"I have been so happy!" "What! happy near a dying person!" "Yes; near a dying one whom I have been able to comfort. " read, he said to me: Since I am to die, who knows where I am going?'" "Poor Jeannette! you must have been very much embarrassed to demonstrate to him the immortality "Indeed! Tell me, then, how is this: what have of the soul! What reasoning did you use?" you done?" "At first I took my Bible." "Well, and what then ?" "Then I read in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews; you know, sir, there where these consoling words are found, whom God loveth he chasteneth."" "Yes, yes, I know; and what then?" "I did not reason at all." "I did not know how to do that; but I told him these words of Jesus: 'I am the resurrection and the life."" "Then I made some remarks upon them, address- said to himself a hundred times, that to quote the ed to the sick man himself." "Indeed; what did you say?" "I told him that God is a good father, who does not make us suffer for his own pleasure, but for our good. I told him that suffering was the best means of bringing sinners to repentance; and that this was the reason why God made our bodies to suffer, that our souls might be saved. I told him that Jesus, who was so good, so just, so holy, suffered much more than we; and that, if we trusted in him, he would forgive our sins. Finally, I told this poor sick man, that I felt myself very guilty before God; but that, since I had prayed to him from the depths of my soul, I heard from within a voice which assured me that God had given me grace, and that now I am his child, that I have peace in my heart, and I am sure that God will receive me in heaven, and that beforehand I taste the joys of salvation. Then this poor man wished to pray, but as he was too feeble to speak, I prayed for him." "What! you prayed aloud!" "Yes." "Before every body? "Yes." "Are you not mistaken ?" "How mistaken ? " Bible proved nothing; at the same time, he had often noticed that the authority of the Scriptures produced more effect than an argument. He wished to know what had been the result in this instance. "What reply did the sick man make ?" "He answered me thus: "I know very well that I shall rise from the dead; but it is this that makes me afraid, for where shall I go after my resurrection ?'" "To heaven, you of course replied ?" said the pastor. "No; I said to hell!" "Why to hell?" "Because his fears convinced me that he was a sinner, and that he was not forgiven." "Undoubtedly he was a sinner; but father Durant was an honest man, and if he did not go straight to heaven, nobody would enter there. But what said he to thy threat?" "At first he said nothing; then he turned his eyes toward me, and said: "You are right, Jeannette, for I am very guilty before God; I have scarcely ever prayed, have never gone to church, have not read the Bible; but, on the contrary, have more than once Sobs hindered his utterance. Poor father Durant!" "But do you not see that you frightened him, when, "Why, were you not afraid to repeat the prayer if you had told him that he would go to heaven, (before others?" "But, sir, I did not repeat a prayer; I said quite simply what I thought. Is not this what you do when you go to visit the sick?" "Oh, no! I recite my prayer.” "How your prayer?" "That I have learned in the liturgy." "Ah!" exclaimed Jeannette astonished, and fearful of having failed in some customary usages; " but," continued she," what do you tell the sick man, after you have recited the prayer from the liturgy?" "I seek to reassure him concerning his malady; I give him hope that he will soon recover; and I endeavour to persuade him that he will not die." "As for me, I did quite the contrary. I told him frankly what I thought; that he was very sick, and was about to die." 66 you would have comforted him ?" "Yes, sir; but I should have deceived him.” "At all events you would have softened his dying hour." "But at the risk of his eternal salvation." "You believe you have saved his soul by telling him of hell? " Awkwardly spoken; it was the way to frighten in Jesus Christ. After much weeping for his faults, him, and hasten his death." "I believed it was the way to make him attentive, and to lead him to think seriously of the salvation of his soul." and after my reading in the Bible those threatening words against sinners, I read him those words of consolation for believers; this, for example, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, "And did you succeed?" that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, "Yes, sir, for he wept; and, after hearing the Bible but have everlasting life.' And these, There is, 6 THE MILLENNIUM. therefore, now no condemnation to them who believe in Jesus Christ.' Is not this what I should have said ?" "Yes, yes," replied the pastor, more embarrassed than convinced, "it was all right; it is always sad to see a man die. A visit to a sick person makes me sick myself; it affects me; it makes me sad, especially when I leave him as unhappy as at my arrival." "Oh," rejoined Jeannette, "that was not the case with father Durant. When he understood that his sins were all pardoned if he trusted in Jesus Christ; when he truly believed that Jesus died on the cross for sinners, oh, then he felt quite differently; he listened attentively, he asked me many questions, to which I always replied from the Bible. Gradually his countenance brightened; he wept no more; at times there was even a smile on his lips. I was sustained-encouraged. I sought in the Word of God for other clear, strong promises to the sinner who repents and believes in the Saviour. These promises fell upon his heart like fresh water upon a thirsty tongue. He listened eagerly, and never seemed ready to say, 'It is enough.' It was evident to me that the Holy Spirit operated upon this man, and opened his heart, as was Lydia's. At length, when he fully understood this salvation, freely offered in the gospel to those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, he repeated the words he had heard me read, Ithe words of St Paul, I know in whom I have believed;' and these, 'Now I am ready to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.' His body grew weaker and weaker; and yet his countenance was more composed-more calm. In looking at him, one was convinced that his soul was also calm." "This is astonishing," said the pastor. never seen the like." "I have "When he could not speak," added Jeannette, "I asked him to reply by signs to my last questions, Do you still fear God and the judgment?' He raised his hand. Do you believe in Jesus? Are you happy?' He could only raise his eyes to heaven; then his eyelids fell, and he drew his last breath." my unbelief!" Jeannette resumed her culinary labours. M. Darval ascended to his room, but instead of locking the door he left it wide open, and placed himself by the window, as if waiting for another invitation to visit the dying. But, alas! this was but a desire. His conscience told him that he needed to study for himself the truths of the gospel which he would teach to others. His second impulse was to draw his Bible from the bookcase-to wipe off the dust, and to seat himself by the hearth, to meditate on its contents. closed the door again; not now to escape duty, but to kneel in prayer. He THE MILLENNIUM. 487 BY S. H. COX, D.D., BROOKLYN. WHATEVER the millennium may be in future history, we now view it as a predicted state of piety for long enduring ages; in which the truth of Christ and the grace of Christ shall predominate among all the nations of living men, making them Christians; restoring them to goodness and to God, as his worshippers and his children; pacificating all the world; banishing irreligion and false religion, superstition, bigotry, fanaticism, heresy, false philosophy, infidelity, ignorance, indolence, oppression, persecution, and every false way, with mainly every wrong practice, from the world. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. This consummation must occur in this world, since in that better country, to which we go, there is no such plant. "Then violence shall never lift the sword, Nor cunning justify the proud man's wrong. Leaving the poor no remedy but tears. Then he that fills an office, shall esteem The occasion it presents of doing good More than the perquisite: then law shall speak Seldom, and never but as wisdom prompts And equity; not jealous more to guard A worthless form than to decide aright; Then fashion shall not sanctify abuse, Nor smooth good-breeding, supplemental grace, With lean performance ape the work of love." What a blessed tranformation of society will be every where effected by the preponderating righteousness of those happy times! Righteousness exalteth a nation, as nothing without it can. In every department of human interest, social and individual, what a reformation, what a melioration, what a metamorphasis; truly a new creation of sentiment, and character, and action! Think of those monster evils that continue for chiliads of time to haunt and mar our social welfare; and which law, and police, and jails, and gibbets, and military power, and worldly education, and worldly legislation, can never coerce or cure-they will all disappear and vanish from our view. Nothing is wanting but sincere and enlightened faith in the gospel of Christ, among all nations, to introduce the millennium and regenerate the world. The spirit of love to God will diffuse that of love to man; the very way for the development of true piety. Hence each will feel an interest in the weal of every other member of the species. The colour of the skin will not then be the criterion of duties or of rights. Education will be honest, and Christian, and universal, in the main. Mind will be every where informed, developed, invigorated, and matured. The only monarchy on earth will be properly the theocracy of God our Saviour; and under him, like Israel before a king was given them in anger, every state will be a commonwealth of Christians. Laws shall be few, reasonable, useful, and well-adWars shall cease; slavery be no more; ministered. no duelling, no gambling, no infernal profaneness, no lewd pleasures, no intemperance, no idleness, no calumnious assassination of character, no corrupt merchandising of commerce, no sectarianism-CHRISTIAN will be all, the brotherhood of human nature will be restored, and physical comforts, it is supposed, will abound. The age of man will be lengthened; disease will be lessened; the productions of the earth will be abundant; marriage will be honoured universally as the institution of God; the population of the world. will be tenfold, and earth itself will reflect the countenance of heaven. The Lord's day will be every where honoured and obeyed. It will be richly enjoyed, appreciated, and blessed. What Christians will those ages produce, when men shall show them selves Christians, and Christians shall show themselves men! How omnipotent will be the truth; no madness left on earth to doubt it! Children will be generally converted early, will grow in grace as they grow in years; and rare will be the mother, the sin of whose son, and perhaps his violent death, will break her heart! What a procession of glorified millions, in those ages, shall crowd the brightened way to the open portals of the realms of glory! What a colony of multitudes, countless and beatified, will earth remit to heaven, fixing there at last the grand majority of the species, the glorious peculium and the proper premium of the Son of God! Theology will be improved that is, the truth of revelation, in itself unchangeable, will be more simply and fully studied, more perfectly understood, with more purity inculcated, and with more wisdom used and applied. No impious hypocrite will ever attempt to supersede the truth, or alter it, or modify its heaven-descended unity, or dare to prostitute it as the mere medium of his own vapid self-glory. No elaborate simpleton will ever aim at originality for its own sake, or make it an end instead of a means, in appearing as the exponent, or the advocate, or the oracle of the truth, vaunting himself to be somebody; and none will be so squalid as to make a party, or even desire the pre-eminence among his peers; humility, that signal of wisdom, will then predominate, qualify all, and making demonstration in all of simplicity and godly sincerity, not fleshly wisdom, by the grace of God characterising his ministers and all their works. There will be then no heresy-hunter, no heresy-finder, and no heresy-maker, to disturb the faith of saints, and mar the devout peace of the Churches of God. "O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true! Scenes of accomplish'd bliss! which who can see, NOT QUITE READY TO LIVE. A FEW gentlemen in the village of A-formed the plan of erecting an academy, that they might secure, in connection with home influences, superior advantages for the education of their children. Immediate efforts were made to raise the necessary funds. Several applications were made to Mr B, who parried them with more or less courtesy, in proportion to the character and standing of the applicants. It was at length proposed that the pastor should call upon him in relation to the object in view. The pastor was extremely reluctant to turn aside from the appropriate duties of his calling; but it seemed necessary to secure the co-operation of Mr B-, in order to accomplish an enterprise so well adapted to promote the intellectual and moral interest of the community. Moreover, Mr B- had a large family of promising children, in whom the pastor felt the deepest interest. But for the benefits likely to accrue to them, Mr S could not have prevailed upon himself to attempt to induce Mr B to furnish a portion of the funds necessary to the existence of the projected institution. He called upon him, and set forth the educational wants of the community, and dwelt upon the advantages which his own family would reap by having adequate means of instruction brought to their door. "I know," said Mr B-, "that education is a very important thing. I mean to give my children the advantages of it; but I am not in circumstances to do it now. There are many things which I intend to do for them, which I am not able to do at present. The fact is, I am not quite ready to live. When I get out of debt, and have built a new house, I shall be able to do more for my children; and then, if there is need of it, I will give something for an academy." Mr Ljudged it unwise to press the matter further. In fact, his attention was almost turned from it, by the strange expression that had fallen from Mr B- -'s lips, I am not quite ready to live. Still less, thought the man of God, are you ready to die. He made the remark the occasion of a solemn and affectionate appeal relating to his eternal interest. He listened with respectful attention, for he reverenced the consistent and faithful minister. His reply "When one gets into the world a certain depth, he is sometimes obliged to get in deeper before he can get out. I will attend to the subject as soon as I can get the pressure of care a little off my hands." Mr L- bade him a good-morning with a sad heart. He had known him for many years. He once numbered him among his hopeful ones. Mr Bwas then ready for conversation on serious subjects, and the pungent appeal from the pulpit brought the tear to his eye. But increasing prosperity hardened his heart. Serious themes became unwelcome. could hear unmoved the most earnest exhibitions of divine truth. was, He The solicitude of Mr L- led him to renew his call at an early day. He found Mr B--- slightly indisposed. The indisposition was made an excuse for declining to converse on the topic of personal religion. A few days later, Mr L called again. Mr B was then really ill, and somewhat alarmed. He seemed willing to listen to the pastor's remarks upon religious topics, and said, "When I get well, I will talk over this matter with you at length, and, if my business will in any way allow it, I will attend to its claims without further delay." "I am afraid," said Mr L- with tears in his eyes, "that God will visit with his judgment such a cool postponement of his claims to those of worldly business." The remark made a deep impression upon Mr Bwhose illness continued to increase till his condition became extremely perilous. Then he sent for the pastor, begged for his prayers, and at intervals of partial relief from pain, was eager to converse with him respecting the long-neglected interests of the soul. "I am afraid," said he, "that it is all over with me; that it is too late for me to repent, even if I could give my thoughts to the subject. When my pains are upon me, I can think of nothing else. I was once very near becoming a Christian; but I have been going farther and farther away ever since. Do you remember the conversation you had with me in the lecture-room after the people had gone homeIt was ten years ago?" "I do." "I was on the point of making up my mind to do nothing else till I had become a Christian. There was only one or two small things in the way, and I might have overcome them. Oh! that I had done so. I have not had a happy day since. I have all the while been getting ready to live, and now, I am afraid, I must die without being prepared." The recurrence of a season of pain put an end to the conversation. Despair seemed wellnigh to have seized his victim. The pastor verily believed that he should be called to preach another funeral sermon for one who had no hope in his death. But it was ordered otherwise. Contrary to all expectation, Mr B began to mend. In a few weeks he was able to walk forth and behold once more the handiwork of God. Mr L did not neglect him during the progress of his recovery. He laboured to present the truth to his mind; though, it must be confessed, with the ex WHY WE SEE DARKLY. pectation that returning health would bring with it returning forgetfulness of God. For once, he was happily disappointed. His heart bounded with joy, as he one day called and found Mr B sitting by the fireside with the open Bible before him. "I have made up my mind," said he solemnly, "to seek first the kingdom of God. I shall give no more attention to business than is absolutely necessary, till the great question for eternity is settled." Mr L was too deeply affected to make any reply. "I have looked death in the face. I know what it is to be near the judgment with sin unpardoned. No rational man, who has been delivered from those circumstances, will voluntarily allow himself to be placed in them again. God has raised me up from the grave, and the remainder of my life shall be given to him.” Mr Lnow proceeded to question his parishioner with a view to learning the precise state of his soul. He found that he had passed many hours in reflection during the progress of his recovery, and that the purpose he had expressed was no sudden impulse. In fact, he had made no inconsiderable progress towards the kingdom of God. He now submitted himself in earnest to his pastor's directions, which consisted simply of references to the Word of God. Erelong the conviction was formed in his soul that his sins were pardoned, and that grace would be given him to enable him to per severe unto the end. "Now," thought Mr L-," he is quite ready to live, and ready to die, when his appointed time shall come." Reader, are you ready either to live or die, as God may ordain? Oh! remember, that if not ready to die, you are not worthy to live, and beware of the sudden visitation of God. AFRICA. WHAT a wonderful continent it is, this rounded, smooth-shored Africa, known from the earliest dawn of time, yet so unknown; the granary of nations, yet sterile and fruitless as the sea; swarming with life, yet dazzling the eyes of Moon men with its vast tract of glittering sand. North America, first seen but the other day, has been probed from end to endits gallant and respective Philips, Tecumsehs, and Montezumas, have been bridled and broken by the white man; but Africa has sent no Cortez, or even a De Soto or La Salle, "wringing favour from fate," as Santa Ana has it. Some solitary Mungo Park, or faithful Lander, or persevering Burckhardt, alone has tried to read the secret of the mother of civilisation, the greyhaired African. If we seek a land of romance and mystery, what quarter of the globe compares with that which holds the pyramids; the giant Theban temples, one roof of which clusters a modern village; the solemn hewn mountain cliff of a Sphinx; the ruins of Carthage; the Nile with its hidden sources; the Niger with its unknown outlet; the heaven-bearing Atlas; the dimly seen Mountains of the Moon? There, reader, the slave rose romantically to be the ruler of millions: there Moses, floating in his cradle, is saved by a king's daughter, and, like the hero of some earlier chivalry, breaks the bonds of his people, and founds a new and mighty nation. There was the home of Dido, of Hannibal, the scene of Scipio's triumphs and Jugurtha's crimes; there lived Ter 489 tullian, Athanasius, and Augustine; the romance of the Moors dwelt there; the last breath of the sainted Louis of France was drawn there. Africa is the home of the leviathan, the behemoth, the unicorn, the giraffe, the slight antelope, scarce bigger than a cat, the earth-shaking elephant, the unaccountable lion, the all-conquering buffalo. It is the home, too, of the mysterious negro races, yet lying dormant in the germ, destined perhaps to rule this earth when our proud Anglo-Saxon blood is as corrupt as that of the descendants of Homer and Pericles. The past, present, and future of Africa, are alike wrapped in mystery. Who can tell us of the childhood of dark-browed Egypt, square-shouldered and energetic? Carthage, the England of the old world's rulers, has not even a romancing Livy, still less an unwearied Niebuhr, to explain her rise and untangle the mysteries of her constitution. Of all the vast interior, the Abyssintas and Sondons, what do we know more than the Punic merchants, who, like us, dealt there, taking slaves, ivory, and gold? And what can we hope hereafter to see in those immense, unknown lands? God has enabled the European to drive the North American, step by step, toward extinction, and has given a great continent the full developments and trial of whatever permanent power the Caucasian race possesses; but Africa he has preserved for what? For future contest? For an imported foreign civilisation, to be entered through Liberias and Cape Colonies? France and Britain are watching each other now along those burning sands, as they once watched by the icy rocks of Canada and Acadia; is it to end in the same subjection of the aboriginal owners to one or both of these land pirates? Or does the dark race in all its varieties possess a capacity for understanding and living out the deep meaning of the world's ruler, Christianity, as the offspring of the followers of Odin never did, and never can understand and act it? If the old Egyptian Sesostris had paused amidst his conquering rock-hewing to contemplate the illiterate wanderers of Greece, to whom Cadmus was just striving to make known the letters of Phoenicia, would not Plato and Aristotle have seemed as impossible to him as the existence in Africa of a higher Christianity than has yet been seen, seems to us? Would the present position of the Teutonic race have appeared equally incredible to the founder of the Parthenon, the loungers in the gardens of the Academy ?-Foreign Review. WHY WE SEE DARKLY. I REMEMBER that on my return to France, in a vessel which had been on a voyage to India, as soon as the sailors had perfectly distinguished the land of their native country, they became in a great measure incapable of attending to the duties of the ship. Some looked at it wistfully, without the power of minding any thing else; others dressed themselves in their best clothes, as if they were going to disembark; some talked to themselves, and others wept. As we approached, the disorder of their minds increased. As they had been absent several years, The there was no end to the admiration of the hills, the But the American character, and our glorious institutions, will go down into the same grave that entombs the Sabbath, and our epitaph will stand forth a warning to the world-Thus ended the nation that despised the Lord, and gloried in wisdom, wealth, and power.-Dr Lyman Beecher. But when the vessel entered the port, and when they saw on the quays their fathers, their mothers, their wives, their children, and their friends, stretching out their arms with tears of joy, and call-ing account of his mother's journal:— ing them by their names, it was no longer possible to retain a man on board; they all sprang on shore, and it became necessary, according to the custom of the port, to employ another set of mariners to bring the vessel to her mooring. KEEPING A JOURNAL. LAMARTINE, in his "Confidence," gives the follow What, then, would be the case were we indulged with a sensible display of that heavenly country, inhabited by those who are dearest to us, and who are worthy of our most sublime affections? The laborious and vain cares of this life would from that moment come to an end. Its duties would be forsaken, and all our powers and feelings would be lost in perpetual rapture. It is wisdom, therefore, that a veil is spread over the glories of futurity. Let us enjoy the hope that the happy land awaits us, and in the mean time let us fulfil with cheerfulness and patience, what belongs to our present condition.-St Pierre. THE SABBATH SLIGHTED, THE NATION'S EVEN could we for a season prosper without the Sab- ness. Give up the Sabbath; blot out that orb of day; suspend its blessed attraction; and the reign of chaos and old night would return. The waves of our unquiet sea, high as our mountains, would roll and dash, from south to north, and from north to south, shipwrecking the hopes of patriots and the world. Who, then, is the patriot that would thrust our ship from her peaceful moorings in a starless night, upon such an ocean of storms, without rudder, or anchor, or compass, or chart? The elements around us may remain, and our great rivers and mountains. Our miserable descendants also may multiply, and vegetate, and rot in moral darkness and putrefaction. "My mother had the habit-contracted at an early period, in the somewhat Roman education which she had received at St Cloud-of placing an interval of meditation between the day and slumber, as sages seek to place one between life and death. When every one had retired to rest in her house; when her children were slumbering in their little beds around her own; when nought was to be heard but their regular breathing in the chamber, the noise of the wind against the window-shutters, the barking of the dog in the yard, she would gently open the door of a closet that was filled with books, educational, devotional, historical; she would seat herself in front of a small writing-desk, made of rosewood, inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, whose different compartments had the shape of clusters of orange flowers, and remove from à drawer several sheets of paper, bound together in gray pasteboard, like account-books. She would write on those sheets for an hour or two, without once raising her head, and without allowing the pen once to tarry in suspense above the paper, to await the descent of a word in its proper place. That was the domestic history of the day, the annals of the hour, the fleeting remembrance of things and feelings, seized in its flight, and stopped in its course ere night had lent it wings; the happy or sorrowful dates; the family events; the fall of the sand of time arrested in the hour-glass; the outpourings of anxiety and melancholy; the outbursts of gratitude and delight; the prayers to God, yet warm, which had gushed from the heart; all the feeling notes of a nature that lives, loves, enjoys, suffers, blesses, invokes, adores-in a word, a written soul! "These notes, thus thrown upon paper at the close. of each day, like drops of her existence, increased at last, and formed, at her death, an immense and precious reservoir of remembrances for her children. There are twenty-two volumes of them. I have them always within my reach; and when I wish again to find, again to see, again to hear, my mother's soul, I open one of them, and that soul appears to me. 66 Now, thou knowest how hereditary habits are. Alas! why are not virtues also hereditary?... This habit of my mother became mine at an early period. When I left college, she showed me those pages, and said to me : Follow my example: give a mirror to thy life. Grant an hour to the registering of thy feelings, and to the silent examination of thy conscience. It is good, during the day, before the commission of this or that act, to think:-It will make me blush before myself to-night, as I write it down. It is also grateful to fasten on the joys which escape us, or the tears that fall from our eyes; to find them, some years after, on these pages, and to say to ourself:-This, then, is what made me happy! This, then, is what made me weep! It teaches us the mutability of feelings and things; it makes us prize pleasures and sorrows, not according to their value at the moment, which deceives us, but according to the value of eternity, which alone deceives us not!'" |