Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

clear tones of that noble daughter from reaching the ears of their devoted attendant. At one time he heard those soft, yet solemn tones, addressed to her God; again they were directed to her father, or to Damien himself, as to one involved with themselves in the same present perils, and the same glorious promises for futurity. Her periods indeed were broken-they were all left unfinished, yet they were all perfect in the unity of their purpose. Love, that love which as divine is unchangeable, immortal, fresh and alive in every age-infinite in its operations, most animating, most powerful in its actings in this lower world; in overcoming all natural fear in the hour of extremest peril—that love revealed in the Lord, the Saviour, and as declared by the inspired word, formed the only theme of every disjointed sentence.

"Oh! my father, oh! kind Damien," once she said, "had we been brought to this condition before the love which is in our Redeemer had been revealed to us! Had we come to this hour laden with sins! but by grace, through faith, we are saved—we are washed-we are sanctified, and in that blood which cleanseth from all sin, made white as the snows of the mountains of Judah."

"A little longer, one more plunge, and we shall be clothed with glory.-Father, dear, lift up your head, you are enabled to trust, you say; God be praised, for I know it is so. Do not grieve for me, my own dear father, why do I feel your tears on my arm? Are you sorry, because He who has counted us lovely in his eyes, because he sees us in his own beauty, should have willed, that in our deaths we should not be divided? Remember, father-"

The crisis was arrived; the tempest had reached its acme-the sea lashed to its utmost fury, made an unbroken sweep over the doomed vessel; with one continuous roar, thunders responded to thunders along the whole heavens, and lightnings flashed more quickly than the beatings of a fevered pulse, revealing at each flash, the sweet pale face of Emmeline, to the faithful youth who stood before her in such impressive view as time could never efface, the very fitfulness of the vision adding to its unearthly majesty, for somewhat of the glory of that bright world, which was opening to the pious daughter, seemed even then shed upon her countenance.

He saw the uplifted eyes of that young figure, standing in all

its created beauty on the very verge of eternity, he saw it, and again it was not visible; he still looked, and it was lighted up again. He heard her last solemnly-uttered words, and they were these

"Jesus! Saviour of our souls-"

But before she could have finished the stanza, the prayer which it contains was already granted.

“Let us to thy bosom fly,

While the raging billows roll,

While the tempest still is high."

Damien then felt an agitation, as if all support beneath his feet was giving way; he was thrown on his knees, and for an instant saw the figures of the father and daughter raised above him, by some upheaving of the sinking vessel; next ensued a noise and a crash, as if nature itself were broken up; and he saw, he knew, no more until he found himself in a condition so entirely changed, that no other remnant of his late situation and former life presented itself, but the little bible, which he had thrust into the inner pocket of his jacket, just as the storm began. This precious little volume was the first object on which he opened his eyes, placed as it were to dry on a low stool, in a sort of out house, in which some rough, though friendly person, had laid him, whilst he was in a state of unconsciousness.

And in this place it is needful to close our number, though it must not be done till this enquiry is made: "Are we to consider that our little Living Rill, passed away with Emmeline Loveday, and her father? Or may we trust, that through the divine mercy, it passed to Damien Vere, and that through his ministry, we may hear of its springing up again into light and hope, that it may pass on to refresh many, perhaps still unborn ?”

(To be concluded next month.)

M. M. S.

"GOD IS ABLE TO GRAFF THEM IN AGAIN." MANY men of cultivated understandings and great learning among the Jews have embraced Christianity. There are at present several ministers, and one Bishop of the church of England, of the natural seed of Abraham. Among the Lutheran

reformed clergy on the Continent, not a few. Besides many physicians and lawyers, there are five professors and two lecturers in the University of Breslau; five professors in Halle ; in Petersburg a professor of medicine; in Warsaw, Dr. Leo, one of the most celebrated physicians; in Erlangen, Dr. Stahl; in Amsterdam, Dr. Capadose, whose narrative of his conversion is so widely and deservedly known; and in Berlin, the famous historian, Dr. Neander,—all of them converts from Judaism.

There is no doubt that among Jewish converts there have been backsliders that some have made shipwreck miserably of faith and of good conscience; but that is no more than may be said of Gentile converts, whether abroad or at home. The number of such cases of apostacy has, on the whole, been wonderfully small; and though it had been much larger than it is, it would have afforded no reason for our applying a rule to them which we could not bear to have applied to ourselves, which the Saviour of the world never acted upon, which the whole spirit of his gospel disowns. From a Lecture by the Rev. J. C. Burns, M. A.

THE THREE WORDS.

DOES the reader wish to know who these several parties were whom we have described as attending the festival of St. Denys at Springclose, or has he identified them from our description?

The tall, stern, dark man was Major Goode, and the captious little gentleman in black, Doctor Shoveller. One of the farmers was John Curtis. The party who came in late, were Mr. and Mrs. Walkinshaw, and two of their daughters; but who the fine looking gentleman might be, who occupied a sitting in the vicar's pew will be developed by and bye.

It was with more grief than surprise that I saw so many of my acquaintance amongst the congregation; but this sorrow was fully compensated by the fact that not one individual from my own congregation had gone over to the recusants. I felt in the first instance deeply grateful to Him who alone is able to keep us from falling; and then set about investigating the reason of their steadfastness on the one hand, and the instability of those who, having been blown about by every wind of doctrine, had at length settled down in the cold, but specious, formalities of Puseyism.

But had they done this? Was I not judging too hastily and uncharitably in supposing from having seen them once, and once only, at the church of St. Fabian, that they were regular worshippers there; and might not they, had they caught sight of me in my lurking place, have augured the same concerning my own departure from the faith? As, therefore, I found the honest countryman to whom I have alluded, very communicative, I thought it would be certainly the best course to make a few enquiries before I condemned, unheard, a number of individuals of whom I knew no more harm, at present, than they did of me. "Are the Walkinshaws," said I, as our conversation led on gradually to the subject-" Are the Walkinshaws regular attendants at St. Fabian's ?"

"Every one of 'em,” said he, “as far as I can hear : hail, rain, or shine it's all alike to them; and it's no little distance they have to come neither. The youngest Miss, though, is just now in France. My missus and me often have a joke about that young lady's going to school again. "Pretty time of life,' says she, ‘to send her to finish her education.' 'Yes,' says I, 'but may be she never took to it very kindly before." "

Honest Roger Byfield was not far from the truth there; but on that score I ventured no opinion. Following up my enquiry, I found that she was in one of the many popish nurseries where, under colour of instruction in the language, the elegancies, and the accomplishments of high life, so many of the children of our so-called Protestant countrymen are bewildered, dazzled, and at length blinded, by the artifices of jesuitism and priestcraft.

"The two girls that you saw to-day,” continued my informant, "are quite foolish about the parson. I don't know what there is they would'nt do; you saw the gay cloth that covered the floor of the chancel-well-that they made-every stitch of it, and now they're finishing a new cover for the altar that was begun by the young lady as used to live at Mr. Glosenfane's. She was a nice girl, she was-I should like to know what's become of her? And so," he added, with a roguish smile, "and so would some one else, I reckon."

As I understood the last sentence to imply that I might solve the difficulty, if I chose, I determined to take no notice of it unless he were inclined to put it in a more direct form. The fact that

Emma had been entrusted to my charge had been kept a profound mystery, even to the Glosenfanes, though I was now pretty certain it had oozed out some how or other, and that my friend, the countryman, had really an idea that I was in possession of the secret. In this I was mistaken, for it will be seen by and bye that he intended no reference to myself in the remark he had just made.

"Well," continued I, after eliciting this information about the "And what of Major Goode? Is he a regular

Walkinshaws;

attendant?"

"Goode?" said he, laughing; "I don't know what to make of that man. He's a strange mixture. He seems pretty well fixed now, though he couldn't settle anywhere till he found out parson Glosenfane. It's very singular, but if there's one thing that man hates more than another, it's popery and the pope. And yet now he's gone, as I say, to live next door to him. 'But,' says he to me one day, says he, Byfield, that's a good man at Saint Fabian's-he preaches Experience-he preaches the Middle Wall-he crushes the Old-Adam-Nature-he exalts the Cross -that's the preaching for me. I hear no one in this part of the world who goes so far as he does.""

"True," said I-"he goes far enough; but he goes in the wrong direction. But I see his meaning. Major Goode has extreme views on the subjects of Election and Reprobation; and he likes to see the boundary line clearly and broadly laid down between the natural and the spiritual man. The unwarrantable assumptions of a Puseyite priesthood would be therefore very much to his mind. And as to experience and the exaltation of the cross, he mistakes the pharasaic forms, and outward penances of Puseyism, for that keeping under of the body and bringing it into subjection which is advocated by St. Paul."

"He's a great man-is Goode, with the parson," continued Byfield; "he stood godfather to his last boy. They called him 'Richard Goode Glosenfane.' And my old woman says," he added, chuckling over the joke, "its a comfort, any how, that there's one good Glosenfane in the family."

"Do you know anything of Curtis at the farm ?" said I.

'What, John Curtis, the church-warden? Didn't you see his name on that notice-board? He was chose last Easter."

« ZurückWeiter »