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our defence, when our reputation, our property, or even our life is at stake in the eyes of the law. Ever since the day when our first father rebelled against the Almighty, and was, in punishment of his rebellion, condemned to endure in his body, every kind of sufferings, physicians have been necessary to alleviate them, as far as consistent with the views of Divine Providence. If men were, as they ought to be, lawyers would be of no use to them; however, things being as they are, their service is often necessary; and both lawyers and physicians can render the greatest and most important services to the human family. But if their station is one of the highest and most honorable in society, their obligations are great in proportion: for if they enter into their office, without being sufficiently prepared for it, if any fatal consequence arise from their ignorance or carelessness, they will have to answer for it, in the eyes of God, even though the fault would escape the eyes of man. Hence the strict obligation they are under to prepare themselves with the utmost care, before they offer their services to their fellow-citizens; hence the strict attention they ought to bring to the discharge of their duties.

DUTY OF MAN TOWARDS GOD.

AND ask ye why he claims our love?
O answer, all ye winds of even,
O answer, all ye lights above,

That watch in yonder dark'ning heaven;
Thou, earth, in vernal radiance gay

As when his angels first arrayed thee, And thou, O deep-tongued ocean, say,

Why man should love the mind that made thee

There's not a flower that decks the vale,

There's not a beam that lights the mountain

There's not a shrub that scents the gale,
There's not a wind that stirs the fountain,

There's not a hue that paints the rose,
There's not a leaf around us lying,

But in its use or beauty shows

True love to us, and love undying.

For in the past, ere time began,

Ere first the new-made sun ascended,
Or light illumed the world, and man
Arose amid the order splendid;

Even then, for thee, that bounteous mind,
Unasked amid the wide creation,
In far futurity designed

Thy dwelling fast and lasting station.

And seek we arguments of love,

And ask we who it is that claims it?
Mark yonder sun that rolls above,
Obedient to the will that aims it;
Go watch, when treads the silent moon
Her maiden path o'er earth and ocean,
Or see yon host at starry noon

Roll onward with majestic motion.

Are these not lovely? Look again,
Count every
hue that clothes the valley,
Each grain that gilds the autumn plain,
Each song that wakes the vernal alley.

All that in fruit or flower is found

To win the taste, or charm the vision,
All-all that sight, or scent, or sound,
Or feeling hath of joy elysian;

That calm that lulls the noontide hour,
The mild repose of power appalling,
The rain that feeds each opening flower,
Like mercy's tear-drops sweetly falling;
Those show what our Creator was,
While man preserved his early duty,

What still to those, his later laws

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Who keep, in all their stainless beauty.

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PRAYER.

PRAYER is not a special gift set apart for privileged souls alone; it is a common duty imposed upon every believer; it is not solely a virtue of perfection, and reserved for certain purer and more holy souls; it is like charity,

an indispensable virtue, requisite to the perfect as to the imperfect; within the capacity of the illiterate equally as of the learned; commanded to the simple as to the most enlightened; it is the virtue of all men; it is the science of every believer; it is the perfection of every creature. Whoever has a heart, and is capable of loving the Author of his being; whoever has a reason capable of knowing the nothingness of the creature, and the greatness of God, must know how to adore, to return him thanks, and to have recourse to him; to appease him when offended; to call upon him when turned away; to thank him when favorable; to humble himself when he strikes; to lay his wants before him, or to entreat his countenance and protection. Thus, imitate the woman of Canaan; be faithful to prayer, and in the fulfilment of this duty you will find all the rest sustained and rendered easy. If a sinner, pray; it was through prayer alone that the publican and the sinful woman of the gospel obtained feelings of compunction, and the grace of a thorough penitence; and prayer is the only sure source and the only path of righteousness. If righteous, still pray; perseverance in faith and in piety is promised only to prayer; and by prayer it was that Job, that David, that Tobias persevered to the end. If you live amid sinners, and your duty does not permit you to withdraw yourself from the sight of their irregularities and examples, pray; the greater the dangers, the more necessary does prayer become; the three children in the flames, and Jonas in the belly of a monster, found safety only through prayer. If the engagements of your birth or of your station, attach you to the great, pray; Esther, in the court of Assuerus; Daniel, in that of Darius; the prophets in the palaces of the kings of Israel, were solely indebted to prayer for their life and salvation. If you live in retirement, pray: solitude itself becomes a rock, if a continual intercourse with God does not defend us against ourselves; and Judith in the secresy of her house, and the widow Ann in the temple, and the Anthonies in the desert, found the fruit and the security of their retreat, in prayer alone. If established in the church for the instruction of the people, pray: all the power and all the success of the ministry must depend upon your prayers; and the apostles converted the universe, solely because they had appropriated nothing to

themselves but prayer and the preaching of the Gospel. Lastly, be ye who you may, I again repeat it, in prosperity or indigence, in joy or in affliction, in trouble or in peace, in fervency or in despondency, in sin or in the ways of righteousness, advanced in virtue, or still in the first steps of penitence, pray: prayer is the safety of all stations, the consolation of all sorrows, the duty of all conditions, the soul of piety, the support of faith, the grand foundation of religion, and all religion itself. O my God! shed then upon us that spirit of grace and of prayer which was to be the distinguishing mark of thy Church, and the portion of a new people; and purify our hearts and our lips, that we may be enabled to offer up to thee pure homages, fervent sighs, and prayers worthy of the eternal riches which thou hast so often promised to those who shall have well entreated thee.

VIRTUES OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.

IN the practice of religion nothing can appear more charming than the picture drawn by St. Luke, of the infant Church, in his Acts of the Apostles. He assures us, that the vast numbers who believed in Jesus Christ, had but one heart and one soul. All being animated with the same spirit, they were united in the same bonds of perfect charity. No one appropriated the least thing to himself, exclusive of his neighbor; for all things were common amongst them. They who sold their lands or houses, brought their money to the Apostles for the public use, that each one might be relieved according to his wants. Each person's wants were no sooner known, than charitably supplied. The consolation of the Holy Ghost dwelt amongst them; their placid looks indicated the spiritual sweetness, that replenished their souls. Their fervent piety embraced every kind of public virtue in an eminent degree. Their hospitality, their attention to the social duties of fraternal charity, their daily presence in the temple at the stated hours, their devout behavior during the solemn service of religion, drew respect from all who beheld them. Such is the character St. Luke has given us of the first Christians of Jerusalem. The virtues of

the converted Gentiles were not less solid, as we gather from the epistles of the great Apostle of nations, though upon the whole, perhaps, not so sublime. Before the Apostles came amongst them, the Gentiles had imbibed no principles of true religion, and had seen no exercise of that pure worship, by which the sovereign Lord of all things is duly honored in spirit and in truth. Bewildered in the labyrinth of infidelity, and debauched by the licentious absurdities of idolatry, they were not only destitute of real virtue, but deeply tainted with almost every vice incident to corrupt nature. But no sooner were they instructed in the principles of Christianity, and cleansed from sin in the waters of Baptism, than they became the faithful imitators of their evangelical teachers. A total change of principles and manners made them objects of admiration, to the former companions of their irregularities. Prayer was the occupation of their leisure hours, and a sincere desire of doing the will of God in all things sanctified their most ordinary actions of the day. In the midst of temporal concerns they never lost sight of eternal goods; while their hands were at work, their hearts aspired to heaven. The prospect of an everlasting reward, which they knew God had prepared for them in his kingdom of glory, quickened their diligence in the discharge of every social and religious duty. Which of the two are we to admire most, the bounteous liberality of God in communicating his graces to those fervent Christians, or the fidelity of those Christians in thus co-operating with the divine gifts? To our humble admiration of the first, let us join our imitation of the second; we then shall pay honor to them both.

DUTIES OF MAN TOWARDS HIS NEIGHBOR.

THE love of our neighbor is a fundamental virtue of Christianity; because the moral code of our Lord rests on these two laws: the love of God above all things, and our neighbor as ourselves. Yet this virtue is very rare, and as seldom practised.

The generality of Christians believe, that to love their neighbor, it is sufficient to love their parents, their friends,

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