Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/First of September, 1815
FIRST OF SEPTEMBER, 1813.
A BIRTH day, a new month, a new season, and a new journal, meet me at the same moment! Reflections press upon each other, and the spirit is solemnized. A few years since, and I was not: a few years to come, and I shall not be. "We receive daily conviction of the vanity of earthly enjoyments, the fallibility of our own powers, and the unstable character of our own hearts. Might I not apply to myself, what the dying Patriarch addressed to his first born Reuben?—"Unstable as water thou shalt not excell." While we are compelled to perceive our imperfections, we must acknowledge the constant watchfulness and love of that benevolent Being who dealeth not with us according to our sins. He is kind to us, while we are forgetful of him; he preserves us, though we see him not; he is near us when we sleep, when we wake, and when we wander. The past year has been marked with health, peace, and an employment which I love, and have often desired. My request is to be better prepared for its various duties, to be confirmed in it, as long as I shall be enabled to do good, and to have the affections of those who are entrusted to my care. My prayer is, to he made an instrument of real good to my fellow creatures, and that all my selfish feelings may be absorbed in love to God, and to man. Many errors have stained my life. May their dominion be broken, their effects counteracted, and their record blotted from the dread book of remembrance. The past has been a year of few changes, but God only knows what are appointed to me in this. Perhaps it will lead on my last and final change. May I often reflect upon that solemn event; and may this year exceed my whole life for well directed exertions, piety, and preparation for it. Will God watch over me in all my wanderings with the tenderness of a father, will he mercifully order all my earthly changes; and when that hour shall come, which comes to all, will he not purify my spirit, and take it into his rest; because one intercedes for us, who is strong to suffer and mighty to save.