tious world, moderation, good nature, affability, temperance, and chastity, were the arts of his excellent life. There, as he lies in helpless agony, no wise man who knew him so well as I, but would resign all the world can bestow to be so near the end of such a life. 14. "Why does my heart so little obey my reason as to lament thee, thou excellent man? Heaven receive him or restore him! Thy beloved mother, thy obliged friends, thy helpless servants, stand around thee without distinction. How much wouldst thou, hadst thou thy senses, say to each of us? 15. "But now that good heart bursts, and he is at rest. Where are now thy plans of justice, of truth, of honour? Of what use the volumes thou hast collated, the arguments thou hast invented, the examples thou hast followed? 16. "Poor were the expectations of the studious, the modest, and the good, if the reward of their labours were only to be expected from man. No, my friend, thy intended pleadings, thy intended good offices to thy friends, thy intended services to thy country, are already performed, as to thy concern in them, in his sight before whom the past, present, and future, appear at one view. 17. "While others, with thy talents, were tcrmented with ambition, with vain-glory, with envy, with emulation, how well didst thou turn thy mind to its own improvement, in things out of the power of fortune; in probity, in integrity, in the practice and study of justice, how silent thy passage, how private thy journey, how glorious thy end! many have I known more famous, some more knowing, not one so innocent." ADDISON. LESSON XII. The Rainbow. 1. The evening was glorious, and light through the trees Play'd the sunshine and rain-drops, the birds and the breeze, The landscape, outstretching in loveliness, lay On the lap of the year, in the beauty of May. 2. For the Queen of the Spring, as she pass'd down the vale, Left her robe on the trees, and her breath on the gale; And the smile of her promise gave joy to the hours, And flush in her footsteps sprang herbage and flowers. 3. The skies, like a banner in sunset unroll'd, O'er the west threw their splendour of azure and gold; But one cloud at a distance rose dense, and increas'd, Till its margin of black touch'd the zenith, and east. 4. We gazed on the scenes, while around us they glow'd, When a vision of beauty appear'd on the cloud;— 'Twas not like the Sun, as at mid-day we view, Nor the Moon, that rolls nightly through star-light and blue. Like a spirit, it came in the van of a storm! And the eye and the heart hail'd its beautiful form. 5. For it look'd not severe, like an Angel of Wrath, But its garment of brightness illumed its dark path. In the hues of its grandeur, sublimely it stood, O'er the river, the village, the field, and the wood; And river, field, village, and woodlands grew bright, As conscious they gave and afforded delight. 6. 'Twas the bow of Omnipotence; bent in His hand, Whose grasp at Creation the Universe spann'd; 'Twas the presence of God, in a symbol sublime; His vow from the flood to the exit of Time! 7. Not dreadful, as when in the whirlwind he pleads. When storms are his chariot, and lightnings his steeds, The black clouds his banner of vengeance unfurl'd, And thunder his voice to a guilt-stricken world;In the breath of His presence, when thousands expire, And seas boil with fury, and rocks burn with fire, And the sword, and the plague-spot, with death strew ⚫ the plain, And vultures, and wolves, are the graves of the slain. 8. Not such was the Rainbow, that beautiful one! Whose arch was refraction, its key-stone-the Sun; A pavilion it seem'd which the Deity graced, And Justice and Mercy met there, and embraced; Awhile, and it sweetly bent over the gloom, Like Love o'er a death couch, or Hope o'er the tomb; Then left the dark scene; whence it slowly retired, As Love had just vanish'd, or Hope had expired. 9. I gazed not alone on the source of my song; To all who beheld it these verses belong; Its presence to all was the path of the Lord! Beheld on that cloud, and transcribed on my soul. LESSON XIII. The truth of Christianity, proved from the conversion of the Apostle Paul. 1. The conversion of St. Paul, with all its attendant circumstances, furnishes one of the most satisfactory proofs, that have ever been given, of the Divine origin of our holy religion. That this eminent person, from being a zealous persecutor of the disciples of Christ, became all at once, a disciple himself, is a fact which cannot be controverted, without overturning the credit of all history. 2. He must, therefore, have been converted in the miraculous manner alleged by himself, and of course the christian religion be a Divine revelation: or he must have been an impostor, an enthusiast, or a dupe to the fraud of others. There is not another alternative possible. 3. If he was an impostor, who declared what he knew to be false, he must have been induced to act that part, by some motive. But the only conceivable motives for religious imposture, are the hopes of advancing one's temporal interest, credit or power; .or the prospect of gratifying some passion or appetite, under the authority of the new religion. 4. Fhat none of these should be St. Paul's motives for professing the faith of Christ crucified, is plain from the state of Judaism and Christianity, at the period of his forsaking the former, and embracing the latter faith. Those whom he left, were the disposers of wealth, of dignity, of power, in Judea: those to whom he went, were indigent men, oppressed, and kept from all means of improving their fortunes. 5. The certain consequence, therefore, of his taking the part of Christianity, was the loss, not only of all that he possessed, but of all hopes of acquiring more: whereas, by continuing to persecute the Christians, he had hopes, rising almost to certainty, of making his fortune by the favour of those who were at the head of the Jewish state, to whom nothing could so much recommend him, as the zeal he had shown in that persecution. 6. As to credit or reputation, could the scholar of Gamaliel hope to gain either, by becoming a teacher in a college of fishermen? Could he flatter himself, that the doctrines which he taught would, either in or out of Judea, do him honour, when he knew that "they were to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness?" 7. Was it then the love of power that induced him to make this great change? Power! over whom? over a flock of sheep, whom he himself had endeavoured to destroy, and whose very shepherd had lately been murdered!-Perhaps it was with the view of gratifying some licentious passion, under the authority of the new religion, that he commenced a teacher of that religion? 8. This cannot be alleged: for his writings breathe nothing but the strictest morality: .obedience to magistrates, order, and government; with the utmost abhorrence of licentiousness, idleness, or loose behaviour, under the cloak of religion. 9. We no where read in his works, that saints are above. moral ordinances: that the fortunes of the rich ought to be divided among the poor, that there is no difference in moral actions; that any impulses of the mind are to direct us against the light of revealed religion and the laws of nature; or any of those wicked tenets, by which the peace of society has been often disturbed, and the rules of morality have been often violated, by men pretending to act under the sanction of Divine revelation. 10. He makes no distinctions, like the impostor of Arabia, in favour of himself; nor does any part of his life, either before or after his conversion to Christianity, bear any mark of a libertine disposition. As among the Jews, so among the Christians, his conversation and manners were blameless. 11. As St. Paul was not an impostor, so it is plain he was not an enthusiast. Heat of temper, melancholy, ignorance, credulity, and vanity, are the ingredients of which enthu siasm is composed: but from all these, except the first, the apostle appears to have been wholly free. 12. That he had great fervour of zeal, both when a Jew and when a Christian, in maintaining what he thought to be right, cannot be denied: but he was at all times so much master of his temper, as, in matters of indifference, to "become all things to all men;" with the most pliant condescension, bending his notions and manners to theirs, as far as his duty to God would permit; a conduct compatible, neither with the stiffness of a bigot, nor with the violent impulses of fanatical delusion. 13. That he was not melancholy, is plain from his conduct in embracing every method which prudence could suggest, to escape danger and shun persecution, when he could do it, without betraying the duty of his office, or, the honour of his God. A melancholy enthusiast courts persecution: and when he cannot obtain it, afflicts himself with absurd penances; but the holiness of St. Paul consisted in the simplicity of a pious life, and in the unwearied performances of his apostolical duties. 14. That he was ignorant no man will allege who is not grossly ignorant himself, for he appears to have been mas ter, not only of the Jewish learning, but also of the Greek philosophy, and to have been very conversant even with the Greek poets. 15. That he was not credulous, is plain from his having resisted the evidence of all the miracles performed on earth by Christ, as well as those that were afterwards worked by the apostles; to the fame of which, as he lived in Jerusa lem, he could not have been a stranger. And that he was as free from vanity as any man that ever lived, may be gathered from all that we see in his writings, or know of his life. 16. He represents himself as the least of the apostles, and not meet to be called an apostle. He says that he is the chief of sinners; and he prefers, in the strongest terms, universal benevolence to faith, and prophecy, and miracles, and all the gifts and graces with which he could be endowed. Is this the language of vanity or enthusiasm? 17. Having thus shown that St. Paul was neither an impostor nor an enthusiast, it remains only to be inquired, whether he was deceived by the fraud of others; but this inquiry need not be long; for who was to deceive him? |