"GOOD MORNING, BROTHER PILGRIM !”

The following is the substance of a conversation between two professors as they met; one going to, the other returning from, camp-meeting, early in the morning.

"Good morning, brother pilgrim !

What, marching to Zion?

What doubts and what dangers have you met to-day?
Have you found a blessing?

Are your joys increasing?

Press forward, my brother, and make no delay.
Is your heart a glowing?

Are your comforts flowing?

And have you an evidence now bright and clear?
Have you a desire

That burns like a fire?

And have hope in the hour when Christ shall appear?"

"I came out this morning,

And now am returning,

Perhaps little better than when I first came;
Such groaning and shouting,

It sets me to doubting,

I fear such religion is all like a dream.
The preachers were stamping,

The people were jumping,

And screaming so loud that I neither could hear
Either praying or preaching;

Such horrible screeching,

"T was truly offensive to all that were there."

"Perhaps, my dear brother,

While they pray'd together,

You sat and consider'd, and pray'd not at all;
Would you find a blessing?

Then pray without ceasing,

Oboy the advice which was given by Paul.

For if you should reason

At any such season,

No wonder if Satan should tell in your ear:

And this is no place for reflection and prayer.""

"No place for reflection!'

I'm fill'd with distraction,

I wonder the people could bear for to stay;
The men they were bawling,

The women were squalling,

I wonder, for my part, how any could pray.
Such horrid confusion,

If this be religion,

Sure it is something new that has never been seen; For the sacred pages

Which speak of all ages,

Do nowhere declare that such ever has been."

"Don't be so soon shaken;

If I'm not mistaken,

Such things have been acted by Christians of old: When the ark it was coming,

King David came running,

And danced before it, in Scripture we're told.
When the Jewish nation

Had laid the foundation,

And rebuilt the temple, by Ezra's command,
Some wept and some praised,

Such a noise there was raised,

"Twas heard afar off, perhaps all through the land.

"And as for the preacher,

Ezekiel the teacher

Was taught for to stamp, and smite with his hand;

To show the transgression

Of that wicked nation,

And bid them repent and obey the command.

For Scripture quotation

In this dispensation,

Our gracious Redeemer has handed them down;

If some ceased from praising,

We hear him proclaiming,

The stones to reprove them would quickly cry out."

"Then Scripture is wrested;

For Paul has protested

That order should be kept in the house of the Lord;
Amidst such a clatter

Who knows what's the matter?

Or who can attend unto what is declared ?
To see them behaving

Like drunkards or raving,

And lying and rolling prostrate on the ground;
I really felt awful,

And sometimes was fearful

That I'd be the next to come tumbling down."

"You fear persecution,

And there's the delusion,

Brought in by the devil to draw you away;
Be careful, my brother,

For blest are none other
But such as are never offended in me."

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE spring of 1849 found my prospects, temporal and spiritual, brightening. I still continued selling books. My wife's health continuing feeble, we broke up keeping house, she going to Litchfield to board with her children, and I to New-York to at

tend the great book-auction. One Sabbath morning while in New-York, I went to the Blind Institute. I was not a stranger to them, for I had been there the year before with the little book containing the history of my life. The superintendent purchased one, and it was read to the pupils generally, so that by this time we felt like old acquaintances, and, I presume, I shall never forget in time or eternity the glorious class-meeting I had the first Sabbath I had the happiness of meeting with those labouring under like infirmities with myself. The class met at nine o'clock in the morning. There were about thirty persons present, including various denominations. They were in a square room, with a row of benches around the wall. I was requested to lead the class. I presume I have been called upon to lead nearly one hundred different classes, and I do not believe that I ever led a class that had so fair a view of the eternal city as this. Class was opened by two or three fervent prayers, and then they struck up, "Come, thou Fount of every blessing," and there was so much spirit and glory in it that it seemed as if I had never heard it before. The music of a score of Jenny Linds would have sounded flat in comparison with this spiritual choir. The blind inmates had all been well instructed in singing, from the little child to the adult. When the time of preaching came, if ever I was prepared to let down the gospel-net, it was then. There was quite a concourse of people from the city, and, as they all arose

to sing, in unison with their tremendous organ, one might almost be persuaded that the choir which the revelator saw had descended from above, the number of which was "ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands." It was evident, however, that it was not the song of the angelic band; for while the angels sing, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," the poor, the lame, the halt, and the blind sing on the higher key: "Unto him that loved us, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hath made us kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth." This text, with all its glorious and exalted privileges, I once placed beyond Jordan; but since I came into the land of Beulah, faith has brought it over on this side, and I am now preaching, singing, and living, every sentence and syllable, through rich abounding grace. If we are not to sing the song of redemption this side of Jordan, I fear we shall never sing it. If we are not to reign as kings and priests on the earth-that is, put every spiritual foe under our feet-I fear we shall never do it. Glory be to God! the door of heaven is opened, and the heavenly treasure unlocked to our view while here on earth. One would suppose the very music of the sons and daughters of God would be enough to win every soul to Christ.

But there are men that will give hundreds of dollars for a ticket to a Jenny-Lind concert, that would not bend the knee to Christ for a ticket that