y its objects. As the spirit expands, and perceives that
it is one of an innumerable family, it would be in danger of sinking
into the despair of loneliness if it were not capable of:--

"Belief
In mercy carried infinite degrees
Beyond the tenderness of human hearts,"

while the very circumstance of multitude obviates the danger of undue
elation. But, though it is good to be lowly, it behoves every one to be
sensible of the guardianship, of which so many evidences are around all
who breathe. While the world and life roll on and on, the feeble reason
of the child of Providence may be at times overpowered with the vastness
of the system amidst which he lives; but his faith will smile upon his
fear, rebuke him for averting his eyes, and inspire him with the
thought, "Nothing can crush me, for I am made for eternity. I will do,
suffer and enjoy, as my Father wills and let the world and life roll
on!"

Such is the faith which supports, which alone can support, the many who,
having been whirled in the eddying stream of social affairs, are
withdrawn, by one cause or another, to abide, in some still little
creek, the passage of the mighty tide. The broken-down statesman, who
knows himself to be spoken of as politically dead, and sees his
successors at work building on his foundations, without more than a
passing thought on who had laboured before them, has need of this faith.
The aged who find affairs proceeding at the will of the young and
hardy, whatever the grey-haired may think and say, have need of this
faith. So have the sick, when they find none but themselves disposed to
look on life in the light which comes from beyond the grave. So have
the persecuted, when, with or without cause, they see themselves pointed
at in the streets; and the despised, who find themselves neglected,
whichever way they turn. So have the prosperous, during those moments
which must occur to all, when sympathy fails, and means to much desired
ends are wanting, or when satiety makes the spirit roam abroad in search
of something better than it has found. This universal, eternal, filial
relation is the only universal and eternal refuge. It is the solace of
royalty weeping in the inner chambers of its palaces, and of poverty
drooping beside its cold hearth. It is the glad tidings preached to the
poor, and in which all must be poor in spirit to have part. If they be
poor in spirit, it matters little what is their external state, o