taint the fresh wind;-he will cry out, let me depart, he will count his grey hairs with joy, and one day will seem unto him as many. Those who are not reminded of the wretchedness of human existence by such reflections as these, who are born to luxury and respect, and sheltered from the various perils of poverty, begin to forget the precarious tenure of worldly enjoyments, and to build sumptuously on the sand; they put their trust, (as the psalmist says,) in chariots, and horses, and dream they shall live for ever in those palaces which are but the out-houses of the grave. There are very few men, in fact, who are capable of withstanding the constant effect of artificial distinctions; it is difficult to live upon a throne, and to think of a tomb; it is difficult to be clothed in splendor, and to remember we are dust; it is difficult for the rich and the prosperous to keep their hearts, as a burning coal upon the altar, and to humble themselves before God, as they rise before men. In the mean time, while pride gathers in the heart, the angel is ever writing in the book, and wrath is ever mantling in the cup;

complain not, in the season of woe, that you are parched with thirst; ask not for water, as Dives asked; you have a warning which he never had. There stand the ever memorable words of the text, which break down the stateliness of man, and dissipate the pageantry of the earth-thus it is that the few words of a God can make the purple of the world appear less beautiful than the mean garments of a beggar, and striking terror into the hearts of rulers, and of exarchs, turn the banners of dominion to the ensigns of death, and make them shudder at the sceptre which they wield. To day, you are cloathed in fine linen, and fare sumptuously; in a few, and evil years, they shall hew you out a tomb of marble, whiter than snow, and the cunning artifice of the workman shall grave on it weeping angels, and make a delicate image of one fleeing up to Heaven, as if it were thee, and shall relate, in golden letters, the long story of your honours, and your birth,-thou fool!! He that dieth by the road side for the lack of a morsel of bread, God loveth him, as well as he loveth thee; and at the gates of Heaven, and from the blessed

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angels thou shalt learn, that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven.

..L.

Another fatal effect of great wealth is, that it is apt to harden the heart; wealth gives power; power produces immediate gratification; the long habit of immediate gratification, an impatience of unpleasant feelings; a claim to be exempted from the contemplation of human misery, of every thing calculated to inspire gloom, to pollute enjoyment, and protrude a sense of painful duties; the compassion with which prosperous men are born in common with us all, is never cherished by a participation in the common suffering, a share in the general struggle; it wants that sense of the difficulty and wretchedness of existence, by which we obtain the best measure of the sufferings of our fellow-creatures: We talk of human life as a journey, but how variously is that journey performed? there are some who come forth girt, and shod, and mantled to walk on velvet lawns, and smooth terraces, where every gale is arrested, and every beam

is tempered; there are others, who walk on the alpine paths of life, against driving misery, and through stormy sorrows; and over sharp afflictions, walk, with bare feet, and naked breast, jaded, mangled, and chilled It is easy enough to talk of misfortunes; that they exist, no man can be ignorant; it is not the bare knowledge of them that is wanting, but that pungent, vital, commiseration, under the influence of which a man springs up from the comforts of his home, deserts his favourite occupations, toils, invents, investigates, struggles, wades through perplexity, disappointment, and disgust, to save a human being from shame, poverty, and destruction; here then is the jet, and object of our blessed Saviour's menace; and reasonable enough it is that he, who practically withdraws himself from the great christian community of benevolence, should be cut off from the blessings of christian reward: If we suffer ourselves to be so infatuated by the enjoyments of this world, as to forget the imperious claims of affliction, and to render our minds, from the long habit of selfish gratification, incapable of fulfilling the duties we owe to mankind, then

let us not repine, that our lot ceases in this world, or that the rich man shall never inherit immortal life.

As to that confidence and pride of which riches are too often the source, what can the constitution of that mind be, which has formed these notions of divine wisdom

and justice? Was this inequality of possessions contrived for the more solid establishment of human happiness, that there might be gradation, gradation, and subordination among men? or was it instituted to give an arbitrary, and useless superiority of one human being over another? Are any duties exacted for the good conferred? or was a rich man only born to sleep quietly, to fare sumptuously, and to be clothed in brave apparel? Has he, who does not create a particle of dust but it has its use, has he, do you imagine, formed one human being, merely as a receptacle of choice fruits, and delicate vinds; and has he stationed a thousand others about him, of the same flesh, and blood, that they might pick up the crumbs of his table, and gratify