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with those who would leave it to perish!

What more shall I say? Take the Bible from the world; the human race has lost its records; families have lost the bond of their union; individuals have lost their guide and their friend; criminals have lost their pardon, the moral world has lost its light; a day of calamity and distress is risen upon the earth. But says our Saviour, "Heaven and the earth will pass away." Every thing is changing, every thing is perishing, men and their institutions; this word alone, infallible and imperishable, outlives all catastrophes, to be, for your sakes, brought forward one day at the tribunal of JEHOVAH. It is a monument founded on the rock of ages. Translated into all languages, carried among all people, through all ages, the word is invariably the same, drawing to itself the regards of the universe. It is a monument of reconciliation, a monument of love and of salvation, that God entrusts to us. Aspire then to the honour of its preservation. O that it may continue in

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our families from age to age. ed on this basis, by the shadow of this rampart, where God will not fail to bless us, we will repel the attacks of sin and the shafts of malice, and wait with confidence the day of retribution, when the Lord will present us anew with the book of life from his throne on high.

O Lord! I would appear before thee with this book in my hand; and if I have attached a due price to its possession; if I have made sacrifices to spread it; if I have consulted it with sincerity, in prosperity and in adversity, in health and in sickness; if I have made it my treasure and my delight; if I have bedewed its pages with the tears of a repentance that cometh from the heart, while tracing the expiatory death of the holy and righteous one; and if I have embraced with faith its revelations and its promises,-O my God, thou wilt condescend to apply to me the decrees of thy mercy, saying, I called, and thou didst hearken to me. Thou didst seek diligently for me. "According to thy faith be it unte thee." Amen.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

ORNAMENTAL GARDENING.

PROBABLY no employment is better fitted to give vigour to the system and cheerfulness to the spirits, than horticulture in its various branches. Even the husbandman may find an agreeable relaxation from the severer labours of the field, in arranging and rearing the plants which adorn his home. To the mechanic and professional man, a change of action similar to that which the garden affords, is absolutely essential.

In instances in which heads of

families can spend but little time with their sons, it seems to be necessary that there should be a proper field for exercise, where the children may be innocently and usefully employed, in hours which would otherwise be devoted to idleness or dissipating amusements.

I am surprised that this single argument has not proved a sufficient inducement for parents who desire the highest welfare of their children, to provide an extensive garden where the younger members of the family in the hours of relaxation,

during the summer months, may profitably and pleasantly pass their time. It is proverbial, that the children of professional men are peculiarly prone to habits of idleness. Here a remedy is proposed, which while it will secure health and good morals to the children, will make him doubly useful in after life by the knowledge of active industry.

It is in this connexion, that I would introduce ornamental gardening. Children cannot be expected to find constant interest, in the labour of cultivating a small tract. But throw over the little spot a charm, arrange its walks in striking forms, adorn them with beautiful shrubs, and mingling with richly coloured fruits, let flowers of every hue appear, collected perhaps from distant parts of the earth, and soon the child will find it no task to visit his gymnasium;' he will seek the employment as an agreeable recreation, and return to his studies with delight. Thus he will be saved from the train of evils connected with idleness, and stand himself a beautiful olive plant' around his father's table.

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Professional men are often heard to mourn, that they have no suitable employment for their children. I have entered the gardens of such parents, and 'lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. I saw and considered it well; I looked upon it and received instruction.' It is often represented that the time which is devoted to the culture of elegant plants, had better be confined, solely to the useful. I would appeal to observation, to decide, whether all the more needful products of the soil, are not found in as great perfection in those gardens where the "sweet and the useful" are mingled, as in those from which

beauty is excluded. Where no regard is had to taste, usually a greater portion of ground runs to waste, than would be sufficient for all the purposes of elegance.

The cultivation of plants, to a limited extent, principally for beauty, is neither a waste of time nor of substance. That may be useful, in many respects, which is not directly connected with gain. A very great change would be introduced, with reference to every temporal good, if nothing beautiful could be admitted. Elegant plants if they have no pecuniary value, may yet be a help to the affections of the heart. The benevolent Howard was scrupulously exact in the employment of his time, and in the uses to which he devoted his wealth; yet I am not surprised to find it stated in his biography, "that he employed much of his leisure time in the cultivation of useful and ornamental plants." To cast a flower from the hand, or to refuse to notice its splendor, because it is not edible, is in principle the same as to refuse to acknowledge the Lord in the praises of our lips, because the sweet notes of music are neither bread nor raiment.

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The principle of taste is deeply fixed in our nature, and only requires a degree of cultivation, to develope it, and make it the means of enhancing our happiness. Indians near the city of Mexico, and within its limits, are but partially civilized, yet it is peculiar to them, "that when they bring the vegetables and ftuits to market, which they raise on the borders of the lakes Xochimilcho, and Chalco, they ornament their canoes with flowers." The stalls also in which they expose their fruits for sale are beautifully set out with flowers.

Refinement has its origin in taste; why then shall the taste of learned men be limited to particular objects? If we turn away our eye

from beholding the delicate lines of an elegant flower, we must also cease to have our admiration excited by the tints of the early evening cloud, or by the rays of the bow of heaven; and, if we do this, we must also be insensible to the beauties of fine writing. There is a connexion between natural and intellectual objects of taste which admits of no separation. A truly refined mind will exercise the highest sensibility in view of every beauty, whether exhibited in the works of nature or of art.

The assertion need not be qualified, that, without relishing the beauties of the vegetable kingdom, no man is prepared to read with full interest our most admired poets. All unite in commending Milton and Cowper, yet these poets, with all others, have innumerable allusions to plants and flowers, which none but they who are familiar with plants can fully comprehend. Eden is exhibited in all its splendour by Milton, and Cowper, in his celebrated Task, has entitled a whole book, "the Garden." The latter poet, while he sings of the cucumber and of the green house, represents also the very propping of a tender flower. None but the admirer of blooming nature, who has been accustomed to attach a favourite flower to its stake, is prepared to relish the beauty of the following lines:

"Few self-supported flowers endure the wind

Uninjur'd, but expect the upholding aid, Of the smooth-shaven prop, and neatly tied,

Are wedded thus like beauty to old age, For int'rest sake, the living to the dead."

Undoubtedly, a degree of refinement in taste is favourable to morality and religion. If the attention of various classes in the community can be raised from grovelling objects to those which are more elevated,

the cause of virtue will be promoted. Sir J. Sinclair speaks decidedly of the favourable moral influence of elegant horticulture. Mrs. H. Moore, also, in her works, takes pains to interest the humble cottager in the cultivation of a few blooming plants; which, while they throw a charm around the rustic habitation, serve also to promote neatness, give cheerfulness to the mind, and exhibit to the passing stranger, indications of innocence and content. We ought not to suffer any part of the works of God to lie neglected, or to pass them by with contempt. The Lord of Glory, when on earth, drew many of his illustrations from trees and fruits, and in a memorable instance, appealed, for unparallelled displays of splendour, to a flower of the field: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow-Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Of the wise man it is recorded, that he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.'

The following lines from the poet who is not the less a favourite because he devoted his lays to the praise of a garden, I cannot with

hold:

"To study culture, and with artful toil To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil; To give dissimilar, yet fruitful lands, The grain, or herb, or plant, that each demands;

To mark the matchless workings of the pow'r,

Bid these in elegance and form excel, In colour these, and those delight the smell,

Sends nature forth the daughter of the skies,

To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes:

These, these are arts pursu'd without a

crime, That leave no stain upon the wing of

time."

THE FIRST ROSE OF SUMMER.

Thou art all lovely in thy sleeping bud

First rose of summer, with thy young green leaves;
Sweet is thy breathing fragrance, rose of summer,
What wilt thou be thy leaves expanded all?
The cautious folds that half conceal thy charms
Betray thy loveliness, like the light veil

Cast o'er the face of beauty.

Rose of summer,

So lovely in thy young, and sleeping bud,
I place thee in my bosom with strange thoughts,
With pleasing pensiveness I meditate
Upon thy parent tree, of thee bereft
By the soft hand of maiden gentleness.
I gaze on thee with strange emotions, rosę
Of infant summer.

Expressive emblem

Of purest friendship waking from its bud,
And spreading out its beauties to the sun.
Oft hast thou told the language of the heart,
And spared an artless, blushing maiden's tongue
One half its faultering office.

Shy revealer

Of things that lie concealed in human hearts ;--
Interpreter of soft, deep-breathing love,

What wonders hast thou wrought, how many souls,
Hast bound in silken unison ?

Expressive emblem Of lasting friendship springing from its bud, And spreading out its beauties to the sunBut thou art perishing, first rose of summer; Thy leaves that wore so late a dewy freshness, Are wither'd all, and thy young bud is drooping. Vanish'd is all thy loveliness, poor, transient thing! I said thou wert a bright and lively emblem Of lasting friendship starting from its bud And spreading out its beauties to the sun. 'Thou art no more that emblem, but the type Of earth's unceasing changes hast become, The type of things that perish in their budding! Thou mak'st me sad, poor withered dying rose : I would thou still wert on thy parent tree; For thou art like a maiden blooming fresh Once on her parent stock like thee; her charms Lovely to every eye; a thing all delicate And nourished with maternal tenderness; Holding in soft enchantment every heart : But pluck'd at last by some deceitful wretch, Proud, cruel, jealous, ignorant of her worthAnd bound in wedlock's unrelenting chains, Like ivy clinging round some worthless thing, She droops, and fades away, and perishes Through cold neglect, and "unrequited love."

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When thou wast pluck'd from off thy parent tree.

CLIFTON.

THEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS.

EXTRACT FROM THE LIFE OF PRES- from step to step, would drop from

IDENT EDWARDS.

MR. EDWARDS had the character of a good preacher, almost beyond any minister in America. His eminence as a preacher seems to have been owing to the following things: First, The great pains he took in composing his sermons, especially in the first part of his life. As by his early rising and constant attention to study, he had more time than most others, so he spent more time in making his sermons. He wrote most of them in full, for near twenty years after he first began to preach; though he did not wholly confine himself to his paper in delivering them.

Secondly, His great acquaintance with divinity and knowledge of the Bible. His extensive knowledge and great clearness of thought, enabled him to handle every subject with great judgment and propriety, and to bring out of his treasure things new and old. Every subject he handled was instructive, plain, entertaining, and profitable; which was much owing to his being master of the subject, and his great skill to treat it in a most natural, easy, and profitable manner. None of his composures were dry speculations, unmeaning harangues, or words without ideas. When he dwelt on those truths which are much controverted and opposed by many, which was often the case, he would set them in such a natural and easy light, and every sentiment

his lips, attended with such clear and striking evidence, both from scripture and reason, as even to force the assent of every attentive hearer.

Thirdly, His excellency as a preacher was very much the effect of his great acquaintance with his own heart, his inward sense and high relish of divine truths, and experimental religion. This gave him a great insight into human nature. He knew much what was in man, both the saint and the sinner. This helped him to be skilful, to lay truth before the mind so as not only to convince the judgment, but also to touch the heart and conscience; and enabled him to speak out of the abundance of his heart what he knew, and testify what he had seen and felt. This gave him a taste and discernment, without which he could not have been able to fill his sermons, as he did, with such striking, affecting sentiments, all suited to move and to rectify the heart of the hearer. His sermons were well arranged, not usually long, and commonly a large part taken up in the improvement; which was closely connected with the subject, and consisted in sentiments naturally flowing from it. But no description of his sermons will give the reader the idea of them which they had who sat under his preaching.

His appearance in the pulpit was graceful, and his delivery easy, natural, and very solemn. He had

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