will find his best success in rising early. For reason dictates, and experience proves it to be conducive to our welfare. It can cheer the mind, harmonize the temper, and compose the passions; brace the nerves, clear and invigorate the understanding. It can give firmness and decision to our actions, leisure for the dispatch of business, acuteness in the prosecution of studies, speed both commerce and agriculture, enrich the merchant, and prosper the farmer. It is the sweet ingredient in the cup of the labourer. Were he not compelled, by a kind necessity, to rise early to his salutary toil, the malady of the rich being superadded to the evils of poverty, no longer could he taste the cordial by whose cheering influence it is that his hovel, and all the sad realities of his condition, lose their rough and discouraging aspect. Providence is kind and impartial; and, with regard to happiness, preserves us (notwithstanding those distinctions which are so necessary for the welfare of society,) very much on a level. What wonder is it that we grow weary of the secondary and equivocal advantages of fortune, when we cease to appreciate the real and substantial blessings which are daily showered down upon us; or that the possessor of princely palaces should view, with a sated and joyless eye, the splendor by which he is surrounded, when we find ourselves to grow utterly regardless of the far mightier fabric of the Universe, and of all the matchless works of nature which so often in vain solicit our admiration? The most valuable gifts of the Creator are those which he pours with so liberal a hand to all; gifts which philosophers, poets, and kings, have known and appreciated, which the poorest peasant can freely enjoy; gifts from which poverty is no disqualification, nor greatness any bar. Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes, was the strain of one of the most illustrious of mankind; and the obscurest may as largely share, if he despise it not, the universal bounty. Look at the labourer who has worked in the fields since day-break, and at him who rises to a noon-day breakfast. Which of the two has the most serene countenance, the most inward tranquillity? Which has the most enjoyment of his life? and which is the most commendable in the sight of God and man? True it is, that those cannot thus labour whose fortune has, from the beginning of their lives, rendered it unnecessary that they should. But is that any reason that they should so sadly lose their hours of There is morning hours? They may be action, though not of labour. the same, if not greater reason, that they should be stirring and alert at that time, as at any other part of the day; and if they wish to avail themselves of their advantages of fortune by surpassing the labourer in happiness, they must learn first to equal him in his morning's activity, What is a man to do when he is a journey. * * Suppose every day to be a day of business; for your whole life is a race and a battle, a merchandize and He that rises first to prayer hath a more early title to a blessing; but he that changes night into day, labour into idleness, watchfulness to sleep, changes his hopes of blessing into a dream. "Never let any one think it an excuse to lie in bed because he hath nothing to do when he is up; for, whoever hath a soul, and hopes to save that soul, hath work enough to do to make his calling and election sure, to serve God and to pray, to read and to meditate, to repent and to amend, to do good to others, and to keep evil from themselves. And if thou hast little to do, thou oughtest to employ the stirring at an early hour? is a question sometimes asked, but easily answered. Let him earnestly pray to the eternal Fountain of life and being, of goodness and mercy; to Him whose universal presence is every where diffusing life, light, and joy, amid all the angels in heaven, and all the creatures upon the earth; to the gracious Author of his being, his Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, Father, from whom he receives all that he has, with the life which is more than meat, the body which is more than raiment, and all that he hopes for in this world and in that which is to come; render unto Him hearty thanks for the innumerable mercies which he daily experiences; deprecate the wrath and punishment due to his manifold transgressions; confess and humbly implore more time in laying up for a greater crown of glory." JEREMY TAYLOR. Agenda. |