Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

SPRING, SUMMER, HARVEST, WINTER, AND SABBATH-DAY.

BY JOHN BROW N,

LATE MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT HADDINGTON.

THE SIXTH EDITION,

Afk now the beafts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or fpeak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the fea, Shall declare unto thee. JOB Xii. 7, 8.

The ear that is always attentive to God, never hears a voice that speaks not of him; the foul, whofe eye is intent on him, never fees an atom wherein the doth not difcern her beft beloved,

Let us begin with God; all things are full of God.

Cadha.

Hesiod.

Some angel guide my pencil, while I draw

What nothing lefs than angel can exceed;

A man on earth devoted to the skies;

He fees with other eyes than ours; where we
Discern a fun, he fpies a Deity:

What makes another fmile, makes him adore,

Young

BERWICK:

PRINTED FOR W. PHORSON, BRIDGE-STREET;

AND!

B. LAW AND SON, AVE-MARIA-LANE, LONDON.

M DCC XCII,.

THE

T

PREFAC E.

O be spiritually minded,-to be habitually dif pofed, with pleasure and attention, to think of, and defire after fpiritual objects, is life and peace. It implies an intereft in the life-giving covenant of peace, which cannot be broken; a purification of confcience with Jefus' quieting blood; and an inward poffeffion of his quickening and peaceful Spirit. It promotes habitual ferenity and meeknefs; it rendereth us active and lively in the fervice of God: By it we live as angels on earth, and are fitted to join them in heaven: By it we improve the whole univerfe as the temple of a prefent Godhead. In our deepest plunges of trouble and want we converse, we walk with the "high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, and dwell in the high and holy place." Every visible object commenceth preacher, concerning things which do not appear: in every creature we difcern a Maker, a Saviour's perfections; we hear his voice, that our foul may live.--Detefting the romantic, the too fafhionable amufement of folly, of lewdnefs, and blafphemy, we recreate ourselves with contemplations, which neither defile for the present, nor fting for the future; and "and have our converfation in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour."

To promote this happy attainment, this delightful temper of mind, is the facred page crowded with emblems to promote this is the defign of the following attempt.-Let not the natural incidents

be accounted too mean for the fuperftructure. Are not all things mean? nay, equally mean if compared with the MosT HIGH? But if he made them, if he preferve and manage them for his own glory; is it below us, the offspring of duft, to improve them to his honour, and our eternal advantage? Doth not the divine Spirit, in his invaluable oracles, conftitute the puny ant, the lazy cur, the wallowing fow, the troubled fea, with its mire and dirt, our fpiritual inftructors? Doth not Jefus, the Wisdom of God, draw his inftructive, his ineftimable parables, from fparrows, fifhes, ncts, bottles, grains of muftardfeed, dough and other common objects? Why may not we, though at infinite diftance, follow his bleffed example; and, with the fkilful chymift, extract a recious fpirit from things outwardly bafe and contemptible?

To exhibit in every journal, not the excrcife of a fingle day, but a particular form of the Chriflian life; and to adapt the file to the traveller's varying frame, hath been attempted. To have quoted every, even facred authority, would have crowded the margin: a thousand infpired phrafes are therefore folely marked in Italic a thousand more left to the mere obferval of the attentive reader, well infructed in the cracles of Chrift.

THE

THE

CONTENT S.

[ocr errors]

Of the SPRING-Journal.

OUNG traveller half awakes; dreams; not fully recovered; hears the clock and bell; rifes; hard bed; puts on clothes; reads ; prays; views himfelf in a mirror; breakfaft; family-worfhip; departs on foot; looks out, p. 13,- -20. Dew; worms; fnails; mole; fow; afs; coal-loads; fmoaking houfe; fhambles; thief; fepulchre; crooked path; burning heath; moor-fowl; potter, 21,-28. Sun; labouring men; mad-man; galloping horfe; duck; turkies; plowing; feed-fowing; harrowing; fpringing; weeds; reviving vegetables; infects; doves; two-ways; angry cur; danger; rufher docks'; courtier, 29,-44. Bleach-field; mills; kilns; narrow way; birds; farm-hotfe; hens; cottages; flocks; fea fhell fishes; falt-pans; mine; quarry; engines; rivulet; dam, 45,—57. Exchange; furnace; fcholars; paftime; hooper; hunger; inn; garden; wall; door; grafts; trees; flowers; fmell; nofegay; bowlers, 58, -68. Sun clouded; fifhing; flopping hill; thunder; reft; defart; burying-place; houfe; fpider; relapfe into the fever; phyfician; danger; rave? hope of recovery; flux; inflamation, 70,-89.

Of the SUMMER-JOURNAL.

TRAVELLER awakes; rifes; fhifts; ftands; clothes; washes; mirror; fecret and family-worship; breakfaft, 90,-97. Stable; horfe; way; turn-pike; lark; crows; fun; dew; rain: warmth; fall; improved fields; way changed; way deferted; inheritance,

« PreviousContinue »