of all decency, morals, and Christianity. Have new England, and the Western States no similar memories ?

These Fairs, with the cock-fights and races of our sister States, have happily for some time disappeared, and a more lofty and delicate, moral and religious sentiment has come to possess the hearts of the communities We shall be glad if the new kind of Fairs, lately introduced in the interests of agriculture, manufacture and mechanics, do not degenerate into the same moral rottenness which befell their predecessors. The horse-racing, gambling, and debauchery they have in some places already restored; how far we are from a re-inauguration of cock-fighting-who can say? If these institutions are to be continued, let the substantial Christian men in every county see to it, that their control does not too much pass out of their hands. Let the past be a timely warning. The good always needs nursing, the bad always watching.

THE SICK MAN HEALED.

FROM THE GERMAN OF HEBEL BY THE EDITOR.

Wealthy persons, in spite of their golden birds, are often found. to be possessed of all manner of burdens and sicknesses of which, God be praised, the poor know nothing. For there are diseases, the source of which is not in the air, but in full plates and tumblers, in soft sofas and downy beds.

To this fact that certain rich man of Amsterdam, to whom our tale relates, can bear a word of witness. The whole forenoon he sat in his easy chair, smoking tobacco when he was not too lazy, or sta ring out of the window as if he were the sign of an ape-store. Yet when dinner came, he always ate like a thresher, and his neighbors often said: "Is it windy out of doors, or is it just our neighbor snoring!" During the whole afternoon, he was always eating, now something hot, and now something cold. Although he was not hungry, he ate to pass away time. This be did till evening, so that one could not tell when exactly with him dinner ended and supper began. After supper he went to bed, as tired as if he had all day long been unloading stones or splitting wood.

From this mode of life he became very corpulent, and as helpless as a bag of shot. He ceased to enjoy either eating or sleeping, and for a long time, as it sometimes happens with men, he was neither right well nor right sick. If one would listen to him he had three hundred and sixty five diseases, namely a new one each day in the year. All the physicians in Amsterdam had to give their counsel. He swallowed whole fire buckets full of mixtures, and shovel-fulls of powders and pills. He took doses as large as a duck egg; and at length he was called in sport nothing but the two-legged apothe

cary shop! But all these medicines did him no good; for he did not follow the advice of his physicians, but only said: "Thousands! why then am I a rich man, if I am to live like a dog, and the doctor will not cure me for my money."

At length he heard of a physician who resided about three hundred miles away. He had so great a reputation, that it was said the sick were cured by his looking at them, and that wherever he was seen death got out of his way. Our patient had confidence in this man, and wrote to him describing his case and condition. The physician saw at once what ailed him-that he needed, not medicine, but temperance and exercise. He said to himself: "Wait, my good fellow, I will soon have you cured."

He accordingly wrote to him substantially as follows: "My good friend! You are in a bad way; still you can be cured if you are willing. You have a wicked animal in your stomach-a winged dragon with seven mouths! With the winged dragon I must myself speak, and you must come to me. But mind what I say : first you must not go into a carriage, or ride on a horse; if you do you will shake the dragon, he will become excited, and bite off your entrails-seven he will bite off at one stroke! You must come to me a-foot. Secondly, you must eat twice a day a single plate of vegetables; at noon you may add a very small piece of saussage, in the evening an egg, and in the morning a bit of beef soup with garlic cut into it. Whatever more you eat will only serve to make the dragon grow larger, so that he will press upon your liver, and then it will not be necessary any more for the tailor to measure you, but only the coffin-maker! This is my advice; if you do not follow it, you will not hear the call of the cuckoo next spring. Do as you think best!"

When the patient found himself spoken to in this style, he ordered his boots to be blacked the very next morning, and entered upon the journey as the doctor had directed him. The first day he went so slowly, that a snail might have been his herald; and if any one bid him good-day, he made no acknowledgment, and when only a worm crept out of the earth he crushed it, so peevish was he. But on the second and third morning, it seemed to him as if the birds had never sung so sweetly, and the dew seemed to him so fresh, and the roses so red by the way, and all the people who met him secmed so pleasant, and he also himself telt as they did.

Every morning, as he left his tavern, everything seemed more cheerful, and he felt better, and got along on his journey more easily. When he arrived at length in the village where the phy. sician resided, and arose in the morning, he felt so well that he said: "There could have been no more unsuitable time for me to get well than just now, when I have come to the doctor to be cured. If I had only a little roaring in my ears, or a slight water brash!" When he came to the physician, he took him by the hand, and said: "Now tell me particularly all that ails you!" Then the patient said: "Honored doctor, thank God, nothing ails me; and if you are as well as I am, I shall be glad." The doctor said: "A

good spirit has advised you to follow my directions The winged dragon is now dead, and wasting away. But you have still some of his eggs in you. Hence it will be necessary for you to return again on foot. At home you must diligently saw wood every day, and eat no more than will barely satisfy your hunger, so that those eggs may be destroyed. In this way you may live to be an old man." The doctor smiled significantly as he was giving this advice.

The rich patient answered: "You are a cunning rogue, good doctor, and I understand you very well." He followed his advice, and lived to the age of eighty-seven years, four months, and ten days. He was as sound as a fish in the water; and on every new year's day, he sent the doctor twenty Doubloons as a greeting.

SINGING THE PRAISES OF GOD.

BY J. H. J.

"Music," says a writer, "since the world began has been employed to express religious feeling." And as it is a part of the public worship of the sanctuary, it becomes all to whom God has given a voice, to join in this interesting part of worship and to "sing with the spirit and with the understanding also." Singing the praises of God was an exercise in ancient use. Moses sung

a song of triumph and praise to God, after his deliverance from Egypt, and the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. The Old Testament is full of the subject of singing the praises of God, and we find in the New Testament, the same theme. It is the duty of all to praise God in this delightful part of Christian worship. It is a part of Christian worship connected with the manifestation of the divine glory. We find it associated with that miraculous earthquake, which took place at Philippi, shaking the foundations of the prison, where Paul and Silas were confined with their feet made fast in the stocks. At the midnight hour "they sang praises to God." And we also find, that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, after he had celebrated with the disciples the holy Supper, sung a hymn before they went out to the Mount of Olives.

To sing the praises of God is a delightful privilege as well as duty. If we visit the chamber of affliction, we see poor human nature giving vent to her feelings in groans; and the condemned spirits in perdition, express their woe and despair in weeping and wailing. Surely then we ought to be thankful, that we are privileged to sing the joyful praises of our God.

Praise may be said to be the effusion of the soul overflowing with love, trying to render to God the best returns it possesses for mercies received and enjoyed.

Singing the praise of God appears to be the language of universal nature. It is an homage which all pay to God, except his rebellious creatures. The birds fill the air with their melody. All creatures which God has created, appear to have some mode of expressing their pleasures and enjoyments. The angels are represented as delighting in it. With these facts before us, surely the saints of the Most High should join in the universal chorus, singing with grace in their hearts unto the Lord. But let us glance at the spirit, in which this exercise should be conducted. In this exercise, there should be the union of the heart with the voice. Where this is not the case, the service will be vain hypocrisy, which is offensive to God. All who join in this part of the worship of the sanctuary should sing in faith, believing the truths they express. As faith should be mixed with hearing the Gospel, if our hearing shall not be in vain, and as faith is required in prayer, so also is it in praising God. We must sing with humility. There is perhaps no part of the public worship of God in which wo engage, where we are in greater danger of pride and self-complacency, than in singing the praises of God. In this, as well as every other part of the worship of God, we should cherish reverence and deep humility before God. It is greatly to be feared, that we are living in times, when music is not considered as it should be, a religious act, but rather viewed as a religious embellishment. This perhaps accounts for the fact, that some churches that have choirs wish they had none, and they that have none, wish they had until they get them. These are good in their place, when properly and religiously conducted; but when abused, then trouble and music become twin brothers, rending the congregation and ending sometimes in the dissolution of the pastoral relation. It takes but little sometimes to throw a choir into confusion, and when this is the case, it is like an open magazine subject to explosion at any time.

Singing the praises of God is the chief employment of heaven. It may be said to be a heavenly science; from thence it came, and there it will be perpetuated through one eternal day. "For they rest not day nor night, saying Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." From this we learn, that celebrating the praises of the most high and holy God is the incessant work of the glorified saints and angels around the dazzling throne of heaven.

All should join in this delightful exercise. We cannot do it by proxy. As we cannot hear by proxy, and as we cannot pray by proxy, so we cannot sing by proxy. The singers in the organ loft should not forbid the singing in the pews. In a word, we should see to it, that Christ and his grace be the subject of our praise. He is the gift of gifts. He is all and in all.

There is no scene on this side of Heaven that is more delightful and heavenly, than that of a congregation, singing heartily, as with

one voice, praises to the Lord. How often have we felt like singing with the poet,

"Our willing souls would stay

In such a frame as this,
And gladly sing ourselves away
To everlasting bliss."

THE JEWISH NATION.

BY THEODORE D. FISHER.

This article on the Jewish Nation has an interest apart from its inherent beauty. It is from the pen of Theodore D. Fisher, Esq., son of Philip Fisher, lately Sheriff of Lebanon county, Pa.-who was lately lost on the steamer "Ruth," which was burnt on the Mississippi several miles below Cairo. He was a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College of the class of 1858. On graduating he took the highest honor of his class. In January last he accepted of the appointment of Paymaster's Clerk in the Army, and was at the time of the sad disaster which befel the "Ruth," proceeding on that vessel to Memphis to aid in paying off Gen. Grant's Army, since which time no tidings of him have been heard. Mr. Fisher was at the time of his death, and for a long time previous, organist of St. John's Reformed congregation in Lebanon, of which church he was also a zealous and useful member. The organ of that church is now dressed in morning, in honor of his memory. We have never been acquainted with a more exemplary and excellent young man. What makes the event more sad is his having been an only son, and the only child of his now bereaved parents. His class-mates, and many acquaintances, will read this article, which we have found among his papers, with tender interest.

ED. GUARDIAN.

Far back, in the dim grey ages of antiquity, when the race of man was in its infancy, there dwelt in the Chaldees, a pious shepherd. From him has sprung a nation, which, through the varied changes of four thousand years, maintains to the present day the peculiar characteristics of a distinct people. Their history is one of undying interest. We may search through all the annals of the human race; we may wander back through dim shadows of the ancient world, and admire the grandeur of ancient glory, or roaming amidst the monuments of modern civilization, we may study the rise, progress and decline of the nations of the present day, but nowhere throughout the whole world, do we meet with a people so eminently remarkable, so truly wonderful.