the ancient world, appeared to descend from Heaven upon the shuddering nations; and in all the indistinct and varied aspects which the imagination of ignorance could suggest, seemed even to thirst for blood, and only to be appeased by the sanguinary horrors of the altar! Yet, in the darkest periods of man, the soothing voice of Religion has been heard; and, from the consciousness of its own guilt or infirmity, the heart has ever sought refuge, amidst the very awe, which they inspired, in the contemplation of the attributes of God. A gentler spirit has descended in the hours of thought and of penitence, and brooded over the soul of ignorant and sinful man; and the weakness of a mortal nature has felt that it was allied to Almighty goodness, and that, if itself was impure and imperfect, the God who made it was perfect and pure! These were the meditations of Wisdom, even in the worst

of times. They brightened the contemplations of the thoughtful sage; and the lofty conception of the Divine excellence dispelled, in part, the gloom of human fears. "Shall mortal man," said the voice to Eliphaz," shall mortal man be more just

than God? Shall a man be more pure "than his Maker? Behold he put no "trust in his servants, and his angels he

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charged with folly. How much less in " them that dwell in houses of clay, whose "foundation is in the dust!"

There is, however, my Christian brethren, a third view of the subject, which is, in a more peculiar manner, applicable to us. The vision of Eliphaz is the vision of unenlightened man, to whom "a "thing is brought secretly, and whose "ear receiveth a little thereof." The meditations of the Christian breathe a higher spirit, and assume a more perfect character. In his visions of the night, the spirit

which passes before him is not one, the form whereof he cannot discern, but it is like none other than the Son of God; and that voice which speaks to him in silence tells him, not only of the justice and the purity of his Maker, but still more of his compassion and paternal love; and says, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary " and heavy laden, and I will give you "rest!" It tells the sorrowful and de sponding, not only that all must be right in the administration of justice, but that all is merciful and kind in the paternal government of God:" for whom the "Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a "father the son in whom he delighteth." It assures the sinner, that there is mercy with the Most High; that if "the wicked "man will turn away from his wicked"ness that he hath committed, and will “do that which is lawful and right, he shall "save his soul alive;" and it calls on the

pious and the just to throw away every oppressive fear; to feel secure that their infirmities will not be mentioned against them; but that, if they proceed in the course on which they have entered, their " path shall be as the shining light, which "shineth more and more unto the perfect "day."

In the visions of the Christian mourner, that holy form appears which was borne by him who was "a man of sorrows, " and acquainted with grief;" but who is now ❝ made perfect by suffering," and who points to the eternal glories into which hẹ hath preceded his followers. The guilty man who longs for forgiveness, but knows not what atonement can satisfy the justice of Heaven, and, in the blackness of his thoughts, would even give his first-born "for his transgression, the fruit of his body "for the sin of his soul," beholds, in the meditations of the Gospel,theransom which conscience blindly explored, paid once and

for ever, sees the purest blood of Heaven itself streaming for his deliverance on the Cross, and joins the voice of penitence and hope which cried in that awful hour, "Lord remember me, when thou comest "into thy kingdom." The good man beholds the Shepherd of Israel walking before him, and leading him in the right way, and calling him back from his wanderings, and gently supporting him when he is ready to fall, and comforting him with his "rod and his staff," even ❝ in "the valley of the shadow of death," and making him at last to lie down in those " green pastures," and beside "the "still waters," where there is unfading repose for all the people of God!

Such, my brethren, are the happy fruits of Religious Meditation, and such are the heavenly contemplations to which the Church now summons us, while she unfolds, to receive us, her "everlasting doors."