everlasting Light, and our GoD our glory!”

Beautiful creature of my dreams, I shall meet thee there! Angelic spirit of my loved child, I shall greet thee there! Yea, thy bright image, gone long years ago, is frequently with me now. In the musings of midnight, encircled in the twilight of summer stars, girded by the sunbeams-in “the wide waste or in the city full," thy lovely form flits and lingers around me, beckoning, with hands of radiance, to the loved on earth to come to that bourne where all the sorrows of life, and the dim years of age and weariness, are turned to endless peace and unfading joy. Oh, let me have these blissful, these priceless hopes! and if they are dreams, let me dream on! They shall guide my frail bark amid the tempest and the storm of trouble and sorrow, and they shall tinge the clouds that lower over my death-couch, with visions of everlasting light, and peace,

and joy.

But further still these hopes spread and expand, till the vast myriads of creation stand before my vision, redeemed, sanctified, and saved, and the full chorus of a universe breaks forth in a song of "blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever."

STAMFORD, CONN.. May, 1846.

THE LITERATURE OF OUR ORDER.

BY REV. A. W. BRUCE, P. C. P.

In

MAN was created for progress. The only legitimate business of his life is improvement, and consequently all human exertion must be judged by its tendency toward effecting this great purpose. Were man created only to labor-were he designed only to eat, drink, dress, and roam over the earth-it would be of little consequence whether he attended to these regularly or otherwise. deed, to bring life's business into order and regularity, would be to increase his burdens and magnify his difficulties. But man has a higher, nobler destiny, though it is too often unrecognised amid the endless shapings and shadowings of his daily round of toil and slavery. God has given him a mind which must be enriched and expanded, before he can rise to the true dignity of his moral nature. The acquisition of knowledge alone can effect this; and time is required, patient research is demanded, and he will then reap the full fruition due his industry.

Again change is the order of creation. Governments

framed by man have no permanency. Even in the three kingdoms of nature, nothing is stationary. Change is written upon natural, civil, and political affairs. Literature has its phases, and religion its rise and progress—its decline, its dispensations, times, and localities. Where are now to be found primitive arts and institutions? Antediluvian landmarks have been effaced; the age of patriarchs and shepherd-kings gave place to empires and dynasties. Nineveh has been overthrown; Babylon has fallen; the pride and pomp of Rome have fled; the classic altars of Greece have crumbled, and poets sing their dirge!

Now the truths expressed in the first paragraph are elucidated by those in the last. Much of the progress already made in the several branches of science is owing to the influence of facts and observations preserved in history. What nations and their peculiar forms of government have been, and what they now are, are matters of thrilling interest to him who would entertain and propagate right views of life. The very exaltation of the present age is the result of former effort, quite as much as of present exertion. And the history of the past, in all departments of knowledge, enriches and enlivens present exertion. Prudence consists in regarding the cause and tendency of present circumstances. And the things of the time form the signs of the time, without a due attention to which, our efforts will always be out of season. linger here, or to anticipate, is a mark of folly; to know

To

what is now right and do it, is wisdom indeed. It is on this principle that men of all pursuits seek and obtain success. The skilful farmer watches the seasons and the markets; the merchant, the tide of trade; the man of any occupation looks for opportunities. And thus it is that present effort gives character to the future. There is a sense in which nothing human ever dies; which, like affections and remembrances severed by death, are bequeathed to us in perpetuity. All that is noble and worthy of the rational mind-all that tends to bless and enliven our low estate constitute this enduring legacy. And so of everything that engages our attention-everything, whether past or present. The world's history-whether written in blood or peace, by hatred or love, falsehood or truthis ours, to assist us onward to the true goal of human felicity.

And now for the idea, its connexion, and application. It is the mission of Literature to illustrate and perpetuate the beautiful and true, and to aid the mind in its efforts for better and higher things. Everything that tends to this is worthy of man's regard; everything that has not this tendency is worthless. Accordingly, the "cui bono" is always in order, provided it springs from an earnest desire for truth and utility. If we will, as it were, go out of ourselves and our immediate position, and seize a higher point of view, we shall see that this world is no collection of mere perishable things, after all; we shall find that, as Deity ever lives in it, he gathers around him all that is

most like him, and suffers nothing that is excellent to die. There are things in this world that are not meant to perish-works which survive the workman-which, like God's good word, "live and abide for ever"—which multiply blessings when they are gone, and make all who lend a faithful hand to them a part of the husbandry of the Infinite, and laborers with him in the great field of Time, whose culture and whose harvests are eternal. The pains we spend on our mortal selves will perish with ourselves; but the care we give, out of a good heart to others efforts of disinterested duty—the deeds and thoughts of

the

kindness and affection

are never lost; they are liable to

no waste; and are like a force that propagates itself for ever, changing its place, but never losing its intensity.

But the connexion of this idea with our subject—what is it? It is, that Odd-Fellowship will advance, perpetuate, and ennoble, the tendencies named, in a way that nothing else will, and with a certainty of success second to no effort originated by man. This admits of demonstration; but to enter into its detail now, would be foreign to our object. Let him who would test the matter, study well the import of our motto, "FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, AND TRUTH;" and if he has any confidence in the word of the tens of thousands now composing our noble "brotherhood," let him be not merely "almost," but altogether "persuaded". to say, "Thy people shall be my people."

But let us not be misunderstood, regarding the identity of our principles as Odd-Fellows with tl ose of religion.