your heart, therefore, be troubled: though I am going to leave you in a world, where you will seem likely to become a helpless prey, to the rage and power of your enemies: believe in God, the Almighty Guardian of his faithful servants, who has made such glorious promises, to prosper and succeed the cause in which you are engaged; and believe also in me as the promised Messiah, who, whether present or absent in the body, shall always be mindful of your concerns, as well as ever able to help you.

Hail, heavenly peace of mind!

Thy dwelling place serene

No mortal e'er can find,

In all this earthly scene;

I sought, in vain, the gift divine,

Till faith in Jesus made thee mine.

Rev. T. RAFFLES.

212 Than fruits of palm-tree pleasantest to thirst And hunger both,

Palma, the palm-tree. Boerhaave's characters of this tree are, that its fruit, under an edible pulp, hath a hard strong nucleus, like the stone of a plum. But to this may be added, that the palm-tree rises up with one single and individual trunk. The species are numerous: Boerhaave mentions nine, Dale adds six, and Ray increases the number to twenty more. Some of the most noted are, the Palma Ady; a palm-tree in the island of St. Thomas, which affords plenty of juice, that ferments into wine. The entire fruit is called, by the Portuguese, caryoces and cariosse: the natives call it abanga. The fruit ex

ternally, is like a lemon, and contains a stone, the kernel of which, if heated in hot water, gives out an oil of a saffron colour; it concretes in the cold, and is used as butter of these kernels, the inhabitants give three or four, as a restorative, two or three times a day. The Palma Coccifera, also called the Coco, or Cocker Nut tree: from this tree the Indians extract a liquor called suri, and distil the liquor called arrac from it; also a species of sugar called jagra. The milk in the shell of the nut is grateful and cooling. The exterior covering of the nuts are at first edible, and are gratefully acid, and gently restringent. By boiling, an oil, like that from almonds, is obtained from the kernel of the nut. The Palma Japonica, also called sagou; the pith of the tree, being well beat in a mortar with water, forms an emulsion, the fæcula of which, when dried, is sago, which is very nourishing, and is used by the Indians when rice is scarce: when boiled in water, it is resolved into an insipid, almost transparent, jelly. It is readily soluble, and properly given, in this country, as an aliment to weakly persons. Palma Nobilis, the cabbage tree; the cabbages of which are called chou de palmiste. It is a tall strait tree, between two hundred and fifty and three hundred feet high. On the top is a white tender savoury, medullary substance, which, if eaten raw, is to the taste like a walnut; but boiled, and pickled with the white leaves which surround it, it is one of the greatest delicacies in the Leeward Islands. This fruit is called the cabbage of the palm-tree. On the the top of the trunk grows the involucrum

of the flower and fruits called spatha: the fruits are round, and the size of an egg. The Dactylus Palmula, the great palm-tree, or date-tree, is cultivated in the southern parts of Europe; its fruit is oblong, larger than an acorn, and includes a stone. The best dates come from Tunis: they are eaten as food in Africa.

Abundantly his gifts hath also pour'd

Thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation ; and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great. Psalms, xviii. 35. Sweet mercy drops,

As gentle dew from heaven, on earth beneath:
Twice blessed is it; for on him that gives,
No less than him that takes, descends the balm
Of mercy's benediction: 'tis a gem

Adorns the monarch far beyond his crown;
For 'tis of heaven itself the attribute;
And tow'rd celestial earthly deeds approach,
When mercy seasons justice.

So sang SHAKSPEARE. 224 Nor less think we in heaven of thee on earth Than of our fellow servant,

For I am thy fellow servant: I am subject to the same Lord, and share in the duty and service of thy brethren the prophets: worship God alone, and divide not thy religious homage between him and any creature, how exalted and excellent

soever.

Ye servants of th' Almighty Lord,
The honours of his name record;

253

His sacred name for ever bless.
Let lands and seas his power confess.

He reigns where'er the sun displays
His rising beams, or setting rays;
Nor time, nor nature's narrow rounds,
Can give his vast dominion bounds.

He bows his glorious head to view
What the bright host of angels do;
And though he reigns the King of kings,
Yet bends his care to mortal things.

As new awak'd from soundest sleep,
Soft on the flow'ry herb I found me laid

406

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

At last, to shew my Maker's name,

God stamp'd his image on my frame ;
And, in some unknown moment join'd,
The finish'd members to the mind.

There the young seeds of thought began,
And all the passions of the man:

Great God, our infant nature pays

Immortal tribute to thy praise! WATTS. for none I know

Second to me or like, equal much less.

444

That thou mayest know, there is none like unto Jehovah. Exod. viii. 10.

Knew it not good for man to be alone,

Even this spot was not completely happy,

God indeed was the

without suitable society.
friend of man, and held familiar intercourse with
him; the angels also frequently visited their
younger brother, to instruct him in important
subjects, and to enlighten his mind with valuable
knowledge. "And the Lord God caused a deep
sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept ; and he took
one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof.
And the rib which the Lord God had taken from
man, made he a woman, and brought her unto
""
the man." Gen. ii. 21.

I now see

Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself

All was harmony and beauty, and innocence, throughout the creation, while man retained his integrity. On his obedience depended the happiness of this world. He stood the representative of the whole extended line of his posterity; and, in some measure, that of all animated nature, and even of the globe itself. "And Adam said, This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; she is called woman, because she was taken out of man." Gen. ii. 23.

632 Hesperian sets, my signal to depart,

Hesper, or Vesper; the setting sun, or the evening.

639 Him whom to love is to obey, and keep

His great command;

This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. 1 John, v. 3. Wonder not that I insist so much on the influence of religious principles, on the life and conversation. For this is the love of God, this is the great evidence we are to