The Sun-flower.

which we shall soon see a fine figure displaying itself; rounded into a form which constitutes a perfect circle; spread wide open into the the most frank and communicate air; and tinged with the colour which is so peculiarly captivating to the miser's eye.

But the property I chiefly admire, is its passionate fondness for the sun. When the evening shades take place, the poor flower droops, and folds up its leaves. It mourns all the long night, and pines amidst the gloom, like some forlorn lover, banished from the object of his affections. No sooner does providence open

the eyelids of the morning," but it meets* and welcomes the returning light; courts and caresses it all the day nor ever loses sight of the refulgent charmer, so long as he continues above the horizon!-In the morning, you may perceive it presenting a golden bosom to the east; at noon, it points upward to the middle sky; in the evening, follows the same attractive influence to the west.

Surely, nature is a book, and every page rich with sacred hints. To an attentive mind, the garden turns preacher; and its blooming tenants are so many lively sermons. What an engaging pattern, and what an excellent lesson, have we here! So let the redeemed of the Lord look unto Jesus,* and be conformed to their beloved. Let us all be heliotropes (if I may use the expression) to the Sun of Righteousness. Let our passions rise and fall; take this course or that; as his word determines, as his holy example guides. Let us be so accommodated, both to his commanding and providential will, as the wax is turned to the imprinted seal; or, as the aspect of this enamoured flower to the splendid star which creates our day.

In every enjoyment, O thou watchful Christian, look unto Jesus; receive it as proceeding from his

"Illa suum, quamvis radice tenetur, Vertitur ad solem."

+ Heb. xii. 2

OVID.

Adherence to the Saviour recommended.

love, and purchased by his agonies.*-In every tribulation look unto Jesus; mark his gracious hand, managing the scourge, or mingling the bitter cup; attempering it to a proper degree of severity; adjusting the time of its continuance; and ready to make these seeming disasters productive of real good. In every infirmity and failing, look unto Jesus, thy merciful high-priest; pleading his atoning blood, and making intercession for transgressors.-In every prayer look unto Jesus, thy prevailing advocate; recommending thy devotions, and "bearing the iniquity of thy holy things."-In every temptation look unto Jesus, the author of thy strength, and captain of thy salvation; who alone is able to lift up the hands which hang down, to invigorate the enfeebled knees, and make thee more than conqueror over all thine enemies.-But especially when the hour of thy departure approaches; when "thy flesh and thy heart fail;" when all the springs of life are irreparably breaking; then look unto Jesus with a believing eye. Like expiring Stephen, behold him standing at the right-hand of God, on purpose to succour his people in this their last extremity. Yes, my Christian friend, when thy journey through life is finished, and thou art arrived on the very verge of mortality; when thou art just launching out into the invisible world, and all before thee is vast eternity; then, O then, be sure to look stedfastly unto Jesus!" See by faith the Lord's Christ:" view him as the only way to the everlasting mansions, as the only door to the abodes of bliss.

*" He sunk beneath our heavy woes,

To raise us to his throne:

There's not a gift his hand bestows,
But cost his heart a groan."

+ Exod. xxviii. 38.

WATTS:

‡ "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."

Isa. xlv. 22.

The Passion-flower.

Yonder tree, which faces the south, has something too remarkable to pass without observation.-Like the fruitful, though feeble vine, she brings forth a large family of branches; but, unable to support them herself. commits them to the tuition of a sunny wall. As yet the tender twigs have scarce gemmed their, future blossoms. However, I may anticipate the well-known productions, and picture to myself the passion-flower, which will, in due time, with a long and copious succession, adorn the boughs.

I have read, in a Latin author, of flowers inscribed with the names of kings:* but here is one emblazoned with the marks of the bleeding Prince of Life. I read, in the inspired writings, of apostolic men, who bore about in their bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus:† but here is a blooming religioso, that carries apparent memorials of the same tremendous and fatal catastrophe. Who would have expected to find such a tragedy of woe, exhibited in a collection of the most delicate delights? Or to see Calvary's horrid scene pourtrayed on the softest ornaments of the garden ?-Is Nature then actuated by the noble ambition of paying commemorative honours to her agonizing sovereign Is she kindly officious to remind forgetful mortals of that miracle of mercy, which it is their duty to contemplate, and their happiness to believe? Or, is a sportive imagination my interpreter, and all the supposed resemblance no more than the precarious gloss of fancy? Be it so: yet even fancy has her merit, when she sets forth in such pleasing imagery the crucified Jesus. Nor shall I refuse a willing regard to imagination herself, when she employs her creative powers to revive the sense of such unparalleled love, and prompt my gratitude to so divine a friend.

That spiral tendril, arising from the bottom of the

*Dic, quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum
Nascantur flores?"

VIRG.

+ 2 Cor. iv. 10,

Its Description with religious Improvement.

stalk, is it a representation of the Scourge which lashed the Redeemer's unspotted flesh, and inflicted those stripes by which our souls are healed? Or is it twisted for the cord which bound his hands in painful and ignominious confinement; those beneficient hands, which were incessantly stretched out to unloose the heavy burdens, and to impart blessings of every choice kind? Behold the nails which were drenched in his sacred veins, and riveted his feet to the accursed tree: those beautiful feet, which always went about doing good, and travelled far and near to spread the glad tidings of everlasting salvation. See the hammer, ponderous and massy, which drove the rugged irons through the shivering nerves, and forced a passage for those dreadful wedges between the dislocated bones. View the thorns which encircled our royal Master's brow, and shot their keen afflictive points into his blessed head! O the smart! the racking smart! when, instead of the triumphal laurel or the odoriferous garland, that pungent and ragged wreath was planted on the meek Messiah's forehead! When violent and barbarous blows of the strong eastern cane † struck the prickly crown, and fixed every thorn deep in his throbbing temples !+

* "How beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation!" Isa. lii. 7.

"They took the reed," says the sacred historian, "and smote him on the head; and so, as it were, nailed down the thorns into his forehead and temples, and occasioned thereby exquisite pain, as well as a great effusion of blood."-Family Expositor, Vol. II. sect. 188. "It is most probable," adds the same judicious critic, "that this was a walking staff which they put into his hand as a sceptre, for a blow with a slight reed would scarce have been felt, or have deserved a mention in a detail of such dreadful sufferings.'

The smart attending this unparalleled piece of contempt and barbarity, must be inexpressibly severe, not only on account of the many painful punctures made in the flesh, but principally because the periosteum, an exquisite sensible tegument of the bones, lying in those parts very near the external skin, must receive a multitude of terrible wounds, the anguish of which could not fail of being inflamed to an excess of rage, by the continuance of so many

The Passion-flower to be preferred.

There stand the disciples, ranged in the green impalement, and forming a circle round the instruments of their great Commander's death. They appear like so many faithful adherents, who breathe a gallant resolution, either of defending their Lord to the last extremity, or of dropping honourably by his side. But did they give such proofs of their zeal and fidelity in their conduct, as their steady posture and determined aspect seem to promise? Alas! what is all human firmness, when destitute of succours from above, but an expiring vapour? What is every saint, if unsupported by powerful grace, but an abandoned traitor?-Observe the glory, delineated in double rays, grand with imperial purple, and rich with ethereal blue. But ah! how incapable are threads, though spun by summer's finest hand, though dyed in snows, or dipped in heaven, to display the immaculate excellency of his human, or the ineffable majesty of his divine nature! Compared with these sublime perfections, the most vivid assemblage of colours fades into an unmeaning flatness; the most charming effects of light and shade are not only mere daubings, but an absolute blank.

Among all the beauties which shine in sunny robes, and sip the silver dews, this, I think, has the noblest import, if not the finest presence. Were they all to pass in review, and expect the award of superiority from my decision, I should not hesitate a moment. Be the prize assigned to this amiable candidate, which has so eminently distinguished and so highly dignified herself by bearing such a remarkable resemblance to "the righteous branch, the plant of renown."* While others appoint it a place in the parterre, I would transplant

thorny lancets in that extremely tender membrane, which, in such a case,

-Trembling alive all o'er.

Must smart and agonize at ev'ry pore."

* So the blessed Jesus is described, Jerem. xxiii. 5. Ezek. xxxiv. 29.