PSALM Civ. VER. 29, 30. "THOU HIDEST THY FACE, THEY 66 ARE TROUBLED: THOU TAKEST 66 AWAY THEIR BREATH, THEY DIE, AND RETURN ΤΟ THEIR "DUST. THOU SENDEST FORTH THY SPIRIT, THEY ARE CREA"TED; AND THOU RENEWEST THE "FACE OF THE EARTH." Τ HIS Pfalm is a moft devout and exalted meditation upon the nature and attributes of GOD, as they are illuftriously displayed in his works of Creation, Providence, and Redemption. All the peculiar excellencies of the feveral fpecies of eloquence, the defcriptive, the sublime, and the pathetic, are happily exhibited in this finished composition. It It opens with a folemn recognition of the Power and Majefty of GoD, which at once fets forth the wisdom and piety of its author: "Blefs the LORD, O my "foul! O LORD my GoD, thou art ex ceeding glorious; thou art clothed "with majesty and honour!" The nobleft objects of the material universe are then felected to form a defcription of this Majefty: "Who coverest thyself "with Light, as with a garment; who "ftretchest out the heavens like a cur"tain; who layeth the beams of his "chambers in the waters; who mak"eth the clouds his chariot, who "walketh upon the wings of the "wind." He then proceeds to enumerate the wonders of creating power, throughout the vaft fcale of being, from the highest order of intellectual life, to the lowest part or portion of inanimate matter. He reprefents all these as originally proceeding from the invisible Source of Being, and perpe tually tually depending upon the fame Source for the fupport and continuation of their existence. From the whole tenor of the Pfalm, and particularly from the two verfes I have selected for my text, we learn this great and inftructive leffon: that the life-giving, life-preferving Prefence and Energy of the CREATOR, is as necessary to the vegetation of the smallest blade of grafs, as to the intellectual growth of the highest Archangel; that was this Energy with-held a single moment, the faireft flower, in the material, as well as fpiritual world, would wither and die; that the Spirit of the Higheft pervades, fuftains, and actuates the whole system of being; that if any of his creatures, who were originally living Images of Himself, formed with his own effential freedom of will, fhould abuse this liberty, and thereby lofe his Divine Image, and forfeit that state of blifs in which he created |