154 THE VOICE. 



of the father and mother, the child and friend ; and 

 beautifully suggests that it forms a necessary means 

 of cultivation in the first stages of life. It establishes 

 an intercourse between the parent and offspring, 

 when no other could be made. Its utility to us on a 

 variety of occasions opens a wide field for acknowl- 

 edging the kind purposes of Providence in endowing 

 us with this faculty. A child sinking in the water or 

 attacked by a furious animal is not left to depend up- 

 on such assistance as he may be able to command by 

 being sufficiently near and sufficiently collected to dis- 

 cribe his danger. God has given a voice to fear more 

 prompt and effectual than language. It is observ- 

 able that he has imparted to distress much more pow- 

 er in this respect than to any other class of our emo- 

 tions. We rush mechanically to the cry of pain and 

 terror. He has given a language to misery to which 

 every bosom responds ; and we see the beneficence 

 of this distinction. It shews the evident purpose of 

 a kind Creator. The misery of others requires our 

 attention, but their happiness does not. 



T. It seems unnecessary to ask what demonstrations 

 of design are discoverable in any other part of the 

 living economy, after all we have perceived of the 

 Creator's wisdom and beneficence in thoss which 

 have been noticed. But we will take a cursory view 

 of some of the principal which remain. Next to th e 

 wonderful mechanism of the parts you have described, 

 is the great chemical laboratory, or the chief alimen- 

 tary organ of the system, the stomach. 



