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the tomb sweeter than song. There is a remembrance of the dead to which we turn even from the charms of the living. Oh the grave!-the grave!it buries every error-covers every defect-extinguishes every resentment! From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections. Who can look down upon the grave even of an enemy, and not feel a compunctious throb, that he should ever have warred with the poor handful of earth that lies mouldering before him!

Ay! go to the grave of buried love, and there meditate! There settle the account with thy conscience for every past endearment unregarded, of that departed being, who can never-never- never return to be soothed by thy contrition! If thou art a child, and hast ever added a sorrow to the soul, or a furrow to the silvered brow of an affectionate parent -if thou art a husband, and hast ever caused the fond bosom that ventured its happiness in thy arms, to doubt one moment of thy kindness or thy truth- if thou art a friend, and hast ever wronged in thought, word, or deed, the spirit that generously confided in thee-if thou art a lover, and hast ever given one unmerited pang to that true heart which now lies cold and still beneath thy feet, then be

sure that every unkind look, every ungracious word, every ungentle action, will come thronging back upon thy memory, and knocking dolefully at thy soulthen be sure that thou wilt lie down sorrowing and repentant on the grave, and utter the unheard groan, and pour the unavailing tear; more deep, more bitter, because unheard and unavailing.

Then weave thy chaplet of flowers and strew the beauties of nature about the grave; console thy broken spirit if thou canst, with these tender, yet futile tributes of regret;-but take warning by the bitterness of this thy contrite affliction over the dead, and henceforth be more faithful and affectionate in the discharge of thy duties to the living.

Washington Irving.

PERSEVERANCE.If there be one thing on earth which is truly admirable, it is to see God's wisdom blessing an inferiority of natural powers, where they have been honestly, truly, and zealously cultivated.

Dr. Arnold.

THE HOME OF CHILDHOOD.

"TIs a sad sight, though often seen on earth, The ruin of the place that gave us birth Total destruction of that actual scene

Razed from the ground, as if it ne'er had been. "Tis not alone the old protecting wall,

That sinks before us, as the fragments fall; the space we used to call our own Is mixed with common air- dissolved and gone.

But even

We know the flowers of spring will bloom again,
The woodland warblers will renew their strain,
The stately tree that falls will leave behind
Some seed, or stem, or sapling of its kind;
All things that e'er on earth's fair bosom grew,
Time, in some form or likeness, will renew:
E'en dearest friends, whose early troth was given,
Sever'd below, may live to meet in heaven.
But never more around our native hearth,
When once destroy'd, can life restore its mirth.

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The sound of welcome feet along that floor,
The window where we sat in musing hour,
Watching the moonbeams, listening to the shower,
The twilight shade of that sequester'd spot,
The Sabbath evening worship, ne'er forgot;
The chamber of our childhood, where we slept,
And, still more sacred, where we oft have wept
Tears by the nearest friend unseen

- unknown

Hoarding the treasure of our grief alone

All—all have vanish'd, by one stroke of fate:
Man may destroy, but cannot re-create.

Mrs. Ellis.

LIFE passes so swiftly, we should labour hard and fast, as those who in the harvest-field see the night closing in upon them, and much corn still standing.

THE CHARACTER OF WILBERFORCE.

Ir is not wonderful that many have claimed Mr. Wilberforce as the ornament of that particular section of the Christian Church which has assumed or acquired the distinctive title of Evangelical; nor that they should resent as injurious to their party any more catholic view of his real character. That he became the secular head of this body is perfectly true; but no man was ever more exempt from bondage to any religious party. Immutably attached to the cardinal truths of revelation, he was in other respects a latitudinarian. 66 Strange," he would say, "that Christians have taken as the badge of separation the very Sacrament which their Redeemer instituted as the symbol of their union." And in this spirit, though a strict conformist to the Church of England, he occasionally attended the public worship of those who dissent from her communion, and maintained a cordial fellowship with Christians of every denomi

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