peace, he awakes unrefreshed; he has broken the comandment of God, in refusing to keep the Sabbath day holy. The Sabbath breaker is exposed to all crimes and vices that his vicious companions possess; and the vices of these characters are not a few; and their way is dark and leads to death. Why will they persevere? My young friends, the house of the ungodly Sabbath breaker will soon be left to him desolate; his only companions will be guilt and remorse, and his bosom frien darkness. But how different it is with them that love and keep the fourth commandment. When Saturday evening er ives; they Jook forward with high anticipations of enjoying another holy Sabbath in the sanctuary of their God. Here they are permitted to partake of genuine happiness; their com panions are of the most respectable class of society; and above all, they are those that are approved of God; their path leads not down to death, they take not hold on darkDiess; but their path grows brighter and brighter unto perfect day. Well hath the scriptures said, the willing and the obedient shall eat the good of the land. Indeed this is true; we find joy in believing, and great reward in keeping the commandments of our God. We often see travelers become weary and thirsty in their journey; they look forward with anxiety to find some place where they nay rest their weary limbs, and quench their raging thirst. At length their cye rests at a distance upon a beautiful grove; the idea of soon reaching it causes them to quicken their pace; their journey seems less irksome; their path less rugged; they at length reach the desired spot, and find the grove truly inviting: music is heard from very part, the very air seems to welcome their arrival; a cooling brook is winding its way through the lovely ver lure. Here he slakes his raging thirst, here he reclin s beneath the shade, and finds sweet repose; here he forgets in a measure the toils of his journey. Should you inquire where he is going, the answer would be, to a far distant country to meet his father and his household, from whom he has long been separated. The thought of meeting his father and friends and companions, calises the hills o'er which he is to pass to become valleys; he hees not the scorching sun; he stops not at the chilling

blasts of winter; the way becomes smooth before him; and every hill and deil teems with new beauties. At length the mansion heaves in sight, and he sees the door open to receive him; his heart is filled with ecstasy and joy, when he hears his welcome announced by the happy inmates. H forgets in the happiness of the present, all the toils of his journey; all the dangers and difficulties through which he has been called to pass, are remembered only to increase his felicity. So it is with the christian, after a week spent in the cares and voca tions of this life, he looks forward to the holy Sabbath, in hopes that he shall find an opportunity to renew his spiritual strength; on this day his soul is blest, he is permitted to look forward to the cternal Sabbath that he expects to spend in heaven. He exclaims with the Psalmist, one day in thy courts, is better than a thousand else where. I had rather be a door keeper in the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness." We here have an opportunity to meditate on the eternal felicity of the saints. The anticipation of this is like the cooling brook to the weary traveler. The joy that awaits us, causes us to forget all the toils and fatigues of our pik grimage.

REFLECTIONS ON THE GOODNESS OF GOD.

Young reader, will you meditate a few moments with me upon the infinite goodness of God: sending his only begotten son to suffer and die the just for the unjust.Well might the Psalmist exclaim, "when I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars that thou hast ordained, I am smitten with wonder at thy glory, and cry out in transport of gratitude, Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visiteth him." Though I am deprived of the privilege of admiring the beauty of the heavens, I am not surprised to hear our divine author break out in adorine

admiration; when he takes a view of the planetary world. How amazing, how charming is that benignity which is pleased to bow down its sacred regard to so worthless a creature: yea, disdains not from the heighth of infinite exhaltation, to extend its kind providential care, to the most minute of our concerns; (this is amazing!) but that the everlasting sovereign, should give his only son to be inade flesh, and become our Savior, Shall I call it a miracle of condescending goodness? rather what are all miracles, what are all mysteries, to this ineffible gift?— Had the brightest Arch-angel bean commissioned to come down bearing in his hand the olive branch of peace, sig. nifying his eternal makers readiness to become reconciled; on our bended knees with tears of joy and gratitude, we ought to have received the transporting news. But in, stead of an angelic messenger, he sent his only begotten Son down from the habitations of grace and glory, to put on the infirmities of mortality, and dwell in a tabernacle of clay sends him not barely to make a trancient visit, but to abide nany years in our inferior and lower world: sends him not to exercise dominion over monarchs, but to wear out his life in the ignoble form of a servant, and at last to make his exit under the infamous character of a malefactor. Was ever love like this? Did ever grace stoop so low? Should the sun be striped of all its radi. ent beauty, and be transformed into a clod of the valley; should all the heavenly luminaries leave their exalted scats, and hide their transcendent glories in the rubbish of this lower world, great would be the sacrifice. Nothing my dear reader, to be compared with the glory He had with the Father. He laid it aside for us and for our salva. tion. He did not abhort he coarse accommodation of the manger, he did not decline even the gloomy horrors of the grave. My young friends, I have endeavored in an imperfect manner to explain to you the infinite goodness of God, in giving his Son that you through his death and sufferings might obtain eternal life. And did this divine personage make this sacrifice with reluctance? No, he beheld our lost and deplorable state, and willingly left the right hand of his father to redeem our lost and ruined race.

Oh! for this love let rocks and hills,
Their lasting silence break;

And all harmonious human tongue's,
Their Savior's praises speak.

Is there not enough in the religion of our blessed Lord and Master to induce you to seek the salvation of your immortal soul. This religion will satisfy the capacious de sires after permanent happiness; you can here draw from the well of salvation and slake your raging thirst. Be persuaded by one that loves your immortal soul, not to put off the day of your repentance until to-morrow; procrastination is the thief of time year after year, it steals away 'till all are fled; ere to-morrow you may be in eternity. Even an hour may close the scene, and you may be called to stand unprepared before your Go". This soemn reality should make you shudder. Though you may remain unmoved, yet the time is fast approaching when these truths will overwhelm your immortal minds, when the solemn sentence is pronounced: depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I know ye not. In that awful hour you cannot stand unconcerned. But ch! my young friends, let not this be your condition: but rather turn and seek him while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. I entreat you, as one that feels for your eternal welfare, to humble your hearts and implore the forgivness of your much injured, yet merciful God; the penitent he turns not empty away, he drives them not from his holy presence, though they have again and again, broken his holy commandments, and grieved his holy spiri. His bowels yearn upon them; he makes bare his almighty arm in their salvation. I speak not in this manner to make you presume on the goodness of God. You should not sin because God forgave the chief of sinners; he did not forgive him until he repented of his sins. Re. Jember what the scriptures saith, that God looks not up. on sin with the least degree of allowance, but rather all would turn unto him and live, Why do you grieve his ho ly spirit and crucify your Lord afresh. ? Behold now your Savior is interceding for you at the right hand of his Father; saying, spare them yet a little longer, cut ther not down as cuinberers of the ground; let my spirit

again with them, and they may yet cease to break thy commands, and trample under foot thy righteous law.— He has said in his blessed word, that his spirit shall not always strive with man. Be careful that you grieve not his spirit once too often. "He that is often reproved and hardeneth his neck, shall be suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy. When your fear cometh like a whirl. wind, and your desolation draweth nigh, I will mock at your calamity, and laugh when your fear cometh.”

THE GOODNESS OF GOD.

I consider the subject I have before me, of so great a magnitude, as to require a mind superior to my own to be able to do justice to it. If I look to the right or to the left, I behold striking exhibitions of God's goodness — When I consider the curious organization of the hum n frame, and see the harmony that each member performs the office for which it was designed, I cannot but admire the goodness of my Creator. It is not only in the intellectual and animal creation, that we see exhibitions of his Inercy. Nature in her variegated forms speak of the same subject. There is every thing here to plave the eye and to charm the most refined taste; here the most gigantic minds of philosophers can find employ; here the winged imagination of poets can be satisfied with the rich ban. ties that surround them; here the mind of the ambiticu: historian can find subjects to satisfy his expanding intel. lect. The antiquarians of our own country, are constantly unfolding by their faithful researches, striking expres. sions of the goodness of God. And who guided our pilgrim fathers across the trackless deep? What star guided the Mayflower to Plymouth rock, where she could find a safe anchorage and land her devoted crew? I fancy that I now see them cautiously descending from the vessel, and devoutly pouring forth a song of praise and thanksgiving