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glorifying God, but it accomplishes the same end in the humility, the self-denial, in every virtue and every grace, the growth of which it is its tendency to promote. Would you desire then, Christian, to glorify God to the extent of your power, to glorify him by causing the light of a pure example to shine around you, to glorify him by exhibiting a spirit of humble resignation and Christian cheerfulness amid your various trials, to glorify him by exhibiting the almighty and sustaining influence of his grace in the hour of death-by showing how a Christian can die, and how a Christian ought to die. then be not contented to live with a weak and trembling faith: be not contented till you can cast your whole soul upon God, and stay yourself in any circumstances on the strong arm of your Redeemer.

The reader of the following lines, will doubtless remember, that the author of Pilgrim's Progress, had a daughter born blind. His grief on her account is spoken of by one of his biographers, as excessive. Some portion of the lines will be better understood, by calling to mind the fact, that his keeper occasionally indulged him in interviews with his family, on condi

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steel,

Like velvet to my Mary be.
To smooth her staff, and guide her feet,
Or often wheel her lowly chair,
When fruitage bands together meet-

All this shall prove a Father's care.

To strip from nutted fruit its shell,
And tune her reed, that she may tell
Unchain the grapes in vineyards found,

Her vintage joys to all around.

Ah! more: 'twill lift to faith's desire, That ladder which the patriarch saw, Now more replete with steps of fire, Whence heavenward feet new swiftness draw.

Its top is in yon clouds of blue,

On which I see night's stately queen, That leads her vesper stars in view,

The earth and orange sun between. How many moons, in twelve long years, Have waxed, and waned, and suns have set,

Then rose again; but still with tears,
These links at morn and eve are wet.

THE AUTUMN EVENING.

B.

tion of his return by an appointed By the Rev. Mr. Peabody, of Springfield,

hour.

For the Christian Advocate.

BUNYAN'S LAMENT FOR HIS
BLIND MARY.

Oh! I have left a poor blind one,
A hapless child, that never knew
The rising from the setting sun,
Or morning from the evening dew.
When maidens nimbly speed their way,
To pull the rose, or emerald leaf,
She spends in night the summer's day,
Nor tottering begs a scanty sheaf.
She hears her mother's wheel go round,
Till night has hushed its noisy hum;
Then, at each passing footstep's sound,
She lifts her staff has Father come?"
Ch. Adv.-VOL. X.

Massachusetts.

Behold the Western evening light!
It melts in evening gloom;
So calmly Christians sink away,
Descending to the tomb.

The winds breathe low; the withering leaf
Scarce whispers from the tree;
So gently glows the parting breath,
When good men cease to be.

How beautiful on all the hills

The crimson light is shed!
'Tis like the peace the Christian gives
To mourners round his bed.

How mildly on the wandering cloud
The sunset beam is cast!

'Tis like the memory left behind,

When loved ones breathe their last.
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And now above the dews of night,

The yellow star appears; So faith springs in the heart of those Whose eyes are dimmed with tears.

But soon the morning's happier light,
Its glory shall restore;
And eye-lids that are sealed in death
Shall wake to close no more.

Miscellaneous.

THE MORAL OF RURAL LIFE.

IN ESSAYS.

Ego laudo ruris amœni Rivos, et musco circumlita saxa nemusque. To the Editor of the Christian Advocate.

The following essays were written more than seven years ago. They have been recently condensed, with a view to their appearance in your useful pages. The time which has elapsed since they were written, would not have been mentioned, had it not been for the recent publication of "Howitt's Book of the Seasons." Without making this disclosure, it might be supposed that the hint of my essays was taken from that pleasing work.

These essays are not intended to be strictly theological. The writer sees much to commend in "Burder's Village Sermons," and he has given his humble influence towards sending them far and wide. But it is obvious, that except their title and their plainness, they have nothing in them better suited to the country, than to the city. It is impossible that the writer can feel any thing but veneration for Burder, when, within a very few steps of his abode, he daily reads his usefulness, in the example of an humble but pious cottager, an emigrant from near Coventry, England.

If the writer then be asked to express in few words the object at which he aimed, in composing these essays, he answers, to apply a mere outline of revealed religion to polished rural life. It has long been a subject of regret, that in Thomson's Seasons we often meet with

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"I am made all things to all men."

The apostolick declaration here expressed, has not entirely escaped animadversion. But it means nothing more, than an innocent accomodation of himself, on the part of its author, to the various circumstances in which he was placed. He did not urge the same reasoning on a Gentile, which he urged on a Jew. He employed different ways of exhibiting truth at Ephesus, Athens, and Jerusalem. He did not approach unlettered men, by the same methods which he used in gaining influence over men devoted to intellectual pursuits.

If the determination to be made all things to all men needed defence, we might liken the course of conduct to which it gives rise to the conduct of the painter, who turns an inquiring look on each countenance he depicts. He affixes to each individual, the drapery characteristick of his rank and his occupations. No one censures him for placing a sceptre in the hand of a king, or a crook in the hand of a shepherd. He would not pourtray the hermit in a city, nor the miser in the act of relieving human woe. We look for a dif ferent effort of the pencil, when it arranges the perspective of herds roving deep in the meadows, and when it shows the waves of an agi

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tated sea. It may softly steal the charms of some greenwood recess, but it must at times make the canvass vocal with the shock of arms. The accommodation of himself to the prejudices of men, here spoken of by Paul, is an accommodation frequently used at the present time. But in using it, many are influenced by motives supremely selfish. They employ it as the means of personal elevation, expecting thereby to be borne along, as on a triumphal car, to the consummation of all their schemes. The apostle, however, made it subserve the best of purposes; for an entire consecration of himself to the good of his species, was a thought never absent from his mind. For this state of feeling, the apostle was indebted to Christianity. There is a contrast between Judaism and Christianity. The one was intended for a nation, the other aspires to unlimited influence. If then there was a difference in these systems, we may suppose there was a difference in the conduct of Paul, whilst influenced by each of these systems. This contrast has been made plain by Lord Lyttleton, of Hagley Park; by Hannah More, of Burley Wood; and by Fletcher, of Madeley. Under Judaism Paul was ready to put the furnace of persecution into a glow, that he might consume the followers of the Saviour. But under the latter system, he was willing to employ the softest persuasion, or the ferrors of rebuke, the staff of the shepherd, or the rod of an indignant apostle, if by any means he could gain Jews or Gentiles. He appeared, alike in the garden of philosophy or in the marble palace of the Caesars, the humble, but the dignified advocate of Christianity.

After these preliminary views, it becomes a question, whether the same obligations which Paul felt, rest on the ministry of this day, to

apply Christianity to the varied circles of society, and to the varied pursuits of men. To this question there can be but one answer, and that is, Christianity is the same now as in the days of Paul. Centuries have left upon it no additional seal of sanctity, and hoary time has worn no traces of decay on those channels through which inspiration is conveyed to man. There is the same diversity of ministerial gifts as in the days of Paul, by the agency of which the Christian system may be enforced. Though these endowments are not extraordinary, they are supplied from a common source. Men of imagination cannot plead that the scriptures are a wilderness, the solitude of which is never disturbed by the ode of some pensive exile, or by the anthem of some descending choir of angels. Nor can men of eloquence plead that all the living expounders of the scriptures are destitute of exterior recommendations. Some ministers have talents suited to action. Some can persuade and others can command. Some can fill the chair of science, or still the assemblies of a metropolis, whilst others would rather linger among the green lanes of the country. But a girdle of consecration may be cast around such varied gifts.

There is a diversity, not only in ministerial talents but in ministerial duties. Every thing is appro"Let me go, priate in its season. said the angel to the wrestling patriarch, for the day breaketh;" and to this or that duty may we say, let me go, for scenes of usefulness are brightening in some other quarter. The sick man is beckoning us to his chamber. The dying Christian has reclined on the velvet pillow of faith, and he speaks in life, nothing half so sweet as he proclaims in death. Pope, in the grotto of Twickenham, has recorded his dying notes, and the minister cannot

be less vigilant than the poet. The deceased, too, must be wrapt under the turf; the poor relieved, the desponding cherished, and the lawless admonished. The office of a moral shepherd in the climes of the west, is like that of the sun-burnt shepherd in the climes of the east. The latter sought the refreshing fountain; he went after the flock when it strayed beyond the purlieus of the pasture; and when the meadow was consumed by drought, he searched for fresh knolls of verdure amidst sylvan shades, or on the mountain's slopes:

"Where round the lofty rock's majestic brow,

Luxuriant foliage twines, and flow'rets

blow;

Amidst the clifts, unnumber'd shrubs ap

pear,

Or murm'ring riv'lets soothe the shep

herd's ear.

Whilst aromatic herbs perfume the gale, And vines and olives crown the fertile

vale."

But if there be a diversity in ministerial duties, there is also a diversity in the pursuits of those whom the ministry address. Burns, in his vision of Coila, vindicates the office of the poet; an office held sacred before the flood had subverted the original frame-work of the world. Montgomery has shown a poet, chanting in lofty numbers on an antediluvian lyre. Men are apt to follow the bent of their genius.

Some till the earth, others plough the deep. Some engage in war, others delight in commerce. Some ply the steeps of science, others rove along the primrose path of letters. Plato and Epicurus sheltered themselves under the grove of philosophy. Horace sought amusement from his Sabine farm.

Virgil would have relinquished all his possessions, for some hermitage more peaceful than his domains could supply. But Napoleon sought happiness in traversing the sands of the Nile, or in essaying to build a green-house for his empire amid the snows of the north.

Christianity, if inspired, must be a system intended for all countries and all pursuits. The earth is cantoned out, and put into the possession of distinct tribes. If all the clans of the world were to send each a representative to a general council, we may suppose that such a council would present many points of discrepancy. But were they all to take back the Christian system to their respective tribes, they would take back a system suited to man in all his pursuits. The purity of its morals has extorted an unwilling testimony, even from its opposers; whether it be suited to men in a degraded condition, is no longer a dubious quesanswered among the huts of Greention. This question can be easily land, or among the savannahs of the West Indies; you may find an Africa ;* we may read largely of answer in rounding the capes of books of Moravian ministers, and the influence of Christianity in the there are no earthly volumes more delightful to the pious mind.

But whilst men pursue various callings, it is equally clear that they are placed in various ranks. distribution of men into princes and All understand the antithetical peasants, beggars and kings. We authority, which injunction seems are commanded to pray for all in eventually to control the passions to look as if Christianity intended of kings. The apostle sometimes stood before those who wore the im

perial purple; but how quickly could he veil his intellectual greatverty-stricken habitation, an emness, and appear before some pobodied image of Christian lowliof the ministerial office so apposite, ness. There is scarcely any view as to consider it in the light of a moral martyrdom; we mean not the martyrdom of the stake. The melted, link by link, in the glow of chains of persecution have been

* See Campbell's Travels in South Africa.

civil liberty.

But the insidious in the verse of Tasso.

smile of approbation, the caress of friendship, the unction of flattery, and the swelling note of admiration, demand painful self-denials; but whether men flatter or oppose, the minister must cultivate the spirit of universal love. Charity survives the decay of every artificial accomplishment, animated by such a spirit, the minister can go abroad upon his high commission, and find a lodge in the glade of the wilderness, or become a guest in the mansions of crested opulence. We cast valuable things into precious urns, and he casts into the urn of his affections that chaplet of endless existence, which he descries on the temples of every man he be= holds.

1

But the spirit of the age,* imposes some obligation on the ministry, to extend the influence of Christianity over the different pursuits of men. Many of the fairest portions of the earth lie under the sway of superstition. There are islands where the people build alabaster altars, and then crimson them with blood from the veins of their children. But there has been a new gush of missionary enterprise among Christians. Whilst the arts are replenishing the world with their comforts, Christian benevolence is simultaneously pouring from her horn its mellow fruits, or at least planting those germs which will soon stock the earth with moral plenty. We are aware that this benevolence has, in its effects, been compared to the adventures of the crusaders. The time has been when all Europe was in motion, to recover from the Saracen the sepulchre of our Lord. For this purpose kings emptied their coffers, and empires poured forth their exasperated legions. These events have been traced by the historian Mills, and celebrated

* The writer has no allusion to new discoveries in Theology.

But even

the embellishments of the muse, cannot hide the points of difference between the spirit of the crusades and the spirit of this age. There is a difference of origin, for the one was the effect of superstition. There is a difference in the means, the one marshalling the pomp of kingdoms. There is a difference in their object, the one aiming at the conquest of Palestine, the other at the conquest of the world. There is a difference in success, the one was soon driven back from an empty sepulchre, whilst the other has stripped whole islands of their gods.*

But there are other reasons, which render this general application of Christianity necessary; reasons before which every other consideration vanishes away. Is it not natural to lose the remembrance of the moss-crowned dwelling, when we look upon some castle lifting up its magnificent turrets? Might not the discoverer of America have been less astonished at the island he first saw, when his keen eye was rolling in amazement over a measureless continent? Look, then, at the solemn circumstances in which men are placed. By nature, we are fallen away from the holiness of Heaven. We are under a law, and there is no way of getting clear of the penalties of this law, but by a cordial reception of Christianity. This Christianity must be immediately embraced, or its blessings may be immediately forfeited. When Ledyard was asked, at what time he would be ready to go on African discovery, he answered-to-morrow. But when we urge the reception of Chris- tianity on men, they must answer, we will embrace it to-day. Whilst they procrastinate, death is build

*See accounts of the missions to the Sandwich Islands. A pleasing picture of the effects of missions may also be found in Steward's voyage to the South Seas.

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