suffered him to partake, she pointed upwards and with clasped hands sang praise to our good God the giver. An hour of delicious friendship stole away, as hand in hand they looked into each other's eyes -thoughts he knew not how to speak, and she needed no words to utter. Then another hymn to our good God, the sleepless Preserver, she warbled from her lips of gurgling melody, and the pair sank to rest.

"Thus sped on day after day, and night after night. Gradually Sthenos lost his fierceness, save in the struggles of the chase. She had fashioned for him soft garments out of fawn-skins and feathers, which now he wore less for need than pride, and to please his skilful friend. His shaggy hair was smoothed into curling grace; the hut constantly received new conveniences and ornaments from his strong or her cunning hand; and happy was he after his toils in the forest, to return bearing a rich honeycomb, or leading a goat with full udders to his home, dear because hers.

"On walking one dewy morning, he looked fondly in her loving face beaming with tender, holy thoughts, and said: 'You called me Sthenos, but have never told ine the name by which I am to call you, my dearest.'

"You have just pronounced the name I love best, except when you call me your wife and your friend. I have had several names in the land whence I came to be near you; but that by which our good God wished you to know me is Enthymia. And, dear Sthenos, whenever you are in trouble, in need, or in doubt, call Enthymia to your side, and whatever love can do, I will gladly perform. With your strength and my affectionate zeal, and the blessing of our good God, we shall be happy as we may in this wild wood; but the good God has promised me that when you shall have learned to sing and pray with me, that our two beings shall be blended into one, and we shall leave the forest to go and dwell in a garden with our good God, far more beautiful than the one from which you strayed a long while ago.'

"O happy hope,' replied Sthenos, 'I can think of no higher bliss than that your loveliness should be mingled with my strength, except that my strength shall be for ever united to your dear thoughts.'

666

Say not so, Sthenos,' answered she, looking up with a holy smile, like morning light sparkling in the dew; 'our highest joy will be to dwell with our good God."

"From that moment Sthenos earnestly

endeavored to learn the hymns and prayers of Enthymia. They lived long in the forest, and children were born to them. three sons like their father, vigorous,three daughters like their mother, graceful. But one fair morning the father and the mother came not from their chamber (for the little hut had given place to a wide dwelling); their children went anxiously in to seek them, but they found them not. Sthenos and Enthymia were gone to the garden of our good God.

"The children were mute in wonder and sadness, when suddenly the chamber was filled with ravishing light and delicious odors, and three radiant angels hovered over the bed; and the roof opened, and the children could see far up into the sky. and saw a glorious being standing under the Tree of Life, before the throne of God; and in the smiling countenance of the glorious being they recognized strangely, but sweetly mingled, the love of both father and mother. And one of the angels said (he was the tallest of the three): 'I pointed out the way to them and encouraged them to strive to reach the garden.'

"And I,' said the second, on whose bosom shone a gem like a golden anchor. 'bore them up on my wings.'

"And I,' joyfully exclaimed the third, who had eyes like the first spring violets washed with rain, 'have made them both one forever.'

"Then turning to her sister angels, she said: Your tasks for them are over; but I go to fill their united being with immortal happiness.""

"Ah! uncle Bernard," cried Gertrude. that is better than a fairy tale; but what queer names, Sthenos and Enthymia; what do they mean?"

"I made them out of the Greek," answered the old man; "and by Sthenos, I mean man left to himself, when he would be a mere savage; and by Enthymia, I mean wisdom sent to him by our good God, to teach him how to live on earth and prepare for heaven. When man is transformed to holy wisdom and uses his strength for wise ends, he becomes all good, and God takes him up to the second Paradise."

"Yes," says little Charley, "and the angel with the anchor, is Hope."

"And the tallest angel is Faith," adds Robert, for faith gives pious people courage."

"And the gentle blue-eyed one must be Love, for love lives for ever," whispers Gertrude in uncle Bernard's ear.

"Bless you, dear child, you look like her," whispers back uncle Bernard.

UR great city has the name of loving

OUR

the dollar well; she ought equally to have the glory of spending it kindly and freely. Our charities appear on the same grand scale as our business. It is a refreshing thing-and in the whirl and struggle of New-York life, it does one good-to turn aside a moment to our great institutions of mercy and world-wide charity-to find that wealth, and talents, and enterprise have at length been employed to make men less selfish, and to bring them nearer to one another, in kindness. Will the reader accompany us to one of these-perhaps the greatest in influence and strength. We walk up the Bowery in a broad and busy part, until it separates into two Avenues, the Third and Fourth. On the point, where they diverge, you see some little old buildings;-these are all to come down, and a park is to be laid out there, with a fountain. Beyond, where the men are excavating, will rise the Cooper Institute, the splendid gift of a mechanic, for the instruction and amusement of the people; and still beyond, and above that, forming with the others one of the finest architectural objects appears the grand building we are to visit, VOL. I.-43

the new Depository and Printing-House of the American Bible Society. We have no other building like it in the city. It is six stories high, with a frontage on four streets of seven hundred feet. It seems as we approach, square, yet you will find it an irregular, four-sided figure in shape; the longest side (232 ft. 6 in.) being on Ninth st., and the shortest (76 ft. 11 in.) on Third av. We enter at the principal entrance on Fourth avenue;-a rather handsome portal with columns and arches, and a heavy curved pediment. Above, in a niche on the outside, is a figure of Religion, of brown freestone, pointing with one hand to heaven, and the other to the open page of a Bible. There are three other entrances; we ascend the broad stairway, and enter first the manager's room on the second story, a large room-fifty feet by thirty-fireproof and lighted by a dome: under it is the library, also fireproof.

If we go up to the fifth and sixth stories on the north side, we shall see the great press-room-one hundred and nineteen feet long by forty-one feet wide. Near it are the bindery, the gilding and the finishing rooms, all on a similar grand scale. There are huge hydraulic presses;

and one great gangway, through which the paper is hoisted up, and another, through which the Bibles, when finished, are let down.

On the sixth story, are most of the three hundred women, employed by the establishment, in well-lighted, pleasant work-rooms, binding, stitching, or busy at some other work on the Bibles. These rooms, and the whole building, are well aired, by contrivances for ventilation, and by the large court within, around which the sides are built. It is heated by the steam-pipes, which connect with the boilers, well-placed in the area, beyond the power of doing injury by explosion.

Here will go on this next year the immense operations of the society. Think of it! over seven hundred thousand copies of Bibles and Testaments were printed by this Society last year, and since its foundation some eight millions! It began in 1816 with printing 6,410; in its twelfth year, it printed 134,607; in the twenty-fourth, 157,261; and in the thirty-sixth, 666,015.

In the year 1273, it cost a laboring man the wages of 14 years, to buy a Bible. In 1816 the cheapest Bible was worth a dollar. Now a good plain Bible can be bought for twenty-five cents, and a Testament for 6 cents. The only Bible Society in the world, on a scale like this, is the British and Foreign Bible Society.

All these seven hundred thousand and odd books were sent out last year, be it remembered, to the poor man's bare home, to make it beautiful with patience and contentment. This is the work, to which this great building, and all this wealth and labor are given. Who will not wish it God's blessing?

Another institution, corresponding in character, and equally grand in its operations, is the American Tract Society, whose extensive "house" is on the corner of Nassau and Spruce streets, near the site of the old Bible House. During the last year, this body has sent out more than two hundred and eighty millions of pages. In the same time it has printed over one million of volumes, and more than ten millions of tracts, of which last 920,000 are in foreign languages. Since its formation, it has printed about one hundred and thirty-one millions of tracts, and over eight millions seven hundred thousand volumes. Of those printed last year, about five millions of pages have been distributed gratuitously; more than two and a half millions over the sea, and millions through foreign countries, in one hundred and fifty different languages and dialects. Of the bound volumes, printed last year, we observe that such works as D'Aubigné's History, number 8,000 sets;

Edwards' Temperance Manual, 12,000; Pilgrim's Progress, 27,000. In German, there are 70,000 volumes; in Spanish, 140,000; in French, 11,000; in Danish, 2,500, and in Italian, 1,000. The total receipts for the year are $342,858; the expenditures, $342,199.

Naturally, in operations on such a gigantic scale, many a publication will be circulated, not worthy a place among the works of the Society. There should be more tracts issued on practical, everyday subjects. Tracts for the poor, on the preservation of health; tracts on the great principles of business and social intercourse; tracts on economy, and punctuality, and cleanliness, as well as on higher matters.

The American Home Missionary Society has for its objects, as substantially stated in its Constitution, the support of poor Churches, and the preaching to the destitute within the United States. It proposes, also, at times, to help Home Missions in foreign countries.

The office of the Society is in the American Tract Society building. The number of missionaries in the employ of the Society, during the last year, was 1,065, scattered through 28 different States and Territories. Of these, Illinois has the most-117; and Maryland, Georgia, and Arkansas, the least; each, one. The New England States have 305; the Middle States, 213; the Southern, 14; and the Western States and Territories, 533. Their operations combine the itinerant system, as it is called, and the regular system. That is, some of the pastors employed go from district to district, as they are needed; and others remain in fixed localities, like settled clergymen. In number, 619 are given as regular pastors; 260 as preaching to two or three congregations, each; and 186 as moving through wide districts, within definite limits. missionaries are employed by the Society in churches of colored people; and sixty preach in foreign languages; 13 to Welsh and 39 to German congregations, and others to the various foreign immigrants.

Nine

The number of Sabbath School scholars connected with the Churches of the Society, is about 66,500. During the past year, forty-five Churches have been organized by their missionaries. The receipts of the year, with the balance in the treasury, amount to $172,738; the expenditures, to $162,831.

The Society has been in operation twenty-six years; during this time, its receipts amount to $2,365,420.

The average expense of a missionary

was reckoned in 1826-27 at $83; in 1851-52 at $153.

This Society, as all who are familiar with our back-country districts know, has done a good work through the country. Their agents, not always men of broad views or refined culture, have yet gone where few others would have the courage or the self-denial to go. In the remote backwoodsman's log cabin, on the prairie, among the Indians, in the new, sickly Western village, on the dirty flat-boat and the canal, you will find the Home Missionary, sharing the sickness, and the labor, and the suffering, with those to whom he would bear the old words of Truth and Love. Who, of us, comfortable and at ease here in our pleasant homes, shall criticize too freely, if the self-denying laborer is not always as broad in his opinions as he is in his charity? We will forget the narrowness, and the dogmatism, and be thankful that there are, in an age of selfishness, men ready to forego all which the heart most values, for the sake of the unhappy and the needy.

The most powerful of all benevolent organizations in this country, the "American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions," has only an Agency in this city, and cannot be considered a NewYork Institution.

Allied with this in its great objects, but separated by its distinctive Anti-Slavery character, is the "American Missionary Association." This Society has for its especial principles, that no Mission-Church should ever admit a slaveholder as a member; that slaveholding should every where be preached against as a sin; and that no countenance or support should in any way be given to associations, religious or political, whose principles or conduct are opposed to those avowed by the Society, with reference to slavery. The whole number of missionary laborers employed by the Society is given at 140, being an increase of 45 over the number last year. Their stations are in Africa, Siam, Sandwich Islands, and in various parts of our own continent. The receipts of the Society for the last year, were $30,826; the expenditures, $30,233.

The American Seamen's Friend Society. It is estimated that over 110,000 sailors arrived in this port in the year 1851, and that an average of 6,000 are continually in port. This Society is designed to bring good influences to bear upon this large class in various modesby preaching and by opening boardinghouses, savings-banks, reading-rooms, schools, and the like, for them.

It has had, during the years 1851

52, seventeen chaplains and missionaries, regularly employed in this port and various foreign ports, preaching every year to some fifty thousand sailors. In the "Sailors' Home, "founded by this Society. there have been, within the year, 3,027 boarders, and not far from $11,000 have been deposited by the boarders in the savings-bank. During the same time, 218 shipwrecked and destitute men have been relieved in it. In the ten years since its opening, 33,527 seamen have boarded in it.

The Colored Sailors' Home," in Franklin-square, has had 247 boarders this last year, and three of the larger temperance houses have received 4,233 persons. The Seamen's Savings Bank has over $3,000,000 on deposit, a considerable part of which belongs to seamen.

The Society, besides all these labors, has issued the "Sailors' Magazine," with a monthly circulation of 6,000 copies. It is also engaged in furnishing ships with libraries of useful and religious books. The expenditures, the past year, have been $22,591; the receipts, $23,660.

Among the other Institutions for the benefit of the sailors, may be mentioned the Marine Society of the City of NewYork, founded in April 1770.

Its object is the improvement of maritime knowledge, and the relief of the wives and orphan children of deceased sailors. The list of widows, receiving regular relief, members 56, one of whom has been aided by the Society since 1788. The permanent fund constantly employed in charity is $44,000: the amount of disbursements since its origin, to the poor widows and orphan children of deceased shipmasters, and to the members, is $159,000. The permanent fund is loaned in bond and mortgages upon real estate, worth double the amount in New-York and Brooklyn; and the whole has been so well managed, that little or no loss has been sustained.

The widows on the pension list of the Society, receive relief in the following grades: the first grade, thirty one widows, $60 each; the second grade, thirteen widows, $50 each; the third grade, twelve widows, $40 each. About $3000 are thus spent annually. Thirty dollars constitute a shipmaster a life-member, and two dollars per annum afterwards secures a share to his wife, of the relief fund. This Society has been in operation 82 years, and has formerly found the names of our oldest and most substantial merchants in its list of supporters. It is doing a careful and thorough charity to a class, who, of necessity, in their business expose themselves and their families to the most sudden risks. May it find no lack of public support.

A similar society to the above is the

New-York Nautical Institution and Shipmasters' Society; devoting itself especially, however, to the spread of nautical knowledge. It was organized in 1820, and incorporated March 23d, 1848.

For sick seamen, the institution most widely known is the Seamen's Retreat, on Staten Island, near the Quarantine-ground. The trustees of this institution have the right to collect from the master of every vessel arriving from a foreign port, one dollar and fifty cents; for each mate, one dollar; and for each sailor, fifty cents; and from the master of every coasting vessel, twenty-five cents for each member of the crew. Every person who has paid these "hospital-moneys can claim reception into the Retreat. There have been, during the past year, 2,956 patients in the institution, of whom 167 have died. In connection with the Retreat, a large brick building has just been erected near by for the destitute or sick female relatives of sailors, and such sailors in particular as have paid hospital dues.

The Marine Hospital, also situated on Staten Island, is devoted to the sick passengers or seamen from the ships just arrived. It is supported by an emigrant tax of two dollars on every cabin-passenger, native of a foreign country, and of fifty cents on every steerage-passenger. The fund from these sources, employed for various objects, amounts now to nearly $100,000 per annum. The two institutions last mentioned are controlled by the State Legislature.

The Sailors' Snug Harbor.- This Asylum for aged or infirm seamen stands on the north side of Staten Island, in a charming situation, opposite the Jersey shore, and commanding a full view of the harbor and distant City of New-York, with their ships and spires. It was founded in 1801, by a bequest of Captain Robert Richard Randall, and incorporated in 1806. The property appointed for the object consisted of a piece of land, then an open field near the city, worth about $50,000. Now this field is covered by the New-York Hotel, and the substantial blocks of elegant houses in its neighborhood; and it yields a rental of nearly $100,000 per annum-one of the richest endowments in the country. For many years the Snug Harbor itself was a plain wooden building, isolated on a slight eminence, near what is now the corner of Broadway and Ninthstreet. The present commodious and elegant edifice on Staten Island, has a front of white marble, and, with its wings, is 225 feet in length. The grounds belonging to it cover about 160 acres. The number of aged and disabled seamen sup

ported within its walls during the past year was 295. Near by this Asylum is the Home for Sailors' Children.

The Mariners' Family Industrial Society has for its object to supply work to the female relatives of seamen, and to relieve any pressing want among them. Their clothing store is at No. 322 Pearlstreet. The "Seamen's Retreat" disburses a portion of its charitable fund through the medium of this Society.

The American and Foreign Christian Union. This Society originated in 1849, and grew out of three others, "The American Protestant Society," the "Foreign Evangelical Alliance," and the "Christian Alliance." Its object is especially to spread Protestant doctrines and practice through Roman Catholic countries. It publishes a monthly Magazine, "The American and Foreign Christian Union," a monthly tract, "The Missionary Intelligencer," and a semi-monthly, "Der Freie Deutsche Katholik (The Free German Catholic). One of the Secretaries is the well-known and respected Rev. Robert Baird, D. D.

The New York Association for improving the Condition of the Poor," is the name of a Society, operating very widely in its charities over the city. According to its charter, the city shall be divided into as many districts as there are wards; and these again into sections of about 25 families each. For each section a suitable visitor shall be obtained, whose duty it is to find out the wants of every family, and if needy and not the fit subject for other societies, to give them tickets for food, or fuel, or medicine. Money is in no case allowed to be given by the visitor, without especial permission.

Of those assisted, not more than oneeighth are American-born, usually onehalf Irish, and about three-eighths German or foreign in birth. In religion, threefourths are Roman Catholics, and most of the remainder unconnected with any Protestant Church. During the last year, 6559 families, with 29,515 persons were relieved.

We extract some rather striking facts from the report of this Association for

1852.