The way of transgressors is hard, as well as foolish and vain. To follow after forbidden objects is far more laborious than to pursue those only that are lawful. It is said of wisdom, that all her ways are ways of pleasantness, that all her paths are paths of peace. The mind of the youth who is in pursuit of vanities, or of unlawful pleasures, is ever raging, like a tempest. Now up, now down-he knows nothing of true pleasure, nothing of folid peace. The object he defires and pursues so ardently mocks him again and again. "To-morrow," he says to himself, "will give me the object of my wishes." To-morrow comes-once more it eludes his grasp. Now he becomes uneasy, then impatient, then fretful, then anxious, and then desperate; now he resolves at all hazards to seize upon the prize it is his own; but ah! the flowers have faded, the beautiful colours have disappeared; the angel of beauty is transformed into a loathsome object. His eyes are opened; and, alas! too late, disappointed and remorseful, he learns the truth of the maxim, that " it is not all gold that glitters." Man has a foul of vast defires; In vain on earth we hope to find So when a raging fever burns, Great God! fubdue the vicious thirst, DR. WATTS. DANGER OF GREATNESS. "The high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled."-Isa. x. 33. The clouds affemble in the blackening weft, Anon with gloom the sky becomes o'ercaft, United winds with wide-mouth'd fury roar, Old ocean, rolling, heaves from shore to shore ; With boiling rage the waves begin to rife, And ruffian billows now affail the skies; The hardy forests, too, affrighted quake, The hills they tremble, and the mountains shake; The oak majestic, towering to the skies, Laughs at the whirlwind, and the storm defies : Spreads wide its arms, rejoicing in its pride, And meets unbending the tornado's tide; The winds prevail, one loud tremendous blow The monarch prostrates, and his pride lays low; While the low reed, in far more humble form, Unknown to greatness, safe, outlives the storm. THE storm rages. The sturdy oak, the growth of centuries, lifts its proud head towering to the heavens; it spreads abroad its ample branches, giving shelter to birds and beafts. For a long time it resists the fury of the hurricane, but 'tis all in vain: with a mighty crash it is overturned ; its very roots are laid bare, its branching honours are brought low; birds, beasts, and creeping reptiles now trample upon its fallen greatness. But fee: the humble reed, bending to the storm, escapes unhurt. Its lowly position has preserved it from destruction; while its mighty neighbour is no more. It still lives, and grows, and flourishes. This is an apt emblem of the danger attending upon high stations, and of the security afforded in the less elevated walks of life. It is calculated to damp the ardour of ambition, of, at least, that ambition that seeks to be great only that felf may be enriched, or vanity gratified. This kind of greatness is indeed the most dangerous, and the most uncertain. It is sure to be a mark for others, equally aspiring and unprincipled, to shoot at; while the poffeffor of this greatness, not being protected by the shield of confcious integrity, falls to rife no more, and the flatterers and dependants being no longer able to enrich themselves, unite in trampling under foot the man they formerly delighted to honour. Love is not an evil of itself, neither is ambition; they may both be expended on worthless or finful objects. Let the youth seek out a proper object for the lofty aspirings of the foul; A let him learn to direct them by the providence and word of God. True greatness confifts in goodness-in being useful to mankind. Those individuals usually called great have been the destroyers, not the benefactors of our race. private station is as much a post of honour as the most elevated. Indeed, properly speaking, there are no private stations; every man is a public man, and equally interested with others in the welfare and progress of his fellows. The lowly reed is as perfect in its kind as the lofty oak, and answers equally the end of its creation. It is true, however, that the more elevated the station a man holds in society, the more refponfibility he is under both to God and man. He is also exposed to more dangers and temptations. Envy, that hates the excellence she cannot reach, will carp at him, and slander shoot her poisoned arrows at him. Happiness seldom dwells with greatness, nor is safety the child of wealth and honours. "But he that humbleth himself-in due time-shall be exalted." A striking instance of the danger of greatness may be found in the fall of Cardinal Wolfey. This ambitious man lived in the reign of Henry VIII., king of England. He was that monarch's favourite minifter. He is said to have been "insatiable in his acquisitions, but still magnificent in his expenses; of great capacity, but still more unbounded in enterprise; ambitious of power, but still more ambitious of glory." He fucceeded-he was raised to the highest pinnacle; more |