of free pardon to all mankind who shall come on the simple terms of faith in Christ and repentance for sinthat this pardon, and the blessed assurance of it, are not long delayed from the penitent, sorrowing spirit, which is broken for sin. Let us thank God, our Father, that the prophecies of his most holy word, that they may be accomplished, demand the revivals of the present age, and even a far more abundant outpouring of the Holy Spiritan effusion before which all that has passed shall be as drops before a sweeping shower. Let us thank God our Father in heaven that the example of sudden conversions and extensive revivals of religion, recorded in the most holy volume of inspiration, fully warrant the genuineness and establish the validity of the present awakenings that prevail in such a glorious manner in our communion.

And now while our eyes shall rest on these material walls as they rise in proportion and beauty-while we gaze upon that which the tooth of time shall gnaw away, and the envious winds and storms shall strew on the earth from whence it was taken,-God sees the spiritual building which shall be the peculiar glory of this second temple. This corner stone, which we this day place in its bed, where it shall rest for ages, is but a type of that precious head of the corner,' which is found in the spiritual edifice. How firm and how eternal is the glorious house not made with hands' which the eye of faith contemplates, as intimately connected with these walls that have begun to rear themselves around us!

It is indeed located on earth; but the edifice rises above the cloudy atmosphere of time and catches the sunshine of immortality, close under the arch of the empyrean, where the last vapors of the universe redden with the blushings of an Eden morning. On its broad walls, higher up than the mountains of earth, and above the stormy regions of the clouds, is inscribed in glorious letters-Salvation; the gates are praise, and angel cohorts float on snow white chariots round its light encircled battlements.

But on this undertaking-on the erection of these material walls, we implore the benediction of heaven. To Him in whose name we set up our Ebenezer, we commit the undertaking and the precious lives of our brethren and fellow citizens engaged in these labors for Christ.

To this temple, we, our children and our children's children shall come on the days of Sabbath gladness. Souls here shall be born for glory. Here too shall we come in our days of sorrow, when to the earth we commit our babes, our wives, our parents, our dearly beloved friends; and in our sighing and sorrowing, we shall drink of the consolations which shall ever flow around this holy place.

In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost, we lay this corner stone, and commit to Israel's God the keeping of our souls, of the inscription which we here deposit, and of the high destinies of our beloved Church and country.

SPRING.

THE season of ethereal mildness-when the wide, deep heavens purify themselves and shake out the contractions and wrinkles of winter! It has come to us as in times past, unchanged! God has not forgotten to be gracious and faithful. And the earth, obedient to the heavenly signs above, arrays her late cold bosom with green-and has placed that green only as a dark background to her more beauteous embroidery of flowers which ere long shall intermingle with and surmount the parent tint; and white and red and orange and green and violet shall be found in the fragrant coverings of the meadows and the hills. The birds know the season of love and of song. They are out in the earliest blush of the morning. Their songs now sound with, and shape, all nature's melody to an anthem of harmony, varied and measured with more than mortal skill. It is the many-tongued song of creation which I hear rising up to the great Creator. Receive this bursting volume of praise, oh thou magnificent Creator and Preserver, from the green earth thou hast borne safely through the tossing winter clouds, like a strong ship brought from the stormy cape into the spicy Indian ocean!

Man, whose capacious heart and searching intellect can take in and comprehend this universal song of rejoicing, should not be a frozen statue amidst the adoring works of God. Let every heart be warm and overflowing with praise. For no living creature in the air, in the fields, in the forest or the floods, has half the cause of thanksgiving that human beings have. All nature

seems to smile for man, and pours out into his hand the fullness of her vernal offerings. The fields are green and lovely to his eye--the grass blooms afresh over the graves of his ancestors-the summer harvests, the fruits of autumn are before him---the blessings of friendship are around him---and still, after this earthly scene hath shifted, another scene incomparably more grand and beautiful spreads out and stretches interminably before him. It is the Spring of a blessed immortality.

The time hastens when religion shall fill the earth with a heavenly influence more bland and balmy than that of Spring. War, like the storms of winter, shall be no more. The tales of hoary wrong and error shall be rehearsed at the fireside as things that have been-not as those then in existence. Death shall come calmly then, and have no sting. The sweet earth shall then, invite Jesus to his second coming--and the Savior shall hear the voice.

LONELINESS.

• I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.'

A SENTENCE like the above, found in the writings of a pagan poet, would have raised its author to the pinnacle of fame. The prophet had contemplated the great wickedness of God's ancient people under a weight of mercy and blessings; he had viewed it in every atti

tude; the awful turpitude of these untold transgressions unfolded more and more; a voice of affliction from Dan burdened the winds, and another great cry went up from Mount Ephraim. The prophet was pained at his heart; the clangor of a trumpet rang through his soul; the alarm of iron war fastened upon his senses; the mountain weight of a nation's sin settled down upon the care-worn seer. In a moment the scenery of vision changes, and inspiration draws a picture of desolation which mocks the eagle efforts of genius.

No man can read the four short verses that describe this desolation without feeling a chilly horror creeping over him, as if light and life and being were going out with the last rays of the departing sun. The prophet says:- I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.-I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and lo there was no man and all the birds of heaven were fled. I beheld, and the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger.'

This cannot be said to be a beautiful passage; for its awful import destroys the light of beauty. It cannot be said to be sublime; for the emotions awakened by the sublime are pleasurable after the first intensity of their excitement has passed by. Read this passage a thousand times and the bleak image of desolation will rise cheerlessly to the mind each time. What are we to think of such passages that cast such enduring frowns