trials; but all their sufferings seemed small, while they held in mind the deeper sufferings of their Lord. They were expecting to lay their bodies on the borders of the land; but while they remembered Jesus, they believed that his voice would reach their dark America, and call up their and their children's dust from the whole land, like the sands of the sea for multitude.

Nay; our pilgrim fathers presented, in a new and more glorious form, the scenes of nature. Now the sun and the rain more richly showed forth the loving kindness of the Lord, while from year to year the wilderness was turning into a fruitful field. Now the rainbow which lately to the wandering savages spread its beautiful but unmeaning arch over the eastern waters, or woodlands, began to shine as the bow of promise, stretching itself over the country of the pilgrims' abode; the sure and frequent sign that even here they and their children should not be outcasts from God; that seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, should not fail; and that the Sun of righteousness should shine over their dark America, with healing in his wings. VOL. III. 9

And now, death, which by the common curse sweeps away all nations alike, came in with its sad and solemn scenery. It was not in judgement but in mercy that our fathers fell. Half, in the first winter, died, removed in mercy from their toils and troubles, to heaven: affording the first portions of the scene of death, that in the beginning a land sacred to God might warn the living that this is not their home.

Oh, never forget that this land has been devoted unto Jesus Christ. The spirit of the fathers must awake in their children. Now, as you are taking the first steps in life, you must remember the days of old; remember the prayers and vows of many generations.

So may you be blessed; and as they look down from their heavenly glory, let them see that their children have made a covenant with the Lord God of their fathers.

And now "the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; let him not leave nor forsake us, but incline our hearts to keep his commandments."

THE SCENERY OF SIN AND SATAN.

MATTHEW iv. 9.

"All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me."

WHAT a cast and colouring do sin and Satan give to all surrounding objects! What an unreal beauty and glory do they shed upon what is vile and worthless!

When sin and Satan delude you, how lovely does the world seem and the things of the world-how lasting and unperishing their loveliness! Yes, lasting and unperishing, amidst the death and ruin which every eye beholds; lovely, though still unsatisfying to every heart. Though to all that live 'tis emptiness and vanity; and to countless millions their grave; yet sin and Satan make it seem unperishing and lovely; so that it is chosen rather than God himself, and heaven for ever.

Yes, treasures where moth and rust corrupt, seem better than that incorruptible inheritance which Christ gives to his disciples. The praise of men is far more lovely than the praise of God; the favour of men far more desirable than the favour of God. And the employments or amusements which keep you away from God and his service, they are the most pleasant employments and amusements, and lure your ninds away as if to greater blessings than God to all eternity can give.

Thus, deceiving sin sheds a false colouring and glory over all; Satan, the old deceiver, helps your deceitful hearts to see and trust in lying vanities. He does now with you-with all, what he tried, but could not do with the Son of man when he carried him into an exceeding high mountain, and showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; saying, "All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me." In how short a moment do you see all that you desire, as if that moment, and that deceived sight made it all your own: until God seems not worthy to be loved, or obeyed, or prayed unto, or praised; and sabbaths, and

prayer, and all of heaven, below is despised and forsaken; until before your deceived eye, no God appears, no death, no eternity, no heaven, and no hell.

Nay sin itself is dressed in an inviting garb, and evil wears the aspect of good. Even the most vile cannot see their vileness, but are vain-glorious of their fancied goodness, or vain even of their wickedness.

Even irreligion and vice, in all their horrid forms, are never so horrible that sin and Satan cannot give them beauty to the eye of sinners; that other sinners cannot desire to be like them! and glory in their shameful success. What crowds of imitators do I see, and hear, who are ambitious of the accursed fame of sinning like the vicious around them; how do frivolity, and idle words, and misspent time, and wasted sabbaths, and disobedience to parents, and profane talk, and riot, and drunkenness, and debauchery, put on beauty and gain admiration, and awake the eager desire of those whom sin and Satan delude and deceive!

Oh be not deceived, there is nothing beautiful in sin, nothing that should lure you to its