Christian philosopher would be deficient in his duty, were he to overlook this tendency of the objects of his contemplation.

One important moral effect which this subject has a natural tendency to produce, is profound HUMILITY. What an insignificant being does man appear, when he compares himself with the magnificence of creation, and with the myriads of exalted intelligences with which it is people! What are all the honors and splendors of this earthly ball, of which mortals are so proud, when placed in competition with the resplendent glories of the skies? Such a display as the Almighty has given of himself, in the magnitude and variety of his works, was evidently intended "to stain the pride" of all human grandeur, that "no flesh should glory in his presence.' Yet there is no

disposition that appears so prominent among puny mortals, as pride, ambition, and vain-glory--the very opposite of humility, and of all those tempers which become those "who dwell in tabernacles of clay, and whose foundation is in the dust." Even without taking into account the state of man as a depraved intelligence, what is there in his situation that should inspire him with "lofty looks," and induce him to look down on his fellow-men with supercilious contempt? He derived his origin from the dust, he is allied with the beasts that perish, and he is fast hastening to the grave, where his carcass will become the food of noisome reptiles. He is every moment dependent on a Superior Being for every pulse that beats, and every breath he draws, and for all that he possesses; he is dependent even on the meanest of his species for his accommodations and comforts. He holds every enjoyment on the most precarious tenure, his friends may be snatched in a moment from his embrace; his riches may take to themselves wings and fly away; and his health and beauty may be blasted in an hour, by a breath of wind. Hunger and thirst, cold and heat, poverty and disgrace, sorrow and disappointment, pain and disease, mingle themselves with all his pursuits and enjoyments. His knowledge is circumscribed within the narrowest limits, his errors and follies are glaring and innumerable; and he stands as an almost undistinguishable atom, amidst the immensity of

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God's works. Still, with all these powerful inducements to the exercise of humility, man dares to be proud and arrogant.

1

"Man, proud man,

Dressed in a little brief authority,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven
As make the angels weep."

How affecting to contemplate the warrior, flushed with
diabolical pride, pursuing his conquests through heaps of
slain, in order to obtain possession of "a poor pitiable
speck of perishing earth;" exclaiming in his rage "I will
pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my lust shall
be satisfied upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand
shall destroy them"-to behold the man of rank glorying
in his wealth, and his empty titles, and looking around
upon the inferior orders of his fellow-mortals as the worms
of the dust-to behold the man of ambition pushing his
way through bribery, and treachery, and slaughter, to
gain possession of a throne, that he may look down
with proud pre-eminence upon his fellows-to behold the
haughty airs of the noble dame, inflated with the idea
of her beauty, and her high birth, as she struts along,
surveying the ignoble crowd as if they were the dust be-
neath her feet-to behold the smatterer in learning, puffed
up with a vain conceit of his superficial acquirements,
when he has scarcely entered the porch of knowledge-in
fine, to behold all ranks, from the highest to the lowest,
big with an idea of their own importance, and fired with
pride and revenge at the least provocation, whether imagi-
nary or real!
How inconsistent the manifestations of
such tempers, with the many humiliating circumstances of
our present condition, and with the low rank which we
hold in the scale of Universal Being!

It is not improbable, that there are in the universe, intelligences of a superior order, in whose breasts pride never found a place to whom this globe of ours, and all its inhabitants, appear as inconsiderable as a drop of water filled with microscopic animalculæ, does to the proud lords of this earthly region. There is at least one Being to whom this sentiment is applicable in its utmost extent :~~~ "Before HIM all nations are as a drop of a bucket, and the inhabitants of the earth as grasshoppers; yea, they

are as nothing, and are counted to him less than nothing and vanity." Could we wing our way, with the swiftness of a seraph, from sun to sun, and from world to world, till we had surveyed all the systems visible to the naked eye, which are only as a mere speck in the map of the universe-could we, at the same time, contemplate the glorious landscapes and scenes of grandeur they exhibitcould we also mingle with the pure and exalted intelligences which people those resplendent abodes, and behold their humble and ardent adorations of their Almighty Maker, their benign and condescending deportment towards one another; "each esteeming another better than himself," and all united in the bonds of the purest affection, without one haughty or discordant feeling-what indignation and astonishment would seize us, on our return to this obscure corner of creation, to behold beings enveloped in the mists of ignorance, immersed in depravity and wickedness, liable to a thousand accidents, exposed to the ravages of the earthquake, the volcano, and the storm; yet proud as Lucifer, and glorying in their shame! We should be apt to view them, as we now do those bedlamites, who fancy themselves to be kings, surrounded by their nobles, while they are chained to the walls of a noisome dungeon. "Sure pride was never made for man." How abhorrent, then, must it appear in the eyes of superior beings, who have taken an expansive range through the field of creation? How abhorrent it is in the sight of the Almighty, and how amiable is the opposite virtue, we learn from his word :-" Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord."-" God resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace to the humble.""Thus saith the High and Lofty One, who inhabitetl eternity, I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of an humble and contrite spirit; to revive the spirit of the humble, and the heart of the contrite ones. 99 While, therefore, we contemplate the omnipotence of God, in the immensity of creation, let us learn to cultivate humility and self-abasement. This was one of the lessons which the pious Psalmist deduced, from his survey of the nocturnal heavens. When he beheld the moon walking in brightness, and the innumerable host of stars,

overpowered with a sense of his own insignificance, and the greatness of Divine condescension, he exclaimed “O Lord! what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou shouldst visit him!"

Again, this subject is also calculated to inspire us with REVERENCE and VENERATION of God. Profound veneration of the Divine Being lies at the foundation of all religious worship and obedience. But in order to venerate God aright, we must know him; and, in order to acquire the true knowledge of him, we must contemplate him through the medium of those works and dispensations, by which he displays the glories of his nature to the inhabitants of our world. I have already exhibited a few specimens of the stupendous operations of his power, in that portion of the system of the universe which lies open to our inspection; and there is, surely, no mind in which the least spark of piety exists, but must feel strong emotions of reverence and awe, at the thought of that Almighty and Incomprehensible Being, who impels the huge masses of the planetary globes, with so amazing a rapidity through the sky, and who has diversified the voids of space with so vast an assemblage of magnificent worlds. Even those manifestations of Deity which are confined to the globe we inhabit, when attentively considered, are calculated to rouse, even the unthinking mind, to astonishment and awe. The lofty mountains, and expansive plains, the mass of waters in the mighty ocean, the thunders rolling along the sky, the lightnings flashing from cloud to cloud, the hurricane and the tempest, the volcano vomiting rivers of fire, and the earthquake shaking kingdoms, and leveling cities with the ground-all proclaim the Majesty of Him, by whom the elements of nature are arranged and directed, and seem to address the sons of men in language like this: "The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; at his wrath the earth trembles; a fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies.". "Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him."

There is one reason, among others, why the bulk of mankind feel so little veneration of God, and that is, that they seldom contemplate, with fixed attention, "the operations of his hands." If we wish to cherish this sublime senti

ment in our hearts, we must familiarize our minds to frequent excursions over all those scenes of Creation and Providence, which the volume of nature, and the volume of inspiration unfold to view. We must endeavor to assist our conceptions of the grandeur of these objects, by every discovery which has been, or may yet be made, and by every mode of illustration by which a sublime and comprehensive idea of the particular object of contemplation may be obtained. If we would wish to acquire some definite, though imperfect conception of the physical extent of the universe, our minds might be assisted by such illustrations as the following:-Light flies from the sun with a velocity of nearly two hundred thousand miles in a moment of time, or, about 1,400,000 times swifter than the motion of a cannon ball: Suppose that one of the highest order of intelligences is endowed with a power of rapid motion superior to that of light, and with a corresponding degree of intellectual energy; that he has been flying, without intermission, from one province of creation to another, for six thousand years, and will continue the same rapid course for a thousand millions of years to come; it is highly probable, if not absolutely certain, that, at the end of this vast tour, he would have advanced no farther than "the suburbs of creation"-and that all the magnificent systems of material and intellectual beings he had surveyed, during his rapid flight, and for such a length of ages, bear no more proportion to the whole Empire of Omnipotence, than the smallest grain of sand does to all the particles of matter of the same size contained in ten thousand worlds. Nor need we entertain the least fear, that the idea of the extent of the Creator's power, conveyed by such a representation, exceeds the bounds of reality. On the other hand, it must fall almost infinitely short of it. For, as the poet has justly observed

"Can man conceive beyond what God can do?"

Were a seraph, in prosecuting the tour of creation in the manner now stated, ever to arrive at a limit beyond which no farther displays of the Divinity could be perceived, the thought would overwhelm his faculties with unutterable anguish and horror; he would feel, that he had now, in some measure, comprehended all the plans and operations