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over millions to whom time is now no longer, but whose everlasting destinies are at this moment affected by their respective employment, for good or for evil, of those very portions of time thus given and taken away. Others, who were then children, may yet be living, and living, at this day, under the effects of the influence which these individual hymns may have then had upon their tender and susceptible minds.— The same may be predicated of the dead, and presumed of the living, with respect to the following hymns for the various 'Seasons' of years, which had their spring, summer, autumn, and winter, in turn,— their flowers and buds, their fruits, their breezes and their storms, not otherwise recorded than in these humble strains ; but yet to some of those who then lived— to some who may still be alive— those seasons had days of the Son of Man on earth— days to be remembered through eternity.— The hymns also under the head of 'Ordinances', were composed to celebrate special Sabbaths, Sacraments, and Anniversaries, &c., though they may generally be used, on corresponding opportunities, to the end of time.
The hymns on 'Providences', in the same Book, are very striking, as commemorating national, local, and personal judgments, visitations, and deliverances. Of those on the commencement of hostilities with the American Colonies, the Fast day in 1776, the earth quake in 1775, it may be said, in justice to each, "that strain was of an higher mood." The stanzas ' On the Fire at Olney, 1777, ' contain incidental glimpses into the dark and fearful condition (spiritually considered) in which Christian society exists, even in places where the Gospel is most faithfully preached, and where it seems to bring forth much fruit. They show us in what a perilous state of un-
