"my dear little son, by to-morrow's night your father will be buried low in the ground, for he is just dying. My poor little son will then have no father, but he must pray to God every night and every morning, and give his heart to God while he is yet a little boy: if he does this God will be his father, and I shall one day meet my son where we shall never die or be separated!" It is not easy for a child to forget the dying words of his parent; and the room in which I was now standing recalled every particular of a scene every way interesting.

As I left the house and continued my walk round the pond I was naturally led to reflect on the transitory nature of our brightest prospects in this life, and on the fading colours in which our hopes of the future are too often painted; and I wondered why I had ever trifled and wasted portions of my life. The gilded insect may well sport as it spreads its gaudy wings to the beams of the morning sun, for ere that sun shall set, its whole existence may have terminated. The brutes of the field may well confine their attention to the present moment, for we know of no day that is hereafter to call them to an account for their conduct. But man-immortal man, is but in the morning of his existence, when with age these heavens shall have become dim.

The village graveyard stood on the east side of the pond, and I determined to visit it, and to sorrow alone at the tomb of a father whom I most tenderly loved, and, peradventure, drop a tributary tear over the dust of my former acquaintances and friends, who were now peacefully slumbering under the sods before me. There was a pleasing awe attending every step as I entered the graveyard. Here lay the dust of many of my friends; here were all classes on a common footing, excepting that there were some rather pompous stones, as if pride must follow us beyond death. It was autumn, and so still that I could hear every leaf as it fell from the surrounding trees. O, the voice which arises from the silence of the tomb, the call which issues from the graves of our nearest and dearest friends, cannot be disregarded for the time! Though we may mock the Eternal, by sneering at that religion which alone can free us from the terrors of the grave, and though we may throw around us the cloak of indifference, and "put far away the evil day," yet we cannot stand over the dust of departed relatives, without feeling, at least, that there is solemnity in the grave.

I was slowly walking among this assemblage of mouldering mortals, and looking for the little spot where sleeps my father, when I saw a woman sitting under a small weeping willow which stood near. I went towards her, but my approach seemed not to arrest her attention. She was sitting in an upright posture, and casting a vacant glare upon the smooth surface of the pond, now rendered exquisitely beautiful by the purple rays of the setting sun, as he poured them through the blue mist on the summit of a distant mountain. She appeared to be about fifty years of age. Her form was slender and delicate. Some gray locks of her dishevelled hair were peeping through the holes of her cap, which I now understood were made in the paroxysms of insanity-for she was a lunatic. She was very much emaciated, and her countenance, though intelligent, showed that for many years it had been distorted by the gnawings of sorrow. Her eyes were wild and glaring, though they might once have been expressive. I was not prepared to meet a person of this description. As I placed myself directly before her, she raised her eyes from the water, and looked at me with great earnestness without speaking. There was something so piteous, so sorrowful, and so meaning in her look, that it went to my very heart, as if she would have said" there is no sorrow like my sorrow." I now recalled who she was, though she was much altered since I had seen her, and I knew that for years her mind had been wrapt in misery. I told her not that I knew her, though there was evidently something in my looks which caught her attention. I tried to converse with her, but she was averse; I started several subjects which might once have been interesting to her, but no reply. Unhappy woman! she was once young and beautiful, was beloved and respected, the delight of her parents and friends, and the pride of her village; but her horizon has long been darkened by a cloud too dark ever to admit the rays of hope into her sorrowing bosom. Few who enjoy the blessing of reason, are sufficiently sensible of its value, or sufficiently grateful for the mercy. Poor woman! the springs of her immortal mind were shattered, and her marble bosom was cold to all the enjoyments of this life, and the repository of no hope respecting the next. I inquired why she was here, and alone? she replied, "I have no-no -home-no friends-no home!" I inquired as to her situation, her griefs, her sorrows, and, if she could have any, her joys: she pointed me to the grave of her husband, and I understood by her looks that she would say "all the comfort that I have ever known has long slumbered there!" The grave was near: she had just been washing the white smooth stones which stand at the two ends, and laying across it some small sprigs of evergreen! I next inquired respecting her children: if she knew where, or how they were ? she spread out her hands horizontally and opened wide her arms, as if to say, -" they are all scattered, and gone, I know not where!" could I help the overflowings of grief in my heart, as I saw this? It would have given her comfort could she have wept, but her tears were all spent years ago, and their fountains will always be dry. I myself wept as I embraced the poor woman-forshe was my mother!!

ORBUS.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

To the Editor of the Christian Herald.

SIR-I would not, on any account, wish to injure the feelings of friends on that most interesting and heart-rending of all occasions, the commitment of a beloved fellow worm to the silent tomb-nor would I wish to be considered as censuring the accustomed ceremony of any class of Christians on this interesting occasion.

The language of Death is powerful, and when brought home to us by the departure from this world of one near by the ties of blood and affection, cannot be made more impressive by all the eloquence of a Saurin. But to the assembly convened for the purpose of paying the last tribute of respect to the deceased, a word fitly spoken could not be amiss. Indeed, there is no occasion when the ministers of divine truth could, with so much propriety and so much effect, enforce the duty of the living, as when death is present with them. What, so well as the pale, emaciated, and breathless visage of one with whom we have been VOL. VIII.

50

permitted to associate, in our business and our pleasures, rivets our gaze and draws forth, with irresistible impulse, the tender feelings of the heart? What, so much as the reflection that this must shortly be our own case, can cause us to be up and doing, knowing that the night of death is soon hastening, wherein no man can work?

The feelings of those most nearly connected with the deceased are, on such occasions, so rent asunder that it requires something more than the consolation of earthly friends to afford relief. Whereas many, who are the usual or invited attendants upon such occasions, need the awakening voice of some minister of Heaven resounded in their ears-" Be ye also ready."

To them, therefore, with most propriety and with most probability of doing good, might the warning voice of the divine be extended. Perhaps it might reach the heart of some friendless wanderer, and bring him back to the fold of Christ; or be the power of God unto salvation, to many in the bonds of iniquity. I was led to these reflections, Mr. Editor, by an attendance, a few days since, at the funeral of a young lady, when we were all permitted to sit in silence for an hour, and, though three clergymen attended, not a word did I hear dropt from their lips. After having remained thus long, the corpse was taken, and with all the indifference of ordinary business, carried and deposited in a vault. When youth and beauty were thus thrust from my view, I felt as if a few words could not have been misapplied in instructing me how I could be prepared to follow them.

P.

From the Christian Observer.

DONNE AND BAXTER

ON THE DUTY OF MISSIONARY EXERTIONS.

ONE of the following extracts, on the subject of sending the Gospel to the Heathen, is from a sermon of Dr. Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, London, and the other from Mr. Baxter's "Life and Times."

"And he (Jesus Christ) came in a purpose (as we do piously believe) to manifest himself in the Christian religion to all the nations of the world; and therefore lætentur insulæ, says David, the Lord reigneth, let the islands rejoice; the islands which, by reason of their situation, provision, and trading, have most means of conveying Christ Jesus over the world. He hath carried us up to heaven, and set us at the right hand of God, and shall not we endeavour to carry Him to those nations who have not yet heard of His name? Shall we still brag that we have brought our clothes, and our hatchets, and our knives, and bread, to this and this value and estimation, amongst those poor ignorant souls, and shall we never glory that we have brought the name and religion of Christ Jesus in estimation amongst them? Shall we stay till other nations have planted a false Christ among them? and then either continue in our sloth, or take more pains in rooting out a false Christ than would have planted the true? Christ is come into the world: we will do little, if we will not ferry Him over, and propagate His name, as well as our own, to other nations." -Sermon preached at Whitehall, April 19, 1618, from 1 Tim. i. 15.

"My soul is much more afflicted with the thoughts of the miserable world, and more drawn out in desire of their conversion than heretofore: I was wont to look but little further than England in my prayers, as not considering the state of the rest of the world; or if I prayed for the conversion of the Jews, that was almost all. But now, as I better understand the case of the world, and the method of the Lord's Prayer, so there is nothing in the world that lieth so heavy upon my heart as the thought of the miserable nations of the earth. It is the most astonishing part of all God's providence to me, that He so far forsaketh almost all the world, and confineth his special favour to so few; that so small a part of the world hath the profession of Christianity, in comparison of Heathens, Mahometans, and other infidels; and that among professed Christians there are so few that are saved from gross delusions, and have but any competent knowledge; and that among those there are so few that are seriously religious, and truly set their hearts on heaven. I cannot be affected so much with the calamities of my own relations, or the land of my nativity, as with the case of the Heathen, Mahometan, and ignorant nations of the earth. No part of my prayers is so deeply serious, as that for the conversion of the infidel and ungodly world, that God's name may be sanctified, and His kingdom come, and His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Nor was I ever before so sensible what a plague the division of languages was, which hindereth our speaking to them for their conversion; nor what a great sin tyranny is, which keepeth out the Gospel from most of the nations of the world."Life and Times, book i. part I. sec. 23.

He adds a remark highly to the credit of his candour and right feeling, and which shows how forcibly real piety and zeal for the salvation of men tend to overcome those sectarian feelings and prejudices which divide the visible church of Christ, and which were never stronger than at the period in which Baxter lived. "Could we but go," he remarks, " among Tartarians, Turks, and Heathens, and speak their language, I should be but little troubled for the silencing of eighteen hundred ministers at once in England; nor for the rest that were cast out here, and in Scotland and Ireland; there being no employment in the world so desirable in my eyes, as to labour for the winning of such miserable souls; which maketh me greatly honour Mr. John Elliot, the Apostle of the Indians in New England, and whoever else have laboured in such

work."

Entelligence.

ENGLAND. - SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

THE Annual Report of the Sunday School Union, for the year ending May 1, 1821, states :

THE attention of your Committee has been particularly directed to the consideration of Mr. Brougham's Education Bill. Soon after the last Annual Meeting, they appointed a Sub-committee to watch this measure. After maturely deliberating on the subject, your Committee agreed to call a General Meeting of the gratuitous Sunday School Teachers in London and its vicinity, for the purpose of considering the bill. This meeting was held on the 9th of April, and resolutions were adopted, deprecating the bill, and agreeing to oppose it, as peculiarly calculated to interfere with Sunday Schools, and to abstract the children from their present means of religious instruction. Your Committee also observe that many of the Unions in connexion with your Society have adopted resolutions against this Bill, and have instituted investigations which satisfactorily show the great inaccuracy of the Parliamentary Reports, the data on which Mr. Brougham has founded his proposed legislative enactments. The measures thus adopted by these various united Societies strongly attest the value of such associations. Had there been no united Societies, who could have made the necessary investigations?-who would have informed the public mind?

The following is a Brief Summary of the Returns received from the different

Unions and Reporting Societies :

Fifty-eight Country Unions and Societies 2,456 29,217 270,894

Schools. Teachers.

Scholars.

Four London Auxiliaries

324 4,438 48,862

Unions in Wales

160

310 14,683

Increase reported since the last year

789 3,890 90,030

Of which 388 are New Schools opened during the past year.

CONTINENT. - JEWS' SOCIETY.

(Continued from page 334.)

THE following letter was addressed to Mr. Elsner by Mr. H. Gortz, at Komrau, December 11, 1820.

"Of the Hebrew New Testament I have only four copies left. The rest, with the other small publications, were immediately disposed of, when the Jews had been informed of the arrival of Hebrew books. On the 1st of July, seven Jews met in my house. They asked all of them for Hebrew books, especially the Prophets. I asked them, whether any of them could read and understand Hebrew? They all answered in the affirmative. And when I had shown them the 53d of Isaiah and some other passages, I found that they not only could read, but also understand them, as they explained them without difficulty in the German language. While one of them read it aloud, the others listened with great attention. After a while, one of them took out of his pocket the Hebrew New Testament, which he already possessed, and said, 'It is curious that the prophets have so clearly foretold the facts related in the New Testament of Jesus: and he added, 'I for one must confess, that when I read the Prophets and then the New Testament, nothing can be more clear than that Jesus is the true and the real Messiah.' The other Jews looked upon the Christians who were present, with an eye of veneration, and then exclaimed, one after the other, But what shall we do? We cannot help being Jews.' I replied, So you are now. But whenever you begin to believe in Jesus, and to receive him as your Redeemer, you cease to be Jews, and enter into the Christian church. I advised them to pray to God, that he would give them a true spirit of repentance for their sins, and enlightened understandings, to read the Scripture which testifies