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heart-rending cares endowed with faculties cap- 

 able of comprehending the most sublime mys- 

 teries, yet grovelling in the dust, and expending 

 his powers on empty trifles glowing with hopes 

 and desires which look beyond the bounds of 

 time and grasp eternity, yet fixing his affections 

 on this little spot of earth, contented with plea- 

 sures which perish in the using, and, after drag- 

 ging out a few miserable and inglorious years, 

 sinking at last into the silent tomb and mingling 

 with the clods of the valley : such is man in his 

 natural state, fallen, guilty, and mortal; a wretch- 

 ed outcast of nature, and a blot on the face of 

 creation ! 



But how does revelation explain this dark mys- 

 tery ? It tells us that the present world is not the 

 ultimate destiny of man that he is here in a state 

 of preparation for immortality, and that, if he is 

 not wanting to himself, he will rise more vigor- 

 ous and lovely from his fall, assuming a new 

 character, and taking a higher station in the scale 

 of existence ; it exhibits the Almighty to us in 

 the character of a Father chastising his undutiful 

 children for their profit, bringing good out of ap- 

 parent evil, employing sin and death as the hand- 

 maids of holiness and immortality, making pain, 

 disappointment and grief the harbingers of eter- 

 nal joy, and converting the curse which blighted 

 the earth into a blessing. 



It is impossible to take up the subject in this 

 light, without perceiving how astonishingly the 

 appearances of nature harmonize with those of 



