When every spectacle thou look'st upon, Each drooping season, and each flower doth cry Night is thy hearse, whose sable canopy And all those weeping dews which nightly fall, No. 214.] ADMONITIONS. [THURSDAY. SEIZE mortals! seize the transient hour; Improve each moment as it flies: Life's a short summer-man a flow'r; Never do any thing upon which, you dare not first ask the blessing of God. No work shall find acceptance in that day No. 215.] INNOCENCE AND GUILT. [FRIDAY. INNOCENCE in its crudest simplicity has some advantages over the most dexterous and practised guilt. Equivocal appearances may accidentally attend it in its progress through the world; but the very scrutiny which these appearances will excite, operates in favour of innocence, which is secure the moment it is discovered. But guilt is a poor, helpless, dependent being. Without the alliance of able, diligent, and fortunate fraud, is inevitably undone. If the guilty culprit be obstinately silent, his silence forms a deadly presumption against him. If he speaks, talking tends to discovery; and his very defence furnishes materials towards his conviction. No. 216.] [SATURDAY. HABITUAL REVERENCE DUE TO GOD. Ir the young man forgets his God, the old one will seldom find him in old age; if in the pride and flush of health, we omit to call on the name of him from whom we possess the vigour of life, in the hour of sickness what comfort can we have in approaching his Divine Majesty? And if in the full enjoyment of every species of worldly prosperity, we neglect to pause in the midst of our enjoyment to acknowledge the giver of all good gifts, with what heart can we in the hour of adversity fly for protection to Divine Goodness. No. 217.] THE DEATH OF CHRIST. [SUNDAY. No man could take his life from him; he laid it down of himself. In compliance with the glorious designs of infinite wisdom and love, he submitted cheerfully to the most grievous sufferings, and to death itself, that he might make atonement for our sins, and obtain eternal redemption M for us. He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. He suffered, the just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God. God made him, who knew no sin, to be sin, (a sin-offering) that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, that we might be accepted through him as if we were perfectly righteous. Thus the covenant of grace, offering to us the riches of divine mercy, upon the condescending terms of a sincere repentance, a lively faith and a renewed obedience, is established, and we joy in God through Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atonement. No. 218.] REMORSE. Remorse.-she ne'er forsakes us [MONDAY. A blood hound staunch, she tracks our rapid step No.219.] IMPORTANCE OF REFLECTION. [Tuesday. THE habit of dissipating every serious thought by a succession of agreeable sensations, is as fatal to happiness as to virtue; for when amusement is uniformly substituted for objects of moral and mental interest, we lose all that elevates our enjoyments above the scale of childish pleasures; each individual learns to consider himself as the sole spectator of the great drama of life, and he sets and beholds, laughs and mocks, enjoys and yawns, through a worthless existence; then sinks into the grave despised and forgotten. No. 220.] FEAR. [WEDNESDAY. FEAR is a powerful and useful passion, to guard us from mischief and misery, to hasten our avoidance of every danger, to drive us to our refuge, and to restrain us from every thing which has a tendency to bring evil or mischief upon us. The anger of God is the most proper object of our fear, as we are sinful creatures: nor can sinners fear the anger of God too much, until they have complied with the appointed methods of his grace. There is also a reverence and holy fear due to the majesty of God, even when we have obtained the most solid hopes of his mercy : we must always fear to sin against God, and keep up a holy jealously of all temptations to sin. No. 221.] APHORISMS. [THURSDAY. The brave man is not he who feels no fear, But he, whose noble soul its fear subdues, He basely injures friendship's sacred name, True magnanimity does not consist in never failing, but in rising every time we fail. The praise of fools, is censure in disguise, No. 122.] PEEVISHNESS. [FRIDAY. PEEVISHNESS, when not the effect of anguish and disease, is the offspring of idleness or pride; of idleness, anxious for trifles, or pride, unwilling to endure the least obstruction of her wishes. It is thence of a narrow mind. He that resigns his peace to little casualties, and suffers the course of his life to be interrupted by fortuitous inadvertencies or offences, delivers up himself to the direction of the wind, and loses all that constancy and equanimity, which constitute the chief praise of a wise man. No. 223.] [SATURDAY. VANITY INSCRIBED IN ALL THINGS. TIME, like a long following stream, makes haste into eternity, and is for ever lost and |