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But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we-

Of many far wiser than we-

And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of my beautiful ANNABEL LEE.

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

Of my beautiful ANNABEL LEE;

And in all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling-my darling-my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

THE NEW YEAR.

BY THE EDITOR.

THE New Year brings us many new things. We enter upon a new period of time: and we must have a new almanac, a new diary, and must write a new date. It is not without an effort that we adjust ourselves to the new state of things. How strange at first it seems to us, instead of 1858 to write 1859. Hence, many mistakes are made; and not a few letters do we receive at the beginning of the year in which the 8 is stricken out and the 9 put in its place This fact has often awakened in our minds a warm sympathy with those ladies who at a cer ain period of their lives are necessitated one day to write their names the old way and the next the new way! We do not know, however, whether in this case mistakes are often made; though we can easily imagine that the long habits of writing one way, and a very tender affection for the old name, which it is a beautiful virtue to cherish, must make great care necessary. The change of habit is perhaps promoted by a salutary fear lest the husband should be unpleasantly impressed by the discovery of a mistake, and if not largely gifted with charity, might refer the mere slips of the pen to an evil source.

The force of habit is very great; and the tenacity with which we unconsciously hang to the old date, may well teach us a lesson. As the Ethiopian hardly changes his skin or the leopard his spots-and as he who so long has written one date finds it difficult to write another, so he that is firmly set to bad habits finds it a hard matter to begin the cultivation of better ones. Let the young write that down in the brain, and let every mistake they make in the date at the beginning of the New Year, read them a lesson on the terrible evil of bad habits.

The New year has begun. Let us firmly set our minds and accustom our hands to write 1859. It is necessary-it is right—it is good-it must be so. Foolish will the people call us if we do not at once make the change. But let us remember that there are also other habits which need to be changed. New Year is a solemn time, and therefore a good time to begin. Let the swearer cease from swearing, the drunkard cease

his drunkenness, the debauchee his vileness, and the worthless idler his laziness; or if there be any other evil habit, let him at once make war upon it and put it away. A virtue will grow in the same place now occupied by the vice, and bring forth a far more desirable fruit in time and eternity. You are perhaps disposed to smile at your friend for writing the wrong date; but you are not ashamed to transfer foul and filthy habits of sin from the old year into the new. For once suffer yourself to be shamed into better ways; and, seeking the grace of Christ our Saviour, begin with the date of the New Year to make also the record of a better life.

All in

What is this we write? What is this new date, A. D., 1859-Anno Domini-in the year of our Lord. So then we date our time from the birth of Jesus Christ. That is the point at which for us time beginsthe great central, all comprehending event in the world's history. Greater than to create the world was it to redeem it; hence we write not Anno Mundi-in the year of the world, but Anno Domini, in the year of ur Lord. The first world fell, and was lost; and all time and history before Christ, were but a preparation for His coming, while all history since His advent has been moulded and determined by the power of His vitalizing grace. We write all our dates in the year of our Lord. Remarkable is the fact that this is done by general consent. christian lands acquiesce in it, all unconsciously adopt it, all so write. The infidel who rejects Christ, the careless worldling who neglects him, all write, "in the year of our Lord." This reminds us of that evil spirit of old who was compelled to cry out: "I know thee who thou art, the Holy one of God!" So even the unbelieving and disobedient, every time thy shall date a letter or enter an account during this year, will bear a kind of dumb testimony that Jesus Christ was born 1859 years ago and that he is over them, as their Lord. They thus unconsciously condemn their own unbelief, and themselves write sentence against their own careless and sinful lives.

It is a moving thought, that in the providence of God all men, in this way are daily compelled to acknowledge Jesus Christ. The daily confession of Him is thus carried even into secular business. The merchant, the mechanic, the daily laborer-the king and his council, the Judge and the Legislator-all, at the head of every page of accounts, at the beginning of every official state document, and in all their private accounts and communications, must record, "in the year of our Lord;" and thus write down the confession, that Jesus Christ our Lord so long ago came into world as the Saviour of men. This is a touching thought. Yes, Jesus is the Lord-and either consciously or unconsciously all men confess Him-and every day, the highest and the lowest, the best and the vilest, speak and write the fact.

We may, if we choose-yea, we ought to do so-make the writing of dates a pious act. We are challenged every time we record a date, to think of, as we virtually confess, the birth of Jesus Christ. May we not ask the reader to demand of himself, when he changes the date to 1859, to answer why he does so. May we not invite him, if he has not done so before, by a dedication of himself in soul and body, to own that Lord, whom he unconscionsly acknowledges and confesses at the head of his book of daily accounts, and in every letter he addresses to a friend.

THE BETTER LAND.

BY THE EDITOR.

On a rough island in the great ocean, once lived a father and mother with their two children. They had gotten to that lonely place through shipwreck. Roots and herbs served them as food, a spring of water furnished them drink, and a cave in the rocks was their house and their home.

The children could no more remember how they had come to this island. They had also forgotten all about their home on the firm wide land; and bread, milk, fruits, were things unknown to them.

One day four Moors, or negroes, in a small boat landed on the island. This filled the parents with great joy; and they now hoped to be delivered from their sufferings and loneliness. But the little boat was too small to carry the whole family at once to the continent. The father, therefore, determined to venture first on the voyage.

The mother and children wept as he entered the frail bark, and they beheld how the four black men were pushing away from the shore. But the father said: "Weep not-on the other shore it is better to dwell, and you all will soon follow me."

When in due time the little ship came again, and took away the mother, the children wept still more. But she also said: " Weep not -in that better land whither we go, we shall see one another again."

At length the little ship came also for the children. They were greatly afraid of the black men, and trembled as they looked into the fearful sea over which they had to cross. Amid fear and trembling they neared the land.

But how glad were their hearts when their parents, standing on the shore, received them with open arms, led them into the shade of high palm trees, and refreshed them with milk and honey upon the flowery green! "Oh, how foolish was our fear," said the children; "we should not have feared but rejoiced when the black men came to bring us over into this better land."

"My dear children," said the father, "our voyage from that desolate and dreary island into this beautiful country, has yet a higher meaning. There awaits us all a still greater voyage, into a still more distant, but a far more beautiful land. The whole earth on which we dwell is like an island in the ocean of space. This pleasant country in which we now dwell is a type, though a very imperfect one, of the heavenly land. The passage thither, across the stormy sea, is death. The little ship reminds us of the bier, on which four men in black will one day carry us away to the grave. But when once the time comes that shall call me, your mother, or yourselves away, do not tremble or fear. Death is, for the pious, nothing but a passage into the better land.

The bright happy shores will greet us at last,
And the storms and the seas be forever over-past.

BOOK NOTICES.

HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. By Philip Schaff, D. D., (Author of The History of the Apostolic church.) From the birth of Christ to the reign of Constantine, A. D., 1-311. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand Street. 1859, pp. 535.

Dr. Schaff is favorably known as a church historian by his history of the Apostolic Church published a few years ago. He has promised to furnish a history of the church down to the present time, if life and health are spared. The volume previously published treats in a very extensive way of the Apostolic church. This volume, though independent in itself as a history of the Anti-Nicene age, is the first volume of a general history of the church, which we hope the author may live to finish. This volume furnishes proof that church history can be presented in a way which shall not only instruct, but interest and edify. The arrangement of the matter is not mechanical, but organic. In the hands of Dr. Schaff, the tree of history grows up before us like a natural tree, with bark on the wood, and sap in the bark, and life in the sap; nor is there an absence of the leaves and flowers which give ornament and fragrance. The reader is drawn along from section to section, and from chapter to chapter by the natural and necessary succession of subjects, and charmed on every page by the clear, concise and vigorous style. If any excellence belonging to it impressed us above another, it is its admirable adaptation as a text book in church history. We shall be greatly mistaken if it does not, as such, take its place permanently and extensively in the Seminaries of our land. Mr. Scribner has gotten up the work in excellent style, and we have no doubt it will have an extensive sale, to which its merits fairly entitle it.

THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles Dana. Vol. IV. Brownson -Chartres. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 346 and 348 Broadway. 1858, pp. 766.

We announce with pleasure the appearance of the fourth volume of this extensive work. It is gotten up in the same finished style as the former volumes; and the work continues to give evidence of the same completeness, which we have before noticed as characterizing it. This volume, covering from Brownson to Chartres, includes the treatment of over two thousand one hundred words. It includes also names of prominent living men, the first article in this volume, giving a very full and satisfactory account of the wellknown Orestes A. Brownson. This fact indicates that this Cyclopedia will come down fully to the present time, furnishing important information in regard to the latest matters which is not to be found in other works of reference. The publication of such a work is an honor to our country; and its learned authors deserve much credit for having thus far executed so well this arduous and responsible undertaking. Not less would we praise the enterprise of Appleton and Company, in furnishing to the American public a work so valuable, and which involves at the same time so heavy a pecuniary responsibility. With pride and pleasure do we see one volume after another take its place in our library.

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"CANST thou by searching find out God?" No-not by searchingnot by thought the deepest, not by reason the most earnest, not by deductions based upon created mind or created matter, or from any and all their laws.

This has been tried by the most earnest and most highly cultivated minds in heathenism. It has been tried by philosophy in christian lands, independent of revelation. Heathen investigations have run into polytheism-many Gods; and mere rational inquiries in christian lands, into pantheism-that all things are God; or into atheism-that there is no personal God!

Not by searching do we find out God, but by revelation. We come not to Him until He comes to us. God is first an object of faith and only then an object of knowledge. "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 1 Cor. 1: 20, 21.

God has revealed Himself as One in Three and Three in One. "Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost" Three persons in one God.

The first thing, then, to which our attention must be directed in speaking of the Holy Ghost, is His nature. So the subject is presented to us in the Heidelberg catechism. "What dost thou then believe concerning the Holy Ghost? Answer: First, that He is true and co-eternal God with the Father and the Son."

1. The Holy Ghost is a person. He is not a mere energy of God, or a mere influence proceeding from Him. Energy is the mere attribute of a being; and influence is the mere act or effect produced by a being; but the Holy Ghost is a being Himself, capable of energy and influence in and from Himself. That is. He has personal being as the centre and source of His own acts and influence.

When we call attention to the personality of the Holy Ghost we do not present a merely curious point of inquiry, or a matter of indifference,

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