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THE

WESLEYAN METHODIST ASSOCIATION

MAGAZINE,

FOR

1850.

The right of private judgment in the reading of the Sacred Volume.

VOLUME THE THIRTEENTH.

LONDON:

ASSOCIATION BOOK ROOM,

5, HORSESHOE COURT, LUDGATE HILL.

MDCCCL.

T. C. Ichns, Printer,

Wine Office Court, Fleet Street.

THE

WESLEYAN METHODIST ASSOCIATION

MAGAZINE.

JANUARY, 1850.

THE FIRST AND THE LAST DAY.

THERE is something inexpressibly interesting and sublime in the thought of the first day. The first rising, or the first meridian glow of yon bright orb, when the earth itself, which has now become venerable by age, was but an infant of a day old, and all creation was fresh with the dew of its youth, and this long parenthesis in unmeasured eternity, which we call time, had but just commenced. The contemplation of this interesting period is replete with thoughts of grandeur and of devotion. We are assisted in our attempts to imagine the scene, by the interesting description of the Almighty's procedure, given in the first chapter of Genesis. After having created the element of light, which is represented as something distinct from the sun, and after having formed, on the third day, the vegetable tribes, then on the fourth day, God bade the planets take their stations, and shine in their order upon the new-formed earth. How solemn and grand, even to angelic contemplation, must have been that day-that beginning of this mundane system, which owed itself exclusively to the efficient mandate of Jehovah. The scene so vast and so splendid- the face of the earth so joyous and young, and yet so mature; presenting a garden for God, on which his divine eye could rest with complacency, as a residence suitable for the being whom he intended to create in his own image. Thus prepared, the whole machinery of nature moved on at once-all was perfect, all was harmonious. Though a progressive work for the sake of order, yet it was not a progressive scheme ; and its completion was attended by none of that anxiety which we feel when any great work is to be launched, or set a going. The first day was replete with new ideas to the angels; yet they saw, and participated in the calm dignity of the Almighty. They saw the whole in operation-the machinery of the universe all set in motion at once, as fully and as perfectly, and with as much precision, as if it had been working for ages. The first rising, and the first setting of the sun were just as orderly, just as gradual, and just as glorious, as they have ever been since. But its bright orb at once shone upon a perfect

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