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set in motion.

LYCEUM.

There was a debate or lecture every week. It was continued without intermission and without assistance from abroad for a period of four or five months, and with an interest and success hardly to be expected. Let it be recollected there were but five hundred inhabitants in the village. I have little doubt that an abler Senate might have been formed out of the acting members of the Lyceum than that at Augusta.

Neither the audience nor the Sabbath School was large. Perhaps they were as large however as could be expected in a town of this size. Since I left the Society has settled a minister and, I believe, continues to increase and strengthen.

Some odd events. — One warm afternoon in August when our service was held in the Baptist Church, which is situated on an eminence commanding a view of the village and the country beyond, a somewhat singular event occurred. The windows of the church were thrown up and the door spread wide to admit the fresh airs of heaven. It was a lovely season. The winds were asleep. The birds were chanting on the trees, and all was fair and tranquil as if the bridal of the earth and sky." The sermon was finished and the last hymn had just been given out, when during that dead pause which precedes the swelling forth of the music of the choir, a tall young man, in his shirt-sleeves, entered the church in a calm and dignified manner, and marched up the broad-aisle. I presumed that, whoever he

ODD EVENTS.

was, he would take a seat in one of the

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But

pews. no! his mission seemed to be onward. I heard his footsteps on the pulpit stairs,and in a moment or two he presented himself before me. He reached out his hand I gave him mine. He shook it and asked me how I did, then took a seat on the cushion close beside me. All eyes were turned in amazement towards the pulpit. It was natural I should be a little astonished. Though unable to comprehend the purpose of this unexpected visiter and hardly knowing what to do, I was not disconcerted. I turned towards him and gave him a sharp look to read, if possible, his intent in the expression of his countenance. He appeared perfectly at home and was taking a leisurely survey of the audience and choir. I said to him with some firmness, im. plying no great satisfaction with his presence in the pulpit, Had n't you better, sir, take a seat in a pew below?" He looked at me for a moment rose - bowed descended the stairs, and went in

to the first wall pew. He remained there quiet through the service and also the exercises of the Sabbath School, and then left the house. I was somewhat curious to find out who he was and what he intended by such sort of conduct, and learned that he was a stranger an unfortunate young man - actuated by no evil purpose,nay, much to be commisserated. Some time before this event, he accidentally ran something into his foot, which severed some of the cords, and ever since he had been sub

ject to periodical fits of derangement. In one of these he had strayed away from home, and pass ing by the open church door and every thing within inviting him, he entered without ceremony and made for the pulpit to form acquaintance with the preacher and have a fair view of the audience.

At another time, while preaching an extemporaneaus sermon upon the wisdom and goodness of God as manifested in the laws and arrangements of the Universe, the door of our place of worship was thrown open, and in rolled a seaman dressed in the insignia of his craft, the tarpaulin hat and pea-jacket. He came in with a nonchalant air and a curse-me-ifI-care sort of manner, threw his tarpaulin upon the seat near the door, and dropped down himself. As soon as he entered I perceived that he was the worse for something that had found its way to his stomach and thence to his brain, and somewhat feared he might disturb me in the train of my thoughts, especially as I had nothing to rely upon but a few notes. The noise he made was considerable, and I paused until he was quietly seated, and then went on. Whatever relates to the heavenly bodies those guiding-lights upon the watery waste -- is apt to interest the way-farer of the deep. I noticed that the seaman's attention was engaged. In a short time his elbows dropped upon his knees, his face upon his hands, and he fixed upon me a pair of the keenest black eyes. In the course of my remarks the subject of the moon's distance, phases, magnitude,

time of revolution, and force of gravitation was introduced. There was an open space in front of the seat where he sat, making him quite conspicuous. All of a sudden he rose up, seized his tarpaulin, clapped it upon his head, extended his arms to their full length and shouted to the top of his lungs, 'Ship-mates-a lunar observation!' I gave way to him and sat down. He was evidently about to proceed, but the audience did not seem disposed to hear him out, and two of them seized him in the height of his celestial enthusiasm, and led him outside the door. It was quite clear they considered him something of a lunatic, and wished him to finish his lunary in a more suitable place. The floor being left to me, I took up the thread of my discourse. The seaman was quite indignant at this, as he conceived, uncourteous treatment and in a moment or two came back. It was thought best to remove him again and lock the door. He tried it several times without success, then took a turn round the house, muttering to himself in hot passion. length some individuals went out and coaxed him down the hill into the centre of the village. Thus ended this curious adventure. The next day a lit

At

He proved to be way to the West.

tle of his history was found out. a ship-wrecked mariner on his Passing through town on the Sabbath he had deposited some of his pittance at a bar-room or tipplingshop, and, in sad plight in consequence, had stroll

ed up to the house of Him who cannot look upon sin but with displeasure.

The incident of the seaman reminds me of another which occurred in a neighboring town. I was preaching a sermon the object of which was to give a general view of our faith to set in as clear a light as possible what Liberal Christians beand what they do not believe. In the midst of my remarks the stillness of the house was suddenly broken by a deep and awful groan. It penetrated to the very bottom of my heart. Whence it came, by whom it was uttered, and for what purpose, if voluntary, were to me mysterious. It occurred to me shortly that there might be some Methodist, Baptist, Hopkinsian, or hot-headed partisan present, who was shocked at the simplicity and beauty of Liberal Christianity, and could not but give vent to a horrific groan, such as might come up from the tortured bosoms of the lost. It aroused my spirits. The truth, thought I, ought to be spoken boldly and I was resolved not to be daunted. On I proceeded in a louder and deeper tone, and the latter half of the discourse was delivered with doubly increased life and vigor. After service it was natural for me to inquire out the author of this novel interruption and the meaning thereof. The explanation was a little different from what I expected and was somewhat amusing. There proved to be a member of the society, a rugged worker in iron, subject to uncontrollable fits of gaping. These were accompanied