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    tongue . He prefers the consolations of nature , who appoints him a coucb in her turfy vales , or brings the breezes to meet him on the mountain top , or casts a dewy glance upon him from the morning cloud . She calls him off from his obstinate questionings for a time by exercising him in the handiwork of her servants . She bids him fathom her wells , and mark the

    growth of her forests , and explore her echoing retreats in the deep . Thus occupied , he is at peace for a time , but not for long . He still asks , —and the more earnestly day by day— " Why is all this , and what is its end ?" He cannot discover this for himself . As he walks among his elders , he finds one wiser , one richer , one more powerful than another . Some are serene , some are troubled , some are joyous ; but there seems no ultimate

    purpose in all this diversity , and he soon discerns that one lot awaits them all . They disappear one by one , and are seen no more . He questions nature concerning their fate , and conjures her to interpret to him the language of the sanctuary , in which alone his other guide , Man , will reply to his doubts . He is led to the churchyard , where man and nature meet , — the one to shed tears , the other to scatter flowers . He discerns a smile

    amidst those tears , and sees how the motionless chrysalis comes forth fluttering on radiant wings from amidst those flowers , and a new hope unfolds within his breast . His guides had often spoken to him of one who should come to teach him greater things than any he had yet conceived ; and now that the preparation is complete , this exalted teacher appears with a commission from on

    high to make all things clear . Christ comes to finish the work of preparation for immediate communion with God . To teach him the history of communion , he leads the wandering pupil through the land of promise , — by the tents of the patriarchs , by the tabernacle in the wilderness , over the passage of Jordan , and through the cities of Israel up to the metropolitan throne of God's anointed , and even to the threshold of the holy of holies ;

    and thence to the mountain solitudes of Galilee , and to the cave of the rock where the fount of immortality was first laid open to the day . To teach his charge the mode of communion , he leads him from beholding the infant reposing on his father ' s bosom to listen at the portals of heaven to the united voices of the celestial hierarchy which sing of immortality . And

    now the most perplexing doubts of the spirit are solved . The foundling knows himself to be an heir , and has seen his inheritance , —remotely indeed , but distinctly . He sees that he is being educated and to what end , and can thenceforth exercise his privilege of co-operating with God . —The tale passes on , but does not its interest deepen ?

    The pupil is now arrived at a new stage . He has learned much , he has discovered something ; he must now originate . And here , alas ! is the boundary line which our present state of social imperfection imposes as that beyond which the multitude may not pass . Fain would those to whom Providence has vouchsafed such privileges as from their nature appear

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    Sabbath Musings . 603

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1831, page 603, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2601/page/27/