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fortune, all to no purpose. Truth will sooner or later rush with fearful force upon your heart, hardened as it is. Then, perhaps, you may be induced to bend your steps homeward, in order to hide an aching head and guilty heart; there probably some of you find a distracted, heartbroken wife, with your offspring clinging round her, and vainly imploring her to give them the support nature requires, and which your prodigality alone deprives them of. Now, unless dead to every feeling of humanity, nature will speak, and "harrow up the very soul." Conscience will not be ever dormant; remorse, relentless remorse, seizes on and preys upon your vitals: despair gains the mastery, and you, to complete their ruin and your own, meditate perhaps on self-destruction, as the only means of avoiding the horrors of want. How many, under similar circumstances, have rushed violently and unprepared into the presence of their Maker, an offended God! a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Dearly beloved, let us flee temptation, while yet in our power; every heart has its predominant passion-a sin that most easily besets it. Let me entreat you to guard particularly against that sin; look not upon it; consider it, like the forbidden fruit, beautiful to the eye, but deadly in the indulgence. We have a balm for every wound: let us apply it, ere it be too late; let us search the Scriptures-they will lead us to the all-sufficient, the heavenly Physician; let us dwell upon, and apply the promises of Him, who hath said," Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Let us, I again say, dwell believingly on the promises of Him who giveth rest to the weary. The time of their accomplishment we know not; they may be slow, but remember they are sure. Let us seek, as the one thing needful, Christ and his righteousness, and we are assured all other blessings shall be added unto us; let us seek earnestly Christ's favour, until he give us the oil of joy for mourning, the spirit of praise for heaviness; let us go on from strength to strength rejoicing, until we can say, with pious Simeon, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."-Mrs. Spoor.

DUTY TO GOD SUPREME.-But in the whole, the duty of zeal requires that we neglect an ordinary visit rather than an ordinary prayer, and a great profit rather than omit a required duty. No excuse can make lawful a sin; and he that goes about to distinguish between his duty and his profit, and if he cannot reconcile them, will yet tie them together like a hyæna and a dog, this man pretends to religion, but secures the world, and is indifferent and lukewarm towards that, so he may be warm and safe in the possession of this.Bp. Taylor.

HOPE. We are never beneath hope while we are above hell, and never above hope while we are beneath heaven.-Bp Hall.

Poetry.

COMMUNION WITH GOD IN SOLITUDE.

(For the Church of England Magazine.)
'Tis not amid the noise and din
Of this vain world, or aught within,
The Christian seeks for peace:
"Tis in the tranquil hour of prayer,
When, 'reft of every earthly care,
He finds a short release.

Shut out from this world's guiling power,
He goes to pass one peaceful hour

A. G.

In solitude with God:

Then what a land of bliss appears,
Beyond this gloomy vale of tears,

In Zion's blest abode.

No mourning souls in Zion weep;
All shall a joyful harvest reap,

And live in endless love :

The sad farewell is heard no more, When pilgrims gain the welcom'd shore,

And join the saints above.

Sweet solitude! I'll taste thy charms,
Thy soothing powers, thy healing balms,
And seek repose in thee:
Reclining at thy peaceful shrine,
Teach me all earthly joys resign,
And live in purity.

O solitude, my choicest hour,
I claim thee as my richest dower,
Foretaste of heavenly bliss!
Teach me in thee to live to God,
To die, relying on his word,
And rise to righteousness.

STANZAS.

(For the Church of England Magazine.) "Addio,

C. O.

Ma non per sempre; da una fè verace
Sento che rivedervi." Alessandro Sappa.

I SAW her when the bloom of health
Play'd sweetly on her cheek,
When life beam'd brightly from those eyes,
So joyous, yet so meek.

I saw her when affliction's power
Had laid those beauties low;

I saw her when the mark of death
Was seal'd upon her brow.

Her long dark hair still floated o'er
Her fair and lovely neck;

She look'd the shadow of the past,

Of former hopes the wreck!

Yet from that speaking eye there beam'd
A pure and peaceful ray;

It told of hope beyond the grave,
When life had pass'd away.

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As difficulty swells, it higher grows,
Ennobled by the greatness of its foes;
Has lively prospect of its heavenly crown,
And makes God's glory only its renown;
Contemns the world, has more exalted aim,
With a well-guided zeal is all on flame;
With patience can a lasting conflict bear,
Derives true magnanimity from prayer;
Fights with a spirit present and sedate,
No terrors can its constancy abate;

Is meekly bold, with sweet behaviour brave,
Scorns to vile lust its spirit to enslave;
The martyr'd host with veneration eyes,
And to their palms ambitious is to rise;
Keeps Jesus in its intellectual sight-
He best can teach us conduct in our fight.
Devote yourself to God, and you will find
God fights the battles of a will resign'd.
An earthly coward is an odious name—
A ghostly coward an eternal shame.
Love Jesus! love will no base fear endure -
Love Jesus! and of conquest rest secure.

Miscellaneous.

BP. KEN.

SOUTH AMERICA.-The population of South America is of a very heterogeneous character. The highest and most aristocratic class of it is descended from the original invaders, or marauders, who took over with them European mistresses, or wives. The next grade, or caste, is that descended from mixed Portuguese, and Indian or African ancestors: then comes a sort of dubious race, claiming descent from a European male parent, but with very equivocal pretensions to it: your mulatto, of decidedly African caste, follows next: and last of all comes poor Sambo himself, from Congo. But the greatest dons are your real Europeans, men who, having given up a wine-shop at Oporto, or abandoned a counter at Lisbon, are converted into fidalgos in Brazil, and consider all classes of mixed blood as the dust beneath their feet. The hostility between the natives of the mother-country and creoles is so bitter, that it is no uncommon thing to see 2 European father endeavouring to coerce his Americanborn son into all the degradation of bondage. What is worse, the Europeans, having always been comparatively few in number, appear to have acted, from the first conquest of the country, on that intuitive and constitutional fear which has at last proved to be well founded, that their own offspring would one day rise up against them, and wrest from their fathers the soil which these obtained by conquest, and the others possess by inheritance. The population of Rio is as various in hue as it is jarring in principle. Of about one hundred thousand inhabitants, the amount of the population when I was there, at least fifty thousand were negroes; twenty thousand mulattoes, one, two, or three castes removed from black; of native-born subjects, descended from European parents, there were about 20,000; and of foreigners and Portuguese, who had migrated from home, about 10,000. The European, and especially the Englishman, when he first lands amid so motley a family, is struck with the desperate inequality which exists between the black man and the white. The negro, in a state of almost complete nudity, does the work of a horse; and he carries home the earnings of the day to his heartless master, who, in return, feeds him with farinha and banena, and drills him to hard labour by means of the thong or of the cane. Then, so great is the preponderance of the coloured population over the white, that in the streets you can scarcely believe you are not in a colony of

blacks and mulattoes—their misery, their filth, their nakedness, their disease, their howlings as they work, the pitiless rigour with which they are treated, and the premature death to which they are too often doomed,are all things which, on an Englishman's first arrival, alternately chill his heart with horror, and melt it with compassion. Yet so fatal is the influence of habit, so invariable in its working is the familiarising process of association, by which we come at length to contemplate even misery with indifference, provided it be always before us, that ere I had been three months at Rio, my susceptibilities became blunted, and my impressions upon first landing were almost worn from my mind. Robertson's Letters on Paraguay.

DEMONIACAL AGENCY.-On the whole, it appears that, in our speculations respecting miracles, we are not required-because we are not enabled-to draw a clear line of restriction round the agency of invisible beings. But it also appears, that they who feel themselves compelled to admit the possible exercise of superhuman power by beings not absolutely divine, have nothing to apprehend from this admission. The only just inference from it is, that in this particular, as in many others, the divine government is profoundly mysterious. Inscrutable, however, as it is, there is nothing in this department of it to unsettle our reliance on miracles performed for purposes obviously unexceptionable and benevolent. There is in all the dealings of God so much that is unfathomable by us, that it must be dangerous to frame our views upon the presumption that this or that particular course of things is incompatible with his perfections. Whether by the agency of men or demons, certain it is that delusions of the most abominable kind have been successfully practised. But this, assuredly, does not exempt us from the duty of exercising our judgment on every case of miraculous evidence connected with our salvation. And if we approach the task in a proper temper, we shall not fail to perceive, that the arm of the Lord has been revealed to us in a way that puts to shame all the works of darkness, whether carried on by human or by spiritual agency. It may, perhaps, be urged in reply to these remarks, that all deviations from the course of nature, by whatever immediate agency, must be regarded as the work of God, since they cannot take place without his permission; and that by such permission, he does no less than make the acts his own. Every person, however, at all conversant with inquiries of this nature, must shrink from the aid of so treacherous an argument as this; an argument, which, if admitted, would recoil upon its employer with this dreadful consequence,that the most fearful prodigies of human wickedness and impiety may be ascribed to the special interference of the Almighty. For if by permitting the acts of demons, God must be supposed to authorise those acts, and to give them his positive and special sanction, why may not the same be said of the most gigantic atrocities of sinful men? But it is needless to dwell longer on this most dangerous defence. It may be difficult, indeed, for us, by any process of reasoning, to discriminate between the active and permissive providence of an omnipotent and perfectly independent Being. And yet, every one who has thought at all on this unfathomable subject, must surely perceive that nothing but the darkest confusion can result from any attempt to identify them.-Rev. C. W. Le Bas-Considerations on Miracles.

London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country.

PRINTED BY

ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

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THE BENEFITS OF CHURCH PSALMODY;
WITH HINTS FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT.
BY THE REV. JOHN EDEN, B.D.
Vicar of St. Nicholas, Bristol.

I.

THE inspired composer of the book of Psalms exhorts the worshippers of God to call in various musical instruments to aid their religious services. He plainly intimates, that vocal and instrumental music may, and ought to be, employed together in the act of praising and adoring the Creator. For, after mentioning the names of several instruments, the exact character of which it would be difficult, as well as unnecessary, to ascertain, he concludes his lofty song by saying, "Let every "Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord:" thus instructing us, that the sound of music and the voice of melody should, in the act of public worship, flow in one mingled stream; that the delightful art which affords on other occasions so much innocent pleasure, should not be silent in the ministries of solemn devotion, but be associated with the expression of our thanksgivings to the Author of all good. The Psalmist calls upon heaven and earth to unite in this holy exercise-to blend the voice of jubilee with the sound of many instruments to the praise and glory of God: "Praise ye the Lord: praise him in the sanctuary; praise him in the firmament of his power;" that is, let there be, in the discharge of this sacred duty, a communion of the saints in heaven with those on earth; let his temples here below send forth the incense of gratitude, and let it ascend unto his throne together with the songs of his heavenly host, who worship him in the courts above. Thus have we high

VOL. VII.-NO. CXCV.

PRICE 1d.

authority, even that of the sweet singer of Israel, for accompanying the voice with the sound of musical instruments in the public worship and adoration of the Almighty. It is evident that he considers its introduction as most expressive of our gratitude, even on the most solemn and sublime occasions; for he directs us thus to praise him in his mighty acts, to praise him according to his excellent greatness. And, indeed, in one of the mightiest of his acts, even in the creation of the world itself, we find, if I may so express it, an accompaniment of sacred music. For on that grand occasion, when God laid the foundations of the earth, it is declared, in the book of Job, that "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." And as at the first birth of man, at the mysterious moment when, by the power and goodness of God, he was called out of nothing, the angelic choirs expressed their exultation in strains of harmony; so at that still more gracious moment, when the coming of "one greater Man restored him, and regained the blissful seat" which had been forfeited by sin, the same heavenly greetings were again expressed in the same harmonious strain, and a multitude of the heavenly host was heard praising God, and in songs of triumph proclaiming, "Glory to him in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards men."

The persuasion that the aid of music ought to be employed in the solemnities of divine worship, has been prevalent in every age and country; and indeed there have been some whose admiration of this delightful art hath transported them so far, that they have imagined the universe itself to be one grand instrument perpetually sending forth harmo

(London: Robson, Levey, and Franklyn, 46 St. Martin's Lane.]

BB

nious sounds, though to our grosser ears they are as yet inaudible, and will only then be perceived by us, when we have put off this robe of mortality, and are admitted to the society of the blessed. But whatever there may be in this idea whether it be only a fond imagination of the enthusiast, or in any measure correspondent with the reality of things as yet unheard and unperceived-there is surely something pleasing in the thought; something also, which might be turned to our advantage, if we could infer from it that this, and every other faculty which we possess, ought to be devoted to the honour of Him who endowed us with them; and particularly that this art and science of music can never be employed so worthily, as in promoting the glory of God and the benefit of man. When, as upon those well-known public occasions which annually take place in the metropolis, its highest efforts are directed to the great object of awakening devotion and exciting sympathy-how have we been delighted and affected by such an application of it! how have we rejoiced that this refined and noble science should have thus administered to the most exalted purposes, should have become subservient to the honour of God, and the relief of the distressed! These are, indeed, ends most worthy of its excellence.

We should scarcely be speaking too highly of it, when viewed in the exercise of this its more elevated employment, were we to apply to it the language of the admirable Hooker, and say, that "its seat is the bosom of God, its voice the harmony of the world; that all things in heaven and earth do it homage, both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, admiring it as the mother of their peace and joy." Well might the royal Psalmist exult in the consciousness that he had dedicated his talent to the honour of his God, and address it, in connexion with his vocal powers, as his glory: "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory; awake, lute and harp; I myself will awake right early. I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the people; I will sing unto thee among the nations." The possession of such a talent, when it is exercised in imparting innocent delight, but especially when directed to inspire devotion, to awaken pity, to excite benevolence, is really an high and enviable distinction. Alas, that an art in itself so pure, so dignified, so heavenly, should ever be otherwise employed; that it should ever become the handmaid of vice, should be perverted to the diffusion of seditious sentiments, to the excitement of unchaste desires, to the encouragement of brutal intemperance !

It is scarcely possible to conceive any thing

more wretched than the state of that man's mind, who, in his last hours, has to look back upon the misapplication of distinguished talents; who, having received high natural endowments, or (we should rather say) high gifts from God, has wickedly prostituted them to the worst of purposes, by ministering to the evil and sensual affections, and supplying fuel to the worst passions of our fallen nature. Do not the minds of many of my readers instantly recur to one affecting instance of this kind-of exquisite poetic genius basely squandered, nay, impiously sold to the service of the enemy of God and man! How great the misery of reflecting (if reflect he did) that for ages to come he might be instrumental, by the malignant influence of his beautifully beguiling stanzas, in perverting the principles and corrupting the morals of his fellow-men! How feelingly does one of the greatest of our poets lament such abuse of his transcendent powers

"O gracious God, how far have we
Profan'd thy heavenly gift of poesy,

Whose harmony was first ordain'd above, For tongues of angels and for hymns of love!" Woe be to the man who thus degrades it from its noble destination, who, by connecting sweet sounds with profane, impure, licentious language, drags down this excellent faculty from the province which Heaven had allotted it, and turns the gift of God against the giver! But the young have especial reason to guard against imbibing poison from such sources of moral mischief. If at any time their ears are assailed, and their approbation solicited, by such evil agents, let them resolve to "have no fellowship with such unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them," saying, How can ye, like Belshazzar, profane the consecrated vessels of God's house? or saying of such talents, as God said unto Moses respecting the censers of Korah and his company, "They offered them before the Lord, therefore they are hallowed." Honour and blessing be upon the head of him who consecrates superior musical powers to the service of that God from whom they are derived, and to the promotion of that religion which is the only foundation of our present and future happiness! Talents thus exercised are truly honourable to their possessor; the charms of music thus directed may be productive of the happiest effects. It was for this the Author of our being made man susceptible of the most refined and exquisite pleasure from musical sounds, and, as it were, attuned his frame to harmony, that delight and duty might go hand in hand; that here below he might have some anticipation of that ecstatic enjoyment, which the songs of angels will in another state afford him. And doubtless it was for this that God has gifted some men

with more distinguished talents than others, that they may exert those in the cause of virtue, and may make his public worship to be more frequented by rendering it more attractive. He who planted the ear made it capable of conveying to the soul the sublimest and most affecting sentiments of piety to God and charity to men. He chose that these feelings should be excited not by articulate language only, but also by musical modulation, and the sweet accord of sacred sounds. Hence, to cultivate and improve the taste for sacred music, is but to discharge a debt of gratitude to Him who hath inspired that taste, to correspond with His gracious purpose who designed this holy and delightful exercise to be a preparation for the still diviner harmonies of another and a better state of being.

I shall conclude the present paper with the following beautiful extract from the judicious Hooker :

"Touching musical harmony, whether by instrument or by voice, it being but of high and low in sounds a due proportionable disposition, such notwithstanding is the force thereof, and so pleasing effects it hath in that very part of man which is most divine, that some have been thereby induced to think that the soul itself by nature is, or hath in it, harmony. A thing which delighteth all ages, and beseemeth all states; a thing as seasonable in grief as in joy; as decent being added unto actions of the greatest weight and solemnity, as being used when men most sequester themselves from action. The reason hereof is an admirable facility which music hath to express and represent to the mind, more inwardly than any other sensible mean, the very standing, rising, and falling, the very steps and inflections every way, the turns and varieties of all passions whereunto the mind is subject; yea, so to imitate them, that whether it resemble unto us the same state wherein our minds already are, or a clean contrary, we are not more contentedly by the one confirmed, than changed and led away by the other. In harmony the very image and character even of virtue and vice is perceived, the mind delighted with their resemblances, and brought by having them often iterated. into a love of the things themselves.

For

which cause there is nothing more contagious and pestilent than some kinds of harmony; than some nothing more strong and potent unto good. And that there is such a difference of one kind from another, we need no proof but our own experience, inasmuch as we are at the hearing of some more inclined unto sorrow and heaviness, of some more mollified and softened in mind; one kind apter to stay and settle us, another to move

and stir our affections; there is that draweth to a marvellous grave and sober mediocrity, there is also that carrieth as it were into ecstacies, filling the mind with a heavenly joy, and for the time in a manner severing it from the body. So that, although we lay altogether aside the consideration of ditty or matter, the very harmony of sounds being framed in due sort, and carried from the ear to the spiritual faculties of our souls, is by a native puissance and efficacy greatly available to bring to a perfect temper whatsoever is there troubled, apt as well to quicken the spirits as to allay that which is too eager, sovereign against melancholy and despair, forcible to draw forth tears of devotion, if the mind be such as can yield them, able both to move and to moderate all affections.

"The prophet David having therefore singular knowledge, not in poetry alone, but in music also, judged them both to be things most necessary for the house of God; left behind him to that purpose a number of divinely indited poems, and was further the author of adding unto poetry melody in public prayer, melody both vocal and instrumental, for the raising up of men's hearts, and the sweetening of their affections towards God. In which considerations the Church of Christ doth likewise at this present day retain it as an ornament to God's service, and an help to our own devotion.

"In church music, curiosity and ostentation of art, wanton, or light, or unsuitable harmony, such as only pleaseth the ear, and doth not naturally serve to the very kind and degree of those impressions which the matter that goeth with it leaveth, or is apt to leave, in men's minds, doth rather blemish and disgrace that we do than add either beauty or furtherance unto it. On the other side, these faults prevented, the force and efficacy of the thing itself, when it drowneth not utterly, but fitly suiteth with matter altogether sounding to the praise of God, is in truth most admirable, and doth much edify, if not the understanding, because it teacheth not, yet surely the affection, because therein it worketh much. They must have hearts very dry and tough, from whom the melody of psalms doth not sometimes draw that wherein a mind religiously affected delighteth."

[To be concluded in the next Number.]

SKETCHES FROM A TRAVELLER'S PORTFOLIO.

No. XI.-The Exile.

I MET him first upon the sea-shore. It was a raw and gusty day; and the waves were dashing their white crests with a hoarse murmur against the base of the long ledge of rock, that I had climbed to see more

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