power, all the riches and honours of the world, are eclipsed by the radiance and majesty of God! Our soul is exalted and enlarged by meditating upon the greatness and excellencies of the Most High, and all our spiritual faculties are rejoiced by such sublime meditations; and our hearts are penetrated with joy, veneration, and gratitude, when, in a holy transport, we represent to our minds the Being of beings, the Eternal, Almighty, and Infinite God; to whom be all glory, honour, and praise, for ever and ever! NOVEMBER XXIX. Motives for Contentment. LET cur souls enjoy sweet contentment, for God is good; mercy and love shine through all his works. Let us contemplate his mighty deeds: the world, and all that it contains, announce his glory; all that he has created is worthy of him alone. The heavens and the earth are proofs of his power; the sun who rules the day, and the moon who rules the night; every thing endowed with life and motion exalt the mighty God. Consider the works of his hands: men and brutes shew his infinite power; even the smallest objects, the blade of grass, and the grain of dust, teach us the knowledge of the Most High. Ask the mountains and the valleys, the heights of heaven and the depths of the ocean, the winds and the storms, the reptiles that crawl in the dust, and they will proclaim his infinite wisdom and boundless power. How shall we celebrate and adore that God who has given us life and being? Our bodies, and the souls which animate them, are the gifts of his hand; and let us, whilst we have a being, bless his holy name. Objects of his guardian care during the day; each morning witnesses that he has watched over us through the darkness of the night. Every moment that glides away invites us to bless him who is the light and strength of our life. Are we in adversity, and oppressed by trials and suffer îngs; scarcely have we felt the weight of our affliction, when our merciful Protector enables us to support them; his victorious arm is stretched forth to assist us, and all our difficulties vanish. Let us never forget this, nor indulge the fear of being abandoned by God, who loves all his children: and may we ever submit to his holy will, and bless all his dispensations; convinced that he will accomplish his merciful designs, for he is omnipotent in counsel, and abundant in means. NOVEMBER XXX. Grateful Remembrance of past Mercies. ALMIGHTY GOD! thou art the common Father of all the generations which dwell on the earth; thou art my Father also. May I feel myself entirely dependent upon thee, not only for my existence, but also for every thing that I possess. I bless thee, and give thee thanks, for the life which thou hast given me, and for all the mercies which thou hast granted me unto the present hour. I bless thy providence for the endearing ties of my family, and for all the comforts and pleasures that I enjoy in domestic life. I am thankful for the life and health which I enjoy, for the abundance of my food and raiment, and for the conveniences of my habitation. I thank thee for the success thou hast given to my enterprises, and the labours of my vocation; for all the blessings that thy bountiful hand has daily conferred upon me, and for every thing that has contributed to my preservation and happiness. I ought also to bless thee, because, when thou at any time didst permit adversity and affliction to visit my habitation, thou didst not leave me hopeless, or without consolation. In the midst of my trials, and the just chastisements which, for my good, thou hast sometimes been pleased to inflict upon me, thou didst not abandon me; but did soften and render mild the corrections which I suffered, and didst vouchsafe me thy favour and heavenly regard. Thy paternal hand has always guided me, and thou hast rejoiced to do me good. From the experience which I have had of thy goodness, I will feel a confidence in thee, and commit into thy hands all my concerns and interests; and I will dare to hope, that long as it shall please thee to continue the thread of my life, thou wilt continue to watch over me, and, as far as thou deemest it consistent with my real happiness, wilt preserve me from all the evils and accidents that would disturb my repose. Grant, then, O Lord, that I may enjoy with a wise and grateful heart the favours that thou bestowest upon me; that in prosperity my soul may aspire after thee, the Author of all good; and that if thou hast decreed, in the impenetrable counsels of thy wisdom, that I should experience affliction and disappointment, I may submit with unfeigned resiguation to all thy dispensations; and glorify thee to the utmost of my ability, whether basking in the sunshine of prosperity, or stemming the rough tide of adversity. DECEMBER I. Hymn of Praise. WHEN I reflect upon the unmerited mercies which I have received from thy hands, O Lord, my soul is astonished, and lost in admiration. Overwhelmed with thy goodness, my heart swells with joy, and I am unable to express the transports of my gratitude. While yet asleep, unconscious of life in my mother's womb,'thy guardian cares watched over me; and when I first drew my breath, thou didst incline thy ear to my infant cries; my tender lips could not then utter thy praises, and thou didst condescend to listen to my feeble accents, before they were formed into prayers; and when, in the thoughtlessness of youth, my steps wandered far from the path of virtue, thy merciful goodness recalled me to a sense of duty. In danger, and in distress, thou hast ever been my rock and my fortress; and hast often preserved me from the snares of vice, the most dangerous of all enemies. When death hovered over me, and a morbid paleness was diffused over my countenance, thou didst rekindle the almost expiring lamp of life; and when the recollection of my past sins imbittered by soul, thy grace afforded me consolation and support. Blessed be thy name, who hast loved me so well; who hast bestowed on me the sweets of friendship, and the ties of affection! Thou hast granted me the greatest blessing that the mind of man can conceive, for which this heart, entirely consecrated to thee, desires to exalt thee: the greatest good which can be enjoyed on earth, gracious God, thou has given me the permission to approach thy throne, to celebrate thy mercy, and to glorify thy adorable name.. In my fears and in my distresses, in my dangers and tribulations, I will confide in thy mercy alone; and, supported by thee, death will lose all its terrors. When the heavens shall pass away with a mighty noise, and the fabric of the universe be dissolved, I will rise above the ruins, and bless the omnipotent arm that upheld me, amid the crash of a wrecked world. O God, eternity itself is too short to utter all thy praise! DECEMBER II. Era of the Creation of the World, and If we fix the epoch of the creation of the world according to the testimony of the sacred writings, it has scarcely subsisted six thousand years. Those who suppose it to be of much more ancient date, are contradicted by reason and the monuments of history, which have escaped the dilapidations of time. The history of the human race does not go farther back than that which has been transmitted to us by Moses, for all else that has been said respecting the origin of ancient nations has been advanced without proofs; neither does it extend beyond the deluge. As to the chronological books of the Chinese, they are evidently filled with falsities. The Phenicians have no historian more ancient than Sanchoniatho, who lived after Moses. The Egyptian history does not go beyond Ham, the son of Noah; and the books of the Jewish lawgiver remain to be the most ancient, as well as authentic, of all the monuments of antiquity. If we consider the arts invented by men, we shall find that few of them have been known more than two or three thousand years. Man, whose nature and reason give him an aptitude for the arts and sciences, is also stimulated to it by necessity, and the desire of obtaining conveniences and pleasures; and by his vanity and ambition, as well as by luxury, the child of abundance, which creates new wants. This has been evident amongst men in all ages. History informs us of the epoch when men had scarcely invented the most necessary arts, and when those which were known were very imperfectly understood, and when they were ignorant of the first principles of the sciences. Four thousand years ago, men were in a great state of ignorance with respect to most subjects; and if we calculate the progress that they have made since that period, and then go back to the remotest ages, we may, with some degree of certainty, determine the epoch when men knew nothing, or in other words, that of the birth of the human race. If their existence was to be dated farther back, it would have been impossible that the most useful and necessary arts should have remained unknown, during a long series of ages. On the contrary, all that the human mind was capable of discovering would have been long since known; and from this circumstance we must then necessarily conclude, that the origin of the human race could have had no other era than that assigned by Móses in his history of the creation. It is absurd to suppose, that pen, during the space of so many thousand years, should have remained enveloped in darkness, and plunged in a lethargic stupor, from which they suddenly awoke, and all at once invented different arts, and procured for themselves all the comforts and pleasures of life. It may be also remarked, that the greatest part of Europe was formerly covered by immense forests, very few cities, towns, or villages, then existing; consequently, the number of its inhabitants must then have been much less than at present. Germany, for instance, was one continued forest, from which we may judge of the paucity of its inhabitants. Men, at first, could only cultivate the open spaces which were found in certain parts of the forests; they had no private property in land, and yearly changed their abode. In all Germany, there was not a single fruit⚫tree; acorns alone were produced. If we wish to draw a .parallel between the inhabitants of ancient, and those of |