And thus might we go through nature, and find that the God of the Bible has filled it, for the pleasure and the profit of his people, with numberless similar associations. In all its various scenes, it is not the God of nature only that the Christian sees, but the God of salvation; and with all the manifestations of his glory in creation, he connects the remembrance of his glory as it is seen in the face of Jesus. He can hardly look on an object of use, of beauty, or of grandeur, with which a covenant God has not, by some touching allusion, or appropriate and significant comparison, associated, under some interesting aspect or other, the memory of his Name: and feeling—in a heart that swells with lowly yet lively gratitude and exulting satisfaction—his relation, as a child, to the Maker of the whole, he participates the joy of Jehovah in all his works. The immortal Cowper has clothed the sentiment and depicted the happiness, in lines of exquisite elegance, and tenderness, and beauty: 'He looks abroad into the varied field Of nature, and, though poor perhaps, compared Are they not his by a peculiar right, And by an emphasis of interest his, Whose heart with praise, and whose exalted mind wwwwww A SABBATH EVENING HYMN. MILLIONS within thy courts have met, Vows with their lips to thee they vowed. But thou, soul-searching God! hast known In spirit and truth that worshipped thee. People of many a tribe and tongue Men of strange colors, climates, lands, Have heard thy truth, thy glory sung And offered prayer with holy hands. Still as the light of morning broke Sabbath all round the world to keep. From east to west the sun surveyed, Harmonious as the winds and seas, In halcyon hours, when storms are flown, Not angel trumpets sound more clear, Than humble prayer and thankful praise. And not a prayer, a tear, a sigh, Hath failed to day some suit to gain, Thy poor were bountifully fed, Thy chastened sons have kissed the rod, Thy mourners have been comforted, The pure in heart have seen their God. Yet one prayer more—and be it one In which both heaven and earth accord! Let all that breathe call Jesus Lord. His throne and sovereignty advance; wwwwww FAMILY DEVOTION. WHERE prayer is a novel exercise, it may, perhaps, exhibit itself in a family with a certain degree of awkwardness. On our first essay to proceed in untried armor, our gait may be ungraceful and constrained; and a consciousness or apprehension of this will be apt to embarrass the beginner. This inaptitude may remain for some time after the false shame above alluded to has ceased to operate; but none have passed their first month of initiation in this good work with his family, without experiencing an internal sense of security that invigorates his hopes, and cheers his prospects: his house seems more his castle; and an invisible guard encamps about his bed. Prayer flourishes and grows in beauty like a flower in a state of domestic culture. It has a small beginning, but a bright consummation: it is cradled in the clod, but crowned in the sunbeam. To accomplish it well, we have often to begin it ill, that is, as we can, in the midst of retardments and avocations; if not holily, yet humbly; if not with the unction of Divine grace, at least with a full feeling of human depravity; if not with assurance of success, at least with the conviction of need; finding the strongest motive to prayer in the weakness of our efforts to pray. Prayer thrives with repetition. All can try; all can ask; all can kneel; and most idle and dangerous it is to trust to anticipating grace, or to wait in expectation of gratuitous mercy, without putting forth such natural strength as we possess, in confessing inability and imploring succor. The holy will, the sanctified wish, the steady purpose, are of the free bounty of God to impart; but to do the act of prayer with humble endeavor; to do it with exemplary frequency; to avow a sinner's concern for his soul, and to supplicate forgiveness, are simple doings within the competency of miserable flesh; duties which humanity is a debtor to perform, and from which beginnings we may mount on the promises of Scripture to that high and 'holy hill,' where our Maker will shed the dew of his blessings on all sincere suppliants. In the exhibition of domestic worship, the Christian head of a family has a charge of great importance, and a task which calls for discretion. His primary object should be, as I reason from personal experience, to keep his own mind in an honest state, really occupied with that in which he professes to be engaged. In the style of our prayers, public |