fields in all their freshness and beauty. In this charming landscape, the cattle and the flocks, reposing or feeding in different parts of it, formed a lovely feature.

After they had feasted their eyes for a few moments, in silence, with the living picture, where all was "beauty to the eye, and music to the ear," Mr. Howard exclaimed: "Perhaps, on some such eminence as this, in Eden, ere yet man had wandered from his Maker, our first parents stood, and adored, and gave utterance to sentiments very similar to those so happily ascribed to them by Milton:

'These are thy glorious works, Parent of good! Almighty! thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair! thyself how wondrous then!'"

"I often repeat that hymn of Milton's, papa: I greatly admire it. How delightful, to celebrate the great Author of all good in such sublime language!

'Him first, Him last, Him midst, and without end.'

But you said, papa, that spring reminded you of many important truths which should interest our hearts. Will you name some more of them?"

"Most readily. The change in the seasons

reminds us very forcibly, Edwin, of that change which the divine Spirit produces on the human mind, before it can enjoy converse with God; before any one can properly say, as the Psalmist did, 'My meditation of Him shall be sweet.' The wintry day is a striking emblem of the state of the soul of every individual, till it is renewed. Until this salutary change takes place, the mind of the sinner is so benighted, that he sees no glory in God, the most glorious object in the wide universe. He discerns no evil in sin, though it has 'brought death into the world, and all our woe.' He perceives no loveliness in the Saviour, no vanity in the creature: he is conscious of no motive which should induce him to seek after a union with infinite excellence. His heart is so cold, that he is a stranger to the sweet emotions of love and gratitude; and his life is barren, like the wintry soil, of the wholesome fruits of righteousness. The day in spring, on the contrary, is obviously descriptive of the renewed soul: all is life, animation, and fruitfulness. Then, in a spiritual point of view, the eye is opened, the ear is unsealed, and the tongue is loosed in the service of God. God has spoken: he has said, 'Let there be light;' and there is light. The individual is become a new creature."

"Why, papa, does not Cowper refer to this

change, in that part of the Task which we read the other day?"

"Very likely he does: indeed, he often refers to it. He well knew the vast importance of the doctrine inculcated by the Great Teacher sent from God, when he affirmed, that 'except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' But what lines do you particularly refer to?"

"Where he says, in his Fifth Book, speak

ing of God,

Thee we reject, unable to abide

Thy purity, till, pure as thou art pure,

Made such by Thee, we love thee for that cause
For which we shunn'd and hated thee before.
Then

A voice is heard, that mortal ears hear not,
Till thou hast touch'd them; 'tis the voice of song,

A loud hosanna sent from all thy works,

Which he that hears it with a shout repeats,

And adds his rapture to the general praise.""

"This is a very fine description, Edwin, of the effect of the work of the Holy Spirit on the human heart. Oh that we may be more and more conscious of his gracious teachings!"

"I think, papa, I can anticipate you in one of your remarks. Are you not going to observe, that it is the work of the great God to renew an immortal soul?"

"I certainly was about to mention this very

evident truth.

Every good gift,' the Scrip

ture tells us, and every perfect gift, cometh from the Father of lights.' No one but he who formed the spirit, can have access to it, and change its depraved passions. No human power could have introduced the spring a month earlier, or have introduced it at all. The efforts of the greatest and best of men for the renewal of sinners, without the gracious influences of the Spirit of God, will be equally inefficacious. Without these, parental instruction, awful or pleasing providences, the removal of beloved friends, the admonitions of conscience, the most painful afflictions, surprising deliverances, or eloquent persuasions, are utterly in vain. God must speak to the dry bones, or they will not live:

• His word leaps forth at once to its effect,
He calls for things that are not, and they come.""

66

Papa, may we gain these blessed influences of God's holy Spirit, by humble and fervent prayer?"

"Yes, Edwin: God waits to be gracious to the humble suppliant. It is the express language of our Lord and Saviour, that the blessed God will much sooner give the Holy Spirit

to those who ask him, than earthly parents will confer good things on a beloved child."

"What a delightful assurance, papa! what an encouragement to prayer!"

"It is, my dear Edwin. I hope you will be often found at the mercy-seat of your heavenly Father. It is impossible you should visit it in vain. But I wish to make a few more remarks on the subject which has so delightfully and profitably employed our attention. Unthinking and ungodly men have presumed rashly and hastily to decide in reference to the wisdom and goodness of the ways and works of the Creator, though they know but a very little part of them. They act about as rationally as a person, if we may imagine such a one for a moment, who, unacquainted with the process of vegetation, should go into our fields, and affirm, that the husbandman was bereft of his senses, because he threw the precious grain away into the furrows. Would he not be accounted an ideot, who should rashly decide on the value of a fine piece of machinery, by merely viewing a detached, inconsiderable part of it? A little child, had he stood here, Edwin, last January, might have feared that the snows and the cold gales would be perpetuated; but we should have known better. Before we dare find fault with any of the works of God, we should wait