for all the resignation and patient submission to His holy will He has given you. “The parting struggle all was yours, 'Tis the survivor dies! For she is freed, and gone to join The anthems in the skies." The living demand our sympathy; the dead in Jesus require it not. Methinks there is more consolation imparted to us through two words in the memoirs of Jesus of Nazareth, at the tomb of Lazarus, (Jesus wept.) than in all the kindred tears that earth affords. His was divine sympathy, and endures forever. Though there are no tears in the paradise of God, our merciful and faithful High Priest still sympathises with our weaknesses.Glory to God and to the Lamb, for the rich provisions of love and mercy to our ruined race-and that through the divine compassion we are most abundantly made partakers of them. Let us not then, beloved, like the ungrateful of this world, when one favor is withdrawn, cease to rejoice in the munificence of the great Benefactor, for His countless blessings still continued. Remember the Master saith, "Your daughter is not dead but fallen asleep." "Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die." I know by experience the mingled emotions of sorrow and of joy accompanying such bereavement. When we reflect on the character of the departed, and without the most distant idea to flatter, I do think the THE DEAR DEPARTED ONE was as amiable and interesting a person of her years as I ever was acquainted with. I believe I never heard any one speak evil of her. She was beloved by her sisters and by all who knew her. Very few, indeed, in her circumstances, have spent a short life better, or been less devoted to the follies and vanities which occupy the minds and time of the youth of the present generation in favored circumstances. Devoted to the Saviour in her childhood, she read and memorized the Living Oracles with interest and delight, and was peculiarly fond of singing sacred songs with her companions in the holy faith, some of whom have joined the everlasting song before her. Most of her youth was spent in acquiring useful knowledge, which enlarged her capacity for enjoyment. "They that seek me early shall find me," is not a vain promise. I have long thought that there is a peculiar blessedness in giving our hearts to the Lord before they are contaminated with the love of the world, its follies and its vices, which those who grow up in them do not experience, unless their conversion be very signal and impressive. This peculiar blessing I have no doubt she experienced, as she gave good evidence of her earnestness and sincerity. Kind and benevolent to all, she delighted in good works, and the Lord blessed her with a friend, faithful and true, in her husband and companion through the days of her affliction, who loved and feared Him. May He graciously support and sustain him in this most grievous bereavement! I sympathize with him with my whole heart. You will all, I doubt not, yet derive joy, dearly beloved, from these considerations, knowing that your loss is her gain. "Earth has no sorrows that heaven cannot heal." Dont give up to immediate sorrow, I earnestly entreat you; take care of your health, it is the best temporal gift of heaven. You have many duties to perform for the few precious ones who are still yours, besides those you have assumed for others, for the church of Christ, and for the world. May your lives and your health be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he support and sustain you, granting you the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ, is the earnest prayer of Your ever affectionate, and sympathising sister, DOROTHEA C. BRYANT. ITEMS. DEATH OF ELDER A. S. BROADDUS. I HAVE to-day, for the first time, been informed of the death of Elder ANDREW BROADDUS. I heard from friends, the other day, that he was very ill, but not till I received the Religious Herald today, (Dec. 22,) was I assured of his death. The communication from him, and the response, in the present number, were in print several days before I heard of his demise. His long and laborious life has, like that of all who have lived before us, come to an end. Solemn thought! One word cannot be changed! One action of the past cannot be cancelled forever! He was, indeed, liberally endowed by nature, and had, by his reading and talents obtained, and deservedly obtained, a large space in the esteem and admiration of the Baptist community. I have, from my first acquaintance with him, A. D. 1825, always entertained and cherished for him great respect and the kindest feelings. I only regret that he had not more courage, or myself less apprehension that he was too timid, and too conservative of his own popularity, and consequently, much more of the spirit of Erasmus than of that of Luther. But I am willing to hope that I may have been mistaken, and sure I am, that it will afford me ineffable pleasure to be undeceived in this matter. But how often are we reminded of that most solemn and impressive precept-"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might: for there is no work, nor knowledge, nor device in the grave whither thou goest." A. C. THE MILLENNIAL HARBINGER. I PRESUME to say, that of the periodicals now read amongst us, at least those of any age or notoriety, none has said less of its claims for patronage upon our brethren or the community at large-none has less frequently alluded to its financial condition, or urged its demands upon delinquents with more delicacy or less importunity than the Harbinger. We have labored, with what success we shall not say, rather to make it worthy of public favor, by a more expensive editorship, and by a greater variety and number of original essays, than any other monthly publication known to us, than to solicit, by direct appeals, or by indirect means of any sort, to secure for it a more numerous list of patrons or a more prompt and honorable compliance with its terms and conditions of publication. We have never said to any one he ought to patronize our periodical at the expense of any other. Its growth, indeed, on public favor has been constant and regular from year to year, from its first to its last volume, notwithstanding the great increase and variety of periodical issues amongst us. Still we rather incline to the opinion that its circulation ought to be much more extensive, and that its readers ought to be several times (we will not say how many times,) more numerous than they are. We request the attention of our readers and the especial friends of the Harbinger, to our new conditions of publication. By a well directed effort on their part, it would be easy, if not to double, greatly to increase our usefulness by increasing the number of our readers. To those who measure the usefulness or the value of a periodical by the number of its pages, we would only say, that we could with as much or with more profit, of a pecuniary character, give twice as many pages for the same price,-only allow us to make selections, or to reconstruct and new modify more or less the ideas and thoughts of other persons, so a person may read a hundred pages, or a whole volume with less profit than a single essay. It is neither by the square foot nor the cubic foot that we measure light or heat, wisdom or knowledge, holiness or happiness. I would not, then, to test value or utility, institute false weights or false measures by speaking of the size or number of our pages. We only ask our readers and patrons, the real friends of the cause we plead, to enlarge our means of usefulness, not merely by paying up their arrears, but more especially by enlarging the number of our readers. With this new proposition in their hands, one would think that in a single year our readers might be doubled. We will send to many, indeed to all our readers, by sending the Harbinger, the new stipulations and conditions for increased patronage, and I am persuaded we will not send in vain. We, therefore, offer the following liberal proposals for 1849:-To any Club of new subscribers remitting to us Five dollars, we shall send Three Copies. Eight dollars, Ten dollars, Fifteen dollars, Twenty dollars, 66 66 66 Five Copies 66 Sixteen Copies. It is expressly conditioned, and shall be so understood, in all cases, that the money must be received here, before the Harbinger shall be sent to such Clubs. Present subscribers can take advantage of these terms, by paying up all arrears, and remitting to us before the first of March next, as new subscribers for 1849. Volumes for 1847 and 1848 shall be forwarded on the same terms. A. CAMPBELL. ERRATUM. LAST Volume, page 547, eight lines from bottom, for Loch Lomond, 30 miles long and 8 broad, read Loch Ullswater, 9 miles long and one broad. By some inexplicable casualty, in our Letter No. 33, from Europe, Loch Lomond is read twice in one sentence, placing two Loch Lomonds in one and the same island. A very singular kind of sportive typography. Our friend, Mr. Sands, of the Religious Herald, Richmond, Va., I am told, has displayed great geographical learning in detecting and exposing our ignorance of English geography. I seldom read or even scan the outlines of his paper-never having seen in it a truthful or candid exposition of anything connected with myself or the cause I plead. He undertook, some months since, to expose our ignorance of the statistics of the Glasgow population. In this case, alsó, he has only exposed his own want of good taste and accurate knowledge. So great has been the increase of population in Glasgow, as I was informed on the ground, that it had increased some forty thousand beyond its last published census. I presume Mr. Sands had seen in some old almanac the population that he gave, but we are on this subject better advised than either himself or the almanac or tablet from which he presumes to correct our errors. In this snarlish mood, my friend Sands but shows his teeth; and after all that can be said in their praise, they are rather scant and stubby. A. C. ORGANIZATION. In response to many a call, I would say that I intend a series of essays on church organization, in the current volume. It is at present a very interesting topic. It must be thoroughly canvassed. A. C. |
