Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

him went the pestilence-the waters saw thee, O God, and were afraid-the mountains saw thee, and they trembled. The overflowing of the water passed by ;the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high." When inquiry is made about the place of wisdom, Job introduces "the Deep saying, It is not in me; and the Sea saith, It is not in me; Destruction and Death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears." That noted sublime passage in the Book of Isaiah, which describes the fall of the king of Assyria, is full of personified objects-the fir-trees and cedars of Lebanon breaking forth into exultation on the fall of the tyrant-Hell from beneath stirring up all the dead to meet him at his coming-and the dead kings introduced as speaking and joining in the triumph. In the same strain are those many lively and passionate apostrophes to cities and countries, to persons and things, with which the prophetical writings every where abound. "O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put thyself up into the scabbard; rest and be still. How can it be quiet (as the reply is instantly made), seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Askelon, and the seashore? There hath he appointed it."-In general, for it would carry us too far to enlarge upon all the instances, the style of the poetical books of the Old Testament is, beyond the style of all other poetical works, fervid, bold, and animated. It is extremely different from that regular correct expression to which our ears are accustomed in modern poetry. It is the burst of inspiration. The scenes are not coolly described, but represented as passing before our eyes. Every object, and every person, is addressed and spoken to, as if present; the transition is often abrupt; the connexion often obscure; the persons are often changed; figures crowded and heaped upon one another. Bold sublimity, not correct elegance, is its character. We see the spirit of the writer raised beyond himself, and labouring to find vent for ideas too mighty for his utterance. Blair.

ON PRAYER.

FROM the beginning of the world to the present day, the sober-minded and thinking part of mankind have

regarded prayer as a duty of high importance. The wise have considered it as strengthening that sense of dependence, those sentiments of gratitude, of reverence, and of love, which are due, from the creature to the bountiful, ever-present, all-perfect Creator ;-as exciting our benevolence towards those, with and for whom we pray;-and as awakening a right sense of our sinfulness and infirmity. The conscientious have esteemed it as a duty enforced by the express command of God. The pious have found it a privilege, conveying joys and honours, which the world knoweth not. Its blessed influence is not confined to the sunny hours of life, when every pulse is health and every sense is pleasure. Thousands have attested that it can pour upon the season of sickness, of poverty, of reproach, and of death, not flashes of momentary rapture merely, but calm, enduring, ineffable joy.-Before it can accomplish such effects, it must have become not only "the form of sound words," but the utterance of the heart,-not an occasional resort in difficulty or distress, but the settled habit of the soul. I solemnly warn my young readers against considering any form of words, even though drawn from the oracles of the living God, as sufficient of themselves to constitute a prayer acceptable to the Almighty, or useful to the souls of men. God is a Spirit: and they, that worship him, must worship him in spirit. No prayer deserves the name, which is not the overflowing of a humble, penitent, and obedient heart; nor can any be accepted of God, which is not made in a lowly sense of our own unworthiness, and offered to him in the name of a crucified Redeemer.Therefore let every act of devotion be preceded by a sincere and earnest endeavour to awaken in ourselves dispositions suitable to prayer. Before praise, let us raise our minds to contemplate the perfections of Jehovah; lest we incur the guilt of those who honour him with their mouths while their heart is far from him. Before thanksgiving, let us call to mind his beneficence; lest an empty form of gratitude, where the sentiment is wanting, be an offence to the Searcher of hearts. Before confession, let us strive to awaken our hatred to our own particular sins; lest a careless catalogue of transgressions, which we intend not to forsake, seem

but an audacious braving of him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Before petition, let us humbly consider the urgency of our necessities, and the feebleness of our claims; lest, in begging that, without which we perish, we come short of the earnestness and importunity to which the Lord has promised his blessing. My dear young friends! (for the intention of doing you a kindness warms my charity towards you,) it is no solitary recluse, no surly misanthrope, no fanatic, no enthusiast, who addresses you; but a woman in the prime of life, as cheerful, as happy, though perhaps not quite so gay as most of you,-active in the business, alive to many of the pleasures, of the present state of existence. But her chief business, as well as yours, is to extend the kingdom of God in her own heart, and in those of others; and, if she shall be made the instrument of attracting even the least of her brethren to that service, which is perfect freedom, she will at once give and receive pleasures, which excel all those of a present world, as far as the capacities of angels exceed those of the babe, that was born this hour. Mrs Brunton.

ON MAN.

MAN stands alone in the order and genus, to which naturalists have referred his species. Differing widely in physical conformation from all other classes of animated beings, and distinguished by reason and the power of speech, this wonderfully constructed being seems the bond of connexion between the material and immaterial world. Possessed of powers, which raise him beyond the level of the surrounding creation, and connect him with higher orders of existence, Man is the only being, who looks forward to futurity, and intuitively perceives his connexion with, and dependence upon the great source of intelligence. While the inferior animals enjoy unalloyed the blessings of life and present enjoyment, Man combines the past, the present, and the future, in his calculation of happiness; and, while some parts of his organization connect him with the creatures around him, and sober his rule over beings with animal feelings of pleasure and pain as acute as his own, his intellectual powers, unfettered by the

material organs, which are their instruments, trace the Divinity in all the parts of creation. Hence has arisen the religious feeling among every tribe of human beings however rude; and Man alone seems to connect himself with the great Author of his being, through the medium of intellectual homage; and worships, according to his conceptions of that Almighty Being, the Creator and Preserver of all.-While reason places Man at such an infinite distance from the inferior animals, the faculty of articulate speech and an artificial language widens the barrier still farther: for, although some of the animals possess the power of articulation in a considerable degree, and can communicate by natural signs significant to those of their own species, they totally fail in those powers, which enable Man to classify objects, and to employ sounds or signs as instruments of thought. Brutes possess, indeed, the powers of sensation, perception, and memory, and seem to be capable of intellectual operations to a certain extent; but their action is extremely limited, and bounded to the supply of their animal wants; and, though susceptible of a species of education, their imitative powers are neither subservient to the improvement of the individual nor the species. The faculty, which seems to direct the inferior animals in most of their operations, essentially different from any thing like human intelligence, is called instinct. This wonderful faculty, surer in its limited aims than reason, bears, however, no proportion to the general intelligence of the animals, which exercise it for it has been remarked, that those, in whom the instinctive propensity displays the greatest seeming wisdom and contrivance, are upon other occasions remarkably deficient in sagacity. The structure of the human body, too, is wonderfully adapted to the various purposes, for which it is destined; and seems the worthy habitation of a being placed at the head, and with the control, of animated nature. But, though the physical structure of man widely separates him from the other portions of animals of the same class, these variations in form and proportions are neither so prominent, nor so totally different in character from the other animal structures, as to account for the superiority which he enjoys. Destined to be nourished on sub

M

stances used in common by other animals, the mechanism of his frame must so far correspond with theirs, as to be able to convert these substances to the fluids, which support his animal life: and his organs of sensation must necessarily be analogous, in some degree, to those of beings, on whom the material world is destined to make similar impressions. But no material organs, which Man possesses, abstracted from the mind, of which they are but the instruments, can account for his intellectual supremacy: and all those hypotheses, which would trace Man's intellectual and moral powers, from the absolute or relative size of the brain or other material organs, have miserably failed in connecting mind with matter, or thought with organic structure. Stark.

NARRATIVE OF THE FEELINGS OF A GENTLEMAN ON RECEIVING SIGHT AT THE AGE OF TWENTY.

WHILE others are busied in relations, which concern the interest of princes, the peace of nations, and revolutions of empire; I think, though these are very great subjects, my theme of discourse is sometimes to be of matters of yet higher consideration. The slow steps of providence and nature, and strange events which are brought about in an instant, are what, as they come within our view and observation, shall be given to the public. Such things are not accompanied with show and noise, and therefore seldom draw the eyes of the inattentive part of mankind: but are very proper at once to exercise our humanity, please our imaginations, and improve our judgments. It may not, therefore, be unuseful to relate many circumstances, which were observable upon a late cure done upon a young gentleman, who was born blind, and on the 29th of June 1709 received his sight at the age of twenty years, by the operation of an oculist. The operator, Mr Grant, having observed the eyes of his patient, and convinced his friends and relations, that it was highly probable that he should remove the obstacle, which prevented the use of his sight; all his acquaintance, who had any regard for the young man, or curiosity to be present when one of full age and understanding received a new sense, assembled them

« НазадПродовжити »