the summer breeze, or the chill of death, stopping at once the warm current of youthful life. We all feel that this is an unnatural stupidity; and that he, who has it, by some inhuman process little better than suicide, has rendered himself unfit to live in a world which the Creator has adorned with all that can regale the feelings and awaken admiration. A being, who has thus thrown aside every thing requisite to make the way of life pleasant, or even passable, we should either shun as a monster, or pity as insane. And happy indeed it is, that such destroyers of feeling are rarely, if ever, found; for the voice of nature cries out against them, and education and Christian principle unite in proscribing them as outlaws from the sympathies of life. But is it not strange, that we should regard as so sacred, one class of pleasures, and condemn so readily and so severely, him who casts upon them a petrifying glance; and yet permit another class, not less transporting, not less congen⚫ ial to the soul, and not less our birthright from heaven, to be disregarded, and despised, and thrown out as useless; and, at the same time, should feel that no violence is done to our natures, and no injury committed? In acting thus, we are not unlike a gardner, who most carefully encloses a flowerbed, and yet exposes his greenhouse to every lawless invader; or a man, who arms himself against the highway robber, and unbars his doors to the midnight assassin. He who made the eye, and embellished his works for its admiration and delight, planted also the ear, and awoke for its enjoyment that harmony which was first heard on earth, at the dawn of the creation, which has since poured forth its uninterrupted strains, and which will not cease till time is no more, and even then will only be lost in the grand chorus of hea ven. It is a truth, as easily proved as any other principle of philosophy, that the love of natural scenery, and the love of music, are alike implanted by the Creator in the soul of man. And it is difficult to conceive, by what wonderful machination any persons have so successfully destroyed the one, and have not ventured to impair the other. Perhaps it is from the mistaken notion, that one may be put to death with impunity, while it would be impious to do violence to the other; or that one is given only to a portion of mankind, while the other is the common property of the whole. All the varieties of taste have their foundation in nature, and there is no excuse for neglecting to cultivate any of them, unless we have the hardihood to say, our Maker has given us what we may well overlook as unimportant, and what, in our own superior wisdom, we may venture to disregard as useless. Men are not composed of so heterogeneous materials, and formed on so different models, that only one part of them can be susceptible of the influence of music; can be melted into tenderness, or aroused to loftier feeling and action, be borne by some wild notes away to fairy lands, or rise on sublimer strains almost to catch the symphonies of heaven; while the other part are doomed to be as insensible as if the stillness of the tomb were around them, or the voice of melody had never broken primeval silence. Prejudice and education may weaken and even destroy some portion of our natural susceptibilities; and circumstances may call for the sacrifice of our happiest feelings. But let not nature herself be made responsible for the defect, or accused of the blame. She is so far from deserving this reproach, that whenever permitted to use her influence and raise her voice, it is to manifest her delight in song. In the earliest days, among the wildest savages, in the most uncultivated deserts, music has ever been co-existent and co-extensive with human language. Thought does not go forth sooner in words, than emotion in melody. The unadulterated feelings of the child show their gladness in the measured movements and the modulated tones. Music does not indeed start up spontaneously, like the verdure of spring. But its principles, its harmony, its various combinations, are founded on the immoveable basis of nature, the work of the same hand that adorns the earth and paints the rainbow. And, therefore, those who slight it, should remember, they are slighting what God has made, and what is as imperishable as his own immutable laws. With regard to musical taste, we are what we make ourselves; and not under the resistless control of an original constitution. There is as good and as ready an excuse for him who turns away with cold disdain from the splendor and beauty which heaven and earth put forth all their power to produce; as for another, who sits with complacent indifference when the choral strains are waking around him. Nor do I deem it too much to say, that the Christian may as well be justified in being uninterested in the devotions, as in being unaffected by the songs, of the sanctuary. It is natural and proper, the dictate of penitential sorrow, a privilege which only infinite goodness can impart, and which only an humbled sinner can enjoy, to go to the throne of mercy and plead there for pardon and for grace. It is alike natural and proper, alike the dictate of pious feeling, and alike the privilege which a gracious God has given to his intelligent creatures,-to " enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.' No one, who is called a Christian,would consider himself as worthy of the name, if he felt that prayer is an exercise Nor in which he cannot engage. ought any one to believe his "heart right in the sight of God," the emotions of which will not kindle at the sound of His praise. The great reason why any persons are unmoved by the power of music is, that opposite feelings have been so long cherished, and have grown so strong, that they will not give place to those in unison with her strains. The chords in the heart may be so long unstrung, or so impaired by a hostile atmosphere, or so broken by violent passion, as to lose all power for tuneful vibration. Let a man persuade himself, that he has little or no relish for these pleasures, and manifest his indifference, till what was at first only false persuasion, becomes the settled conviction of his feelings; and then he may perhaps bid defiance to all the influence of harmony. Then tones from the harps of angels, may be as ineffectual on his ear, as would have been the songs they sung in Bethlehem, chanted over the dead sea. almost said, that an indifference to sacred song, may become so great and so obstinate in the soul which really loves other religious duties, that, when it shall go to the courts of heaven, and find it resounding with anthems of joyous praise, it will feel itself unfitted for admission there, and would gladly return to its mortal dwelling, for the enjoyment of those exercises in which alone it had found any interest. I had It is not said, that every voice can make "sweet melody;" though the number which cannot, with proper care and proper interest, would be small indeed. But it is said, that every person can have a congeniality with the spirit of music. And those who have it not, ought to feel that they have lost a part of their nature, as well as deprived of no small portion of their appropriate enjoyment. Is there any one, who cannot distinguish between the voice of gladness and the voice of grief?—to whom the accents of friendship and the ravings of anger are alike unmeaning and indefinite? -whose heart is as unaffected by the tones of natural love and tenderness, as by the careless trampling of a beast--who, when a bright morning of spring opens upon him with ten thousand notes of joy, can have the same sensations as when he gropes along a dark dull night of autumn? If no heart can be thus insensible and unmoved, unless chilled in death; then there is no heart that cannot be excited by music. For this makes its appeals to no other principles, and demands no other feelings than those, on which love and gladness, and hope and sorrow depend for all their excitement. Does affection delight to express itself in soft and gentle tones? then surely these tones will lose none of their meaning and their interest, when made still more soft and gentle, by the varieties of modulation, and the dying cadence. Does gladness always accompany its smiles with a full and sprightly voice; then to make that voice still more full and sprightly, is but increasing its facility of expression. Does an excess of joyous emotion often terminate in a more pleasing sadness; then how can it utter itself more naturally and more agreeably, than in the loud sonorous major key, subsiding and falling away into the plaintive minor? Or does grief make itself known by slow and solemn sounds; then certainly it may do this more freely, when these sounds are made more expressively slow, and more deeply solemn. The enjoyment of music in all its varieties, is only an indulgence of the common, yet various emotions of our hearts, and an indulgence of them too in the way which nature has generously provided. To be interested in it, demands no more of any one, than what he unconsciously gives to his daily social sympathies. Docs he go among the sorrowing he imbibes the spirit of sadness; or among the joyous, he takes a portion of their joy. If he wishes for any happiness in society, he lets the current of his feelings be rapid or slow, ruffled or smooth, according to the nature of the course he is pursuing. He does not remain in one unvaried mood, and harbor the same unchanging thoughts, whatever persons he may meet with, and whatever scenes he may witness. Would he as freely surrender himself to the influence of music, as he does to the influence of the common occurrences of life; he would find that that also has a power not less resistless and diversified. Shakespeare could not have given a better description of the settled and bloody purpose of Cassius, than to say; He hears no music." At that time the conspirator would have passed heedless through the sublimest, or the loveliest scene on earth. Even the cry of suffering affection could not have gained his attention. For one fixed and overwhelming thought had driven from his soul every other interest. Delight in music does not require skill in executing it, any more than delight in poetry requires the genius of a poet, or the love of a landscape, ability to throw its "lights and shadows" upon the canvass. All it asks, is the spontaneous tribute of the heart; and this it will receive, if philosophical indifference, or mistaken disrelish, has not enclosed the casket in bars of iron. It is indeed a lamentable truth, that on every subject of taste, feeling may be effectually suppressed. There are those, who can view the loveliest object in Eden, bidding her final adieu to the loveliness she took not with herself, and shedding her last tears on the flowers she had reared with so much fondness; and still can be as uninterested, as if they were looking out on the inde would be as impossible, as to give the same proportions to every figure, or the same lustre to every gem. To do it, we must furnish all at the commencement of life, with the same delights and associations in the nursery; the same system of early education; giving to the view of each the same series of occur rences and the same variety of objects; and keeping them all too in similar situations and employments: finite expanse of a clouded heaven. And when over this scene of most melting tenderness, there is breathed the most enchanting melody; the veriest trifle, sliding into their minds, shows that however deeply others may feel, impenetrable ice is around their hearts. There are singers, whose voices can be tuned to as sweet harmony, and can shout strains as exactly modulated, and of as great variety of compass, as the notes of the organ;-and as cold a plan, which, if it were not as and heartless too;-because their impossible to execute, would perown souls are as void of feeling and haps be as undesirable, as to make interest as the tubes of the instru- the earth's surface a plain, or to imment. Without the kindlings of part to every flower the same hue the spirit within, music can neither and fragrance. be performed nor listened to with any effect. ures. With regard to this subject as a mere matter of taste, I do not expect there can be a similarity of sentiment, any more than on either of the other classes of kindred pleasThe feelings of men will remain at variance as they now are, not because they are not susceptible of delight from the same source; but because prejudice and association have diversified all their enjoyments. Some will find relief to their sorrows by the soothing melody; others will go and weep in silence. Some will give all their sympathies to a tale of fiction; and others will consider the plodding through its pages, as a penance, which they can do but once in their lives. Some have excitement for every occasion, for every pleasure or pain they witness in those around them, and their hearts are the first things they present ;-while the interest and feelings of others are in eternal solitude, as unexcited by the scenes they pass through, as indifferent to the objects, appealing the most powerfully to their passions, as if they had wandered away from them all into a Siberian desert. To prevent this diversity of taste, But with regard to the music of the Temple, there need not, and should not, be any diversity of interest among Christian worshippers. The objects and associations it presents are all deeply affecting to the heart that finds delight in the service of God. It is a reproach and a sin to the disciple of Jesus to sing, or to hear, his praises with indifference. No distaste can be pleaded as an excuse; for none exists, that may not be overcome. When the plaintive strain is added to the sentiment of penitential sorrow, every regenerated soul should kindle, and grow warm, and feel a holier ardor in the exercises of devotion. And when loftier notes attempt the praise of the King of kings, that soul should swell with deeper and more solemn reverence, as it may know, from this prelude to the hosannas of heaven, what will be its employment through eternity. Never, never, let Christians say, that they cannot engage in sacred song. They, and they alone, can feel its spirit and perform it with acceptance. Let each remember, that, when he becomes listless to its voice, he desecrates the choicest, the holiest offerings of the altar. Let him remember too, that, in thus acting, he says to the irreli he therefore permits them to infer, that the worship of God may be all insincere and formal. They will feel, that indifference in one act, is only hypocrisy in another; and if a Christian can justify himself in a careless song of praise; a heartless prayer too may be heard in heaven. In respect to this part of divine service, there has been, and still is, a criminal neglect in our churches. Every Christian assembly feels the obligation to give permanent support to the preaching of the gospel. But when that is done, there is little or no care taken, that this other part of worship, without which the messages of grace must lose much of their effect and interest, should be conducted in a proper style and with its peculiar benefits. Too of ten it is given up exclusively to those, who are regardless of all religious duties, as things pertaining to their everlasting peace; and, excepting the occasioual temporary excitements from accidental causes, is suffered to languish and die. Thus the devout worshippers forego all the inspiring and blessed influence of sacred song; and soon, from a careless habit, forget to "praise the Lord for his goodness," and feel, that rising to pray and at tention to the sermon, is all they have to do in the house of God. Instead of being awakened to deeper devotion and holier ardor, they are listless and indifferent during the interval between the prayers and the preaching, and with duller and colder sensibilities, go through all the public services. There should be a consistency, and a uniformity in Christian worship. The various acts should be performed with one spirit, and with one permanent glow of pious affection. The emotions in the exercise of prayer should not be suppressed by a heartless, unmeaning attempt to chant the praise of the Most High. It is like throwing water on a kindling spark, or smothering the first feeble breathings of resuscitated life. Devout supplication prepares the soul for devout singing; and this inspires it with better feelings to listen to the declarations of heavenly mercy. There is then a sacred obligation resting upon all Christians—an obligation which they can never throw off and be at peace with their consciences and with God, to be permanently interested in this part of public service, and to make every necessary effort to conduct it with propriety and effect. D. THEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. THE EVILS OF KNOWLEDGE. In much wisdom there is much grief and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. Eccles. i. 18. "FIRST of all then, knowledge is the parent of sorrow from its very nature, as being the instrument and means by which the afflicting quality of the object is conveyed to the mind; for as nothing delights, so nothing troubles till it is known. gious, there are services in religion which are unmeaning and vain; and The merchant is not troubled as soon as his ship is cast away, but as soon as he hears it is. The affairs and objects that we converse with, have most of them a fitness to afflict and disturb the mind. And as the colors lie dormant, and strike not the eye, till the light actuates them into a visibility, so those afflictive qualities |