imagination! On its wings he can fly back to the remotest ages, and live the lives of all antiquity; or sail down the stream of time, until he reach that period when "the heavens and the earth shall be no more." Flying from world to world, he gazes on all the glories of creation; or, lighting on the distant margin of the universe, darts the eye of fancy over those trackless regions where creative power never yet exerted itself, and where barren darkness still holds its unmolested reign.

Is it possible that a being, possessed of such astonishing powers, should spring up uncaused? Surely reason must reject such a palpable absurdity: the very existence, then, of man, proves the being of a God. Not only man, but every object of creation, points to the Creator. Not a plant, nor a flower, but proclaims his existence. It is impossible for human wit to produce a single spire of grass. Art may imitate, but cannot rival, nature. Though sculpture and painting have been brought to a degree of excellence that exhibits the astonishing powers of the human mind, yet it is impossible for the most eminent artist to imitate with exactness the shading or texture of a single rose-leaf. The copy still wants many of the peculiar properties of the original;

and though its shades may be executed with such a masterly hand as to deceive the most accurate eye, though the pencil of the artist may delineate the verdant landscape, in all its softening .shades, yet he cannot give life and motion to inanimate canvass: his foliage is undisturbed by the breath of the zephyr, nor can he make the painted brook murmur down the sylvan scene. These imperfections of human art show that man is a being of limited capacities; consequently they imply a Creator who possesses powers adequate to their production. It is only when human reason has become blinded by the mists of error and vice, that man has had the effrontery to deny his Crea

tor.

Beware, dear Julia, how you indulge this erroneous sentiment. Well saith the sacred book, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God;" for the man of understanding can never dispute a truth which every object conspires to prove.

Admitting, then, that there is a God, selfexistent and independent, how important is it that we form right conceptions of his nature and attributes! These, so far as they appear without the light of revelation, constitute what is called natural religion. But, thanks be to God,

through the Gospel of Jesus Christ we are shown a more excellent way.

If we admit the least possible deficiency in his character, we dethrone Divinity: hence it follows, that the system of the universe is the best possible system that infinite wisdom could devise, or infinite power accomplish. What then is man, that he should charge Omnipotence with folly; or say to his Creator, "Why hast thou formed me thus?" The same power that was adequate to the production of man is adequate to his preservation; nor can we suppose a Being of infinite perfection would exert his creative power merely to produce subjects for annihilation. Thence we infer that man is endued with a soul that is subject to no decay.

Man is composed of two essential properties, material and immaterial. That the soul of man is not matter, is easily demonstrated from natural reason. Matter possesses three essential qualities, viz., solidity, extension, and divisibility; and each of these several qualities is essentially requisite to form a material substance. But the soul, what is it? My body possesses a peculiar figure, and occupies a certain space in the universe: but can I show you the figure or dimensions of my soul?

Every substance is composed of smaller

particles of matter; and these again of atoms more minute, to an almost infinite divisibility. But can you divide idea? can you separate thought? Matter will not work upon it. What is it, then? what is this indescribable inhabitant of my material body, that governs all its actions, and controls even the minutest motions? Divest me of it, and I become an inanimate mass, incapable of the smallest degree of activity. The hand that is now employed in tracing these imperfect ideas is but the mere vehicle of the intellect. In truth, the immateriality of the soul so evidently appears, that to bestow argument on the subject is like lighting tapers to assist the sun in illuminating the world. the soul be immaterial, it follows that it is immortal: it is an universal axiom, that the effect partakes of the nature of the cause: an immortal being, therefore, would not create a soul for annihilation.

If

Never be tempted, my dear friend, to renounce your immortality. Deprived of this soul-cheering hope, human nature is plunged at once into the abyss of absolute wretchedness. Take away the hope of immortality, and you plant thorns in the path, and shed an impervious gloom over the prospects of the virtuous. Erase this conviction from the heart, and you

take away every incentive to virtue and moral rectitude. Then, dear Julia, let us not consider this question a matter of mere speculative curiosity; let us act with the deepest sincerity; let us humbly own our God; let us worship; let us reverence; let us adore. Happy indeed are they who rely with filial confidence on the favour of God. While the wretched sons and daughters of dissipation, in the pursuit of visionary pleasures, rush madly on in the career of folly, and, to quiet the upbraidings of conscience, endeavour to persuade themselves that they are the mere mushrooms of a day, and renounce the glorious hope of happiness beyond the grave; how must the thought of death embitter all their pleasures! to such is the end of all hope: clouds, and shadows rest upon it." conviction of their own immortality will at length overtake them; and how will they dare to appear before the offended majesty of that God whose very being they have denied?

The grave "darkness,

The keen

But suppose some few, indeed, so far immersed in infidelity as to retain their effrontery in the hour of death: shall we draw aside the curtain of eternity, and follow these deluded wretches to a world of spirits? There the fond dream of annihilation is over; the infa

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