The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1826-03-08
Sa oral amG 2et(atoug.
From the Boston Spectator.
" RELIGION'S AL.Iu

ne mlpd OF Inan Is like a fiuctuating
sea. 1t is never It rest. There is \
perpetual tendency which cannot be
curbed by perpetual disappointment, to
I send out our desires ,fter some object
beyond our present reich. But we are
never satisfied from lie attainment of
our desires. The law of the natural
world, by which objects diminish accor-
ding to their distance from us, is reyers
ed in the moral. The objects of our
wishes are magnifed in Eoportion to
the distance at which we view them.
AS we approach near. the chirm is brok-
en-, the illusion vanishes. They prove
to be but bubbles, which, IS soon as
touched, dissolve into airy vaponr. Still
we do not rest. At every fresh disan.
| Pointment, we put forth new desires and
new efforts, for the attainment of some
object yet more remote. Even success.
the most unbounded, does not satisfy us.
We weep for more worlds TO conquer.
We are SO constituted that purgu;t &c
Essential to our happiness. Progress. to
whatever ii relates, is 10 itself delight
tcl TO uF. There is, therefore, some
degree Of enjoyment in earthly pur-
suits; bei it is not in the end attained. it
Ia In the mere progress tozcard that end.
How vague and evanescent this how
Hickerlng, feeble, and insecure like
the flashes emitted by ball in rapid
motion, resulting not from any resource
IN itself, but merely from it's contact
with other bodies The soul remains
emp'y-a soul of vast desires, vast en-
ergIes, and vast capacity Ii IS as il a
man were to spend his whole life in
running to agoal, for the mere pleasure
OF the race-The goal is of no value
but TO mark he place where he must
stop. His race ended, his sand of life
ron out, he awakes in eternity, and
what has he If all the labours that he
has taken unCer the sun?
Amid this tumuIt Of the mind. :his
everlasting resdessness of the soul,
Religion, benign visitor, heavenly mon
Itor, descends TO man. She comes iii
radiant and aIluring form, and addresses
him in accents of winning tenderness.
Receive me, and / will say to the
swelling surge of passion, Peace, be
still" will quell the fever of disap-
po;ntment, by leading you TO fountains
OF living waters. / will point you TO
the shadow of great rock in this wea-
ry land. Receive oh we on whom
the Sou of God has looked with tender
ness, and will direct you 10 an object
of pursuit, worthy your heavenly oil
gin, worthy your nature, but little low
er than that of angels-worthy the in
ward 3spIrings of which you are proud
iy yet painfully conscious, You love
pursuit-the object to which | will d.
rect you, is infinite, therefore, your pur-
suit will be endless You delight in
progress here your progress shall be
commensurate with eternity Your de-
sires are boundEess-you shall be salts
fed when you awake in the likeness oil
God.-Not only so, you shall frequent
Iy be filled, in this the house of your
pilgrimage, with prehbations of future
blessedness. Receive me, and you ne ed
, never fear what your nature renders SC
, revolving to you, a cessation of hope
expectation, aud effort True, your CO.
pacity for happiness shall be filled IA,
soon as you enter on your everlasting
, inheritance. Bat that capacity shall
be forever inCre aslng, and forever fill
Ing with all the fulness of Cod
Throughout The immortality of her ex.
istence, your soul shall be continual,
expanding her views, strengthening her
energies, and dri king deeper and deep
er of the. river of pleasures, which
flows at the right hand of the BIOS
High
Such are the boundless offers of re.
liglon. All that man can desire. all thai
ms nature can receive, more than hi.
utmost powers of apprehension can
: reach. View the nature of man, and
the Objects by which he is surrounded
his immortal capacity forever seeking,
} yet forever refusing to be filled from
: earthly sources; and say, is not this d.
! vine religion, in It's freeDess, lis richness
} and ITS boundlessness, to a being thus
) constituted and thus situated, il it not
all! View the individual who has en-
braced her in his Utmost soul, and enter
ed on the high and holy course to which
she dictates, and then say, with an en-
phasIs drawn from reality, and not f.om
theory alone, is not Religion all See
her disciple partaker Of the ills Incl
dent TO human nature. He considers
himself as " under education in Gods
school," and whether his divine Mas.