Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1829-10-15

1 ana comforts. He holds every endowment or
Tue most precarIons tenure. his friends NAV
| be snatched IN amoment from his embrace his
| riches maytake TO themselves wings s. fiyaway;
and ms health and beauty may be blasted
| IN an hour by breath of wind. Hunger and
thirst, cold and heat, poverty and disgrace, sor-
row and disappointment, pain and disease,
mingle themselves with all pursuits and enjoy
nents. Ills knowledge is circumscribed with
IN the narrowest limits, his errors and foliesare
gianng and innumerble; and he stands as an
almost undlstlngulshable atom, amidst the inn
mensity oil Gods works. Still, with al these
powerful Inducements 10 the exercise oflluma-
nity, man dares to be proud and arrogant
How affecting to contemplate the warrior,
flushed with diabolical pride, pursuing his
conquests through heaps of slam, in order to
OBTAIN possession oi"a poor petiable speck of
perlshlng earth; eXclanning in rage, 81 win
pursue, viii divide the spoil, my lust shall be
satishedupon them,f viii draw my sword, my
hand shall DESTROY them"--to behold the man
OF rank glorying in his wealth, and his empty
titles, and looking around upon the inferior or
ders OF his fellow moitals as the worms OF the
dust, to behold the man of ambition pushing
his way thro' bribery and treachery and slaugh-
ter, to gain possession of throne, that he may
look down with proud pre-eminence upon his
tellows-to behold the naughty airs ofihe no
bic dame Inflated with the idea of her beauty
and her high birth, as she struts along, survey
ing the lgnoble crowd, as il they were the dust
beneath her feet, to behold the smatterer in
learning pulled up with vain conceit of his
superficial requirements, when he has scarcely
entered the porch of knowledge--in fine to
behold all ranks from the highest, big with an
idea OF their own Importance, and fired with
PRIDE and revenge at the least provocation
whether imaginary or real! How inconsistent
the manifestations of such tempers, with the
many Illuminating circumstances of our pre-
sent condition, and with the low rank which
we hold in the scale Of Universal Being
It's not improbable that there are in the uni
verse intelligence ola superior order, in whose
breast pride never found place, to whom this
globe oil ours, and all its inhabitants, appear
as Inconslderable as drop ofwater, filed with
microscopic animacua, does the proud lords
of this earthly region. There is at least one
beng to whom this sentiment is applicable, in
Its utmost extent;-sBetorc Him all nations
are as a drop In bucket, and the inhabitants
of the earth as grlsshoppcrs, yea, they are as
nothing and vanity" Could we wing our way
with the swiftness ola seraph, from sun to sun
and world to world, ill we had surveyed all
the systems visible to the naked eye, which
are only as mere speck in the map of the
universe--eoild we at the same time, con
template the glorious landscapes and scenes of
grandeur they exhibited we also min
gle with the pure aud exalted intelligences
which people Respondent abodes, and behold
the humble and ardent alterations of their Al
mighty maker, their benign and Notwithstanding
department towards one another, each "es-
teerning another better than hnself,n and all
united in the bounds of the purest affection,
without one naughty or discordant feeling
what Indignation and establishment would
seize US, on our return to this obscure corner
of creation, to behold beings enveloped in the
miSts ofIgnorance, immersed in depraxity and
wickedness, liable TO thousand accidents, ex-
posed to the ravages of the earthquake, The
volcano and the storms; yet proud as Lucifer
and glorying in their shanep We should be
apt TO view them as we now do, those bediam-
ties, who fancy themselves to be kings, sur
rounded by their mobiles, while they are chain
ed TO the walls of noisome dungeon
While we contemplate the Omnipotence of
God in the immensely ofcreation, let us learn
to cultivate humility and selicabasement--
This was one of the lessons which the pious
Psalnlist deduced from his survey ofthe noe
turnai heavens. When we behold the moon
walking in brightness, and the innumerable
hosts of stars, overpowered with a sense of
his own insigniticance and the greatness Of
Divine condescension, he exclaimed, .sOur
Lord what is man that thou art mindful of
him, or the sun Of man that thou shouldst Vi
SIT bim?"