nearly obliterated. Yet he is proud of those fragments of greatness which remain: the few, expiring sparks of his first splendour, light up within him a flame of vanity; he loves still to boast; and we must examine the principles upon which he founds his supposed right to glory. In order to prove these principles false, it is only necessary to point out the subjects which swell this haughty creature with self-importance.

He has no right to boast of his honours. These are generally derived: they may be bestowed, by partial favour; they may be worn to decorate vice and to cover infamy; they cannot reach beyond the grave. Death mocks at human majesty; convinces the monarch that his hereditary honours are only lent him, and must pass into the hands of a successor, who shall resign them in his turn; and arrests the hero in his career of glory, while every tongue proclaims his victories. That is a poor boast which a moment may destroy.

He has no right to boast of his riches. They were not procured by his own efforts alone. The blessing of God became the source of his wealth. Stay, proud man, and before you glory, learn this wholesome truth: "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." Without his favour "it is in vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, and to eat the bread of sorrows." Let the wheat boast of its increase, when it lifts its light green head above the

soil. Let the flower boast of its skill, in the disposition of those lovely tints with which it is adorned. But did not a secret hand quicken and expand the one? and a divine pencil ornament and arrange the other? Shall the sun and the shower say, we gave vegetation to the plant, and beauty to the flower?' Both of these were employed to produce the effect: yet how false, as well as vain, were this boast! for while they were the instruments, God was the agent. Thus has he been in the accumulation of property. It is derived from the same source; it is permitted by the same hand; it is produced by the same power, as the herb and the flower: nor is the existence of the one, and the beauty of the other, more uncertain and transient than "riches, which make to themselves wings, and fly away, as eagles, towards heaven."

He has no right to glory in the splendour of his external establishment; or in the beauty of his personal configuration. Each of these is a mere circumstance, depending upon other circumstances: a slender link of a fragile chain; a momentary lustre, eclipsed every day, exposed to every blast of adversity, obscured by sudden clouds, and liable to by quenched altogether every instant. And what is it? While it has the instability of the vapour, it is outdone by the lily. It as an excellence which the worm possesses in greater perfection. While it sparkles, it is less dazzling than the butterfly, when he expands his wings, displaying the

tints of the rainbow sprinkled "over with gold: "yea, I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these."

He has no right to glory in his talents. These may be distinguished, but they are limited; and there are higher orders of being by whom he is surpassed. Are they self-derived? or are they bestowed? He enjoys them by permission: he received them as a free gift; and he is responsible for the use, or the abuse of this precious boon. "For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" These also have mutability and decay inscribed upon them. Time diminishes, sickness enfeebles, accident may destroy them. It requires years to produce their growth, and to ripen them into maturity. Assiduity of culture is necessary to give them impulse, en largement, and vigour. They are no less sensible of infirmity and contraction. How easily are they suspended and annihilated, as to their present use and employment, by him who bestowed them! The philosopher may become an idiot, exhibiting only the life of an animal, descending from the sphere of humanity, with all his great faculties, his laborious researches, and even his natural reason, locked up, never to be released, till death arrives to terminate the calamity, to remove the melancholy spectacle, and to emancipate the prisoner.

He has no right to glory in his acquirements How small a portion of knowledge lies within the grasp of his capacity! how little he obtains of that which is submitted to him! When the human mind is irradiated with intelligence, and illuminated by science, it is still dark: the obscurity is discovered, but not removed; and the last, the highest lesson of wisdom, is to teach us our ignorance. Our acquirements are exposed to the same changes and to the same dangers, as our talents. Age will render the memory treacherous, and steal from the man the treasures which he hoarded there; a single fever can strip him of all; and death levels the distinction between the scholar and his unlearned brother.

He has no right to boast of his religion. If it be genuine, it is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It is not his own. It is God "who worketh in him to will and to do his own good pleasure." From him "all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed." It is as much an act of divine power to renew the mind, as to create a world-it requires the same interposition to quicken the spirit, as to raise the dead. Such is the strength of the imagery under which the christian character, in its formation is described, that it follows, if they are appropriate figures, the production of it must be the act of God: nor less its preservation; for it is supplied by the energy by which it was imparted. Thus, if it be genuine, we

owe the glory to God: and if it be not genuine, it is not worth a boast. These all, are the principal subjects in which men glory; and these all, rightly considered, ought to exclude boasting.

PARABLES.

MONUMENTS OF HUMAN GRANDEUR PERISH.

THE monuments of human greatness yield in succession to the destroying influence of time. Whatever is magnificent, or beautiful, or excellent, possesses only a temporary influence, and commands only a transient admiration; in the course of a few years, or at most a few ages, imagination is required to supply departed graces, and genius mourns over extinguished glory. The combinations of society have produced astonishing effects: to man in his collective strength nothing is impossible, and few things appear even difficult; he has dared every thing; and he has achieved so much as amply to repay him for his labours. The extent of sovereignty which he grasped, when he stretched his sceptre over numberless provinces, and planted the line of his dominion from sea to sea, demonstrated the unbounded character of his ambition, and the incalculable variety of his resources. The stupendous productions of art, on which he