first days of creation, when the mind looks back upon the past, and recognises the power of God and the glory of Omnipotence; with what reverential and highly wrought feeling must it survey his handyworks, as they were successively ushered into existence for the use and the enjoyment of the beings he had formed! Yet how does the tone of these feelings become tinged with regret and sorrow, when we reflect how all of them have been injured; how their beauty has been dimmed; how their perfection has been impaired; how their magnificence has been blasted! When we now look upon creation, we behold it not in its original grandeur; nor hear we the voice of the present God communing with us in his mercy, in that sensible manner, in which it was originally heard; for when sin threw desolation over the earth, the visible presence of the Deity became rarely manifested. In the first days there was no thorn or thistle upon the earth; all that the garden of Paradise contained was good; the creatures within it were all innocent and happy. There

was then no misery, no care, no death; but the prospect of an eternal happiness, which was, in all probability, to follow man's terrestrial stay in Paradise, was before him, as an indication of the glorious object of his Being. So that when we survey the works of creation, we must remember, that they are not as they came from Deity, but that they now are polluted by sin. Nevertheless, there is majesty in the ruins, there is the stamp of Divinity still resting upon them, that bespeaks the Author with an evidence which cannot be controverted. The sun may not shine forth with his original strength, the paleness of the moon may be but a shadow of the brightness of that luminary, when it was first set in the firmament to rule the night, and the dimness of the stars but faint representations of that Divine glory which God imparted to these constellations. The earth in some

degree may have gone back to its original chaos, and the whole beauty of creation may have dwindled into a shadow of its original lustre. And while these have changed, man has not continued motion

less; the same cause has reduced his glory, stripped him of the likeness of God, defaced the Divine image, introduced to him his present sufferings, and led him on by a rapid decay to the corruptions of the grave. But yet in the desolation, vivid traces of the Divine hand are to be seen. There is still the glory of God resting upon the ruin; there is still the rationality upon the mind that distinguishes him from the other living creatures, whose subjection to man remains unalterable. Man stands forth in the world now, like some magnificent building which has received the blast of the tempest, or like some beautiful production of nature, whose original grandeur has been destroyed by the heavings of the earthquake, or the shocks of long past ages. But those vestiges of beauty which are left, lead the eye from nature's work to nature's God; the intellect, though degraded, still possesses the power to contemplate "the wondrous works of God," and can look back with veneration upon its own original purity, and forward to the great and eternal destiny of the soul. That

is the evidence of God's work :-the body by sin hath gathered to itself disease and death, but within that shell lies the soul that never dies. Oh! when we gaze upon ourselves, there is enough to compel us to acknowledge "the wondrous works of God." The body manifests the creation of God, the soul proves his existence; and its higher aspirations and search for the supreme God attest its eternal destiny, evince that it was not intended to be restricted to this sublunary sphere, but to return to him from whom it came. Oh! wondrous and incomprehensible! Man is "fearfully and wonderfully made." We are compelled to look from the work to the Author, to acknowledge his power, his honour, and his glory.

But a far greater manifestation of God's glory, is observable in the work of redemption; to effect which, the Son of God disdained not to clothe himself in human flesh; the Creator to assume the form of the creature. Ere this redemption can be appreciated and effective, there must be a thorough change of the human heart; in

its natural state, man cannot find out his own sin; he cannot feel the wreck of his nature, through the disobedience of the apostate. There must be a change in the mind and in the heart of man; he must feel his weakness, and his dependent state; he must have the grace of God to enable him to estimate God's love and his own inefficiency. And the more knowledge he shall gain respecting his own state, the more will he esteem the value of redemption. The love of God will rise before his eye, as he recognises the inheritance of Adam, and the deadliness of his own sin. The knowledge of himself is the first stepping-stone to holiness, and leads, by God's help, to everlasting life; for unless the cause be known, the value of redemption cannot be conceived. So that we must look upon the ruin, we must dwell upon the wreck of man, we must reduce the pride of the heart, we must consider the creature fallen from his primary purity, we must consider him left in the world, with no hand to save, no voice to cheer; we must look upon him,