inspired by such a belief. I might in the same manner show how such
a trust in the assistance of an Almighty Being naturally produces
patience, hope, cheerfulness, and all other dispositions of the mind
that alleviate those calamities which we are not able to remove.

The practice of this virtue administers great comfort to the mind of
man in times of poverty and affliction, but most of all in the hour
of death. When the soul is hovering in the last moments of its
separation, when it is just entering on another state of existence,
to converse with scenes, and objects, and companions, that are
altogether new--what can support her under such tremblings of
thought, such fear, such anxiety, such apprehensions, but the
casting of all her cares upon Him who first gave her being, who has
conducted her through one stage of it, and will be always with her,
to guide and comfort her in her progress through eternity?

David has very beautifully represented this steady reliance on God
Almighty in his twenty-third Psalm, which is a kind of pastoral
hymn, and filled with those allusions which are usual in that kind
of writing. As the poetry is very exquisite, I shall present my
reader with the following translation of it:


I.

The Lord my pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a shepherd's care;
His presence shall my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful eye;
My noonday walks He shall attend,