Those slumbers sound again my senses bind

That made but one sweet instant all my night; That heard nor barking cur, nor howling wind, Nor Time's deep solemn toll proclaim his flight! Give me again in all men to confide

Again suspicion from my breast be driven; Still would I view my kind with gen'rous pride, And deem the word of man the word of Heaven!

And give me, Nature, once again to prove

Those dear, delirious, agitated days When woke within me first the throb of Love, And radiant beauty dazzled first my gaze! Soft, idle hours, when reason sat retired,

And fancy o'er me all her influence threw !When, save what Laura's changeful eyes inspired,

No hopes I cherish'd, and no fears I knew! Resume, blest Lunacy, thy pleasing sway;

Return the wild delight-the pensive eighThe airy sonnet, and the plaintive layThe moonlight walk, and sweetly sleepless

eye

Enchanted grounds o'er which I vacant stray'd, In bowers of Fragrance where I careless sate, While more than heavenly music round me play'd,

To a sad outcast ope again your gate! Ah! swift-wing'd joys, for ever, ever flown !— Ah! fruitless provocation, fond and vain! Adieu, blest days that must but once be known; Farewell, delights I must not see again!

Come, Virtue, when all other joys retreat

Still constant found-and, smiling Friendship,

come

And beauteous Truth, (now grander beams have set,)

Gild, with your mild and lunar rays, my gloom!

TO MY FATHER:

BY MRS. EMILY C. JUDSON.

A WELCOME for thy child, father,
A welcome give to-day;

Although she may not come to thec
As when she went away;
Though never in her olden nest

Is she to fold her wing,
And live again the days when first
She learned to fly and sing.

Oh! happy were those days, father,
When gathering round thy knee,
Seven sons and daughters called thee sire;
We come again but three:

The grave has claimed thy loveliest ones,
And sterner things than death
Have left a shadow on thy brow,

A sigh upon thy breath.

And one-one of the three, father,
Now comes on thee to claim
Thy blessing on another lot,
Upon another name.

Where tropic suns for ever burn,

Far over land and wave,

The child whom thou hast loved would make Her hearth-stone and her grave.

Thou'lt never wait again, father,

Thy daughter's coming tread;
She ne'er will see thy face on earth,-
So count her with thy dead;
But in the land of life and love,

Not sorrowing as now,

She'll come to thee, and come, perchance,
With jewels on her brow.

Perchance;-I do not know, father,

If any part be given

My erring hand among the guides
Who point the way to heaven;
But it would be a joy untold,

Some erring foot to stay;
Remember this, when, gathering round,
Ye for the exile pray.

IRISH EVANGELICAL SOCIETY. THERE has never been a period in the history of the Society which has occasioned greater anxiety to the Committee than the present. On the one hand, there is in many extensive districts, not merely a willingness, but an extreme anxiety to hear the Gospel, as it is dispensed by the agents of this Society; and on the other hand, the pressing necessity, from the want of adequate funds, has compelled the Committee not only to turn a deaf ear to the earnest requests to occupy new ground, but also to withdraw agencies, both ministers and Scripturereaders, from stations which, for a longer or shorter period, and with varied success, have been occupied by the Society. The friends of

the Institution will easily conceive how painful and perplexing have been the circumstances in which the Committee have been placed. The following are extracts from a letter just received from an agent labouring in one of the most bigotted and benighted of all the Society's stations:-"Must our Society, Ireland's best friend, be so paralyzed as to give up a work which has already been the means of rescuing many of her sons and daughters from the most deeprooted superstition and vice, and from eternal woe? And must this be the case at a time when prejudice and opposition are giving way, and when the Society's agents are greeted and welcomed almost universally by the people? and when priestly influence and domination

are abated in a greater degree than at any period of the Society's operations? Must the Man of sin' be permitted again to take possession of our Missionary field, and once more spread the dark curtain of midnight gloom over our long-neglected and unfortunate country? Oh! forbid the thought! When I remember the great sum given to Maynooth, and think of the idolatrous purposes for which it is expended, and then hear how the Gospel wheels of our Society are clogged and hindered, my poor mind is overwhelmed with deep affliction and anguish of heart. Surely some sad and portentous change in the signs of the times' has come over us!" Thus earnestly does the good man plead for his brethren, his kinsmen after the flesh." But to such pleadings the Committee, whatever be their inclination and desire, cannot listen. The funds placed at their disposal are not sufficient to meet the expenditure involved. They must diminish and not extend their operations. It does indeed seem, as is remarked above, that "some sad and portentous change" has come over us. Will not some who may read these lines be ready to say, "This must not be! Let not the Society at such a time, so eminently favourable for Evangelical labours, relax its efforts, or diminish its agencies ! We will supply the means to sustain an Institution which, notwithstanding all the difficulties with which it has had to struggle, has been so greatly blessed in turning many to righteousness,' and saving them from eternal death." Let the rich lay the matter seriously to heart, and come promptly forward to the "help of the Lord against the mighty." Let them follow the example of a noble-minded lady, who, recently conferring with the Secretary on the nature of the Society's operations, placed in his hands the truly generous donation of 200 guineas! A few such munificent contributions as this would inspire the Committee with fresh vigour; would encourage the brethren labouring with such diligence and so much self-denial; and would be of more lasting advantage to the cause of Evangelical instruction in our sister-country than a much greater sum at a period less critical than the present.

But it is objected that the Society, after more than thirty years' labour, has been productive of but little benefit. The Committee are aware that such an opinion has been expressed; but they would venture confidently to affirm, that could a fair estimate be made of the result of its labours, it would bear comparison with almost any other Missionary Institution whose difficulties are comparable to its own, either in their nature or amount. Let the following extracts from a communication not long since received, be carefully considered, and the Committee feel persuaded they will be regarded both as an illustration and confirmation of the opinion they have ventured to express : "At the commencement of the Society's career, the spiritual condition of the country was deplorable in the extreme. A few years prior to that period, it was estimated there were but three ministers in the Established Church in the whole land that preached the Gospel; nor were there many additions to this class when the Irish Evangelical Society was instituted. Amongst the Protestant Episcopalians, therefore, Evangelical piety was rarely to be met with; but ignorance of the truth as it is in

Jesus was fearfully extensive and profound. It is also a well-known fact, that, at that period, the ministers of the Presbyterian Church, with but few exceptions, were either not preachers of Evangelical Christianity, or were not promoters of it by their walk and conversation among the people. I was a Presbyterian myself during six years after my settlement in Ireland; and, from the peculiar circumstances in which I was placed, I had extensive opportunities of knowing what I have asserted, not only with regard to the ministers of the Presbytery of the district in which I resided, but also in reference to the body generally.

"Such was the state of things when the Irish Evangelical Society was instituted. After some time, in the providence of God, I was removed to a distant locality. My lot was then cast in a town in which the Society had an agent, where there was a scriptural church, although a small one, and the ordinances of the Lord's house. There I, with the other members of my family, statedly attended; and there I heard the Gospel, became enlightened in its doctrines, and united in fellowship with the church. At that time the Gospel was not preached in any place of worship in the town, which was a large one, containing 15,000 or 16,000 souls. Respectable people of the Establishment, and of the Presbyterians, attended our chapel, and we had a flourishing congregation.

"And now with regard to this station. When I settled here the church consisted of twelve members, only two of whom knew the real principles of church polity, as set forth in the New Testament. Those twelve, and a few other persons, constituted the ordinary congregation,—a very heartless sight for a minister. There were no country stations of any importance; in fact, there was only one that seemed to be in being, and at that there was an attendance of about thirty persons. There were no prayer-meetings, no Sabbath-schools, no instrumentality in operation except the Sabbath-day services; but there was a strong prejudice against our principles both in town and country. Now the reverse of this is the actual condition of our church. For years harmony and peace have prevailed to a delightful degree, and the issue has been most gratifying.

"Besides this, country stations, to the number of nine, have been opened around the town, within a distance of eight Irish miles. At first the attendance was comparatively small, but they gradually increased until many hundred immortal souls have had the saving truths of the Gospel urged on their attention."

Such is a brief view of the results of one station occupied by the Society. Of many others a similar history could be given. Let it not be said, then, that the agents have laboured in vain, or spent their strength for nought. Neither let any suppose that the money expended in sustaining the operations of the Society has been wasted. Far different is the conclusion of those who have had the best opportunities of judging; especially such as have derived spiritual benefit from such labours as are described above, and who are continually offering up their sincere and fervent prayers for a blessing on those churches and individuals by whose liberality they have been supplied with the bread of life.

FROM the circumstance that the Jewish jubilee, which marked some memorable regulations in the commonwealth of Israel, was celebrated every fifty years, the name has been applied to events which have nothing in common with it but a similar revolution of time. Hence

the fiftieth year of a minister's labours is regarded as jubilee; and the same designation is applied to the fiftieth year of a Society's existence. Thus, not many years since, an interesting jubilee service was held at Argyle Chapel, Bath, to commemorate the fiftieth year of the venerable William Jay's most successful ministry in that place. And not long after that, this highly-respected minister was engaged by the Directors of the London Missionary Society to preach a sermon in Surrey Chapel, London, to commemorate the fiftieth or jubilee year of that Society, and which was observed by all the churches and Sunday-schools connected with our own denomination, and by many others.

There is a peculiar and obvious propriety in such commemorations as these. It is well to note every one of those periods which mark our rapid and resistless flight towards eternity, and betoken the onward progress of societies and institutions. Such reckonings and commemorations are fitted to produce a salutary impression on our minds, and to summon us to serious thought and renewed activity; and especially when they have respect to those great periods by which men measure out time, on their way to eternity. Those things which occur weekly, and monthly, and even annually, may make but a slight impression, by reason of the frequency of their recurrence. But fifty years, the half of one of the larger divisions of time, is too long a period in the history of any person or society to pass away unnoticed, or without producing a powerful impression on the mind. It comprises a very large amount of action, and a great variety of events, in the history of the individual or the institution whose jubilee it signalizes; and its observance cannot fail of producing much good, by throwing the mind back upon the past, and leading it to look forward to the future, and summoning it, with renewed activity and energy,

VOL. VII.

to betake itself to its appropriate work. We doubt not that the jubilee commemoration of the venerable minister referred to was greatly blessed to him and to many who joined in it; and we know that the jubilee of the London Missionary Society awakened a much deeper interest in its objects, and resulted in a considerable augmentation of its funds.

But if there is an obvious propriety in such jubilee celebrations as these, then it is peculiarly appropriate to commemorate each fiftieth year in the history of the world, and to endeavour, as far as possible, to make that fiftieth year a jubilee. It would argue great insensibility to pass over so important a division of time, without serious reflection on its rapid progress, and without an earnest desire to improve it to great and spiritual purposes. But perhaps it may be thought that there is an incongruity in regarding the lapse of so large a portion of time as a jubilee -an occasion of rejoicing. It certainly does, in one view of it, appear incongruous; and it is matter of surprise, that anniversaries, and any periodic celebrations, which bespeak the rapid flight of time, should be made seasons of rejoicing, especially by the irreligious and the immoral. It is strange that creatures whose stay on earth is so short, and whose love of life is so strong, should act as if they were glad that another period of time has passed away, as they do, by making the anniversaries of births and weddings, and the eve of the new year, seasons of mirthfulness and gaiety. It is passing strange that beings so averse to death, and who dread to think about it, should, on finding themselves a long stage nearer to it, make this an occasion of mirth, if not of levity, folly, and sin, and so render themselves increasingly unfit to die. The passing away of every period of time should be regarded by them with solemn awe; and the lapse of half a century should speak to them, in distinct and monitory voice, of the rapid approach of that solemn period when "the angel shall be seen standing upon the sea and upon the earth, lifting up his hand to heaven, and swearing by Him that liveth for ever and ever that there shall be time no longer!" In that day of "sackcloth of hair," and confusion, and

E

blood, when "the stars of heaven shall fall to the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when shaken of a mighty wind; and the heavens shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled together"-in that day which shall wind up the issues of time, and usher in the retributions of eternity-when "the dead, small and great, shall stand before God,' and be "judged out of those things which are written in the books, according to their works,"-in that day will the wicked weep and wail that time with them is past for ever, and wonder that they should so have wasted and abused its precious hours, by employing them to seal their everlasting perdition, instead of securing their everlasting blessedness. And if any of our readers are among the number of those who have hitherto unhappily failed to fulfil the great purposes of life, this memorable epoch of their wasting existence should startle them from their sloth and indifference, by reminding them how rapidly time is speeding forward to be lost in eternity, and how surely and certainly it is bearing them onwards to the tribunal of God. What the poet says of every passing period is especially applicable to this remarkable epoch; and most appropriate is the admonition he has sought to enforce :

"It is the signal that demands despatch.

Seize, then, the present moments as they pass,
For be assured, they all are messengers;
And though their flight be silent, and their paths
Trackless, as the wing'd couriers of the air,
They post to heaven, and there record thy folly;
And thou wilt have to answer at the bar,
For every fugitive..

Then stay the present instant, as it flies;
Imprint the mark of wisdom on its wings.
Oh! let it not elude thy grasp, but like
The good old patriarch upon record, hold
The fleet angel fast, until he bless thee!"

But while, to the irreligious, the lapse of fifty years in the world's history is no fit occasion for rejoicing, but otherwise, as hastening on the "day of dread decision and despair," yet it is well fitted to minister to the joys and triumphs of the pious. It reminds us that God's purposes of mercy towards a guilty world are speeding forwards to their full and final accomplishment. It reminds us that the day of Gospel triumph and millennial glory is approaching that the time of the destined destruction of every power hostile to Christianity is drawing nigh; when Paganism, in all its forms, shall be overthrown; and Popery, which has "made the earth drunk with the blood of the martyrs," shall be suddenly "consumed with the breath" of Christ's mouth, and "destroyed by the brightness of his

coming;" and Mohammedanism, the long-prevailing oriental imposture, shall, in the emphatic language of Scripture prophecy, be "broken without hands:" and Infidelity shall be cast out, and the kingdom of Christ shall be established on the ruins of these anti-christian powers. It reminds us, in a peculiar manner, that the half-century which is now closing will be followed by one which, in the judgment of many persons, is to precede and usher in the most glorious era of the church's triumphs, and the great Sabbatism of the world, when the saints on earth shall be, in a peculiar manner, priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years," which shall be the seventh and last "thousand years" of the world's history as the abode of man, and the great Sabbatical rest of the church militant on earth, prior to the creation of "the new heavens and the new earth," and the coming down of the church triumphant "from God out of heaven, as a bride adorned for her husband."

It cannot but be matter of rejoicing to the pious, that the lapse of another halfcentury is hastening on this " consummation so devoutly to be wished." There is reason, indeed, to believe that this glorious era will be preceded by much of public agitation and national convulsion, of which we have recently beheld some striking examples. There will be the mustering of antagonistic forces, the conflict of mind, the collision of opinion, and the battle for great principles, which even now gives warning of its approach, and perhaps again the "slaying of the witnesses." God will "show wonders in the heaven," among the rulers, "and in the earth," among the masses of the people; "blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun," or those who occupy the stations of imperial power, "shall be turned into darkness, and the moon," or lesser rulers, "into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord." But we rejoice in the thought that these convulsions and disorders of society will be under the direction of the great Sovereign of the universe, who will infallibly render them the precursors and the preparations of the day of millennial triumph and glory. And when "there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring, and men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the

earth," then shall be seen "the Son of man coming with power and great glory." "And when these things begin to come to pass, ," said the Saviour, "then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh."

But there is a still more practical point of view in which this fiftieth year may be contemplated. It is greatly to be desired that it may be, to all Christians and Christian churches, and through them to the nation at large, and to the world, in a peculiar manner, a jubilee year. And our special object, in calling attention to the subject, is to suggest to Christians and Christian churches some things to be done by them, in order to secure so desirable a result. Our space will not admit of our doing more than just to notice, in the briefest manner, things of the utmost importance.

some

On the part of individual Christians there should be renewed and solemn engagement with God, and the cultivation of a spirit of entire and unreserved consecration to his service. There should be increased prayerfulness, enlarged expectation, and earnest and unremitting effort. Christians should give themselves to the prayerful and diligent cultivation of their own piety, and to direct, specific, systematic, and persevering efforts to induce piety in others. The former will fit them for the latter; yea, more, it will infallibly result in it: for piety in the heart will necessarily exhibit itself in the conduct, and elevated piety will be sure to display itself in energetic Christian action, and action, too, which cannot fail of being successful.

Let

Christians thus betake themselves, henceforth, to the renewed and vigorous cultivation of their own growth in grace, and to wise and well-directed efforts for the salvation of their fellow-men, and this fiftieth year will indeed be a jubilee year to them, and to many within the sphere of their influence.

On the part of Christian churches there should be intense solicitude to acquire distinct "understanding of the signs of the times" a deep sense of responsibility in relation to them-a practical recognition of the claims of the world upon their warmest sympathies and most earnest efforts, together with the employment of such special and peculiar measures of an attractive and aggressive nature as the circumstances of the age, and of their respective localities, seem to require. The time has obviously arrived, when, in addition to the ordinary

means and appliances for spreading the Redeemer's kingdom in the world, Christian churches are called upon to adopt other measures for bringing the Gospel into contact with the masses of the unconverted in their several vicinities. The preaching and pastoral exercises of their ministers must be supplemented, to a much greater extent than they now are, by the private and public teaching, and systematic domiciliary visitation, of their members. To chapels they must add, in increasing numbers, day and Sundayschools, and lecture-rooms, and other buildings appropriated to moral and religious purposes. To the set services of the sanctuary they must add the less formal engagements of meetings for lectures and discussions on moral and religious matters, which shall invite the attendance of the irreligious, and encourage the free expression of their thoughts and feelings in relation to such matters. While they are concerned to maintain and multiply places of public worship, and to render the administration of the regular ordinances of God's house increasingly efficient, "not forsaking the assembling of themselves together' on the Lord's day, but bearing their practical testimony to the value of its services, by the regularity of their attendance, and by the earnestness with which they urge its claims on the attention of others,-while they do all this, they must not regard religion as a matter pertaining to set times and appointed places, but must avail themselves of every opportunity and place for urging its claims on the attention of men, in the spirit of the devoted Paul, who "disputed in the synagogue with the Jews," and "in the market daily with them that met him," and "in the midst of Mars Hill;" and wherever he went was engaged in "disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God." And then to their compassion for the souls of the unconverted, they must add an increasing sympathy with their physical, social, and political condition, and show themselves to be the true friends of liberty and enlightenment, and all that tends to elevate and ennoble, and to promote the real welfare of the people, by earnest and practical endeavours for their accomplishment. In one word, they must, in the most effectual manner, ply the pulpit, the platform, and the press, and avail themselves of every practicable method of promoting the spread of religion and the expansion of the church.