Of others of that name, of whose bright steps God planted the vine in Eden for the use and gratification of man; and if, as many think, the fruit of the vine was the "apple," by which our first parents transgressed, we see how the devil subverted the original intention, and wielded it as an instrument of destruction to mankind. But the curse was inflicted; and thenceforward, like the reptile whose form the tempter had assumed, the passive agent of evil was condemned to trail its "tortuous length," nor ever again assume its erect position among the trees of the garden or the forest. Gnarled and knotted are its branches; yet does their bark produce the finest and the greatest quantity of that fluid, which enstamps the curse and the remedy upon the fair pages that scatter far and wide the tidings of "life and immortality brought to light." From the time of Noah until the present, the book, be desecrated to the service of Sue, or Sand, or Bulwer!" I cannot express what a feeling of relief I experienced, as I remembered that the work was stereotyped, and that the mute, though speaking expletives of thought, would not be employed in the formation of words to aid in the embellishment of crime, or adapted to the nomenclature of vice. Does not a sense of propriety, the moral fitness of things, demand that they who print religious books, should not print any thing adverse to the interests of religion? Does not a contrary course seem like destroying with one hand the edifice rearing with the other? How has the glorious art of printing, that which is indeed one of the best gifts of God to man, been seized upon by the arch enemy of souls, subverted from its original design, and rendered subservient to the advancement of the worst of purposes! Intended by God to spread the knowledge of his revealed will to earth's remotest bounds, Satan, unable to stay this current of divine love from flowing from centre to cir-juice of the grape has been one of the most prolific cumference, is endeavoring, but too successfully, to send the poisoned streams of polluted literature side by side with the healthful flow of godly knowledge. Alas, how many drink the turbid waters, whose lips have never touched the refreshing draught! Printing will accomplish its original, its legitimate purpose; and woe, woe is pronounced upon those who are arrayed against Omnipotence. God creates an agency for the accomplishment of his wise and gracious designs: Satan subverts that agency to the injury of man, and what ensues? The arsenal of God's providence but provides a heavier artillery, and the battering-ram is destroyed, and succeeded by the lightning of Heaven's invention. We can trace this in instances too numerous for quotation; but a few will suffice for proof, and may illustrate the position. God created man for the manifestation of his glory. Adam fell through Satan's malice; and ere the ruined archangel, in conclave with his fiend compeers, had raised one pean of rejoicing over his accursed victory, the glorious plan of redemption, through Christ Jesus, had swelled the highest notes in the anthems of eternal praise. Woman was first in the transgression; but ere the wily tempter had recovered from the surprise of his own success, and found time to taunt his victim with the triumph he had gained, it was announced, in tones heard in heaven, earth, and hell, that "the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head." And often, in her after years of sorrow and fearfulness, may we suppose Adam to have addressed her in these words of one of the most gifted of her daughters: "Rise, my beloved! if sin came by thee, And by sin, death, the ransom, righteousness, sources, one of the most powerful instrumentalities of evil; whereupon, God, as if in direct defiance of the devil, has seized this agency of hell's formation; and, from the hour when "The soldier's spear pierced our Redeemer's side," has made it the ever-speaking symbol of that shed blood by which transgression is forgiven-the stillenduring memento of that sacrificial death by which atonement was made, and the redeemed and the Redeemer exalted to a height of glory otherwise unknown. Now, in looking round upon this world, this battle-field of mind, where, fighting under their respective captains, the myriads of mankind are arrayed against each other, it does appear to me that type, and ink, and paper-that writing, and printing, and publishing, are of paramount importance-the most momentous in their results-the most fearful in their consequences; and the man who, under the present meridian light, willfully writes, or prints, or publishes "one line which, dying, he would wish to blot," must possess a temerity of purpose, a fearlessness of consequences, or embrace a theory of expiation, of which I can scarce form an idea. The conflict is waging hotter and hotter; side by side with the Church of God towers the temple of boldlyproclaimed infidelity; "Bible Houses" and "BookRooms" rise before us, but in close neighborhood are establishments for the novelist, the dramatist, and the sensualist. We send the tract distributor and the colporteur; but the agents of vice have seized similar weapons, and often, we fear, are more successful in their use. The pages devoted to the dissemination of religious intelligence gladden the hearts of God's faithful; but the teeming presses of the * In allusion to the printer's ink, prepared from the German or Frankfort black. This is procured from burnt vine twigs and wine lees, and is in highest reputation, as being more free from grittiness than the ivory black. THE GARDEN AND THE CROSS.-TO MY SLEEPING BABE. 373 impious actually groan with the literature of hell, and seem to belch it forth to do its devastating work upon mankind. The trash too silly, though not too vicious, for the circulating libraries of Europe, is emptied en masse into Hindostan and Burmah, and the pitiable infidelities of China are transferred to us, and are now reprinted in the languages of the western world. Thus the wonderful agency of printing, without whose invention the Reformation by Luther might have remained as local as the English by Wicliffe, or the Bohemian by Huss, has been turned aside from its heavenward mission, and pressed into the service of the world and the devil. That the cause of God will ultimately triumph, we are assured; but there is a vail between the present and the future, and we know not whether the victory is to be gained by the creation or development of a new and irresistible agency, or through redoubled exertion in the use of the present means. "Our God unfolds, by slow degrees, The purport of his deep decrees; Sheds, hour by hour, a clearer light, In aid of our defective sight; But spreads at length before the soul In the absence of knowledge, it is the duty of Christians to rise in their united strength, and, in the exercise of their arduous task, to push the battle to the gates, looking confidently unto Him whose strength is omnipotent, and who is mighty to prevail. I congratulate you, Mr. Editor, as a Christian brother, upon the success and extension of the "Repository." It may contain some thoughts of little consequence-more important ones may be but feebly expressed; and the efforts of the immature are yet to gather strength by frequent exercise; but mingled with these contributions are the offerings of the brightest and holiest of our Church; and its publication, under the present supervision, is a sufficient guaranty, that, when we introduce it into our families, it contains no line that will stab the cause of religion, or force a sigh from the heart of its votaries. I congratulate you, sir, that the voice of your brethren has placed you in this responsible vocation; it is in perfect unison with your sacred calling; and often shall my prayer arise, that this periodical may prove an agency of unmingled good. THE GARDEN AND THE CROSS. BY REV. W. F. FARRINGTON. HARK! whence that sound of woe, that pressing call I paus'd, and heard him cry, "My Father, must In which the Son of God expires for man. In that important hour, how much of life TO MY SLEEPING BABE. BY MRS. SARAH A. WEAKLEY. SLEEP on, sweet babe, thy mother's arm 374 THE ILLUSTRIOUS CONVERT. THE ILLUSTRIOUS CONVERT. BY MISS C. C. C. View the persecutor, now, as he enters Damascus. Those eyes, which had so often dwelt upon its historic glory, in the brilliant fancies of studious youth, were now blind to the not less brilliant splendors of the reality. Through the arches of those mighty gates, along the crowded streets, and amid the bust ONE of the most sublime and perfect portraitures of character contained in the page of history, is that of the great champion of Christianity-the apostle Paul.ling multitudes, the herald of persecution was now His birth-place was on classic ground-the beautiful city of Tarsus, renowned for its attainments in philosophy and science. With great propriety, then, might the apostle recur with patriotic pride to the place of his nativity, as "no mean city." led, speechless and amazed. The power of the Christian's God had sealed his physical sight, that his mental vision, being purified from the scales of prejudice and unrighteous zeal, might be better prepared to behold and appreciate the beauty and sublimity of those truths, which would be the theme of his meditations and discourse during his future life. # * Several years elapse, during which he who had been the relentless persecutor, became the self-sacri At the city of Athens, Paul waited for the arrival of his fellow-laborers. He occupies the interval in observations upon that "most glorious of all earthly seats in art and taste." As the apostle wandered among the numerous works of art, so hallowed in the fond regard of the scholar, man of taste, and poet, the deep fountain of his heart was moved, that the noble spirit of this entire nation should be bowed beneath the yoke of idolatry. Wherever he turned, his eye rested on the altars and consecrated groves. Every stream and fountain had its own bright Naiad; on the plain appeared the majestic colonnades of the mighty temple of Jupiter and the Olympian gods; and, above all, from the high Acropolis, rose over the glorious city the noble Pantheon. These splendid testimonies of that innate spirit of devotion, which ever prompts the heart of man to the worship of some The son of wealthy parents, he was sent to Jerusalem, the resort of talent in every profession, where, at the feet of the most eloquent and distinguished sage of his time, he imbibed that deep and thorough knowledge, of which he made the first practical use against one of the ablest defenders of the cause officing Christian. Christianity. His fierce spirit mingled with the rest, in that burst of indignation against the holy martyr, { who, standing fearlessly in their midst, rebuked, in the dignity of his spirit, the merciless persecutors of his fellow-Christians. As the words of inspiration fell from his lips, his soul burning with scorn at their mean cruelty, he boldly charges them and their fathers, from whom they proudly boasted their descent, as the authors of cruel persecution, and finally, as the climax of their malice and impiety, consigning to an ignominious death the Son of God. He heeds not the movements of his enraged auditors, but, with a courage and truthfulness worthy of his Master, brings home the accusation to their consciences with irresistible power. They hurry him from the tribunal to the place of execution; and Saul gazes with a calm smile of approbation on the blood of the first martyr to Christianity. The death of the apostle Ste-superior power, of whose existence he is ever conphen seems at once to have swept away every bar-scious, excited in the soul of Paul other feelings than rier, which had hitherto prevented the full flow of the tide of persecution; for the decided independence, and terrible enthusiasm of the character of Saul, found at once a channel in which to flow. Not content with the work of destruction he was performing at Jerusalem, he receives, at his particular request, from the high council of his nation, letters to the synagogue of Damascus. He now forsakes his literary and religious pursuits in the renowned capital of his nation, to wend his wearisome way over trackless wastes, beneath the rays of a torrid sun, to a strange city. He comes, at length, within sight of the beautiful city of Damascus, with its rich domes and spires glittering in the sunbeams. As Saul and his companions gazed upon this scene of surpassing loveliness, he saw a light, more brilliant than the sun, flash from heaven, which struck him to the earth. While in this prostrate position, Saul alone distinguished, in those awful sounds, a heavenly voice, whose words, piercing his heart, transformed the bigoted persecutor and proud Pharisee to the "least of all the apostles." those of delight and admiration. His eye was not unsusceptible to the beauties of these works of art, with whose glories he had been long familiar; but over them all was spread a moral and spiritual gloom, that rendered all those rich and noble memories sad and mournful. Under the impulse of these feelings, we find him standing before the court of the Areopagus, surrounded by a vast concourse of the curious and inquisitive Athenians. There, Paul utters, with boldness, the great revealed truths of Christianity. Never yet, from Athens' most distinguished orators, had been heard a discourse, which, for solemn beauty and lofty eloquence, exceeded these brief declarations of the apostle. Standing on the hill of Mars, encircled by the towers of Athens, the mighty Acropolis rising proudly in the west, and in the east the philosophic Academia, before him sat the most august and ancient court in the Grecian world, waiting for the announcement of his solemn commission, regarding the new deities which he was expected to propose as an addition to the Pantheon. The apostle raises his LOOK ALOFT. eyes to the monuments of their worship, which rose on every side-the mighty temple of the Athenian Minerva the splendid shrine of the Olympian Jovethe temple of Theseus, the deified ancient king of Attica, and to the new piles which the Grecian adulation had lately consecrated to the worship of her foreign conquerors-the deified Cæsars. 375 gloom. His body is manacled, and bowed to the earth with chains of massive iron; but his free, unfettered spirit, roams with unrestrained liberty. Its mighty inward workings are perceptible in the lofty and determined, as well as sweet and placid expression of his noble countenance. He has lost sight of the cruelties of Nero-he has forgotten his former sufferings, and feels not his present captivity and in the exhaustion of decayed nature, or in the calmness of a quiet and peaceful dissolution: he is doomed to the martyr's death beneath the imperial eye. Yet the hand of violence falls not unexpect He commences his brief but eloquent discourse, in a tone of dignified politeness, alluding to their de-impending fate. His was not the lot to sink away vout, yet misguided zeal, the evidences of which everywhere surrounded him. As he concluded, however, with declaring boldly that great fundamental truth of Christianity, the resurrection of the dead, contempt and scorn burst upon him from every partedly; and, in the midst of his Christian faith and of the immense assembly, at the idea of any thing so utterly absurd. On the immortality of the soul the most profound of their own philosophers had reasoned; but the notion of the restoration of life to the perished body, the recall to existence of the scattered dust which, for centuries, had ceased to retain the human form, all amounted to the wildest speculation. The proud Epicurean and Stoic turned contemptuously away from the uncivilized pretender, who would induce them to believe so great an improbability. Never again did Paul appear at Athens, proclaiming those imperishable truths which were destined to withstand not only the contempt of the philosopher, and the revilings of the heathen, but to exalt the name of that despised Hebrew to a fame, before the light of which earth-born distinction must fade away into darkness. * Rome is the scene of splendor and festivity, and, at the same time, of unholy persecution and exquisite suffering. Nero reigns-that prince of cruelty, who, at one moment, exalts a favorite to honor; at another, plots his downfall and death. The emperor's bloody career is nearly at a close; and, as if having prescience of his early tragical death, he urges on the work of destruction, selecting, as the victims of his merciless cruelty and refined torture, a small band of unoffending Christians. It is midnight. The royal palaces resound with revelry and mirth. The magnificent banquet table is crowded with princely and patrician guests-with royal parasites, whose fawning adulation and sycophancy have won for them high places in the emperor's favor. The brilliantly illuminated gardens reveal to the gaze of a multitude of spectators, the burning forms of the sacrificed Christians, whose death-fires are kindled, to minister to the amusement of atrocious Nero and his court. But there is one retired apartment, at a short distance from this scene of pleasure, within the massive walls of which the sound of mirth and music reaches not. One sole occupant shares the dungeon holy courage, he exclaims: "I have fought the good "The oppressor held LOOK ALOFT. BY VIVENZO. - WHEN Comes the time to part, And speak the word farewell- When o'er the lov'd one's couch When love no longer brings Then look aloft. When storms around thee howl, Then look aloft. When sickness' fevered hand 376 GENIUS. BY REV. B. M GENUNG. GENIUS.-THE SUN. ether all glittering with worlds; yet ever did he tread upon the lines of truth, and was guided in his flight by the certainty of mathematical demonstration. True genius sleeps not on a downy pillow, treads IN different individuals, genius has a different cast, not on silken carpets, nor dwells, confined, in garor appears to be of a different nature; yet, wherever nished towers. It rests as well in the storm as in it exists, in whatever way it may lead its possessor the calm of even-tide-rides as safely on the lightto act, it is still the same in its real identity-it isning's wing as on the handiwork of art. The waunique originality, acting, or causing persons to act, in particular ways. It is well there is not to be found a person possessing a universal genius. Such a person would be the framer of a thousand schemes, but the finisher of none. He would be dabbling in every thing, and would accomplish nothing. The brief era of man's earthly existence is too limited for him to become a proficient in many arts-his time is too short for him to accomplish many works of magnitude. Wisely, therefore, has the Creator bestowed a diversity of gifts on the children of men. Many persons possess no particular talent whatever; the ingenuity of some seems only capable of manoeuvring in the midst of dollars and cents; the talents of one prompt him to deeds of valor, or to the construction of works of mechanism; while the genius of another pencils the outlines of literature, or arranges the frame-work of science that is to bless a nation with its worth. The peculiar, native power of Cicero, enabled him to bind the spirits of the senate with a mental chain; and the ill-directed talents of Napoleon made Europe tremble at his frown, and bleed beneath his touch. It was the genius of Homer that struck the Grecian lyre, and the live music of Virgil's soul that breathed on the Roman harp, and rolled its flowing numbers down the tide of classic song. It was genius that led West to paint on canvas the deep sensations of the soul; it made Franklin the charioteer of the lightning, and Morse the ELECTRIC PENMAN of the present age. It still lives, and "operates unspent." It has woven our garments, planted our fields, built our cities, dug our canals, whitened our rivers, and girdled the ocean. It writes our literature, and sings our songs. Superior genius is often perverted, and applied to curse instead of to bless mankind; yet it may be doubted whether, in its nature, it is averse to rules, or that it cannot dwell within the sphere of truth. If rules are unnatural, or contrary to truth, it breaks over their limitations. The field of truth is far more extensive than that of fiction; and hence, in the onward progress of the human mind, as each succeeding age develops its power, there is a wider range for the full play of genius, and that, too, in the very school of truth. Did close application, did steady thought, did scientific rules cripple the transcendent genius of Newton? Did he not search for facts? Did he not die exploring truths? When the earth seemed too limited for his school-room, he made the firmament his study, and waded through depths of ters cannot quench its flame; for it was a spark of immortality that lighted up its fires. The floods cannot break in upon it; for it is safely harbored in the soul. Wealth seldom wakes its power, and never gives it birth. Once living, it can never die; and, if sanctified by divine truth, its course is onward-its tendency upward, to its native heaven. THE SUN. BY P. J. STUPENDOUS orb! transcendent visitor to man! from what clime hast thou strayed? Who were thy companions there? Hast thou a father? Or who hath begotten the dew of thy youth? Thou hast ever thy evening magnificence-thy noonday grandeur-thy morning freshness. The zephyrs of spring distil continually from thy lips. Thou hast always the beauty of summer; thy hands perpetually scatter the fruits of autumn; and the polar frosts, blended with the rich varieties of the seasons, hang their {crystalline chains over thy youthful bosom. Thou art an ever-speaking monument of the great Jehovah. Thy fadeless light declareth his imperishable glory— thy fixed station the immutability of his decreesthy regular visits his providential care of man. Upon the wheels of thine own apparent omnipotence thou dost travel swifter than the cannon's ball. "And who hath searched out thy way?" Swifter still fly thy orient beams, pervading, with a kind of ubiquity, thine almost boundless empire. Imagination tires while following thee in thy "little rounds,” and reason sinks overpowered while but contemplating the vestments that skirt thy vast dominions. Had thine Author handed forth nothing else from the heavens, thou art enough to declare his ubiquity, the eternity of his existence, the omnipotence of his arm, and the overpowering majesty of his transcendent beatitudes. Thou dost but peep upon our earth, and Nox and Somnus, quitting their abodes, make their flight equal to the haste of thy coming. Ten thousand times ten thousand beings spring into activity. Drooping flowers lift their smiling faces, while thy soft hand gently wipes their tears away. Thy fair daughter, Aurora, seated in her "rose-colored chariot, by celestial horses" drawn, with the morning star beaming over her head, diffuses the most jasmin fragrance, and kindles the most elysian raptures. |