THE HYACINTH. 199 



yet lying under the condemnation of this idolatrous 

 iniquity. 



It was predicted of our blessed Lord, that he 

 should " grow up as a tender plant," and as he 

 was, so are his people in this world. To be born 

 under a dispensation of pure gospel light, and un 

 clouded truth, to sit every one under his own vine, 

 and his own fig-tree, with none to make us afraid 

 — oh, we do not properly estimate the value of 

 such distinguishing privileges. Our sons grow up 

 like young plants indeed ; but it is out of a rich, a 

 watered, a well-tempered soil, where morning 

 sunbeams play, and evening dews bring gentle re- 

 freshment ; where the hand of culture directs their 

 growth ; and the guarded fence repels every 

 prowling foe. How different is the case of him 

 who, having been reared in the hot-bed of super- 

 stition, is taken thence, and received into the shel- 

 ter of the true church of Christ, while the storms 

 of vindictive rage howl around, longing; to blight 

 the early promise of his growth, and to visit him 

 with swift destruction. 



I should sorrow to see my beautiful hyacinth 

 taken from its warm station, and placed abroad, 

 on this chilly evening, to shrink before the biting 

 frost, to bend beneath the blustering wind, and to 

 break under a load of drifted snow. If the flower 

 could reason, might it not well reproach me, under 

 the circumstances, tor hastening its birth into such 



