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74

THE PRESERVATION OF PEACE.

Our battlements shall be schools, hospitals, colleges and churches our arsenals shall be libraries: our navy shall be peaceful ships, on errands of perpetual commerce: our army shall be the teachers of youth, and the ministers of religion. This is, indeed, the cheap defence of nations. In such intrenchments, what christian soul can be touched with fear? Angels of the Lord shall throw over the land an invisible, but impenetrable panoply ;

"Or if virtue feeble were

Heaven itself would stoop to her."

:

At the thought of such a change in policy, the imagination loses itself in the vain effort to follow the various streams of happiness, which gush forth as from a thousand hills. Then shall the naked be clothed, and the hungry fed. Institutions of science and learning shall crown every hill-top: hospitals for the sick, and retreats for the unfortunate children of the world, for all who suffer in any way, in mind, in body or estate, shall nestle in every valley while the spires of new churches shall leap exulting to the skies. The whole land shall bear witness to the change:-art shall confess it in the new inspiration of the canvass and the marble: the harp of the poet shall proclaim it in a loftier rhyme. Above all, the heart of man shall bear witness to it, in the elevation of his affections, in his devotion to the highest truth, in his appreciation of true greatness. The eagle of our country, without the terror of his beak, and dropping the forceful thunderbolt from his pounces, shall soar with the olive of peace, into untried realms of ether, nearer to the sun.

CHARLES SUMNER.

ALL true spiritual and moral greatness roots itself in sim

plicity, humility and love.

BIOG. NEANDER.

Passing under the Rod.

BY M. S. B. DANA.

I SAW the young bride, in her beauty and pride,
Bedecked in her snowy array,

And the bright flush of joy mantled high on her cheek,
And the future looked blooming and gay.

And with woman's devotion she laid her fond heart
At the shrine of idolatrous love :

And she anchored her hopes to this perishing earth,
By the chain which her tenderness wove.

But I saw, when those heart-strings were bleeding and torn,
And the chain had been severed in two :

She had changed her white robes for the sables of grief,
And her bloom to the paleness of woe.

Yet the Healer was there, pouring balm on her heart,
And wiping the tears from her eyes,

And He strengthened the chain he had severed in twain,
And fastened it firm to the skies.

There had whispered a voice-'twas the voice of her God"I love thee, I love thee,-pass under the rod."

I saw the

young mother in tenderness bend

O'er the couch of her slumbering boy,

And she kissed the soft lips as he murmured her name
While the dreamer lay smiling in joy.

O sweet as the rose-bud encircled with dew,

When its fragrance is flung on the air,
So fresh and so bright to the mother he seemed,
As he lay in his innocence there!

But I saw, when she gazed on the same lovely form,
Pale as marble, and silent and cold;

But paler and colder her beautiful boy,

And the tale of her sorrow was told.

76

PASSING UNDER THE ROD.

Yet the Healer was there who had smitten her heart,
And taken her treasure away;

To allure her to heaven he has placed it on high,
And the mourner will sweetly obey.

There had whispered a voice-'twas the voice of her God-
I love thee, I love thee,-pass under the rod !"

I saw, when a father and mother had leaned,

On the arms of a dear cherished son,
And the star of the future grew bright in their gaze,
As they saw the proud place he had won:

And the fast-coming evening of life promised fair,

And its pathway grew smooth to the feet,
And the star-light of love glimmered bright in the air,
And the whispers of fancy were sweet:

But I saw, when they stood bending low o'er the grave,
Where their heart's dearest hope had been laid,
And the star had gone down in the darkness of night,
And joy from their bosoms had fled:

Yet the Healer was there, and his arms were around,
And he led them with tenderest care,

And he showed them a star in the bright upper world;
"Twas their star shining brilliantly there!

They had each heard a voice-'twas the voice of their God, "I love thee, I love thee! pass under the rod !"

THE mind which does not converse with itself, is an idle wanderer and all the learning in the world is fruitless and misemployed, whilst in the midst of his boasted knowledge, a man continues in profound ignorance of that, which, in point both of duty and advantage, he is most concerned to know.

T. A. KEMPIS.

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OVER Europe the name of Howard is accepted as a synonym of all that is exalted in action, and disinterested in motive. Honoured in his own day, Time has but hallowed his memory, and made clear the extent of the world's loss. His life is fruitful in lessons of wisdom. The silent record of great deeds preaches trumpet-tongued to the man of wealth and influence it startles him with the consciousness of his own shortcomings, and shows him what achievements are possible to men, earnest and devout. In these times, too, sordid and selfish as they grow, the history of such an one is needed to quicken our faith in disinterestedness, and show us to what humanity has attained and can attain.

Howard is supposed, for some mystery seems to hang over the fact, to have been born in the year 1726. His father, a strongminded Puritan, had earned considerable wealth as a merchant, and retired from business about the time of his son's birth. Contrary to the supposition we should have been led to entertain from the tone of Howard's life, a mother's love and watchfulness was denied him. At school he was a dunce, and at no period could he have been termed a scholar. Dr. Atkin has sufficiently established the fact, though Dixon, in his enthusiasm, would supply this supposed necessary to perfection. Though born to the inheritance of a large estate, he served a considerable time as an apprentice in a Watling-street warehouse, and not until the death of his father in 1782, was business forsaken. The first notable incident in his career is his singular marriage. While living in lodgings in Stoke Newington, he experienced a very severe attack of illness, his life being almost despaired of. During the whole period of his sickness, his landlady, with the natural instinct of a woman's heart, tended him with judicious care and eased his sufferings

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by her womanly attention. On the recovery of the patient, he, in gratitude married her!-the good lady's protests notwithstanding. The bridegroom was five and twenty years of age, the bride fifty-two! The union was short, but neither party had occasion to regret the contract. She died in the third year of her marriage, deeply lamented by her youthful lord. Although the great work of his life had not yet commenced, the desire for action seized upon him, and hearing of the sufferings of the poor of Lisbon, caused by the terrible earthquake of 1758, he hastened to their assistance. France and England were then at war, the ship in which he sailed was carried into Brest and the prisoners treated with the utmost barbarity. Here, probably, the idea of his mission was first awakened. After a short term of imprisonment, an exchange of prisoners was effected, and the young philanthropist retired quietly to his small patrimonial estate at Cardington, near Bedford, having first effected the release of his fellow captives. After the lapse of three years he again married. Henrietta Leeds was a being worthy of the passionate devotion with which she was regarded by her husband. -Howard loved her with all the fervour of his soul, and when she died, he seemed for a while, in the intensity of his grief, to be lost to outward scenes. The day of her death was held sacred in his calendar: kept evermore as a day of fasting and humiliation. The desolate home was now intolerable, and Howard left for Italy and Germany. The deeply religious tone of his mind here becomes apparent. Religion dwelt within him as the allvivifying principle. It gave the direction and colour to every impulse and act of his life.

We must hurry over many important parts of Howard's career. In 1773, although a rigid Dissenter, he was nominated to fill the office of Sheriff of Bedford: the "prison-world" was opened to him; and he girded up his loins for the steep and rugged road he was hereafter to tread. The prison at Bedford, glorified by the long captivity of Bunyan, was a fitting scene for the

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