Would that like Israel's Psalmist I could fly,
Upborne upon the wings of ecstacy!

Would I could soar above this world of woe,
And taste the joys that heavenly spirits know;
Be with Seraphic hosts in courts above,
With them to sing thy might and praise thy love!
But though I cannot join th' angelic throng,
Nor with redeemed spirits swell the song;
Though not to me the Prophet's ear is given,
Whereby to climb the sacred gates of heaven;
Yet to thy earthly temple I'll repair,
And breathe my soul aloud in fervent prayer;
Yet in thy courts my grateful song I'll raise,
And with a holy joy confess thy praise.
Whene'er my soul with sorrow has been stung,
And painful thoughts the bitter tear have wrung;
If like the wounded hart my side has bled,
And e'en thy peace my guilty conscience fled;
Let me but in thy temple bow the knee,

There drop the tear, and heave the sigh to thee;
Thy dove descends with healing in his wings,
And to my soul celestial comfort brings.
Oh blessed hours! and earnests of that joy,
Which heavenly courts afford without alloy;
When, disencumbered of its earthly load,
Swift soars the soul to heaven's blest abode;
There sees its God and Saviour face to face,
And quaffs the fountain of eternal grace.
Speed then the time, when, earthly Sabbaths past,
Th' Archangel's trump shall usher in the last;
When, free from sin and undisturbed by fear,
Our God himself shall wipe away the tear;
The spirit fly to everlasting day,
And taste those joys that never fade away.

I. P. H.

THE OFFERING.

A WREATH of wild flowers, Lord, I bring,
And lay the humble tribute at thy feet-

I would indeed they were more fair, more sweet-
They should be strew'd, my great and glorious King,
With grateful heart before thy mercy-seat-

For well I know the fairest were unmeet

To crown thy sacred brow or deck thy throne-
For thou art Lord of all and God alone.
Upon thy head is many a diadem,

All power in heaven and in earth is thine-
To thee all hearts are open-look on mine-
And if it beats for Thee, do not contemn
The lowly mite of love that would assign
Her all an offering to thy grace divine.
Lord Jesus, let thy grace so rest on me,
That endless glory may revert to THEE.

IOTA.

REVIEW OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS,

AND

NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Nouveaux Cantiques Chrétiens pour les assemblées des Enfans de Dieu.-Par Cæsar Malan.-Londres: Nisbet, Berners Street.-Price 2s.

WE have much pleasure in naming this little volume to our young friends, not doubting they will find much pleasure in committing to memory these pious and simple songs, in a language that necessarily occupies much of their attention. If the French is not particularly elegant, it is easy and correct; and if there is no very great pretension to poetical beauty, the words are well appropriated for singing, which is the purpose for which they are written. If our readers desire the musick also, (with which we are not acquainted,) we quote for their information the following sentence in the author's preface; and need only further add one or two of the Cantiques as a specimen of the work.-"La musique de plusieurs de ces cantiques a déjà paru dans les Receuils gravés à Paris et à Londres. Je me propose, si le Seigneur bénit cette œuvre, d'en publier la Psalmodie." CANTIQUE XXXIX.-CHANT 32.

Non, je ne t'aime, Jésus, comme tu m'aimes,
Pour Toi mon cœur ingrat est rempli de tiédeur.
Ton éternel amour et tes bontés extrèmes

Me trouvent languissant. Ah! change mon cœur.

Ah! si toujours ce cœur se montroit insensible!
Si pour le monde aussi s'éteignoit son ardeur,

Mais pour un vain amour tout lui devient possible:
Pour toi seul est mort. Ah! change donc mon cœur?

Si pour ton nom, Seigneur, sur sa route rencontre
Quelque léger ennui, quelque foible douleur,
Il s'étonne; il se plaint; helas? même il se montre
Rebelle au châtiment. Ah! change donc mon cœur !

Ah! qu'il est dur encore à croire ta parole!
Qu'il est lent à prier! Qu'il a peu de ferveur,
Il refuse en ses maux que ta voi le console,

Et se repaît d'orgueil. Ah! change donc mon cœur.

Et cependant, Jésus, tu demeures le même.
Rien n'altère envers moi la fidèle douceur

C'est pour me rendre heureux que tu veux que je t'aime :
Et si je m'endurcis, rien ne change ton cœur.

CANTIQUE XCII.-CHANT 91.

UN pauvre voyageur, absent de sa patrie,
Par ses ardens désirs dévance le moment
Qui verra son retour à la terre chérie,
Où prés de ses amis un doux repos l'attend.

O! qu'il est consolé, lorsque le jour arrive
Où tout est preparé pour cet heureux départ!
De son pays enfin il va toucher la rue :
Ses vœux impatiens repoussent tout retard.

Pourquoi donc sentons-nous, qu'en traversant la vie,
Nos cœurs n'ont pour le ciel que des soins languissans?
Pourquoi notre âme, hélas! n'est-elle pas ravie,
En voyant du départ s'approacher les instans?

Ces cœurs n'aiment donc pas la patrie éternelle
Où notre Redempteur règne au milieu des siens !
«Cette âme, en s'y rendant, ne trouve donc en elle
Que de tristes dégoûts pour les célestes biens!

O! gens
de peu de foi, cœurs charnels que nous sommes
Qu' attendons-nous encore pour aimer notre Dieu ?
Vivrons-nous donc toujours comme vivent les hommes !
Pour nous le vrai repos est-il donc en ce lieu!

Ah! bientôt finira ce rapide passage:
Bientôt nous rougirons des coupables lenteurs
Que nous mettons encore à saisir l'heritage
Que Jésus nous acquit au prix de ses langueurs.
Hâtez, Enfans de Dieu! hâtez donc votre course,
Le terme est près de vous, c'est la porte des cieux.
Votre âme en y tendant remonte vers la source
D'où descendit sur vous le salut glorieux.

The Private Journal of Capt. C. F. Lyon, of H. M. S. Hecla, during the recent voyage of discovery under Capt. Parry.-John Murray, 1824.

OUR intention in noticing this work is not to recommend it to our younger readers, for whom we do not know that it is calculated, but to compose from its pages an amusing article, and give them information of a race of people with whom probably they are hitherto unacquainted.

Our readers are doubtless aware, that the Discovery Ships left England in May, 1821, to attempt a passage into those Polar Seas which have hitherto seemed to forbid the approach of man by their ice-bound waters, and the inclemency of their almost perpetual winter: a winter so nearly perpetual, that in the last year of their stay in those regions, the vessels remained fixed by the ice from the 27th of September to the 9th of August following.

Prepared to meet the utmost rigours of the climate, by being provided with every possible means of artificial warmth, the Fury and Hecla sailed to the Northern extremity of America, the coast they were destined to explore, where they remained upwards of two years, during the greater part of which the vessels were imprisoned in ice, surrounded by a prospect of unvaried snow, cheered by no symptom of vegetation but the mustard and cress. reared by their own stoves, and visited by no living creaturés, except now and then a bear, or a wolf, a seal, or a walrus, and the Esquimaux, the native possessors of this unenviable region. These people seem placed at the

lowest extreme in the scale of human beings: we could have imagined nothing so gross in human form; the savages of the southern seas seem to us highly intellectual beings in the comparison with these: another proof, perhaps, of the effect of climate on the faculties; for we are still to remember that the race of man at first was one, and that these Esquimaux must have some time or other descended from creatures of more civilized habits. The hard necessities of their situation, the grossness of their food, and their entire separation from other nations, have probably made them what they are; for we should hesitate to say these creatures are in a state of nature, if that expression means the state in which man was formed by nature without human cultivationthey seem to us sunk far below it by habit and the causes we have named: we mean as intellectual beings; for they are by no means vicious or disposed to crime. We shall form the description of them by various extracts from different parts of this work.

"The Esquimaux may more properly be termed a small than even a middle-sized race. For though in some few instances and in particular families, the men are tall and stout, yet the greater portion of the tribe are beneath the standard of what in Europe would be called small men. The tallest I saw was five feet nine inches and three quarters in height, the shortest only four feet ten inches; and the highest woman was five feet six inches, while the smallest one was four feet eight inches only. Though when dressed they appear stout, yet taking them in a body, their figures when uncovered are rather weak than otherwise. Their bodily strength is not so great as might be expected in people, who, from their infancy, are brought up in hardy living and labour. Of this I had sufficient proof by matching our people with Esquimaux of equal sizes to lift weights, and it invariably happened that burdens, which were raised with facility by our people, could scarcely be lifted by the natives. They are active wrestlers among themselves, but can neither run nor jump. The women, from the peculiar form of their boots, of which I shall have occasion to speak, have a gait like that of a fat Muscovy duck, and they run unlike any creature I ever saw, with their legs spread out and toes turned in, so as to avoid being tripped up by their boots. The complexion of the Esquimaux when clearly shown by a previous washing, is not darker than that of a Portuguese, and such parts of the body as are constantly covered, do not fall short in fairness of the generality of the natives of the Mediterranean. A very fine healthy blush tinges the cheek of females and young children, but the men are more inclined to a sallow complexion. The features