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unto righteousness fret not thyself becaufe of the ungodly, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. Quietly purfue thy courfe in godliness: reft in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. For evil-doers shall be cut off but those that wait upon the Lord, they fhall inherit the earth. Commit thy way unto the Lord; and thou halt enjoy, even in the midst of many forrows, the greatest bleffings attainable on earth, peace of confcience in Chrift, and cheerful dependence on the Almighty. Fret not thyfelf becaufe of the man who profpereth in the way of wicked devices. Yet a little while, and thou halt be tranfplanted from the wilderness of this world into the land of promife; 'from the thorny field of tribulation into the garden of God. Health and riches and worldly fuccefs are bounties which it pleafes God to bestow even upon his inveterate enemies., He maketh his fun to fhine on the evil and on the good; and fendeth rain on the just and on the unjuft. Earthly enjoyments are not the rewards which he has fet apart for his fervants. For them he has prepared a kingdom yet to be revealed; a kingdom purchased for them by the blood of his Son; a kingdom of honour and glory

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and happiness at his right hand for ever. Be patient in faith and holinefs; and that kingdom fhall become thine inheritance. Thou shalt enter into peace: thou shalt ftand in thy lot at the end of days. Thou fhalt behold thy Redeemer face to face. Thou shalt be in bleffedness with him throughout eternity.

The planets rolling in their orbits, the earth revolving on her axis; the atmosphere purified by winds, the ocean by tides; the vapours rifing from the ground and returning in freshening fhowers, exhaled from the fea, and poured again by rivers into its bofom, proclaim the univerfal law. Turn to animated existence. See the air, the land, and the waters in commotion with countless tribes eagerly engaged in attack, in defence, in the conftruction of habitations, in the chase of prey, in employment fuited to their fphere and conducive to their happiness. Is man born an exception

ACTIVITY is the life of nature.

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man,

exception to the general rule? While the whole creation toils around him, is he to, lumber in fupineness? Man is born to la bour. For labour, man while yet innocent was formed. The Lord God took the and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. To that exertion which was ordained to be a fource of unmitigated delight; painful contention and overwhelming fatigue, when man apostatifed from his God, were fuperadded. In the fweat of thy face fhalt thou eat bread. By toil must thy daily food be purchased. To toil must thou look as the inftrument of fecurity, of accommodation, of comfort, of improvement. Such was the decree. And are none exempted? None. To Adam, as virtually including the whole human race, of whom he was to be the progenitor, was the mandate iffued. Of bread, as the reprefentative of earthly acquifitions among which it is pre-eminently neceffary, did the mandate fpeak. On every individual labour is enjoined. Through labour is every bleffing to be fought.

In the early ages of the world employments now confined to the lowest claffes were deemed not unbecoming perfons of the most elevated rank. The wearifome

cares of agriculture, and the humble offices of domestic life, occupied princes and kings. Thus speaks the voice of profane Hiftory: and thus, even on a fubject of comparatively fmall importance, bears teftimony, unfufpicious because incidental, to the veracity and infpiration of the Sacred Records. Of the wealth of the Patriarchs flocks and herds formed a diftinguished branch and to the fuperintendence of flocks and herds was their daily folicitude devoted. Abraham, who was very rich in cattle, in filver and in gold; Abraham, whofe household was fo numerous, that he had already produced in arms on a critical occafion three hundred and eighteen of his trained fervants born in his own boufe; when he beheld three travellers approaching him as he fat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day, difpatched not an attendant with offers of hospitality, but ran himself to invite them to paufe and refresh themselves; and haftening to the herd, with his own hands felected the calf for their entertainment. His grandfon Jacob is now gone down with his family into Egypt. Jofeph, the ruler of the land under Pharaoh, foreseeing that the king, to whom his brethren are about to be prefented, will

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