of nature. She kept him ever by her side. In her morning's ride, or walk, in her visits to the poor or afflicted, in the social circle, or the sanctuary, he was still with her. She stimulated his thirst for knowledge, and herself instructed him thoroughly in his primary studies; and as his education advanced, she was judicious in the selection of teachers to whom she committed him for his further improvement. He was so much secluded from the companionship of children of his own age, and made so happy at home with his parents and the amusements there provided for him, that he had no desire to mingle in the poisy sports of the lads around him.

While his mother carefully shielded him from every unholy influence, she was most diligent in her efforts to instil the principles of divine truth. Deeply convinced of the native corruption of human nature, while she laboured for his spiritual welfare, as one who felt that all depended upon human instrumentality, she prayed and waited as one who knew that no effort would avail without the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit. Like the careful husbandman, she well prepared the ground, and cast in her seed, and then she waited for the early and the latter rain, knowing that without the blessing of the God of the harvest, all would be vain. The objects at which she aimed were high and holy, the means which she employed were wise and judicious, and she was rewarded. by abundant success. Her ehild became what she wished him to be, His uncommon intellectual attainments were chastened by deep piety, and his love of knowledge was sanctified by a desire to have that knowledge subservient to his usefulness. Mrs. 'M rejoiced over her son with a mother's love, perhaps with a mother's pride ; but as he advanced towards manhood, many apprehensions began to mingle with and deepen her tenderness. He was not ill, he was not sickly, but he was delicate. He could neither bear the winter's blast or the summer's heat. He was like a tender green-house plant, and could only flourish in a carefully regulated and artificial atmosphere. His constitution had never been braced by the sports and exercises of hardy childhood. His lungs had never been strengthened by their noisy whoops, or his cheeks reddened, and his frame strung by their athletic sports. The stimulus applied had all been mental and moral, and his over-tasked mind exhausted his slender frame. · It was thought necessary that he should leave home in order to complete bis education, and this separation from her child was Mrs. M- 's first grief. But every arrangement which care and affection could dictate was made, and then he was committed to the protection of the God of his childhood. While the parents tried thus to leave him, and to feel that all would be well, for all would be right, they could not but feel much apprehension ; and the kind eulogies of their friends upon his virtues or his talents began to sound in their ears like his death-knell.

A thought had sometimes passed through the mind of Mr. Mthat the boy had been nurtured too delicately—that his mother had . not brought up her children thus – that had he been allowed to run about like other boys in the dust and heat of summer, and slide down hill in the winter, his constitution might have been firmer ; but his habitual reverence for his wife prevented these considerations, and he

AUGUST, 1842.

2

had never interfered with her arrangements for the child. Mrs. Mfelt that she had endeavoured to train her child for God, and that if it was his holy will to remove him, it became her to bow in devout and grateful submission. She had indeed taken no thought for the body, and while hundreds of mothers in their utter indifference to the higher interests of their children, merely attend to the wants of the animal nature, and from pure carelessness leave them to pursue a course which will develope the physical powers, and strengthen the muscular system, and almost insure them a long life, it may be of infamy; by her very care and tenderness she had sown the seeds of disease and death.

A letter containing the announcement of Edward's illness was received as the realization of previous presentiments -- presentiments which were but the sober conclusions of reason, had these parents allowed themselves thus to receive them. A frame so delicate could not bear the close application to study, and the trials and privations necessarily attendant, unless supported by miracle; and so these parents would have judged, had they allowed themselves to reason. But Mrs. M regarded these fears as the result of parental tenderness, perhaps of parental weakness, and felt it a duty to overcome them. With the haste of parental love they flew to him, and they found that all that remained for them to do was to bring him home to die. Care might prolong his days, although it could not restore his health. The mournful pleasure of watching over him during his decline, of administering to his comfort, of soothing his pains, and of feeling that while the outward man decayed, the inward man was renewed day by day, was yet theirs. They were cheered too by bis humble piety, his animated hope, his devout submission. He was ready and willing to depart. Life had been joyous, but death was not gloomy. He enjoyed communion with the Father through the Son, and he had the influence of the Spirit, comforting, animating, elevating him above the world. All that was bright, and glorious, and beautiful in creation, became to him types and shadows of the glories of the unseen and invisible world; all the relations of life were sanctified to him by the assurance that they would be refined, purified, elevated and perpetuated in the better land. The grief felt for such a loss was deep but not bitter.

These parents mourned not as those who mourn without hope. They reaped as they had sowed. They had sown a most abundant spiritual harvest, and bountifully had they gathered ; they had forgutten to prop the earthly tabernacle, and they saw the frail tenement early decay.

Yet, had early piety been necessarily connected with a speedy removal, they had chosen the better part. Far easier bad it been for such parents to lay an only child in an early grave, than to follow him through a life of iniquity, and to feel as he closed their dying eyes, that if they opened upon him in the morning of the resurrection, it would be but to behold the commencement of the eternal agony of a lost soul.

M. Ě. D, .

AMERICAN EPISCOPACY.

Bishop Polk's Address to the Cunvention of Louisiana, assembled in St. Paul's Church,

January 20, 1842.

BELOVED Brethren,-I appear before you for the first time, in obedience to an invitation you have felt moved, under God, to extend to me, to assume the office of chief pastor among you. · The confidence you have manifested towards me, during the period in which I have been your provisional Bishop, encourages me to hope, that our future intercourse, in the more intimate relation we now sustain to each other, may be characterized by a like spirit of brotherly kindness. · Knit together as we are, we form one body; and are, in Christ, to be co-workers with God, for the promotion of His glory, and the salvation of men. How well then does it become us to be of one mind and of one heart, that we may the more effectually “ strive together for the faith once delivered to the saints."

Let us therefore, in the threshold of our existence as an organized diocese, lift up our hearts in devout prayer to Him, from whom all holy desires and good counsels come, that He would everinore preside in the midst of us ; repress our tendencies to error; encourage and prompt us to the pursuit and love of "s the truth; ” and make us as “ an house at unity in itself.” · The work we have to perform in the field assigned us, and which is intrusted chiefly to the clergy, has been plainly indicated, - We have the Bible, as the written word of God, placed in our hands by those from whom we have received our commissions, and whom we recognize as Christ's ambassadors ; and been charged to “ dispense it faithfully.” In doing this, we shall of course be compelled to obey the further injunction laid upon us at our ordination, to dispense with equal faithfulness those holy sacraments, revealed by that word as of divine institution, and of binding obligation on all the followers of Christ. · That branch of the Church Catholic to which we belong, has given us in her creeds, articles, homilies, and services, a brief but comprehensive exposition of her views of the doctrines she has commissioned us to teach. With these for our guides, referring us, as they all do, for their truth and authority, to “most certain warrant of Holy Scripturę,” we cannot greatly err. - As ambassadors of Christ, we have been called by His Spirit, and appointed to discharge a particular trust;-to be co-workers with the Holy Ghost, in the extension and establishment of His kingdom upon earth.

Our business is to preach the word of reconciliation ; "_to endeavour to establish in the minds and hearts of our hearers a sense of their ruin ; and point them to their remedy.

In accomplishing this, we cannot do better than to take for our guides, those first heralds of the cross, who, being the immediate subjects of the teaching of the founder of our faith, must be presumed to have incurred least risk of error: and of whose preaching and teaching we have such abundant memorials in the pages of holy writ.

By referring to these, we cannot but observe in the writings of them all, especially in those of him who was the chief preacher among them, the importance attached to a few leading doctrines as cardinal points in the system. “ Christ crucified” was the ever-recurring theme of their ministry. The expanding and following up of that one single principle, in all its legitimate details, comprised the burden of the ministry of the Apostle to the Gentiles. It was to Christ he referred perpetually, as the source and end of all his teaching; as the author and finisher of the faith he preached; the great sacrifice for sin ; the “ end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth ;” and to whom he recommended the trembling penitent, as to a friend, a refuge, and a Saviour.

We have then, in pursuance of the example of the Apostles, as the chief work of our ministry, to persuade men “ to be found in Christ ;” to be united to Him as the members to the body, as the branches to the vine; to be grafted into Him by faith ; such faith as, being founded on a conviction of his ruin, com pels the sinner to entertain humbling views of himself on the one hand, and elevates and magnifies Christ, in all his offices, on the other; as leads the spirit of the penitent captive, and subjects it, in its will and affections, to a submissive obedience to the law of Christ.

A faith, thus issuing in a devout desire to be conformed to the will of Christ, renders the believer teachable, and prompts him to a sincere and earnest diligence in seeking for the outward ordinances and appointments of his Lord's kingdom. This devolves upon us, the ministers of that kingdom, the responsibility and duty of guiding them in their inquiries: we have to point them to the door of admission into the visible fold; and it is our office, also, to admit them to a participation of its privileges ; having taught them, it is our duty to baptize them, and to seal thereby unto them the promises of forgiveness of sin, and adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost.

Becoming thus the children of God by faith in Christ, through the operation of the Holy Ghost, they are intrusted to our care to be nourished and brought up for Christ. As pastors of His flock, we are to warn them against the “ rudiments of the world," and feed them with “ the sincere milk of the word ; ” “ daily reading and weighing the Scriptures, that we may wax riper and stronger in our ministry,” and “become faithful and wise stewards, able to give them their portion in due season.”

By taking heed to ourselves, beloved brethren, and to the ministry which requires us thus to watch for the souls of those committed to our care, dispensing to them diligently the comfortable sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, that precious pledge of His love, and memorial of his death, we may hope to promote“ an agreement in the faith,” to fulfil the work we have been commissioned to perform, and to save ourselves and those who hear us.

From this brief view of the work before us, many particulars suggest themselves as necessary to its accomplishment. Besides the preparation of our own minds and hearts, by diligent study, and earnest calling upon God for the enlightening and sanctifying influences of his Holy Spirit; parishes are to be organized, and competent men sought for, whose attainments, zeal, and piety, shall fit them for aiding us in the work of the ministry.

Such men, we may scarcely hope to find willing to come among us from abroad, in sufficient numbers, to supply our immediate wants ; we must, therefore, mainly rely on rising them up from among ourselves. God has given us a work to perform ; and doubtless, if we be faithful, He will supply the instruments necessary for its accomplishment.

With regard to enactments for the regulation of our ecclesiastical affairs, it may be unnecessary to observe, that for a diocese so recently organized, our wants of necessity are few and simple. Such as may be required, I doubt not your wisdom and prudence, under the guidance of the great Head of the Church, will adequately supply..

Commending you to His grace,

I am, faithfully
Your brother in Cbrist,

LEONIDAS Polk.

THE DOCTOR'S NOTE BOOK.

No. III.

THE DANGER OF RASH JUDGMENT.

The physician, more than any other person, knows how important it is to be “ temperate in all things,” and if he were to write a prescription the most uniformly applicable to all his patients, it would be to that effect.

The results of some kind of intemperance are so clearly, and lamentably obvious, that no one for a moment-even on mere worldly principles-denies the expediency of abstaining from them, but there are other excesses which so insidiously beguile, and are so little apparent to the transgressors themselves, that they become invalids before they are aware of the causes which deprive them of health.

There is something inexpressibly odious and contemptible in the character of those whose · God is their belly.' How true is the maxim that we should 'eat to live, and not live to eat. All condemn the drunkard, but few, except the medical man think deeply on the evil effects of excess in eating. I have thought it necessary to make the foregoing remaks, in order tbat the reader may understand the nature of my first feelings towards an individual to whom he is now about to be introduced.

My custom has been for nearly twenty years to go to the market of our village at an early hour twice a week ; economy of time and money has been to me the result of this practice, and I therefore hope to persevere in it. One morning, in the beginning of April, I perceived a gentleman-such I judged him from his general appearance-bargaining for the first and only bunch of asparagus in the