weak consciences of others; and thus, by the constant expectation of evil, it is really led to the uniform dread of its approach; and life is passed between the danger of doing wrong, and the fear lest it should not do right, or of doing right, at an unfavourable period. But knowledge is power; and with the aid of modesty and diffidence it will supersede all these unreal terrors, and lead to firm and dignified continuance in well-doing.

SECTION V. On Gratitude-on Ingratitude. a. Gratitude.

GRATITUDE is the return of a sensitive and justly balanced mind, accorded to a benefactor, either in action, or at least in the wishes of the heart, for benefits previously conferred. It is the dew of blessing upon the thirsty land, which is returned in fruitfulness, breathed out in a purified atmosphere, exhaled in fragrance, and exhibited in the freshness of life, and in varied tints of inimitable beauty. It is the humble offering of the feeble for protection; of the needy for support; of the weak for strength; of the houseless and friendless, for countenance and defence; of the sorrowing for consolation; of the widow, and the orphan, and the destitute, for that compassionate care which their situation demands. It is the offspring of religion; it lives within its circle; is

governed by its motives; is cherished by the Spirit of Grace; thrives in its beams; withers in their absence; is fostered by the ray of principle, and chilled when deprived of its influence; it is rendered delicate and noble by feeling, while it is annihilated by selfishness. Too frequently does this principle degenerate into a mere form of polite words without meaning, or any corresponding mental emotion, when exercised towards man : too frequently does it become the merely customary thanksgiving, the dissociated expression of unheeded gratitude towards God, whose unwearied kindness is hourly exhibited in the events of his providence, and in the designs of his grace; the emotion of the heart has changed sides with the customary expression of automatic thankfulness; and that which should be the remembrance of kindness and obligation, accompanied by the desire of requiting it, has become a mere form of words, pronounced by the thoughtless lip, and uttered by the thankless heart; the impression of mercies received has been dissipated by the frivolities of the day; too often has it been supplanted by acts of hostility and rebellion; the recollection of obligation has become irksome, and has even sometimes led to a dislike of the person by whom favours have been accorded, and to alienation from him. Thus has it been with man's wicked heart towards his highest benefactor; his constant care and unnumbered blessings seem only to have aroused a spirit of forgetfulness of his claims to gratitude

and love. Man lives in the atmosphere which surrounds him, and cannot exist without it, yet he employs his breath in blaspheming the name of his Creator and Preserver; he rejoices in the light of the sun, yet employs its beams for every purpose except that of doing the will of God, and of living to his glory; he hails with delight the removal of its glorious ray, and courts the returning season of repose, yet again devotes it to the perpetration of deeds of darkness with greater impunity; he is gratified by the revolving seasons, and yet each spring and autumn, summer and winter, find his heart more hardened, more distant from doing the will of the Supreme, the righteous Governor of the universe; he is indebted to Providence for health, and the continued play of his bodily organs, together with all the comforts connected with them, and yet yields that body as the servant of sin; he is disobedient, unthankful, unholy.

While then gratitude may be pronounced to be the memory of the heart, it can only be received with this limitation; it is so in a state of innocence alone, or as it may have regained some portion of its high original, by the renewing influence of divine grace; as the desert may have again blossomed, and burst into fruitfulness; as the winter of distance from God may have been exchanged for the invigorating beams of the sun of righteousness. In every work of God, however, the traces of justice as well as of mercy are discernible; and as gratitude ought to flow from a recollection

of the feeling of past kindness, and to prove a centre of happiness in the retrospect; so is that very memory a source of punishment to the ungrateful: the broken images of unrequited benevolence haunt their days, fill them with impressions of remorse, and disturb their sleep with dreams of horror; the consciousness of deserving ill from those around him, makes a coward of the man; he trembles in darkness, finds an enemy in every undefined form, and nourishes the plant of anguish in his bosom, even from the very complacency of those whom he has injured, and from whom he might have expected a very different return.

Genuine gratitude does not consist in profession; it does not exhaust itself in mere words; the assurances of feeling are very little worth, unless they are attended by practical consequences; deeds, not words, are the test of the existence of this principle, as well as of its measure; for however a grateful individual may want the power or the opportunity of showing his thankfulness, yet the feeling will be prevalent, and will avail itself of every means of exhibiting its tendency. It will not find excuses for indolence in its peculiar situation, but will invent occasions for showing what is the real bias of the heart.

The influence of gratitude should be permanent, not the transient feeling of momentary excitement, but the high and principled emotion of the heart. This unfortunately is not its usual course, for however deeply it may be felt upon the im

mediate spur of the occasion which has developed its exercise, it is commonly less and less vivid, in proportion to the real amount of the obligation conferred; and as the present period of time is more and more distant from the reception of the benefit. The former of these causes arises from the indulgence of that silly pride and vanity, which recoils from the feeling of having received an obligation, and the consciousness of having needed it; and the second from that law of nature, by which all impressions which are not studiously encouraged, become fainter in their colours, fade, and are almost completely effaced, by the mere inertness of memory; a law, which in the present instance, is commonly more than usually operative, from the studious desire with which man remembers to forget the kindnesses he has received; and from that awkward feeling of dependence, which arises as its consequence, and which his haughty spirit cannot brook!

It is then a noble and elevated sentiment; it is to be perfected by education, and by just views of the misery, and helplessness, and feebleness of man, his need of support, his constant requirement of mercy, his entire dependence for every blessing he enjoys on him who dispenses the largess of his bounty to his creatures; and the absolute duty of evincing gratitude, and seeking to please Him, by doing his will and living to his glory. Gratitude to our fellow-man will necessarily flow from a heart which is filled with thankfulness to its God and Saviour, the great design