I sought the grove, I climb'd the hill, white throne; and in Him who inner shrine of Thy temple, and sitteth thereupon I recognise the fold me in the embraces of Thy Saviour who rescued me from love? Surely, when admitted to death; and still bears on his person Thy hallowed and lofty dwellingthe scars of those wounds He re- place, I shall fall prostrate before ceived in my defence. There are Thy throne in "an agony of inmyriads of rejoicing immortals solvent gratitude; "* my song of around Him; every hand holds thanksgiving will be louder than a lyre, and there is a garland hang- any by which the echoes of heaven's ing on every neck; in the distance courts will be awakened, and the wave trees of unfading verdure, and loftiest seraph will not rival me in chrystal fountains are sporting be- the intensity of my praise. neath the light. There sin, sorrow, and poverty are all forgotten; purity pervades every portion of I that vast city; there is no dim corner in which vice may lurk or treachery conceal itself; holiness fills the atmosphere of the spot; it is emblemed by the long white garments of the worshippers who I sweep majestically through the streets, and by the clear waters that undulate around the throne. Loud and ceaseless are the voices of praise: sometimes all heaven is silent, that some grateful saint may sing his hymn of thanksgiving; and then, at its close, the vast multitude of the redeemed join in the strain, and new peals of hallelujahs roll along the skies. O thou kingdom of blessedness! thou haven of the soul! thou birth-place of holiness! thou glory of God! thy brightness is too dazzling for my mental eye, and I cannot listen without terror to the exceeding melodiousness of thy sounds. "Visions of glory, spare my aching sight, me from the punishment I so justly Ι Before me rose Ambition's height: Woo'd by fair pleasure's scented gale, Grim sorrow sought my unarm❜d breast, But soon a voice of music stole DEATH OF MR. DAVID NASMITH. was so great that it forbade him not only to use the ordinary means of obtaining a subsistence, but even to receive any regular support from his friends in a direct manner, depending entirely upon the anony WITH unfeigned regret we record the decease of this excellent individual, whose name has long been associated with the most active and enlarged benevolence throughout mous contributions of strangers, the Christian world. He was taken suddenly ill at Guildford, on Saturday the 16th November, while pursuing his useful labours, and died on the Sunday evening following, in joyful hope and humble dependence upon his Saviour's merits for eternal salvation. which by a singular process of reasoning he deemed more providential than the former. This principle, combined with an excess of zeal, led him sometimes to engage others in efforts beyond their means, which ended in disappointment; but these are slight circumstances which faithfulness requires us to Mr. Nasmith was comparatively mention in the estimate of his life young, being only in the fortieth which casts no shade over his year of his age; but, in that period moral character. All good men he has done more to promote the have their imperfections, but few progress of true religion, catho- men, if any perhaps, have approached licity of sentiment, and unbounded nearer to apostolic piety and usebenevolence of action, than any fulness than the lamented individual other individual we could mention. of whom we have spoken. May his As the founder of City Missions, in bright example long leave its radiEngland, America, and on the Con- ance on the earth, now he has tinent in general, and of the London departed, to excite others to the City Mission in particular, he cannot same distinguished excellence! His be forgotten so long as the blessed widow and five children require the influence of these societies continues sympathy and assistance of the to diffuse itself throughout our Christian public whom he has benetowns, and city populations. Nor fitted by his labours, being left can it be known or imagined, entirely destitute. perhaps, till the revelation of the great day, how much good has been effected through the agency of a single person of humble station and HOW THE DISTEMPERS OF THESE acquirements, but of perfectself-dovotion, undaunted courage, zeal, and unquenchable and ceaseless assiduity in carrying out the plans and purposes which he had devised for the everlasting welfare of his fellow creatures. ED. TIMES SHOULD AFFECT WISE MEN. THE distempers of these times would make a wise man both merry and mad. Merry, to see how vice flourishes but awhile, and being at last frustrated of all her fair hopes, He lived near to God-was emi- dies in a dejected scorn, which meets nently a man of prayer-and spent with nothing in the end but beggary, his life wholly in doing good.- baseness, and contempt. To see how If he committed errors-they were the world is mistaken in opinion, to errors of judgment, and not of suppose those best that are wealthiprinciple. His trust in Providence est. To see how the world thinks to appal the mind of holiness with purpose, he casts by, like Sunday misery; while true resolution laughs apparrel, not thought on all the week at their poor impotency and slights after: and which would mad a even the utmost spite of tyranny. man more than all, to know all this, To see how men buy office, at high yet not know how to help it. rates, which, when they have, These would almost distract a man prove gins to catch their souls in, in himself. But since I find they and mars their estates and recep- are unavoidable at present, I wil tions. To see how foolishly men often pray for their amendment in cousen themselves of their souls, private, and use all wise and judicious while they think they gain by their means in public, trusting to the cunning, defrauding one another. progress of truth and righteousness To see how the projectors of the for their ultimate cure. world, like the spoke of the wheel of Sesostris' chariot are tumbled up and down, from beggary to worship, from worship to honor, from OWEN FELTHAM, honor to baseness again. To see ON THE SUFFERINGS OF GOOD MEN, what idle compliments are current among some that affect the phantas- AFFLICTION is the school in which tic garb, as if friendship were noth- great virtues are required, in which ing but an apish salute, glossed great characters are formed. It is over with nothing but the varnish of a kind of moral gymnasium, in smooth tongue. To see a strutting which the disciples of Christ are prodigal overlook a region with his framed to robust exercise, hardy waving plume, as if he could as exertion, and severe conflict, easily shake that as his feather, To We do not hear of martial heroes see how pot-valour thunders in a in "thecatrice and piping time of tavern and appoints a duel, but peace," nor of the most eminent goes away and gives money to have saints in the quiet and unmolested the quarrel taken up under hand. periods of ecclesiastical history, Mad, on the other side, to see how We are far from denying that the vice goes trapped with rich furni- principle of courage in the warrior, ture while fair virtue hath noth- or of piety in the saint, coning but a bridle and saddle, which tinues to subsist, ready to be only serve to increase her bond- brought into action when perils age. To see machiavely. beset the country, or trials assail Tenants held as oracles. Hon- the church; but it must be allowed, esty reputed shallowness. Justice that in long periods of inaction both bought and sold, as if the world are liable to decay, went about to disprove Zerobabel, The Christian, in our compara, and would make him confess money tively tranquil day, is happily exto be stronger than truth. To see empt from the trials and the terrors how flattery creeps favor, with which the annals of persecution greatness, while plain dealing is record. Thanks to the establishthought the euemy of state and ment of a pure Christianity in the honor. To see how well-meaning Church: thanks to the infusion of simplicity is foot-balled-to see how the same pure principle into our religion is under a politician's vizor, laws, and to the mild and tolerating which haying helped him to his spirit of both. A man is so far from being liable to pains and pe- thus continually gravitating to earth, nalties for his attachment to his re- would be prevented from soaring, ligion, that he is protected in its To live insphered exercise; and were certain existing statutes enforced, he would even incur penalties for his violation of religious duties, instead of rather than for his observance of them. In regions mild of calm and serene air, It is an unspeakable blessing that no events are left to the choice of Yet still the Christian is not beings who, from their blindness, exempt from his individual, his ap- would seldom fail to choose amiss. propriate, his undefined trials. We Were circumstances at our own disrefer to those cruel " mockings," posal we should allot ourselves which the acute sensibility of the nothing but ease and success, riches Apostle led him to rank in the same and fame, protracted youth, percatalogue with bonds,imprisonments, petual health, and unwearied happiexile, and martydom itself. We ness. allude not altogether to those mis- All this, as it would be very narepresentations and calumnies to tural, so perhaps it would not be which the zealous Christian is pe- very wrong for beings who were alculiarly liable; nor exclusively to ways to live on earth. But for beings those difficulties to which his very who are placed here in a state of adherence to the principles he pro- trial, and not established in their fesses must necessarily subject him; final home; whose condition in eternor entirely to those occasional nity depends on the use they make sacrifices of credit, of advancement, of time, nothing would be more of popular applause, to which his dangerous than such a power, norefusing to sail with the tide of thing more fatal than the consepopular opinion may compel him; quences to which such a power nor solely to the disadvantages would lead. which, under circumstances, his not If a surgeon were to put into preferring expediency to principle the hand of a wounded patient the may expose him. But the truly probe or the lancet, with how much good man is not only frequently false tenderness would he treat himcalled to struggle with trials of large self! How skin-deep would be the dimensions, with exigencies of ob- examination, how slight the incivious difficulty, but to encounter sion! The patient would escape others which are better understood the pain, but the wound might prove than defined; and duller would he mortal. The practitioner therefore be than the fat weed that roots wisely uses his instrument himself. itself at ease on Lethe's wharf, He goes deep, perhaps, but not were he left to fatten undisturbed deeper than the case demands. on the unwholesome pastures of The pain may be acute, but the life rank prosperity. The thick exha- is preserved. Thus He, in whose lations drawn up from this gross hands we are, is too good, and loves soil renders the atmosphere so us too well, to trust us with ourheavy as to obstruct the ascent of selves. He knows that we will not piety: her flagging pinions are kept contradict our own inclinations; down by the influence of this moist that He will not impose on vapour; the pampered Christian, selves any thing unpleasant; that our. we will not inflict on ourselves any of wood, and gradually diminishing voluntary pain, however necessary in size from one extremity to the the infliction, however salutary the other; and also triangular pieces of effect. God graciously does this metal, arranged in the same order himself, or he knows it would never as the bells. To the sound of these be done. If the Christian course instruments a slow and solemn had been meant for a path of roses, hymn was sung by eunuchs, who would the life of the author of had such a command over their Christianity have been a path strewed voices as to resemble the effect of with thorns? "He made for us," the musical glasses at a distance. says Bishop Jeremy Taylor, "a co- The performers were directed, in venant of sufferings; his very pro- gliding from one tone to another, mises were sufferings; his rewards by the striking of a shrill and sonowere sufferings; and his arguments rous cymbal; and the judges of to invite men to follow him were music among the gentlemen of the only taken from sufferings in this assembly were much pleased with life, and the reward of sufferings their execution. The whole had, hereafter." HANNAH MORE. CHINESE EMPEROR. indeed, a grand effect. During the performance, and at particular, nine times repeated, all the persons present prostrated themselves nine times, except the ambassador and his suite, who made a profound obeisance. But he, whom it was His titles are, the "Son of Hea- meant to honour, continued as if it ven," the "Ten Thousand Years." were in imitation of the Deity, inHe is worshipped with divine ho- visible the whole time. The awful nours, and with the attribute of impression made upon the minds Infinity throughout the empire. of men by this apparent worship of The following is from an eye-witness a fellow mortal, was not to be ̄efto the celebration of the Emperor's faced by any immediate scenes of birth-day at Pekin, and the cere- sport or gaiety, which were postmony is universal and simultaneous poned to the following day." The through the chief cities of China :- Emperor worships Heaven, and the "The first day was consecrated to people worship the Emperor. the purpose of rendering a solemn, is remarkable, that with all this the sacred, and devout homage to the Sovereign, in styling himself, used supreme majesty of the Emperor. occasionally this term of affected The princes, tributaries, ambas- humility," the imperfect man," sadors, great officers of state, and which presents a contrast to the principal mandarins, were assem- inflated and self-laudatory expresbled in a vast hall, and upon par- sions of most oriental monarchs. ticular notice were introduced into Every device of state, however, is an inner building, bearing at least used to keep up by habit the imthe semblance of a temple. It was pression of awe. No person whatchiefly furnished with great instru- ever can pass before the outer gate ments of music, among which were of the palace in any vehicle, or on sets of cylindrical bells, suspended horseback. The vacant throne, or an a line from ornamented frames a screen of yellow silk, are equally It |