to matured health-in every breast At has provided; it is a full, a com courses. Some of the finest flowers that were ever wet with the dew of heaven, or painted by the sun, have bloomed in retired places, and were never exhibited to general admiration. It has been thus with many of the most excellent of our race-with the possessors of strong mental powers, great literary opulence, and the most inflexible integrity; while purity, devotion, and benevolence of heart, and a deportment of corresponding goodness, proved them to be the children of God Not always have such favoured individuals been introduced, in an imposing attitude, to the public eye, like a statue of exquisite beauty of form and of workmanship, placed in a noble square of some great city. They have, not unfrequently, received the honour of more private and discriminating observation, like the fine busts which adorn the mansions of the opulent admirers of the illustrious dead. Constitutionally modest and retiring, possessed of excessive sensibility, my dear departed brother always shrunk from public notice, as far as circumstances and conscience would permit. With moral and intellectual qualities and attainments which would have surrounded him, in a conspicuous situation, with honours and applauses, he has modestly finished the labours of his life, and re SOLOMON affirms, "That all there is one event to the righteous things come alike to all; that and the wicked." This senti ment, however, cannot by any means be regarded in every point of view as correct: all occurrences are not in every respect alike to all. It is absolutely certain, that all events, even those which are termed adverse and afflictive, shall issue in the real and that all circumstances, though welfare of the people of God; apparently in a high degree prosperous, will be unavailing as to the permanent felicity of the ungodly. God, "who cannot lie," has said, "It shall go ill with the wicked." The pious and the alike; the one exclaims, "I will profane do not sustain afflictions bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against tired to the rest of paradise, and of the present time are not worthy him: I reckon that the sufferings the enjoyment of God. "He was a faithful man, and feared to be compared with the glory God above many:" to him the approving Judge has said, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." London. T. G. which shall be revealed:" while the other murmurs at the divine have taken away my gods, and dispensations, and says, "They what have I more?" They do not die alike: "Mark the perfect man, the end of that man is peace." and behold the uprightTheir future portion in eternity is not alike, but different as endless joys or sorrows. Yet the righteous and the unrighteous meet with similar bereavements, disappointments, and afflictions, and death calls, with a voice equally loud, at the doors of cottages, and the palaces of kings. This How surprising and lamentable is the origin of Death! tremendous spoiler was not always amidst the works of God. The adorable Creator formed man upright, in his own sublime and holy image. He placed him in a paradise, where all around him was beauty to his eye, and music to his ear." He conferred on him this magnificent domain as his rich inheritance. "Of all the trees of the garden," (a grant unspeakably beneficent,) said he, 66 The painful occurrence which has filled the nation with undissembled grief, reminded me of the language of the prophet, (Jerem. ix. 21,) "For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces." How terrific is the personage here presented to our view by the sacred writer; it is DEATH. And how solemn is death. It is an entire and everlasting separation from" thou mayest freely eat; but of the scene which now occupies, the tree of knowledge of good and alas! in too many instances, our evil, thou shalt not eat of it-in whole attention. To those who the day thou eatest thereof, thou have experienced this great tran-shalt surely die." This one tree sition, the flowers of spring have lost their beauty and their fragrance, the animating beams of summer exhilarate them no more, autumn, with its blushing fruitage, has no attractions,-nor does winter, with its majestic tempests, again awaken them to admire his unrivalled grandeur, who "rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm.” The pursuits, the enjoyments, the Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe honours, and the riches of the Sky low'r'd, and muttering thunder, some sad world, afford them no gratifica-Wept at completing of the mortal sin tion; have entirely ceased to be Original." the subjects of anxiety, are to them less than nothing, and vanity." Death severs the tender ties which bind us in endearing bonds to parents, to children, to brothers, sisters, and friends;-it tears asunder soul and body, so intimately united, that they are "link'd more close than wedded pair;"—it is a departure from our earthly home to return to it no more;-it fixes our character without the possibility of an alteration, and introduces us (O truth, unspeakably solemn and awful!) to boundless sorrows, or eternal joys. he reserved as a test of the creature's obedience, as a continual exhibition of his own most rightful sovereignty. With the most flagrant ingratitude, and horrible rebellion, our first parents, in defiance of all that was sacred and divine, took of the hallowed tree, and renounced their allegiance to the Most High. "Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat That all was lost. drops How certain is the attack of Death! Windows and doors, though secured by bars of adamant, are no security: and fortresses and palaces, deemed impregnable, are scaled in an instant, and taken by this great enemy. It is his appointment, who directs the stars in their courses, whose counsel must stand, and whose will is, as it ought to be, irresistible, and must be accomplished, that all flesh shall die, and return to dust. "As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." How incessantly are we exposed to the assaults of Death! Many rise in the morning, full of health and spirits, and reckoning on long life, but ere the evening they have passed into eternity: numbers lie down in the evening-the sun arises, but his beams illumine not their eyes-they shall open them no more till the morning of the resurrection. The very great majority of mankind die at a moment when they do not expect it. "In an hour," said the great Teacher, "when you think not, the Son of man cometh." How extensive is the dominion of the King of Terrors! He claims as his subjects all ranks of society from the monarch to the slave-all ages, from the smiling babe, who has just opened its little eyes to discern the light, to the decrepit old man, to whom life has become burdensome, and who longs for the refuge of a grave-all generations, from Adam till the closing period of time, when the Son of God shall come in his glory, and those who are alive shall be changed, and caught up to meet their Lord in the air. excellent Princess has never been presented to us but as a spectacle combining every thing attractive, dignified, and amiable. As a wife, she was evidently a pattern of conjugal affection. Indeed, it is impossible properly to meditate on this painful event, without emotions of undissembled sorrow. And does it not demand our sympathy? Is there a mother, who has lost at a stroke, when life was most to be desired, the delight of her eyes, the joy of her heart, and the hope and consolation of her future years, who does not mingle her tears with those of the Princess of Wales, in foreign lands? Is there a husband, who, like the Prince Leopold, has lost the dear companion of his frequent and social excursions, the source of his future honour and felicity, the extinction of those delicious joys, where love kindled his " constant lamp," who does not sorrow on this afflictive occasion? Is there a father, who has lost an only child, who does not feel for the Prince Regent of our empire? May I not indeed say, that every father, that every mother, and that every husband in Great Bri-tain is a mourner? When I think of the bereaved husband, I am frequently reminded of the beautiful and affecting picture of the Latin poet "Qualis populea marens Philomela sub umbra Amissos queritur fœtus, quos dusus arator The prophet says, "Death is come up into our PALACES." The most retired cottages of Britain have resounded with the afflictive tidings, that the PRINCESS CHARLOTTE, the amiable and beloved PRINCESS CHARLOTTE, and her little babe, are no more! This very solemn and affecting Observans nido implumes detraxit: at illa event naturally calls for our regret. Her departure may be considered as a national loss. From the public spirit she had manifested on various occasions, she bade fair to be the revered and illustrious monarch of a free and happy country. Indeed, this Flet noctem ramoque sedens miserabile carmen This solemn providence summons us to devotion. May all needful support and consolation be given to the bereaved members of the Royal Family-May this most afflictive dispensation | into our windows, enters not into lead them to seek for felicity, not our palaces. In that happy in earthly grandeur, but in Him country "there is no more curse, who died on the cross for poor but the throne of God and of the sinners, and who has solemnly Lamb shall be in it; and his serassured his real disciples, that vants shall serve him; and they they shall never die. May all shall see his face; and his name their subjects learn to number shall be in their foreheads. And their days, and to apply their there shall be no night there; hearts unto real wisdom. and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever." Coseley. B. H. D. A DIALOGUE ON WAR, BETWEEN PACIFICUS AND HIS NEIGHBOUR. It strikingly displays the vanity of all earthly felicity. A Roman Emperor once brought together every thing which was magnificent that his extensive empire produced-and as the pageantry, with the multitude of his nobility, and himself at the head of it, was borne through the principal streets of his capital, in the pride of his heart he exclaimed, "What is there wanting here to complete felicity?" A courtier replied, "Continuance! Sire." This is what was wanting in the elevated family whose bereave-ary Societies, Religious Tract Soment we deplore. "We have cieties, School Societies, Bible here no continuing city." Our Societies, and now we hear about friends shall soon "seek us in Societies for the Abolition of War. the morning, and we shall not be." "Earth's highest station ends in 'Here he lies!' And 'Dust to dust' concludes her noblest song." It should lead us to the most serious enquiry. Have we experienced that change of heart, without which we cannot pos sibly see the kingdom of God? Have we felt our sins to be a burden too heavy for us to bear, and have we fled for refuge to Christ Jesus, the only, and the almighty, Saviour? Is he indeed precious to our souls? Do we love to commune with him, and to imitate his blest example? Are we improving time for eternity? Blessed be God for the gospel: this assures us, that there is a world where death comes not up N. This is the age of new and strange events. There is no end of the societies that are springing up around us. We have Mission P. You are aware, neighbour, that it is a very wise regulation, for a number of persons to unite together and employ their influence and resources collectively, for the attainment of an object, which they could not hope to accomplish by their individual and separate exertion. N. Very true; but a Society for the Abolition of War is the most chimerical project that ever entered into the mind of any individual. War has existed in all ages, and among all nations; nearly the universal sense of man kind is in its favour, as at least a necessary evil; and God him. self expressly commanded war under the Jewish dispensation: To expect, therefore, to abolish it, must end in disappointment. P-I have but recently learn |