116 1

THE BIBLE A RULE OF LIFE./18

duction of proofs is necessary, more or less intricate and uncertain; and even when clearest, it is still but the language of man to man, respectable as sage advice, but wanting the force and authority of law. In a well attested revelation, it is the Judge speaking from the tribunal, the supreme Legislator promulging and interpreting his own laws. With what force and conviction do the Apostles and Prophets address us, whose miraculous powers attest them to be the servants of the Most High, the immediate organs of the Deity! As the morality of the Gospel is more pure and comprehensive than was ever inculcated before, so the consideration of its divine origination invests it with an energy, of which every system not expressly founded upon it is entirely devoid. We turn at our peril from Him who speaketh to us from heaven.-Of an accountable creature, duty is the concern of every moment, since he is every moment pleasing or displeasing God. It is a universal element, mingling with every action, and qualifying every disposition and pursuit. The moral quality of conduct, as it serves both to ascertain and to form the character, has consequences in a future world so certain and infallible, that it is represented in Scripture, as a seed, no part of which is lost; for whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap. That rectitude which the inspired writers usually denominate holiness, is the health and beauty of the soul, capable of bestowing dignity in the absence of every other accomplishment, while the want of it leaves the possessor of the richest intellectual endowments, a painted sepulchre. Hence results the indispensable necessity, to every description of persons, of sound religious instruction, and of an intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures as its genuine source. It must be confessed, from melancholy experience, that a speculative acquaintance with the rules of duty, is too compatible with the violation of its dictates, and that it is possible for the convictions of conscience to be habitually overpowered by the corrupt suggestions of appetite. To see distinctly the right way, and to pursue it, are not precisely the same thing. Still nothing in the order of means promises so much success as the diligent incul

TO LIBERTY.—STRUCTURE of certaIN PLANTS. 117

cation of revealed truth. He who is acquainted with the terrors of the Lord, cannot live in the neglect of God and religion with present any more than with future, impunity. The path of disobedience is obstruct ed, if not rendered impassable, and, wherever he turns his eyes, he beholds the sword of divine justice stretched out to intercept his passage. Guilt will be appalled, conscience alarmed, and the fruits of unlawful gratifi cation embittered to his taste.

4

ADDRESS TO LIBERTY.

O! could I worship aught beneath the skies,
That earth hath seen or fancy can devise, s
Thine altar, sacred Liberty, should stand,
Built by no mercenary vulgar hand,
With fragrant turf, and flowers as wild and fair
As ever dress'd a bank, or scented summer air
Duly, as ever on the mountain's height
The peep of morning shed a dawning light;
Again, when evening, in her sober vest,
Drew the grey curtain of the fading west,

My soul should yield thee willing thanks and praise,
For the chief blessings of my fairest days.

But that were sacrilege;-praise is not thine,
But His who gave thee, and preserves thee mine.

"לי

THE structure of the cocoa-nut tree is well deserving of our attention. It supplies the natives of those countries where it grows, with almost every thing necessary for their use ;-bread, water, wine, vinegar, brandy, milk, oil, sugar, honey, needles, thread, linen, clothes, , cups, spoons, besoms, baskets, paper, masts for ships, sails, hammocks, cordage, nails, coverings for their houses, fuel, mats, and sacks. The Maldive cocoa-nut is esteemed by the inhabitants of those islands,

118

TO THE RAINBOW

a powerful antidote against the bite of serpents, and other poisons. In Mexico, the Magnei, a species of aloe, yields, it is said, almost every thing necessary for the accommodation of the poor. Besides mak ing excellent hedges for their fields, its trunk serves for beams in the roofs of their houses, and its leaves for tiles. From its leaves they obtain paper, thread, needles, clothing, shoes and stockings, and cordage; and from its copious juice, they make wine, honey, sugar and vinegar. Of the trunk, and the thickest part of the leaves, when well baked, they make a tolerable dish of food. It is also a powerful medicine in several disorders. The leaves of a certain plant, which grows in the island of Jamaica, called there the Wild Pine, are so constructed with bags underneath them, as to receive the rain which falls on their upper surface; and when these bags are full, the orifice closes, so as to prevent any evaporation of the water. In the mountainous and other parts, when there is a great scarcity of water, this reservoir is not only sufficient for the nourishment of the plant, but it often supplies men, birds, and insects. The Dropping-trees, in the islands of Ferro, St. Thomas, and in Guinea, serve the inhabitants instead of rain and fresh springs.-The Cinnamon-tree of Ceylon, is another instance of peculiar usefulness. From the root is extracted camphire and its oil; from the bark of the trunk is obtained the real oil of cinnamon; from the leaves, an oil like that of cloves; out of the fruit, a juniper oil, with a mixture of those of cinnamon and cloves. By boiling the berries, a kind of wax is obtained with which are made candles, ointments, and plasters.

TO THE RAINBOW.

TRIUMPHAL arch, that fill'st the sky
When storms prepare to part,

I ask not proud philosophy

To teach me what thou art.....

TO THE RAINBOW,

Still seem, as to my childhood's sight,
A midway station given,

For happy spirits to alight

Betwixt the earth and heaven.

Can all that optics teach, unfold
Thy form to please me so,
As when I dreamt of gems and gold
Hid in thy radiant bow?

When Science from Creation's face.
Enchantment's veil withdraws,
What lovely visions yield their place
To cold material laws!

And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams,
But words of the Most High,
Have told why first thy robe of beams
Was woven in the sky.

When, o'er the green undelug'd earth,
Heaven's covenant thou didst shine,
How came the world's grey fathers forth,
To watch thy sacred sign!

And when thy yellow lustre smil'd
O'er mountains yet untrod,
Each mother held aloft her child,
To bless the bow of God.

Methinks thy jubilee to keep,
The first-made anthem rang
On earth deliver'd from the deep,
And the first poet sang.

Nor ever shall the Muse's eye,
Unraptur'd, greet thy beam:
Theme of primeval prophecy,
Be still the poet's theme!

The earth to thee its incense yields,"
The lark thy welcome sings,
When glittering in the freshen'd fields
The snowy mushroom springs

120

CHRISTIAN ALMS-GIVING REAL GAIN

How glorious is thy girdle cast
O'er mountain, tower, and town,
Or mirror'd in the ocean vast,
A thousand fathoms down!

As fresh in yon horizon dark,
As young thy beauties seem,
As when the eagle from the ark
First sported in thy beam.

.

For faithful to its sacred page,
Heaven still rebuilds thy span,

Nor lets the type grow pale with age,
That first spoke peace to man.

CHRISTIAN ALMS-GIVING REAL GAIN.

He that sees a charitable person liberally part with that money which others are so fond of, if he be a stranger to the operations of faith and the promises of the Gospel, will be apt to mistake the Christian's liberality for folly or profusion, and to think that he is fallen out with his money. But he that remembers how clear a prospect, and how absolute a disposal of the future, the Scripture of truth (to use an angel's expression) ascribes to Him, that bade his disciples "make themselves friends with the uncertain Mammon, that when we fail, they may receive us into everlasting habitations," and he that likewise considers, not only the transitory nature of worldly possessions, (from which their perishing or ours will be sure ere long to divorce us), but the inestimable advantage, with which we shall receive in heaven whatever we employ in pious uses here on earth, will conclude this way of parting with our wealth the surest and gainfullest way of preserving it; since the Christian, by parting but with what, however, he could not long keep, shall, by God's munificent goodness, obtain a much more valuable treasure, that he shall never lose. So that thus to sacrifice wealth