course of social friendship, with chastened mirth and cheerfulness, void of offence; and ́ when at length I retired, it was rather from its being my accustomed hour, than from weariness, and because I chose that my first and last duties should be devoted to the great Giver of all good."

Such I judge the life of a rational being such the road to health, peace, and long life;-or should it be the will of Heaven to shorten its date, at least you will not be found like the foolish virgins in the xxvth chapter of St. Matthew, who on the arrival of the bridegroom, had their lamps. untrimmed." Watch therefore, for you "know neither the day nor the hour when "the son of man cometh."

Life, to those who know how to make a proper use of it, is strewed with pleasures of various kinds, which at once gratify the

sense,

h

sense, improve the understanding, and amend the heart.

True felicity is an enemy to riot; for the bustle of the great world is not the element of happiness, which courts the shade, and the company of a chosen and discerning few, inclosed within which circle, it rests satisfied, and looks beyond the gratification of a tumultuous and senseless multitude.

"Whom call we gay?—That honor has been long
The boast of mere pretenders to the name.
The innocent are gay-the lark is gay

That dries his feathers, saturate with dew,
Beneath the rosy cloud, while yet the beams
Of day-spring overshoot his humble nest.
The peasant too, a witness of his song,
Himself a songster, is as

gay as he.

But save me from the gaiety of those

Whose head-achs nail them to a noon-day bed;

And

And save me too from theirs whose haggard eyes
Flash desperation, and betray their pangs
For property stripp'd off by cruel chance;
From gaiety that fills the bones with pain,

The mouth with blasphemy, the heart with woe."

COWPER

ON

ON THE

SUPERIORITY OF CHRISTIANITY

OVER MORAL PHILOSOPHY..

THE author of Christianity,

and his disciples, taught a wisdom far above that of philosophy, as they received their knowledge from a fountain of greater parity than ever mere philosophy had re-course to. The lights which they introduced into the world, were immediately drawn from Heaven, and had nothing in common with the vague and frivolous speculations of human understanding; though among

among ancient authors we frequently find the term of philosophy ascribed to the precepts of the Christian religion, as if such an epithet could advance its value. Many of them, also, have placed our Saviour among the philosophers, either because he was the author of all true wisdom, or because he was skilled in the learning of the Jews, or on account of his teaching publicly in the manner of the philosophers of that period; yet it need scarcely be observed, that thus to confound his august mission, with the self-delegated attempts of a mere philosopher, is at once unjust and impious..

The same observation may be made respecting the apostles, who were pos sessed of no learning, and consequently were indebted to the holy spirit for all they taught or wrote. St. Paul was the only one among them who was versed in the

learning