hearers, has been, in all ages of the world, the nutriment of the mind and the wages of industry to the wifeft and beft among the fons of men.

Our faviour likewife, that fublime exemplar to the wife and good, feems thus to have thought and judged on this material point. He withdrew not indeed from the company of his brethren, nor from populous towns and cities, not even from the capital itself; as he could there beft profecute the work his father had commiffioned him to carry on, the work of enlightening and improving his contemporaries and mankind in general. Yet thefe populous cities and towns were not his conftant refidence. At times he forfook them, retired, as it is faid in our text, to the defert, that is, to fome unfrequented or lefs frequented place. At times, as we are likewife told in the chapter whence our text is taken, he afcended the mountain, and there paffed the evening alone. There he recruited his fpirits after the wearisome labours of the day; thought upon his grand concern; collected, by contemplation and prayer, by familiar converfe with his heavenly father, fresh energies for accomplishing his work on earth; recreated himself in thinking on what he had already done, and what remained for him ftill to do; and was happy in the fentiment of his dignity and his proximity to him that fent him.

Few of us, my dear friends, are deficient in opportunities for making fimilar experiences and en

joying fimilar fatisfactions. Many are fo circumftanced as to be able to pass a longer or a fhorter period of the fummer in the enjoyment of their gardens or the pleasures of the country. But whether we turn thefe excurfions to fuch account as becomes rational and wife perfons; whether we extract as much utility and instruction from them as they are capable of yielding; is what I fhall now strive to render eafy for you to answer. To that end, I fhall point out to you in a few fhort obfervations, how inftructive a stay in the country is and may be to the man of reflection, the chriftian.

The time we fpend in the country, my pious hearers, is inftructive in regard to God and the relations we stand in to him; instructive in a view to the dignity and the destination of man; and inftructive in reference to our notions of happiness.

It is inftructive, I fay, firft, in regard to God and our relations to him. In the tumult of towns, in the hurry of a bufy life, in the giddy circles of amufement, meditations on God and the apprehenfion of his prefence are but too eafily prevented or effaced; there the knowledge we have of him is too frequently but a dead letter, and the use we make of it only a mechanical operation of the mind. But in the midst of the great theatre of his works, furrounded by the ftriking effects of his wisdom and bounty, in the enjoyment of rural tranquillity; in the open and free view of his heaven and his earth, there our feelings are quite different, there we intimately

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timately feel that in him we live and move and have our being; that we inhale his air, are enlightened and warmed and cheered by his fun, that we are invigorated by his power and elevated to him, and are encompaffed on all fides with the bounties and bleffings he has provided for us. There the deity is in a manner near us, though he is nowhere far from any one of us. His existence is there more pofitive to us; it is demonftratively apparent; and any fecret doubts, that may poffibly arise within at other tîmes, here lofe their force. God is, and he is the creator and father of thee, and of all beings; this everything around us declares in language that cannot be mistaken. We there fee him in a manner, acting, working, imparting of himself, diffufing benefits around him with a liberal hand, and employed in the prefervation and welfare of whatever exifts and lives. The lefs we behold of human art, the more we see of nature, and the more beautiful she presents herself to us, the more does fhe lead us up to God; the more do all objects animate and exalt our ideas and apprehenfions of him. Every blade of grafs, every flower of the field, every plant, every tree, every infect, every beast; the hill, the dale, the fhady woods, the funny plains, the liquid lapfe of murmuring streams, the ample sky, the rifing and the setting fun, the mild refreshing breath of evening gales, and the majestic violence of the storm, the ferenely fmiling fky, and the dark tempeftuous night, all, all we fee

above, or round about us, or beneath, proclaim to us the Allmighty, the Allwife, the Allbounteous, and his nearer prefence; all render him as it were fenfible and apparent; all call upon us to fall in adoration at his feet, to adore his majesty and to rejoice in his existence. There every thought on God in the good and fenfible man is attended with kindred emotions; and every apprehenfion of fupreme wisdom and goodness is blended in his breast with reverence, with love, with gratitude, with joy, with hope and confidence.

And here interrogate thyfelf, o man, o christian, how near or how remote, how natural or how foreign to thee is the idea of God, what impreffion it makes upon thee, what other thoughts and emotions it raises within thee. Afk thyfelf: how wert thou difpofed, what didft thou think, how didft thou feel, as thou walkedit alone across the fmiling fields, or through the flowery mead, or down the verdant lawn, or along the fhady grove, or by the ferene and placid luftre of the moon. Did not a gentle reverential tremor, did not the facred fentiment of the proximity of thy God, affect thee? Did it never happen to thee as if thou fawft the Lord, as erft he was feen in paradise, walking amongft his creatures, as if thou heard it him talking to thee, and explaining to thee his will and his defigns? And if this holy fentiment have fallen to thy lot, if it have ever penetrated thy heart; what love to thy creator and father, what

truft in his benignity and providence, what zeal to do his will and to promote his views, what benevo lent difpofitions towards all thy fellow-creatures, what aspirations after fuperior perfection and blifs, must it have excited in thee! Happy they, who, are able to recollect many fuch blissful moments! To them the idea of God is not a stranger. It is a vital principle in their foul, and procures them exquifite fatisfaction and delight.

Rural life is fecondly, very inftructive in regard to the real worth and the deftination of man. Here, my chriftian, brother, here man fhews himfelf to thee more in the true character of man, ftripped of all outward and dazzling distinctions; here mayft thou better learn to rate him as what he is; learn what confers upon him in quality of man, his proper, his intrinfic worth. A found, robuft body; a found independent mind; a cheer, ful temper; an honeft heart, glowing with love. to God and man; a prudent and active industry in his profeffion; wisdom, founded on years and experience; virtue that confifts more in actions than in words; docility, not indeed making us more learned, but better and more calm within: these are of greater account there than birth and rank and ftation, fuperior to all the borrowed fplendour, with which the rich and great make fuch parade; and thefe alone, both there and everywhere, compose the real worth of man, Learn then to eftimate thyfelf and the inhabitants of towns by this ftandard;