RETURNING HOMEWARDS.

"Ye ARE COME unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God."-Heb. xii. 22.

"Here have we no continuing city, but we SEEK ONE ΤΟ COME."-Heb. xiii. 14.

WE had reach'd Home, what time at last
The long, long voyage indeed was past;
And as we stood on deek to gaze,

Shapes slowly struggled through the haze;
And clear and clearer could our eye survey,

The long, dim line of land, though looming far away.

We had reach'd Home, when full and fair
The shore stood out: and friends were there,-
And in the port the anchor cast,→
And the sail lower'd from the mast,-

And many an outstretch'd arm and joyous face
Forestall'd, or e'er we met, Affection's glad embrace.

We had reach'd Home, when on the shore
We stood, to sail away no more;

When safe we walk'd our native land,
Encircled close by Friendship's band;

Though many a mile our sight must sever still
From our own village-church, and graves, and woods, and hill.

We had reach'd Home, when through the gate,

And up the line of firs, and straight

Across the lawn, and to the door

We came, and trod our cottage-floor :

When thronging friends and thronging thoughts came nigh
And the full heart look'd out in silence from the eye.

We had reach'd Home, when kneeling,-where

On parent's knees, at yonder chair,

We pray'd with infant lips,-we gave

To Him, Who snatch'd us from the wave,

To Him, Who bare us safely through the foam,

To Him our thanks, for He had brought the exiles Home.

Reach'd we not Home, when, on a world

Of billowy guilt in Adam hurl'd,

First at the Font, amid the strife,

The land of everlasting life

We saw ;-though veiling shadows, deep and high,
Hung o'er that vivid land of our nativity?

Reach'd we not Home, when nearer now,
Midst lowly prayer and lofty vow,
Confirming Grace with Eagle's sight,

And with soft Dove's descending flight,

Up towards the Chancel, and the hands outspread,

With friends in Earth and Heaven, to GoD GOD's chil-
dren led?

Reach'd we not Home, when brought at last
To share that dear and dread Repast,

Forth from the world's wide-heaving waste,

With lingering fear and faithful haste,

We stood upon the quiet shore of Heaven,

Where foretaste of a FATHER'S Home restor❜d is given?

We shall reach Home, when through the gate
Of death we pass, awhile to wait,
Until Heaven's doors be open thrown,-

Our birth-place claiming back its own:

Until, upon a better land than this,

We gain our final rest,—our souls' and bodies' bliss.

We shall reach Home, when from the earth
We rise, the Grave's immortal birth,
No more to fear the road we trod,
Approaching nearer to our God;

On sin's vague surges now no more to roam,

But rest in the sure mansions of our FATHER'S Home.

RICHARD TOMLINS.

The Editor's Desk.

"THE Church has a right to have its convocation called as often as the Parliament is assembled; and the convocation thus called has a right to sit and act whenever the circumstances of the Church require it so to do. I confess the Church has a right to its sitting; and if circumstances be such as to require their frequent sitting, during such circumstances, it has a right to their frequent meeting and sitting. And if the Prince be sensible of this, and yet will not suffer the Clergy to come togegether; in that case, I do acknowledge that he would abuse the trust that is lodged in him, and deny the Church a benefit which of right it ought to enjoy." So wrote Archbishop Wake, and so seem to think all true Churchmen of the present day. These sentiments have been virtually expressed again and again during the last month. As soon as the din and bustle of the general elections were over, the Clergy throughout the country were assembled in their several synods to choose representatives for the ensuing convocation. It is needless for us to say that we have watched these elections with deep and prayerful interest, considering the vast exigencies of the present crisis. It is almost as needless to say that the result has been one which has given us no ordinary satisfaction and delight; and we feel that if Churchmen offered up their daily prayers for GOD's blessing to rest upon and guide His Clergy to a right judgment in all things, they are bound to return Him their heartfelt thanks for the answer that has been vouchsafed. Hitherto the election of proctors has been neither more nor less than a great unreality-or in other words a sham. One or two have met together, and "the matter of form" has been gone through as speedily as possible. But thank GOD! this reproach at least has been taken away from among us. The numbers that have in all cases been

gathered together, attest the growing interest felt in the subject ; whilst the calm, deliberate, and Christian temper which marked the proceedings, showed that the greatness of the responsibility was duly felt. The English Church has proclaimed that convocation must henceforth, sooner or later, be a reality,—that the meeting in the Jerusalem chamber shall be for the transaction of the Church's business. The sentiments of the Bishop of Moray and Ross have been re-echoed, and stamped by general approbation. "I am," said he, "of opinion that the time has arrived when there should be synodal action in the Church. At all times in the Church synods have been called, and have sat for the purpose of healing divisions and differences. Now, therefore, when matters are being agitated among us, and are causing divisions, why shall we doubt the quieting and healing influences of convocation, if permitted to deliberate and act?" Why, indeed, when we call to mind the happy issue of only the first council summoned at Jerusalem? Whether, in defiance of all that has been done and said, the "fiat" will be withheld for the coming convocation, to enter into a regular deliberation upon the state of the Church, we cannot say; but we feel certain that something will be done, and we are full of hope that a great and real advance may be made. God grant that the hopes of thousands may not be disappointed!

This is not the season of the year for authors to exercise their pens, and publishers to make many adventures. There is always at this period a certain amount of barrenness in the literary field. Church literature is no exception to the general rule. Few books lie upon our table that call for notice. "The Sunday Scholar's Magazine" (Harrison, Leeds) continues to pursue its useful and unobtrusive way with (we hope) continued success, as it certainly does with increased vigour.

A new edition of Dr. Hook's "Christian, remember," on a card, has, we are glad to find, been called for.

From the same publisher we have to acknowledge a brief and touching memoir of a Sunday-school scholar, which we cordially recommend for extensive circulation among the poor.

66

A most admirable and telling tract on Daily Prayer," from the well-skilled pen of Mr. TOMLINS, has been issued by our publisher, which we doubt not parish Priests will find admirably adapted for its purpose. It is a plain compendium of PrayerBook teaching.

But if the books upon our table are few, there is one which cannot be too often or constantly perused, especially by those to whom the care of souls has been entrusted. We allude to the brief "Memoir of the Rev. R. A. Suckling," by the Rev. ISAAC WILLIAMS, B.D. The name of the author renders it

mere presumption in us to recommend it. It may therefore suffice to say, that it is a loving portraiture of a comparatively unknown country Clergyman, of deep and sterling piety, whose meat and drink it was to do the will of Him that sent Him. Those who met the lamented Suckling but once or twice, will readily assent to all that is said, and see the man, as it were, living again in his letters and sermons. He had a heart that felt deeply for others, and fully sympathized with them. An instance of this, not mentioned by Mr. Williams, occurred during his college days, and of which we were witnesses. A common friend had suddenly experienced a reverse of fortune; some in consequence looked coldly upon him. Not so Mr. Suckling. He met one or two more, to see what aid could be done; and at once (if we remember the sum correctly) placed £20 in the sufferer's hands, and that too in the most delicate manner, as an acknowledgment for some slight assistance in his studies which his friend had given him. Knowing this, we were quite prepared for the touching sympathy he everywhere shows for all the members of his flocks. Men such as he, scattered up and down throughout the country,-labouring, it may be, in sorrow and in tears, with many trials and difficulties, yet ever going onwards full of hope, and imparting of their own energy to all they come in contact with,-are nobly and manfully doing the work of the Church, ay, and they are the men too who may be most surely depended upon in days of difficulty and doubt. Their daily practical work prevents their morbidly dwelling upon distresses, which all cannot but feel in a greater or less degree. But that our readers may form an opinion for themselves, we will present them with a few extracts from the memoir and letters.

His opinions on the state of infants departed are detailed in the following beautiful letter :—

"My dear Mrs. P-

"Cavendish Hall, May 5th, 1849.

"Dear baby is decidedly better to-day, and begins to take a little notice of his toys again, but he is sadly altered, and reduced to about half his weight, I do not know that I shall be able to describe to you the scene of his illness, though it is very vivid to my mind, and must ever live there. I have seen but little of sickness in children, and am perhaps more impressed with his on that account; but be that as it may, I never attended a sick bed by the side of which I learned so much, as I have in watching by his little cot, or at which I have witnessed so much patience. His sufferings, poor little fellow, which were extreme, were borne without a murmur. I can truly say with the poet,

'O dearest, dearest boy, my heart

For better love would seldom yearn;

Could I but teach the hundredth part
Of what from thee I learn I'

Therein I saw an image of the SAVIOUR'S sufferings. I saw them in a clearer light than I had done before, and learnt thereby how in all things we must become as little children, before we can enter the kingdom. This little child without speech explained to me, and spoke to my heart of how He opened not His mouth and was dumb, as a lamb before her shearers: for such literally was he. I can never forget his agonizing look to me for help. Mrs. Suckling's was the sterner part, and she applied the remedies. Poor child! he looked all around for help, but his eye lit only on strange faces, which increased his terror. At last he recognized me, and with a living ex. pression of eye and face which said, 'save me,' he, by a strong effort, raised his weak frame up, and held out his little arms, nothing doubt. ing I should take him; but when he saw I moved not, his features relaxed into despair, and sinking back into his mother's arms seemed to say, 'Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man, for there is no help in them.' Instantly he seemed resigned, as if, having put his trust where alone it could not be deceived. It was this unearthly character in his illness that confirmed my fears, and made me think he would not live. There seemed therein too large an element of the heavenly to bloom on this rank earth; but GOD in mercy thought not so, and I was wrong to think it; for the promise was that this desert should yet again blossom as the rose, and JESUS, the true Gardener, (as Mary rightly called Him,) has watered it with His precious Blood, that henceforth there should flourish in His courts sweet flowers, and trees of righteousness of the LORD's planting. And such is our dear babe, and as such we receive him back, to train him up in the LORD's service as a lamb of His pasture, whom even here below He will lead beside the still waters, and onwards in the paths of righteousness, for His Name's sake.

"I could thankfully have resigned him, had it been God's will; blessed be His Name for enabling me to say so! for there would have been the deep, all-comforting certainty of his being received into the company of those who follow the LAMB whithersoever He goeth, and the ever-present thought that he was singing that new song which no man knoweth ; and O, how can words express it? O comfort for all mourning parents! that the infant tongue, which never found utterance here, should be loosed to praise unceasingly Him Who alone is 'worthy.' Yes, great as would have been the affliction, I weighed it all in my mind as I held him in my arms after the medical man had bade me cease to hope; and my heart, though filled with sorrow, was in awe and amazement at the thought, that such should be the employment (in a few hours) of his infant tongue, undefiled by earthly

utterance.

"And now life is spared, I can and do with thankfulness look forward to that higher blessedness set before him, which in God's counsel is his; and I earnestly trust in His fore-knowledge also, through the merits of our REDEEMER. That hour of agony was caused by the alone thought that, for sin of mine, his earthly course