O, mother, I can scarcely bear It was so exquisitely fair, That little form of clay-my heart And when for one loved far, far more, I sink beneath my fears, sweet friend, O, but to feel thy fond arms twine It almost seems those lips of thine But, gentle mother, through life's storms, For helpless, cowering little forms With weary foot, and broken wing, Sweet mother, for thy wanderer pray, Her broken reeds all swept away, That she may lean on heaven-her heart Grow strong in Christ and heaven. Once, when young Hope's fresh morning dew My bounding heart thought but to do To work at heaven's behest-my pains All fearfully, all tearfully- My dim eye lifted to the sky, Fast to the cross I cling-O, Christ! Maulmain, August 7th, 1850. SENSIBLE SENTIMENT.-Sentiment alone is worth very little. Many a girl will weep over distress pictured in a novel, who has no practical sympathy with those who suffer. Rogers in the "Greyson Letters," suggests to his novel reading niece that to save herself from imbecility, she keep a debtor and creditor account of sentimental indulgence and practical benevolence, with occasional memoranda running thus: "For the sweet tears I shed over the romantic sorrows of Charlotte Devereux, sent three basins of gruel and a flannel petticoat to poor old Molly Brown." ANNUAL CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS. PERKIOMEN. We will have one more talk about the Almanac-and only one more. It is merely to notice and make due account of the only Christian Element which is incorporated with it, that we take it down from the wall again. With a real enjoyment and hearty satisfaction do we light on its "Holidays." We liked them even in our boyhood, whilst our partiality has grown into a habit with the increase of years. We have indeed asked ourselves, whether a man can be a Christian without them. Or, if we must challenge already in the opening sentences, whether any system of religion has ever, and can succeed without Holidays? Certainly, it seems, no Almanac satisfies the masses, unless they are found embodied. We are glad to find this taste for the new Christian wine, though it be served up in old bottles, since there is a chance of bursting the bottles, without spilling the wine even. These new patches will soon render the old garment so hideous, that we verily hope to glance up to the wall and look approvingly into the kind face of a real, genuine Christian Almanac !-But to the Christian Element now at hand. There is a civil year, opening with the 1st day of January and closing with the 31st day of December. The citizen notes its course well, whilst the Commonwealth and the wide world conduct and arrange their histories in accordance with its limits. We may still style it the Annus Mundi, even though it feigns to date but from the Nativity of Our Lord! Different from this, and by its side, the Church-Year performs its cycle, which extends from one Advent season to another. Regulating itself, as it does, after the grand march of the "Sun of Righteousness,' denominate it properly the Annus Christi. we may Now it is an uncomplimentary blunder to imagine this dual arrangement, an invention of the Roman Catholic Church, since it betrays a want of familiarity with Jewish antiquities. The Israelites dated their civil year from the month Tisri, whilst their ecclesiastical year commenced already with the month Nisan-leaving an interval from Harvest until the vernal Equinox, or a period of six months. Mindful of this fact, let us study the Christian Almanac, which a saintly mind has happily denominated "the Calendar of the 'new heavens and the new earth." Advent, when rendered into common English, signifies "a coming," and embraces the Four Sundays before Christmas. The included period is intended to be set apart as a season for preparatory devotion, with reference to the advent of Christ in the flesh, which fact is typical again and can easily be conjoined to His Second Advent in Glory. The season can never embrace less than three, nor more than four weeks. To say, "the first Sunday in December," or, "the last Sunday in November," is to use the parlance of the citizen and to intimate thereby your oneness with the State. But to say, "the First Sunday in Advent," or, "the Last Sunday in Advent," is to adopt the language of the Christian and to signify your membership with the Church. Receding from this group of saintly hours, we find ourselves surrounded by a vast cluster of Festival Days, which make up as effectually the Christian year, as do the various days of the twelve months constitute the civil. They consist of all those days which require Religious Service to be performed, and preclude servile work, namely: all the Sundays in the year, as well as its Feasts and Fasts. This multitude of days, as we may call them, arranges itself again under two separate series; those which are affixed to and recur invariably on certain days, are known as Immovable; others, having no such fixed days, are called Movable. That some should have such a permanent character and others a wandering nature, arises from the unfixed order of Easter, upon which the latter group depend and by which it is regulated. The governing Easter Festival may occur almost anywhere between the 25th of April and the 22nd of March, since the "Full Moon," on which it relies, has itself no absolute fixity. Behold then the Immovable Feasts, which stand like living statues, along the pathway of the "Sun of Righteousness," each one telling of a wondrous fact that transpired in former ages, but is ever yet commemorated. 1. The Circumcision of Our Lord, on "New-Year's Day." meets us on the very threshold of the civil year-on the 1st day of January. The world is set agog at this time, and in many quarters monopolizes it to itself. Even the Church is tempted to forget its peculiar significance amid the aggression of the secular and secondary import of the day. 2. The Epiphany of Our Lord occurs on the 6th day of January, or twelve days after Christmas. It is celebrated in commemoration of the manifestation of our Saviour to the wise men of the East. Sometimes it is simply called "The Manifestation." It may also be referred to as the "Feast of the Holy Three Kings." The several features of this fact are dwelt on, during its return, either in the way of meditation or discourse. We love to look at the picture in the ancient Bible, showing the Infant Saviour, His mother and Joseph, with those Gentile delegates of royal blood, flat down on their knees! Well may they pour their costliest into His lap, for they have now been led to the King of kings by a star. 3. The Purification of the Blessed Virgin is marked for the 2nd of February. It is better known as "Candle Mas" (for we are very apt to forget the mother in the effulgent glory of her Son), and rests on the saying of Simeon, that our Saviour was "to be a light, to enlighten the Gentiles." Report says, Roman Catholics consecrate all the candles and tapers, which are to be used in their churches during the whole year at this time. Decide the question for us, whether any such implements are to be used at all, and we will not quarrel with them, as to whether and when they must be consecrated. Then to set them apart for sacred use seems to us as natural as to consecrate a "Melodeon," a "Cottage Organ," or a "Bell." That day may also answer as well as any other. But since Protestants can see clearly enough without candles, we have no special work to do on that day. 4. The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary falls on the 25th of March, and is celebrated, in the Almanac, at least, in memory of the angel's proclamation to Mary of the incarnation of Christ. That such tidings were conveyed, and by the angel too, to the mother of Jesus Christ even, all Christians concur in, since both the Almanac and the Bible so declare. But now the dividing question seems to be, whether a specail day shall be annually marked as a seasonable memento, or not. Superstition is perhaps forestalled by ignoring the day (and the fact too?), but is infidelity as well? If ever a Proclamation was worth preserving, we think this is. 5. The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary has fixed itself on the 2nd day of July, and is based on Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth. Of course, the mere fact of Mary paying a friendly visit to the mother of John the Baptist, in "the hill-country," seems of but little special significance. But when we remember the relation which the yet unborn characters were to sustain to each other, and above all, the sanctifying influence which was exerted on the Baptist child, it does appear of some account. Of no other visit can as much be said. What is the visit of the "Prince of Wales," or of the "Japanese," or of " Charles Dickens," when compared with Mary's lonely but hurried walk "into the hill-coutry?" 6. The Feast of Saint Michael, the Archangel is rooted into the 29th of September. We sometimes hear it called "Michael Mas," and with Pennsylvania Germans, it is synonymous with Autumn. Its support ia the tradition that St. Michael appeared in a vision to some one, and in commemoration of the event this Festival Day was instituted. All depends now on the truth of the tradition. If the Archangel ever appeared to any one on earth, we see no harm in rejoicing over the fact, that those of the "heavenly host" do not consider our world, too sinful to come down; especially, since it is circumstantial, or presumptive evidence that we too may sooner or later be admitted into their happy fellowship. The easiest way to dispose of the fact, is to deny it altogether; but it is the meanest mode of arguing likewise in the absence of all proof. 7. Christmas, or, The Nativity of Our Lord, as every child knows, even if born in the bleak quarter, where Christisn Festivals are made no more account of than "Christmas Pies," clings tenaciously to the 25th of December. The Reverend Magniloquent Boanerges may protest, as savagely as he pleases, against us believing that shepherds were watching flocks in the open field, at that season of the year. Somehow or other, ever since we could manipulate a "Plum-pie," Christmas continues to come on that very day, regardless of every protest. To pretend to explain its meaning is an implied insult to our child of seven sum mers even. To these "Seven Wonders" of the Christian world now, let us add at least sixty more "Saintly" and "Apostolic" days, and we have a complete catalogue of Immovable Festivals. The great mass of them stand, it is true, as spiritual curiosities, or, petrified monuments of a more credulous age-sometimes called "the ages of Faith." But as a mere chronicler, it is our lot to take account of them, leaving it for the reader to decide wherein the honor lies-in the breach or their observance. But a question is stirring for utterance with us, namely: Whether the most effectual mode of realizing Christianity, both with reference to |