CONTENTS OF VOLUME V.

THE

VOL. V.―JANUARY, 1854.-No. I.

EDITOR'S

INTRODUCTORY.

HERE we begin a new volume of the Guardian. With it we begin, also, with our readers, a New Year. We will not cease to remember with gratitude the kind hand which has led us thus far in safety. We will be humble, in view of the follies and imperfections of the past, and earnestly hope and pray that, as every new year makes us older, so it may find us wiser and better.

We have been assured, over and over, in many letters, that the Guardian is doing good. We have been assured that it is read by many more than are subscribers to it-that it is sought after, and often passes from house to house in those neighborhoods where it is taken. Accordingly, we frequently receive letters with the subscription price enclosed, directing us to send it on, in which it is added, "I saw the Guardian in such and such a family, and was pleased with its contents." Thus silently our list of subscribers increases during the year.

We do not expect our magazine to rush like a wind into favor. › We have seen, in nature around us, that those trees which grow too fast are not used in building ships. Silently, gradually, surely. This has, in truth, been the history of the Guardian. Its subscription list has been as regular and constant in its increase as the growth of a tree. Every year since its commencement it has extended its branches wider, and, we believe, struck its roots deeper into the hearts of its regular patrons. We say this not to boast, but we put it down as a matter of actual history.

We could easily furnish whole pages of favorable notices which have been taken of the Guardian by various newspapers, but we think we show more respect to our readers by permitting them to judge of its merits or demerits from its own contents.

Though we believe the Guardian is read with interest by old persons, yet we have always before us the interests of the young in the making up of its contents. We endeavor to adapt its matter to their peculiar wants; and we cannot help believing that it will exert a wholesome influence upon earnest young persons who read it.

It would afford us great pleasure could we think that the Guardian were just such a magazine as ought to go into a family, the

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children of which are just merging into manhood and womanhood. We aim at this. We desire to waken in the minds of the young a love for home-a deep reverence for their parents. We desire to encourage a pure and holy love between brothers and sisters, and to show, on every page, that the family can only be a happy one when it is a Christian family. We would stimulate all young persons to seek after sound knowledge, after purity of character, after "sefulness in the world, after holiness of life, and after the bliss of heaven.

O ye who are yet in the morning of your life, remember that to have a good, Christian, character is every thing to you! The foundation to such a character you must now lay broad and deep. What is life with a dark mind, a corrupted heart, and a polluted conscience? Flee these things, or rather, avoid them: so shall your life flow sweetly in the light of the Divine favor, be a comfort to yourselves and a blessing to man.

With these few words we introduce our magazine to our readers for another year. We thank our friends for the interest they have thus far taken in it, and assure them that a continuance of their kindness will be gratefully remembered. We feel sure that those who have heretofore aided us in increasing the circulation of the Guardian will not fail to send us in new lists for this

year.

THE SABBATH.

BY J. M. WILLIS GEIST,

HOLY Sabbath! yes, I love thee-
Welcome, oh! thou day of rest!
There is none I prize above thee,
Day of days, supremely blest.
Holy Sabbath! welcome ever-
May I desecrate thee never.

Emblem fair of age millenial,

Haste, oh haste, thou blessed day,
When the earth with joys perennial
Will be free from sin's decay;
When each home to mortals given
Shall become a gate of heaven!

Sacred type of rest unending

In the heavens pure and bright-
Thither fast, my soul, be tending,
Led by faith and not by sight:
Draw me nearer, precious Saviour,
To the fullness of thy favor!

Holy Sabbath! blest for ages

As the Christian's sacred joy,
In thy hours the soul engages
(When no worldly cares annoy,)
All her powers, divinely given,
To secure & home in heaven!

WILLIAM PENN.

[See Frontispiece.]

GENERATION after generation of men have come and gone in their order. The groups they have formed, called nations, have each had their problem to solve, each in their degree helping to solve the great problem of the world. With each of them are connected names of individuals which have not been swept away, confused among the unknown masses which have formed them. They have come down to us, either hallowed with every association of virtue and worth, and will ever be intimately blended with the history of their people, as founders, benefactors, or inspirers of their progress, or forever to be execrated by the lips of succeeding generations, as the destroyers of their nation's liberty and up-breakers of their existence.

Thus we mark a new epoch in the history of the world at the discovery of America. The nations of Europe had gone up to the degree of their progress to the height of their glory and power. Their government and laws had passed the simplicity which the necessities of men required: they had become so heaped and complicated-so involved by reason of precedent and prejudice—that their disentanglement and reduction to that simply by which the true end of government is attained, namely, the maintenance of order and the public good, seemed impossible. This country was settled chiefly by those who had resisted, or were disheartened by, the burdens of too much law, of too many alliances and precedents. They came here throwing off all incumbrances and adopting from the old only such as were suited to their condition. They began here anew, and as it were in that state in which men first made the contract of society.

It is therefore interesting to trace this course from the start, and especially to note those individuals whose names are not confused among the mass-who effectually aided in starting and who gave impulse and direction to their movement.

The private life of every such individual is an object of intense interest. His fame spreads from the luster of his outward acts; but that which gave him the power to do these acts must be sought in the inner man and inner life.

William Penn is best known as the founder of the colony which developed into the state bearing his own name-Pennsylvania. It is, perhaps, the only instance in history where the future nation retained the name of its founder. His public deeds are recorded in the hearts of the people, and the story of them will live upon their lips, told from father to son, while they enjoy the fruits of his labors. His private life therefore, which gives the key to the power of his public acts, presents many an instruction in its detail.