THE VISION IN THE VALLEY OF
DRY BONES.

He walked the vale, where thickly spread,
And whitening all the ground,
The bones of thousand thousand dead,
Lay scattered all around;
And like the leaves, all sear and dry,
When autumn's blast hath swept the sky,

Those bones might there be found;
And not less thickly were they seen,
Than leaves when autumn's blast hath been.

He stood within that gloomy vale-
He stood-that hallowed seer;

A voice was heard upon the gale,
It sounded in his ear;

It bade him speak that mighty spell,
Which not e'en powerful death can quell,
But listens to in fear.

That word of mystic power he spoke--
An awful sound the stillness broke.

Bone linked to bone, with rustling sound,

Was cold and pale as winter's snow;

Each form, but moulded clay,

Thus silently and grimly spread,
They seemed a nation of the dead.

Again the heaven-breathed voice was heard-

Again the seer obeyed-

Again he spoke the mystic word-

Again its power displayed.

"Come, winds of heaven, and breathe around"-

The winds rushed by with hollow sound--
And o'er those corses played;
"Come, winds of heaven, breathe o'er the
slain,

That they may wake to life again."
They brooded on those forms--they sped
Revivifying breath ;--

I saw that mighty host of dead

Wake from their sleep of death; Light danced in every eye--each breast Began to heave--no more at rest,

The heart throbbed strong beneath, The blood flowed warm in every vein,-Life started to its seat again.

To thee glad nature's praise belongs,
When Summer opes her golden eye;
Thy breath inspires her thousand tongues,
Thy sunlight robes her azure sky.

When Autumn crowns the blushing year,
Thine is the wreath her hand bestows;
From thee the tide, that far and near
Gushes, with boundless plenty flows.

All change, all being, is from thee;
The starry heaven, the grassy sod;
Alike are thine-the earth, the sea,
All, all, proclaim a present God!

G. C.

much the object of complacency and exultation on the part of its best and most valued friends. God has honoured it to accomplish much; but whether it has, like other instruments of the Divine Providence, done its work, and must now be set aside, time will disclose. The circumstances which have recently occurred, are powerfully calculated to teach us how dependent all instruments are on God, for every thing that is wise in counsel and beneficial in exertion; and that he who glorieth, must glory only in the Lord.

During many years, the progress of the Society was tranquil, majestic, and triumphant. No discordant spirit was permitted to disturb its peace, nor did any conflicting opinions distract its widely extended operations. Nothing was heard but the voice of approbation; nothing fell upon its ear, but the language of applause. Men of all ranks placed themselves under its standard, and assisted to promote its career of glory. The occasional murmurs of a few antagonists, were either drowned in the general acclamation, or contributed to increase its revenues and celebrity. Often, at its public meetings throughout the empire, has it been described-.

As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm;

Tho' round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,

Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

These days, we fear, have passed away. The noise of war is no longer heard at a distance; the citadel itself is invaded. It is not now to be concealed, that a very serious difference has taken place among its members, and in its executive, respecting the principle and mode of conducting some of its most important operations. The discussion respecting the propriety of aiding Societies on the Continent, which publish the Apocrypha

along with the Bible, which were for some time confined to the Directors, have at length been thrown at large among the members, and have convulsed the Society from one end of the kingdom to another. A resolution has at length been adopted by the Committee, which most moderate men thought would afford afford general satisfaction, and lay the basis of peaceful co-operation; but which, through the persevering and unreasonable opposition of the Edinburgh Committee, is in danger of being rendered in some measure unavailing.

The array of pamphlets which we have placed at the head of this article, we can avouch to our readers, has not been put there for the sake of display; and though we shall not decide on the merits of the greater part of them, we can assure the authors we have travelled through every page which they contain, and have endeavoured to weigh the force of the various reasonings which they adduce. Their very

titles are enough to show the extraordinary nature of this controversy, and the difficult part which the Committee has had to act. Here it will be seen, that Churchmen attack the circulation of the Apocrypha, and Dissenters defend it. Church of England Magazines assail measures which promote the diffusion of a document, which all good churchmen are bound to read from the desk, for the instruction of the people; and Eclectic Reviewers vindicate them.

Cambridge Professors, with greater consistency, are marshalled on one side, and Scottish Presbyterians on the other. Mr. Simeon and Mr. Venn contend for the lawfulness and propriety of circulating the Apocrypha, when necessary, in any form, with the funds of the Bible Society. Mr. Gorham, a clergyman also, opposes this most strenuously; but though he will not allow of the cir

culation of an intermingled Apocrypha, he will sanction the Apocrypha if annexed. Mr. Hall, another clergyman, will not be satisfied with any thing short of the Society acting solely as a Protestant Bible Society. With him joins our friend, the Rev. Joseph Ivimey, to whom is ascribed the Plea for the Protestant Canon. Mr. Drummond, a churchman, we believe, who is understood to be the author of the first two pamphlets on our list, and of whose consistency in another respect we shall bye and bye speak, gives hard blows to the Committee, and to Tobit and his dog, which are followed up by the whips of Mr. Robert Haldane, and by the scorpions of the Edinburgh Committee.

Is it at all marvellous, in these circumstances, that the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society should not be of one mind on the subject? If every thing is so clearly defined in the rules, and so precisely marked out in the line of conduct which ought to be pursued, according to the representation of the Arguses of the North, how comes it that men of undoubted integrity, and who have generally been admitted to possess some portion of common

sense

and discernment, differ so variously on the subject? In this state of matters, is any body of men, even with the Rev. Dr. Davidson at their head, and the Rev. Dr. Andrew Thomson, as their advocate and secretary, entitled to hold up the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, as destitute of principle and unworthy of confidence; because there has been some variations in its conduct, and because it has failed to give satisfaction to all? While the controversy was pending, and there remained any hope of a peaceable termination, we religiously abstained from giving it unnecessary publicity. But now

that the hope of maintaining the union of the Society with some of its branches, is, through the indecent and outrageous attack on the character of the Committee, contained in the last Edinburgh statement, scarcely to be entertained, we feel ourselves called upon to break this silence, and to avow our unabated attachment to the British and Foreign Society, and our confidence in the principles and management of its Committee.

That there may be no misunderstanding respecting our own sentiments, and that our readers may know what measure of confidence our representations are entitled to -we avow ourselves, on principle, as Protestant Dissenters, and, as members of the Bible Society, ANTI-APOCRYPHALISTS, We dislike the Apocrypha as cordially as its keenest opposers; and are satisfied that the funds of the Bible Society ought not to have been, and ought never to be, applied to its circulation. And we further declare, that it is because we have the most entire confidence, that in future this will be honourably and conscientiously attended to by the Committee, that we now raise our feeble voice in support of the Society, and call upon our friends still to rally round its standard, and to resist this unrighteous attempt to destroy it.

It is no part of our intention to defend all the measures employed by the British and Foreign Bible Society, either at home or abroad, during the long period of twentytwo years of most laborious and widely-extended operation. That all its measures may not have been the wisest and best which could have been devised; that all its agents and correspondents may not have been the most enlightened and devout, we presume the Committee will not require the country to believe, or its warmest friends to maintain. That it may have been sometimes carried away from