all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer: That is, be temperate, vigilant, and devout. Do not immoderately indulge yourselves in any of the pleasures of this transitory life. Let not your affections be placed on the world; but let your hearts be in heaven, where your treasure is. Watch, and be constantly on your guard against the allurements of sin, that they may not draw you aside from the path of your duty. Above all, be pious: pray with earnestness and without ceasing for strength to perform your good resolutions: let God be the supreme object of your love: let his will be the rule of all your actions. These principles, deeply fixed in your minds, will enable you to live in a state of constant preparation for death; so that when it arrives, it will not be an evil. If you regard this life in the just light, in which it ought to be viewed, as a preparation for a better, you will not be filled with despondency, because it is soon to come to an end; but like a traveller, who is returning, through a strange country, to his own home, you will look forward with eagerness and hope to the termination of your journey, and suffer no enticement to divert you from your straight The year ends; and it ends with serious and gloomy reflections; but it is followed immediately by a new year, in which you renew your cheerfulness and joy In like manner, when this life ends, it is succeeded by another; and if it is not your own fault, by a life of exquisite and everlasting felicity.

course.

Last Sunday of the Year.

NOTE TO SERMON VII.

NOTE [I.] p. 89.

THE Southwest is the pleasantest wind, which blows in New England. In the month of October, in particular, after the frosts, which commonly take place at the end of September, it frequently produces two or three weeks of fair weather, in which the air is perfectly transparent, and the clouds, which float in a sky of the purest azure, are adorned with brilliant colors. If at this season a man of an affectionate heart and ardent imagination should visit the tombs of his friends, the southwestern breezes, as they breathe through the glowing trees, would seem to him almost articulate. Though he might not be so wrapt in enthusiasm, as to fancy that the spirits of his ancestors were whispering in his ear; yet he would at least imagine that he heard the small voice of God. This charming season is called the Indian Summer, a name which is derived from the natives, who believe that it is caused by a wind, which comes immediately from the court of their great and benevolent God Cautantowwit, or the southwestern God, the God, who is superior to all other beings, who sends them every blessing which they enjoy, and to whom the souls of their fathers go after their decease.

SERMON VIII.

THE YEAR AND ITS DIVISIONS.

GEN. I. 14.

AND GOD SAID, LET THERE BE LIGHTS IN THE FIRMAMENT OF HEAVEN, TO DIVIDE THE DAY FROM THE NIGHT; AND LET THEM BE FOR SIGNS, AND FOR SEASONS, AND FOR DAYS, AND YEARS.

THE beginning of a new year suggests to the mind many reflections. Among others it calls the attention to that arrangement of the earth and the heavenly bodies; which causes the seasons, the year itself, and the several parts into which it is divided. A consideration of this subject will lead us to a justification of the ways of God.

The heavenly bodies, beside affording light and heat to the earth, fertility to the ground, health to the atmosphere, and rendering the world a convenient and pleasant habitation to men and other animals, serve also to produce the seasons, and several of the divisions, which are made in the year. By the diurnal revolution of the earth on its axis is effected the natural distinction of day and night, and of evening, midnight, morning, and noon; but the divisions of the day into hours, minutes, and seconds, is the work of man, the convenience of which he soon learned, and the utility of which has been con

firmed by long experience. The distinction of weeks is in like manner not pointed out by any motion of the luminaries of heaven, but results from the appointment, not of man, but of God, who, according to the Mosaic history, enacted it by a positive law, when he disposed the earth in the order, in which it now appears. The distinction of months was, as the name implies, suggested by the revolution of the moon in its orbit; whilst that of the year is nothing else than a complete revolution of the earth, when, after a certain period, it returns to the point of its orbit, from which it began its course. The seasons are produced by the inclination of the axis of the earth to the plane of its orbit; and their unequal length, that is, that summer is somewhat longer than winter, proceeds from this cause, that the orbit of the earth is not a circle, but an ellipsis, in consequence of which it moves with greater rapidity during the cold, than during the hot season of the year.

A man, who looks at nature with an attentive eye, will observe in it many correspondences. Some of these correspondences are of necessity; and others appear to be the effect of positive institution. Of the former are all geometrical relations, and the harmony of numbers; as, to give only one example, the harmony which exists between numbers in arithmetical and geometrical progression, from which is derived the whole doctrine of logarithms. Every person present will recollect many instances of correspondence, which seem to be of positive institution, in the art or science with which he is best acquainted. A man, who has frequently contemplated with delight these correspondences, may perhaps

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be ready to expect them where he will look for them in vain; or at least he may wish that they were still more numerous. In particular, he would be not a little pleased, if an exact harmony was to be found between the motions of the earth and the moon, and the apparent diurnal and annual revolutions of the sun. If he was to give a theoretical account of what he would choose the year and its divisions to be, he would say, The year consists of an even number of months, and of days, without any fractions. The motions of the moon and earth are so exactly accommodated to each other, that the of the last month is the last day of the year. a number, which can be evenly divided forever: there are therefore eight months in the year. The moon revolves round the earth, from change to change, precisely in sixty-four days; which are conveniently distributed into eight weeks: so that the year consists of eight months, sixty-four weeks, and five hundred and twelve days. For the sake of producing the variety of the seasons, the axis of the earth is inclined to the plane of its orbit; but this orbit is a circle; and consequently the seasons are of equal lengths. Such an arrangement prevents the painful labors of the astronomer; chronology is freed from all its embarrassments; golden numbers and other hard words, which would puzzle the heads of the unlearned, are unknown; every man, without any mathematical skill, can make his own almanac; the length of the year is the same in all ages and countries; and there can be no necessity of ever reforming the calendar.

A theory of this sort is apt to enter the mind of a man, who thinks, but who does not think profoundly. With Alphonso, king of Castile, who lived at a period