That would be leaping from the fires of earth which purify, to the fires of hell which destroy :

"Clasp your teeth, and not undo 'em,

To suffer wet damnation to run through 'em."

Let the frightful experience of every drunkard teach you that it is indeed madness to hope to forget your sorrows in a sensual life.

FAITH.

BY R. S. S. ANDROS.

A swallow in the spring

Came to our granary, and 'neath the eaves
Essayed to make her nest, and there did bring
Wet earth and straw and leaves.

Day after day she toiled

With patient art, but ere her work was crowned,
Some sad mishap the tiny fabric spoiled,

And dashed it to the ground.

She found the ruin wrought:

Yet not cast down, forth from her place she flew,
And with her måte, fresh earth and grasses brought,
And built her nest anew.

But scarcely had she placed

The last soft feather on its ample floor,

When wicked hand, or chance, again laid waste,
And wrought the ruin o'er.

But still her heart she kept,

And toiled again: and, last night, hearing calls,
I looked, and lo! three little swallows slept
Within the earth-made walls.

What truth is here, O MAN!

Hath HOPE been smitten in its earlier dawn?
Have clouds o'ercast thy purpose, trust, or plan?
Have FAITH and struggle on!

་

THE LIBERATOR.

This "eagle-spirited" sheet celebrates the new year by coming out in an entirely new and very handsome suit. I rejoice at this sign of its prosperity and hope it will be a type of a corresponding advance in the beauty and power of its spirit. Its intrepid editor has the unparalleled honor of having first raised the banner of immediate emancipation in this country, and for fourteen long years of pain and peril, bearing it aloft with heroic courage and defending it with wonderful skill.

army

But the "end is not yet." The work is not "finished." Many a stern battle is yet to be fought. Many scenes of trial and temptation are yet to be witnessed. The enemy is resolved, in his desperation, to "die game "—and many are the deep laid schemes, and ferocious onsets which must be met. The times, therefore, call for renewed diligence, increased watchfulness, and unheard-of toils and sacrifices. In this emergency, the little of abolitionists—the forlorn hope of the slave-is looking to the Liberator, if not for the word of command, certainly for the word of counsel. The position of friend Garrison, therefore, is one of peculiar, and considering the disabled condition of the Herald of Freedom, critical delicacy. One might well shrink from the fearful weight of responsibility which rests upon his shoulders. It is greater than any human being can long bear, greater than any one ought to bear for an instant. The services of such giant men as O'Connell, Mathew, Garrison, Rogers, and Phillips, compel them, as society is, into a position which is neither safe for themselves nor society. It clothes them with an unnatural authority, which too often usurps the place of reason in the minds of their admirers, and becomes fruitful of bigotry and narrow-mindedness.

Mr. Garrison's invaluable labors, conducted as they have been with masterly ability, have invested him with this unnatural authority to a most dangerous extent, and it will require the most watchful care, both on his own part and on the part of his admirers

-of whom I am certainly one-to prevent its leading to most disastrous results. The thought is expressed on every hand that there is reasonable fear that the Anti-Slavery enterprize will degenerate into a sect, and its ministers into a priesthood. God forbid. For if any sect is to be dreaded above all others, it is one clothed with the free raiment of Anti-Slavery and if any order of priesthood is to be shunned above all others as a wasting pestilence, it is that which usurps the high name of HUMANITY. Even the thought that Anti-Slavery is liable to such a contingency is most appalling. Oh, let there be one movement so perfectly saturated with freedom that it shall be "far above all principalities, and powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named!" Freed from all slavery to names and persons, and stripped of all the trappings of authority, our movement must advance with rapid stride. But subject it never so little to individual or authoritative caprice and it will soon limp into an ignoble

grave.

These thoughts are naturally suggested by reflecting on the immense power which Friend Garrison wields from his sceptred position as conductor of his pioneer press, and remembering the aptitude of our poor broken-spirited race, to submit itself to the rein and bit.

How friend Garrison will sustain himself on the dizzy heights of his present position, remains to be seen. If he uses his power as not abusing it, never for one instant attempting to "lord it over God's heritage," keeping up with the onward march of Freedom, neither subjecting himself nor any one else to the trammels of precedent or majority, then his course will be onward and upward, and every tone of his voice will be music to exhausted Humanity, and every stroke of his pen will be felt in the very vitals of slavery. But if he becomes aweary of progress, and turns fearfully away from fresh innovations upon tyranny and bolder annunciations of thought, then his "eagle-spirit" will be "tamed,” and, incapable longer of breathing the pure air of the Empyrean he will draggle along on the earth with broken wing

and wandering eye, furnishing another illustration to those which already crowd the page of history, of the decline and fall of regal genius!

The Liberator hitherto has, with perhaps one exception, been the freest press in the world. To maintain this enviable position, it must continue to progress, freeing itself as much as possible from all technical restraint. It must have no platform narrower than human rights,-no banner which will not enfold all truth. It must be zenith-high above all political "ways and means "— reliant entirely upon moral agencies to accomplish its peerless purpose. It must avoid, with jealous care, oppressing the human mind with any kind of authority, and discuss every thought upon its own proper merits, utterly irrespective of the character of its source or advocacy.

Such a course as this will tend to disfranchise all within its sphere of that man-worship, creed-worship, and book-worship, which constitute the triple bulwark of error in every heart. And this disfranchisement is of primary importance to every disciple of Freedom.

One of the thoughts which reconcile me to the sudden death of the late Herald of Freedom is that when the health of its truthinspired editor will permit him to resume his pen, he will be likely to enlarge the field of his action, and give an impetus to the cause so dear to his heart-the cause of liberty-by rendering it a less technical, and therefore more energetic support. He will not be even under the suspicion of organship, or toolship, and will be free even from an apparent obligation to put the least curb upon his tameless spirit. His late experience must have taught him the great lesson of INDIVIDUALITY in such a manner as to secure for it henceforth, his unlimited advocacy. This is the lesson which the community is pining for the want of. It isthis "individuality," this absolute freedom of the individual-the grand specific for nearly all the ills to which soul is heir. When the harassed and chain-worn multitude look in upon our movement and find it embarrassed by the same forms and formalities

to which they have been so long thrall, or notice the least particle of that dictatory and domineering spirit which precludes them from individual freedom in their present position-they will be repulsed from us, and return to the world's great chain-gang in utter despair. But if they find us animated by the spirit of brotherhood, jealously respectful of the rights of all, especially the weak and unfortunate, acting each on his own individual responsibility, without "let or hindrance," they will be captivated by the unusual scene, and will long to be themselves united to that "sweet society," who recognize the only "bond of peace" to be unity of spirit." With these ex tempore thoughts, which came skelping along too fast for me to clothe them in better garb, I wish the Liberator " a happy new year."

66

A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

BY S. T. COLERIDGE.

The shepherds went their hasty way,
And found the lonely stable-shed
Where the virgin-mother lay:

And now they check'd their eager tread;
For to the babe, that at her bosom clung,
A mother's song the virgin-mother sung.

They told her how a glorious light,
Streaming from a heavenly throng,
Around them shone, suspending night!

While sweeter than a mother's song,
Blessed angels heralded the glorious birth,
"Glory to God on high!" and "Peace on earth!"

She listened to the tale divine,

And closer still the babe she press'd

And while she cried "the babe is mine,"

The milk rushed faster to her breast:

Joy rose within her, like a summer morn :

Peace, "Peace on Earth!" The "Prince of Peace" is born.