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THE VILLAGE CHURCH.

THE VILLAGE CHURCH.

"OH! brethren, I have seen sabbath sights, and joined in sabbath worships, which took the heart with their simplicity, and ravished it with sublime emotions. I have crossed the hills in the sober and contemplative autumn, to reach the retired lonely church betimes, and as we descended towards the simple edifice, whither every heart and every foot directed itself from the country around, on the sabbath morn we beheld issuing from every vale and mountain glen its little train of worshippers coming up to the congregation of the Lord's house, around which the bones of their fathers reposed, and near to which reposed the bones of one who had in cold blood fallen for his God, at the hands of that wretched man, the hero of our northern romances: bones oft visited by pious feet, and covered on the hill side, where they lie with a stone bearing an inscription not to be exceeded for sublimity by any in that sacred mausoleum, which containeth the ashes of those whom the nation delighteth to honour. In so holy a place the people assembled under a roof, where ye of the plentiful south, would not have lodged the porter of your gate; but under that roof the people sat and sung their Maker's praise,

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tuning their hearts, by far the noblest aim,” and the pastor poured forth to God the simple. wants of the people, and poured into their attentive ears the scope of Christian doctrine and duty, and having filled the hearts of his flock with his consolations, parted with them after much blessing and mutual congratulation, and the people went on their way rejoicing. Oh! what meaning there was in the whole! what piety! what intelligence! what simplicity! The men were shepherds and came up in their shepherd's guise, and the very brute, the shepherd's servant and companion, rejoiced to come at his feet. Oh, it was a sabbath! a sabbath of rest! the body and soul were equally refreshed, and all nature around seemed to sympathize in the unity which breathed through the congregation."

THE CHARACTER OF DAVID.

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