do thou support my most ardent wish, by the support of thy Spirit, and teach me, during the remainder of my life, to conform in all things to thy holy will. Then the earth will be to me a Heaven, I shall live in the light of thy countenance, and all my days will be past in full reliance on thy gracious Providence.

But, O my God and Father, my compassionate Parent, how often have I abandoned thee in the enormity of my transgressions; how often have I vowed to thee to sanctify myself with the mind o Jesus Christ; how many fervent, solemL vows have I made to thee, that I would reform my ways, and keep m-self, like my Jesus, continually active in the erformance of good works. Even now, O Lord, in this night, I approach thee with my fervent protestations of improvement and amendment; enable me, O Lord, to carry them into execution, that that I may look forward with the best founded hope to the joys of salvation, through the merits of thy only Son, my blessed Saviour aud Redeemer.

FEBRUARY VI.

THE STARRY HEAVENS.

WHEN, in the evening, the beautiful light of the day vanishes; when city and village, field and mountain, are wrapped in the deepest shade; when the loud hum of life is still, and all living creatures sunk to rest, when the whole world, which, as it were, has died away, and rests like a corpse in the gloomy grave; then night exalts itself with its inspiring solemnity, and from the firmament above, the everlasting stars shine upon our darkness; we see no more the world, with its beauties, and its wildernesses; we beho'd only worlds unknown to us, which look down upon us with a friendly eye, from the infinity of the universe.

I feel myself in this ocean of life so little, so insignificant, when I lose myself in the thoughts of thy Infinity, or

in the depths of thy creation, and on the other hand I feel myself so great, that I, an eternal Spirit, am allowed to worship and adore thee; I feel myself rich when I think of him, who sent his Jesus to me.

Night recalls to my mind the image of my death. Sleep, the brother of death, creeps upon me-my limbs seek for rest! the charms of the world are dead to me! the darkened earth has lost its light and splendour ; and it is Heaven alone that shines upon me. And when death has one day closed my breaking eye, and when this life has sunk into eternal night-have I then lost all? No, then Heaven shines upon me, and eternity opens with its never fading beams upon me.

Not in vain has the wisdom of the Creator regulated all these things. Not in vain does he admonish me by the nights which obscure the earth, of the time when it will one day vanish from my view. Not in vain does God ordain, that the glittering worlds of Heaven should shine down upon me from their immeasurable distances. They remind me of the celestial lights of eternity, and of my existence after death in another world. The stars shine with their eternal light from their infinity upon me, proclaiming the greatness of the Creator, the grace of the Eternal Father, for they are his dwellings in his celestial kingdom.

The half of my life is day, in which I can devote myself to earthly affairs, and to the passing concerns of this world. But the half of my life is also night, and worlds unknown flame upon me from the infinite firmament, crying out to me-"Look at us, thou belongest not solely to the earth, but thou belongest also to Heaven. Thou art composed of body and soul: thy time consists of day and night, the half of thee belongs to the world, but the other half to eternity. Therefore for the earth, forget not the Heaven.

But how carelessly and indifferently does the mortal often wander under the splendour of the starry Heavens! how seldom at the view of it, is his mind exalted to the majesty of the Creator, he has no presentiment of the great

ness of Omnipotence, he does not understand the witnesses of eternity, who speak to him in such expressive language. The utmost which he does is to wonder with childish delight at the sparkling points of the firmament, and rejoices at the thousands of eternal fires above his head, but further he proceeds not in his reflections, like the brute, which with apathy and indifference wanders amongst the wonders of Creation.

But let not this be thy case, O Christian, thou true and faithful disciple of Jesus. Never let the splendour and glory of the starry Heavens burst upon thee, without being impressed with the idea of eternity. Never raise thy eye to the flaming suns and earths of the illimitable universe above thee, without thinking of the majesty and omnipotence of God, which are beyond the limits of the human understanding fully to comprehend.

O God! O thou majestic God, glorified throughout thy infinite creation, what a splendour, what an ocean of light and life, what an immensity! what an eternity! "When I consider the Heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained. What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him?”

And shall all those earths, those millions of worlds have remained dead and unpeopled? Shall the Omnipotence of God have called them into existence, without any aim or design? Shall our earth, one of the smallest of all the heavenly bodies, a mere atom of dust in the infinite system of the universe, enjoy alone the high privilege of being inhabited by rational beings, who are able to reverence God and adore his glory? Who can believe that the infinite power and goodness of the Creator, who on our earth peoples the smallest blade of grass with insects and creatures of all kinds, will permit the greater worlds of our system, to be desert and bare? No, Spirits there exist, who are able to worship God, and in other worlds and realms, glorify his name. The globe, on which we live, and the existence of which