food; whose Book instructs him; whose smile cheers whose frown awes, whose rod corrects encourages, and him. In this view, nothing can be more admirable than the adaptations of external nature to his situation. He is a child of a family early trained under the tender eye of a mother; and supported, during the helpless years of infancy, by the means provided for him by an affectionate father: and, in his brothers and sisters, associated with companions and equals who are bound together by a common lot. He thus early learns to bend to the yoke of authority; to be dependent and humble; to be docile, dutiful, and affectionate. His filial reverence, his fraternal love, his sense of duty, are thus called forth and cultivated; and all this domestic training prepares him for cherishing the still nobler principles of religious obedience and submission, and the more exalted sentiments of pious gratitude, veneration, and confidence. In a more extended intercourse with his fellows, the Christian finds new opportunities of cultivating his virtues and graces. When he comes into collision with the bad passions and evil practices of those with whom he is conversant, he sees, as in a mirror, his own heart reflected, and he learns to be diffident, watchful, and charitable. When he meets with men of congenial minds, who serve the same Divine Master, and are animated with the same blessed hopes, his heart glows with a kindred flame, and mutual sympathy forms his solace and his strength. When the world prospers with him, he blesses the Giver of all good, and remembering that he must give an account of his stewardship, exercises himself " to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards When affliction comes, he receives it as the chastisement of a Father, who chastens him for his profit. When death snatches a friend or partner from his bosom, he feels indeed that the lesson is severe, but he hesitates not to learn it, and in the resignation of his heart exclaims, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!" men." If, in this spirit, a man engage in the various duties, and exercise the numerous relations of life, he finds that "Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, It is true, indeed, that this effect is only partial. It proceeds but a certain length, and then stops short. While it presents heaven to our view, it still keeps us lingering among the things of earth; while it cherishes celestial graces, and fills the mind with high anticipations, the very objects, by which these views and feelings are impressed, themselves claim part of our hearts, and bind us by strong ties to the world, of which they teach us the vanity. And this also is a beneficent provision. We cannot bear that heaven should be fully unveiled to us, while we remain denizens of earth. Such a vision would totally unfit us for our present station, and our present duties. An incident, mentioned by the eloquent author I have lately quoted more than once, will illustrate this. "I recollect that, on my return to France, in a vessel which had been a voyage to India, as soon as the sailors had perfectly distinguished the land of their native country, they became, in a great measure, incapable of attending to the business of the ship. Some looked at it wistfully, without the power of minding any other object; others dressed themselves in their best clothes, as if they had been going that moment to disembark; some talked to themselves, and others wept. As we approached, the disorder of their mind increased. As they had been absent several years, there was no end to their admiration of the verdure of the hills, of the foliage of the trees, and even of the rocks which skirted the shore, covered over with seaweeds and mosses; as if all these objects had been perfectly new to them. The church-spires of the villages where they were born, which they distinguished at a distance up the country, and which they named, one after another, filled them with transports of delight. But when the vessel entered the port, and when they saw on the quays their friends, their fathers, their mothers, their wives, and their children, stretching out their arms to them with tears of joy, and calling them by their names, it was no longer possible to retain a single man on board ; they all sprang ashore, and it became necessary, according to the custom of the port, to employ another set of mariners to bring the vessel to her moorings."* There is an appearance of some high coloring in this picture; but it serves well to illustrate the view I am considering. There cannot be a doubt, that, were it not for the natural obtuseness of our mental vision in contemplating spiritual things, and the difficulty of realizing them to our understanding and our affections, the truths revealed to us in Scripture would make so deep an impression on our hearts, as to unfit us for the ordinary business of life. The world, with all its duties and all its ties, would appear "weary, stale, and unprofitable;" its affairs would come to a stand, and irrepressible longings to join the blessed throng, among whom some of the most fondly and deeply cherished friends of our hearts are mingled, would occupy the place of all sublunary things. If this world was to remain a place of discipline and of duty, it was necessary that heaven should continue veiled in the dim obscurity of distant and misty perspective, and that the spiritual should only be seen by reflection, as it were, from the material world. FOURTEENTH WEEK-SUNDAY. DAY OF PENTECOST.-ONE LANGUAGE. THE world had existed upwards of two thousand years, before the perverseness of the human race provoked the * Studies of Nature, vol. ii. p. 289. Creator to introduce the confusion of tongues, which was not only the means of scattering men of the same city, but probably, also, caused the disruption of the dearest family ties, and rendered parents and brethren aliens from each other. Century after century elapsed, and the idolatrous families, in their varied tongues, pursued their devious systems of folly in remote regions; and to them, it might seem as if God took no account of the condition of his creatures. But with one people, was the knowledge of the true God preserved, and in their language were those lively oracles written, which shall convey to man a view of the Divine character and requirements, even till time shall be no more. Two thousand years again fleeted away after the memorable dispersion of Babel, when, at last, "The Promised," and "The Sent," fulfilled the burden of a thousand prophecies. While He tabernacled in the world, and exemplified the perfection of which man, when guided by the Divine Spirit, is capable, He had sent out seventy, endued with many miraculous gifts, so that themselves were filled with wonder, and rejoiced that even the evil spirits were subject to them. But still they were acquainted with only one tongue, a vitiated dialect of the Hebrew, so that, whatever were their spiritual gifts, there was an obstacle which they encountered, in the very outset, to the fulfilment of their Master's parting command, to preach the Gospel to every creature, and to teach all nations. Here, then, when the judgement of Babel, which resigned men to the idolatry they chose, by the loss of the language in which alone God was spoken of and preached, seemed about to be taken off, and all nations were to be invited to unite in believing the Gospel,—that judgement, in its practical effect, presented a difficulty which mere human study might not surmount. "But,' as Dr. Lightfoot remarks, "one dividing of tongues was the casting off of the heathen, and another dividing of tongues restored the knowledge of God to the nations." Christ sends not his messengers a warfare at their own charges; He passed over the tedious process of study on their behalf, and fulfilled to them his word, "greater works than these shall ye do." Having passed Himself from them and entered into the heavens, there to remain till the restitution of all things, He sent them the Comforter whom He had promised. "They were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." By this means, were signs and wonders wrought, the holy name of the Redeemer exalted, the Gospel preached to men of divers languages, and thousands added to the church. But, again, this gift is withdrawn. It has appeared,to give us a hint, on which our minds found a hope of what may be the Divine purpose in reference to the world hereafter, and an exhibition of the power by which present obstacles shall be set aside. It is the opinion of Archbishop Tillotson, that if the conversion of the heathen "were now sincerely and vigorously set about by men of honest mind, God would extraordinarily countenance such an attempt with all fitting assistance, as he did the first publication of the Gospel." If this infers an expectation of miraculous interference, we know not how far it may be consistent with the mysterious decrees of Heaven. The nature of one of the difficulties the poor missionary knows right well, as he consumes life with the tardy operation of translating, with his interpreter by his side, and announces to the watching Christians in Europe, how he has achieved the gospel by John, or added to it a selection from some other gospel, or from the book of Psalms. But the degree of sincerity, or vigor, or concord required, before we become fitted to receive such aid as Tillotson hints at, we do not know; nor do we know that a departure from the ordinary means of grace will, under any circumstances, be necessary. Were we to venture a conjecture, we would say, it is concord which is lacking in this weighty affair. We do not observe, with sufficient depth of conviction, the promise to those who are "agreed as touching what they shall ask.” We do not mark the manner and times when the kingdom of heaven has been taken by violence," and the Hearer of prayer has been, as it were, |