rand's Reminiscences. PhiladelPresbyterian Board of Publica thor has herein grouped together d religious stories, and the artist strated them with some dreadful Dead at home-dead on the seaying a home-dying in a hospital in a carriage-these are some of rful scenes the artist has selected ghastly lines of his pencil The inds us of the minister who had a pulpit built, of a cold and monuppearance, in order, as one of his verred, to give a solemn emphasis rmons. Doks of our Board are always good. well, however, sometimes to check aver's ungoverned fancy. have before us a "Hand Book for ," prepared by Rev. Wm. P. BREED, of Philadelphia, which will, we e welcomed by very many pastors we felt the need of some convenient tion of scripture passages adapted various circumstances of afflicted olds and to the solemnities of the of mourning." nsists of four parts. First, selecscripture passages concerning Divereignty; brevity of life; certainty , etc., together with passages adapte various ages and conditions of the d. e second and third parts there are Formal groupings of passages to be s burial services at the house or most useful-has given our Board of Publication (Sutton & Scott) a volume entitled, WESTWARD; A Tale of American Life. It is somewhat varied from her usual track, but is written in her best style and finest spirits. We will not indicate the thread of the narrative, but will only say the story is original, true to nature, and with a moral that requires no microscope to discern. Let all Sabbath-schools secure, first of all, the best books of our own Board, and they may put this one on their lists without hesitation. GEORGE E. STEVENS & Co. (successors of Blanchard & Co.) have laid upon our table The Wonders of Engraving, by GEORGE DUPLESSIS, illustrated with thirty-four wood engraving. An additional volume of SCRIBNER's very popular Illustrated this set have been widely commended, and Library of Wonders. All the volumes of read with deep interest. They have done much in the way of popular instruction in scientific subjects, and in the diffusion of practical history and details of the marvels of nature and science. The present volume will hold its place with its prede cessors. CARTERS, through SUTTON & SCOTT, send us two excellent books for young people: Daisy Maynard's Four Promises, and The Babe at the Wedding, and other narratives, by Rev. P. B. POWER, M. A. The latter volume especially, by an author of much note, is very entertaining for young and old, and each of its seven stories is a sermon-a parable, if you please fourth part consists of selections of touching hearts tenderly. convenient to be used in connection he scripture passages. arrangement of the whole is marked cellent taste, and the book will be seful at those times when "words poken are as apples of gold in picof silver." S. JULIA MCNAIR WRIGHT, our popular Presbyterian authoress-and The Bag of Blessings; or, The Singing Tailor, and Other Narratives. By the Rev. P. B. POWER, M. A., author of the "I Wills of the Psalms," etc, New York: Robert Carter & Bros. For sale by Sutton & Scott, 178 Elm street, Cincinnati. Six short stories, full of the gospel, by a popular writer, form a very pleasant vol ume. "Let us have fair play for the pulpitnot the institution but the structure. Our compassions are excited for it; for it seems to be losing some of its friends. It has to bear the blame of the preacher's tameness and the hearers' dullness. A heavy reDo all these pulpitsponsibility this. breakers realize whither this movement tends? What is to become of the great 'pulpit Bible' when the foundation is knocked from under it? Does anybody eachers can preach But your coquettish, flexible mouth, Kitty, One look has a magical power, Kitty, For the love that throbs and trembles, Kitty, Is pierced by the shaft of a smile, Kitty, From my climb to the sentinel towers, Kitty, Where the ribbons of light unfurl, I retreat at the sight of the archer, Kitty, Thus a look and a smile between them, My heart's vibrations impel, Is the fall from a heaven to hell. RELIGI "T Deacon it was The spiritu It wa made Burd Was a rejoi mem ance thei Th the en HE Church at Waynetown," as complacently remarked by Saxe, "was not numerous, but ich." deacon did not mean rich in l experiences, but in hard cash. an aristocratic little Church, up mostly of old families-the ts first and then the Saxes. It lecent, complacent little Church, g greatly in the proprieties-its ers never failed to put in an appeara Sabbath mornings, and sat in pews in unwinking solemnity. ad in the grave-yard, just under urch windows, were equally solnd unwinking, and often quite as benefited by the ministrations he pulpit, and this not from any n the ministrations. fact was that this Church had into a rut; they had been runin the groove of their own rebility. If the Lord had had as an opinion of Waynetown, as etown had of itself, that Church have been speedily translated. congregation steadily looked down all excitements; they sat comfortably through hymn, prayer, and preaching, and stood, respectfully, for the benediction; and they never permitted any thing outside of the usual routine to take place. Each Sabbath the minister could feel sure of within five or six of the exact number who would be out to listen to his disquisitions: one could forecast the collections, and not be a dollar wrong; for everybody had their settled rates of giving, and the Church preferred, as the recipients of their liberality, old, dignified, and well-established societies. The Church was perfectly orthodox, and the Deacons Saxe were the exponents of that orthodoxy. As soon as one Deacon Saxe was gathered to the deacons gone before, another Saxe was ordained to fill his vacant place, the diaconate being apparently one of the hereditaments of the Saxe family. The profound calm of this Church was not particularly ruffled by the announcement that their pastor was about to resign his charge. The event was tered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by the PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE COMPANY, in ce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. as unprecedented, and it was only decorous that the Church should waive their claims on their minister when he beered that he could be benefited by a change. The present incumbent of the ministerial office in Waynetown had held his position for ten years, and had delivered sound, digniSed, well-seasoned discourses to the Faxes in the great square pews on either side of the pulpit. to the Colvilles in the long narrow pews ranging behind the square ones, to the Burdetts magnificently displayed in the main aisle slips, to the Daltons who formed the Burdetts' rear guard, and to the inferior people, such as must belong to every church, and who held their stations near the doors-a position which, if I rightly remember, a certain Psalmist and king did not consider beneath his acceptance. It may be that the unmoved proprieties of his small but wealthy church" had chilled the pastoral soul; at all events the minister resigned and departed; the congregation was resigned, and heard candidates. edze that the fame of his proprieties and his office had drifted to Boston, and to the ears of the D. D. whose praise was in all the churches. The purport of the letter was that the welfare of the Waynetown church was dear to the soul of the distant divine; that the bearer of the epistle, his beloved young brother in the ministry, was a man by grace and nature greatly gifted for his office; that in eloquence, zeal, and discretion. he had few superiors, and he was commended to Deacon Saxe and the rest of the brethren at Waynetown, as one eminently calculated to set at rest the vexed question of "who should be their minister." To the wise charming of this letter the deacon's ear gave heed; he received the wandering minister to his house; he introduced him to the church members; invited him to preach; was pleased with his preaching, and gravely spoke his praises to the congregation. The Burdetts were as well pleased as the Saxes; and when the Burdetts and Saxes, who made up half the congregation, were pleased, every one else was sure quietly to follow. As often happens, the candidates failed to please. The more new men Waynetown heard, the more fastidious Waynetown became; and the more young ministers in general tried to please them, the farther were this people from being pleased. Become spiritual epicures, they found all ordinary food palling on their pampered palates, and something must be very piquant to suit at all. On a certain glorious September morning, when the senior Deacon Saxe was deeply engaged in calculations concerning the market value of thousands of luscious globes now hanging from his ancestral peachorchard, he was waited upon by a gentleman of elegant person and unexceptional dry goods, who introduced himself as the Rev. Wilberforce Cowper Randall, bearing to Deacon Saxe, as the exponent of Waynetown piety, clerical greetings from the Rev. -, D. D., of Boston. It would have been beyond human nature for Deacon After the second Sabbath's preaching, the Rev. W. C. Randall was invited to be pastor of the Waynetown church, and, of course, accepted the invitation. During this period the new minister had not intruded himself upon the hospitality of Deacon Saxe. He had preferred a boarding-place, and had obtained one with Mrs. Job Colville, a cousin of the Burdetts. However, Mr. Randall had received many invitations to dinner and tea, and was, socially, quite popular. "I must reply to Dr.'s letter," said Deacon Saxe. "It would be better to wait until my case is settled," said Mr. Randall, and the deacon waited. Mr. W. C. Randall's case was settled on a Monday evening. On Tuesday he said quite easily to Deacon Saxe, "I suppose you have written to Doctor?" "I shall do so to-night," said the deacon Next morni old or elder was unusua eyes, which ing in thei be fixed i black as be, and, misty wit have bee of such delighte his voic his feat inated f dainty sonal casual came he wa offere Agai liter morning Mr. Randall dropped deacon's before breakfast. "I itten to my old friend, the and brought you his address, post your letter with mine." ngly he went to the office with ters. comparably better than the old one. While the former pastor's petitions had been grave, slow, simple, and lengthy, the new pastor, in prayer, was rapid, passionate, elegantly discriptive, forgot nothing, said much in little, and got through ahead of time. To a people who were not accustomed to do their own emotion, it was a solace to have a pastor who, unchecked by his hearers' calm formality, got up for them warm feelings warmly uttered, and every first day of the week swept them all, apparently, toward heaven on the flood-tide of his own strong passion. new minister was emphatically xperience to Waynetown, and the surface of their accuscalm. He was young; their stors, and the pastors of adjaurches-from which, however, ere in a manner shut offstown lying among sheltering -on a river calm as itself-were elderly. Besides, being on the side of forty, the Rev. Randall usually handsome. His black hich we must confess were rovtheir glances, and could never d in an answering gaze, were is a bandit's are supposed to 1, on occasion, could become with tears. His forehead might een deemed low for the author h rich discourses as on Sabbaths ted Waynetown; the charm of ce, however, was undeniable; tures were of the style denomclassic," and his tastes were and refined. Besides these peradvantages, Mr. Randall had ly informed the people that he of an old and wealthy family; 3 not dependent on the stipend by Waynetown Christians. , the man was eloquent, and his y attainments were evidently his style of preaching was ferd devout; the Greek and Latin tions which he made were a deliribute to the past academic or iate education of the heavy ts who occupied the pews of his h in the delivery of his ser- In the presence of the new pastor the oratory equalled the rhetoric. Adele experienced a hitherto unknown. ometimes rose to the tragic, or emotion. Ministers are supposed to hed off into the tremendous, and be generally attractive to young ladies, possibly, catered to those theat- though why this should be so, in the improprieties that seem dormant face of the multitudinous embarrasse most orthodox hearts. Finally, ments and drawbacks of the position worthy deacons, the Saxe brothers, of a pastor-ess, is more than a reasoned that the new pastor prayed in-able person can divine. We console It was only to be expected that a young and handsome minister, unmarried, and evidently heart-free, should occasion some small excitements among the young ladies of his congregation. The talent of Mr. Randall, his good family, and his supposed property, made him seem an eligible match even to the most fastidious parents of his parish. Conspicuous among the young ladies of the Waynetown church was Miss Adele Burdett. The Burdett families were numerous-their children numerous; Adele was the eldest unmarried daughter of the senior and richest of the Burdett brothers. Without any strictly beautiful features, bright eyes, splendid teeth, a healthful complexion, a mass of silken hair, and ready smile, made Adele charming, and a belle, par excellence, in Waynetown. Friends, and money, and kind nature had united to give Adele the first place among her young companions. Lovers had not been wanting, and our Adele had refused several suitors; she was supposed to be coquettish and hard to please. |