Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1828-06-24
FOR THE LANCASTER GAZETTE.

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FOR THE LANCASTER GAZETTE.
The rising morn, the closing day,
Repeat thy praise with grateful voice,
Both, bounteous Lord thy power display,
And, laden with thy gifts, rejoice"
MEssRs. EDIToRs,-I read, with interest,
some remarks in your paper of last week,
headed by quotation beginning thus =:
''When Iconsder life it's all cheat"
Surely he who asserted this to be truth,
without any. qualification, could have few
ties to bind his soul to earth, and he would
gladly welcome the hour that should free
him from state of existence which presents
to an intelligent and immortal mind nothing
but an unhappy delusion.
The experience of every day does indeed
teach us the folly of placing entire depend
ence on our hopes of enjoyment in this life
still, a mind given to reflection finds many
sources of actual enjoyment to awaken a
feeling of gratitude to the "Giver of all
good' for the blessings He is so bountifully
bestowing upon the evil and unthankful
1t is unquestionably the duty of every
Christian to let his thoughts dwell much on
the goodness of God, and to form, if posi-
Bile, 50 correct an estimate of this life, in
comparison with better, as to cheer and
animate him under all circumstances, and
create in his soul, as Addison expresses it,
ga sort of sunshine" Who can have a
gloomy view of life, more especially, at this
season of the year, when he looks abroad
upon this "goodly earth," covered with a
rich verdure, and listens to the cheerful
musick of the little tribe that are giving us
concerts from day to day, and, more than
all, when he witnesses the power and ma
jesty of the Almighty, sublimely displayed
in the thick clouds tremendous gloom
followed by the rainbow, that visible token
of His covenant with the righteous man Of
old, in which we may at once behold the
attributes of justice and mercy. Life does
not cheat him, but he cheats himself who
can look with ungrateful indifference on the
works of nature.
The disappointments of life may indeed
be numerous, but surely some hopes have
been, and still are, realized. The "lover''
has sometimes been permitted to call "Hea-
VEINS last, best gift to man" his own. The
smother" may have gazed with trembling
anxiety upon her darling child, apparently
on the brink of the grave, but has she not
also sometimes realized hopes, by beholding
the glow of health once more returning to
the cheek of her little one? The "benevo-
LENT man has not only received grateful
homage from the hearts of the widow and
the orphan of his own times, but posterity
have felt, and often acknowledge, the bles-
sed influence of his bright example. Bear
me witness, spirit of departed Howard !
The "ambitious" man, too, has welcomed
the applause of multitudes, and the "scholar''
has found rich reward for his efforts, if not
in the applause of his contemporaries, at
least, in the anticipated gratitude of future
generations. Who can look only on the
the dark side, and deny that, even amid the
constant changes and vicissitudes of life,
there are many enjoyments common to man
Gloomy, indeed, must be the journey of the
traveller, who so constantly fixes his eyes
upon the clouds in the horizon, as to forget
that the sun is shining on his path.
Happy the individual who feels such firm
confidence in the unerring wisdom and good
ness of God, as to have no overweening
anxiety with regard to the future, but can
take the enjoyment which the present offers,
and say with a grateful heart
Through all the various changing scene,
Of LIES mistaken i'll, or good,
Thy hand, o God conducts unseen,
The beautiful vicisstude" w.