.

"But, alas! the waves of passion and affection in the human breast
manifest more of the wild confusion of a storm, than the orderly
regularity of a tide. Grace only can subdue them.

"What peaceful harmony subsists throughout all this lovely landscape!
These majestic cliffs, some clothed with trees and shrubs; others bare
and unadorned with herbage, yet variegated with many-coloured earths;
these are not only sublime and delightful to behold, but they are
answering the end of their creation, and serve as a barrier to stop the
progress of the waves.

"But how little peace and harmony can I comparatively see in my own
heart! The landscape _within_ is marred by dreary, barren wilds, and
wants that engaging character which the various parts of this prospect
before me so happily preserve. Sin, sin is the bane of mortality, and
heaps confusion upon confusion, wherever it prevails.

"Yet, saith the voice of Promise, 'Sin shall not have dominion over you.'
Oh, then, 'may I yield myself unto God, as one that am alive from the
dead, and my members as instruments of righteousness unto God!' And thus
may I become an able and willing minister of the New Testament!

"I wish I were like this little stream of water. It takes its first rise
scarcely a mile off; yet it has done good even in that short course. It
has passed by several cottages in its way, and afforded life and health
to the inhabitants; it has watered their little gardens as it flows, and
enriched the meadows near its banks. It has satisfied the thirst of the
flocks that are feeding aloft on the hills, and perhaps refreshed the
shepherd's boy who sits watching his master's sheep hard by. It then
quietly finishes its current in this secluded dell, and, agreeably to the
design of its Creator, quickly vanishes in the ocean.

"May _my_ course be like unto thine, thou little rivulet! Though short
be my span of life, yet may I be useful to my fellow-sinners as I travel
onwards! Let me be a dispenser of spiritual support and health to many!
Like this stream, may I prove 'the poor man's friend' by the way, and
water the souls that thirst for the river of life, wherever I meet them!
And if it please thee, O my God, let me in my latter end be like this
brook. It calmly, though not quite silently, flows through this scene of
peace and loveliness, just before it enters the sea. Let me thus gently
close my days likewise; and may I not unusefully tell to others of t