and a chilling frost have con verted the laughing fave of na ture into a dull and wrinkled sadness; and the proprietor of many a vast domain have look ed as dead and joyless as his fields. When we think how much is suspended on a slight variation of the temperature of the air, a variation impercepti ble perhaps to the nicest senses; how much hope may be blasted; how much beauty faded, how much want and distress occasioned, by the interrupted warmth of the Spring can we avoid feeling the inefficacy, the vanity of man! Who does not feet the justice of the rebuke of God to Job, and forcibly apply it to the insensible proprietor of the products of the earth "Canst thou bind the sweet in fluences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion ?" Give God, then, who alone can do it, and protect and prosper the products of the year, thy reverence, thy confidence, thy prayers, and thy thanksgivings. If thou couldst send forth thy spirit and renew the desolated earth and revive the withered Spring, thou mightest venture to forget the Almighty; but independent of him thou hast no power, and if he withhold his rain and his dew, or send his blighting frost or mildew, thy strength and wisdom, thy industry and labour are all in vain. These thoughts suggest another common reflection, the resemblance between the Spring of the year and the youth of human life. How many topies of compassion does this single idea suggest The tenderness, the delicacy, the danger of the sea søn in both; the necessity of early attention, of assiduous cultivation, of careful direction, of support and pruning, of repressing luxuriance, and of guarding the young fruit from exposure and plunder; and afterwards, the ample reward which the cultivator receives in the maturity of his tender charge. There is one view of the subject, however, in which we are all concerned. The progress of the Spring indicates to the reflecting mind that the will of God is that every thing should advance to perfection. All nature seems now to be in progress. Every day gives birth to some new leaf, or flower, or fruit. The plants shoot upwards towards the sun. The trees add to their last year's strength and verdure. The animals grow and multiply. And the earth, fertilized, watered, and quickened, is prepared to pour forth her autumnal treasures and crown the year with plenty. Does not this shame the sloth and inactivity of man; man who has an eternal year before him, and everlasting progress offered to his ambition! See the plants aspiring towards that luminary which warms and quickens them! O let us open our hearts to that intellectual light of the world, the Sun of righteousness, and aspire towards heaven! Let us rise every day higher from the earth; and bear in rich abundance the fruits of righteousness which are to the praise and glory of God. Finally, Christians, can you look out upon natore thus resuscitated and reanimated, and not feel a secret intimation of the most sublime and soling of human hopes, the idea of immortality Is it fanciful, or presumptuous, or unphilosophical, to see in reviving nature a type and emblem of the reanimation of the millions of human creatures that have been committed to the grave? However the cool and sterile reason of the philosopher may deride this analogy, it will force itself on the mind of every man that has heard of Jesus Christ's revelation, that wise interpreter and expositor of nature and of providence. Surely, when we find an Apostle venturing on this similitude, and describing the change of this corruptible into incorruptible, speaking of the death of man like the apparent death of the seed, and declaring of his body that though sown in weakness it shall be raised in power, though sown a natural body it shall be raised a spiritual body in.that glorious regeneration when mortality shall be swallowed up of life, it is no longer imagination, it is truth, it is reason, it is duty, to discern in the revival of the year the approach of that universal Spring of human existence, when all that now seems lost shall come forth in renovated beauty and celestial vigour. Is it then forbidden to take the pensive and outcast mourner abroad, and bid him mark the transformation of which nature is full? To bid him observe the awakening activity of the torpid animals, the evolution of innumerable insects, the upshooting of ten thousand plants, the germination of millions of seeds long since dropped corrupted and forgotten; and then to ask him, if that genial power which recovers nature from such an universal death, left man only to perish unrevived-man only to remain in the everlasting winter of annihilation ?—He cannot believe it. Every flower that opens, every blade that germinates, every insect that flutters, every mite pregnant with life that floats upon the air, inspires him with another hope. "It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven (said the first born from the dead)-It is not the will of my Father that one of these little ones should perish." Let the Spring of hope bloom in the heart of the afflicted; and let all creatures capable of feeling the inspiration of this season, capable of discerning the indications of intelligence and goodness in the return of this genial season, join the general song of praise to Him who wakes all the life, and upholds all the spirits, and warms all the breasts, and lights all the minds, and inspires all the hopes which are found throughout his creation; praise, "Him first, him last; him midst, and without end!" B. NEAL'S HISTORY OF THE PURITANS. MR. Charles Ewer and William B. Allen and Company are reprinting, at a great expense, "The History of the Puritans, or Protestant Non-conformists, from the death of Queen Elizabeth to the beginning of the civil war in the year 1642: with an account of their principles their attempts for a further re formation in the church; their sufferings; and the lives and characters of their principal divines. In five volumes. By DANIEL NEAL, M. A. A new edition, revised, corrected and enlarged, by JOSHUA TOULMIN, D. D. To which are prefixed, some Memoirs of the life and writings of the Author." Two volumes of this American edition have already been published, and it is hoped that the publishers will be encouraged by a liberal subscription for the work. In some future Numbers of the Christian Disciple a more particular account of the History than can now be given, may be expected. At this time we shall make but a few observations. Mr. Neal, the compiler of the History, was an eminent dissenting minister, cotemporary with Watts and Doddridge. Perfect impartiality is not perhaps to be expected of any historian in writing the history of his own denomination-especially if it embraces a series of severe trials, suffering and persecutions on account of religious opinions. To good men, on opposite sides of a controversy, the same facts and occurrences are often viewed in a very different light. This is a circum stance which, probably, is seldom duly considered either in writing or reading. It is not to be supposed that Mr. Neal was free from prepossession; still it is believed that he wrote with integrity of heart, and that it was his aim to be faithful in his narrations, and impartial in his statements. To the people of New-England the "History of the Puritans" must be very interesting, as it unfolds that melancholy state of things in England which occasioned our forefathers to leave their native land, to expose themselves first to the perils of the ocean, and then to the perils of a wilderness, inhabited by beasts of prey and savage men. This History must also be interesting to those who wish to be informed respecting the first efforts for a reformation from popery in the land of their ancestors-the intolerant principles which prevailed in that country in former ages, and the rise and progress of religious and civil liberty. Perhaps no person of intelligence can read the History of the Puritans without being astonished at the general blindness which formerly prevailed among every denomination of Christians, in respect to the rights of conscience, and the means which were adopted to support opinions, and to promote religion;-and if he be pious, as well as intelligent, it is hardly possible that he should fail of being deeply affected with the mercy of God to the people of this country, in regard to the extent in which civil and religious liberty is now enjoyed by the several denominations. A GOOD "THERE is," says Erasmus," a.trite little story that exhibits an example in private life, STORY. which it might not be amiss to follow when the state is in danger of involving itself in a war. There were two near relations who could not agree on the division of some property which devolved to them Counsel were retained, the process commenced, and the whole affair was in the hands of lawyers. The cause was just on the point of being brought on-war was declared. At this period one of the parties sent for his opponent and addressed him to the following purpose derers; and the money that would be ill-bestowed on them, let us divide between ourselves. Do you give me one moiety from your share, and I will give you the same from mine. Thus we shall be clear gainers in point of love and friendship, which we should otherwise lose; and we shall escape all the trouble. But if you do not choose to yield any thing to me, why then I cheerfully resign the whole to you, and you shall do just as you please with it-I would rather the money should be in the hands of a friend, than in the clutches of these insatiable robbers. I shall have made profit enough by the bargain, if I shall have saved my character, kept my friend, and avoid 1 "The justice of these remarks, and the good humour with which they were made, overcame the adversary. They therefore settled the matter between themselves, and left the poor lawyers in a rage. In the first place, it is certainly unbecoming, to speak in the most tender terms of it, that two persons united like us by nature, should be dissevered by interest. In the second place, the event of a lawsuit is no less uncertain than the event of war. To engage in it, indeed, is in our power to put an end to it,ed the plague of a lawsuit " is not so. Now the whole matter in dispute is 100 pieces of gold. Twice that sum must be expended on notaries, on attornies, on counsellors, on the judges and their friends, if we go to law about it. We must court, flatter and fee them; not "In the infinitely more haz-, to mention the trouble of danc- ardogs concerns of war, let ing attendance and paying our statesmen condescend to imitate most obsequious respects to this instance of discretion.them. In a word, there is more Who but a madman would ancost than worship in the busi-gle for a vile fish with a hook of ness, more harm than good; gold!" Antipolemus p 78-81. and therefore I hope this consideration will weigh with you to give up all thoughts of a lawsuit. Let us be wise for ourselves, rather than these plun If men would thus wisely count the cost beforehand, they would seldom go to law, and never make war. A NOBLE MONUMENT. IN past ages the world has been in the habit of bestowing its highest praises on martial From the Friend of Peace. deeds, and the warrior has been regarded as the glory of the human race. But a revolution in public opinion has commenced. Men begin to see that the BENEFACTORS of mankind, have higher claims than destroyers. Perhaps on no occasion has this change of opinion been more apparent than in the respect which has been shown to the memory of Richard Reynolds, of the society of Friends, who died at Cheltenham in England, Sept. 10. 1816. Like his Lord and Master he literally went about doing good," relieving the wants and distresses of his fellow beings. When he fell, England felt the shock, and 66 2 people of all ranks and all denominations united to bewail the public loss, and to do honour to the memory of one who had long shone as a light in the world and as the FRIEND OF GOD AND MAN. Many years prior to the decease of this good man, "On hearing of Lord Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, the late worthy John Birtill of Bristol, placed a marble tablet in a private chapel, in his dwelling house, bearing this inscription: JOHN HOWARD, JONAS HANWAY, JOHN FOTHERGILL. M. D. RICHARD REYNOLDS. "Not unto us, O Lord! not unto us, but unto thy name be the glory." Beneath some ample hallow'd dome, Beneath a humble roof we place To names the poor shall ever bless, To soften human woes their care, After the death of Richard Reynolds the people of Bristol, the city of his late residence, formed a charitable institution to perpetuate his memory, with the name of REYNOLDS COMMEMORATION SOCIETY. This institution is perhaps the noblest MONUMENT which was ever When heroes fall triumphant on the plain; |