that love that he who is altogether lovely perfected in the celestial world. There, hath put into my heart, years ago, for distance of place or difference of sentimy dear Mr. Savage. I believe it is ment will never interrupt the commureciprocal; and though business, and nion of saints. other avocations, prevent our frequent Othat our thoughts were more eminterview, yet in heaven our mutual ployed in meditating on the heavenly love will be known, and we employed world! Probably this might have a in praising the God of love for ever- tendency to stir us up to give more dilimore. Till then, I desire to work hard gence to make our calling and our election for him here below. It is very plea- sure. We profess to be only strangers sant, and our Lord causes it to prosper and sojourners here; that here we have in my unworthy hands. Great is the no continuing city, but to be looking for harvest, indeed --greater than ever. It one to come. A young man under age, is supposed that, in Yorkshire, in about who is heir to a large estate, is often a week, above 60,000 souls heard the ready to be looking forward, and thinkGospel. On Whit-Sunday, Howarth ing how rich and happy he shall be at church was almost thrice filled with such a period. And may not the heir communicants. We had a feast of fat of glory do so, with infinitely greater things. Even in Manchester, some, I propriety ? Most certainly he may. I believe, have listed under the Redeem- rejoice that Providence seems to be aper's banner. All was quiet there. I pearing for you, in sending you a mi. am now going to Kendal and White- nister. I wish he may be one divinely haven, to beat up for fresh recruits, and furnished for sanctuary service. To have to exhort those that have already listed an able gospel minister, in the discharge to behave like good soldiers of Jesus of whose work faithfulness and affection Christ. This is a petition I beg my are united, is an inestimable mercy. dear, dear Mr. Savage to put up for me. Your trials at Bicester have been sin. Fain would I die fighting. Fain would gular. Perhaps the Lord has thereby I hold out to the end. Fain would I been fitting you for a degree of prosbe kept from flagging in the latter stages perity. A severe winter often prepares of my road. Jesus is able to do this the ground for fruitfulness in summer. for me and you. And he is faithful who We want preparing for the suitable rehath promised, and he also will do it. ception and proper enjoyment of our Let us, then, look up, my dear brother, mercies. The Lord frequently does this my dear friend, and go on our way re- by trials. Unsanctified trials are the joicing. I commend you, and your sorest of all judgments. May the refiner dear yoke-fellow, and dear little maiden, and purifier of the sons of Levi answer to his never-failing mercy. I send you his glorious character in his gracious as hearty good wishes as ever came from conduct amongst you. His dealings the soul of one friend for another, and with his people, as one said, may be why? Because I am, my very dear Sir, sometimes keen, but always kind. It

Yours most affectionately, becomes us always to be on our watchin our eternal Lord Jesus, tower, looking out for the coming of the

G. W. Son of Man. Yesterday an aged ChrisTo Mr. Savage.

tian was as well as usual, and died in a few moments, in our town. What a

change! To be conversing with morV. From the late Rev.John Sutcliff. tals, in a world of sin and sorrow, and of Olney, to a Friend in Oxford

singing before the throne with adoring

angels and admiring saints, in the reshire.

gions of purity and peace, within the DEAR SIR-I embrace an opportunity compass of an hour! Imagination canof sending you a line, as a token of love. not conceive the nature and happiness The friendship I received from you and of such a change. others at Bicester has made an impres-. But I must have done.

But I must have done. Begging an sion on my heart, that, I trust, will ne- interest in your prayers at the throne of ver wear away. Christian friendship is grace, the sweetest of all connections. 'Tis the I rest, dear Sir, very life and soul of every other. Souls

Your affectionate Friend joined together with this heavenly ce.

and sincere Well-wisher, ment are eternally united. Such ac.

JOHN SUTCLIFF. quaintance and intercourse are begun. Olney, May 22, 1783. here below, but are to ripen and be

POETRY.

ON THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST.

So spake the voice divine,
The ear with rapture bending,

While heavenly quires attending,
HAIL, sacred morn!

Their harmony combine : That spring, or winter drear,

“ Glory to God Most High ! Or autumn's golden ear,

O'er earth let peace and love Didst with thy beam adorn :

Their balmy pinions move; When, of the Hebrew maid,

Bid humau tears be dry :The SON OF God was born,

All silent is heaven's thunder, And in a manger laid.

And God is reconciled, --Then that prophetic star,

Through the blest Virgin's child :
Athwart the heaven divine,

Let men and angels wonder !"
Did on the Magi shine,
In eastern lands afar.
And hark ! on Bethlehem's plain,

GOD UNSEARCHABLE.
The blessed jubilee,

“ Canst thou by searching find out God ? That charmed each shepherd swain, Canst thou find out the Almighty to perLoud as the swelling main ;

fection ?"-JOB xi. 7, Heaven's highest minstrelsy!

We see, O Lord, from day to day,

In every work of thine, For angels bright and holy,

Thatgoodness, power, and skill --which say, Through the mid-air descending,

Thou art! and art DIVINE !
Did purge the night's dark womb,
Of all her irksome gloom,

We feel this truth, from hour to hour, And shadows melancholy,

When deep within the heart Their light and music blending.

Thy Spirit, with resistless power “ Ye midnight watchers, hail !

And love--declares Thou art. That tend your fleecy sheep,

More would we know--Thyself alone And ceaseless vigils keep,

Canst banish every doubt ; Lest ravening beasts assail,

Vain all researches of our own While all mankind do sleep.'

Must be to find thee out. Fear not- to you we bring,

Oh! teach us, then, thine outward word From heaven's eternal King,

To study more and more, The wondrous, joyful story;

And be its oracles preferr'd, For even now is born,

To perishable lore. (This long-expected morn,)

Instruct us to thine inward voice The Prince of light and glory!

To lend a wakeful ear; And Satan's reign is ending,

In its approval to rejoice,
Behold the fiend descending,

At each rebuke to fear !
From yon aërial throne !
His power and kingdom gone ;

Thy word our law, thy voice our guide, And lost his victory.-

Thy truth our only stay, To David's city haste,

Show us a Saviour crucified, The shadows now are flying,

To Thee, the light, the way. The deeper gloom is chased,

Thus be that saving knowledge won, From off the mountains wild ;

Which only their's can be, Go! find the holy child,

Who through the Spirit, and the Son, In humble manger lying."

Are brought, O God! to Thee.

BARNARD BARTON.

SONNET, ON INTERRING THE REMAINS ON A YOUNG LADY, AGED NINETEEN YEARS, Nov. 1825.

O GENTLE spirit! fled away so soon,

In flowery morn of youth, and maiden grace ;
Nor didst abide this earth thy resting place,
Ere yet thy beauty reach'd its highest noon.
This holy shrine we mourn, thy virgin clay,
Of death, insatiate death ! the timeless prey.
For thee flamed not the bridal torch, nor thou

Didst dight thee with thy gems, to hail the morn,

That should thee with thy matron-stole adorn,
And plight in hymen's fane, love's truthful vow.
The tomb thine altar is—the earth thy bed,

Thy bridegroom death-thy bridal maids the dead !
But why lament thee, spirit pure and wise ?
Thy lamp was trimm'd, thy bridegoom in the skies !

TO THE MOON.

CYNTHIA ! I view thy pure and placid face,
Moving alone in slow and solemo grace,
With sweet complacency-for thou dost quiet
All things below -- that even noise and riot
In thy calm presence sinks into repose,
And hushed to silence no existence knows.

On ! thou art fairer than the eye of day,
More lovely soft-more suited to allay
The stormy passions of humanity, :
That spread before thee like the troubled sea,
In which thou lov'st thy gentle beam to lave,
Its silver fragments glittering on the wave.
Thou shinest like the watch-light of the skies,
To guide our path, and teach us how to rise
From earth to heaven, above this grov'ling scene;'
Where mortal sympathies have never been :
To yon pure realms, where Peace ber olive waves,
And where is found nor death, por mournful grayes.
Thy visage is to us so amiable,
That we can gaze, and gaze upon thee still ;.
Nor ever tire,
For thou canst well inspire,
Those feelings most refined,
That cannot be defined.
Thou bearest on thy brow that tranquil charm, .
That might the tyger of his rage disarın.

thou inspiring planet! could I guess
What beings dwell upon thy ample space,
I'd say they live in sweetest harmony,
For süre no discord can exist in thee;
No! all is peaceful as an angel's dream ;
Or like the pensive twilight of thy beam. .
And while « in brightness thou dost walk along,"
Be my lips vocal with a thankful song ;
And tuned này heart, to praise the blest Supreme,
Who gave that shadowy lustre to thy beam.

But though I cannot see thy face,

-Yet as Chaldea's King
Beheld those lonely fingers traee
· Their mystic cyphering,
I still may read full many a line,
To which, inscribed by hand diviné,

Thy character doth cling;
For nature's every form and part
Conspire to tell us what thou art.

THE DEITY,

SEEN IN NATURE.
ETERNAL God, I see thee not,

Though thou art ever by!
Above--around--beneath-nó spot

But meets thy sleepless eye,
For, like thiné angel's sword of flame,
Thou turnest every way the same--

Thou art infinity!
A1-filling mind, thou dost embrace
The smallest point-the mightiest space!
Thought struggles in the vain design

That mind to comprehend :
Which never had an origin

Shall never have an end.
Past-present and futurity
Are one-the same--and nought to thee!
· My soul--the search suspend; .
Absorbed and lost is thy frail sense,
In centreless circumference.

New SERIËS, No. 13.

The sun and stars - the storm and sea-

And heaven and earth proclaim
What thine Almighty power must be

The wonders thou canst frame...
And oh, as plainly mercy seems;
(Told on its arch of brilliant beams,)

The favourite of thy name.
Though thou art still invisible, .' ;
We see thy power and goodness weh....

REVIEW OF BOOKS.

The Domestic Preacher ; or Short Christian ministry has been im

Discourses from the original Ma- peded in its operations through an nuscripts of some eminent Mi- influence not recognized in the nisters. In two vols. London: New Testament, and a greater Holdsworth and R. Baynes, curse has been entailed than the 1826. Price 8s. pp. 475.

flames of Smithfield, or the dunThis collection consists of forty

geons of the Inquisition. The one discourses, intended, as the

latter proved to the church but the title imports, for the use of fami

furnace of purification, the former is

a millstone about her neck; nor is lies. They are, accordingly, very brief, seldom extending to sixteen

it the less weighty and ruinous, pages. We are mistaken, how

though fastened with a chain of

gold. The passage we allude to ever, if they will not be found deeply to interest the general

is the following : reader, both by the variety of the

" Another motive to Christian fel

lowship is, that we may receive and imsubjects they comprise, and the

part spiritual blessings, and be edified by eminent talent not a few of them the mutual faith of one another. Solitary evince. They are all, as we un- piety is in danger of being extinguished, derstand, by living writers, who

or if not its flane languishes; but as iron

sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the have furnished, we presume, their countenance of his friend. Who has not several manuscripts to form the found his mind invigorated and inspired whole; but as there is no index of with new energies, by uniting in social the reader must be left worship, where all the varied gifts of

Christian brethren are engaged in supplias we are, to his own conjectures

cation and in praise, and where the cloud in solving the question, who are the of incense ascends from the altar to the authors.

throne above. Here it is we have the In the fourth sermon, on the

power of co-operating with God, in the

diffusion of truth and piety; and in no subject of Christian Fellowship,

other way can we so effectually advance from Acts ii. 47, after a descrip- the great' purposes of bis kingdom upon tion of the primitive converts, as earth. While however it is the duty and those who should be saved, the duty

the interests of all real converts to unite

themselves to a Christian society, it is of uniting in communion with be

much to be lamented that any but such lievers is enforced, and the follow should obtrude upon the sacred enclosure. ing passage occurs, containing, All unconverted persons that are admitted as we think, remarks highly im- to communion bring with them an alloy

that debases the gold of the sanctuary ; portant to Christian churches,

instead of adding strength to the church who, in the present day of cheap

by their accession, they debilitate and and facile profession, are not un- relax all its energies, they weaken the frequently in danger of being too hands that already hang down, and the much influenced by the secular

feeble knees. Along with their influence

or their wealth they bring with them so respectability, rather than the piety much carnal policy, so much of a worldly of those who are candidates for spirit, and so much moral contagion, their communion; hence worldly that they corrupt and defile the holiest men have, not unfrequently, gained

things, and paralyse the affections and the

efforts of the most efficient constituents. that 'ascendancy which was only By their means the ordinances of the due to moral and Christian worth; Gospel fall into disesteem, and its disci. and as a necessary consequence, pline into neglect and desuetude."--pp. the church has been secularized in 51, 52. her administration, where the form The discourse on the “ Agency was scriptural and pure ; the of Providence,” from Rev. xii. 16.

contains the following pertinent re- on the work. Without attempting marks on the connection between to be more explicit, we shall leave the progress of knowledge and the to our readers the pleasure of advancement of religion; a sub- judging for themselves, assuring ject which, in our humble opinion, them they will not fail to be amply needs yet more, in some quarters, repaid. The following beautiful to be understood and enforced; remarks are selected from the serwe would particularly recommend mon on the “ Glory of the Resurit to the attention of our youthful rection.” readers, who have a taste for in. “Our present corporeal frame, though tellectual improvement. The fol- fearfully and wonderfully made, is of lowing views have our most cor

a feeble texture; it is a frail taber

nacle, fitted only for a temporary residial suffrage.

dence, and liable to innumerable accidents “ The earth is still aiding the church

and dangers. On the least exertion we by a great variety of institutions, which

are subject to fatigue, and require repose bare for their object the general improve

in order to recruit the exhausted energies ment of mankind. Seminaries of learn

of nature. The senses also are weak and

feeble, and unable to meet the demands ing, scientific projections, benevolent

of the mental faculties ; the eye becomes societies, the circulation of books, and a

dim with seeing, the ear is oppressed with general system of education among the

hearing, and all is vanity and vexation of poor, have their origin in human wisdom

spirit. In process of time the keepers of and policy, without any immediate view

the house begin to tremble, and the strong to the interests of religion; yet those in

men bow themselves; the silver cord is terests are materially served by them. It is by the grossest ignorance and darkness

loosed, and the golden bowl is broken.

But the body we shall receive at the resurthat men become the passive instruments

rection is strong and durable, a house not of power, that their minds and consci

made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ences are enslaved; and it is chiefly

We shall be as the angels of God, who through the operations of voluntary in

excel in strength, and flourish in immortal stitutions, where a large mass of intellect

youth and vigour. The lapse of ages is concentrated for the purpose of sending

makes no impression on their celestial forth the streams of knowledge and sci.

forms, but they retain all their pristine ence, that the human faculties are fertilised

youth and beauty ; hence the angels which and improved, and the lowest ranks of

appeared at the sepulchre resembled young society rise into the independence of

men, clothed in long white garments, human beings, and are prepared for the

though they must have existed some thouinvestigation of moral and religious truth.

sands of years before. Of the powerful Whatever tends to excite a love for read.

agency of these celestial beings we may ing, or to awaken a spirit of enquiry, is

form some conception, from the account ultimately beneficial to the church of God.

given of their operations in the Holy ScripThe nature also of Christianity is such

tures. In one night an angel smote all that it can never be injured, or its evidence

the first-born of Egypt, and in one night impaired, by the most powerful efforts of

a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the reason; like the pure gold it loses none of

Assyrians. Well, therefore, may they be its worth or its lustre by the fire. Real

styled the mighty angels, or giants of the learning is its most efficient ally, and can

celestial order : yet shall the saints vie not but advance its iaterests; it is a reli.

with them in strength, when they come to gion of evidence, and light is essential to

bear the image of the second Adam, who its growth and propagation. No intelli

is head over all principality and power, gent Christian, no one who understands

thrones and dominions being made subject the genius of the Gospel, can possibly be

unto him. averse to the advancement of learning ; it

6. The body in its present state is: is a harbinger to prepare the way, and ac

liable to constant fluctuations, to pain and celerate its progress through the earth."

sickness, and a great variety of disorders ; pp. 223, 224.

the seeds of which are thickly sown in the In perusing the collection, we

numán constitution, and the causes of life

and death are so interwoven that they may discover the unequivocal traces of

both be in operation at the same instant. a master, whose hand may be Every thing within and without tends to known, like that of some eminent disturb the order of nature, and the least artist, though employed only on a

collision with other bodies may disorganise

its several parts ; hence a numerous train sketch. This circumstance alone of evils is produced, from which no one is will confer a value and inportance exempt. The ordinary course of things