THE GENERAL THANKSGIVING, JANUARY 13, 1814.

ST MATTHEW, xvii. 4,

"Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."

THESE words were spoken in a moment of deep astonishment and gratitude. Our Saviour, as we read, had carried up his three disciples, without any previous preparation for the mighty scene that was

to follow," into an high mountain, apart

by themselves, and was then transfigur"ed before them. And his face did shine "as the sun; and his raiment was as "white as light: And behold there ap

peared unto them Moses and Elias "talking with Him.". It was then that Peter broke out into those words, that so faithfully express the tumult of his astonished but grateful mind: "Lord, it is

good for us to be here; and, if thou “wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, "one for thee, and one for Moses, and "one for Elias."

It is with some such mingled sentiments of astonishment and of thankfulness, that the people of this country must assemble in the service of this grateful day. After long years of doubt and of darkness, after hopes long deferred, and prayers long unanswered, the dawn of brighter years seems rising upon the world. The