heaven. The Great Spirit on high is in constant sympathy with the believing spirit beneath, and in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the thrill of aspiration flashes from the heart of man to God. Whenever anything vexes you -whenever, from the rude and selfish ways of men, any trials of temper cross your path—when your spirits are ruffled, or your Christian forbearance put to the test, be this your instant resource! Haste away, if only for a moment, to the serene and peace-breathing presence of Jesus, and you will not fail to return with a spirit soothed and calmed. Or when the impure and low-minded surround you-when, in the path of duty, the high tone of your Christian purity is apt to suffer from baser contacts, oh, what relief to lift the heart to Christ!-to rise on the wings of faith-even for one instant to breathe the air of that region where the Infinite Purity dwells, and then return with a mind steeled against temptation, ready to recoil with the instinctive abhorrence of a spirit that has been beside the throne, from all that is impure and vile. Say not, then, with such aid at your command, that religion cannot be brought down to Common Life!"

TRANSLATION OF "HYMN" BY FELIX NEFF.*

My heart is kindled to a glow,

When with the mental eye

I view the Mighty King of kings
Upon his throne on high;
His reign of justice and of peace,
Of love and righteousness,
And of the sweet delights that fill
All hearts with happiness.

The everlasting God himself
Vouchsafes his flock to feed,
While in his matchless tenderness
They find the rest they need.
His countenance adorable

Their fadeless light doth prove;
His loving aspect fans the flame
Of all his children's love.

* Several very excellent translations of this beautiful hymn have been received, some of them being so equal in merit as to render it difficult to assign the palm of decided superiority. Perhaps, on the whole, the two which we print combine to the largest extent the literality and the spirit of the original.

PASSAGES FROM THE LIFE OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO.

WHEN the history of the abolition of American slavery comes to be written, the publication of that extraordinary book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and the subsequent visit of its gifted authoress to this country, will be marked as a most momentous epoch in the decadence of that iniquitous system. The excitement produced by these events has, it is true, to a great extent, passed away, or has been absorbed by the intenser excitements of the war; but from the effects of the blow thus administered, it will be found that the doomed cause of negro oppression can never recover. The sowing of that book broadcast over every civilized land is yielding such a crop of earnest abolitionists as never was seen before.

During the presence of Mrs. Stowe in our midst, it will be recollected by many of our readers that there appeared on our public platforms, and in our pulpits, a fugitive negro-a noble specimen of "God's image in ebony"-in the person of Mr. Samuel Ringgold Ward. He had been sent over from Canada by the friends of the American bondsmen, to champion their cause at a time when the public mind was most favourably disposed to entertain the subject of their wrongs. How he a living and breathing personation of the ideal Uncle Tom-stirred our hearts to their lowest depths; how he thrilled us with his unsophisticated eloquence, and filled us with admiration of his many manly qualities; how he touched us to tears by some tale of sorrow, or roused us to indignation by the recital of some horrible cruelties and inhumanities which he had witnessed in Slaveland-can never be obliterated from the memories of some of us. While listening to his appeals in Exeter Hall, when urging the claims of the Bible, the Tract, the Missionary, or the Anti-Slavery Societies, how many of his delighted auditors have longed to see the dark mystery of his life unrolled before their eyes. "Who is he? and through what scenes has he passed?" would be the interrogations mentally put by many, who, fresh from the perusal of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," would naturally invest his career with incidents pregnant with tragic interest. These questions, at the time, were asked in vain. Now, however,

for

we are in a position to gratify this excusable curiosity; when on the point of quitting this country for Canada, the land of his choice and adoption, Mr. Ward bequeathed to his friends, as a memento of his visit, an autobiographical sketch of his early life, and of his anti-slavery labours in the United States, in Canada, and in Great Britain. It gives us pleasure to commend the volume as one of rare excellence and great ability. It is pervaded by marks of good sense, deep earnestness, robust manliness, and an uncompromising exposure of all the negro-hating classes, wherever found. The appreciating and grateful terms in which he uniformly writes of those who have given their influence and countenance to the cause of negro emancipation, form also a prominent and pleasant feature of the work. In the following pages we propose to throw together some of the leading circumstances and incidents of his useful career.

This fearless champion of the coloured race was born in Maryland, in the year 1817, of slave parents, who are spoken of by their son in the highest terms of filial love and reverence. They were well descended, the father tracing his ancestry to an African prince; but, what conferred on them a far higher distinction, they were eminently pious and God-fearing. Their religious sentiments, however, were not such as to reconcile them to the state of bondage into which they had been sold; for during the childhood of our hero, they snapped their fetters, and effected their escape. This grand event in the family history originated in circumstances which may be thus briefly narrated.

When the subject of our sketch was about two years old, his father, for some trifling mistake or fault, was stabbed in the fleshy part of his arm with a penknife. The wound

was the entire length of the knife blade. On another occasion he received a severe flogging, which left his back in so lacerated a state that his wife was obliged to adopt every possible means to prevent mortification. Mrs. Ward, being a woman of strong will and determined character, could not endure the sight of these outrages upon her husband, and accordingly gave free utterance to her sentiments in rather strong language. This was regarded as insolence, which in a negress was not to be tolerated for a moment. For, if excused, it would spread and infect others, and so prove

subversive of all wholesome discipline. Only let the principle be once established, that the negress Anne Ward may speak as she pleases about the flagellation of her husband, the negro William Ward, as a matter of right, and the practice would extend itself from plantation to plantation, until property in husbands and wives would not be worth the having. So reasoned the slave-owners. What was to be done to make her feel the rigours of the domestic institution? "Should she be flogged ?" asked the autobiographer. "That was questionable. She had never been whipped, except, perhaps, by her parents; she was now thirty-three years old--rather late for the commencement of training; she weighed 184 pounds avoirdupois; she was strong enough to whip an ordinary-sized man; she had as much strength of will as of mind; and what did not diminish the awkwardness of the case was, she gave most unmistakable evidences of 'rather tall resistance,' in case of an attack. Well, then, it were wise not to risk this. But one most convenient course was left to them, and that course they could take with perfect safety to themselves, without yielding one hair's-breadth of the rights and powers of slavery, but establishing them-they could sell her, and sell her they would: she was their property, and, like any other stock, she could be sold; and, like other unruly stock, she should be brought to the market."

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But in the consummation of this purpose a difficulty presented itself. The child Samuel unfortunately was sickly; and, if deprived of his mother's care and nurture, could not be reared for the slave-market, which was probably to be his destination. The sale, therefore, was delayed until her maternal services could be safely dispensed with.

This period, so desired by the proprietors, and so dreaded by the poor wedded slaves, at length came. The boy grew better. He began to walk without tottering, and seemed to give signs of the cheerfulness he inherited from his father, and the strength of frame imparted by his mother. But the more certain the parents became that the child was becoming convalescent, the nearer, they were conscious, drew the hour of their forced separation. Mother-like, the poor negress pondered all manner of schemes and plans to postpone the dreadful crisis. She could close her child's eyes in death, she could follow her husband to the grave, if God should so order; but to be