Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1830-08-18

Peiseu'
The following beautiful extract is taken troni
: Prize Essay,' said TO have been written bya La
! DIV of Proyilence,--and which obtained the Pre-
MUM lately offered in the city OF Boston Tor inc
I best original production in prose.
"RELIGION'S ALL"
i "The mind of man is like the fluctuating sea.
! 1t neveris at rest. There Is perpetual enden-
! CIV. which cannot be cured by perpetual disap-
pointment to send out the desires after some OBJ
/ iect beyond our present reach. But we are new
er satisfied from the attainment OF our present
desires. The law Of the natural world, BY winch
objects diminish according TO their distance from
us, is reversed in the moral. The objects OF our
wishes are magniied in proportion as we view
them. As we approach near, the charm is broken,
the illusion vanishes. They prove TO be bubbles,
which as suun as touched dissolve in airy yapour.
Still we do not rest. At every fresh diSappolnt-
ment. we put forth new desires and new efforts,
for the attainment of some object yet more re-
mote. Even success, the most unbounded, does
not satisiyus. We weep for more words TO con-
Quer.
Amid this tamut Of the mind, this evcrlast-
inc restlessness of the SOUL religion. benign WIS.,
tier, heavenly monitor, descends to man. She
comes in radiant and alluring form. and adj
dresses hum IN accents Of winning tenderness.--
/ Receive me, and will say to the swelling surge
of passion, peace. be STILL will queli the ie-
yer Of disappointment, by Leading you to foun-
tains of living waters. will point to you the
shadow of great rock in this weary land. Re.
ccive me, oh. on whom the Son of God looked
With tenderness, and will direct you to an OBJ
I ject of pursuit, worthy your heavenly origin
worthy of your nature, but lille lower than that
Of angeis-worihy the inward springs OF which
YOU are proudly, vet painfully conscious. You
love pursuit; the object to which will direct you
is infinite, therefore your pursuit will be endless.
Your delight in prosress-here your progress will
be commensurate with eternity. Your desires
are boundless. You shall be satisfied when you
awake in the likeness of God. Not only so, you
shall frequently be filled in this house of your
pilgrimage, with PUBLICATIONS OF future hiesedness
| Receive me and YOU need never fear what your
nature renders so revolving to you, cessation OF
hope, expectation and effort. True, your capa-
city for happiness shall be filled as soon as you
enter on your everlasting Inheritance. But that
capacity shall be forever increasing, and forever
filing with all the fullness cf God. Throughout
the Immortality of her existence, your soul shall
be continually expanding her views, strengthen
ing her energies. and drinking deeper and deeper
of the river Of pleasure which flows at the right
hand of the Most High.
Such are the boundless offers of religion. -
All that man can desire, all that his nature
ccIve, more than his utmost powers OF apprehen-
sion can reach. View the nature of man, and
the objects by which he is surrounded: his I'M
mortal capacity forever seeking, yet forever re-
fusing to be filed from earthly sources; and say
is not this divine Religion, in its freshness. its
richness, and its boundlessness, to a being thus
constituted and thus situated. is anot all View
the individual who has embraced her in his in
most soul. and entered OH the high and holy
course which SHE dictates. and then say with an
emphasis. drawn from reality. is not Religion all!
See her disciple parakcr Of the ills incident to
human nature. He considers himself as - I'M
der education in Gods SCHOOL," and whether his
divine Master frown or smile, he knows the dis
pensation is adopted to his present need. and
tends alike to BIT him for his future inheritance.
What moral grandeur is there in the character Of
the Christian! Amid the war of elements, the
wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds, he can
sit. like Noah in the ark, calm, quiet. and Sc
cure, for the ed6ce of his hope is built on the
Rock of Ages. View the Christian as taught by
religion to subdue the baneful passions sf our
nature, which are ever-springing sources Of
wretchedness within our bosoms Instead Of
suffering the serpent to twine around his heart,
and noulish itsefin the misery Of another, he has
learnt, when he is rcvled. to bess-when he is
DETAINED, to suffer. A happy man is he! for. in
proportion as he yields to the influence of the
principles he has embraced, his soul is in harmo-
ny with the governing principles OF the universe.
1t is like we'll tuned instrument: whatever key
is struck, it responds melodious notes
Follow the Christian further, as he enters
the dark valley of the shadow Of death. Here
nature instincty recoils But religion takes
away the sting of death. and despoils the grave of
its victory. True the proud precepts of philo-
sophy might have enabled him to meet it with
feigned composure, but 1t is divine religion,
alone, which can in reality be the strength of bis
heart. when heart and flesh fail. When the sill
yer chord is loosed, and the golden pitcher bro
ken, and the frightened soul. finding the frail
edi6ce is crumbling, looks out for refuge; if a
dark uncertainty hangs over its future destiny, it
cannot but recoil in agony and horror.
blessed religion, Light Of the wsrld. ssle hope