REFLECTIONS ON A FLOWER-GARDEN. MADAM, IN A LETTER TO A LADY. SOME time ago, my meditations took a turn among the tombs they visited the awful and melancholy mansions of the dead; and you were pleased to favour them with your attention. May I now beg the honour of your company in a more inviting and delightful excursion!-in a beautiful flower-garden, where I lately walked, and at once regaled the sense and indulged the fancy. It was early in a summer morning, when the air was cool, the earth moist, the whole face of the creation fresh and gay. The noisy world was scarce awake: business had not quite shook off his sound sleep, and riot had but just reclined his giddy head. All was serene, all was still; every thing tended to inspire tranquillity of mind, and invite to serious thought. Only the wakeful lark had left her nest, and was mounting on high to salute the opening day. Elevated in air, she seemed to call the laborious husbandman to his toil, and all her fellow-songsters to their notes. Earliest of birds, said I, companion of the dawn, may I always rise at thy voice; rise to offer the matin-song, and adore that beneficent Being, "who maketh the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice." "Discourses on the vanity of the creature, which represent the barrenness of every thing in this world, and its incapacity of producing any solid or substantial happiness, are useful. Those speculations also, which show the bright side of things, and lay forth those innocent entertainments which are to be met with among the several objects that encompass us, are no less beneficial." Spect. Vol. V. No. 393. Upon the plan of these observations the preceding and following reflections are formed. K How charming to rove abroad at this sweet hour of prime, to enjoy the calm of nature, to tread the dewy lawns, and taste the unrifled freshness of the air! Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds. What a pleasure do the sons of sloth lose! Little, ah! little is the sluggard sensible how delicious an entertainment he foregoes, for the poorest of all animal gratifications.* The grayness of the dawn decays gradually. Abundance of ruddy streaks tinge the fleeces of the firmament, till at length the dappled aspect of the east is lost in one ardent and boundless blush. Is it the surmise of imagination, or do the skies really redden with shame, to see so many supinely stretched on their drowsy pillows? Shall man be lost in luxurious ease? Shall man waste these precious hours in idle slumbers, while the vigourous sun is up, and going on his Maker's errand? while all the feathered choir are hymning the Creator, and paying their homage in harmony? No; let him heighten the melody of the tuneful tribes by adding the rational strains of devotion; let him improve the fragrant oblations of nature by mingling with the rising odours the more refined breath of praise. "Tis natural for man to look upwards, to throw his first glance upon the objects that are above him. Straight towards heaven my wondering eyes I turn'd, Prodigious theatre! where lightnings dart their fire, and thunders utter their voice; where tempests spend their rage, and worlds unnumbered roll at large! O the greatness *See, how revelation and reason, the Scriptures and the classics, unanimously exhort to this most beneficial practice. They both invite us to early rising by the most engaging motives and the most alluring representations. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth. Cant. vii. 11, 12. Luciferi primo cum sidere, frigida rura Carpamus: dum mane novum, dum gramina canent, VIRG. Georg. III. of that mighty hand, which meteth out this amazing circumference with a span! O the immensity of that wonderful Being, before whom this unmeasurable extent is no more than a point! And O (thou pleasing thought!) the unsearchable riches of that mercy, which is greater than the heavens!* is more enlarged and extensive in its gracious exercise, than these illimitable tracts of air, and sea, and firmament! which pardons crimes of the most enormous size and the most horrid aggravations; pardons them in consideration of the Redeemer's atonement, with perfect freeness and the utmost readiness! more readily, if it were possible, than this all-surrounding expanse admits within its circuit a ridge of mountains, or even a grain of sand. Come hither, then, ye awakened, trembling sinners; come,† weary and heavy-laden with a sense of your iniquities; condemn yourselves; renounce all reliance on any thing of your own; let your trust be in the tender mercy of God for ever and ever. Behold In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun. him coming forth from the chambers of the east; see the clouds, like floating curtains, are thrown back at his approach. With what refulgent majesty does he walk abroad! how transcendently bright is his countenance, *Psal. cviii. 4. + The lines which follow are admirably descriptive of the spirit and practice hinted above: in them desire pants, prayer wrestles, and faith as it were grasps the prize. I take leave to transplant them into this place; and I could wish them a better, a more conspicuous situation, than either their new or their native soil. Their native soil is no other than 'The Lamentation of a Sinner,' written by Mr. Sternhold. Notwithstanding the unpromising genius of the performance, I think we may challenge the greatest masters to produce any thing more spirited and importunate, more full of nature, or more flushed with life. Mercy, good Lord, mercy I crave; This is the total sum; For mercy, Lord, is all my suit; Lord, let thy mercy come. The short sentences, not a single copulative; the frequent repetition of the divine name; the almost incessant reiteration of the blessing so passionately desired, and inexpressibly needed;-this is the genuine language of ardour; these are beauties obvious to every eye, and cannot fail, either to please the judicious taste, or to edify the aracious heart. Psal. xix. 4, shedding day and inexhaustible light through the universe! Is there a scene, though finished by the most elaborate and costly refinements of art, "comparable to these illustrious solemnities of opening sunshine? Before these all the studied pageantry of the theatre, the glittering economy of an assembly, or even the heightened ornaments of a royal palace, hide their diminished heads, and shrink into nothing." I have read of a person so struck with the splendours of this noble luminary, that he imagined himself made on purpose to contemplate its glories. O! that Christians would adopt his persuasion, and transfer it to the Sun of Righteousness! Thus applied, it would cease to be a chimerical notion, and become a most important truth. For sure I am, it is the supreme happiness of the eternal state, and therefore may well be the ruling concern of this present life, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. Nor do I stand alone in this opinion. The very best judge of whatever is valuable in science, or perfective of our nature; a judge who formed his taste on the maxims of paradise, and received the finishings of his education in the third heavens; this judge determines to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. He possessed in his own person the finest, the most admired accomplishments, yet pronounces them no better than dung, in comparison of the super-eminent excellency of this saving knowledge.* Methinks I discern a thousand admirable properties in the sun. 'Tis certainly the best material emblem of the Creator. There is more of God in its lustre, energy, and usefulness, than in any other visible being. To worship it as a deity was the least inexcusable of all the heathen idolatries. One scarce can wonder that fallen reason should mistake so fair a copy for the adorable Original. No comparison in the whole book of sacred wisdom pleases me more, than that which resembles the blessed Jesus to yonder regent of the day,† who now advances on his * Το υπερεχον της γνωσεως. Phil. iii. 8. + Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings.-Mal iv 2 |