It is a frequent and fatal mistake to separate religion from the duties of active life. The test by which we ought to examine the genuineness of our faith,-by which we should try the strength and stability of our religious principles, is the effect produced on our conduct in the intercourse of society. In the day of trial, have these principles sustained us? In our combats with an evil world, have they brought us off victorious? Amidst the seductions of passion, and the temptations of evil example, and the ridicule of the profane, have we stood firm as a rock, looking to Jesus, trusting in God, triumphing in the hope of immortality? These are questions, by which we may discover how far we are removed from the character of those whom the parable describes under the figure of stony ground, in which the seed springs up and dies,-whose religious feelings, lying too near the surface of their character, prove to be nothing more than a hasty, vain, and deceitful show.

But there is still a more common character among hearers in a Christian congregation,-those whom our Saviour compares to a soil overgrown with thorns, which, though cut down, have not been rooted out, and therefore spring up along with the seed, and choke its growth. Those who possess this character, differ from the callous and indifferent in this, that they "hear the word ;” it makes some salutary impression on their mind: And they differ from the sentimentalists in this, that they are not betrayed by the ardour of a heated imagination. They have soberly studied the evidences of Revelation, and their judgment is convinced. They believe that the Bible is the word of God, they acknowledge its importance, and they are resolved, at some future "more convenient season," to devote themselves to the service of their Redeemer; but at present they are immersed in the cares of the world, and subjected to the influence arising from the real importunity of these cares, and their fancied magnitude. Perhaps they are in straitened circumstances, and they make sheer necessity their ex

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cuse for devoting themselves to wordly objects; or, if they are in affluence, wealth, as well as poverty, brings with it many employments and many cares; and not less easily does the worldly mind, in this instance, find plausible excuses for neglecting the calls of religion. The difficulty, however, does not, in either case, really lie in want of opportunity to devote themselves to the service of their Divine Master; but in want of inclination. They are cumbered about many things," and forget that there is only one thing peremptorily and essentially needful. They take anxious thought only about "what they shall eat and drink," or how they may best obtain and enjoy the pleasures of life. But if they were to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and then apply, as a subordinate object, to the gaining of a provision for their families, Christ has himself declared, that this earthly blessing would be added to them; and unless they seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all the leisure and opportunities which may be afforded them, will be unavailing. The "good seed" will still fall among thorns, which will choke its growth, and render it unfruitful.

How thankless,—how heartless,—were the labours of the spiritual husbandman, if it were always thus,—if, after all, no fruit were to crown his toil! But, blessed be God, it is not so. Some seed also falls on good ground, ---on ground, indeed, naturally overgrown with weeds, and therefore incapable of receiving it; but so prepared by previous culture, as to retain and nourish it, and, under the genial influences of Heaven, to bring the fruit to maturity. It is thus prepared by the hand of God himself;-no inferior hand could successfully prepare it.

And let it further be remarked, in following out the analogy of the parable, that whatever pains an agriculturist might take in cultivating his farm, it could never be made to produce a crop of itself. It would, after all, remain unproductive, without the genial influences of the seasons. The sun must smile upon it, and the clouds

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must interpose their grateful shade, to protect it from the sultry heat; and the dew of night must rest upon the tender blade, and the soft showers of heaven must bless the springing thereof. It is God who, with his own hand, covers our valleys with corn, and causes them to shout for joy." Just so it is in the spiritual world. Not only must our hearts be prepared, and the seed of the word sown in a good soil; but Heaven must shed its blessed influences from above; and the Sun of Righteousness must shine upon it; and the warmth of heavenly love must cherish it; and the dew of Divine grace must distil upon it; and even the clouds of adversity must frown, and the rain-drops of affliction must water it.

FOURTH WEEK-MONDAY.

TREES USED FOR OTHER PURPOSES THAN FOOD.

We have seen what a vast variety of vegetable productions have been destined to be used as human food, adapted to all soils and climates, and capable of great increase and amelioration by culture. In this we have had occasion to recognize and adore the paternal care of an all-bountiful Creator. But it is not with a view to subsistence, and the gratification of taste alone, with the concomitant stimulus given to the exercise of the bodily powers and mental faculties, that a Father-God has bestowed the vegetable stores with which we are so profusely surrounded. These, indeed, are gifts of primary importance. But there are other provisions of no mean value, to which the productions of the vegetable kingdom have been made subservient. In the volume on Spring, I have adverted to various plants, used as articles of manufacture; but I have hitherto only incidentally taken notice of the uses, either in this or other re

spects, to which trees are applicable. These seem now to require some attention.

The first thing after food and clothing, to which man naturally looks, is a comfortable habitation, and for this he is mainly indebted to the trees of the forest. Even in his rudest state, it is among these that he seeks shelter, and as he gradually emerges to a higher grade, it is to the timber which they yield that he is indebted for his most useful materials, in constructing the lofty palace as well as the lowly cot. His implements of domestic life, and his instruments of husbandry, are from the earliest to the latest period of human improvement, essentially indebted to the admirably adapted material afforded by trees. For the machinery used in commerce and the arts, timber is equally essential; and, above all, it is to timber we owe the art of sailing, by which the dispersion of human beings over the surface of the habitable globe has been effected, and that intercourse has been kept up which has contributed so largely to the advancement of commerce, and the arts and comforts of civilized life.

It would be a curious subject of speculation to inquire what would be the character and condition of man, had it pleased Providence to withhold from him the advantages derived from trees, merely regarding them as affording the useful article of timber. Into this speculation, however, I shall not enter, further than to observe, that, as it is doubtless, by the possession of a material applicable to so many important, and indeed necessary, purposes, that man has been enabled to carry into effect almost all his plans of utility, of convenience, or of luxury, so far as they depended on the use of physical instruments; so, without it, talent and genius would have been most materially stinted in their means of action, and therefore in their growth; and although the human race might still have existed, they would have remained circumscribed in their locality by the extent of the island or continent where they were first called into being,

with views unenlarged and faculties unemployed. They would, in short, have been wild and unenlightened savages, rising, in all probability, no higher in the scale of existence, than the depressed Greenlander, or miserably degraded native of Australia. We have here another instance, to show that man depends for the improvement of the powers bestowed on him by his Maker, on the adaptations of external nature to his mental capacities; while to these capacities the necessary adaptations have been most strikingly made.

The varieties in the qualities of timber, by which it is made subservient to the diversified purposes of man's necessities or ingenuity, is another subject of grateful admiration. The strength and durability of the oak, so admirably calculated for ship-building; the straightness, the elasticity and lightness of the pine, united with the ease with which it yields to the moulding hand of the joiner, pointing it out as peculiarly useful in the construction of houses; and the remarkable combination of all these properties in the ash, which renders it, in an especial sense, the husbandman's tree,-are specimens of this accommodation, which may suffice to mark the kind of varied suitableness to which I allude.

But besides the uses of trees for timber, whether as these respect necessity, convenience, or ornament, there are many other useful properties possessed by different species of this class of the vegetable world. I have already spoken of the fruits, and other substances which they yield for the food of man; and I might also have mentioned their qualities in this respect, as regards some of the lower animals, and especially several of the insect tribes, to whom the leaf, the flower, the seed, the bark, and even the wood and pith, furnish each their own peculiar nourishment, and different tribes of which are useful to man.* But the bounty of the Creator is not

* Of this latter kind is the Coccus ilicis, gathered in Spain from a species of dwarf oak, called Kermes, producing a beautiful scarlet dye; the silk-worm, which receives its nourishment from the leaves of the mulberry ;