scarcely the weight of a finger, is too much for numan nature to endure without seeking vengeance. In such an act there is every thing to irritate and inflame. Burning coals applied to the flesh are less tormenting to the body than this outrage is to the mind. It is the last and most poisonous arrow in the quiver of cruel and cowardly oppressors.

"Of Law," says Bishop Hooker, no less can "be acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of "God; her voice the harmony of the world. All "things in heaven and in earth do her homage: the

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very least as feeling her care; and the greatest as "not exempted from her power." But, to make the law worthy of this eulogium it must be impartial in itself and impartially executed. Can a perversion of judgment proceed from the bosom of God? Is it not impious to trace to the bosom of God the base act of punishing the poor as an admonition to the rich, and, when the rich commit precisely the same offence, to

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wrap it up" and let them escape? Can the law then be said to have its seat in the bosom of God, of that God who has pronounced his everlasting curse on those, who shall respect persons in judgment?, Can the voice of the law be harmony, when it is made to pronounce death on the petty thief, while it scarcely passes a censure on the grand robber that strips thousands of their means of existence? Can harmony be

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in a voice like this? And what care does such law take of "the least?" How can "the least feel her "care," when she has nothing for them but a scourge ? What is the care that "the least" want from the law? To protect them. And, against whom? Certainly against the rich and powerful. What care, then, do they experience at her hands, if she lash them to the bone, while she " wraps it up" with the rich? Can the law, when thus perverted, receive homage from all things in heaven and in earth? Homage from the false and base indeed she may receive; homage like that of the Missouri Savages, who address their supplications and thanksgivings to the Devil; the homage of knaves and hypocrites who thrive by her, and of the rich culprits with whom she "wraps it up ;" but, "cursed be he that perverteth judgment," that respecteth persons in judgment," and let all the people say, Amen.” This is the sort of homage which perverted law ought to receive from all things in heaven and in earth. This is the sentence which God has pronounced on her corrupt administrators: "the burial of an ass, and to be cast "forth from the gates of the city."

Homage is indeed due to just authority. Government, which is only another word for management, applied to the affairs of nations, is absolutely necessary to the existence of civil society. Hence the observation But, then, it must be

that "all power is from God."

just power; power exercised according to the laws of

God, and those laws pronounce a curse on partial judges It must be just power; for the murderer has power to execute his deeds; and God has said, "Thou shalt do no "murder." Therefore, we are not to honour those in authority merely because they have power; but, are first to consider, whether the power they have be just in its origin and whether it be justly and impartially exercised.

Amongst all the powers, with which persons in authority are invested, none are of so much importance to the community, none have so great and immediate an effect on the affairs of men, none have so much to do in producing public happiness, or public misery, as the powers of the Judge. When, therefore, he execute his high office with diligence and impartiality, no respect, no veneration, that we can entertain towards a human being can exceed his merits and our obligations. Of all the spectacles that reflect honour on human nature and that tend to elevate the mind of man, none is equal to that of a Judge, patiently investigating, diligently searching after truth, scrupulously discriminating, and impartially deciding; divested of all passion, leaning neither to the one side nor the other, having no respect of persons in judgment; bold in his integrity, setting at nought the displeasure of power, and having in his mind no fear but that of the possibility of erroneously doing wrong. But, if the reverse of all this characterize the exhibition: if the judge, instead of endeavouring to elicit

truth, employ all his skill and all his talents to envelope it in darkness, to clothe wrong in the garb

f right; if, his very looks at the outset declare him a partisan and not a judge; if petulance and rage mark his inward fear of failing to effect his but too manifest iniquitous intention; if, at last, when coming to award judgment on the rich and on the poor, both guilty of precisely the same offence, he merely shake the lash over the shoulders of the former, and make the forty lacking one draw thirty-nine streams of blood from the loins of the latter, is not the favoured culprit covered with shame, and the judge with infamy? "So they 66 wrap it up." But is not every breast filled with indignation? Are they not " contemptible and base "before all the people?" Is not the curse of God pronounced upon them; and do not all the people say, Amen!TM

THE SLUGGARD.

"Go to the Ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be "wise; which, having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth

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ner meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the har"vest. How long wilt thou sleep, O, sluggard? When wilt "thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little "slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep! So shalt thy poverty come like one that travelleth, and thy want like 66 an armed man."-PROVERBS, Ch. vi. V. 6 to 11.

THE passage chosen for my text is one of the most beautiful that ever was penned; and it contains an exhortation and a warning of great importance to all persons of both sexes and of ages in all the ranks and the callings of life. Man was born for activity, for exertion, and not to lie in a state like that of those creatures who appear to live for no other purpose than that of in creasing in bulk, merely to grow up out of the earth or its products, and, through some channel other, to return to earth again.

The causes of poverty and want are various. Some