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as in that case, the dishonored and violated government of God has been vindicated and sustained (if it cannot be so otherwise) by a summary execution. The nation may save itself as Nineveh did, by fasting, and repent

the gospel to the world. For this purpose, God called | spaces for repentance allowed, as there was in Egypt's them out of a state of sin. For this purpose, he con- case; but repentance there must be, or judgments will tinues them his stewards or agents in the occupancy roll upon each other like the waves of the deluge, till, and improvement of "the mammon of unrighteousness," or temporal possessions. Their true maxim is well expressed (I believe) by John Wesley-"Get all you can, save all you can, give all you can." In this way they can, and they are commanded to condemn covet-ance, and supplication, and submission; but by any ousness in the midst of business and prosperity, and even wealth, by bountifully consecrating their abundance if they have it, as well as their mites if they have it not, to the extension of the blessings of the gospel and the conversion of the world. In this way they would sustain the government of God in the midst of a covetous world, even in the possession of active wealth.

course of opposite character, it must finally bring upon itself the doom which Nineveh finally suffered in being cast off of God, and trodden down of men-dismembered and erased from the record of existing nations. It is vain for financiers and politicians to blame the government, and fret at the supposed or the real mismanagement of affairs in high places. The primary But if they embezzle their Master's goods entrusted cause is the sins of the people, the church, and the goto them (for all they have is the Lord's), either by lay-vernment-each separately, and all together. God ing it up in coffers, or by pampering their bodies, or by never cursed an orderly, religious, good people, with a gilding it on their houses, by shining in tinkling orna- corrupt government or unprincipled functionaries. Rements and splendid array, by rolling in mounted car-member the heathen maxim-"Whom God means to This is a proverb worriages drawn by pampered steeds, then, they ruin destroy, he first makes mad."* men by their example; they betray the government and thy of a better origin. The merchant no more holds cause of God by their treacherous conduct. They his capital from God, than he does his prudence and saleave the heathen world to perish in ignorance and sin gacity to use it. A nation no more holds its excellent by their fraudulent and guilty self-indulgence; and God constitution and laws from God, than it does its foreis tempted either to desert them and leave them to their sight in the choice of officers to administer them. chosen course and its consequences, or to withdraw Moreover, God can curse a wicked people, with a from them his abused trust, and perhaps afflict them worldly and unfaithful church, even if Washington or otherwise, till in the bitterness of their soul they are Solomon were their magistrate. It is possible to arrive at such a state of popular moral corruption or debasebrought to publish their confession. ment, that God will say, as he once did say "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my heart could not be towards this people."

In the forms thus specified sin has been committed in this day, and it has been rebuked, and it has been confessed; but it doubtless has yet farther to be rebuked and confessed, before God will have withdrawn his judgments from our land.

course, or fail to testify by example, and influence, and untiring effort against it. The encouraged or tolerated continuance of these evil practices, can only bring more wrath upon our blood-bought land and liberties.

The worldly, inactive or inconsistent professor of religion, who is not lost to all sense of piety and love to man, has now an opportunity of aiding in the great work of saving a nation. Return from your backslidings, and do your first work--awake to righteousness, and be what you profess to be.

My friends, this is a time for a real and severe test of patriotism. Let the sot, and the Sabbath breaker, and O, my friends, we are linked to one another, to our the gambler, and the libertine, and the mere man of mocommon country, and to all the world—and surrounded ney and merchandise, know, that if they love their by the momentous interests of time and eternity. Has country, here is an opportunity for them to show it in God a government in this world? Is the Bible the au- truth, and do an actual service by forsaking their sins. thorized and truthful exhibit of the principles of that It is they who are bringing all this evil upon us; and it government? Will it punish all men for all sin, unless is we who are accessories or participants in the unrepented of and forgiven? Will this government sus-righteous work, if we either join them in their wicked tain itself, by punishing flagrant and repeated outrages upon its principles in this world when necessary? Are all calamities, individual and national, visitations from God-and is sin the cause of them? Is our country suffering at this time, and has it sinned so as thus to suffer? Is this visitation, to the daily minuting of which our newspapers have almost entirely surrendered their columns for the time, the doing of God, and of the long suffering God of the Bible? Has our country sinned so much as this? Is God's holy law and government under the feet of this people-and has he come to avenge the wrong, or chastise the trespass? Is the nation actually in controversy with its God?-and has the church proved unfaithful and treacherous? Is all this so? Then we may look well to it; for the moral Governor with whom we have to do, is an awful God. He will sustain his government, though earth and hell combine together to oppose it. If it be for these sins of which we have spoken, that these times have come upon us, then these sins, or whatever others, must be yielded and forsaken, or judgments heavier and heavier, like the plagues of Egypt, will follow each other in vindication of the divine right. There may be seasons of respite and

My dear friends, our sins have gathered this cloudy prospect upon a whole land, which threatens in its results to do more than to protest notes, suspend the business of firms, and break banks.

Already scores of accepted missionaries have had to be told, you cannot be sent to the heathen-you must stay at home, at least until these calamities be overpast. And it threatens to shorten the hand of christian charity in the work of apportioning their daily bread to hundreds of missionary brethren and sisters now at work in foreign lands and among heathen people. Already, through the sins which have brought this chastisement "Quem deus vult perdere, prius dementat."-Horace.

upon the land, a drought is on the currents of christian benevolence which are carrying bibles and christian tracts to the benighted nations. See what our worldliness has done. Have we no amends to make?-no reparation?-no sacrifice? All have now an opportunity to bless a country which they may have cursed. Our nation and people had forgotten and forsaken God. This is what has brought this evil upon us. Now, it has become the occasion of bringing home the question with solemn emphasis-"Who is on the Lord's side?"

READINGS WITH MY PENCIL. NO. VI.

Legere sine calamo est dormire.-Quintilian.

37. "As a general observation it is true, that a man is likely to

be treated more censoriously, precisely in proportion to his real of anything higher than themselves. The motives, at all events, of men whose excellence is conspicuous can less accurately be measured by common minds."-Coleridge. Table Talk.

excellence. It would seem as if the world were always jealous

True as the gospel! It has indeed come to be an axiom, that a man in a high, responsible place, is sure to be misunderstood, misrepresented, and maligned. There is a tide, uniformly setting strongly against the usefulness of any public man. As he is more observed, he is more censured. As he has more to do, the less indulgence has he. As he has chosen to be seen, he is mark, to be shot at. The arrows shoot across the surface of the sea, and nobody's head must be above it. Now, they who serve others in their places have not, surely, given up the right to be judged fairly of. Their usefulness, indeed, depends much upon their being dealt with, with fair and charitable constructions.

But one word more. Truth and the government of God, and human existence and accountability, extends through the length of life, and into the eternal world. Here mystery and uncertainty seems to rest on every thing; but yonder is that certain retribution which we must all witness-that impartial tribunal before which we must all stand. And now I have no secret to bring to light--but let me, with all the sincerity and earnesta ness of which my soul is capable, urge upon you all, the neglected and abused claims of the gospel of THE BLESSED JESUS CHRIST. His favor is life, and his loving kindness is better than life. His grace is the charm of eternity. And in the final home and inheritance of his disciples, it is that "The wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest."

DIRGE OF YOUNG NUNS

FOR A DEPARTED SISTER.

Es muerta, es muerta la santissima virgen.--Agnes de Coimbra.

Why should we weep-why should we weep?
What tho' our Sister's spirit's fled?
She lies like one but wrapped in sleep,
Not in the ice-shroud of the dead.

A smile is on those gentle lips

Her gold locks fall across her brow— She lies as one entranced in bliss,

An angel form undimm'd by woe.

Why should we sigh-why should we sigh?
Her soul is surely happy now;

For that the soul doth never die,

Is what she taught us long ago. The vesper hymn she sung last night,

Her soft voice now doth breathe above; Yestreen she watched the taper light

To night the blaze of endless love.

Why should we mourn-why should we mourn?
Her corse we bear to mother earth-
Her soul hath sought its joyous bourne-
The casket's lost its gem of worth.

And dust to dust each voice shall chant,

Each hand shall strew her grave with flowers,Each voice beseech the saints to grant As pure a life be each of ours.

38. "How like a lie is often the truth; and vice versa, how like the truth is often a lie!"—Coleridge. Table Talk.

True again! To lie about character, for instance, it is only necessary to stretch the truth. John Baptist was an austere man in his habits, and people said he was possessed with the devil. The Saviour of the world partook of the social blessings of life, and the Jews called him a glutton and a sot. It is indeed impossible so to do right, that there will not be some bad quality, very like the good you do or display, to which malice will be sure to attribute it.

39. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand."-Hamlet. II. 2.

How much proverb, and saw, and "modern instance" have been spun out upon honesty! What is it? For, really, now-a-days it is either much altered from what it was, or else, as again says our poet,

"We need no grave to bury honesty!

There's not a grain of it, the face to sweeten
Of the whole dungy earth!"

What, then, is honesty? It is a social virtue: for it supplies the only principle of union-a regard of mutual rights. It is justice--expanded to mean, beyond fairness and sincerity, a respect to every obligation. It is the observance of exact right. It is unsullied rectitude. It is solid, incorruptible, never-faltering, fearless principle. Honesty is venerable, even in a child. To hold, by a firm grasp, on the naked right, ennobles the most humble, and receives a tribute from the wise and the great. Such is honesty.

J. F. 0.

EUCLID AND ARISTOTLE.

The first knowledge which modern Europe obtained of Euclid and Aristotle, was by means of Latin translations after Arabic versions.

THE TENTH CENTURY. Whether the abstract idea which we form of any thing, a horse for example, was not as much a being as the horse we ride, was a question which the tenth century never could decide.

Having a look of life and fresh like springs!

BLONDEVILLE.

BY W. GILMORE SIMMS.-From a Manuscript Drama.

SCENE I.

I love thee for the truth, that takes a grace

From language,--and speaks out in melody,
From thy sweet mouth,-not for the mouth, Olivia;
Though that might charm the sculptor into sorrow,

A wood. Theodore and Olivia meeting from opposite points.] So proud a model yet beyond his art!—

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And do I not?

THEODORE.

Methought, my sweet Olivia, thou wert sure,

And knew my secret when thou gavest me thine;-
Knew that I lived for thee and doated on thee,

"Till I grew sick of service-foreign service,-

I love thee

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I cannot name thy beauties, yet I feel them,
And cannot love thee less! Last night I watched thee,
When the vain damsels, with their vainer jewels,
Sought to outshine thee; but their art was shamed
By thine, Olivia! With a wiser part,

Thou took'st that happiest tiring dame of all,
Sweet nature, to thine aid; and thy free tresses,
That had no gem save that pure pallid flow'r,

The tribute of some lowly forest bush,

Shone brighter than them all. Thy cheek had on
The rose-tint of thy fair complexion,-
Thine eye, a gem unmatchable by all,

Dazzled the rest to dimness; and thy form,-
Oh, thou hast borrow'd grace, my dear Olivia,
From shapes of air, and slender clouds, that bend
In tribute to the moon.

I pray thee do not

OLIVIA.

Thou chid'st me with thy praise, and I do tremble,
Lest thou should'st look to find me as thy fancy
Thus paints me from thy lips; in which sad error,
Too rudely check'd by the fast growing truth,

Thy love must turn to scorn. Thou wilt conceive me
The parent to the fond deception

And came to dream through life,--to dream with thee, Of thine own mood, and hate me ever after!
Forgetful of the old lure of ambition,

The pomps of courts, the prize of a great name,
My wanton youth once toil'd for.

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THEODORE.

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Filling the heavens with light-now here, now there-
Who touch'd with magical hands the yielding lute,
That plained in human anguish to the touch,
As if it pray'd for pity: then his voice-
He sang in such a fond and ravishing tone,
Of his own love and deep devotedness,
As fix'd the note of our Castilian maids,
So firm-he may be heedless of the spell,
Nor toil to watch it. He doth bring to me
The image of some features now forgotten,
And I have striven, but vainly, to recal them,-
They haunt me yet.

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And wherefore?

THEODORE.

OLIVIA.

I know not, dearest, save that by my side
I saw another. Wherefore dost thou ask?
THEODORE.

Sweet flatterer! But thou shalt not sway me thus-
And think with wooing and beguiling eye,
And velvet tongue, and honied sentences,
From lips that seem by vengeful bees new stung,
For robbing them of sweets,-to lull me thus,
Persuading me, too easily persuaded,

Against sound reason and deliberate thought!—

I will not think that I was seen alone,

Heard and remark'd, when gayest crowds were round,
And music had some sovereign worshippers,

That moved the chords, like that inspired minstrel,
Who played for heaven's wide portals and her God.
Thou could'st not heed me when that Blondeville
Was master of his cunning instrument-
When all the blandishments of beauty woo'd thee,
And gay forms floated round-not then Olivia,—
Thou art a woman!

For that very reason,

OLIVIA.

Most like to have forgotten all thou speak'st of,
In homage to her love. Why speak of Blondeville?-

I like him not—I like not to speak of him—
He is presumptuous-with my sex a trifler,—
And, as he is accomplished in his arts,
And of most pleasing port, and free behavior,
Most careless of the wrong he does to woman,
And insolent in his strength. I would my brother
Knew less of him, and less esteemed his power,-
He were far wiser.

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I must win thee to better thoughts of me, If not for love, for vengeance.

Ay, Count Theodore,

Thou little think'st, in the youth Blondeville,
Thou see'st the brother of the hapless maid
Thy wanton flatteries ruined. Claribel
Shall have a stern avenger of her wrong,

And thou shalt feel him! Thou shalt know me soon:-
Anon, we shall have converse. Thou shalt be
The fount, the spring-tide of a crowning bliss,
For thou shalt minister to my treasured hate,
And yielding thus enjoyment's happiest draught,
Shall yield its triumph too. I will pursue thee
With all the fiend's malignity and venom,
His fatal poison, and his viper fang,
If not his open fearlessness of fate.

I will smile, seek, bow, cringe, make adulation,
Exhaust the stores of windy flattery,

Say aught, seem aught, be aught, do any thing,
To strike securely.

Ha! here comes the brother

My friend-poor fool!-proud, vain and insolent,
Whose passions are his masters, not his slaves,
And who unveils to every eye the labor
They do task from him. He must game too-bravely-
Not like a cautious country gentleman,

Who stakes an ox, and plumes him on his boldness,-
But like the city gallant-with his thousands.
He shall pay for it. But he comes, and now,
I am his friend-his bosom friend-his servant.
[Enter the Marquis Torrismond, brother of Olivia.]

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He would seem one, whose stubborn principles,
Unyielding to the passing flattery,

Of those who court, and resolute to know,

Society but as a moralist,—

Would hold no term with these indulgencies;—

He spoke, when I was by, of the dishonor

Of seeking, by superior skill or cunning,
To win another's wealth; such gain he counted
Unworthy the high mind.-I could have told him
Of thousands, the first gentlemen of Paris,
Whom such reproach would rouse to instant vengeance,
Who risk their fortunes nightly-thousands more
Who win them, and are counted men of honor.

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