On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (5)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    NEW YEAR DISCOURSE. BY MRS. BARBAULD.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    JANUARY , 1828 .

    Untitled Article

    " Stand still and consider the wonderful works of God . ' * There are times and seasons when nature , reason , and custom , invite us to pause from our common labours and pursuits , to break our ordinary train of thinking , and to suspend for a while that round of cares , of pleasures , and of business , in which our lives slide away with such wonderful and unfelt celerity . They bid us stand still and consider ; for though the works of God

    and his intentions far men are written with so legible a finger that he who runs may read , yet he who runs seldom will read . Absorpt in a continual whirl of busy insignificance , the lives of most of us would glide along with a succession so uniform and unvaried , that we should never be led to any serious review of them , if our time was not dealt out to us in allotted portions , and measured by the stated revolutions of the seasons into separate periods of successive duration . It belongs only to the Supreme Being to consider all duration as one eternal now ; to us it must appear in the

    different lights of past , present , and future . It must become the object of our computation by being divided into certain spaces and bounded by some visible , land-mark ; nay , it is parcelled out into the smallest divisions , and broken , as it were , to us with our daily bread , that nothing may be wasted . Of these different periods of time the most remarkable is the circle of the year , and it is therefore no less proper than usual to devote the beginning of it to reflection on ourselves and our actions , on God , and on his works . Stand still , therefore , that ye may consider .

    It is usual , and the custom is not without great propriety , to direct a peculiar address to young people on the commencement of a new year ; but I would rather , at this time , address myself to you of full and mature age , who have attained the middle period of life . There is a period when nature herself seems to pause , when , arrived at the summit of the hill , and neither

    impelled forward by the restless ardour of youth , nor as yet precipitated downwards by the weight of years , she stands stilly and with a commanding glance surveys the whol ^ norizo n ; she casts her eye back to contemplate the past , darts it forward . to anticipate the future ; she pauses , reflects , compares , enjoys at once a ^ her powers , stretches at once all her faculties , and then , if ever , disp lay * the true image of a god upon earth . Stand stilly therefore ,

    New Year Discourse. By Mrs. Barbauld.

    NEW YEAR DISCOURSE . BY MRS . BARBAULD .

    Untitled Article

    VOL . II . B

    Untitled Article

    THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY AND REVIEW . NEW SERIES , No . XIII .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/1/