OCCASIONAL MEDITATIONS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. UPON THE SIGHT OF A GREAT LIBRARY.

WHAT a world of wit is here packed up together! I know not whether this sight doth more dismay, or comfort me : it dismays me to think, that here is so much that I cannot know; it comforts me to think that this variety yields so good helps to know what I should. There is no truer word than that of Solomon, there is no end of making many books; this sight verifies it; there is no end indeed, it were pity there should. God hath given to man a busy soul; the agitation whereof cannot but, through time and experience, work out many hidden truths: to suppress these TRACT MAG. THIRD SERIES, NO 85. JAN. 1841.

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would be no other than injurious to mankind, whose minds, like unto so many candles, should be kindled by each other. The thoughts of our deliberation are most accurate, these we vent into our papers; what an happiness is it, that without all offence of necromancy, I may here call up any of the ancient worthies of learning, whether human or divine, and confer with them of all my doubts! That I can, at pleasure, summon whole synods of reverend fathers, and acute doctors from all the coasts of the earth, to give their well-studied judgments in all points of question which I propose! Neither can I cast my eye casually upon any of these silent masters, but I must learn somewhat; it is a wantonness to complain of choice.

No law binds us to read all; but the more we can take in and digest, the better-liking must the minds need be. Blessed be God that hath set up so many clear lamps in his church.

Now none but the wilfully blind can plead darkness; and blessed be the memory of those his faithful servants, that have left their blood, their spirits, their lives in these precious papers, and have willingly wasted themselves into these during monuments, to give light unto others.

UPON THE SIGHT OF A FULL TABLE AT A FEAST.

What great variety is here, of flesh, of fish, of both, of neither! as if both nature and art did strive to pamper us; yet methinks, enough is better than all this; excess is but a burden, as to the provider, so to the guest. It pities and grieves me to think what toil, what charge hath gone to the gathering of all these dainties together; what pain so many poor creatures have been put to in dying for a needless sacrifice to the belly; what a penance must be done by every guest, in sitting out the passage through all these dishes; what a task the stomach must be put to in the concoction of so many mixtures! I am not so austerely scrupulous as to deny the lawfulness of these abundant provisions, upon just occasions. I find my Saviour himself more than once at the feast: this is recorded as well as his one long fast. Doubtless our bountiful God hath given us his creatures, not for necessity only, but for pleasure ;- but these exceedings would be both rare and moderate; and

when they must be, require no less patience then temper

ance.

Might I have my option, O God, give me rather a little with peace and love. He whose provision for every day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, thirty oxen, an hundred sheep, besides venison, and fowl, yet can pray, Give me the bread of sufficiency. Let me have no perpetual feast, but a good conscience; and from these great preparations (for the health both of soul and body) let me rise rather hungry, than surcharged.

UPON THE HEARING OF A LUTE WELL PLAYED ON.

There may be (for aught we know) infinite inventions of art, the possibility whereof we should hardly ever believe, if they were before reported to us. Had we lived in some rude and remote part of the world, and should have been told that it is possible only by an hollow piece of wood and the entrails of beasts, stirred by the fingers of men, to make so sweet and melodious a noise, we should have thought it utterly incredible; yet now that we see and hear it ordinarily done, we make it no wonder. It is no marvel, if we cannot fore-imagine what kind and means of harmony God will have used by his saints and angels in heaven, when these poor matters seem so strange to our conceits, which yet our very senses are convinced of. O God, thou knowest infinite ways to glorify thyself by thy creatures, which do far transcend our weak and finite capacities; let me wonder at thy wisdom and power, and be more awful in my adorations than curious in my inquiries. Bishop Hall.

THE NEW YEAR.

LET US LOOK BACK.

DURING the past year, on a dark, stormy night, a gallant ship was nearing our coast. storm, and hardly yielded to the cry "breakers ahead,' of looking out on the forecastle.

Nobly she bore up under the the fierceness of the gale till was shouted from the man It came like a death-knell,

and in a moment rang through the ship, and roused every sleeper. The suspense was not long. Hardly had the

trembling souls gathered on the deck, ere a mighty wave lifted up the ship; for a moment she hung "on the broken wave," and in the next moment she was dashed on the rock. The very richness of her cargo made her strike the harder, and the blow shivered her into fragments. The cry of distress was heard on the shore, and the wailings of death rose sharp and clear above the roaring of the waves. But there was no help, and when the morning opened, the wreck, in fragments, was floating ashore, and the bodies of the dead lay rolling in the waves, as they came in and retired. Only two men were saved. The owners lost their cargo, and many widows and orphans were left to poverty and mourning. But it was afterwards discovered, that for some time the captain had not examined his chart, nor had he sounded with the lead. It was all the result of his negligence.

Reader! Did he do right? When you think of the property lost, the lives cut off, the wives and children, and parents who were brought to sorrow, say, Did he do right? You answer, No! no! he was criminally negligent. He was so. But suppose you had been cut off from life during the past year, would you not have made a more dreadful shipwreck, and lost what no ship's cargo could buy, and produced wailings unutterable in eternity? Or, have you daily examined your chart, and measured the waters, and kept your loins girded and your lamp trimmed? Look back upon the year now gone by.

During the past year, a father was seen at the head of a large family. He loved them tenderly; he toiled for them. unceasingly; he watched them anxiously. Two of his little ones were already in the grave. At the beginning of the year, he resolved that before the year closed, he would begin family prayer, and daily commend the interests of those immortal souls committed to him, to God. He even looked forward to a favourable week in which to commence. But the week went by, and he did not do his duty. He was looking forward to another convenient season; but before that season came, a messenger was sent to him. At the command of God it came, and at once did its errand. Without an hour's warning, he was a dead man. The widow and the orphans gathered around the corpse, but