THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



will become the food for noisome reptiles. He 

 is every moment dependent on a Superior Being 

 for every pulse that beats, and every breath he 

 draws, and for all that he possesses ; he is de 

 pendent even on the meanest of his species for 

 his accommodations and comforts. He holds 

 every enjoyment on the most precarious tenure, 

 his friends may be snatched in a moment from 

 his embrace ; his riches may take to themselves 

 wings and fly away ; and his health and beauty 

 may be blasted in an hour, by a breath of wind. 

 Hunger and thirst, cold and heat, poverty and 

 disgrace, sorrow and disappointment, pain and 

 disease, mingle themselves with all his pursuits 

 and enjoyments. His knowledge is circum 

 scribed within the narrowest limits, his errors 

 and follies are glaring and innumerable , and he 

 stands as an almost undi.stinguishable atom, 

 amidst the immensity of God s works. Still, 

 with all these powerful inducements to the ex 

 ercise of humility, man dares to be proud and 

 arrogant. 



&quot; Man, proud Man, 



Dressed in n liule brief authority, 



Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven, 



As make the angels weep.&quot; 



How affecting to contemplate the warrior, flush 

 ed with diabolical pride, pursuing his conquests 

 through heaps of slain, in order to obtain pos 

 session of &quot; a poor pitiable speck of perishing 

 earth;&quot; exclaiming in his rage, &quot; I will pur 

 sue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoil, my 

 lust shall be satisfied upon them, I will draw 

 my sword, my hand shall destroy them&quot; to be 

 hold the man of rank glorying in his wealth, and 

 his empty titles, and looking around upon the 

 inferior orders of his fellow-mortals as the worms 

 of the dust to behold the man of ambition push 

 ing his way through bribery, and treachery, and 

 laughter, to gain possession of a throne, that he 

 may look down with proud pre-eminence upon 

 his fellows to behold the haughty airs of the 

 noble dame, inflated with the idea of her beauty, 

 and her high birth, as she struts along, surveying 

 the ignoble crowd as if they were the dust be 

 neath her feet to behold the smatterer in learn 

 ing, puffed up with a vain conceit of his super 

 ficial acquirements, when he has scarcely entered 

 the porch of knowledge in fine, to behold all 

 ranks, from the highest to the lowest, big with an 

 idea of their own importance, and fired with pride 

 and revenge at the least provocation, whether 

 imaginary or real ! How inconsistent, the mani 

 festations of such tempers, with the many humi- 

 Hating circumstances of our present condition, 

 and with the low rank which we hold in the scale 

 of Universal Being? 



It is not improbable, that there are in t\it&amp;gt; 

 universe intelligences of a superior order, in 

 whose breasts pride never found a place to 

 whom this globe of ours, and all its inhabitants, 

 appear as inconsiderable as a drop of water filled 



with microscopic animalculre, does to the prond 

 lords of this earthly region. There is at least 

 one Being to whom this sentiment is applicable, 

 in its utmost extent : &quot; Before HIM all nations 

 are as a drop of a bucket, and the inhabitants 

 of the earth as grasshoppers ; yea, they are as 

 nothing, and are counted to him less than no 

 thing, and vanity.&quot; Could we wing our way, with 

 the swiftness of a seraph, from sun to sun, and 

 from world to world, till we had surveyed all the 

 systems visible to the naked eye, which are only 

 as a mere speck in the map of the universe 

 could we, at the same time, contemplate the 

 glorious landscapes and scenes of grandeur they 

 exhibit could we also mingle with the pure and 

 exalted intelligences which people those resplen 

 dent abodes, and behold their humble and ardent 

 adorations of their Almighty Maker, their be 

 nign and condescending deportment towards 

 one another; &quot;each esteeming another better 

 than himself,&quot; and all united in the bonds of the 

 purest affection, without one haughty or discord 

 ant feeling whcit indignation and astonishment 

 would seize us, on our return to this obscure 

 corner of creation, to behold beings enveloped in 

 the mist of ignorance, immersed in depravity and 

 wickedness, liable to a thousand accidents, ex 

 posed to the ravages of the earthquake, the vol 

 cano and the storm ; yet proud as Lucifer, and 

 glorying in their shame ! We should be apt to 

 view them, r.s we now do those bedlamites, who 

 fancy themselves to be kings, surrounded by their 

 nobles, while they are chained to the walls of a 

 noisome dungeon. &quot; Sure pride was never made 

 for man.&quot; How abhorrent, then, must it appear 

 in the eyes of superior beings, who have taken 

 an expansive range through the field of creation 7 

 How abhorrent it is in the sight of the Almighty, 

 and how amiable is the opposite virltie, we learr 

 from his word : &quot; Every one that is proud in 

 heart is an abomination to the Lord.&quot; &quot; Go} 

 resisteth the proud, but givelh grace to the hum 

 ble.&quot; &quot; Thus saith the High and Lofty One 

 who inhabiteth eternity, I dwell in the high and 

 holy place ; with him also that is of ai humble 

 and contrite spirit; to revive the spirit of iho 

 humble, and the heart of the contiite ones.&quot; 

 \Vhile, therefore, we contemplate the omnipo 

 tence of God, in the immensity of creation, let 

 us learn to cultivate humility and self-abase 

 ment. This was one of the lessons which the 

 pious Psalmist deduced from his survey of the 

 nocturnal heavens. When he beheld the moon 

 walking in the brightness, and the innumerable 

 host of sters, overpowered with a sense of his 

 own insignificance, and the greatness of divine 

 condescension, he exclaimed, &quot; O Lord ! what 

 is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the SOD 

 of man, that thou shouldest visit him !&quot; 



Again, this subject is also calculated to inspire 

 us with REVERENCE and VENERATION of God. 

 Profound veneration of the Divine Being lies at 



