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that his son will amass; and the ambitious father on the honours and distinction that his offspring will bring to his family. By and by the object of all their hopes and expectations receives a name expressive of what the parents are fondly dreaming; and mirth, and music, and banquetting, and tumultuous joy, make up the festive scene. There are others, however, who may sincerely wish every possible good for the child, but who cannot indulge in the reveries of the former. Viewing the new-born infant as a descendant of Adam, while the particulars of its future history are hidden with the Almighty, they know that all the sons and daughters of men 66 are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward;" that if they are permitted to continue the voyage of life for any length of time, they will have to contend with ten thousand dangers, as well from the flesh as the world and Satan. Hence these Christian friends look to the God of Jacob for his help to go with the child that has been baptized with a Christian name. "Their hope is in the Lord their God." For well they know that their infants may go down to the grave soon after they are launched into life; or they may proceed awhile on their voyage, and, unless grace prevent it, be destroyed by the flames of youthful lusts, which war against the soul. Surrounded by the fair winds and cheering skies of

a gracious Providence, they may run on, thoughtless of futurity, inattentive to the advice of friends, and perfectly indifferent to the admonitions of God's word. Hence they may become covetous idolaters, ambitious tyrants, or haughty and presumptuous infidels. The gales of human approbation, and the love of money, may so inflate their souls, that, like an overpressed vessel, they may be upset and perish. The deluging waves of adversity may break repeatedly over them, and they may sink in despondency and despair. Or, escaping all these evils, they may pass through a long and useful life, honouring God by works of faith, and benefiting mankind by la bours of love: and having walked watchfully and humbly before the Lord, and, through his grace, surmounted all dangers, they may close their days in a good old age, in the bosom of their own families, and depart in peace, to be for ever with their gracious Lord and Saviour in heaven: "Where, anchor'd safe, each weary soul

Obtains a port of rest;

Where storms ne'er beat, nor billows roll
Across the peaceful breast."

No. II.

THE LITTLE BOAT.

"FOOLISHNESS IS BOUND IN THE HEART OF A CHILD." Prov. xxii. 15

As the writer's ship was one day cruizing in the Atlantic, the man at the mast-head discovered something on the water to leeward, and giving notice to the officer on the quarter-deck, the helm was put up, and, shortly after, we found it was a little jolly-boat or skiff, without oars or sails, or any name on it. No doubt it had once been the property of some merchant-vessel; but now it was floating alone, uninjured, and with but little water in it. It was hoisted on board, and, for a long while afterwards, used as a marketing boat for the officers' servants when in port. This circumstance was brought to the writer's mind the other day by reading, in the newspapers, of a little boat, in which some children and youngsters, having entered to paddle about one of our harbours, the boat and its infant crew were carried by the tide, not only out of the harbour, but even some miles to sea, where a coasting-vessel, providentially disco

vered the distressed and endangered little sailors, and rescued them from their perilous situation, and conveyed them safe into their own port again.

How often may we behold something in real life of which these two little boats were strikingly emblematical!-But, perhaps, through all the stages and trying scenes of human existence, there are none which they so well prefigure as those of childhood and youth. Would the reader contemplate an object, at once the most hopeless, the most helpless, and destitute in itself, let him

"Behold the new-born infant griev'd

With hunger, thirst, and pain;
It asks to have its wants reliev'd,
It knows not to complain.

"Aloud the speechless suppliant cries,
And utters, as it can,

The woes that in its bosom rise,
And speak its nature man."

Nor is it enough to say that the well-ordered and diligently-exercised vigilance of the mother or the nurse is sufficient to supply its many wants, and protect its tender person. Who, on the long list of tender mothers and careful nurses, can review the little history of any one child without being struck with amazement and gra-, titude at the many visible interpositions of Pro

vidence in its behalf, without feeling deeply convinced, that, had not that Providence gone with the little voyager continually, all the solicitude of the nurse, and affectionate watchfulness of the mother united, would have been utterly unable to preserve it from innumerable dangers, nay, from frequent deaths, before it had attained its third or fourth year?

And what is youth, even surrounded by all the cautious guards of wise and watchful parents? It is a period in which a few years being added to the date of childhood, only place the individual in thicker dangers, and leave him without the power or wisdom to escape them!-Youth, launched on the stage of this life, is like a little skiff pushed off from the shore, and turned adrift on the boisterous sea, the sport of winds, and tides, and waves, without a helm to steer its course, without a hand to trim its sail, or ballast to sustain its weight! Does either, or do both, outride the perils of a single day? It is because an unseen, but ever present and all-powerful, hand has been with them in their goings out and comings in, and has kept them in all their ways. Hence it is that so many, in the after and better part of their days, have taken up the words of the elegant and pious Addison, and thus expressed their feelings:

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