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in the absence of the sun, may present a scene of contemplation and enjoyment, far more interesting than all the splendour of their noon day. Besides, had the planets no motion round their axes, and were both their hemispheres supposed to be peopled with inhabitants, their physical state and enjoyments would be as opposite to each other, as if they lived under the government of two distinct independent Beings. While the one class was basking under the splendours of perpetual day, the other would be involved in all the horrors of an everlasting night. While the one hemisphere would be parched with excessive heat, the other would be bound in the fetters of eternal ice; and in such a globe as ours, the motion of the tides, the ascent of the vapours, the currents of the atmosphere, the course of the winds, the benign influences of the rains and dews, and a thousand other movements which produce so many salutary and beneficial effects, would be completely deranged. Hence we find, that in all the planetary bodies, on which ob servations can conveniently be made, a rotatory motion actually exists, in the secondary, as well as in the primary planets, and even in the sun himself, the centre, and the mover of the whole: in which arrangement of the Almighty Creator, the evidences of wisdom and design are strikingly apparent.

Dick's Christian Philosopher.

MAN had apostatized from God; had yielded to the seductions of the great Deceiver; had pursued a career of the most daring rebellion against the Majesty of heaven. The divine warnings he had disregarded; the divine goodness he had most ungratefully abused; the divine laws he had wilfully violated; the penalty of death, in all its fearful extent, he had incurred. Was there any encouragement, under these awful circumstances, to hope for exemption from the threatened

curse, or deliverance from impending ruin? The justice of him who sitteth one the throne of heaven, required sin to be visited with punishment. The perdition of the sinner is inevitable, unless some expedient be devised which can satisfy the claims of justice, while it opens a way for the exercise of mercy. But such an expedient the most vigorous efforts of reason are in vain employed to discover. "Dost thou doubt? Make fairly the experiment. Retire into thine own bosom, and ask, Can God justify the ungodly? Thy reason abashed declines to answer; while the voice of conscience pours accusations into thine ears, and her finger points to the wrath to come. Flee from thyself, and thy fellow-sinners, whose reason is as dark, and whose conscience is as guilty, as thy own. Explore the works of the Creator. Thou wilt see order, beauty, magnificence; but not a trace of pardon. Go down now to the abode of those rebel spirits, who kept not their first estate. Ah! here are only chains of darkness, and vials of wrath! Hasten hence, and consult the angels who surround the throne. Ask them if thou mayest hope for more lenity than the apostates of their own family! Ask them if the Holy One can save thee without prejudice to his glory? The heavenly hosts cannot solve the problem. Šilence seals up their lips of love; and thou, thy soul unsatisfied, thy doubts redoubled, must return and pass the time of thy sojourning, alternately shivering with the ague, and burning with the fever, of despair.

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But to this "horror of great darkness we are not abandoned. A light breaks in upon this gloom. It is a light from heaven. It is "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ." In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and he comes to disclose them to our world! he comes to reveal "the mystery which, from

the beginning of the world, hath been hid in God, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." Now we behold, in all their glory, "mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace embracing each other." Now God can be just, even in the very act of justifying the ungodly. To the astonishment of earth and heaven, the Son of God becomes the sacrifice for sin-the substitute for the guilty! Such is the dignity of his person, such the merit of his obedience, such the value of his atoning blood, that the honour rendered to Divine justice is more gloriously conspicuous than ever before in the annals of the universe. The triumph of justice introduces the reign of mercy; he who is "glorious in holiness," proclaims himself "merciful and gracious; keeping mercy for thousands; forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin." If, in the investigation of nature, we trace in every production of creative power, Wisdom worthy of God, still the "glory which excelleth," irradiates the economy of Redemption. "O the depth of the riches, both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God!"

H. F. Burder.

THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.

"BEFORE the mountains were brought forth, or ever he had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, he is God." Possessed of perfect excellence, contemplating with infinite complacency his glorious attributes, and containing in himself a boundless sufficiency for the accomplishment of every thing great and desirable, he saw that it was

becoming his character to unfold his perfections, and communicate his goodness, to an endless and innumerable race of beings. From an infinite height, he took a survey of the immeasurable vast of possible beings; and, in an expansion without limits, but desolate and wild, where nothing was, called into existence with a word the countless multitude of worlds, with all their various furniture. With his own hand he lighted up at once innumerable suns, and rolled around them innumerable worlds. All these he so dispersed and arranged, as that all received light, and warmth, and life, and, comfort; and all, at the same time, he stored and adorned with a rich and unceasing variety of beauty and magnificence, and with the most suitable means of virtue and happiness. Throughout his vast empire, he surrounded his throne with intelligent creatures, to fill the immense and perfect scheme of being, which originally existed with infinite splendour in his own incomprehensible mind. Independent of all possible beings and events, he sits at the head of the universe, unchanged, and incapable of change, amid all the successions, tossings, and tumults, by which it is agitated. When empires are overthrown, or angels fall; when suns are extinguished, and systems return to their original nothing; he is equally impassive and unmoved, as when sparrows expire, or the hair falls from our heads. Nothing can happen, nothing can be done, beyond his expectation, or without his permission. Nothing can frustrate his designs, and nothing disappoint or vary his purposes. All things, beside him, change and fluctuate without ceasing. Exents exist, and vanish. Beings, rise and expire. But his own existence, the thoughts which he entertains, the desires which he admits, the purposes which he forms, are "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Throughout the coming vast of eternity

also, and the boundless tracts of immensity, he sees with serene complacency his own perfect purposes daily and invariably advancing, with a regular fulfilment, towards their absolute completion. In its own place, in its own time, and in it its own manner, each exists in exact obedience to his order, and in exact accordance with his choice. Nothing lingers, nothing hastens; but his counsel exactly stands, and all his pleasure will be precisely accomplished.

Dwight.

THE HOLINESS OF GOD.

"WHO is like unto the Lord our God, glorious in Holiness!" While in the delineations of the character of Jehovah, the sacred writers speak of the Omniscience of his eye-the Omnipotence of his arm-the love of his heart-they exhibit Holiness as his glory and his beauty-that which renders the blessed God the object of admiration, reverence, and love-that which calls forth the loftiest ascriptions of praise from all the pure in heart, both on earth and in heaven. We are invited and charged to "praise the beauty of his Holiness, and to give thanks at the remembrance of his Holiness; " whilst in the world above, it is this attribute which calls forth a repetition and an emphasis unparalleled in their songs of praise. "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts," exclaimed the Seraphim in the temple; and it is said of the representatives of the church in the heavenly temple, that "they rest not day nor night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

And does not the Holiness of God give a character

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