posed. The investigation promises great which the Creator hath established. They pleasingly unite with strains of sweet and solemn harmony. advantages to mariners, as they may select the paths in which a favorable wind is most generally found; and some important results Music suitably expresses that devotion and of this kind have, it is believed, been al-sublime delight which religion is fitted to ready attained. inspire. Joy is the natural effect. Praise Meteorological observations are now made with great regularity and constancy, and over very wide areas. Two of our principal States, New York and Pennsylvania, have recently established stations for this purpose throughout their whole extent. The charac-it can accommodate itself to the various ter of the questions now open, and the number and zeal of observers, give promise of results of high, scientific interest, and of great practical value, For the Monthly Miscellany. BY WM, M. HAYFORD, M. D. "Music, whence is thy power to thrall each sense, modifications of love and joy-the essence Music not only decently expresses, but powerfully excites and improves the affections. It is the prerogative of this noble art to cheer and invigorate the mind, to still the SACRED Music is an act of devotion so tumultuous passions, to calm the troubled becoming, delightful and excellent, that we thoughts, and fix the wandering attention. find it coeval with the sense of Deity, auIt can strike the mind with solemnity and thorized by all nations, and universally re-awe, or melt with tenderness and love; can ceived into the solemnities of public wor-animate with hope and gladness or call forth ship. The book of Psalms, as the name it- the sensation of devout and affectionate sorself imports, was adapted to the voice of row; even separate and unconnected, it can song, and the author of those invaluable odes influence the various passions of the soul, well knew the sweetness, dignity and ani- but it naturally seeks an alliance, and must mation that were hereby added to the sa- be joined with becoming sentiment and lancred service of the Temple. With what guage, in order to produce its full and proprapture does he describe its effects--with er effect, and never is its energy so conspicwhat fervor does he call upon his fellow-uous and delightful as when consecrated to worshippers to join in the delightful duty: the service of religion, aud employed in the "O, sing unto the Lord a new song-sing unto the Lord all the earth--bless his name how forth his salvation from day to day." Music is undoubtedly the language of na-pacity of an immortal mind, and claims its ture. It originates from our frame and con- noblest powers and affections. stitution. Do lofty contemplations, elevat- What voice of song so honorable, so eleed joy and fervor of affections, give beauty vating, so delightful? To whom shall the and dignity to language, they also associate breath ascend, if not to Him who first in- ' with the charms of Music by a kindred law,spired it? Where shall admiration take its courts of the living God. Here it displays loftiest flight, but to the throne of the ever- weep as profusely under the power and inlasting Jehovah? fluence of the music of the sanctuary, as the pious believer, whose heart is raised to Heaven, and who anticipates in the harmony that strikes his ear, something like the song of the redeemed around the Throne. When the union of the heart and voice are thus happily arranged-when sublime subjects of praise are accompanied with expressive harmony, and the pleasure of genuine devotion heightened by the charms of Many a lover of music, there is reason to Music, we participate the most pure, ration- believe, has gone away from the house of al and exquisite enjoyment, that human na- God, and flattered himself that he has been ture is capable of receiving. The soul, for- exceedingly devout, when, if he would analgetting its confinement with the body, is el-yze the impressions produced upon his mind, evated beyond the cares and tumults of this he would find in them none of the ingredimortal state, and seems, for a while, trans-ents of genuine religion, The mere fact of ported to the blissful regions of love and emotions having been excited among the joy. sensibilities of the soul, by the power of music, is totally a different thing from hav ing the affections of the heart wrought up to a strain of elevated piety. The latter is aeceptable to God-the former cannot be. We should sing with the heart, and with the unan act of ac-derstanding also, or all our noise is vain. Without these ingredients, the sweetest music that rolls from the tongues of men or angels is as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Let our music be awed by the presence of Deity, and our "Music below will prove An antedate to the bliss above." BISHOP HEBER. BY ERWIN HOUSE.. The person who sings psalms and hymns, especially in the sanctuary, ought to understand that he is performing an external act of religious worship. If, therefore, he sing in a thoughtless and irreverent manner, his performance, instead of being ceptable homage to the Most High, is nothing short of an act of soleum mockery. It is a thought which ought to paralyze the tongue of every person who engages, with levity in this part of Divine worship, and joins with his lips in the praises of God, while his heart is far from Him. That, however much the music of his voice may add to the solemnity of the sanctuary, and assist the devotion of others, the eye of the Omniscient Judge looks down upon him, and marks him as a hypocrite. Every form of worship, in which the heart is not engaged, "WHERE was Moses, when his candle is to Him who searcheth the heart, an abom- went out?" asked a facetious friend, once, of ination. Reginald Heber. "On Mount, Nebo," inThere is great danger of mistaking the ex-stantly replied he; "for there he died, and citement of animal feelings, which it is the there his lamp of life may well be said to natural tendency of Musie to produce, for that have gone out," This is an incident related exercise of humble devotion which is pecu- by the relatives of Heber, when the latter liar to the experience of the Christian. The was only seven years of age, as evidence of trembling nerve, the unconscious tear-drop his remarkable aptitude in retaining im that steals from the eye, the thrill of delight portant events in the history of the Bible. which pervades the system, and the spell No doubt, Heber's attainments, religious which fastens on the soul under the charmi- and literary, were of a superior order, a ing influence of a lovely song, are no certain proof of which we have in the fact, that at evidences that our hearts are right with God. the age of thirteen he was admitted to AllThe person who never felt a pang of Godly Souls' College, Oxford, and had then a repsorrow, nor an emotion of Christian joy, mayutation equal to many who had completed their course and taken their degree. Beside by justice and truth. It was a theme just the reputation of brilliant classical attain-suited to his capacity and genius, and he ments, young Heber soon added the celebri- handled it in a manner which would have ty of possessing poetic powers of the high- reflected credit upon those who were his est order. The poem beginning with the seniors by twenty-five years. following stanza is said to have been written when he was in his sixteenth year: "By cool Siloam's shady rill, How sweet the lily grows! How sweet the breath, beneath the hill, Lo, such the child whose early feet The paths of peace have trod; In the year 1809 Heber paid his addresses to the youngest daughter of the Dean of St. Asaph. Some looked upon his conduct as singular. They thought that one possessed of such extraordinary attainments should look for a partner in a somewhat higher circle of life; that is, that he should seek one whose possessions, in wealth and other things, were of the first order. Others thought differently, and desired to see him Heber's "Palestine," a poem which the united in marriage to the daughter of the author wrote in his twentieth year, was pro- Dean. This event, happily was accomplishnounced the best prize poem ever produced ed. Before he was twenty-six years of age, at an English university. Walter Scott he became the parish minister of St. Asaph, heard Heber read it, before he had finally and was, wherever known, received with completed it, and awarded him high praise marked respect. He was assiduous in visitin his address to the Muses. "One thing, and one thing alone," remarked Sir Walter, "have you omitted: it is, that no tools were employed in the erection of the Temple." Immediately Reginald acknowledged the omission, and gave the following beautiful couplet: "No hammer fell, nor ponderous axes rung; Like some tall palm, the mystic fabric sprung." ing the members of his flock, and gave a rebuke to such of his fellow-laborers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ as professed to have neither the time nor the ability for pastoral visiting. He was careful to see that all the poor in the neighborhood were relieved. He was equally careful to supply their spiritual wants, and made it his duty, as often as opportunity offered, to pray with and for them. The distressed he alleviated; the cast-down he lifted up; the sick he comforted; the saint he encouraged; and the sinner he warned, with all the earnestness that one sent from God could warn, and in view of that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be made known, and men shall receive the reward due to their actions here. Professor Taylor, in remarking on the recital of this poem in the magnificent chapel of Oxford University, says that it was received with unbounded applause, and that the father of young Heber, who was present at the time, was so affected by the demonstrations of favor from the audience that his health was materially impaired, and he shortly afterward died. In his twenty-first year, Mr. Heber received the Bachelor's prize for an English prose essay, entitled "The Sense of Honor." This article was written in its author's best vein of literary In the year 1815 Mr. Heber was chosen excellence. Its illustrations and figures were to deliver a course of lectures, known as the apt and well chosen. Its thrusts at national Bampton Lectures. He complied with reand social evils were of a most caustic luctance. His theme was the personality nature; and yet they were received by all and office of the Christian Comforter; and who heard the essay as evidently supported though well and ably discussed, his criticisms Much as he appeared in public, he yet loved solitude. It was his delight, like one of old, to go forth and muse at eventide. His love of nature was strong; his love of nature's God still stronger. on several points were caviled by reviewers, and involved him in considerable difficulty. Yet he bore all with humility, and did not suffer himself to be so far disturbed as not occasionally to give time to literature and its pursuits. Hence, we find him writing for the Edinburg Review, in which appeared some of his finest prose and poetic pieces. When in his thirty-sixth year, his attention was directed to the missionary enterprise. He then wrote the hymn commencing, "From Greenland's icy mountains.” This was first sung at Wrexham Church, but is now known and sung throughout the Christian world. While on the eve of establishing himself at Lincoln's Inn, near London, he received the appointment to the bishoprie of Caleutta, though, it must be confessed, it was not from any desire to increase his worldly aggrandizement. Mr. Heber had felt for many years, a deep interest for the welfare of Christianity in British India. Added to this, he naturally had a love for oriental climes; and though he had a keen perception of the terrible natural phenomena of the tropics, he suffered himself to be carried away by the varied and enchanting scenery, and the magnificence of the natural productions. But the bour of separation from England was one of deep and bitter feeling. He parted from his friends with the almost prophetic assurance of never being able to return to them; yet there was a calm resignation in his course which none but the devoted servant of God could experience. In a letter to a friend, he observed, that a minister, like a soldier, should go on any service to which he thinks himself suited, whether it be entirely congenial to his heart or not. Accordingly, he set sail for India on the sixteenth day of June, 1823, where he arrived, after a long and perilous voyage, The duties of his dioecse, in this far-off land, were exceedingly onerous; yet we find him willing to engage in any thing by which he could ameliorate the condition of the heathen around him. His talents secured him the respect of all, while his bland, unostentatious, but affectionate manner bound almost every heart to his. In the course of his visits and travels, Bishop Heber visited Ceylon, where he was instrumental in effecting much good. Toward the latter part of February, 1826, he undertook the journey to the Madras Presidency; but his great exertions at this time proved fatal to his health. He died suddenly, away from home, on the 2d of April, 1826, in his fortythird year. The intelligence of his death caused the profoundest regret among all classes of citizens at Calcutta. A void had been created which none could fill. A man had departed from them whom none could equal, and whom none had known but to love. Not by his own flock merely, but by all other religious persons, and by the natives generally, he was mourned, as a good and a great man fallen in Israel. How strikingly ap propriate to his premature death the words of Montgomery: "Tranquil amidst alarms, Still warm with recent fight, At midnight came the ery, "To meet thy God, prepare!' He woke, and caught his Captain's eye; Then, strong in faith and prayer, His spirit, with a bound, Burst its incumbering clay; The temper which recognises the good that is in the world, is more maturely wise than that which searches for the evil. Though reading and conversation may furnish us with many ideas of men and things; yet it is our own meditation that must form our judgment. For the Miscellany. THE YOUNG MARINER'S DEATH. IN THE DEWY HOURS OF SLUMBER. BY SAMUEL F. MILLS. BY H. D. DUNNING. In the dewy hours of slumber, One so beautiful a fair- Oh! I listen to her music, And am ravished with its tone, Till the waves of deep emotion, Over all my soul are thrown, And I float upon the surges, Or I sink beneath their tide, And arise in blissful visions, With the angel by my side. When the trembling light has broken, Through the caverns of the night In the busy hours of labor, She is ever near my right. And I hear the lowly rustle, Of her spirit-wafted wings, And I sit beneath the Shadows, Of the bower where she sings. And she speaks in balmy whispers, Like a voice of Flower-land, As she nestles closer to me, And I clasp her with my hand, And the swelling floods of passion, Wildly overflow their line, And I feel the burning waters, When her cheek is pressed to mine. Like the gentle dove of Noab, Thus she gladdens all my days, And, like an embodied beauty, She is goddess of my praise. Oh! this ever-present vision, Is the thought of her away, Who has loved me long and deeply, And who murmers at my stay. She, my ever-worshiped idol, Blends her bird-like soul with mineAnd I'll love her with devotion, Constant, kneeling at her shrine. MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, NOV, 10, 1851. Far from thy home thou diest, With none to mourn thy fall. No mother, o'er thee weeping, Supports thy sinking head; Soon will the winds be sweeping Fie ce o er tly wat`ry bed. No lime, no drooping willow, Deep in the ocean's womb. . Sweet flowers o'er thy grave; Ah! sad in youth to perish Far on the stormy wave. Thy childhood's happy dwellin', No more thi e eyes may seet Those sinking orbs are telling Thy soul will soon be free. Free from its earthly hoding, of! may it edily rest, Where joys are still folding Their glories to the blest.. THE YOUNG MAN'S COUNSELOR. HUMAN nature has opposing principles and moral instruction should be accomodated to them respectively. Man is indolent; he is also active; and were poverty to be regarded as reputable as industry, multitudes would abandon themselves to idleness. To the young, the healthy, the vigorous, let poverty be marked with shame; but when age, disease, or misfortune, reduces to poverty, let humanity interfere, and, with brotherly sympathy, relieve distress. A man of a vain and self-conceited mind, when he expresses an erroneous opinion, or commits an improper action, will often have the assurance and perversity to defend his opinion, and justify his conduct. à person of true greatness of mind, when he does wrong, yields to conviction, confesses his error, and corrects it, for he is great and consistent in his candor, his regard for truth, and his love of virtue. |