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It is not a disputable specimen; it is a part of the Devotions of the Fathers of the Oratory, sung by them in an assembly to which hundreds habitually repair, printed for their use, purchased at their booksellers, bearing date, 1849.

66 THE PATRONAGE OF ST. JOSEPH,

"Dear husband of Mary! dear Nurse of her Child!
Life's ways are full weary, the desert is wild;
Bleak sands are all round us, no home can we see!
Sweet Spouse of our Lady! we lean upon thee.

"For thou to the pilgrim art Father and Guide,
And Jesus and Mary felt safe by thy side;
Ah! blessed Saint Joseph! how safe should I be,
Sweet Spouse of our Lady! if thou wert with me!

"O blessed Saint Joseph! how great was thy worth,
The one chosen shadow of God upon earth,
The Father of Jesus-ah! then wilt thou be,
Sweet Spouse of our Lady! a father to me?

"Thou hast not forgotten the long dreary road, When Mary took turns with thee, bearing thy God; Yet light was that burden, none lighter could be; Sweet Spouse of our Lady! O canst thou bear me? "A cold, thankless heart, and a mean love of ease, What weights, blessed Patron! more galling than

these?

My life, my past life, thy clear vision may see; Sweet Spouse of our Lady! O canst thou love me? "O give me thy burden to bear for awhile; Let me kiss His warm lips, and adore His sweet smile;

With her Babe in her arms, surely Mary will be, Sweet Spouse of our Lady! my pleader with thee. "When the treasures of God were unsheltered on earth;

Safe keeping was found for them both in thy worth;
O Father of Jesus! be father to me,
Sweet Spouse of our Lady! and I will love thee.
"God chose thee for Jesus and Mary-wilt thou
Forgive a poor exile for choosing thee now?
There is no Saint in Heaven I worship like thee,
Sweet Spouse of our Lady! O deign to love me!"

THINK OF JERUSALEM.

"Remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind."-Jer, li. 50.

SONS of a race beloved of God, a race of high renown,
Alas! that trampled in the dust lies your ancestral crown!
Alas! that Judah's pride is dim, and Israel's triumphs o'er,
The palace of their kings o'erthrown, their holy house no more!

Ye, who have loved your native hills and pleasant homes so well,
Must now away, in stranger lands, the victor's train to swell;

In Babel's busy marts to toil, or languish in her keep,

Or where her streams are rolling free, your freedom's want to weep.

Yet sorrow not with selfish grief,-Jerusalem is waste!

Her sculptured pride is cast aside, by ruthless hands defaced;

The lambent flames have scorched her walls, the mounts have laid them low;

Let Salem's children think of her,-deep is the parent's woe!

She sits in solitude, who ruled, a noble queen, but now;

The royal robe about her form, the diadem on her brow;

Her banner waving in the breeze, with warrior hosts untold;

But death or bonds have vanquished these, and none dares that unfold.

Think of her sunny vales, between whose banks the Kedron sweeps ;
Think of the mount upon whose brow the closing daybeam sleeps;
Think of her well-trimmed hills of vine, and fields of ripening grain,
Her crowded shrine, and rites divine, and pomp of queenly train.

Think of her, in your midnight dreams-her image be your rest!
Think of her, in your noonday toils-'twill soothe the stricken breast;
Think of her, when on bended knee, God's pitying eye you claim;
Still worship towards the holy place, where once He set his name.

And think of Him, the Good, the True, who Egypt's power defied,
Redeemed your fathers from the yoke, when unto him they cried :
Perchance he'll turn again, and smile on Zion's dreary doom,
And bid the woe-worn captives back to raise her from the tomb.

To build again those hallowed walls, and worship there in truth,
Amidst the memory-tears of age, and joyous shouts of youth ;*
To gaze upon "the goodly land," and win its fruitful spoils;

And wake the strain they wooed in vain, from bondage and its toils.

And have not we a home beloved? far distant, yet how near!

That asks our thoughts while journeying on, "pilgrims and strangers here:" Jerusalem, thou land of light! thou city of our King!

To thee we'll raise our ardent gaze, and strive thy songs to sing.

Thou art in truth a home for souls, in troubled world like this;

Thou hast the Centre of their rest, the Author of their bliss ;
Thou dost not know of tears of woe, nor pain, nor death, have place;
The grace of every joy is thine, and joy of every grace.

'Tis ours thine "outer courts" to tend-the threshold not the fane;
The entrance-gate, where good men wait, more meetness to attain.
Are these in circumstance of need? In barrenness and gloom?
God speed the hour, whose quickening power, shall make the desert bloom.

With praise, that heaven's own lofty truth our earthen vessels bear,
We'll mingle, for its onward course, the earnest voice of prayer.
Zion, he best remembers thee, who with uplifted eye,
Looks to that throne, where reigns alone, thine Advocate on high.

We'll think of thee, the night is dark, and tempests are abroad;
Faint hearted are thy chosen sons, they feebly wield the sword;
Thy conquests are but few and far, thou art a "bruised reed,"-
The bush through ages wrapped in flames, yet unconsumed indeed!

We'll think of thee, in bonds beneath, and yield thee filial love; We'll think of thee, redeemed from death, all free and fair above. And when we burst our captive's bond, and wings immortal wear, We'll soar the distant hills beyond, and pay our worship there. Streatham.

Ezra iii. 12.

J. T.

CHRONOLOGICAL PAGE FOR JANUARY, 1850.

SUN RISES & SETS.

FAMILY BIBLE READING.

MEMORANDA.

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Moon sets, 1 min, past 10, morning.
Baptist Irish Committee, half-past 5.
Moon sets, 33 min. past 10, morning.
Moon rises, 23 min. past 9, evening.
Moon sets, 2 min. past 11, morning.
Moon rises, 38 min. past 10, evening.
Moon sets, 26 m. past 11, morning.
Moon rises, 49 min. past 11, night.
Moon's last quarter, 37 min. past 8, morn.
Mars in east, after sunset.

Sunday School Union Lessons,
Isaiah lxv., John viii. 21-50.
Jupiter in south and south-west, carly.
1840, Penny Post established.
Moon rises, 11 min. past 3, morning.
Fraternal meeting of Ministers, at 4.
Moon rises, 14 min. past 4, morning.
Moon sets, 36 min. past 1, afternoon.
Moon rises, 14 min. past 5, morning.
Moon sets, 11 m. past 2, afternoon.
Moon rises, 11 min. past 6, morning.
Moon sets, 52 min. past 2, afternoon.
Moon rises, at 7, morning.

Moon sets, 40 min. past 3, afternoon.

New Moon, 19 min. past 11, morning.

S.S.U., 2 Kings vi. 1-23, John ix, 1-25.
Moon rises, 23 min. past 8, morning.
Moon sets, 30 min. past 5, afternoon.
Baptist Home Mission Committee at 6.
Moon sets, 32 min. past 6, evening.
London Baptist Association,
New Park St., at 3, afternoon.

1840, Moses Fisher (Liverpool) d., æt. 65.
Moon sets, 43 min. past 8, evening.
Moon rises, 18 min. past 10, morning.
Moon sets, 50 min. past 9, evening.

Moon rises, 40 min. past 10, morning.

Moon sets, 57 min, past 10, evening.

Sunday School Union Lessons,
Ezekiel xxxiv., John x.

Moon's first quarter, 40 min. past 9, morng.

1793, Louis XVI. of France beheaded.

Moon sets, 22 min. past 1, morning.

Stepney Committee at 6.

1820, Duke of Kent died, aged 52.

Young Men's Missionary Prayer Meeting.

Moon sets, 51 min. past 3, morning.

Moon rises, 14 min. past 1, afternoon.
Moon sets, 4 min. past 5, morning.
Moon rises, 6 min. past 2, afternoon.
Moon sets, 10 min. past 6, morning.
Moon rises, 5 min. past 3, afternoon.

Sunday School Union Lessons,
Psalm xc, John xi.

Full Moon, 9 min. bef. 1, morning. 1547, Henry VIII. died, aged 55. 1820, George III. died, aged 82. Quarterly Meeting of Baptist Board. 1649, Charles I. beheaded, aged 48. Moon rises, 13 min. past 8, evening. Moon sets, 27 min. past 9, morning. Moon rises, 30 min. past 9, evening.

REVIEW S.

which has been two years in progress,

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas the publication of the last volume of
Chalmers, D.D., LL.D. By his Son-in-that interesting posthumous series
law, the Rev. WILLIAM HANNA, LL.D.
Vol. I. 8vo., pp. 514. Price 10s. 6d.
Posthumous Works of the Rev. THOMAS
CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D. Nine Volumes.

8vo. Price £4 14s. 6d.

No theologian has arisen this century who has exercised a more important influence on his contemporaries than the late Dr. Chalmers, or whose character it is more desirable that readers of all ranks and denominations should thoroughly understand. While he remained in connexion with the Scottish ecclesiastical establishment, there was no section of the Christian church whose chiefs did not honour him as an effective preacher, and an able teacher of the rising ministry; even then, the magnanimity of his purposes, the energy of his intellect, and the comprehensiveness of his charity, rendered him an object of general esteem and confidence among presbyterians and episcopalians, independents and baptists. The circumstances which devolved on him the leading part in the heroic procedings of that memorable May in which four hundred and seventyfour ministers of the church of Scotland resigned their offices and emoluments in compliance with the dictates of conscience, and the admirable manner in which he conducted himself amidst the difficulties of that crisis, invested him with additional interest; and now, his course having terminated, he cannot fail to be regarded as a specimen of human nature which intelligent men of every class will desire to study closely.

It affords us pleasure to announce

VOL. XIII.-FOURTH SERIES.

and, at the same time, the first volume of a detailed Memoir of his Life and Writings, by the well-furnished member of his domestic circle to whom the work was delegated. The volume is peculiarly acceptable, as it includes the history of his early life. Comprising the first thirty-three years of his course, it exhibits the preparatory processes by which he was fitted for the services he was afterwards to perform, and discloses particulars respecting his mental history which could not with propriety be published while he remained among us, but without a knowledge of which we could have but inadequate views of the wisdom and goodness displayed towards him. Some glances at his mental history, as pourtrayed in this volume, will we doubt not be pleasing and profitable to our readers.

It was not till he was nearly thirty years of age that Mr. Chalmers underwent that great change which is described in the apostolic writings as passing from death unto life. This is sometimes effected so gradually, and preceded by so much apparent conformity to spiritual habits, that it is not easily perceptible to bystanders; but in the case of Mr. Chalmers, it was his becoming obviously, to all his acquaintance, a new creature. He had been from his youth open-hearted, benevolent, discerning, and energetic; he had been trained to observe the forms of religion, and he had taken upon himself the responsibilities of a parish minister. His pastoral duties were discharged with professional regularity; mathematics and chemistry were

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his favourite pursuits, but literary celebrity was the object of his most ardent desire. This portion of his life is, however, instructive. His aspiring temperament and inadequate success show us a man of superior powers and attainments restless and uneasy, dissatisfied with the present and without definite aim in regard to the future. Anxiously seeking for opportunities to distinguish himself, he found one in accordance with his official predilections, when in the General Assembly of 1809 he delivered a brilliant speech, advocating such advancement in the temporal circumstances of the clergy as might increase their "importance,” and give "splendour and efficacy to their exertions." But, soon after this, it pleased his heavenly Father to commence a course of operations on his heart, by which he was drawn towards a Redeemer whom he had served nominally, but whose love he had never known. A pious uncle died suddenly, leaving him one of his trustees, and

this was the commencement of a series of events which will be described best in the words of Dr. Hanna :

"The state of his health did not admit of Mr. Chalmers leaving Kilmany till the beginning of August. He returned to Anstruther at the close of September, and it was some exposure in coming home from that second visit, which threw him into that long, severe, and most momentous illness, during which the first stage of a great and entire spiritual revolution was accomplished in him. For four months he never left his room; for upwards of half a year. he never entered his pulpit; it was more than a twelvemonth before all the duties of his parish were again regularly discharged by him. His illness, which was an affection of the liver, was such as to require the application of the very strongest medicines. 'I visited him,' says Professor Duncan, at Fincraigs, where he was under the medical treatment of Dr. Ramsay of Dundee, and I certainly never saw any person so much altered in the same space of time, being then greatly attenuated, while formerly he was corpulent. He was scarcely able to walk across the room. It was a year or two before he recovered, and during that

period he had much the appearance of an old man, of one who would never be able again for thus weakened and reduced, the mind was left much exertion.' But although the body was in untouched vigour; and into it, now left to its own profound and solitary musings, there sunk the deepest and most overpowering impression of human mortality.

"For upwards of twenty years death had never entered his family circle. Perhaps the first time that he had ever stood face to face in presence of the last enemy, and seen the last stroke given, was when he witnessed the death of his brother George. But death was now to be no stranger: already had he borne away two of the family in his cold embrace; and two of his sisters were at this time threatened with the same fatal malady. Mr. Ballardie had passed into eternity in a moment. seemed as if, once begun, the quick succession was to go on unbroken. A panic seized the family, as if one after another they were doomed to fall. Partaking fully of that panic, Mr. Chalmers believed that he was about to

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die. For days and weeks he gazed upon the death brought thus so near, with eye intent and solemnized. My confinement,' wrote Mr. Chalmers, has fixed on my heart a very strong impression of the insignificance of time -an impression which I trust will not abandon me, though I again reach the heyday of health and vigour. This should be the first step to another impression still more salutarythe magnitude of eternity. Strip human life of its connexion with a higher scene of existence, and it is the illusion of an instant, an unmeaning farce, a series of visions and projects, and convulsive efforts, which terminate in nothing. I have been reading Pascal's Thoughts on Religion: you know his historya man of the richest endowments, and whose youth was signalized by his profound and original speculations in mathematical science, but who could stop short in the brilliant career of discovery, who could resign all the splendours of literary reputation, who could renounce without a sigh all the distinctions which are conferred upon genius, and resolve to devote every talent and every hour to the defence and illustration of the gospel. This, my dear sir, is superior to all Greek and to all Roman fame.' pp. 151, 152.

"Contemplated from the confines of eternity, his past life looked to Mr. Chalmers like a feverish dream, the fruitless chasing of a shadow. Blinded by the fascination of the things seen and temporal, he had neglected the things unseen and eternal. He had left undischarged the highest duties of human life, and he had despised that faith which can alone lend

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