king, yet go they forth all of them by bands, and their numbers make them terrible, which should teach us union in prosecuting good designs; The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in king's palaces; and by indefatigable diligence repairs her web; which should teach us perseverance, and not to be discouraged." (PROV. XXX. 24-28. See ORTON'S EXPOSITION, Vol. v. p. 96.) Be ye "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," (MATT. x. 16.) was the precept of Him who was "the wisdom of God,” (1 Cor. i. 24.) and in whom there was no guile." (JOHN i. 47.; 1 PET. ii. 22.)

4. But they will afford us instructions of a higher nature, even for our conduct to that gracious God, of whom we are apt to think so little, and to whom we render so little service. The prophet Isaiah opens his prophecy with, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and

brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The or knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." (i. 2, 3.)` And the prophet Jeremiah, also, represents the Lord as saying, that "the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord." (viii. 7.) But the animal with which we are the most conversant, and whose use, fidelity, and attachment deserve our highest regard, is the Dog.

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him," (JOB xiii. 15.) seems to be the principle in the heart of a Dog towards his master. "Go to the" Dog, thou unfaithful and ungrateful man, "consider his ways," and learn to trust in thy all-wise and all-gracious Master, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (JAMES i. 17.)

5. The animals will, yet further, teach the gratitude of the heart to break forth in songs of praise. The Psalmist calls upon the "feathered fowls" of the air, and "every thing that hath breath," to "praise the Lord." (cxlviii. 10.; cl. 6.) And what soul, that hath any feelings of piety, when he hears the varied concert of birds, and especially the lark, in his morning and his evening song, soaring aloft towards heaven, can fail to be animated to join "the voice of praise and thanksgiving?" What fitter emblem of a pious soul rising in a hallelujah to Him, who hath "made all things," and for whose " pleasure they are, and were created?" (REV. iv. 11.)

But the animals of the lower world may not only teach us to give praise to God on earth; they may remind us of those praises, which, in a world of rest and unfading happiness, we hope to sing for ever in the presence of the

Creator, of the Redeemer, "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," (REV. v. 5.) "the Lamb which taketh away the sin of the world," (JOHN 1. 29.)—and of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, who, when the Lamb of God was upon earth, "descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him." (LUKE iii. 22.) For, in the vision which St. John the divine had of the glories of heaven, and of the living creatures round about the throne of God, (REV. iv. 6,) he "heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying, with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as

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are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever." (v. 11-14.)

And, that WE ALL, who are here present, may so walk in the commandments of God here on earth, that we may finally join in this multitudinous and everlasting chorus in heaven, May God, of his infinite mercy, grant, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and by the assisting grace and sanctification of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Finis.

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