2.-TARRY WITH ME. 1. TARRY with me, O my Savior! 2 Many friends were gathered round me, I am lonely, tarry with me 3. Dimmed for me is earthly beauty; Let me see thy smile again! 4. Dull my ear to earth-born music; Speak thou, Lord, in words of cheer; Feeble, tottering my footsteps, Sinks my heart with sudden fear; LXXV.-VARIETIES. 1.-GOODNESS OF GOD. 1. THE light of nature, the works of creation, the general consent of nations, in harmony with divine revelation, attest the being, the perfections, and the providence of God Whatever cause we have to lament the frequent inconsis tency of human conduct, with this belief, yet an avowed atheist is a monster, that rarely makes his appearance God's government of the affairs of the universe, an acknowledgment of his active, superintending providence, over that portion of it, which constitutes the globe we inhabit, is re jected, at least theoretically, by very few. KIDD --18 2. That a superior, invisible power, is continually em. ployed in managing and controlling by secret, impercep tible, irresistible means, all the transactions of the world, is so often manifested in the disappointment, as well as in the success of our plans, that blind and depraved must our minds be, to deny what every day's transactions so fully prove. The excellence of the divine character, especially in the exercise of that goodness toward his creatures, which is seen in the dispensation of their daily benefits, and in overruling occurring events, to the increase of their happiness, is equally obvious. 3. Do we desire evidence of these things? Who is without them, in the experience of his own life? Who has not reason, to thank God for the success, which has attended his exertions in the world? Who has not reason to thank him, for defeating plans, the accomplishment of which, it has been afterward seen, would have resulted in injury or ruin ? Who has not cause, to present him the unaffected homage of a grateful heart, for the consequences of events, apparently the most unpropitious, and for his unquestionable kindness, in the daily supply of needful mercies? 2. THE SNOW OF AGE. "No snow falls lighter than the snow of age; but none is heavier, for it never melts." 1. THE figure is by no means novel, but the closing part of the sentence is new as well as emphatic. The Scripture represents age by the almond tree, which bears blossoms of the purest white. "The almond tree shall flourish "-the head shall be hoary. Dickens says of one of his characters whose hair was turning gray, that it looked as if Time had lightly splashed his snows upon it in passing. 2. "It never melts "-no, never. Age is inexorable. Its wheels must move onward-they know no retrograde movement. The old man may sit and sing, "I would I were a boy again"--but he grows older as he sings. He may read of the elixir of youth, but he can not find it; he may sigh for the secrets of that alchemy which is able to make him young again, but sighing brings it not. He may gaze back ward with an eye of longing upon the rosy schemes of carly years; but, as one who gazes on his home from the deck of a departing ship, every moment carries him farther and farther away. Poor old man! he has little more to do than die. 3. "It never melts." The snow of winter comes and rheds its white blessings upon the valley and the mountain at soon the sweet Spring comes and smiles it all away. Not so with that upon the brow of the tottering veteran. There is no Spring whose warmth can penetrate its eternal frost. It came to stay. Its single flakes fell unnoticed— and now it is drilled there. We shall see it increase until we lay the old man in his grave. There it shall be absorbed by the eternal darkness-for there is no age in heaven. 4. Yet why speak of age in a mournful strain? It is beautiful, honorable, eloquent. Should we sigh at the proximity of death, when life and the world are so full of emptiness? Let the old exult because they are old-if any must weep, let it be the young, at the long succession of cares that are before them. Welcome the snow, for it is the em blem of peace and of rest. It is but a temporal crown which shall fall at the gates of Paradise, to be replaced by a brighter and a better. LXXVI.-SUSPENSE. 1. WHEN all is known, the darkest fate 2. When once the first rude shock is past It finds support to breast the tide; But thus to linger day by day, 3. To feel an ever present dread 4. And yet, the soul that trusts in God O then, my soul, be strong in trust- REV. SIDNEY DYER. LXXVII. THE TELESCOPE AND MICROSCOPE. 1. It was the telescope that, by piercing the obscurity which lies between us and distant worlds, put infidelity in possession of the argument against which we are now contending; but, about the time of its invention, another instrument was formed, which laid open a scene no less wonderful, and rewarded the inquisitive spirit of man with a discovery, which serves to neutralize the whole of this argument. This was the microscope. The one led me to a system in every star--the other leads me to see a world in every atom. 2. The one taught me that this mighty globe, with the whole burden of its people and of its countries, is but a grain of sand on the high field of in.mensity-the other teaches me that every grain of sand may harbor within it the tribes and families of a busy population. The one told me of the magnificence of the world I tread upon--the other 1 redeems it from all its insignificance; for it tells me that in the leaves of every forest, and in the flowers of every garden, and in the waters of every rivulet, there are worlds teeming with life, and numberless as are the glories of the firmament. 3. The one has suggested to me, that beyond and above all that is visible to man, there may lie fields of creation which sweep immeasurably along, and carry the impress of the Almighty's hand to the remotest scenes of the universe-the other suggests to me, that within and beneath all that minuteness which the aided eye of man has been able to explore, there may lie a region of invisibles; and that, could we draw aside the mysterious curtain which shrouds it from our senses, we might there see a theater of as many wonders as astronomy has unfolded, a universe within the compass of a point so small, as to elude all the powers of the microscope, but where the wonder-working God finds room for the exercise of all His attributes, where He can raise another mechanism of worlds, and fill and animate them all with the evidences of his glory. 4. Now, mark how all this may be made to meet the argument of our infidel astronomers. By the telescope, they have discovered that no magnitude, however vast, is beyond the grasp of the Divinity; but by the microscope, we have also discovered, that no minuteness, however shrunk from the notice of the human eye, is beneath the condescension of His regard. Every addition to the powers of the one instrument extends the limit of His visible dominions; but, by every addition of the powers of the other instrument, we see each part of them more crowded than before with the wonders of His unwearying hand. The one is constantly widening the circle of His territory-the other is as constantly filling up its separate portions with all that is rich, and various; and exquisite. In a word, by the one am told that the Almighty is now at work in regions more distant than geometry has ever measured, and among worlds more manifold than numbers have ever reached; but, by the other, I am also told, that with a mind to comprehend the whole, in the vast compass of its generality, He has also |