doctrine, simply because I do not find it so revealed. I will not reject this or the other, because they are mysteries; but because they are not doctrines of the Bible. Prove to me that they are a part of Divine Revelation, and I will receive them with implicit faith; and where I cannot understand, I will be bumble and adore. And who would not receive as true, what he believed to be a part of the word of God? If there be any so audacious; any who would dare to reject a doctrine, which they knew to be a part of the Christian system, believing that system to be divine, I will freely adınit, that they can have no just title to the name of Christians, and that they merit the reproachful epithets, which are so lavishly bestowed on reputed heretics. Rational Christians are charged with rejecting certain doctrines solely because they are incomprehensible. Nothing can be more false and injurious. The Bible they receive with reverence and gratitude, and they are anxious to understand its heavenly contents. They believe all that they find clearly revealed; and they hold that all is clearly revealed, which it is absolutely necessary to know. But they choose to believe on the evidence of personal examination, not on the authority of other men. They refuse to call any one Master, but Jesus Christ. Him they are willing to follow. They believe in him as the way, the truth, and the life; a Teacher sent from God, who taught therefore with an authority, from which there is no appeal, and which it is a mark of the most dangerous presumption to question or deny.

N. H.

ERRATUM.

MR. EDITOR-As the interesting "Life of the late Rev. Joseph Mottey," in your last Number, may have excited renewed attention to the Hymn of Sir J. E. Smith, printed in the Number for March and April last, which suggested the subject of the sermon preached by Mr. M. a few days before his death, I think it proper to notice an important typographical error in the third line of the second verse.

For

Read,

'One thought shall every thought remove,'

'One thought shall every pang remove.'

MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS.

FROM BURNET'S LIFE OF SIR MATTHEW hale.

He had a generous and noble idea of God in his mind, and this he found did above all other considerations preserve his quiet. And indeed that was so well established in him, that no accidents, how sudden soever, were observed to discompose him: of which an eminent man of that profession gave me this instance. In the year 1666, an opinion did run through the nation that the end of the world would come that year. This, whether set on by astrologers, or advanced by those who thought it might have some relation to the number of the beast in the Revelation, or promoted by men of ill designs to disturb the public peace, had spread mightily among the people; and judge Hale going that year the western circuit, it happened that as he was on the bench at the assizes, a most terrible storm fell out very unexpectedly, accompanied with such flashes of lightning, and claps of thunder, that the like will hardly fall out in an age; upon which a whisper or rumour ran through the crowd, that now was the world to end, and the day of judgment to begin; and at this there followed a general consternation in the whole assembly, and all men forgot the business they were met about, and betook themselves to their prayers: this, added to the horror raised by the storm, looked very dismally; insomuch that my author, a man of no ordinary resolution and firmness of mind, confessed it made a great impression on himself. But he told me, that he did observe that the judge was not a whit affected, and was going on with the business of the court in his ordinary manner; from which he made this conclusion, that his thoughts were so well fixed, that he believed if the world had been really to end, it would have given him no considerable disturbance.

FROM FOSTER'S ESSAY ON POPULAR IGNORANCE.

It is grievous to think there should be a large, and almost perpetual stream of words, conveying crudities, extravagancies, arrogant dictates of ignorance, pompous nothings, vulgarities, catches of idle fantasy, and impertinences of the speaker's vanity, as religious instruction, to assemblages of ignorant people. But then, how to turn this current away, to waste itself, as it de

serves, in the swamps of the solitary desert? The thing to be wished is, that it were possible to put some strong coercion on the minds, (we deprecate all other restraint,) of the teachers, a compulsion to feel the necessity of information, sense, disciplined thinking, the correct use of words, and the avoidance at once of soporific formality and wild excess. There are signs of amendment, certainly; but while the passion of human beings for notoriety lasts, (which will be yet a considerable time,) there will not fail to be men, in any number required, ready to exhibit in religion, in any manner in which the people are willing to be pleased with them. The effectual method will be, to take the matter in the inverted order, and endeavour to secure that those who assemble to be taught, shall already have learnt so much by other means, as to impose upon their teachers the necessity of wisdom. But by what other means, except the discipline of the best education possible to be given to them, and the subsequent voluntary self improvement to which it may be hoped that such an education would often lead?

[The following poem is by Wordsworth. It is from a collection of his poems not very common in our country, and will, therefore, probably be new to most of our readers. Its principal fault is in making the character of the warrior, a character not the most interesting to a moral or religious man, that to which its author applies his principles of conduct, and maxims of life. But it is notwithstanding a poem of uncommon power, and written in a fine sustained tone of high moral feeling.]

CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR.

WHO is the happy Warrior? Who is he
Whom every man in arms should wish to be?
-It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan which pleased his childish thought:
Whose high endeavours are an inward light
That make the path before him always bright:
Who, with a natural instinct to discern
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn ;
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes his moral being his prime care;
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower;

Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives;
By objects, which might force the soul to abate,
Her feeling, render'd more compassionate!

Is placable, because occasions rise

So often that demand such sacrifice ;

More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure,
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence also more alive to tenderness.
"Tis he whose law is reason; who depends
Upon that law, as on the best of friends;
Whence, in a state where men are tempted still
To evil for a guard against worse ill,
And what in quality or act is best
Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
He fixes good on good alone, and owes
To virtue every triumph that he knows:
-Who, if he rise to station of command,
Rises by open means: and there will stand
On honourable terms, or else retire,
And in himself possess his own desire;
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state;
Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall,
Like showers of manna, if they come at all:
Whose powers shed round him in the common strife,
Or mild concerns of ordinary life,

A constant influence, a peculiar grace;

But who, if he be called upon to face

Some awful moment to which heaven has join'd
Great issues, good or bad for human-kind,

Is happy as a Lover, and attired

With sudden brightness like a man inspired,
And through the heat of conflict keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw;
Or if an unexpected call succeed,
Come when it will, is equal to the need.
-He who, though thus endued as with a sense
And faculty for storm and turbulence,

Is yet a Soul whose master bias leans

To home-felt pleasures and to gentle scenes;
Sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be,
Are at his heart; and such fidelity

It is his darling passion to approve :

More brave for this, that he hath much to love:

"Tis, finally the man, who lifted high,
Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye,
Or left, unthought of, in obscurity.
Who with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not,
Plays, in the many games of life, that one
Where what he most doth value must be won;
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former fame stand fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpast:

Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must go to dust without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name,
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
And, while the mortal rust is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause;
This is the happy Warrior; this is He
Whom every man in arms should wish to be.

SONNET.

FROM POEMS BY ONE OF THE FAMILY CIRCLE.'

How oft beneath his blest and healing wings
He would have gather'd me, and I would not!
Like a weak bird, all heedless of my lot;
Perverse and idle in my wanderings.

Now my soul would return, and trembling brings
Her wearied pinion to its wonted rest;
And faint with its short flights and flutterings
Would seek a refuge in its parent breast!
O Father! in thy mercy shelter me,
For I am worn with mortal miseries;
My dark and earth-entangled spirit free,
And plume it to ascend its native skies;
With loosen'd wing to thy high rest to soar,
And never to desert its mansion more!