SAMUEL JOHNSON.

DR. JOHNSON wrote twenty-five sermons for his friend Dr. JOHN TAYLOR, Prebendary of Westminster, which were preached by the latter, and published at his death, as the compositions of the great moralist. In one of them is this ex

plicit language:

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In our present state, it is impossible to practice this or any other duty, in perfection.— We can not trust God as we ought, because we can not know him as we ought. We know, however, that he is infinite in wisdom, in power, and in goodness; that therefore he designs the happiness of all his creatures; that he can not but know the proper means by which this end may be obtained; and that, in the use of these means, as he can not be mistaken because he is omniscient,

SO HE CAN NOT BE DEFEATED BECAUSE HE IS ALMIGHTY."

In the sermon on the text, "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works," Dr. Johnson thus speaks :- Without goodness, what apprehensions could we entertain of all the other attributes of the Divine Being? Without the utmost extent of benevolence and mercy, they would hardly be perfections or excellences. And what would a universal administration produce, in the hand of an evil, or a partial, or malevolent direction, but scenes of horror and devastation? Not affliction and punishment for the sake of discipline and correction, to prevent the offence and reform the

sinner; but heavy judgments and dreadful vengeance to destroy him; or implacable wrath or fiery indignation, to prolong his misery, and extend the duration of his torture through the revolving periods of an endless eternity.

There

"No bounds can be fixed to the Divine presence, nor is any part of illimitable space without his inspection and active influence. is nothing remote or obscure to him, nor any exception to his favor among all the works of his hands. Far and wide as is the vast range of existence, so is the Divine benevolence extended; and both in the previous trial and final retribution of all his rational and moral productions, the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works."

We can only reconcile these admirable sentiments with the Universal Goodness of God.And they explain why Dr. JOHNSON placed HARTLEY'S Observations" a Universalist work, next to the Bible. He told Boswell, "Some of the texts of Scripture, on this subject, are as you observe, indeed strong, but they may admit of a mitigated construction.”

SYLVESTER JUDD.

The author of Philo, Margaret, Richard Edney, etc; has well spoken: He says:

'I had as lief be damned, as see another damned.' Again,

'The Stars are out, all out; Heaven's Telegraph By night. What the intelligence, dear Faith?

Tis thine to spell the twinkling syllables.
It is the same old word since time began,
Repeated seven nights a week-God loveth."

ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING.

This true hearted daughter of song chants a sweet strain of prophecy, to which the soul gladly assents.

"And who saith 'I loved ONCE?"

Not God, called LOVE, his noble crown-name,— casting

A light too broad for blasting!

The great God changing not from everlasting,
Saith never I loved ONCE'.

'And, O beloved voices, upon which Ours passionately call, because ere long Ye brake off in the middle of that song

We sang together softly, to enrich

The poor world with the sense of love, and witch
The heart out of things evil,-I am strong-
Knowing ye are not lost for aye among

The hills, with last year's thrush.

God keeps a niche

In Heaven to hold our idols; and albeit
He brake them to our faces, and denied
That our close kisses should impair their white,
I know we shall behold them raised, complete,
The dust shook from their beauty,-glorified
New Memnons singing in the great God-light.'

'Let us go

We will trust God. The blank interstices Men take for ruins, He will build into

With pillared marbles rare, or knit across With generous arches, till the fane's complete; This world has no perdition, if some loss.'

ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING.

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The spirit of her sublime singing disdains the sensual teachings of heartless Error.

Her 'Drama of Exile', a glorious poem founded on the original lapse of man, sings the exalted strains of the great restitution. As the exiled pair slowly pass out of Eden, into the desert, a semi chorus is heard saying,

'So in the Universe's
Consummate undoing,

Our angels of white mercies

Shall hover round the ruin!

Their wings shall stream upon the flame,
As if incorporate of the same,

In elemental fusion;

Ard calm their faces shall burn out
With a pale and mastering thought,
And a steadfast looking of desire,
From out between the clefts of of fire,
While they cry in the Holy's name!
To the final Restitution!

Listen to our loving!'

Better still, she causes CHRIST to say,—

"For, at last,

'I, wrapping round me your humanity,

Which, being sustained, shall neither break nor burn,
Beneath the fire of Godhead, will tread Earth,
And ransom you, and it, and set strong peace
Betwixt you and its creatures. With my pangs
I will confront your sins, and since your sins
Have sunken to all nature's heart from yours
The tears of my clean soul shall follow them,
And set a holy passion to work clear
Absolute consecration. In my brow
Of kingly whiteness, shall be crowned anew
Your di-crowned human nature. Look on me!
As I shall be uplifted on a cross

In darkness of eclipse; and anguish dread,
So shall I lift up in my pierced hands
Not into dark, but light-not unto death,
But life, beyond the reach of guilt and grief,
The WHOLE CREATION."

Well does this sublime composition end by saying to our sinful race,—

'Hear us sing above you,
EXILED BUT NOT LOST!

CURRER, ELLIS, AND ACTON BELL,

THE MISSES BRONTE,

the talented authoresses of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Shirley, Poems, etc., the daughters of an Episcopalian clergyman, have repeatedly developed the doctrine we cherish. Witness the following from "Music on Christmas Morning," by Acton Bell.

"With them I celebrate his birth-
Glory to God, in highest Heaven,
Good will to men, and peace on earth,
To us a Savior-King is given;
Our God is come to claim his own,
And Satan's power is overthrown!

'A sinless God for sinful men,
Descends to suffer and to bleed;
Hell must renounce its empire then ;

THE PRICE IS PAID, THE WORLD IS FREED,

And Satan's self must now confess

That Christ has earned a right to bless.