How simple is true wisdom! Here you have it declared in the fewest and plainest words, that all good is from the One Great Source of all things, but that the benefit depends on the use made of it. The whole of man's duty may be said to be comprised in this short statement :-gratitude to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, and the just application of that gift in humble dependence on Him. One can scarcely conceive any advice more fitted to direct the course of the human vessel clear from the two extremes of enthusiastic abuse; from presumption on one hand, and from indolence on the other; the Scylla and Charybdis of religious life. I am not equally sure that the Poet has done justice to his subject, in the confined explanation which follows: That is, to thy obedience: therein stand. 1. 522. Obedience is undoubtedly the rule in an early stage of regeneration. Then is the childhood of the spiritual career; and then are the discipline and government needed which are suited to childhood. The knowledge, as well as the inclination, is yet wanting, which is requisite to supply a higher motive. Obedience is thus an admirable preparation for better things, by making the practice of virtue habitual. But if the mind stand therein, if it stop there, it will undoubtedly sink by degrees to an abject state of slavery. It will be the bondsman who, when the seventh year came round, on refusing to be free, had his ear bored at the doorpost, and remained a bondsman for ever. When obedience has done its turn, some knowledge, some taste of goodness must have been acquired; and the mind is ready to mount. It then obeys, not only because obedience is enjoined, but because a conviction of the blessings of obedience is the motive which has superseded that of command. As again, on further progress, the motive of conviction is superseded by that of inclination, when duty is performed, both because it has been ordered, and because it is known to be right, and because it is delightful. Then, and not before, may we say, For, we are not under the law, but under grace. The harsh ness of command has disappeared, and that is verified which is often grievously overlooked, Love is the fulfilling of the law. I cannot help thinking that some such views must have crossed Milton's mind when he wrote, God made thee perfect, not immutable. 7. 524. Because, though the hint is made introductory to the possibility of a change for the worse only, yet it must imply the possibility of a change for the better too; otherwise the perfection would be sadly imperfect. As if the instructing Angel had said, Perfection lies not in the magnitude of the blessings bestowed, but in the faithfulness of man to the measure of those blessings, whatever that measure may be; with a capacity, however, on his part, by faithfulness, to become fit for receiving more. Were it not so, happiness would be without its only solid foundation, employment in the Divine service for the heavenly purpose of helping one another to further improvement and bliss. Perfection would be an empty name. It is evident indeed that the state of the heart is made the grand point; for there follows, Our voluntary service he requires, Not our necessitated; such with him Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for how l. 529. Still, obedience may for awhile be willing, though not in a high degree, when unaccompanied by conviction and delight. It will be more willing when conviction comes to its aid; but most of all when there is delight in obedience to what is known to be right. When we read the impressive truths dropped from the angelic lips, we can hardly stop short of realizing the scene: we find ourselves ready to believe that the same goodness must still follow mankind in these days. I am sure they need it. We think that if we too read the Holy Volume in that teachable disposition of mind which is ever ready to make a sacrifice of its own acquirements, we shall have a sense of the same angelic influence, exerted to direct it aright to the discovery of those sacred realities which may restore us to a state of innocence. Why should not heaven be still near? be still making itself felt, and, if the poet be correct, even visible in Nature, for the strength and comfort of man? Though what if Earth Be but the shadow' of Heav'n, and things therein, Each to' other like, more than on earth is thought? 1. 574. Surely this is an arrangement worthy of the wisdom and goodness of the Author of both Heaven and Earth: of Him who leaves nothing undone to show his fallen creatures the way back to happiness, even by summoning their bodily senses to aid. This were indeed to make the heavens his throne and the earth his footstool. Well-meaning persons however there are, who partly from a narrow education, partly from their own weak faculties, shrink from such an union betwixt heaven and earth. They would still have the earth without form and void, and preserve darkness on the face of the deep. They are apt to foresee the growth of a crop of wild fancies, and to stigmatize as arrogant and presumptuous every endeavour to store the mind with previous knowledge of that abode which, in the order of Divine mercy, was intended for its final home. Doubtless, whatever knowledge of heaven is sought from its manifestations on earth, may, like other blessings, be sought in a wrong spirit. Doubtless, knowledge so gained, will engender pride and arrogance. But to me it seems just as much a mark of pride and arrogance, to turn one's back on the means which the Almighty may have mercifully provided for enlightening the mind; to reject them, merely because they may be abused. Such an act partakes of the very spirit which said, “We will not have this man to reign over us." And that He has provided these means, is evident, to me at least, from the constant reference in His Revealed Wisdom to earthly objects as a suitable vehicle for spiritual realities. Undeterred therefore by the warning of these personages, I shall proceed to notice an instance of resemblance, given by Raphael, between the two states of existence. Evening now approach'd (For we have also' our evening and our morn, 7.627. In this quotation several things are worthy of remark. The angel does not say night: in fact, he afterwards expressly rejects it : In darker veil. for night comes not there 7.645. The total absence of light would be a state incompatible with angelic perfection. He conveys to the mind no idea but that of a variation from a greater to a less, followed by one from a less to a greater degree of light. One unvarying, unbroken glare would, in this world, soon become painful : The mind experiences a sensation exactly similar. The celebrated critic Longinus has noticed this essential quality of the mind. He has no passage more striking than where he shews that the transition is as essential to good writing as to fine painting. The benefit of the transition is therefore founded on the mind itself, and must consequently be applicable to created beings in whatever state of existence. Change, whether of feelings or of thoughts; an alteration in them betwixt a greater and a less degree of activity, seems indispensable to all who feel and think. On this account the correctness of the last two words of the quotation may be doubted. On this account too, we may see the reasonableness of the sacred text, Because they have no changes, they fear not God. In the present state, we have night; which is no less instructive, in showing how regularly and repeatedly we turn completely away from the Source of light and heat. At least, then, let us not do so in our preparation, by increase of knowledge and love, for dwelling above for ever. Surely these are no idle speculations. When we mourn over the departure of heavenly glow and illumination from our own minds, there must be mitigation to our grief in knowing that such changes are essential to our progress; and that even the angelic host have their delights increased, not to say preserved, by alternate diminution and increase in their minds. May the consideration be a comfort to your readers in their low estate! And may they never forget these glad tidings vouchsafed to them in the pages of Revelation, and confirmed by the verse of the English bard. Wishing both them and you God-speed, I am LXXIII. Your faithful servant. A COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER'S LETTERS. No. 5. SIR,-How it might be, were I in business on my own account, is not for me to say; but, looking with the eye of an independent observer, I cannot help thinking that the oftrecurring "panics" with which we are visited, would have taught me a little more wisdom than the trading world seems to have learned from them. Covetousness, we all know, is blind as a mole. "The children of this world," however, are generally "wiser in their generation" than to speculate in lotteries, or at the common gaming-table: How is it, then, that, year after year, they go on gambling in speculations almost equally delusive and hazardous; staking not only their own property, but the property of everybody who will be foolish enough to give them credit, upon the chances of war, or the uncertainty of a season? In their traffic with the East, they may have learned from the Koran, that "He who taketh advice is safe :" But instead of consulting the Bible, and such counsellors as would give them disinterested and prudent advice, and teach them that the fewer a man's wants, the less will he be a slave to the spirit of the world, they have set up oracles of their own, which, being their dependents, must above all things study to please them; by stimulating their greediness, and attributing their reverses to any other cause than their own covetousness and folly. The commercial newspapers, |