ness;

the celestial world, joining with them in their ascriptions of praise to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb. One hour he is mourning here below over the imperfections of his character-the next he feels himself made perfect in purity and in blessedand while those who revered and loved him are weeping around his breathless corpse, he is taking his part in the exercises of that sacred temple, in which the worshippers serve the Lord day and night for ever. And as the time for the departure of our friends is appointed by unerring wisdom, we ought not to indulge ourselves in immoderate grief even if it should not accord with our wishes; but rather to bend in submission to the divine will and say, The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away, and blessed be the name of the Lord. Whether he removes them suddenly or detain them for months or years in a state of lingering expectation and suffering, he has reasons for so doing, which may be concealed from us, but he has assured us, that what we know not now we shall know hereafter. Then we shall know why one friend was taken away in the prime of his life, while another was suffered to outlive the strength of his body and the vigour of his mind; why one was borne off to the land of the enemy as by a sudden irruption of the king of terrors, while another had years of languishing and of pain assigned him; why one ascended to glory as in the flame of a seraphic devotion, and another by the more slow progression of the good hope through grace. And when he comes to be glorified in his saints, the whole of his conduct to them while on earth, will be admired, and we shall be forced to acknowledge that he has done all things well. Of this we have no doubt, even now; then why do we not quell the murmur of discontent?. and while agonized by the losses we have sustained, say,

"Our Father's wisdom cannot err;

His love no change nor failure knows :
Be ours his counsel to prefer,

And acquiesce in all he does."

"Suppose, ere the village clock proclaims to the rustic inhabitants, the departure of another hour, we should be doomed to receive the decisive sentence, which will

what would be the state of our minds? Should we be calm, like the woodman, who after the toils of the day, goes home to enjoy his rest? or should we be alarmed, as when the mariner sees the first symptoms of the rising storm?"

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THE CONCLUSION.

"Time, which puts an end to all human pleasures and sorrows, has likewise concluded the labours of the Rambler. Having supported for two years, the anxious employment of a periodical writer I have now determined to desist."

Johnson.

THE Author of the Evangelical Rambler, after having devoted a portion of his time for rather more than two years, to the labours of a periodical publication, now claims the privilege of retiring; but he cannot do it without expressing his gratitude to his readers for the sanction they have given to his unassuming work.

When he first courted the attention of the public, he explicitly avowed that his design was to afford "instruction, and amusement;" and he flatters himself, from the extent of circulation which his papers have reached, that he has in some measure succeeded; and now having sent forth the last of the projected series, he withdraws from that notice, which he has excited, with this source of consolation, which no earthly power can disturb, that he has meant well.

He has been solicited again and again, by some of the leading partizans of sectarian bigotry to leave the midway path which lies between them, and join their respective ranks: they have promised to become his advocate, and have pledged themselves to raise him to a higher pinnacle of fame, than he could ever reach on the ground which he has chosen to occupy; but he has refused,—disdaining to sacrifice on the altar of intolerance, and unwilling to disgrace the benign and holy religion of the Scriptures by an attempt to impregnate it with the evil passions of human nature.

His views of truth he has stated clearly and openly, without succumbing to that spirit of latitudinarianism which is becoming one of the epidemic diseases of the moral world; and error, in her multifarious forms, he has detected and reprobated, unawed by the sanction it has received from the authority of learning, or the accumulated prejudices of time; yet, he has not gone into the camp of the uncircumcised to sharpen the instruments which he has used; being firmly convinced from reflection

and observation, that in the province of theology, as within the habitation of domestic quietude, no tem per should be displayed, which stands opposed to the mildness and gentleness of christianity. But when vice has come before him, he has treated it with no respect; and though he has felt himself too feeble to crush the odious monster, yet he has attempted to maim it by the weapons of righteousness; or to make it look ridiculous by exposing its folly and absurdity.

The hypocrisy and bigotry of the christian church he has thrown open to the eye of the public, to excite their abhor rence; and has endeavoured to cultivate amongst all classes and denominations that charity which suffereth long and is kind, which envieth not, which vaunteth not itself, which is not puffed up; and though he cannot imagine that he has succeeded to the extent of his wishes, yet he hopes that he has not entirely failed. His aim has not been to uphold the imperfections of the ecclesiastical establishment of the country, nor yet to gain proselytes from her communion; but to advocate the cause of pure christianity, as existing apart from any of the external forms of its appearance in society; and though on some occasions he has trespassed on longindulged prejudices, and given the force of his sanction to what some may deem a spirit of innovation and division, yet he offers as an apology for his conduct, if one be necessary, that he has given no advice to a churchman or to a dissenter, which stands in opposition to the pure, and tolerant, and amiable spirit of the gospel. He has not endeavoured to divide those who profess the same faith, but to unite them still more closely; he has not attempted to demolish one denomination of christians, to build up another on its ruins; but to induce all to add to their faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity; and though there are points of difference on the minor questions of belief to which he is attached, yet he has cautiously avoided their introduction in his work, lest he should be regarded as an advocate for a party, rather than an advocate for the truth.

As he solicited no assistance when he commenced his series of papers, he feels some trifling degree of gratification in being able to say, that his debt of obligation to others is not very large. With the exception of those passages which are marked as quotations, and a few letters, which the intelligent reader will casily distinguish by the difference of their composition, he claims the whole, with all its faults and excellencies, as the production of his own pen; but he makes no pretensions to originality of thought, or superiority of style, of plot, or of arrangement. He thinks, with a celebrated writer of a former century, "that we are come into the world too late to produce any thing new, that nature and life are preoccupied, and that description and sentiment have long been exhausted."

But while he has been free from that vanity which courts applause by republishing the works of other writers as its own, he has not sought out an eccentric course of thinking and of writing to gain the reputation of an original author; choosing rather to follow his predecessors in the path which they have walked, without treading in their footsteps ;-taking the ideas which were suggested to him, without stopping to enquire who had the honour of first conceiving them; employing the arguments of proof, and the imagery of illustration, without wasting his time by attempting to ascertain from whence in the course of his reading they were taken; and endeavouring by thinking his own thoughts, and using his own mode of expression, to preserve a unity of design, while occasionally digressive, and a similarity of style, amidst that variety which argument, and description, and narration are known to admit and require.

That the papers are very unequal in point of interest, and execution, no one is more conscious of than the writer; and if he were disposed to advance an excuse which the kindness of friendship would accept, he should allude to his other engagements, which not only consumed his time, but exhausted the energy of his mind; but this would be only a sorry excuse, and therefore he will withhold it. What he has written, he wrote as well as he could, when it was written; and though by longer practice he could construct some of