1835.] WE LOVE HIM BECAUSE He first loved us.

In time of service seal up both thine eyes,
And send them to thy heart; that, spying sin,
They may now weep the stains by them did rise.
Those doors being shut, all by the ear comes in.
Who marks in church-time others' symmetry,
Makes all their beauty his deformity.

Let vain or busy thoughts have there no part.
Bring not thy plough, thy plots, thy pleasures thither.
Christ purged his temple 1; so must thou thy heart.
All worldly thoughts are but "thieves" met together
To cozen2 thee. Look to thy actions well,
For churches either are our heav'n or hell.

Judge 3 not the preacher; for he is thy judge.
If thou mislike him, thou conceiv'st 4 him not.
God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge
To pick out treasures from an earthen pot 5,
The worst speak something good.
God takes a text, and preacheth patience.

If all want sense,

He that gets patience, and the blessing which
Preachers conclude with 6, hath not lost his pains.
He that, by being at church, escapes the ditch
He might fall in by bad companions, gains.

He that loves God's abode, and to combine

With saints on earth, shall one day with them shine.

D. I. E.

"WE LOVE HIM BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US."

"CONSIDER not only the measure, or rather the length and breadth,' immeasurable (Ephes. iii. 18.) of the Redeemer's love to men, but also the freedom and generosity of his affection. It was while we were yet sinners, that Christ died for us. ." We had not deserved so much kindness, nor indeed any kindness, but, on the contrary, were enemies to him by our evil deeds, when he undertook and accomplished, at the expense of his own blood, this astonishing redemption.

Nay, even more ;--and yet what more can be done, or can be imagined, than this, to suffer and to die for the love of those that hate us? He, the Redeemer of men, was not by his nature liable to this suffering and sorrow. He

1 See St. Matt. xxi. 12, 13.

3 Condemn, or find fault with.

2 Cheat thee.

4 Understandest him not. earthen vessels, that the ex

5 2 Cor. iv. 7. "We have this treasure in cellence of the power may be of God, and not of us. The peace of God, &c. &c.

7 Assemble with.

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was in "glory with the Father, before the world was,' St. John xvii. 5.; he "was with God, and was God," St. John i. 1.; but he became man: he assumed our nature, that he might be capable of its calamities; and took on him a body, on purpose to be crucified.

And will you do nothing now in return for, or in acknowledgment at least of, so much kindness? Yes; but what is proper for us to do? "Live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, Titus ii. 12.; this is the very lesson which, the Apostle tells us, "the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, teacheth us," &c. v. 11.; discharge your duty to God, your neighbour, and yourselves; and, in general, keep God's commandments. This, indeed, is doing a great deal; and may imply many things that will be laborious and difficult to us. And should you not be willing to submit to labour and difficulties, when, at the same time that you show your gratitude to the Redeemer, you are working with him in his designs for your everlasting salvation?

But since you are afraid of hardships in religion, there is a way, known indeed to few, one secret way of avoiding them.

How? and yet be saved? In a word, it is Love.Love God, and then your obedience will be no burden to you. The commands of Christ must be obeyed: but you may be eased of what is troublesome and difficult in this obedience, if you can get your heart touched with this divine affection. (Ogden's Sermons, vol. i. serm. 9.).

Let us then heartily pray to God, through Christ, that "the love of God may be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost," Rom. v. 5., saying, in the words of the beautiful collect in the Communion Service :-" Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration (breathing in) of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name through Christ, our Lord." And in the words of the sixth Sunday after Trinity:—“ O God, who has prepared for them that love thee," &c.See also the Collects for the Sunday after Easter, and the seventh Sunday after Trinity. D. I. E.

The simple notice of the botanist, that the daisy grows "in pastures and meadows every where," is alone sufficient to establish its claim to our regard. It is not merely a spring or summer friend, dying with its favourite season; it demands no peculiarities of soil or situation, it meets us every where, and attends us through the year; for it is often seen blossoming in the midst of winter. Thus Wordsworth addresses it :

"When soothed awhile by milder airs,
Thee Winter in the garland wears,
That thinly shades his few grey hairs;
Spring cannot shun thee;

While Summer fields are thine by right,

And Autumn, melancholy wight,

Doth in thy crimson head delight,

When rains are on thee."

It seems the peculiar delight of the earlier poets; they' comment on all its beauties and habits, they play with its name; and the profuseness with which it is showered. around, makes them consider it the grand favourite of nature.

Art thou wakened already, and decking the green?
How transient and light has thy winter sleep been ;
But thou art not of them which shrink back in dismay,
If the season adverse, or darkling the day.

As the lark amongst birds, when it chaunts its blythe strain,
As the lamb when it sports 'mid the flocks of the plain,
Such art thou amongst flowers, the blythest of all,

- On which sunbeams are shining, or dew-drops do fall.
"Give the rose-bud to beauty; for innocence fair,
(Let the lily a chaplet like snow-wreath prepare;

But though beauty and innocence both meet in thee,
Sweet cheerfulness claims thee her emblem to be. }
How joyed I to greet thee in childhood's gay hours;
Then I wandered light-hearted in search of spring-flowers:

"

Though the violet and primrose I owned were more rare,

Yet the garland ne'er pleased me, till thou didst bloom there.

That season of brightness has fled long ago,

And sorrow her finger has passed o'er my brow;

Yet I never now meet thee in spring's balmy hour,

But thou seem'st, for one moment, those days to restore.
From "The Moral of Flowers."-Sent by D. I. E.

THE TWO GENTLEMEN.

THERE is a saying, that, "it is more for a man's happiness to be able to see things in the best light, than to be born to a fortune of ten thousand a year."-We know of a gentleman who possesses this income and more, but who leads a very miserable life, because he is always looking for something to find fault with, and to grumble at: he is a politician; but, whatever ministers are in power, he is sure the country must be ruined; nothing that they do pleases him. Every thing has prospered with him as to his own concerns, and he has been particularly spared from those checks and distresses in his family, with which so many are visited; still he has always been so full of fears, and distrusts, and complaints, that his life has been a perfect misery to him.

A neighbour of his, whose fortune is very small in comparison, and who has been always obliged to employ his time, and to exert his faculties for the maintenance of his family, is the most cheerful creature in the world. He never desponds :-he seems always busy :-if things seem to go wrong, he is not cast down; he has often he says, met with checks, but it has always pleased God to bring him through; and he has a confiding trust that the same mercy will be continued to him: his hope is a religious hope; and this gives him a cheerfulness of mind in every trial, and a calm thankfulness for every success. He says he is no politician, for his observation has shown him how much needless plague people give themselves about such matters, and he does not wish to trouble his head about them, for he has always found that, whoever were the ministers and the government, soberness and industry led to comfort, and that idleness and

1835.]

THE TWO LABOURERS.

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drunkenness lead to misery; that it always has been so, and always will. His neighbours say of him, that his politics are like those of the man in the song:

"He cared not who was in,

No not a pin,

Nor who was out."

It was not, however, wholly so, for he was glad, when those who were in, were likely to adopt such measures as might lead to the good of his country; but he could not help seeing how very little the individual happiness of men depends upon public measures, and how very small a proportion of their ills are caused, or can be cured, by the rulers of the state. Happiness depends on the right state of a man's own mind-seek that, and you will be happy, I could almost say, under any government; neglect it, and no government-no public measures-no outward circumstance, can do any thing towards contributing to your happiness and peace. V.

THE TWO LABOURERS.

THOMAS Cheerly, and Samuel Gloom, were labourers on the same farm, they had the same wages, they were both married men, about the same age, had married about the same time, and had the same number of children. Their circumstances then were the same, and yet one of them was always cheerful and happy, the other always looked gloomy and discontented. It is not so much the station that makes the difference in men's happiness, as their own dispositions, and principles, and conduct. Thomas Cheerly, when he was employed at his work, was thankful that he had work to do, and that he was enabled to maintain his family by his labour; he did not bother himself about the ministers, and the government, and the taxes; for he had always perceived that whoever was minister, he must earn his money before he could have it; that an industrious man, who was careful and sober, commonly did well; and that a thoughtless, and careless, and drinking man, always did badly; he said no government could hinder that-it must and will be so; and, as to taxes, a labouring man is not much troubled in that way.